I think we just found out why we aren't hearing more stories of exploding and burning iPods. Ken Stanborough had to throw his daughter Ellie's iPod Touch outside, because it got too hot to hold, and he could see vapour. Within 30 seconds, he could see smoke, he heard a pop, and the Touch went 10ft into the air. After contacting Apple, the company denied liability, but offered a refund. However, Apple said that in accepting the money, Stanborough was not allowed to talk about the existence of the agreement - or else Apple would sue him. Update: Apple told Sky News Online that the letter with the gagging order is standard practice.
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Member since:2005-07-06
I hate microsoft because I can't avoid their products.
I have to use them at work. I have to use windows to play games.
I have to endure neighbors/family coming crying to me because their windows installations went titties up.
Apple is a douchey corporation but I don't care because I don't have to interact with their products for any reason if I don't want to.
Member since:2005-06-29
The difference between Apple and MS' evilness is simple.
Microsoft's evil was/is geared towards other *companies*. And in all honesty, I couldn't care less what one company does to another. The effect this had on users (stifling innovation due to MS' monoculture) is indirect, and because we have no way of knowing how else it would have turned out, difficult to quantify.
Apple's evil, on the other hand, is clearly geared towards *consumers* and *small developers*. They are actively going after them, trying to hurt them.
I find Apple's evil of a much worse kind.
Member since:2009-04-24
Member since:2006-01-01
Member since:2008-07-07
Member since:2006-02-15
Microsoft's evil was/is geared towards other *companies*. And in all honesty, I couldn't care less what one company does to another.
That is a very ignorant thing to say and I am surprised to see you saying such. First of all, imagine you were the owner of a small shop, just trying to make a living with a few friends of yours. Then a big company comes in and tramples you to the ground. I can BET you would care then. Atleast I do care when a big company does force a smaller one out of business, it's bad for both the customers and the owners of the smaller one. But oh, you don't care, all companies are evil, including even the small ones, put together by honest people.
Apple's evil, on the other hand, is clearly geared towards *consumers* and *small developers*. They are actively going after them, trying to hurt them.
Going after them? Trying to hurt them? No, they are trying to CONTROL them. Not hurt them. Even this news here is all about control: they want to control what kinds of information people spread about Apple and they want to control who is allowed to spread those things in the first hand. Hurting customers/developers is a side-effect of control, it's not the primary directive.
Member since:2006-05-28
I think there is a lot of truth in your statement. Not wishing to be modded down, but I am starting to realise that Apple are just as bad as Microsoft - especially where interoperability of their products are concerned with other operating systems. Anyway, slightly off-topic.
Member since:2005-07-12
I know I hate Apple more than MS, that's for sure.
Apple sucks, plain and simple. Jobs is nothing more than a snake oil salesman and everyone who buys Apple products are suckers (including me - I have an iPod).
But I'll never buy another Apple product for as long as I live.
Apple sucks, and is a complete abomination to the tech industry.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.""And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
Member since:
2005-08-17
And People still hate Microsoft more than Apple. I mean, when you see Apple, you can see how much worse things could have been if Apple was on 90% of the PCs in the world