Disqus - Latest Comments for ratty

Re: At last! A serious flaw in Apple's iPhone SDK launch!

ratty — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:31:51 -0000

I think this was pretty well covered in the launch... I think if you were paying attention then the SDK is currently in BETA and therefore not that many people who HAVE applied have actually achieved status of developer.

Anyone can download the SDK and can develop stuff using the iphone emulator that comes with the dev kit.

Apart from which if you wanted to moan about the SDK there were other, lower hanging fruit, you could have picked on. Once it is out of Beta this ain't gonna be an issue.

Re: At last! A serious flaw in Apple's iPhone SDK launch!

ratty — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:33:29 -0000

If you want to develop for a company then it is 299 dollars and then Apple will set up a closed store on iTunes that only you and your company have access to.

Re: Craig Hockenberry on the iPhone battery life issue

ratty — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:12:45 -0000

Ian,

Congratulations for spinning a really positive article about the functionality of the iPhone / iPod Touch into the usual FUD FUD FUD from the companies who really wish that the iPhone didn't exist. He does actually explain in the article if you didn't cherry pick that you can pretty much achieve the same things by following Apple's guidelines...

Re: Craig Hockenberry on the iPhone battery life issue

ratty — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:15:40 -0000

I'll bite.

I didn't imply that you were in the pay of anyone - and I have been reading both this blog and the old version for quite some time.

What I was objecting to was that you had taken what I read as a fair and balanced coverage of programming for the iPhone by someone who actually knows what he is talking about and cherry picked a headline for hits.

What he did say was...

"Twitterrific on the iPhone could definitely make use of a background process to gather new tweets. In fact, a prototype version of the software did just that. And it was a huge design failure: after doing XML queries every 5 minutes, the phone’s battery was almost dead after 4 hours. In fact, the first thing I said after giving Gruber this test version was “don’t use auto-refresh."

I am pretty sure that he meant it was a design failure with his software and not the iPhone as he goes on to say:

"Some have stated that Apple is limiting innovation. My opinion is that they are helping us from collectively shooting ourselves in the feet."

Re: Craig Hockenberry on the iPhone battery life issue

ratty — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:02:38 -0000

I actually think that he was warning programmers not to do that. IE if everyone writes software which does a variation of this then the calls will soon escalate to the point of unusability.

I think he was also heading off the standard responses of "But I'll be good 'cause I know what I am doing Apple, honest" with his:

"And right about now, you’re thinking “But I’ll be smart about how I use the hardware.” Sorry, bucko, but you’re the exact reason why we don’t have background processing in the current SDK. You’re living in your own little dream world."

Basically his article was saying that he's pretty certain that Apple will add functionality to make a call that will work like this but let the system manage the actual calls.

REMEMBER: The SDK is in beta. That means the people who get to work with it can report these things and Apple will develop the SDK along with the hardware.

Re: iPhone, its crappy camera, and a quick comparison with the LG KU990 Viewty

ratty — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:40:59 -0000

Based on a quick search the phone you mention is twice the price of the iphone..

Re: iPhone, its crappy camera, and a quick comparison with the LG KU990 Viewty

ratty — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:47:26 -0000

Ian, your responses seem to be "I am right and you are wrong". Over here in the states you HAVE to pay for it.

Re: Are Apple machines really overpriced?

ratty — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:54:54 -0000

The Dell has taken them like 3 years to get together since Apple released the Mac mini - which is a pretty long in the tooth machine these days.

Re: New Mac Ads Get Seinfeldian On Microsoft

ratty — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:33:10 -0000

"The irony, of course, is that outside of the initial “I’m a Mac” line, both spots largely avoided any actual Mac references themselves. One also wonders how much money Apple is paying for its own advertising efforts, since it’s bringing the subject up."

There is no irony here. The fact was the Microsoft led their campaign with the amount of money they were going to spend on it and how much they were paying Seinfeld. It's not the fact that Microsoft are spending lots on the campaign but the fact that THAT was what they used to grab headlines BEFORE the campaign started. Apple tend to keep their marketing budget to their accounts and not try and use it as publicity in its own right.

Re: Microsoft aims to steal Apple’s flame in mobile music biz

ratty — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:01:47 -0000

The thing is that the only way Microsoft can do this is to basically say to their partners "Come with us and you can all have a slice of the cake, you haven't done a deal with over the air downloads with Apple so don't and you handset manufacturers and you carriers can continue to charge like 3 bucks a pop for downloading music to your phone and we'll throw a spanner into the wheels of the iTunes monopoly for you"

The issue really is that all they can do at the moment is posture. Microsoft supposedly OWNED the smart mobile phone market. They've been working on it for like 10 years now and were basically shafted by Apple when the iPhone came out.

"Still, Microsoft has got a long way to go. But if they can cook up something that would put Apple’s iTunes and the iTunes Wi-Fi music store to shame, as well as everything else out there, I don’t doubt that the only way to go for them would be up."

The problem is Microsoft have had plenty of time to do this and have failed at every attempt. Microsoft do not know what the public wants. The business side of things Microsoft ONLY survives on inertia and reliance that all those MS trained technicians will continue to suggest Microsoft because it keeps them in a job. Microsoft come up with a list of features and just keeps adding them until they have a product. Apple basically think about what someone needs to do with a product first and then designs it around what is actually needed.

Apple's iTunes store uses money to buy products. Microsoft uses Microsoft point which leads to some insane currency conversion to calculate how much you are actually spending.

Do you see the difference?

Apple make things simple. Microsoft make things hard.

Re: Apple TV: Top 10 Reasons You Should Wait

ratty — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:40:01 -0000

FUD, FUD, FUD

So...

Can we have the Top 10 reasons not to buy an Xbox 360 or are you just a Microsoft plant?

Re: Microsoft Finally Finds a Lifestyle It Can Sell

ratty — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:27:46 -0000

@ Mark Blafkin

Pandora fulfills this and is free.

Re: A Personal Plea to Steve Jobs

ratty — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:19:28 -0000

Ego on a stick! Way to go Joe.

Re: Apple accused of copycatting iPhone “Hello” ad

ratty — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:13:09 -0000

So...

Nothing like this then...

http://www.digibarn.com/digibarn-current-images...

or this then

http://www.theapplemuseum.com/images/content/hi...

Thing is new product launches from Apple have always been associated with the word "hello"... And I believe 1985 is a little earlier than 1995!

Re: iPhone vs Palm Pre: Why Apple Shouldn’t Worry

ratty — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:54:05 -0000

I have noticed that all the people who want to criticize Apple these days on blogs often start with "I could be considered and Apple fanboi but..."

Seems the message is if you are going to criticize Apple you must SOUND like you are a fan first and so people will believe you when you say Apple are crap. I think I preferred it when the anti fans and the astroturfers actually said what they actually thought without having to pre qualify it with this sort of rubbish.

To the astroturfers: yes we know you have to stay on message but guys try and keep away from this meme.

Re: iPhone vs Palm Pre: Why Apple Shouldn’t Worry

ratty — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:32:14 -0000

Well here is the issue.

If the iPhone was so "crap" (not having copy and paste) why did it sell? Put it this way, 20 million customers appear to be able to do without it. This is because a lot of the things you would do with cut and paste were built into the os - want to send a mate a link to a web page? Just press the plus and click the "mail link to this page button". It is all moot anyway as 3.0 has cut, copy, paste built in. But I am sure a person like you will find numerous other reasons not to get one.

Tool versus toy argument is going to fail soon too. As the newly opened up bluetooth / dock connection integration is going to make the iPhone / iPod Touch a general controller for a lot of serious applications.

The pre apps are very similar to the original web based apps that the iPhone ran from OS 1. Here they are a "fantastic" solution on the iPhone everyone said "this will never work".

Re: iPhone vs Palm Pre: Why Apple Shouldn’t Worry

ratty — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:51:42 -0000

"10% of smartphone sales."

Indeed but they were aiming for 1% of phones sales - they are now at 2% so not very good at forecasting really.

I am interested in your "conversion" Matt. The people I know who have switched have done so firstly because the new machines allow people to run Windows in either emulation mode or completely through Boot Camp. Ironically I have found it odd for several reasons.

Firstly after about 3 months they have found Mac software that can replace the stuff they were dependent on in Windows. For the few that remain stuff like Crossover allows them to run the essential apps that they run in WIndows.

Secondly they are the most vociferous OSX users, obviously you don't fall into this category, but I am just reporting what has occurred to the people who have switched that I know.

So the question I am asking is are you a Windows user who is "putting up" with being on a Mac or are you interested in using the Mac for it's own sake?

The main issue I see with the Palm is that does it do what it says on the tin? I mean there are lots of videos out there of it being used but nothing as of yet by real people, not by marketeers. I want to see what the Palm is like in real world example. Remember the Storm? How it was going to be the "iPhone Killer"? The videos looked fantastic. Unfortunately when it hit people realized how bad it actually was.

These days Palm is being credited for "sticking it to Apple". Problem is that they seem to have generated a list of things that the iPhone doesn't do and ticked all the boxes that Apple didn't hit. The problem as I see it is that this is tick box marketing. After all, Windows Mobile, on paper, has a spec that far exceeds the iPhone but the problem actually occurs when people come to use it. It doesn't "work". I mean it "works" but the issue is that if you don't have geek credentials it makes it very hard to actually achieve anything.

The palm WebOS emulators look fantastic again, but you are emulating what it is going to do. This leads to two misconceptions. Firstly will it actually work on the processor in the box as it does in the emulator? Secondly you are running this on a desktop machine, how does it work on the battery device you are going to be running it on?

The Jury is still out. But I think not having copy and paste is the least of the reasons for not buying an iPhone.

Re: Microsoft COO: Vista and Windows 7 Safer Than Mac

ratty — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:17:24 -0000

I don't know about safer... BUT it is definitely much more annoying when trying to install software updates.

Re: Who is cheap and expensive at the same time?? Apple!

ratty — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:42:16 -0000

"Apple has as big an advertising budget as any other company you know. And most of it is used to mock Microsoft and Vista, instead of marketing OS X features in the ‘Get a Mac’ ads."

True. But unlike Microsoft they didn't promote their campaign by telling the world how much they were going to spend. It was really the 300 million that led the marketing campaign along with how much they were going to spend on Jerry Seinfeld that led the promotion before the campaign started.

"The few Windows applications made by Apple such as Quicktime, iTunes and Safari are pathetic, buggy and crapware."

Interesting that they seem to break with every MS update.

"While, Vista is the first of its kind."

Not helped by Microsoft attempting to sell 97 different versions. OSX sells 2. Client and Server. OSX runs 32 bit and 64 bit out of the box depends only on what machine you are running it on.

"But the issues and shortcomings, and not to forget the lack of simple basic features of the mighty phone are well known to everyone. But does Apple fix them?"
Well they do actually. Cut and Paste will come - probably in the next update - remember that most people who get winmo phones don't get to update the firmware. A lot of improvements were made between V1 and V2 and V2 and V2.1 - but then again as a MS shill you choose to ignore that. BTW why pay your service provider to send MMS when you can do all that in an email?

"How about the insanely expensive iBricks Macbooks?"
When you get a similarly spec'd high end pc from Sony or HP or Dell - you end up paying MUCH THE SAME.

Re: Who is cheap and expensive at the same time?? Apple!

ratty — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:17:32 -0000

"I have no idea how you can hold that against MS."
I'm not. What I am doing is explaining why Apple took this tack. Microsoft created a buzz for their campaign before they released anything by telling everyone how much they were going to spend. This is what the ad is complaining about.

"Funny, which update are you referring to? Oh wait, maybe Microsoft purposely code their OS so that only Apple’s apps break. Yes, that makes perfect sense to the iCabal."
Microsoft have been a bit better about it recently... But lot's of things magically "break" just after MS release new things that do the same stuff... Let's see how long Flash has now that Silverlight has been released.

You are aware of the early days when quicktime stopped working? It is well documented that it specifically done to stop Apple getting any kind of inroads into Windows. Oh and can you explain away the code that was lifted from Apple's quicktime that appeared in the early releases of Windows Video - including the comments?

"Maybe, if Apple would gather courage and go beyond their closed wall, where there aren’t just a few types of all computers, but a million different configs of PCs. And making many versions to support them all, including low end and high end doesn’t sound stupid."

Hmmm "closed wall" - are you sure your NOT a shill for MS? BUT that is NOT what Microsoft are doing with the different versions of Vista. There is no rationalization between the different versions of Vista other than from an accounting point of view. Don't you find it strange that the HOME version of Vista is being mostly used in offices now?

"Oh wait, Vista has problems you say? They will be fixed, probably in the next update. And WinMo phone don’t get to update their firmware? Where do you live? Antartica?"
I didn't say Vista has problems other than the confusopoly approach to marketing a product as favored by large corporations.

Winmo has had a VERY long time to get it right and is now only just responding to what the iPhone has done. (when I say only NOW - I mean the winmo 7 stuff that was promoted heavily in screen shots just after the iphone announcements.) Microsoft just love to market stuff by saying "Don't look at that... Look at this - it will be just as good and we're releasing it soon... Real soon... and it will have Office compatibility..."

Re: Who is cheap and expensive at the same time?? Apple!

ratty — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:18:35 -0000

Like to explain ANYTHING about the Jerry Seinfeld Campaign that meant ANYTHING?

And while you are at it - have a go at the I'm A PC stuff too...

Re: Who is cheap and expensive at the same time?? Apple!

ratty — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:57:14 -0000

“When you get a similarly spec’d high end pc from Sony or HP or Dell - you end up paying MUCH THE SAME.”
This statement is FALSE!

OK.

"I priced a 15” MacBook Pro that had the same Intel chip, same amount of RAM, and same Nvidia graphics card as the HP. The cost of the MacBook Pro was $2,499.00."

K. fine for you can you provide the SPEC of the machine you spec'd at HP and we'll do a comparison?

I’m not sure where you went to school, but at my school, that is a difference of $699.00. I’m also not sure what you would consider“MUCH THE SAME” price. I would consider this a huge difference, considering I would be getting a similar platform with added features that aren’t even available on the Apple if I purchased the HP. Plus, I would have enough in the difference price to purchase a decent second laptop."

Ya but by doing this firstly you probably used APPLE's web site prices to get the price on the RAM - that is an "easy" kill on HP's part. 3rd Party Ram is how Apple guys actually buy RAM.

But let's try the following (and don't hit me with the "Apple iz Evil" thing) my Mac can run linux, any version of Windows AND er, OSX for the same money. Your HP can't.

"I just spec’d out an HP HDX 16t premium series laptop. Features included a Blu-Ray drive, built in HD TV tuner, and HDMI output. None of these options is even available on a MacBook Pro. The HP had a 16” screen and the cost for this custom-built laptop was just under $1,800.00."

As you say - none of these things are available on the Macbook. So wonder why that is? Let's think?
Blu ray - Steve said "whole bag of pain" well what that translates as is that Apple have decided that the DRM overhead in the operating system isn't worth the hassle for people to have to access it. Some of Vista's problems are based on Microsoft's willingness to bend over when service providers want them too. NOW let's think that train of thought though shall we? Microsoft thinks that bending over for the content providers is fine for the end user. Well whoopie do. Good for them. I think I'd prefer my OS to be NOT infected with such measures TBH. But then again YMMV. The HD TV tuner is nice I grant you that but once you have DRM you can do what you like - heaven forbid that someone revokes YOUR rights to watch your material but hey enjoy it while you can - and are allowed.

HDMI, well now there is a step forward in technology. Have you ever wondered WHY your HDMI feed to your television takes so fucking long to work? Well that would be the bit where the TV and the source material has a discussion as to whether it should actually allow you to watch the material you want to watch with the technology you own.

Mircosoft is the devil and it really, really, really wanted to have plays for sure technology running on everything. It really really really wants you to own stuff - AS LONG AS you keep paying Mircosoft on a monthly basis to keep owning stuff you have paid for.

Look, grats man on getting such a bargain. Good for you. But you know what? I'd rather pay for stuff and own it rather than giving Microsoft money on a monthly basis to pay a tithe to access stuff I paid for. I bought an XBOX and you know it is quite good BUT fuck it if I am going to pay Microsoft ANYTHING to allow me to access the thing over the internet.

When are you guys going to wake up and realize that you have SOLD YOUR SOULS? Don you are a twat.

Re: Amazon's MP3 Store, One Year In: No iTunes Killer; Probably Won't Be

ratty — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:59:35 -0000

@ Mac Beach (very droll)

"Apple has certainly done some interesting things, but of the two, I think Amazon is the more interesting company."

Yes, that's why the Kindle is outselling the iPhone by how many? And don't tell me that they can't make enough.

So based on what you say one assumes you are a linux fanboy? Good for you - luckily the world isn't with you on this one and the first time Amazon actually does something that HASN'T been done before then maybe you might have a point.

hmmm.

Re: New Plan for TBWA \ Chiat \ Day – Greenwashing Apple Computers

ratty — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:42:13 -0000

Basically Apple refuses to pay the toll that environmental companies such as Greenpeace want them to pay. So for that they get slagged off and pissed on by the environmentalists. Interesting when companies like Dell, who give them plenty of money and lots of promises but actually no real movement towards the green get marked higher.

Re: Developers Continue To Be Sensible; Focus Remains On Mass-Market Razr Over The iPhone

ratty — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:33:19 -0000

So, you ask the testing center for all devices except the iPhone as to what phones they test for and they say that they don't test for the iPhone?

You are asking the wrong question...

Generally what they are saying here is that most of the Apps developed for the iPhone aren't going through them for testing.

Do the math... How many Apps have been developed for the iPhone since the release of the V.2 software in July? That would be 10,000. I don't think one company would have the resources to check that many along with the other phones out there. Also the companies most likely to request testing on their software are not going to be the ones that dev for the iPhone. You probably need anal does this software conform to "rb67.38d" certification management to do this level of testing.

So you are taking a press release from a company that does testing that it isn't getting enough testing for the iPhone work. This is like a software security company saying that the Mac is full of viruses and you should buy our software.

Sensible or not you can't take away the 300,000,000 apps shifted to date on the iTunes Apps store. This is a group of people staring at a Tsunami while it rolls towards them. Good Luck with that.

Re: Acer's Plan To Make Smartphones That Providers Can Give Away Free

ratty — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:51:08 -0000

Interesting. Have you noticed that these "free" phones are running Microsoft's OS and NOT the free Android stuff? Looks to me that Microsoft are attempting to poison the smartphone waters by making deals such as this to try and kill of competitors. Problem is that even free, they aren't going to be taken up by many, maybe some of the PAYG crowd - but one would suspect that the carriers would prefer a contract to give away phones - so not sure who these things are aimed up.

"Driving down the price and enabling operators to give the phones away free (on a contract) was the “surest way to drive adoption,” he said." Well Windows needs to do something to drive their woeful adoption but giving it away free? Is that enough? Might they actually start paying people to grab market share?

Re: Why Apple’s Success Makes No Sense To Me, and Why The Zune Breaks My Heart

ratty — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:54:17 -0000

"The Zune Pass is one of the giant elephants in Apple’s rooms that nobody seems to notice."

Oh it is noticed. But no one is particularly interested in that business model. IF Apple sees that others are gaining traction in that area then, I am sure, that they could turn a similar feature on. However for me stuff like Spotify which covers the same sort of area one-ups the Zune Pass, and er it is free.