Comment Re:China A Developing Country? (Score 2, Informative) 491
Isn't Africa technically a continent not a country?
Comment Not entirely sure about all this. (Score 1) 185
From most of the posts and article doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me about the bar-code LED thing. Sounds like a solution looking for a problem. So I think that this is just a flash in the pan of 'oh look what we can do' sort of thing that might lead to something else practical and unrelated. A bar-code doesn't have a whole lot of information on it and doesn't need to have any more really; cause any more information would likely require more work and infrastructure to support which means this bokcode just got a lot more expensive.
However; with the problem stated in the article wouldn't the rise in augmented reality applications solve the problem of being in front of 20 book shelves and not knowing where your book is?
Submission + - Lost in the Cloud
Colonel Korn writes: Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain writes in an Op-Ed to the New York Times that the seemingly inevitable move toward the often locked-down cloud is stifling innovation and threatening our privacy:
"And many software developers who once would have been writing whatever they wanted for PCs are simply developing less adventurous, less subversive, less game-changing code under the watchful eyes of Facebook and Apple.
If the market settles into a handful of gated cloud communities whose proprietors control the availability of new code, the time may come to ensure that their platforms do not discriminate. Such a demand could take many forms, from an outright regulatory requirement to a more subtle set of incentives — tax breaks or liability relief — that nudge companies to maintain the kind of openness that earlier allowed them a level playing field on which they could lure users from competing, mighty incumbents.
We've only just begun to measure this problem, even as we fly directly into the cloud. That's not a reason to turn around. But we must make sure the cloud does not hinder the creation of revolutionary software that, like the Web itself, can seem esoteric at first but utterly necessary later."
"And many software developers who once would have been writing whatever they wanted for PCs are simply developing less adventurous, less subversive, less game-changing code under the watchful eyes of Facebook and Apple.
If the market settles into a handful of gated cloud communities whose proprietors control the availability of new code, the time may come to ensure that their platforms do not discriminate. Such a demand could take many forms, from an outright regulatory requirement to a more subtle set of incentives — tax breaks or liability relief — that nudge companies to maintain the kind of openness that earlier allowed them a level playing field on which they could lure users from competing, mighty incumbents.
We've only just begun to measure this problem, even as we fly directly into the cloud. That's not a reason to turn around. But we must make sure the cloud does not hinder the creation of revolutionary software that, like the Web itself, can seem esoteric at first but utterly necessary later."
Comment Re:iTunes Has Always Supported Other Players (Score 1) 178
I actually agree with you as far as consumer rights and the right to tinker.
I am just saying if anything represents itself as something that is not than that is where i say it is fraud or at the very least mis-representation is all.
Nothing like other device manufacturers doing the same trick then it becomes an endless cat and mouse game where no one really wins because everything is lying about who they are or what they do just to work with some service or system.
iTunes yes should be the responsible party in all of this and realize the market they have the means to let other devices and services play in a way where they not forced to 'fake it'
Comment Re:iTunes Has Always Supported Other Players (Score 1) 178
Its my understanding that it works by telling itunes it's an ipod as opposed to a pre device.
Personally i think the pre should be able to sync with itunes as other devices have been able to. However I do not like the idea of the pre screwing around with the USB vendor and device ids to make this work, this to me is fraud and is not good behavior on any hardware or software vendor in my opinion. Which again is my understanding of how the pre actually does the syncing.
As per the parent they should read the available API's and work with apple, cause after all more pre users = more apple/itunes (movie,music,*) store users ?
Palm Announces Killer New Phone 617
Barence writes "At CES, Palm announced what promises to be the product that finally matches and even betters the Apple iPhone, and certainly looks to be the most important product announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. It's called the Palm Pre and it's based on a completely new operating system, called Palm webOS. Its key specs include a 3.1in 320x 480 touchscreen, 8GB of storage, UMTS HDSPA support (in the UK version of the phone), 802.11b/g WLAN, Bluetooth, and GPS. It also includes a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 3.5mm headphone jack, and what Palm described as the 'fastest ever' Texas Instruments OMAP processor."
Apple Drops Part of iPhone Developer NDA 175
ds writes "Apple, this morning, announced they are dropping the iPhone Developer NDA in respect to released software. Previously, iPhone developers were legally bound even after their software had been released."
Another reader adds, "Early release software is still covered, but this should bring about increased developer interaction, as well as a slew of iPhone dev books." The complete message about the NDA change can be seen for now at Apple's iPhone Developer site, and is reproduced below.
Comment Not Convinced Until.... (Score 2, Informative) 326
I will not be convinced of browser privacy modes to be fully effective until browsers decide to also have that carried over into the flash realm.
I have confirmed that even in Safari's private mode; flash ads and programs still set cookies, and they are not erased when the session is closed like everything else. I find it also more frustrating that because it is flash; this cookie information goes across browsers since it is stored outside the realm of the browser.
For the record i also find it frustrating and convoluted on how one must actually go to some web site on adobe.com to remove flash data like that.
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