Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 18th Oct 2010 16:00 UTC
An interesting discussion is currently raging through the world of computing, or more accurately, through the world of bloggers and analysts. It basically comes down to this: should the iPad be included in laptop and desktop sales figures? If it is included - Apple becomes the largest PC manufacturer in the United States. But, if the iPad should be included - why not the modern smartphone?
Thread beginning with comment 445562
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[2]: It cannot be included
by M.Onty on Mon 18th Oct 2010 19:23
in reply to "RE: It cannot be included"
Member since:2009-10-23
RE[2]: It cannot be included
by Drumhellar on Mon 18th Oct 2010 19:26
in reply to "RE: It cannot be included"
Member since:2005-07-12
In all fairness, optical drives are standard on desktops/laptops, and to have a system without them is quite uncommon. Any system without an optical drive, I would consider special-purpose, and possibly not a PC.
However, currently, optical drives are not optional on an iPad.
There is also no standard way to operate an FTP server or run Flash on an iPad. It requires jailbreaking, which may void the warranty.
RE[3]: It cannot be included
by Bill Shooter of Bul on Mon 18th Oct 2010 19:41
in reply to "RE[2]: It cannot be included"
Member since:2006-07-14
No they're pretty common around these parts. I've had quite a few non technical friends buy them by accident.
In January, Apple may announce an external optical drive for the ipad. Does it automatically retroactively become a PC then?
While some designations are going to be arbitrary ( see the campaign for and against pluto's planet hood), you have to at least use reasonable methods to come to the arbitrary designations.
Edited 2010-10-18 19:43 UTC
RE[3]: It cannot be included
by aesiamun on Mon 18th Oct 2010 19:45
in reply to "RE[2]: It cannot be included"
Member since:2005-06-29
RE[3]: It cannot be included
by WereCatf on Mon 18th Oct 2010 19:47
in reply to "RE[2]: It cannot be included"
Member since:2006-02-15
optical drives are standard on desktops/laptops, and to have a system without them is quite uncommon.
Atleast in Finland laptop systems without optical drives are becoming more and more common. Are they not PCs then?
There is also no standard way to operate an FTP server or run Flash on an iPad. It requires jailbreaking, which may void the warranty.
Neither of those things were standard from the get-go. Trying to argue that because one or another specific application is common nowadays and that only those systems which can run it are PCs is a really long stretch. Voiding or not voiding warranty has nothing to do with a device being PC or not.
RE[3]: It cannot be included
by jgagnon on Mon 18th Oct 2010 19:49
in reply to "RE[2]: It cannot be included"
Member since:2008-06-24
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
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."More News »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2006-02-15
Can I rip DVDs with an iPad?
You can't do that either with any laptop without an optical drive, and those are quite common nowadays. Yet you still call them PCs, don't you?
Can I rip CDs?
Look at reply #1.
Can I play either of them?
Look at reply #1.
Heck, you can't even get media onto it without a REAL PC
How do you get media onto a "REAL PC" if it doesn't have removable media drives? Well, the same way as onto an iPad: from another PC or from random websites.
Can it run an FTP server?
Yes, if someone bothered to write an FTP server for it.
Can it run flash?
Yes, if Flash was ported to it.
Can it burn disks?
Can any other PC without optical disk drives burn disks?
Can I mirror a web server with it?
If someone wrote such an application for it.
Can I remote into my PCs and vice versa?
Yes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x58K4fA9wXI
it cannot do 3800 things I do every day and that includes all typical everyday PC tasks.
Oh, those examples of yours that just got crushed to pieces?