Linked by mjhi11 on Thu 16th Sep 2010 20:13 UTC
I love OSNews, but it does seem like some of its editors enjoy just a little too much taking a good natured jab at Apple upon occasion (well, more like every chance that particular editor can get). I thought it time for a little good news and analysis about Apple that critics often overlook.
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Member since:2009-08-22
Apple revolutionized networking?
I'm willing to be convinced, but I've never used any of the Air[fillinblank] products--or had trouble doing any of the things mentioned that they do with different products.
Could someone flesh it out a bit more? Hyperbolic praise of whichever Air[fillinblank] product while doing it is perfectly OK; I'm just looking for a summary version of why they are supposed to be so much better.
I'm willing to be convinced, but I've never used any of the Air[fillinblank] products--or had trouble doing any of the things mentioned that they do with different products.
Could someone flesh it out a bit more? Hyperbolic praise of whichever Air[fillinblank] product while doing it is perfectly OK; I'm just looking for a summary version of why they are supposed to be so much better.
Its worth noting that Apple has had a long term strategy of creating plug and play wireless (and wired) networking between devices. I think that Airplay and Airprint, the latest two Apple networking technologies which are just arriving, along with FaceTime, are part of a new wave that is about to break. I think we will see some big initiatives in this area in the next year or so. iPad V2 will be part of this as will be that gigantic data centre they are nearly finished building and I also expect a lot related new features in the next MacOS 10.7 release.
Member since:2006-02-19
Apple revolutionized networking?
I'm willing to be convinced, but I've never used any of the Air[fillinblank] products--or had trouble doing any of the things mentioned that they do with different products.
Could someone flesh it out a bit more? Hyperbolic praise of whichever Air[fillinblank] product while doing it is perfectly OK; I'm just looking for a summary version of why they are supposed to be so much better.
I'm willing to be convinced, but I've never used any of the Air[fillinblank] products--or had trouble doing any of the things mentioned that they do with different products.
Could someone flesh it out a bit more? Hyperbolic praise of whichever Air[fillinblank] product while doing it is perfectly OK; I'm just looking for a summary version of why they are supposed to be so much better.
They included Gigabit ethernet as standard on the Mac line, long before most PC's even offered it. My G4 Power Mac 450mhz had a gigabit port on it. They also offered wireless as standard long before most PC makers did the same.
And don't forget about Apple's role in USB adoption and Firewire. The Original iMac had USB ports only for Keyboard and mouse and peripherals which is credited as helping to popularize USB and make it more widespread. I can't believe all the PC's that still include PS/2 ports on their computers today considering that you can hardly buy PS/2 keyboard/mouse models these days. Well some include adapters, I suppose.
Firewire was developed by Apple before it was released to the IEEE standards body for all to use. In some ways it is still superior to USB but has been more specialized these days.
Member since:2005-06-29
I agree completely on Apple bringing USB, gigabit ethernet and firewire into the mainstream.
As to PS/2 on modern systems, I believe it goes to legacy support. After all, that quad-core i7 you just bought technically is capable of running something as old as DOS, and USB HID support in DOS is fully dependent on the BIOS. It makes sense to have a tried-and-true HID interface just in case your antiquated software requires it.
That's one of the huge differences between the Mac and PC universes; Macs are all about modern technology (with the curious exception of Blu-Ray and eSATA) and PCs are forever locked into as much legacy support as possible.
Member since:2009-08-15
Bonjour (originally called Rendezvous) was released in 2002 as a zero-configuration network protocol designed to seek out hardware across the network and make those resources available to other computers. The first application was mostly for file and printer sharing, but its use has expanded over the years to include the sharing of other resources including iTunes music libraries, iPhoto libraries, scanner sharing (particularly useful if there's an all-in-one printer/scanner on your network), not to mention more esoteric uses, for example to broadcast telephony resources available (using the open source Asterisk software). Bonjour is also used as a protocol with the iPhone and iTouch to allow you to control your Apple TV using your iPhone.
The next major advance from Apple recently announced is remote printing from an iPad, iPhone or iTouch, and wireless video streaming between iPads, iPhones, iTouches and desktop computers to the new Apple TV.
Here's are a few Wikipedia links that do a pretty good job of going into more detail about these technologies and a good overview from Apple regarding the benefits of their wireless technology streaming to the Apple TV...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroconf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software)
http://www.apple.com/appletv/#whatis
News
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
Google 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.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 23:03 UTC
"During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.More News »
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Member since:
2009-06-18
Apple revolutionized networking?
I'm willing to be convinced, but I've never used any of the Air[fillinblank] products--or had trouble doing any of the things mentioned that they do with different products.
Could someone flesh it out a bit more? Hyperbolic praise of whichever Air[fillinblank] product while doing it is perfectly OK; I'm just looking for a summary version of why they are supposed to be so much better.