Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 24th Sep 2012 22:34 UTC
It's going to be a rough month for what was once one of the most successful smartphone companies in the world. Between all the Android and iOS violence, it's easy to forget there's this Canadian company which was still growing its userbase every month. However, it's expected the company will lose subscribers for the very first time.
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RE[9]: Comment by NuxRo
by Laurence on Wed 26th Sep 2012 07:05
in reply to "RE[8]: Comment by NuxRo"
Member since:2007-03-26
I just object against the notion that because they use an Android based phone Android's security is top notch and the iPhone's thus isn't.
That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. I objected with the bit where you accuse the government of only engineering bespoke phones so they can spy on their employees. That claim is completely baseless.
I recently spoke with my Dell account manager and he told me they didn't sell any tablets or phones anymore and when they did even he told customers not to buy them, because they were that bad. But apparently they sell them in the U.S.
You're comparing apples to oranges there as the DOJ phones aren't the same handsets as the consumer devices.
Considering no one buys these phones when you do see someone using one (s)he statistically has a high probability of being an important government type.
True, but there's far easier ways to find out if someone is an important government type than trying to extrapolate the statistical probability based on their preferred mobile phone.
I can understand why the point you're making about Apple. But you're over compensating by spreading FUD about a Dell handset you've never seen - much less have any idea about.
RE[10]: Comment by NuxRo
by MOS6510 on Wed 26th Sep 2012 08:11
in reply to "RE[9]: Comment by NuxRo"
Member since:2011-05-12
I'm not spreading FUD, because that would make no sense regarding government issued Dell phones. It's not like you can buy these yourself.
We know one fact: government Dell phones are modified security wise.
From this you can make some logical assumptions:
* They want to be able to get to the data on it
* They want to know where it is in case nobody does (like when someone goes missing, loses his phone or if it's stolen)
* They want to remote lock or wipe it
* What you can install on it is probably restricted
And there is nothing weird, strange or creepy about this. You can do this also with BlackBerries and iPhones, but the government wants to totally control this process and not want to be unable to wipe an iPhone because Apple is upgrading its servers. Nor do they want RIM, Apple or anyone else to have any data which hackers can get access to. They want to secure stuff themselves.
News
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.
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.More News »
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Member since:
2011-05-12
There is nothing unreasonable about DOJ and their Dell phones, I just object against the notion that because they use an Android based phone Android's security is top notch and the iPhone's thus isn't.
I recently spoke with my Dell account manager and he told me they didn't sell any tablets or phones anymore and when they did even he told customers not to buy them, because they were that bad. But apparently they sell them in the U.S.
Considering no one buys these phones when you do see someone using one (s)he statistically has a high probability of being an important government type.