Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 8th Jan 2013 23:27 UTC
So, a rudimentary jailbreak for Windows RT made its way onto the web these past few days. Open source applications were ported right away, and it was confirmed that Windows RT is the full Windows - it's exactly the same as regular Windows, except that it runs on ARM. Microsoft responded to the jailbreak as well.
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Member since:2007-04-18
No one who has experience using a Surface tablet and an Android tablet would describe the Android experience (Nexus) as fluid or elegant, out of the box.
I've both an iPad 3 and a Nexus 7 and I seriously don't see any difference in interface fluidity. Nevertheless, suppose what you're saying on fluidity is real (and "elegant" is a subjective measure), let's keep in mind that the Betamax was also technically superior. But ultimately it didn't count. Being a little better at some things isn't going to get you any converts. You have to be a lot better, or be able to do something the other guys just plain cannot do at all.
So i would not recommend Android to anyone who (needed) to ask about what tablet to get.
If you're basing your recommendations purely on interface reaction times and subjective impressions of design instead of than real usability, I suspect you might be viewing your computing devices more as fashion accessories, rather than tools of utility.
So in all, you have yet to present a case why people should buy into a product that is, arguably, marginally better at UI presentation while being more expensive and unambiguously less useful (less software available). Doesn't sound like a winner to me...
Member since:2009-03-17
Both experiences suck; Android in tablets/controvertibles is "meh" at best. And Microsoft's RT is the definition of schizophrenic by dropping users back and forth the metro/desktop modes.
Microsoft is in a tight spot in the tablet/mobile space: from a cost perspective RT is not as attractive to OEMs as Android is. Whereas for end users RT does not have anywhere near the already established app/media ecosystem of the iPad. MS is left with their main value proposition for their tablets being a half assed port of Office, which it's a feature only a few tablet users demand.
Edited 2013-01-10 08:31 UTC
Member since:2012-06-22
On the other hand, the problem with Surface is the high price. Microsoft seen as missing in action at the $200 level.
Even at $200 I would still recommend the iPad mini for the typical user. It would still be worth the $130 premium due to the software library. I also think the Kindle/Nook tablets are a better offering as well.
Surface RT is just a bad idea. They're basically trying to sell Office Junior plus IE all while pissing off Windows developers by discarding the APIs they built up over the last 10 years.
What they need to do is bury all these bad ideas and pretend the Sinofsky era never existed.
Member since:2005-07-11
"On the other hand, the problem with Surface is the high price. Microsoft seen as missing in action at the $200 level.
Even at $200 I would still recommend the iPad mini for the typical user. It would still be worth the $130 premium due to the software library. I also think the Kindle/Nook tablets are a better offering as well.
Surface RT is just a bad idea. They're basically trying to sell Office Junior plus IE all while pissing off Windows developers by discarding the APIs they built up over the last 10 years.
What they need to do is bury all these bad ideas and pretend the Sinofsky era never existed. "
I have real world experience of this. the idea was to give a tablet to a relative very unexperienced in tech, primarily for communications skype + some plus. I rapidly discovered:
* how chaotic whole Android UI system is. while people talk about a the metro/desktop split. i find android to have a about 7 - 8 such splits.
* surface rt's metro UI (simple) / desktop (complex) split is more of a phantom problem. surface is very easy to navigate. however it was out of the question to give someone totally tech naieve something that expensive for Skype + plus reading.
* iPad is simpler than surface Rt and easy to navigate. But again the price is too high
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:
2005-07-11
No one who has experience using a Surface tablet and an Android tablet would describe the Android experience (Nexus) as fluid or elegant, out of the box.
Of course it could be more so with customisations.
So i would not recommend Android to anyone who (needed) to ask about what tablet to get.
On the other hand, the problem with Surface is the high price. Microsoft seen as missing in action at the $200 level.
Edited 2013-01-09 19:31 UTC