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Hellbent

Tomorrow is here today

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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-10/14/content_13895068.htm

Customers wait in line to buy an iPhone 4S outside the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York, Oct 13, 2011. iPhone 4S sales in stores begin Oct 14 in Japan, Australia, France, UK, Germany, Canada and the United States.

SYDNEY - Apple Inc's iPhone 4S finally went on sale in stores around the globe on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs' lifetime, many buying the phone as a tribute to the former Apple boss.


Right... well tomorrow I will be upgrading to an iPhone 4S.

Speech recognition a winner

Analysts say Cook needs to move out from under his former mentor's enormous shadow soon, and avoid clinging to the Jobs' mystique to preserve its brand.

More immediately, with Google Inc Android phones gaining momentum, Apple needs the iPhone 4S to be a blockbuster.

The iPhone - seen as the market's gold standard - is its highest-margin product and accounts for 40 percent of its annual revenue. It is the world's biggest selling smartphone, maintaining a slim market-share lead over Samsung's Galaxy, at 18.4 versus 17.8 percent worldwide.

In a sign of how tough the competition is, two doors along from the Sydney Apple store, Samsung has been selling its new Galaxy SII for only A$2 to its first 10 customers each day, prompting Samsung fans to also camp out on the footpath.

But analysts point to several factors in Apple's favor: a $199 price that matches up well with rival devices such as Amazon.com Inc's "Fire" tablet; availability promised on more than 100 carriers by the end of 2011, far more than its predecessors; and glowing reviews.

Apple's iconic smartphone comes with a faster processor and a better and more light-sensitive camera, but little else to separate it from its predecessor. But tech experts say the real gems lie beneath the phone's familiar sleek casing.

Influential reviewers Walt Mossberg and David Pogue raved about "Siri" - a voice-command activated assistant that responds to spoken commands and questions in context, such as queries about the weather or a friend's phone number.

But Mossberg added that "despite Siri, the iPhone 4S isn't a dramatic game-changer".

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I'll never have a smart phone... yet I develop aps for them. I'd rather keep my $600 a year to not have the smart phone Internet.

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geo said:

I'll never have a smart phone... yet I develop aps for them. I'd rather keep my $600 a year to not have the smart phone Internet.

Yeah, my life currently does not demand a device that combines both my laptop and my cellphone. Maybe if I get a job at an office...

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So in other words: Another overpriced piece of shit from Apple inc. is out for all the hipsters and college kids to get their parents to buy for them so they can drop their phones everywhere because they can't get their goddamn noses out of texting for one minute of their lives.

Seriously, are most of the features of these things even necessary? Do you really need to ask your fucking phone about the weather or someone's phone number?

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Xeros612 said:
Do you really need to ask your fucking phone about the weather or someone's phone number?

If need were the measure, we'd still be running around naked in Africa and the novelty would be waving a stick.

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myk said:

If need were the measure, we'd still be running around naked in Africa and the novelty would be waving a stick.

Heck, in the age of smart phones and other high tech wizardry, waving a stick around can actually be rather novel.

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Quast said:

Heck, in the age of smart phones and other high tech wizardry, waving a stick around can actually be rather novel.


Yeah but the stick has to be an iStick, only come in metrosexual white, grey or gay pink, connect to iTunes via WiFi and enhance some buzzword like the luser's carbon footprint or somesuch through "3rd generation services" or whatever.

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I have a secondhand iPhone. I found my uses for it expanded to fit what it's capable of doing. Having a little computer in my pocket is awfully convenient at times and saved me from boredom when an eye surgery forced me to sit face-down for a week.

If you hate iPhones that's ok. There are lots of good reasons: Apple's policies, the shittiness of iTunes, the complexity, the shitty (relatively) battery life, etc. I find it to be a good thing that simple phones still also exist. I have a couple just in case.

Meanwhile Woz seems to love iThings. iPeople seem to love Woz.

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Huh, I never figured you could buy an iPhone second hand. I assumed they did something to prevent people from not paying mint prices.

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@Technician: mint ones are "unactivated" and Apple is their ultimate Booty Daddy who decides which ones activate and which ones don't. I guess you could just sell an already activated one without anybody making much of a fuss about it, unless there's also legal paperwork and there needs to be a legal person associated TO THE PHONE, not just the SIM card.

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Flatmate went and bought a new Iphone today, 900AU$. The first thing he said? Its just like his old one. Thats a bit beyond me.

@Maes, I have an Android phone and an Ipad. iOS wins out in every way. Android is slow and unintuitive by comparison. So I wouldnt call it a better alternative.

I always stayed away from Apple products and have had an android since they became available, but once I got an Ipod I slowly changed my opinion. People go on about a walled garden with Apple products, but I've not had any issues - I've had the ipad cracked, but have not had it any use for it.

Far as Im concerned I have the both of best worlds.

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myk said:

If need were the measure, we'd still be running around naked in Africa and the novelty would be waving a stick.

A carbon-neutral lifestyle, minimal impact on the environment, lots of fresh air and exercise (the need to evade predators means no obesity epidemic and fewer inherited disorders) - could be worse. Can I have a stick that burns at one end?

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Wife recently got a job as a security guard. She gets sent to guard this little cell phone store last night which seemed odd to us. They told her that there was a new phone being introduced. Ok...whatever. Then she calls me at at 2am to tell me that there are people lining up outside! We're both like "WTF!?" It's a gawdamn phone. I don't get it.

Told her to grab us one since she probably wouldn't have to wait in line. Figured it was a good time to retire the stick. She said no. :(

whatever

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Maes said:

@Technician: mint ones are "unactivated" and Apple is their ultimate Booty Daddy who decides which ones activate and which ones don't. I guess you could just sell an already activated one without anybody making much of a fuss about it, unless there's also legal paperwork and there needs to be a legal person associated TO THE PHONE, not just the SIM card.


Secondhand ones are easy enough to get. I can't say anything about American ones, but here it really is just a SIM card you switch. My friend got a 4 and promptly decided his 3GS was junk. He just gave it to me.

"Activating" it doesn't associate it with you permanently (well, it might for warranty purposes). I just plugged it into iTunes and formatted it and it forgot anything it knew about my friend.

My brother just got an Android phone that's pretty cool. It does everything mine does, but slightly better and much faster.

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Planky said:

I have an Android phone and an Ipad. iOS wins out in every way. Android is slow and unintuitive by comparison. So I wouldnt call it a better alternative


Just to punctualize here, what version of Android are we talking about and do you mean that the basic interface itself is unintuitive, e.g. it's easier to click or drag stuff on iOS, it has more visual bling, or you refer to end-user applications?

In the case of Android versions <2.2 yeah, they are slow because they were still using purely interpreted Java for applications, and the bytecode compilers were so brain-dead that applying manual optimizations like loop unrolling actually DID make a significant difference. Fully JIT auto-optimizing compilers didn't appear until 2.2 and above, so unless an app was written using C, it would be shit-slow. Versions <2.1 were really dreadful for stuff like WiFi or Bluetooth, too. OK, it really doesn't help that 2.2 is STILL not universally supported (I'm looking at you, Sony-Ericcson).

As for applications, I know that Apple has a very strict review process for usability, look & feel, power consumption and performance guidelines, and stories of apps being rejected because an icon looked to similar to a reserved system icon are not unheard of. This may lead to a higher perceived quality and consistent look & feel of end-user applications, but I don't believe that e.g. iOS buttons or screen gestures are inherently better than Android ones, or viceversa.

That being said, Android apps are a free-for-all: you can do pretty much what you want and screw the user's battery or have the phone vibrate all the time, and no "higher ups" will complain. I guess proponents of the Apple model have a point in such cases (and MS is geared towards a similar QA process).

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Hellbent said:

Tomorrow is here today



And that's all I really have to add to this conversation.

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Maes said:

As for applications, I know that Apple has a very strict review process for usability, look & feel, power consumption and performance guidelines, and stories of apps being rejected because an icon looked to similar to a reserved system icon are not unheard of.

Which means no game boy emulators, which really is the only reason to carry a phone. Unless you jailbreak of course.

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Until Apple gives up their stranglehold on the device and lets people run whatever they want on it, it won't be the thing for me.

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DuckReconMajor said:

Which means no game boy emulators, which really is the only reason to carry a phone. Unless you jailbreak of course.


It actually means "no" to a lot of other stuff: no Java, no .NET, no to anything based on scripting, bytecodes, interpreted languages etc. and in general using anything other than straight C, C++ or Objective-C to develop for it. I don't know if they allow straight assembler...

There's an infamous case where a company with a top-selling game (Puzzle Quest) had to develop a Lua-to-C cross compiler specifically for the iPhone/iPad version, so that their game (which has its game logic ALMOST ENTIRELY in external fully-configurable Lua scripts) would get past the screening process, which forbade any and all use of any non-compiled code and middleware runtimes.

Which is ironic, considering that company had got complaints from the modding community about one of its past games (Warlords Battlecry III) containing WAY too much hardcoding and too little external scripting/configurability ;-) Seriously, WTF?

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Can I have a stick that burns at one end?

There's an app for it. It's actually dual purpose as it provides light and warmth, but keep it quiet or they'll jack the price up.
(but slightly more seriously back in the older days of 2003-ish I remember seeing an advert for a thing you could download to "turn your phone into a torch!". It was £1.50. Let's be honest here, it was just a white wallpaper wasn't it?)

Blah blah Apple has a strict policy on the quality of apps

What about checking the artwork in them is not a blatant ripoff of somebody else's work?
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2011/10/bad-karma.html

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I like the open-source versions. I took the stick with fire on one end and modified it to attach a sharp piece of obsidian. Gave me +3 to hunting skills. Boo-ya!

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Maes said:

Just to punctualize here, what version of Android are we talking about and do you mean that the basic interface itself is unintuitive, e.g. it's easier to click or drag stuff on iOS, it has more visual bling, or you refer to end-user applications?

In the case of Android versions <2.2 yeah, they are slow because they were still using purely interpreted Java for applications, and the bytecode compilers were so brain-dead that applying manual optimizations like loop unrolling actually DID make a significant difference. Fully JIT auto-optimizing compilers didn't appear until 2.2 and above, so unless an app was written using C, it would be shit-slow. Versions <2.1 were really dreadful for stuff like WiFi or Bluetooth, too. OK, it really doesn't help that 2.2 is STILL not universally supported (I'm looking at you, Sony-Ericcson).

As for applications, I know that Apple has a very strict review process for usability, look & feel, power consumption and performance guidelines, and stories of apps being rejected because an icon looked to similar to a reserved system icon are not unheard of. This may lead to a higher perceived quality and consistent look & feel of end-user applications, but I don't believe that e.g. iOS buttons or screen gestures are inherently better than Android ones, or viceversa.

That being said, Android apps are a free-for-all: you can do pretty much what you want and screw the user's battery or have the phone vibrate all the time, and no "higher ups" will complain. I guess proponents of the Apple model have a point in such cases (and MS is geared towards a similar QA process).


Have an HTC Desire with 2.2. Compared with iOS, the Android is quite slow. I don't know what kind of optimizations Apple was able squeeze in, but it is very fluid in its screen updates, movements, animation. Even just flicking the screen across on the Android you can see a visible stuttering, like it was suffering from bad frame rate. If you havent performed a particular action in a while, its evident it has to load it by the slight pause before it initiates. I never see this on iOS.

My main bug bear with Android is performance. The next would be the menu system, which is what I was referring to with my unintuitive comment. Its all over the place - I still havent figured out why its ordered the way it is. The market runs like complete ass.

That said, I enjoy using both and while I disagree with the way Apple does its business and tries to control the users decisions and freedom, I haven't struck any problems with it and they do produce quality hardware and OS. Android is getting there and is pretty damn good for free OS. I will stick with it. But I wouldnt say no to an iPhone, if it were free :)

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I'm liking my iPhone very much. The camera is amazing. I mean ridiculously accomplished for a phone: very fast, has optical zoom and shoots 1080P video with image stabilization (you know, in case I decide to make a film using my phone). I wouldn't drop money on a fancy phone, but since I got the phone as a b'day present and I don't pay for the phone plan (including data) it would be almost silly to pass up the opportunity, although I did consider getting the 3GS instead (a free upgrade vs the $200 upgrade price of the 4S) but it was Siri and the fact my mom offered to buy it for me for my birthday that sold me. Siri is pretty cool. A bit limited in its application, tho. I keep thinking of things it could do as well, that it doesn't, like turn on the built in flashlight when I tell it to, but overall it's pretty sweet and makes texting while driving dramatically safer so that I can actually text and drive without taking my eyes off the road (something I couldn't do before). BTW, is there a DW app? :D

As far as iPhone vs Droid.. iPhones don't crash as much as Droids.

Quasar said:

Until Apple gives up their stranglehold on the device and lets people run whatever they want on it, it won't be the thing for me.

I want Siri on my macbook.

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