930 Forums
=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: vansmack on June 13, 2007, 12:08:00 pm
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Two Good Articles from last weeks Economist about Apple before the launch of the iPhone:
Things other companies could learn from Apple:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=9302662 (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=9302662)
FOR a company that looked doomed a decade ago, it has been quite a comeback. Today Apple is literally an iconic company. Look at your iPod: the company name appears only in the small print. Some of the power of its brand comes from the extraordinary story of a computer company rescued from near-collapse by its co-founder, Steve Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1997 after years of exile, reinvented it as a consumer-electronics firm and is now taking it into the billion-unit-a-year mobile-phone industry (see article). But mostly Apple's zest comes from its reputation for inventiveness. In polls of the world's most innovative firms it consistently ranks first. From its first computer in 1977 to the mouse-driven Macintosh in 1984, the iPod music-player in 2001 and now the iPhone, which goes on sale in America this month, Apple has prospered by keeping just ahead of the times.
Apples Third Act:
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9298983 (http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9298983)
IN ANY other setting, it would have been corny to quote from a Beatles song to sum up a three-decade relationship that has encompassed partnership and alliance, rivalry and enmity, as well as defeats, triumphs and reversals on both sides. But not when Steve Jobs of Apple was talking to Bill Gates of Microsoft after reminiscing about the old times on a conference stage last week. ??You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead,? he said. And there were moist eyes in the audience.
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Not to mention that the design element of everything they make is superb.
And, my macbook worked when I took it out of the box. Unlike my previous pc.
I heart apple.
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<img src="http://arkitekturnytt.no/uploaded_images/apple_cube-777513.jpg" alt=" - " />
Well, the Mac Cube wasn't so hot (hey, look, it's a CD toaster!)
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Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
Well, the Mac Cube wasn't so hot (hey, look, it's a CD toaster!)
I liked the description in the article: "conveniently forgotten"
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I've thought of renaming my boat from THE BENICASSIM to THE IPOD, because if it weren't for that little bugger and some blind faith in all things Apple about 20 years ago, there would be no BENICASSIM on the Potomac. Long live Steve Jobs!
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is anyone here actually getting an iphone?
i finally upgraded from my 4-year-old 3rd generation iPod to one of the new-fangled 5.5g video thingys, and it's fucking great
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Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
is anyone here actually getting an iphone?
Strongly considering it. My contract is up with Cingular and I was going to stay with them anyway. I'd like to use someone else's first before I buy it though (or at least hear a review from someone I trust).
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Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
is anyone here actually getting an iphone?
We are being offered the phones through work in exchange for our Blackberry or Smartphone, but there's no way I'd give up my Verizon 3G network as 99% of my work phone is used for data usage.
When at&t's network catches up and the phone moves to 3G, I'd likley give it a good look.
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i would really think about it
but they are building a verizon tower a mile from my new house, so i doubt it
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i'm really tempted by the iphone (hello, consumer fetishism!) but i'm going to try holding out for the second generation.
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Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Hoya Paranoia:
is anyone here actually getting an iphone?
We are being offered the phones through work in exchange for our Blackberry or Smartphone, but there's no way I'd give up my Verizon 3G network as 99% of my work phone is used for data usage.
When at&t's network catches up and the phone moves to 3G, I'd likley give it a good look. [/b]
But does the Iphone have an enterprise messaging app? I didn't think it did, but I'm waiting for it to, then when it does and gets release for t-mobile i'm in.
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Originally posted by chaz:
But does the Iphone have an enterprise messaging app?
Nope. And that was the first thing I asked our tech guys when they were offering it as a solution (I'm guessing at&t was cutting us a favorable deal to get them in the market with their $500 price tag). The iPhone isn??t a true enterprise device: you can't synchronize the phones contact and calendar applications with Exchange or Lotus Notes servers. Less important to me, you can't edit office documents, but more importantly, you can't even view them, which I do often.
Our guys said Apple is working to allow third-party applications that will fix these shortcomings, particularly since Apple made third-party development possible by using its OS X operating system on the iPhone (the Economist article even alludes to it, but says that they have not done so as of now).
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..argh..too much mountain dew.
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..my bad..triple post.
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I'm strongly considering getting an iPhone. My contract's up and my Motorola has served me well but it's starting to die, so it's time to replace it. I travel a lot for work so a phone/music combo would be great. I've had several music-capable Treo-like devices from work and all of them are OK for 5 or 6 songs but not for a 6-hour flight, so I am hoping the iPhone will be the ticket. One less gadget and charger to drag across the country.
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i am getting one for my lady. buying it for her birthday, she really really wants one and theres no stopping her.
i'll have on in 3 weeks i assume...
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I definitely want one, but I've got another year on my cell phone contract. I'm going to hold off for the 2nd generation iPhone. I'm hoping it'll have GPS and 3G by then.
Vansmack: I believe you can use http://docs.google.com/ (http://docs.google.com/) to view most popular document formats on an iPhone.
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how come it takes my pc 5 minutes to boot up and the mac takes less than 1 minute?
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how come it takes my pc 5 minutes to boot up and the mac takes less than 1 minute?
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Originally posted by Darth Ed:
Vansmack: I believe you can use http://docs.google.com/ (http://docs.google.com/) to view most popular document formats on an iPhone.
Opening a 500kb document on a 2.5G network using Google Docs will take you appoximately 1.5 to 2.5 minutes with an uninterrupted internet connection.
Harldy seems worth it to me when Smartphones and blackberry's can do it in under 20 seconds locally over 3 G networks.
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Originally posted by anarchist:
how come it takes my pc 5 minutes to boot up and the mac takes less than 1 minute?
Because less than 30% of software made today can actually run on your Mac.
No PC I own takes 5 minutes to boot, but nonetheless, none boots as fast as a Mac. However, no Mac I own can do everything my PC does. They're getting closer though by finally adopting the Intel Chip.
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Originally posted by vansmack:
Because less than 30% of software made today can actually run on your Mac.
Not true. There are multiple products for the Mac that allow you to run Windows software on an Intel Mac. Google the following search terms for more information: Parallels, VMware, Crossover, and "Boot Camp".
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we have a pc and a mac at home. nothing ever comes up that i can do on one and not the other
and my mac is around 6 years old
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<img src="http://captainsdead.com/copper/albums/userpics/10001/onion-iphone-specs.jpg" alt=" - " />
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You're all sheep. It's almost like you're from NYC in your hipster "I have to have it NOW" consumer fetishism.
Maybe take all that time and effort and money you'd invest in an iphone and read a difficult book you've always wanted to...paint a picture...plant a tree...WRITE a difficult book...write a song...anything but drink Steve Jobs' Kool-Aid/flop sweat.
Brian
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Originally posted by Brian_Walalce:
You're all sheep. It's almost like you're from NYC in your hipster "I have to have it NOW" consumer fetishism.
Maybe take all that time and effort and money you'd invest in an iphone and read a difficult book you've always wanted to...paint a picture...plant a tree...WRITE a difficult book...write a song...anything but drink Steve Jobs' Kool-Aid/flop sweat.
Brian
you've changed my life
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Originally posted by Brian_Walalce:
You're all sheep. It's almost like you're from NYC in your hipster "I have to have it NOW" consumer fetishism.
Maybe take all that time and effort and money you'd invest in an iphone and read a difficult book you've always wanted to...paint a picture...plant a tree...WRITE a difficult book...write a song...anything but drink Steve Jobs' Kool-Aid/flop sweat.
Brian
shut up hippie
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Originally posted by Brian_Walalce:
You're all sheep. It's almost like you're from NYC in your hipster "I have to have it NOW" consumer fetishism.
Maybe take all that time and effort and money you'd invest in an iphone and read a difficult book you've always wanted to...paint a picture...plant a tree...WRITE a difficult book...write a song...anything but drink Steve Jobs' Kool-Aid/flop sweat.
Brian
look man, i am already tired enough working on 3 hours sleep, you dont have to make it worse by boring me to fucking tears with this lame shit.
BOOOOORING.
(and FYI, "kool-aid" references are sooo 2005)
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it is going to cost one how much up front and per month? huh?
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/14081 (http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/14081)
for a first generation POS.
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It basically makes the iPhone an expensive PDA, but if they can crack the phone part so that it works in Europe, I can see a huge black market developing....
Hackers Close to Cracking iPhone
July 16, 2007
By Lisa Vaas
iPhone hackers are on the cusp of not only being able to write programs for the phone but also finding a way to cut the device's tether to Cingular's service plans.
According to one of the group of hackers who are working collaboratively via wiki and #iphone IRC channel, one of the last major hurdles has been the lack of a high-quality ARM assembler tailored for the iPhone. That missing link as of the afternoon of July 16 had been developed to the pre-alpha stage. Developers are at the point where they now have a working GNU debugger.
One of the first iPhone hacks came from Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon. A self-trained Norwegian software engineer, Johansen on July 3 announced on his blog that he had hacked a new, unactivated iPhone, managing to activate it without turning on AT&T Cingular phone service.
But although Johansen managed to get the iPod and Wi-Fi capabilities of an iPhone turned on with his hack, he couldn't get the device to work as a phone. "Stay tuned!" for that, Johansen said at the time.
It's now in fact impossible to buy an iPhone without a Cingular service plan attached to it, unless the buyer's credit is bad. In that case, Apple has prepaid service options.
The world of iPhone watchers has been bubbling with other tips on how to get out of paying Cingular for iPhone phone service; in order to "wreck" one's credit, for example, one suggestion is to enter 999-99-9999 as a Social Security number.
Other suggestions focus on getting out of Cingular's clutches without early termination fees. Wireless carriers impose early termination fees purportedly to recoup lost revenues from discounted or free phones they use to lure in new customers, but Apple has not discounted its pricey iPhone, which makes Cingular's $175 early termination fee particularly galling.
Given the above, the urge to unlock the iPhone is understandable.
It's also legal.
That point was made clear when the Library of Congress clarified the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) in November 2006. Prior to this ruling, cell phone customers were often forced to either return or throw away old phones upon switching carriers because the DCMA was interpreted to mean that the old cell phone was actually the old carrier's property. The November 2006 ruling stipulated that the software that restricts consumers from accessing their phones' firmware wasn't based as much on copyright law as it was on the carriers' business models.
The United States is behind the times when it comes to the prevalence of unlocked cell phones, but it's not an entirely unknown concept. CompUSA has been selling them for months.
One of the major reasons to unlock the iPhone, as with any cell phone, is that when traveling outside the United States, consumers with unlocked phones can buy a pre-paid plan with a service provider in a given country and thus avoid a high-priced international service plan.
There are reasons why unlocking an iPhone is a bad idea, however. First, users who unlock their iPhones will lose proprietary iPhone features such as Visual Voicemail. Second, there's the early termination fee of $175 paid to Cingular unless service is cancelled within 30 days of purchase.
There are ways to get out of paying early termination fees, including selling the contract, enlisting in the military, moving out of coverage range or dying, each of which presents its own challenges, to say the least.