It's all about comfort, I think. People often say "it just works" because they've been trained to use the Apple UI. The same thing could be said for people who argue that the Droid (or Windows phone) interface just works like it because they know that UI.

I'm sorry, I don't think any particular interface is going to be intuitive to someone who's not already somewhat familiar with a smart phone ui. Apple interfaces are intuitive to people who already use an Apple device.

I'd certainly agree that apple tends to be more consistent with the way they change their GUI over time, but I don't believe it's inherently more intuitive.

It's all about tuning. Well temperament existed in his time, of course. I have a feeling he'd find modern equal temperament startling - since most intervals are impure. And the touch is so different, I'll always argue he would have written it differently for fortepiano, let alone our modern piano. From what I've seen of baroque fingering on keyboard music, that alone would produce a different sound from our modern system.

This will be a good use for the first time machine.

I'd probably argue that the sonatas (and other keyboard works) of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven really popularized the fortepiano. Mendelssohn had to help revive Bach from obscurity - so J.S. wasn't that popular. Of course, the mainstream composers knew J.S. Bach, but C.P.E. kind of eclipsed his own father for a while... partially due to be a bridge to the classical style away from Baroque. The WTC was very successful in pushing well temperament tuning, for sure - so I suppose that could be part of its enduring legacy....

It's really hard to say, at any rate. People were, to a degree, using some music on both... Beethoven suggested that the Pathetique sonata could be played on either.

I agree with you on the period instrument goal. Having played on harpsichords, clavichords, and modern pianos, I can't help but feel that piano removes some of the subtlety you get on a good harpsichord or especially on a clavichord. The touch is so different and even the fingering was quite different from modern keyboard playing. If J.S. wrote the WTC with a fortepiano in mind, he would have written quite a bit of it differently.

I suppose a piano version is certainly better than no version, though.

It does perhaps show that AMD is (hopefully) figuring out some way they can continue as a processor company.

Very much off topic, but... Has anyone else noticed the usual review structure on Ars (and I read this review at Ars yesterday)? It got the usual Ars non-Apple headline: say one (vaguely) positive thing in the headline and one negative thing (and negative to the point of cancelling out any positive)

If it's a Samsung device, it'll be like:
The New S5 Has a Lot Features, But Most of them are useless
If it's about smart watches, they all seem to read like this:
The New Pebble Has Better Aesthetics, but We're Waiting for THE WATCH (from Apple)

Apple reviews over there are almost 100% positive (and they get very defensive when people point this out.) They even maintain an Apple evangelist at all times, and their Android "Evangelist" is generally pretty negative about the droid and truly hates Samsung. Every Samsung review he writes talks about the device first and then spends the second half explaining why Samsung sucks.

It was so bad at one point, I started trying to figure out if Apple owned part of them.

not so anymore! The cheap iphone looks different from the regular, as does the super gold iphone. Apple realized that once their stuff was ubiquitous, it'd be harder to differentiate the haves from the have nots. iphone c, and the gold iphone - problem solved

Agreed - The BSD section used to be somewhat lively. There's an awful lot of hostility towards the BSDs as they're not Linux. People feel really threatened when there is an alternative to their favorite OS. I also have to laugh at posts about BSD fragmentation. How many Linux distros are there now? Oh, but they're all related! Of course, the BSDs share ancestors, so they're related, too.

Apple: Freedom from the tyranny of choice I can certainly understand the frustrations people feel when having too many choices and not knowing what they want, but I personally prefer having more options. It seems that a lot of people get offended when someone does not make the same choice they do... it must be some sort of validation of their choice.

I see this a lot. systems/network administrators are not developers and developers are not systems/network admins. Just because you've read some RFCs doesn't mean you understand how the multitude of vendors have implemented them. Developers usually do a bad job of managing systems... mainly from inexperience. Likewise, sysadmins don't usually write great code.

I saw that article and took the "test." I picked out the Strad right away - the performer couldn't make the lower passages on the G string sound as consistent and strong. I doubt they had many classically trained violinists listen to the excerpts (a bassoonist or percussionist probably doesn't spend much time listening to solo violin music.) I'm sure not all strads are up to the same quality, but there are real reasons Strads and Guaneri violins are in such demand - not just because they're not being replaced, and not just because of the prestige.

Although I'm not a violinist, what I've been told by classical violinists who've had the opportunity to play a strad: it's hard to make a bad sound on the instrument - tone production is easier.

Believe it or not, a lower quality instrument (violin or otherwise) may not suitable for playing certain pieces. Violins and pianos are great examples of this. I overheard a couple of violinists playing the opening page of the Scherzo from Schumann's second symphony (recording and sheet music ). Both violinists played it on a $30k violin and $40k violin. Neither was able to get the passage clear (at full tempo) on the $30k violin, but both could play it easily on the $40k violin. Both violinists were conservatory trained and about equal skill level. That's not to say that instruments are all priced perfectly, but there is something to higher quality instruments being easier to play. Who knows about the luthiers of today? I certainly hope some are producing the strads of tomorrow, but it might not be clear for a century or two.

Given the choice, do you think the average developer would rather work on a netbook or a high end laptop? Both could probably get the job done, but compiling would take longer and everything else would likely take longer.

I must have missed that legislative ruling. I didn't realize there was a fixed life of a phone... other than the carrier's upgrade cycle.

Anyway, my point is, no one updates device software forever - but most people here on macdot.org are making that assertion. Saying, "Apple updates the old devices... but, that device is too old" is not the same thing as "Apple updates all the old devices continually."

It would seem that many people aren't keeping a phone even two years now. I've known quite a few people to upgrade their phone as often as possible, (including iPhone 4 to 4s) so this all may be irrelevant. I'm 100% sure that Apple, Samsung, Motorola, and friends wouldn't mind selling a new phone once a year.

And my iPhone 3G that I bought just before the 3Gs came out? Not so much.

So my iphone 3G will be updated to iOS 5?

My first two cars were standard transmission. You can use your other hand to shift and keep one hand on the wheel. The catch is that a manual transmission car will work fine if you don't leave your hand sitting on the shifter all the time, but a cell phone requires you to hold it to your hand.
I can't believe there are so many people on slashdot who actually believe keeping one hand continuously pressed against ones face is perfectly fine when driving. Sure, you can use the hand holding the cell to do things, but I never really see drivers doing that.
It's definitely not as safe to take a hard turn with one hand... one slip and you'll lose control - especially if you're holding a big cell phone in your hand. You can do it, but you can't say that it's just as safe as using 2 hands. But, it is slashdot, where people make a point assuming their viewpoint is always correct. It's cool - like junior high.

I wonder - are these scheduled visits? Pretty much every company will dress up things for visiting clients (you can't completely cover up problems, but you can present things as being better than they are normally.) If the Apple employees visited randomly, it might be interesting. Then again, it might actually be difficult to do truly unannounced visits... if Foxconn (or whomever) could look out for certain foreign visitors... perhaps with a little help from the government.

You've never honked at someone who's veering off into your lane? I'm not talking about a sudden shift... just a gradual motion.

I find it hilarious that no one here understands the problem with the conclusion, "there is no difference between using a hands free device and continuously holding a cell phone to your head." Sure, you can drop the phone and then your hand will be free, but I really doubt everyone would do that.

I forget, though - this is slashdot; everyone has to argue everything from the perspective of "I never have that problem - I don't know what you are talking about. No one else's argument is worth thinking about." Oh well, at least it's not another article about something Apple related.