Posts by Arctic fox
1890 posts • joined Friday 6th November 2009 05:17 GMT
Page:
Lewis old chap, I (as a cautious supporter of nuclear power).......
........would say that you should tone down the triumphalism in your articles a touch - you are damaging the cause you wish to serve.
Posted in iPhone 4 SURVIVES plunge from plane
I beg your pardon? "Only"?
........."was protected only by a Griffin Motif TPU case and an aftermarket metal backing"?
Are you quite sure that it was not also equipped with its own "Kevlar tactical vest with optional shoulder, collar & groin protection" plus parachute (available at your local Apple Store now!) - just that you forgot to mention it?
To all practical intents and purposes this story would only.......
.........be relevant instead of nitpicking if the author has evidence that Google intends to *permanently* hold back Honeycomb. I would be most interested in seeing such evidence.
Posted in Dell Inspiron Duo
@Rich 30: On Win 7's limitations
I have to say that I agree about the limitations of a tab loaded with Win 7 (that is of course part of the reason for the appalling battery life), it is not a touch screen os and no amount of "skinning" from any of the OEMs will achieve very much. For those wanting a Windows based tab they are just going to have to wait and see what the Win 8 (ARM) os is like. That should (combined with decent and appropriate hardware, natch) address the user friendliness issues with regard to touch and (I hope) battery life. If it does not then I am afraid MS can kiss the tab market goodbye - which would be a pity since a genuine workhorse tab (as well as the current sofa/horizontal/cup-of-tea/content consumption tabs) would also have a place in the market. All about choice and all that. When and if they market tabs that are *both* replacement *and* supplement devices (such that I can wave my HP lappie bye-bye) I will be entirely willing to pony up serious readies.
Posted in Steve Jobs must face the music in court
Real Player is bad?
Well, yes indeed it is. It is many a long year since I was foolish enough to allow that garbage anywhere near a machine I own. However I have to say that it is entertaining to hear criticism from the Cupertinies on this thread given iTunes, hmm? When it comes to garbage software iTunes belongs in the same bin as RealPlayer, for much the same reasons.
@DZ-Jay
Actually I neither think it will be necessary or indeed wise for Amazon to start a "war" with Apple, why would they want to? The tablet market IMO is in its infancy and still far smaller than its potential. Android/Honeycomb tablets are going to be raining from the skies in the next few months at that is just a beginning. Amazon is aiming at what it believes will be a much expanded market for Android apps on both phones and tabs. If (and it is still an *IF*) Amazon elects to sell an own-brand tablet it will be as part of their strategy to compete for a share of the *Android* content market which they clearly believe has a very large potential. It is becoming increasingly likely that the table market is going to be several times the size it is today and it is likely that a hefty slice of that will be Android. That is where Amazon are aiming. Unless one believes that Apple has some kind of permanent lien on the tab market it is obvious that with the coming likely explosive growth in that market that Apple's market share will fall although their share will still be a large one of a MUCH larger market (which implies that Apple will be making even more money on tabs than they do now). This gives plenty of room for a major like Amazon to do a lot of good business. As to any expectation that Amazon would try and force Apple out of the market I can assure you that I do not share any such expectation. For such a thing to happen one would have to posit that the iPad will shortly become a big flop with Android taking over completely - clearly a total fantasy that I do not share. The tablet market is likely to be huge, there is plenty of room out there.
Well actually it is not the dog that is doing the shitting.
It is the "customer" who is shitting all over the sidewalk regardless of how often one tries to explain that they should keep it in their pants. How many articles in how many mainstream media publications warning said "customers" about downloading programmes of a certain type is it going to take before the brain dead finally realise that they are doing something silly? Interesting that many of us criticise (correctly in my view) Apple's walled garden on the grounds of freedom and choice, whilst at the same time many log on here to howl about "M$" on the grounds that they do not succeed in preventing said braindeads from fucking everything up. Do not misunderstand me, MS could clearly do a lot more to improve security (and I suspect they are aware of that) but I am piss tired of the fact that as long as the Great Satan From Redmond is involved many immediately find it convenient to forget that the biggest threat to a pc is the dickhead at the keyboard. Precisely how is "M$" supposed to stop these plonkers downloading that kind of shit without taking the kind of measures that would have us all howling a blue fit? So yes, the customer is NOT always right - sometimes they are completely wrong and ought to take some responsibility (that goes with freedom, right?) for their own behaviour.
I would be utterly amazed if Amazon was not.........
......exploring precisely that option. Their tactic in selling the Kindle at what looks something like cost has paid off big time and whilst a repeat success with a full song with choruses Honeycomb tablet is not guaranteed by any manner of means, it would be fairly astonishing if they were not at least tempted by the prospect. Decently built and specced tablet(s) populating the price-segments between £300 to £500 with perhaps the next Honeycomb build on board combined with their well established retail content operation (music, films, books and soon apps) would stand a very good chance of cleaning up. Indeed, if I were in charge at Cupertino I would be watching Amazon very closely, in fact I might even be looking at something fairly dramatic with regard to the acquisition of a major content provider - Apple have after all a fairly substantial "war chest" available them.
PS We may end up having to ask for an Amazon icon, with or without horns!
@Ragarath You have got to understand the rules old chap.
When Microsoft are the subject of an article the following rules apply.
1. If MS have done something wrong, log on and howl.
2. If MS have done something right, log on and howl.
(Make sure you say that it was all their fault in the first place whether that is wholly true, partly true or not true at all.)
3. If MS are mentioned however peripherally, even if your posting is not even in orbit around the same planet as the article concerned let alone on topic, log on and howl.
4. Do remember to spell the Great Satan's name with a $-sign as often as possible whilst you howl.
As far as the subject of this article is concerned I am glad to see that MS appear to be taking their responsibilities seriously. I personally feel that they should have been moving in this way a considerable while ago but I am reasonably impressed with the sheer scale of the operation involving as it did MS officials, the Feds, the US courts and national compliance and policing authorities in several countries (including China's own CNERT-team believe or not!). So yes, on this occasion I am also willing to give Redmond a cautious thumbs up.
Posted in Apple 'gay-cure' app severely slapped
RE no-brainers just don't 'get' freedom
You appear to have got off at the wrong stop old chap. The Daily Heil is just down the road on your right.
Posted in Apple 'gay-cure' app severely slapped
@Graham Marsden
Good point. One can just imagine their reaction to being told that their religious orientation is a disease and that impressionable young children should not be allowed to read the bible on the grounds that it "promotes" this degenerate lifestyle.
Posted in A glimpse at Amazon's app store
Granted I haven't thought on this too long yet, but
I have been musing upon that possibility since I first got my hands on my Kindle 3 (about 6 months ago) and I have to say that I would be amazed if Amazon had not at least considered the idea. The droid tabs are just now beginning to come on stream and Honeycomb appears to be coming along nicely. If it were technically feasible to equip a tab with a screen that could switch between a conventional display and something that had the visual characteristics of e-ink I think that Amazon (and their OEM) might have a major winner on their hands. Such a combination might very well give Cupertino a run for their money - and from a very unexpected direction as well!
Posted in Intel and Apple: tablet d'hôte
Thanks IAS.
I appreciate the reply. Had not thought of that aspect of it.
Posted in 'iPad cads' dash fanboi fondleslab hopes
Apparently the incompetence theory is doing the rounds
It looks like leading Apple supporters are not so impressed with Cupertino this time. They do not of course buy the "they did it on purpose" theory but they are not exactly kindly in their criticism of the Fruit Store. The criticism we can see here: ( http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple?tag=mantle_skin;content ) from Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern (two Appleheads from way back when) at ZDNet is just one example of the feelings amongst many of the company's keenest supporters that are circulating on the net.
Basically you can pick your theory; *deliberate tactic* or *major league incompetence* on this occasion.
Posted in 'iPad cads' dash fanboi fondleslab hopes
@Neoc Re: Re:Artificial scarcity
Indeed, it is difficult to believe that is not what they did. Well knowing that a certain proportion of their supporters would behave in the desperate way we are now seeing with the consequent loads of publicity around these stories of people paying 2 - 3 times the retail price on the "black market". It serves their publicity purpose of portraying the iPad at the absolute must-have shiney. Nothing could serve that aim more than the stories we are now seeing. The alternative is to believe that the production and marketing people at Apple are grotesquely incompetent in regard to several of their key tasks: predicting, managing and meeting demand. What ever one might say about Apple, THAT I just do not believe. Given the (largely well deserved, I have no problem saying that) huge success they have had with iPad 1 and the expectations that were building up ahead of a pretty much simultaneous world-wide launch of iPad 2 (in comparison to the "roll out" approach they used with iPad 1, USA first, natch) we are expected to believe that they thought that an initial production run of 500 K was going to be enough? My only response to anyone asserting that is "get out of here"!
Posted in 'iPad cads' dash fanboi fondleslab hopes
Re Nefarious? Indeed, it does not seem in principle......
..........any different from what has been Apple's usual pricing policy - screw the market for what you can get. In this instance much facilitated by the company's apparent inability to produce even a ballpark guess concerning initial sales with the result that there are massive shortages. Though it has to be said that if someone is so sad that they are willing to part with up to 2000 dollars they almost deserve to be ripped off. The new iPad seems to be a decent piece of kit (not my kind of thing but each to their own and all that) and Apple's own pricing this time somewhat less of a piss-take. However if they release before they have ensured adequate supplies their loyal/deranged punters are going to get screwed.
Posted in 'iPad cads' dash fanboi fondleslab hopes
Yes, artificial - Apple's Fail.
Companies like Apple do a lot of market research to ensure they do not make a fuck-up like this. It is not possible to believe that Cupertino simply based a rough guess on the number of iPad 1s they sold. Either it was deliberate or Mr Jobs should fire the entire marketing dept because they are clearly not doing their Jobs (pun committed with malice aforethought).
First time I've ever used this icon but this time I am in no doubts that they deserve it on this occasion. A marketing fuck-up like this from a company famous for its marketing expertise? No, it was deliberate.
Posted in Intel and Apple: tablet d'hôte
What's Intel asking for their chips?
"But do those machines ship? Most do not."
I do not claim to know, I am just wondering. Are they maybe being greedy over what they expect the OEMs to pony up for that Intel kit?
Paradoxes, moi?
This communication with the past being limited to the earliest moment in our future when this particle is, perhaps, discovered and the necessary communications devices are, perhaps, developed. This, for the very simple reason that no-one except someone in our future would (with the aforementioned kit) be able to recieve any messages from someone who had not yet developed the aforementioned kit...........are you still with me? In short this past that could be communicated with must by definition post-date the first point in time when this kit is developed, or something like that. Oh bollocks I need a drink.
Posted in Make streaming a felony: Obama
The authorities tried to do the same with........
.........printing when it was invented (in Europe at any rate) in the mid-fifteenth and of course we all know how successful that was do we not?
Posted in Is Apple planning incompatible payments?
My gob has never been so smacked.
Planning a system incompatible with other standards with millions of locked in customers, well I'll go to the foot of our stairs! I am sure that that nice Mr Jobs would not dream of doing such a thing.
NB: Irony alert in relation to icon use.
SPs always make me nervous.
I run Win 7 hp 64-bit at home on two machines. A few days before the update was released I ran full system backup manually on both of them and then took backup off schedule. Happily when Redmond sent SP1 down the pipe to yours truly it installed in both cases without giving any noticeable problems. Had I experienced problems I could not find a work-around to I would have switched off Windows update, formatted the drives, restored from the drive image and then kept that monkey (AKA Windows updat) off-line until it was clear that a safe version was available. I've been burned before!
Part deux of my rant.
Furthermore, to paraphrase one of Bill Clinton's advisers from the 90s, "its the infrastructure, stupid". That's right, the big pipe in the sky. If we start shoving everything up there so that everybody's shineys are a rather expensive collection of "thin clients" (in the software sense), how the hell are we going to get the bandwidth? The infrastructure investment required in the years ahead by the carriers is already humungous, can you imagine the sums of money involved if it is largely cloud-based? Who's going to pay for that? The poor bloody punter of course through his/her data-plan and/or tax slip. What a wonderful idea! We tell the punter that he/she is a plank if they want locally stored applications and then we charge them an arm and a leg for an alternative that the punter has so far showed no great signs of wanting. As far as I am concerned they can stick it.
@bojennett Re: "It's because HTML sucks, dude"
"You HTML5 people... you need to get over yourselves. The fact that you can make it work at all as an application framework is truly commendable. You've done the equivalent of bolting a jet engine onto a bicycle bike frame. The fact that the bike doesn't blow up is awesome - but that doesn't mean I want to ride it."
Do you mind! I laughed so hard at that image that I almost ended up with my breakfast coffee in my lap.
Posted in Japanese nuke meltdown may be underway
The downvoters should be ashamed of themselves.
The guy has a legitimate point - what are you all doing, whistling loudly in the dark?
All this seems to assume is that........
..............your interaction with content must be cloud and social network based. Quite apart from the practicalities of the customer being hostage to having a live connection _and_ the carriers data plans in order to be able to use content and facilities on his/her mob/pad, it also assumes that everybody wants to be involved with Twitter, Arsebook etc in order to "share" this experience. How about those propagandising for cloud/web based solutions recognise that under certain circumstances lack of locally installed facilities is in fact a _lack_ of freedom for the punter. Plus a very simple and age old aspect of being human - people like feeling they own something real, "solid" if you like, that they have bought; locally installed apps play to this feeling. This whole cloud/web based shtick sounds like a wonderful deal for web designers and the carriers - where do the customers _real_ interests fit into all of this? Why does it, apparently, have to be either or? Why cannot customers choose between locally installed and web based according how _they_ want to organise that aspect of their lives? Particularly without being told that their preferred solution is "inferior" - just because it does not happen to suit certain agendas.
@AC re Uh! And the Man From Cupertino will probably try.......
...........to insist that you use a non-standard connector only available from your local Apple Store!
More patent trolling?
Are they actually trying to patent a genuine device (if so, where is the physical example of such a device accompanying this application?) or simply a very generalised series of concepts intended as nothing more than a judicial minefield for any competitors in the field of consumer electronics? A clearer example of deliberate market poisoning would be hard to find. Apple make very good kit that is deservedly very popular but their taste for using their legal department to dream up schemes designed to cripple any future competition reminds me very strongly of Microsoft at its very worst in the 1990s.
@DT re Penetration of the market.
Highly relevant point. Seems that xbox owners (I am not one) are highly enthusiastic. That the sales of kinect within that market (xbox owners by definition) should exhibit a take-up that can be compared with other best-selling devices which do not require pre-ownership of another device is fairly eye-crossing. What will be very interesting from a marketing point of view is in what degree new xboxes are being bought with kinect and whether kinect will now accelerate sales of xbox per se. The combined package cannot be dismissed as a "100 buck peripheral", representing as it does a fairly significant investment in ones home entertainment system. We will no doubt have a clearer picture of that possible phenomenon by Q3 or so.
Posted in Tesco heralds 2011 as YEAR OF ANDROID
Stock is money - sitting there doing nothing.
The issue for Tescos and Asda (or whoever) is simply that they can carry iThingy cases because they all fit the one phone. To meet your needs (and mine - Desire Z) and those of other Android customers they would have to stock a considerable range of cases. However if Android sales are really taking off for them they may well begin to do so now.
Posted in Tesco heralds 2011 as YEAR OF ANDROID
Agreed
The Desire HD (scarcely a poorly specced phone) is about 40% cheaper than the cheapest iPhone 4 (sim-free Amazon.co.uk).
.......and probably reads magazines like.....
.........."Topless Benchmarks for Men".
Let me see now....
.....if you install this you need ear plugs, several 14 cm case fans, an industrial grade psu and you can also heat the office with it. As far as the private market goes we are of course talking financially well heeled obsessive gamer who still lives in the cellar at his mum's, are we not?
On a general point in this context
A point which applies to all such companies (carrier or producer), ie attempts to create or maintain some kind of lock-in. They all do it, we can all think of many examples and many companies. The common factor is of course the desire to avoid be subjected to any greater degree of genuine competition that can in fact be avoided. All such strategies *whoever* is deploying them are aimed at evading competition without risking a direct confrontation with the competition authorities. In other words they all see OUR interests as the very antithesis of theirs. A thought to be born in mind when one feels the impulse to post defending ones favourite company - whoever they are. The only side they are on is their own.
This will be interesting.
In the developing situation Apple is now (in order to maintain and evolve its position) going to have to be much quicker on its feet than it has had to be in the recent past. The company has had time between each iThingy release (because of the lack of serious competition) to get things right from the marketing point of view. As the pace of development in the market now begins to heat up they will not only have to be quicker, they will be under more pressure to avoids missteps. More importantly from their shareholders point of view the era when Apple could price their products as they liked and dictate terms to distributors (telcos etc..) is likely drawing to a close. The developments in the mobile market (phones and/or tablets) over the next couple of years are likely to make it a bumpy ride for all the majors - Apple included.
What are they going to call it?
".........busily negotiating with music-industry decision-makers about allowing multiple downloads of their creative content............."
" iSpotify " perhaps?
I had a fairly positive attitude to this telly........
...........as I read through your thorough review Steve until I came to the bit about it ships with ONE pair of the specs. ONE pair with a TV that costs over two and a half grand? Sammy are extracting a great deal of urea out of customers they expect to part with over 21/2K.
Re Microsoft Staff
"......and should be thrown away with blackberry, symbian and ios."
Now Dear El Reg readers you have a chance to enter our exciting all new competition, all you have to do is guess which OS this gentleman is ast*******ng on behalf of and YOU TOO can be a winner!!
Everybody having fun?
Speaking as a Desire Z owner this issue is not exactly relevant here at Arctic fox Hall but for some reason I still prefer debates with some connection to reality/facts. This problem with the latest update to the update is effecting a limited number of one producer's phones and has, at the time of writing, been reported as a problem by 100 customers so far on a world-wide basis. I.e. the proportion of customers with that OS effected are a small fraction of 1% of the total installed base. Anyone got any figures for what's typical for an upgrade for other OSs such that we can compare? In other words do we know of any OS that always updates without ANY customers having issues?
@Jean-Luc: Re "Lets not shoot the victims here"
Respectfully suggest you check out my reply @Blitterbut with the title "An entirely fair point." There you will see that I had in practice already conceded your central point. However, I do think that people should, on general principles, learn a _bit_ about their shiny. Especially if they are going to use their bank card over it!
@Blitterbut: An entirely fair point.
I was fulminating somewhat wasn't I! Yes, it is of course entirely possible to get caught out by a seemingly genuine app in a context where one does not have a rational reason to suspect something is wrong. Furthermore I would certainly agree with anyone saying that Google have to evaluate how they might improve security in the Market without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It is just that one gets so tired of some people not being willing to think for two seconds when they install something and then starting to howl when it all goes horribly wrong! However, I would not wish to suggest that anyone who gets caught is a prat regardless of the circumstances - by those criteria very few of us would succeed in avoiding the title "Noob of the Year"!
I do not understand what is special about this problem FCOL!
If you visit dubious sites on your pc and download freebies from them you are highly like to end up with your pc being somebody's bitch - maybe your bank account as well. What the hell is different here? The Market is in practice as open as the rest of the net and when you access via your smart phones (whose IQs are clearly higher than that of many of the owners) you are accessing it by means of a _hand-held computer_ FFS!!! Just the same as if you were using your pc. How difficult is this to understand? If you insist on downloading "My Little Porno" wallpaper or whatever and give it various permissions then your arse is going to be grass, end of. I do not understand how it is possible for anyone to be *that* stupid. Before I buy an app (like many, many other owners whose IQ is in fact larger than their shoe size and are capable of thinking _without_ experiencing extreme pain) I check out the company and the permissions the particular app requires _BEFORE_ I download and install the bloody thing. Am I some kind of genius? No, of course not. If I and many other sensible people can manage these elementary precaution what the hell is wrong with these doughnuts?
@Mark. re. ""Microsoft are doomed""
Quite frankly I think many of those who post the kind of "contribution" that so often involves spelling MS' using a dollar sign are expressing what they hope will happen rather than that which they believe *will* happen. There are of course in relation to any future for MS in tablets several imponderables.
1. Will Win8 per se be an advance on Win7 or will it get "Vistaed"?
2. Will the Win8 port to ARM architecture be successful from the technical point of view?
3. Will the UI be any good?
4. Will the compiling of such packages as Office for ARM be successful?
5. Will the devs produce genuinely good apps that run well on the os?
6. Will the OEMs produce genuinely good, attractive and sensibly priced kit to run it on?
All these questions are wholly legitimate and non-contrived issues for debate (they are of course the types of challenges that face all major software/hardware companies). However a fairly significant proportion of the postings we see are absolutely uninterested in the *possibility* that the answers to the above questions might, just might, be yes. The reason is of course very simple, they *want* the answers to be "no" because *IF* the answers are "yes" MS is likely (because of its brand recognition in the market place amongst a large number of ordinary punters) to have a major success on its hands. Given that I neither have an axe to grind nor a crystal ball I have no certain idea what the answers to the above questions will *actually* turn out to be although I am certainly interested in what they *might* turn out to be. We see the same phenomenon being directed at Nokia in other threads from the same "M$"haters/obsessives, they *want* it to go as wrong as possible for the "team(s)" they hate - rational debate about what may go right *or* wrong in this area is not something they have any interest in.
For the record: We run both Win7 and Ubuntu at home and I use a Mac at work, Mm Arctic Fox runs an N8 and I have a Desire Z.
I am not interested in a WP7 phone personally......
......given that I own a Desire Z and am very happy with it. However in the interests of objectivity I have to say that on the basis of the evidence so far (total 5% of WP7 phones actually bricked, all Samsung, and all of them confined to two models I believe?) one could equally well argue that it is all Samsung's fault for being unable to build according to laid down specs. It is after all rather a coincidence that the problem should in fact be confined to a couple of phones from one manufacturer is it not? One could also point out that this is not the first upgrade from an OS builder that has gone wrong for a certain percentage of owners - hmm?
Posted in Nokia C1-01 budget voicephone
I have to say that I agree.
On the basis of your description Alun and the specs I have to say that it is very good value for money. If our common back-up phone back at Arctic Fox hall, which is showing its age, (the phone - not our home!) does decide to pass over to the other side then this one is definitely a contender.
re Move on. There's nothing to see here.
"Competitor Apple will also show off the iPad 2 tablet, but the difference is that it will hit the market immediately, rather than in 2 years"
Except that it is looking increasingly likely that any customer who is pleased with his/her iPad 1 would be very well advised to wait for the iPad 3 before upgrading. Especially given that the kit is not exactly cheap. In other words it is not unlikely that for all iPad customers with more sense than money (rather than the reverse) purchase of the iPad 2 would be rather pointless. Kit there is no point in buying is as much vapourware (to all practical intents and purposes) as kit that never gets released from the point of view of said customers, hmm?
Posted in Jobs stand-in ranks iPhone over sex
@JustaKOS Re Might be true
"If he's the sort of bloke who needs to dial out to arrange it, then I suppose his iPhone might come before sex."
Not forgetting *afterwards* as well when he uploads his account of the great event to ArseBook. As long of course as he keeps off the damn thing *during* thus avoiding annoying the young lady too much - mind you if he failed to take that elementary precaution he might very well end up with what we can call a "dropped connection"!
Posted in Jobs stand-in ranks iPhone over sex
A "physiological" need? "Psychological", surely?
Given *some* (note that I stress the word *some*) of the postings we have seen on various threads here at El Reg from *some* of the iPhanbois I would have thought that the term "psychological" need was more appropriate. Perhaps we should be consulting the works of Freud rather than Maslow? Especially given the displacement/substitution behavioural characteristics the kit seems to induce in *some* of its owners?
@Pigeon Re Foxy foxed!
"Man from mars got you there. This was a very short one, calculated to confuse.
I bet he uses a different name when he really wants to be serious."
My only problem old chap is that I fear very much that he thought that he was being serious!
Re Choice: Cupertino magical reality warp strikes again:
I have always taken the cracks about the Jobsian reality warp as examples of barbed humour until I read your post and realised that The Man From Cupertino really can warp reality for a certain type of iPhanboi.
Let us take the OFF-contract price of the cheapest of the iPhone4s at Amazon: £599
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iPhone-Black-Mobile-Phone/dp/B003TQ3NCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298703067&sr=8-1
Let us further take an example one of the high-end Android phones the Desire HD available OFF-contract from Amazon for: £375
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HTC-Desire-Free-Mobile-Phone/dp/B003ZDP5YK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298703126&sr=8-1
Are you seriously telling me that it is impossible to get a more reasonable deal for a Desire HD ON-contract than for the iPhone4 (16Gb, the cheapest of the two iPhones) ON-contract when the sim-free price difference between them is over 60%? Because if that is true then Apple has a deal with the carriers concerned that the competition authorities ought to be looking at on the grounds of predatory pricing or Apple is taking a hit on their *own* margins that would result in their own shareholders going absolutely berserk. I do not know what Steve has been feeding you boy but just say no, you know it makes sense.
