Re: @sjsmoto

"You're obviously one of those people who's happy to takes their shots, a little tweak of contrast, a little tweak of hue/sat and you're done. Some of us shoot RAW..."expose to the right" what you're talking is absolute crap"

How on earth would you know how he shoots? Expose to the right 1 stop, then have import settings that automatically correct 1 stop of exposure on import - takes no time at all.

BTW how is this relevant to Adobe's pricing? You said yourself you do that before using photoshop.

Or are you just trying to prove what a super photographer you are just because you shoot RAW?

"An average image will start off as a basic 30MB full-frame RAW by the time it's done and dusted will have been edited for at least an hour minimum sometimes up to 2-3 hours"

OK shoot 2000 shots at a wedding and try that - you'll be editing until next century, and the couple will be divorced before you deliver their wedding photos.

Re: @sjsmoto

"One of my recent brides was paranoid about the fact that she had a small double chin when she smiled and she wanted me to edit it away - A straightforward task in Photoshop. Could you show me what combination of in camera exposure and composition settings would achieve the same effect?"

#1 - shoot from slightly above the bride so she is looking up, it will stretch and flatten the skin under her chin

#2 use a white bounceboard/reflector in front (which you should be doing anyway) to even out any shadows under her chin.

Sounds like you are a VERY part time wedding photographer.

Re: Bah!

"it only requires an internet connection once every 30 days."

So you're screwed if you're a wildlife photographer working in 90% of Africa.

I put that to Adobe and their reply was "just go to a cafe and use their free wireless" - oxygen thieves...

Re: So, what happens if you decide to stop renting?

"Do you keep access to the software in its state as of the end of the subscription, or does the Adobe license manager delete it from your machine (or deny you access, which amounts to the same thing)?"

#2 - it kills the program - wont start without a subscription, that's the whole point.

I'm out too - CS6 is as far as Photoshop goes for me...

"I'm not forced to take our a year subscription, paying monthly instead."

And you pay 50-100% more for the privilege of not taking out a yearly subscription!

"I can stop when I want."

And then not have any programs that can open your files. Buy a real licence and you can access them forever.

Another Adobe employee obviously!

Re: What a huge fraud! Adobe worse than Electronic Arts (SimCity fraud)...

"My business can't justify the huge upfront cost of a straight up purchase, but cc is a no-brainer."

No, you have no brain.

The subscription costs more than double the cost of upgrading every 18 months!

You are either an Adobe employee, or have such little business sense I have a bridge I'd love to sell you...

Re: In as many cases

"My point was that yes, greenhouse effect is one of many factors that could be involved in allowing a planet to fall into the hospital zone, but the idea that this is a toggle switch between hospital and non that bothers me.

Look, if you have a planet outside of the hospital zone

Its is not predisposed towards making a planet hospital."

Do tell - what is a hospital zone, and how does a planet fall into one? *slaps forehead*

Re: In as many cases

"any factor that can influence a habitat towards being life capable can also work against it being so."

You said "at least as many" - that implies actual knowledge of the distribution of atmospheres on the thousands of billions of planets across the observable universe - which is so ridiculous its laughable.

"The hospital zone itself is a narrow band out of a much larger field of possibilities, basically there are far more ways it can go wrong than right."

And all the scientists are saying is that this is another possible way it can go right for the 'liquid water' worlds we view as potentially habitable.

They, unlike you, are not making claims about the actual distribution of planets because they know that NO ONE knows that - not even uninformed and unqualified commenters on internet websites such as your good self.

Re: In as many cases

"Where green house gasses might possible push environments into the hospital zone they're are at least as many where they push them out of it, cue venus."

Based on what? Your extensive statistical analysis of exoplanets?

We can barely detect that exoplanets exist, and can only make highly speculated guesses as to their atmospheric makeup, mainly based on their gravity.

There is no possible way you can back up those statements, unlike the SCIENTISTS who actually spend their lives studying the evidence we do have. There's enough completely uninformed and inaccurate opinions on the net already

Re: Android dominance continues

"Indeed, I mean, they only sold 37 million iPhones, the only reason they don't call them "bespoke" is to avoid being sued by the tailors at Savile Row"

OR because they are made by the thousands in a Chinese sweatshop!!!

Do you even know what *bespoke* means??? *slaps forehead*

Re: Comparing Like for like is a forgotten art then?

"Whilst it is true that Apple's margin is decreasing, that 30%+ level is something that most CEO/CFO's would willingly cut an arm or a leg off for."

But its dropped nearly 10% in 2 quarters - most CEO/CFO's would be extremely worried over a trend like that - 30% is good, but falling market share and rapidly shrinking margins just after you've lost the leader that most credit with the firm's success isn't something to celebrate...

Re: Hmmmmmm.....

"Shame the suffer from poor quality, service and security."

But Apple always have issues in the initial batches - the quality will pick up as they sort their production processes out... :-)

Re: Cult of Jobs

"I always used to scoff at the idea that one man could be responsible for much of Apple's success"

Think back to where Apple was before Steve returned - its stock price was in the toilet, the company was almost on life support.

Not saying that Apple are likely to go back to those days, but there is no doubt that a huge amount of its success was down to him.

Re: The S4 is no N4

Great to have choice isn't it :-)

Re: FFS, when will they "get it"?

"Add your cruft as ordinary user apps that can be removed / replaced / whatever."

??? Just disable the ones you don't want - on the screen where you uninstall apps there's a disable button for system/preinstalled apps.

Its pretty easy...

Re: Love it...

"Can you blame them for looking at ways to cut down on used game sales?"

Absofu**inglutely. Its nothing but pure greed - what's next no second hand blu rays?

Re: Love it...

"Love the way everyone is quoting worst case internet rumours as complete fact."

Well hopefully MS, Sony et al are listening - would not surprise me if always online was their original plan, which was then hastily shelved after the backlash.

Re: Isn't this a storm in a teacup?

"How many times do you hear the message from a utility company "we may record calls for training purposes".

How many people have asked or cared what they do with these calls."

Well:

a) they tell you openly in advance

b) by law they must give you an OPT OUT (at least in Oz),

c) if they use that data for any purpose other than kicking the a$$ of bad call centre operators they cop massive fines, even imprisonment for those in charge (again in Oz).

Utility companies are also not trying to track your every move and building a behavioural and marketing database on you. Completely different scenario. Glad I dumped the iPhone when I did.

Re: Anonymised?

"amassing one of the biggest voice print databases in the world"

...and be able to link that with facial recognition from all those facebook pictures.

Anonymised after 6 months just means Apple store all the relevant information to your user profile in those 6 months.

The amount of data private firms are gathering is becoming terrifying.

Re: Another dodgy survey?

"I assume most sensible people keep a phone for three, four, five years before changing,"

Actually most people get their phone on a contract - so after 1-2 years they flick it for a newer shiny model.

I buy outright as well, but we're in the minority...

Re: Androids are Instantly Obsolete

"So all the phones you've ever owned are now running the official builds of the most recent possible OSs that support their hardware? That doesn't square with anything I've read,"

Then READ MORE fanboi.

Yes my 3 year old Android phone is running the latest OS supplied by Samsung. Its the third OS Samsung have supplied for it.

Whats more it runs ALL the features of the new OS, no limitations or features left out like iOS updates...

Re: Androids are Instantly Obsolete

"The biggest problem with the Androids is that they are basically unsupported, and once you buy one the typical manufacturer has no further interest in you."

Unsupported? What are you on about? There's this thing called a 2 year warranty, and my last 2 phones have had 3 full OS upgrades each.

I love the smell of fanboi ignorance in the morning...

Re: It would be passing strange

"For Apple not to get a bump on the launch of a major new iPhone would be odd indeed"

So you missed the part about the figures using a rolling 3 month average to smooth out fluctuations then?

"With all the GUI programs and desktop environments, how many people really muck around with configuration files and the command line anymore?"

In a perfect world you'd never have to, but I always found something I had to faff around with terminal to get working which I hate doing (same with OSX - "it just works" my a$$...)

Re: You'd be surprised

"The KGB were apparently telling the Politburo, as late as the 1980s, that the US and UK were actively planning an unprovoked nuclear first strike on the Soviet Union."

Most likely stapled to a request for more funding/power.

I'm sure spy agencies in most countries have embellished the odd threat for similar reasons...

Re: How to make the world a better place

"The law must be derived from ethics and morality."

*Collective* ethics and morality.

Many who follow Islam consider drinking alcohol immoral, but that isn't representative of collective morality in the West, so it isn't illegal. In some Arabic countries the opposite is the case.

To someone sitting in the UK giving money to someone to guarantee a legal shipment makes it is immoral - in many countries that is perfectly normal business practice akin to paying government taxes.

"we'll be replacing them with new models on average once every three years"

Well most phones are bought as part of 1-2 year phone contracts so that part may not be so crazy...

Re: One thing you can use PC for

"As long as the need for at least some people to do at least some work remains, the PC will still be with us..."

...at work.

For the home email/web/FB market a tablet can do all that and is way cheaper and more convenient.

Re: Gartner are full of it

"Tablets will never kill PCs."

No, but like camera phones ate into the dedicated camera market so will tablets eat into PC sales.

I'm a photographer, so I'll always need a PC for photoshop, but if I'm only surfing the web, checking FB and emails etc I use a tablet - I can easily see how most people can get by without a PC.

PC's wont die, but over time they will become more of a niche product than they are today.

Re: PCs are being SNUFFED by crass pre-installed operating systems

"It's a myth that Linux PC's get returned. "

Get real - a friend of mine worked at a large electronics store and constantly had people bring them back because their copy of MS office wouldn't install on it (and no, the average punter doesn't know what VMware is).

They returned it and bought a windows version so often the store stopped stocking the linux one - it was simply too much hassle.

Face it - linux is for geeks, not for the mainstream "mum and dad" user.

Re: pathetically dependent?

"iPhone and the iPad. Both are market leaders, and it's hard to grow market share when you're in front"

What planet are you on? The iphone was overtaken ages ago by the Samsung Galaxy line alone, let alone Android as a whole.

Its hard to grow market share when your market share is dropping!

Re: pathetically dependent?

"I suspect you know that MS is also pathetically dependent on Windows and Office. MS has a greater PE number than Apple, but I know in my mind which has the brighter foreseeable future."

Dependent on software that runs on 90%+ of the world's computers, despite everything its competitors including Apple and the DOJ could throw at it.

MS sells despite the fact everyone hates them, many people buy Apple because they are fashionable, and as we can see by the way Apple is bleeding market share fashions change.

That's why MS has a higher PE.

"This has been frequently and consistently shown to be incorrect, since ,at least, the 1970s -- by a number of Nobel prize winners at that."

Name one. You are talking complete and utter bullspit

Re: Big differences between Apple and Oracle

"The iPhone user base is far more loyal and less 'fickle' than the Android user base. I see plenty of people looking at the new HTC One instead of the new Galaxy S4 - and why not."

You DO realise both of those phones are Android right? Or would you call a fanboi fickle for choosing between an iphone 4S and a 5?

*slaps forehead*

Re: Don't blame Apple for the price drop

"Blame those short termist Analysists who gaze into crystal balls and predict a companies earnings for the next quarter.

There is no fundamental difference between the above and any of those on-line gambing sites"

Thanks for reminding me just how irrational people choose to be when it comes to Apple. *Apple* release the earning forecasts, analysts report on whether Apple met their own targets.

The reason a small shortfall causes a share price drop is because Apple's share price was valued based on constantly exceeding earning targets and being a market leader in terms of revenue. It isn't a market leader in smartphones anymore, and the lead in tablets is rapidly shrinking.

The unmistakable trend is that Apple move first into a market, getting an early lead, but long term they get overtaken - and the share price is based on long term earnings.

As the article rightly points out, Apple is also highly dependent on a few products, while its competitors are diversified. Eg If the Sony Z smartphone sales tanked they still sell plenty of movies, TVs, audio equipment, music, playstations etc etc. If iphone 5 sales tanked tomorrow Apple would quickly find itself on life support.

For that reason alone Apple is a far more risky stock to hold long term than a company that is diversified, so its share price will be more volatile.

Sorry to ruin your rant about all those nasty analysts wrecking apple with the truth...

Re: That'll upset the Apple Cart(el)

"some random installer asking for your root password."

You mean the installer for the plugin they downloaded to install????

Your fanboism is showing... (and this is being typed on a Macbook...)

Re: The worst thing, by a mile...

"The other UI nightmare is the one that came with Orifice 2000 "

Disappearing menu items and f$%^&%^& smart tags.

There is a special circle of hell reserved for whoever came up with those, and a room there reserved for the moron that made the "turn smart tags off" function not actually turn them off...

Re: There is a simple explanation

"The time tested UI was the cause of the vast majority of users misusing Word. The ribbon bar helps users to learn to use Word properly by presenting styles and other core features to them in a more understandable way. "

P!ss off mate - it just adds big colourful icons to *exactly the same functions*. It wastes screen space and slows down the production of a document noticeably.

"you're probably the sort of person who uses the bold and italic buttons and even the dreaded "text bigger" and "text smaller" buttons rather than creating styles for the whole document."

So you're going with "you're holding it wrong"? Seriously?

I shouldn't have to set up a complete set of styles to write a 2 paragraph letter. MS formatting sucks, as demonstrated by the fact they made the formatting brush to correct the constant automatic f%^& ups by Word.

If you're trying to feel superior because you know what styles are I seriously think you need to get a life...

Re: Whelp, here we are

"an increase in pixel density that literally can't be seen by human eyeballs."

If you hold the screen close to your eyes you can see a change in pixel density like that easily - time to stop parroting Apple's figures, which are calculated at a specific viewing distance.

"The rear camera gets a huge increase in resolution that likely only makes it worse, at least in low-light situations.'

What on earth are you talking about - I haven't seen any reviews saying that

Or are you one of these ignoramus' that still thinks fewer megapixels = better in low light? perhaps a decade ago when digital cameras were in their infancy, but these days noise is lower and more easily removed with more pixels on a given size sensor.

"it has a barometer sensor."

As someone who spends a lot of time doing nature photography outdoors in unfamiliar countries that would be a useful feature actually.

"But I don't mean this as criticism."

Sure as hell sounds like it Apple fanboi

"farce and I assume Google's attempt is too, since I never see anybody using it"

Or you could, you know, actually try using it yourself (radical idea I know)

I'd say get a clue before posting in future, but putting down ignorant fanbois is kinda fun...

Re: How I see it.

"noone has found a real use for NFC."

OK, so the NFC payment systems that virtually every store in Aus have are a figment of my imagination then?

VISA et al are issuing NFC cards to everyone I think they may have found a use for NFC. You can also use the NFC in your phone to make purchases in some coffee shops and the like, secure swipe card and of course easily transfer files between phones.

Spectacular FAIL buddy!!!!

"clunky OS that still doesn't let you install apps to SD card unless you root it?"

Please get a clue Coward - there's a button in settings that moves the app from phone to SD storage and back again.

Plus many apps automatically install onto SD.

"In terms of actual user experience I don't think Apple has any need to be worried just yet."

Denial is a river in Africa - for me the Android user experience overtook Apple's screen of icons generations ago...

Re: One major success that's not been mentioned in the comments

"An area where Apple need to get suing Samsung for copying them...

The publicity from this has been brilliant. "

Actually I think it was Apple suing Samsung that raised their profile in the first place.

After all, for months Apple was quoted in the media telling judges just how similar the Galaxy phone was to the iphone

You can't get better publicity than your #1 competitor singing the praises of your products in the papers for months on end - and under oath no less!!!

Such an own goal for Apple in so many ways...

Re: High dissatisfaction

"I have an Xperia Arc, and looks to me that Sony fiddled much less with the OS."

So you didn't notice the lock screen, home screen, launcher, app drawer, music app, gallery app and the host of other customisations Sony made to the Arc?

Sony add just as much, if not more, stuff to their roms than Samsung do

Re: High dissatisfaction

"Errm you know that the SIII isn't Android right? It's samsungs spin on Android."

Its android with some added Samsung Apps.

BY your logic my old Vodafone branded iphone wouldn't be iOS

*facepalm*

Re: Not sure I'll bother

"The camera functions sound dreamt up in a coke fuelled brain storm session. "

So you missed the whole instagram thing then?

That is obviously what the camera effects are aimed at.

Sure I wouldn't use them, but then again I wouldn't use a phone as a camera in the first place...

Re: No good...

"Unless Samsung are foresighted enough to make APIs available that are generic enough so that other manufacturers can include them as part of their Android distributions on phones which have similar features and which any developer can use to build apps with, these new shiny ideas will never catch on."

No one seems to think Apple restricting everything from other manufacturers is a problem, and Samsung sell more phones than Apple, so there's plenty of Samsung only potential customers for developers to chase.

Its up to other manufacturers to match those and come up with innovations of their own to pass Samsung feature-wise - isn't competition great?

"Add to this the broad nature of the permissions* coupled with the lack of any opportunity to not install them beyond refusing the update"

Go into settings -> applications -> <insert name of app here> select "disable" - app no longer runs and the setting persists as long as you don't do a factory reset.

For permissions management get a free privacy app like LBE Privacy Guard - it lets you turn on and off all permissions individually for each app, including system apps.

Its nice to have options :-)