Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 3rd Oct 2009 19:07 UTC
So, you thought this whole tug of war over iTunes synchronisation was over, right? The USB Implementers Forum slapped Palm in the face, and exonerated Apple from any wrongdoing. The thing is though, the USB-IF is pretty much a powerless organisation, so Palm tossed them aside, and fixed webOS iTunes sync in webOS 1.2.1.
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RE[8]: Here we go again...
by WereCatf on Tue 6th Oct 2009 14:48
in reply to "RE[7]: Here we go again..."
Member since:2006-02-15
It happens all the time in the electronics business - not just in computers.
Just because something happens all the time doesn't make it all right, you know? Even murders happen all the time, there dies atleast one person every minute in a violent death, and it's still not okay.
Apple would be well within their rights to not publish a way for other hardware to access iTunes information, but instead they allow other Companies that FOLLOW THEIR GUIDELINES to access what's needed to make use of iTunes libraries. Apple invested the R&D, Apple wrote the iTunes software, so Apple makes the rules as to how their software should be accessed. There's nothing unethical about that.
And Microsoft would be well within their rights to ban any competitors from using their APIs and distributing their competing software for Windows, it's after all Microsoft software, they wrote it, they invested in the R&D.. right?
That's a very simplistic and naive way of looking at things. First of all, something being within someone's rights doesn't mean it's ethical, for example me going outside and being rude to everyone I come across is well within my rights. It's just also unethical.
Secondly, iTunes is a free (as in beer) application designed to manage music and video. That's a VERY common usecase, it's not in any way specialized and rare software. As such it's just silly if users are required to install even more applications on their computers to do what iTunes already does just in order to get the music to their portable players. From consumer point of view it's just extra hassle, and it would all be better if they could use one single application to handle their music files.
RE[9]: Here we go again...
by FurryOne on Tue 6th Oct 2009 15:44
in reply to "RE[8]: Here we go again..."
Member since:2006-01-23
It happens all the time in the electronics business - not just in computers.
Just because something happens all the time doesn't make it all right, you know? Even murders happen all the time, there dies atleast one person every minute in a violent death, and it's still not okay.
Just because something happens all the time doesn't make it all right, you know? Even murders happen all the time, there dies atleast one person every minute in a violent death, and it's still not okay.
You can come back to planet earth any time now...
And Microsoft would be well within their rights to ban any competitors from using their APIs and distributing their competing software for Windows, it's after all Microsoft software, they wrote it, they invested in the R&D.. right?
Unfortunately for Microsoft, they have been officially labeled a Monopoly - the rules are different for them then for Apple.
First of all, something being within someone's rights doesn't mean it's ethical, for example me going outside and being rude to everyone I come across is well within my rights. It's just also unethical.
You obviously don't live in New York City.
Secondly, iTunes is a free (as in beer) application designed to manage music and video. That's a VERY common usecase, it's not in any way specialized and rare software. As such it's just silly if users are required to install even more applications on their computers to do what iTunes already does just in order to get the music to their portable players. From consumer point of view it's just extra hassle, and it would all be better if they could use one single application to handle their music files.
I love it when people bitch about something they get for free. Hey, here's an idea... go write your own application!... then you can whine to yourself about yourself!
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.More News »
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Member since:
2006-01-23
...is it ethical for any company whatsoever to try to lock end-users to their software and hardware?
There is nothing "unethical" about locking hardware to software when one Company creates both as a compliment to each other. It happens all the time in the electronics business - not just in computers. Companies make major investments in R&D, and in many cases if you change software or hardware you will void the warranty.
Apple would be well within their rights to not publish a way for other
hardware to access iTunes information, but instead they allow other Companies that FOLLOW THEIR GUIDELINES to access what's needed to make use of iTunes libraries. Apple invested the R&D, Apple wrote the iTunes software, so Apple makes the rules as to how their software should be accessed. There's nothing unethical about that.