Posts by BlackBolt
17 posts • joined Monday 13th July 2009 09:45 GMT
Not an Apple fan, but this could be interesting
I'm not an Apple fan (I own no Apple devices at all) nor an Ashton Kutcher fan. Saying that I think this might be quite interesting.
Jobs was quite an innovator in the field and had an undeniable presence in the IT industry, over a far greater remit than just Apple. A film that examines his personality and method of approaching a task / problem could be quite a cinematic treat. (...and I love cinema)
Its all the spin...
The one X is a perfectly good handset, its just been out marketed by the S3. On a technical level its actually better, but as a few others on here have said, it doesn't occupy the same 'cool space' as the Samsung handset.
As a personal observation I think that the HTC Sense software has stagnated a fair bit recently. I went from a G1 to a Magic (small change) to a desire (big change) but there is very little difference in the Sense UI since then.
Company issues affecting user experience?
I think this is a really good example of how political and business issues between two companies has had an impact on the user experience.
I think if the mobile App is developed well then it could well provide a better user experience than the site, the opposite is also true (Just look at the the Facebook Android App - Its awful in comparison to only a mildly poor mobile web experience.)
It's an interesting way for Apple to devolve responsibility for the Apps they don't want to support but at the same time it does open the way for Google to push their content into the IOS platform. (Obviously subject to Apples' stringent approvals process.)
Massive misunderstanding about the technology
A few people here have hinted about it but there needs to be a massive shift in how people think about '4G' or '3.5G' as its more likely to be.
Its not just all about the speed. All your services will be different, tariffs will change and data usage will be a different ball game altogether.
Think of that 2mb Youtube video you watched yesterday on 3G, well today on 4G Youtube doesn't care about your bandwidth and auto streams the HD version at 200mb. Can you see the difference on a 4 inch screen? unlikely. This means more data, more connections, more network resilience, more network handshakes (IE way more cost to the provider thus the consumer) and a total change in how you think about data scalability and usage over a network.
'People' don't understand bandwidth. Just look at the USA where people were using their whole months data limits in a day with the new Ipad when it came out, on 4G. I'd love to see any UK network be able to cope with that at the moment.
Agreement on the sensationalist headline
I was pulled in by the sensationalist headline, only to be disappointed by poor facts and a tenuous case. Sure the other manufacturers are growing faster than Apple but it is still spanking them (sad to say coming from a G-Tab owner)
Its all damaging to the customer
I hate this sort of thing. What it amounts to to is that WE will end out paying more for our devices and device research and development will be reduced. If a company is spending a load of money and time on suing another company then they aren't thinking about my next experience on their next device.
In this case I think Apple and Samsung are equally to blame. They both seem very eager to jump to legal proceedings rather than letting consumers decide for themselves. There seems little point in trying to historically decide who sued whom first.
Morally its quite annoying as well. I am not an Apple fan, so I disagree with any statement about them being cutting edge in terms of new product design. I think what they have done very well is take existing elements from other devices and incorporate them into their own. Then market the hell out of them to make them consumer products, not IT products (for me thats the genius part).
Also as an example of Apple's history of 'we invented it' here is a good example of how they tried the same thing against Creative Labs years ago. (better products, less marketing). They claimed they owned the 'wheel' device for navigation, which they didn't.
http://anythingbutipod.com/2005/08/apple-copied-creative-who-cares/
Bring on the Jelly
It was pushed to my Google Nexus handset last week, its a great improvement on all fronts. Only wish the speed up update was across the board as I am still waiting on ICS for my Galaxy Tab 10.1. Which sucks as the new version ships with it and its technically a poorer spec.
4G is so far away in terms of a UK rollout that it really shouldn't be a consideration as a device feature.
Considering these devices update every six months or so and 4G realistically isn't going to be mass market until late 2014 / early 2015 we'll all have much newer editions of these by then.
Re: 3G
Also its surprising how many network operators are blocking tethering these days.
Bit of a con really, after all its your data, use it how you want. Just wait for the combined multi device data packages to get launched by network operators :-)
Missing the point?
A few points really:
1. Its optional. If you don't like it, don't change to the deal. All the old deals aren't going away, unless you upgrade to this one.
2. European networks are not the owned by the same country, even when they might appear to be to the common man. If you are on O2 here there is no reason at all for you to get lower price access to a Telephonica network in Spain.
3. As mentioned above the prices of roaming usage (I say usage as its not about one aspect this is data/calls/sms) has come down a lot in the last decade. We should be happier that its now cheaper than its ever been instead of cheesed off that its not exactly the same as our home network.
4. Its all about the usage. Sure if you send 1 txt in a two week period it will cost you £3. But its only when you use it, not a persistent cost. If you are a heavy overseas users change your price plan to include unlimited EU roaming for a fixed cost! (That's like complaining to Sky cos they charge you £60+ a month and you only used 2 channels)
Why bother with the Android Tablets anymore?
If the handsets are ramping up in hardware spec, and the screen resolution is also increasing then they are seriously infringing on the tablet territory.
The only thing that the Samsung Tab did that was over and above mobile handsets was hdmi-out, but this handset does that as well.
Development isn't for eveeryone
Development on any platform just isn't going to work "For the masses".
It might be a good lead-in to a career into dev, if you pick it up at school (as mentioned above) but most GUI based editors are quite limiting and really only give you a foundation into a language. IE they might be a good way of learning the code base, but you'll rarely ever produce an application that has a 'magical' user experience with one.
Could be a training tool tho.
Vulnerabilities exist in all server side platforms
I'm a Coldfusion evangelist, I basically think its great. It is a robust extensible scripting language that allows you to build and deploy applications quickly and easily. It also integrates very well with most other web based languages.
I also think that its a great thing that these sort of things are brought out into the open. Then there is more pressure for hotfixes to be built and released.
Coldfusion is relatively mature now (ok not as mature as perl or python) but it makes .net look like an infant in 'Years' out in the wild. I think if you count the historic instances where you've seen an article like this addressing CF security issues you'll find it to be a lot less than some other server side layers.
I strongly agree with other comments made here, installing any software as 'Vanilla' and leaving it in an out-of-the-box configuration is asking for trouble. Learn to secure your environment whatever it is.
Its not perfect, but then what web technology is?
500mb
When you put in perspective is it really an issue? 500mb is a fair bit of data, and considering that almost all mobile Apps are optimised to hell the data transfer is amazingly small.
Also there are half a dozen Android market place apps for monitoring your data use.
Don't get me wrong, I don't support the change to the contract at all, I just wonder if it makes any difference if it is a 500mb, 1gig or 10gig cap, they are all distant thresholds to mobile use.
I've never used anywhere near 500mb and I'm a software developer who uses a Desire heavily.
Only problem I'll have is if they bill me before notifying me that I'm near my limit.
Wonder what Android OS it will ship with
Vodafone do not currently have any Android phones that support anything higher than 1.6 (officially) so fingers crossed they might actually sign off on 2.0 (0 or 2.1! and ship this device with it.
They are decidedly slow in the firmware upgrading dept.
Cheesing off consumers too
I'm not suprised they are struggling. Both of their recent policy changes towards consumers have caused some controversy.
They have shortened the upgrade period before a contracts expiry, and changed the contracts so that you cannot downgrade ever during the life of your contract.
The Vodafone forums are abuzz with annoyed users.
Adobe flogging a dead horse?
I've been developing in CF for years (as well as half a dozen other languages) and its interesting that Adobe are still pushing new functionality to this platform, despite a lot of UK based companies turning their backs on it. Sure its not the newest technology, but it is amazingly quick to develop with, give it a shot if you are new to the web side of IT.
