MacBoobsPro
Aug 2, 11:16 AM
Apple's been so boring this year, with a bluetooth might mouse just about the most exciting release thus far... I have expectations Apple, don't let me dont please
Erm... did you miss the whole Intel thing? :rolleyes:
Erm... did you miss the whole Intel thing? :rolleyes:
Sydde
Apr 15, 03:43 PM
Was it an economist or someone who actually understands economics? :D :p
There are people who actually understand economics?
;)
mcrain, FYI,
Which "game"? *Are you "trading and investing" in companies by purchasing shares in IPOs, or are you "trading and investing" on Wall St.? *If it is the latter, then basically you are buying and selling ownership interests in companies, which has almost no affect on underlying companies.from another thread:My particular strategy involves options and a calendar spread, which means I'm taking a long and short position on the same underlying security, which creates a net zero effect. I am primarily focused on making money through the time decay of the options.
There are people who actually understand economics?
;)
mcrain, FYI,
Which "game"? *Are you "trading and investing" in companies by purchasing shares in IPOs, or are you "trading and investing" on Wall St.? *If it is the latter, then basically you are buying and selling ownership interests in companies, which has almost no affect on underlying companies.from another thread:My particular strategy involves options and a calendar spread, which means I'm taking a long and short position on the same underlying security, which creates a net zero effect. I am primarily focused on making money through the time decay of the options.
balamw
May 2, 08:04 PM
a lb. of butter is still called a lb. of butter here in Canada
When growing up in Europe in the 70s a pound was simply redefined as 500 g. For most purposes the 10% error is insignificant.
Volume units (1 liter = 1 quart) work similarly, and 1-2 liter containers are fairly common even here in the US.
B
When growing up in Europe in the 70s a pound was simply redefined as 500 g. For most purposes the 10% error is insignificant.
Volume units (1 liter = 1 quart) work similarly, and 1-2 liter containers are fairly common even here in the US.
B
Huntn
Apr 14, 11:20 AM
This may be veering in a direction the OP does not want to go. If so, please ignore.
Speaking of taxes don't believe any politician who seeks your approval by saying "elect me and I'll lower your taxes". Most likely what they are saying is I'll lower your taxes a smidgen, but I'll give a dump truck of tax breaks to the wealthy who as leaders of industry will do their best to destroy your lively hood by exporting your job overseas.
What you want to hear from politicians on taxes is a discussion framed as "what services do we want from government, what do we want to pay for, how and who will pay for it, and expectation that the government will penalize corporations whose business practices are actively lowering the standard of living in this country."
Speaking of taxes don't believe any politician who seeks your approval by saying "elect me and I'll lower your taxes". Most likely what they are saying is I'll lower your taxes a smidgen, but I'll give a dump truck of tax breaks to the wealthy who as leaders of industry will do their best to destroy your lively hood by exporting your job overseas.
What you want to hear from politicians on taxes is a discussion framed as "what services do we want from government, what do we want to pay for, how and who will pay for it, and expectation that the government will penalize corporations whose business practices are actively lowering the standard of living in this country."
Clive At Five
Nov 22, 12:31 PM
Okay, I've heard here a lot, that people want simple integration/syncronization with iTunes, iPhoto, iCal, & Address Book. These are all, (minus iTunes) 100% Mac-Centric. PC users would only get integration/syncronization with iTunes. What good is that to them? At that point you only have iPod + Phone.
So Apple has a choice: Mac-Centric or not.
Knowing Apple, their first choice is "not" (which doesn't mean it will start out that way, but we'll just have to wait to find out). Apple would then have to either write iCal et al. for Windows or build in support for Outlook, ...uh... photo viewer... whatever PCs use for photos.
Both are daunting tasks.
Conclusion: In order for Apple to make a phone as good and as universal as the iPod, it will have to accomplish one of the aforementioned daunting tasks.
Making a phone for Mac users would be a walk in the park, because 1) it's such a small microcosm, 2) It's an environment that they are familiar with.
Making a phone for everyone will not be as easy. HOWEVER, Apple is great at building OSes (the iPod OS is simple & intuitive and I have no doubt that they will do the same with a phone) and Apple is great at integration with software, so even though there will be hurdles to overcome, Apple will eventually churn out a phone that is simple and is loved by everyone.
I also think there won't be a single serious Mac-User who won't have one. It'll just be too handy to have a device that will sync easily with the awesome Mac software.
-Clive
So Apple has a choice: Mac-Centric or not.
Knowing Apple, their first choice is "not" (which doesn't mean it will start out that way, but we'll just have to wait to find out). Apple would then have to either write iCal et al. for Windows or build in support for Outlook, ...uh... photo viewer... whatever PCs use for photos.
Both are daunting tasks.
Conclusion: In order for Apple to make a phone as good and as universal as the iPod, it will have to accomplish one of the aforementioned daunting tasks.
Making a phone for Mac users would be a walk in the park, because 1) it's such a small microcosm, 2) It's an environment that they are familiar with.
Making a phone for everyone will not be as easy. HOWEVER, Apple is great at building OSes (the iPod OS is simple & intuitive and I have no doubt that they will do the same with a phone) and Apple is great at integration with software, so even though there will be hurdles to overcome, Apple will eventually churn out a phone that is simple and is loved by everyone.
I also think there won't be a single serious Mac-User who won't have one. It'll just be too handy to have a device that will sync easily with the awesome Mac software.
-Clive
craigatkinson
Jul 29, 08:42 PM
Of course Verizon will wait two years before they decide to adopt it into their lineup.
digitalbiker
Aug 4, 10:10 PM
OK, being an Australian, and blissfully ignorant to the ways of the American, when is Thanksgiving? Before or after Paris?
I say new iPods at Paris, and maybe some software. It would be great if all Macs were Core 2 Generation before the Paris Expo.
After Paris. Nov. 23, 2006 to be exact. Too bad you Aussies don't celebrate Thanksgiving. It is all about eating, drinking and watching football.
I say new iPods at Paris, and maybe some software. It would be great if all Macs were Core 2 Generation before the Paris Expo.
After Paris. Nov. 23, 2006 to be exact. Too bad you Aussies don't celebrate Thanksgiving. It is all about eating, drinking and watching football.
Don't panic
May 4, 12:22 PM
We can spend our time insulting him until then. :)
we might as well get comfortable. do you have cards in your bag of tricks?
and don't even think about considering trying to hide something in your sleeve, or i'll chop the entire arm off.
maybe i should do it pre-emptively.
we might as well get comfortable. do you have cards in your bag of tricks?
and don't even think about considering trying to hide something in your sleeve, or i'll chop the entire arm off.
maybe i should do it pre-emptively.
Mac'nCheese
May 2, 06:55 PM
I remember in elementary school, learning about the metric system since we were all going to switch to it. That never happened. I wonder why....
tpavur
Apr 21, 08:31 PM
Yet another sign Apple is going to kill the Mac Pro.
You'll see! With Final Cut Pro on it's deathbed there is no way the Mac Pro is sticking around!
/s
doubtful, this is a key switcher market... it would be crazy to axe the very thing that will continue to switch the PC builders/gamers over the next 5 years... this is a key ingredient to apple taking the industry over with time.
You'll see! With Final Cut Pro on it's deathbed there is no way the Mac Pro is sticking around!
/s
doubtful, this is a key switcher market... it would be crazy to axe the very thing that will continue to switch the PC builders/gamers over the next 5 years... this is a key ingredient to apple taking the industry over with time.
tehdee
Jul 22, 05:43 PM
it's probably the people who just bought macbook pro's a few weeks ago. hah!
glad i haven't bought a macbook pro yet. must have merom! woooohoooooo!
seven months from now, some yutz is going to be saying the same thing about merom.
glad i haven't bought a macbook pro yet. must have merom! woooohoooooo!
seven months from now, some yutz is going to be saying the same thing about merom.
Jape
Dec 20, 09:17 PM
Ok, its the 20th...lets see what email we get next from BLT.
Well looks Like it didn't come again :(
Well looks Like it didn't come again :(
ozone
Nov 28, 12:41 PM
I didn't get to your comment before I posted mine; sorry about that. You're absolutely right. I could see artists, students, professors, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and countless other professionals who would be elated to have a Mac-based tablet. In fact, the only things I can see it not being useful for is Word and Excel. Even writers could use it to markup their edits using standard proofreading symbols. Much faster than other methods, I'd think; plus much more environmentally friendly because it would alleviate the need for printing out so many hard copies of everything.
You bet Insider! The tablet was intended to be an electronic notebook - literally. There are many professions that could benefit from it - it depends more on your personal approach to work and what you need to do rather than rigidly grouping users into broad categories.
Most of us do not complain about the tablet form factor or even the handwriting recognition - it's pretty good. What bugs most of us is that we're wedded to Windows and all its problems since there is no alternative platform at the moment.:mad:
Here's hoping we see some kind of tablet in the near or far future from Apple... :D
You bet Insider! The tablet was intended to be an electronic notebook - literally. There are many professions that could benefit from it - it depends more on your personal approach to work and what you need to do rather than rigidly grouping users into broad categories.
Most of us do not complain about the tablet form factor or even the handwriting recognition - it's pretty good. What bugs most of us is that we're wedded to Windows and all its problems since there is no alternative platform at the moment.:mad:
Here's hoping we see some kind of tablet in the near or far future from Apple... :D
Merkie
Mar 27, 06:53 AM
I'd say that they have had a wakeup call with all of the new android honeycomb tablets coming out in competition and they are worried that the ipad2 won't look so good when there are other good options to choose from.
The HP web os is also a very potent system which offers features much closer to a real computer than an entertainment gadget.
If they wait around a year to update, they will be behind in features and specs, and the app market for android and web os will have grown in leaps and bounds as well.
Let's face it, the majority of apps for phones and tablets are rubbish and we don't need 300k android apps that are equally rubbish and pointless.
What we need are a few really good productivity apps on tablets with serious multitasking and connectivity features.
And in the end, Apple knows that the fanboys will rush out and buy a new version of whatever they are selling, regardless of how recent the last version was.A wake-up call? Apple set the standard for tablets, and so far Apple is the only company who is able to sell millions of tablets. There are hardly and Android tablets available, and they're certainly not shipping in the volume as the iPad 2 is.
Apple currenly has absolutely no reason to be worried at all. They have the best tablet, the best apps and the best reputation. Oh, and they own 99% of the market. Hardware-wise, the iPad 2 is top of the bill. Extremly fast GPU, dual core processor, increased RAM, dual cameras, 720p recording. The only aspect of the iPad 2 that might be lacking, is the OS. So if Apple wants to keep the lead, they should innovate on software, not hardware. The hardware is already top of the bill.
iPad 3 release this fall makes no sense to me at all.
The HP web os is also a very potent system which offers features much closer to a real computer than an entertainment gadget.
If they wait around a year to update, they will be behind in features and specs, and the app market for android and web os will have grown in leaps and bounds as well.
Let's face it, the majority of apps for phones and tablets are rubbish and we don't need 300k android apps that are equally rubbish and pointless.
What we need are a few really good productivity apps on tablets with serious multitasking and connectivity features.
And in the end, Apple knows that the fanboys will rush out and buy a new version of whatever they are selling, regardless of how recent the last version was.A wake-up call? Apple set the standard for tablets, and so far Apple is the only company who is able to sell millions of tablets. There are hardly and Android tablets available, and they're certainly not shipping in the volume as the iPad 2 is.
Apple currenly has absolutely no reason to be worried at all. They have the best tablet, the best apps and the best reputation. Oh, and they own 99% of the market. Hardware-wise, the iPad 2 is top of the bill. Extremly fast GPU, dual core processor, increased RAM, dual cameras, 720p recording. The only aspect of the iPad 2 that might be lacking, is the OS. So if Apple wants to keep the lead, they should innovate on software, not hardware. The hardware is already top of the bill.
iPad 3 release this fall makes no sense to me at all.
GFLPraxis
Aug 7, 03:12 PM
LAME
� $2,499 standard price of Mac Pro ($2,299 for Education)
��$2,124 is the lowest you can configure the Mac Pro ($1,962 for Education)
���To get it that low, you have to drop the processors from 2.66GHz to 2GHz and and the hard drive from 250GB to 160GB
It's still a QUAD at $2,124. Even if it's 2 GHz, that's still utterly insane, especially when a *single* 2 GHz Woodcrest outperforms a 3.5 GHz Pentium 4 easily IIRC.
and as a sidenote:
� MacBook Pro & MacBook processors untouched
� iMac untouched
� iPod product line grows more stale by the day
The lack of iMac updates was my greatest disappointment.
� $2,499 standard price of Mac Pro ($2,299 for Education)
��$2,124 is the lowest you can configure the Mac Pro ($1,962 for Education)
���To get it that low, you have to drop the processors from 2.66GHz to 2GHz and and the hard drive from 250GB to 160GB
It's still a QUAD at $2,124. Even if it's 2 GHz, that's still utterly insane, especially when a *single* 2 GHz Woodcrest outperforms a 3.5 GHz Pentium 4 easily IIRC.
and as a sidenote:
� MacBook Pro & MacBook processors untouched
� iMac untouched
� iPod product line grows more stale by the day
The lack of iMac updates was my greatest disappointment.
mrelwood
Mar 27, 10:55 AM
yet we have to wait months afterwards for the iOS update to take advantage of them?
Oh, but you have misunderstood. You'll be happy to hear that the iPhone 5 will be completely usable the day it is available.
And, why would they sell iPhone 5 without iOS 5? Thats just ... :confused:
Yeah! That would be almost like a MacBook Pro update without an OS update!
I'll be really pissed if they release another iPad in the fall.
Are stealing from you? Will it degrade your iPad2 functionality somehow?
_
Listen, guys. People keep complaining when Apple comes out with new products because they don't have the money to buy it. I'm a Mac addict myself, but luckily I'm not doing quite that bad. The graving we have for Apple products is the best prove that everything Apple does, product launch dates included, is already working perfectly for their financial gain. No reason to question anything, they'll make a killing no matter what.
Oh, but you have misunderstood. You'll be happy to hear that the iPhone 5 will be completely usable the day it is available.
And, why would they sell iPhone 5 without iOS 5? Thats just ... :confused:
Yeah! That would be almost like a MacBook Pro update without an OS update!
I'll be really pissed if they release another iPad in the fall.
Are stealing from you? Will it degrade your iPad2 functionality somehow?
_
Listen, guys. People keep complaining when Apple comes out with new products because they don't have the money to buy it. I'm a Mac addict myself, but luckily I'm not doing quite that bad. The graving we have for Apple products is the best prove that everything Apple does, product launch dates included, is already working perfectly for their financial gain. No reason to question anything, they'll make a killing no matter what.
infidel69
Apr 23, 02:29 PM
I need:
8 Internal Bays.
More PCIe Slots.
Thunderbolt.
Keep Dual Optical Bays.
More Ram Slots.
Built in Fibre Channel (This is a stretch)
That should be a MacPro. What you guys want is that magic headless iMac. I want more, not less.
Working in Video I need the most horsepower possible. 32 Cores would be nice.
At home I can live with my iMac, but editing on it is a pain. A MiniMacPro might work there, but it will still cost 2k and people will bitch.
For work I can justify spending $8,000 on a high powered PRO machine.
Exacly, these are workstations if you want something small with limited expandability buy an imac.
8 Internal Bays.
More PCIe Slots.
Thunderbolt.
Keep Dual Optical Bays.
More Ram Slots.
Built in Fibre Channel (This is a stretch)
That should be a MacPro. What you guys want is that magic headless iMac. I want more, not less.
Working in Video I need the most horsepower possible. 32 Cores would be nice.
At home I can live with my iMac, but editing on it is a pain. A MiniMacPro might work there, but it will still cost 2k and people will bitch.
For work I can justify spending $8,000 on a high powered PRO machine.
Exacly, these are workstations if you want something small with limited expandability buy an imac.
Nishi100
Apr 20, 08:05 AM
Damn it. That means I'll always have to upgrade my iPhone every September. So, I'll buy the iPhone 5 this September, then I'll upgrade next September for the iPhone 6 with a 4inch screen and 4G :D; but, is there a limited time window in which you upgrade, because I don't want to lose out 2 months of texts / calls / internet (if I upgrade in July 2012).
iMacZealot
Aug 4, 11:40 PM
If Im not mistaken every KeyNote from Steve Jobs, whether at WWDC, MacWorld or any other event from Apple has been on tuesdays. Why is this one DIFFERENT. Could we see a Movie Store on Tuesday ???????
No. Unlike your last five posts (which have all said the same things, how original) have said, most, if not all keynotes are on Mondays, with the exception of special events typically releasing new iPods. Ever thought of checking something first? it's an amazing thing to do that will prevent you from making the same embarrasing mistake five times.
No. Unlike your last five posts (which have all said the same things, how original) have said, most, if not all keynotes are on Mondays, with the exception of special events typically releasing new iPods. Ever thought of checking something first? it's an amazing thing to do that will prevent you from making the same embarrasing mistake five times.
Thex1138
Mar 26, 10:40 PM
iOS is centric to iPhone and I can't really see why the sudden shift from the status quo.
The scorching success of iPhone 4 hand set is really setting the pace.
The Lion revision of OSX will probably see much more inheritance of features and the ap-verse of iOS.
In my view the real buzz for iOS 5 might be the appearance of the whole swag of new touch gestures that Apple have been working on and previewed in the recent beta.
That along with the cloud, NFC and maybe 4G.
I think that the only thing that might trigger iPad 3 to market could be the success rate of OLED screen manufacture process. Currently I take it that for larger screens the death rate of OLED pixels seems too high.... Either that or a retina level of screen res might trigger iPad 3 to market by years end.
:)
The scorching success of iPhone 4 hand set is really setting the pace.
The Lion revision of OSX will probably see much more inheritance of features and the ap-verse of iOS.
In my view the real buzz for iOS 5 might be the appearance of the whole swag of new touch gestures that Apple have been working on and previewed in the recent beta.
That along with the cloud, NFC and maybe 4G.
I think that the only thing that might trigger iPad 3 to market could be the success rate of OLED screen manufacture process. Currently I take it that for larger screens the death rate of OLED pixels seems too high.... Either that or a retina level of screen res might trigger iPad 3 to market by years end.
:)
OdduWon
Sep 16, 12:23 AM
xeon mbp next tuesday..... ehhhah.. ehhhah....
RestlessDeviant
Apr 26, 04:41 PM
I've been sitting on a **** windows mobile phone for about 2 years & decided to upgrade about 3 months ago & decided to wait for iphone5.
I buy macbooks & I'm not a mid / late cycle buyer & don't mind waiting for something good.
However Apple lost my custom today. All these stories about putting the release date back and rumors about a 'small' update.....
I ain't hanging around to find out. Just ordered a Galaxy S II
Android here i come.
I buy macbooks & I'm not a mid / late cycle buyer & don't mind waiting for something good.
However Apple lost my custom today. All these stories about putting the release date back and rumors about a 'small' update.....
I ain't hanging around to find out. Just ordered a Galaxy S II
Android here i come.
iMacZealot
Jul 30, 02:13 AM
apple could start their own service. like virgin, ampd, boost, and now helio. they all have there own phones and service.
Amp'd is actually owned by Verizon, adnd Boost is owned by SprintNextel, using the same chirping technology as Nextel. Forgot the deal about Virgin.
Amp'd is actually owned by Verizon, adnd Boost is owned by SprintNextel, using the same chirping technology as Nextel. Forgot the deal about Virgin.
MikeTheC
Nov 25, 10:46 PM
All this talk about Palm needing to modernize their OS, or it is outdated, or needing to re-write is absolutely hilarious.
On a phone, I want to use its features quickly and easily. When I have to schedule an appointment, I want to enter that appointment as easily as possible. When I want to add something to my to-do list, I want to do it easily and quickly. And first and foremost, I want to be able to look up a contact and dial it as quickly as possible.
A phone is not a personal computer. I couldn't care less about multitasking, rewriting, "modern" OSes (whatever "modern" means). "Modern" features and look is just eye candy and/or toys. A mobile phone is a gadget of convenience, and it should be convenient to use. Even PalmOS 1.0 was convenient. It was just as easy to use its contact and calendar features as any so-called "modern" OS is today.
I would really like to know how "modernizing" the OS on my phone would help me look up contacts, dial contacts, enter to-do list entries, and entering calendar entries any better that I could today.
Again, I repeat: a phone is not a personal computer. There's no point in treating it as such.
The same point could largely be made about cars, but I don't think either of us would want to be driving a Model T or Model A Ford these days, would we?
The term "Modern" as applied to operating systems has little to do with the interface per se. It primarily concerns the underpinnings of the OS and how forward-looking and/or open-ended it is. Older operating systems, if you want to look at it in this way, were very geared to the hardware of their times, and every time you added a new hardware feature or some new kind of technology came out, you wound up making this big patchwork of an OS, in which you had either an out-dated or obsolete "core" around which was stuck, somewhat unglamorously, lots of crap to allow it to do stuff it wasn't really designed for. Then, you wound up having to write patches for the patches, etc., ad infinitum.
Apple tried to go the internal development route, but that didn't work because their departmental infrastructure was eating them from the inside out at the time and basically poisoned all of their new projects. They considered BeOS because it was an incredibly modern OS at the time that was very capable, unbelievably good at multitasking, memory protection, multimedia tasks, etc. However, that company was so shaky that when Apple decided not to go with them, they collapsed. One of the products which was introduced and sold and almost immediately recalled that used a version of BeOS was Sony's eVilla (you just have to love that name -- try pronouncing it out loud to get the full effect).
Ultimately, they went with NeXT's BSD- and Mach-Kernel-based NeXTStep (which after a bunch of time and effort and -- since lots of it is based on Open Source software, there were a healthy amount of community contributions to) and hence we now have Mac OS X.
I'll leave it to actual developers and/or coders here to better explain and refine (and/or correct) what I've said here, should you wish greater detail beyond what I am able to -- and therefore have -- provided above.
The whole point of going with a modern OS implemented for an imbedded market (i.e. "Mac OS X Mobile") is it gives you much more direct (and probably better implemented and/or better-grounded) access to modern technologies. Everything from basic I/O tasks that reside in the Kernel to audio processing to doing H.264 decoding to having access to IPv4 or IPv6, are all examples of things which a modern OS could do a better job of providing and/or backing.
From what I understand, PalmOS is something that was designed to first and foremost give you basic notepad and daily organizer functionality. When they wrote, as you say, PalmOS 1.0, they happened to implement a way for third parties to write software that could run on it. This has been both a benefit and a bane of PalmOS's existence. First off, they now have the same issues of backwards-compatibility and storage space and memory use/abuse that a regular computer OS has. I said it was both a benefit and a bane; but there's actually two parts to the "bane" side. The first I've already mentioned, but the second is the fact that since apps have been written which can do darn near any conceivable task, people keep wanting more and more and more. And this then goes back to the "patchwork" I described earlier in talking about "older" computer OSs.
Then people want multimedia, and color screens, and apps to take advantage of it, and they want Palm to incorporate DSPs so they can play music, and of course that brings along with it all of the extra patching to then allow for the existence of, and permit the use of, an on-board DSP. And now you want WiFi? Well, shoot, now we gotta have IPv4 as well, and support for TCP/IP, none of which was ever a part of the original concept of PalmOS.
And even if you don't want or need any of those features in your own PDA, I'm sorry but that's really just too bad. Go live in a cave if you like, but if you buy a new PDA, guess what: you're gonna get all that stuff.
And at some point, all of this stretches an "older" OS just a bit too far, or it becomes a bit absurd with all the hoops and turns and wiggling that PalmOne's coders have to go through, so then they say, "Aw **** it, let's just re-write the thing."
Apple comes to this without any of *that* sort of legacy. Doubtless there will be no Newton code on this thing anywhere, but what Apple's got is Mac OS X, which means they also have the power (albeit somewhat indirectly) of an Open Source OS -- Linux. And in case you weren't aware, there are already numerous "imbedded" implementations of Linux -- phones, PDAs, game systems, kiosks, etc. -- all of which are data points and collective experience opportunities which ALREADY EXIST that Apple can exploit.
So no, having a "modern" OS is not a bad thing. It's actually a supremely awesome thing. What you're concerned about is having something that is intuitive AND efficient AND appropriate to the world of telephone interfaces for the user interface on the device you'd go and buy yourself.
All I can say, based on past performance, is give Apple a chance.
Now, here's a larger picture thought to ponder...
If Apple goes to market with the iPhone, then this is going to open up (to some extent) the viability of a F/OSS community cell phone. And this is a really good thing as well because it represents a non-commercial, enthusiast entrance into what up until now has been a totally proprietary, locked-down OS-based product world. It has the potential to do to cell phones what Linux has inspired in Mac OS X.
On a phone, I want to use its features quickly and easily. When I have to schedule an appointment, I want to enter that appointment as easily as possible. When I want to add something to my to-do list, I want to do it easily and quickly. And first and foremost, I want to be able to look up a contact and dial it as quickly as possible.
A phone is not a personal computer. I couldn't care less about multitasking, rewriting, "modern" OSes (whatever "modern" means). "Modern" features and look is just eye candy and/or toys. A mobile phone is a gadget of convenience, and it should be convenient to use. Even PalmOS 1.0 was convenient. It was just as easy to use its contact and calendar features as any so-called "modern" OS is today.
I would really like to know how "modernizing" the OS on my phone would help me look up contacts, dial contacts, enter to-do list entries, and entering calendar entries any better that I could today.
Again, I repeat: a phone is not a personal computer. There's no point in treating it as such.
The same point could largely be made about cars, but I don't think either of us would want to be driving a Model T or Model A Ford these days, would we?
The term "Modern" as applied to operating systems has little to do with the interface per se. It primarily concerns the underpinnings of the OS and how forward-looking and/or open-ended it is. Older operating systems, if you want to look at it in this way, were very geared to the hardware of their times, and every time you added a new hardware feature or some new kind of technology came out, you wound up making this big patchwork of an OS, in which you had either an out-dated or obsolete "core" around which was stuck, somewhat unglamorously, lots of crap to allow it to do stuff it wasn't really designed for. Then, you wound up having to write patches for the patches, etc., ad infinitum.
Apple tried to go the internal development route, but that didn't work because their departmental infrastructure was eating them from the inside out at the time and basically poisoned all of their new projects. They considered BeOS because it was an incredibly modern OS at the time that was very capable, unbelievably good at multitasking, memory protection, multimedia tasks, etc. However, that company was so shaky that when Apple decided not to go with them, they collapsed. One of the products which was introduced and sold and almost immediately recalled that used a version of BeOS was Sony's eVilla (you just have to love that name -- try pronouncing it out loud to get the full effect).
Ultimately, they went with NeXT's BSD- and Mach-Kernel-based NeXTStep (which after a bunch of time and effort and -- since lots of it is based on Open Source software, there were a healthy amount of community contributions to) and hence we now have Mac OS X.
I'll leave it to actual developers and/or coders here to better explain and refine (and/or correct) what I've said here, should you wish greater detail beyond what I am able to -- and therefore have -- provided above.
The whole point of going with a modern OS implemented for an imbedded market (i.e. "Mac OS X Mobile") is it gives you much more direct (and probably better implemented and/or better-grounded) access to modern technologies. Everything from basic I/O tasks that reside in the Kernel to audio processing to doing H.264 decoding to having access to IPv4 or IPv6, are all examples of things which a modern OS could do a better job of providing and/or backing.
From what I understand, PalmOS is something that was designed to first and foremost give you basic notepad and daily organizer functionality. When they wrote, as you say, PalmOS 1.0, they happened to implement a way for third parties to write software that could run on it. This has been both a benefit and a bane of PalmOS's existence. First off, they now have the same issues of backwards-compatibility and storage space and memory use/abuse that a regular computer OS has. I said it was both a benefit and a bane; but there's actually two parts to the "bane" side. The first I've already mentioned, but the second is the fact that since apps have been written which can do darn near any conceivable task, people keep wanting more and more and more. And this then goes back to the "patchwork" I described earlier in talking about "older" computer OSs.
Then people want multimedia, and color screens, and apps to take advantage of it, and they want Palm to incorporate DSPs so they can play music, and of course that brings along with it all of the extra patching to then allow for the existence of, and permit the use of, an on-board DSP. And now you want WiFi? Well, shoot, now we gotta have IPv4 as well, and support for TCP/IP, none of which was ever a part of the original concept of PalmOS.
And even if you don't want or need any of those features in your own PDA, I'm sorry but that's really just too bad. Go live in a cave if you like, but if you buy a new PDA, guess what: you're gonna get all that stuff.
And at some point, all of this stretches an "older" OS just a bit too far, or it becomes a bit absurd with all the hoops and turns and wiggling that PalmOne's coders have to go through, so then they say, "Aw **** it, let's just re-write the thing."
Apple comes to this without any of *that* sort of legacy. Doubtless there will be no Newton code on this thing anywhere, but what Apple's got is Mac OS X, which means they also have the power (albeit somewhat indirectly) of an Open Source OS -- Linux. And in case you weren't aware, there are already numerous "imbedded" implementations of Linux -- phones, PDAs, game systems, kiosks, etc. -- all of which are data points and collective experience opportunities which ALREADY EXIST that Apple can exploit.
So no, having a "modern" OS is not a bad thing. It's actually a supremely awesome thing. What you're concerned about is having something that is intuitive AND efficient AND appropriate to the world of telephone interfaces for the user interface on the device you'd go and buy yourself.
All I can say, based on past performance, is give Apple a chance.
Now, here's a larger picture thought to ponder...
If Apple goes to market with the iPhone, then this is going to open up (to some extent) the viability of a F/OSS community cell phone. And this is a really good thing as well because it represents a non-commercial, enthusiast entrance into what up until now has been a totally proprietary, locked-down OS-based product world. It has the potential to do to cell phones what Linux has inspired in Mac OS X.
No comments:
Post a Comment