Posts by Michael C

Whatever happened to the email app?

I'll get flamced for this, but

OS X Mail is a pretty good exchange client... Thats about your only choice atm.

try outlook 2010

It has a similar message threading system, and really cuts back on what you see in your inbox. It's still bloated as hell for a mail client, and dog slow, and it still has a lot of quirks to work out (not to mention its still a beta), but it;s not half bad.

Intel: Just 3,000 employees run Windows 7

ROFL

So, instead of buying a new PC, you simply replaced all of the components in it, some twice...

I do exactly the same thing with my gaming rig, a major overhaul about every 18 months. unfortunately, that does not work in businesses... The labor costs alone in paying someone to rebuild, re-image, test and put in production such systems would be half again simply buying a brand new rig.

not about the software

It's about:

1) salespeople with old n busted kit don't come off as impressive (especially those that work for a tech firm)

2) kit that breaks down is not acceptable to a road warrior

3) laptops on the run take lots more abuse than those that never leave the office

Working? yes but...

Maintaining compliance is a bear! This old of an OS, and getting apps, security tools, and more that work for it? not easy. More so, changing to a new OS allows for use of more modern management, backup, administration, patching, imaging, and deployment tools. the time saved in IT by supporting a modern OS is a wash for the cost of replacing the old kit in just a year.

We're planning our own XP to 7 migration here this year. I can tell you why right quickly its been such a hot debate whether or not to move forward: Once the migration is complete, with the added efficiencies of the new deployment tools and monitoring systems, more than half our help desk and workstation support/deployment folks will loose their jobs. They know this, and they're heavily resisting, including putting forward false or exaggerated numbers. Each employee we eliminate is worth about 300-400 desktops over the course of 3 years. We have about 15,000 desktops. Software costs remain the same.

Yup, contract costs

We're required by federal contracts to have supported hardware, OS, and software in most of our systems. After year 3, those costs rise ridiculously.

For example, the monthly cost of support on just one Power4 AIX system I'm in the process of replacing is more than double the support cost of a system I'm deploying to virtualize 12 such systems into VIO. By replacing 6 of these server chassis, the entire new hardware solution is paid for in less than 2.5 years. The extra capacity will be used for other apps and for test systems and is essentially free. We're literally getting twice the hardware, brand new, for less money than keeping the existing one in production, and that doesn't even count soft costs like the power and cooling savings.

Apple is suing HTC

mostlt hardware stuff

Next time, please actually read some data before spouting out "Presumably its something to do with MultiTouch" since if you checked, not one of the 20 is. Its all about hardware level stuff, and some simple GUI patents. Personally, I feel a few are too general, and will likely get slapped down, but most are quite specific, and will hold very strong in court, and that should be enough for HTC to step back and cross license.

Forgot your ThinkPad password? Get new hardware

Nothin New

...and its not only Lenovo. HP was doing this for years (and still is).

If you set this password (encrypt your system), there is not a simple undo. This was done not for Levovo's "security concerns" but because if it could be undone at all, the governments of the world would not buy their machines, period.

What good is security to a government if the vendor can wave a magic want an unencrypt the firmware password on any machine they want, instantly making those machines USB bootable and thus crackable.

...and how does Lenovo perform this trick btw, even if they had a tool? Oh, by letting you DOWNLOAD the tool? Great, so every hacking in the entire world can unlock any Lenovo machine. Yea, that would have made the entire idea worth it. Now the only people who could not get into their machines who want to are consumers, but all the hackers can? Might as well lock the machine with a DRM key... it's just as secure as soon as there's a tool.

No, Lenovo offers no tool because they CAN'T offer a tool. Even if one existed in-house it's a huge security risk not just for their customers, but for their potential sales to any government or business who insists on completely lockable hardware.

Years ago when I worked for a reseller, we explicitly told customers "if you turn this on, and forget this password, you're well and fucked, so don't forget it." The Bios itself gives such a warning when you go to turn it on.

Jobs: I'll decide what to do with Apple's $40bn cash pile

good theory

Well, at least until they have to report taxes, it;s possible, but sooner or later the SEC asks to see the books... :)

iPad and smartphone rootkits demo'd by boffins

Lemme get this straight...

We've identified a risk that:

should someone get a root kit onto your iPhone OS device (which requires physical access, or doing something dumb like running open SSH without a unique password),

then someone could send a custom formatted text message like a blank message (which AT&T knows about and openly blocks malformed messages used for such, so the signal would have to come from a hacked SMS transmitter, not the carrier network itself),

for which they'd need to know your phone number in the first place, and have a server/deviec ready to receive the call, so obviously this isn't useful for a mass hack or botnet,

they could make your phone do simple thing like place a call (which could be traced, and which would show up in logs and call history), or enable background hardware (without a foreground app? this is at best a theory and has yet to be demonstrated as even possible).

So, if I let someone hack my device, have not synced it recently with a PC (firmware version check), someone knows my number, and sends a signal through another hacked device, then they can possibly drain my battery, or have the device make a call or send data to a traceable system. Gee, sounds like a horrible risk to me, especially since the only part demonstrated is getting a manually rootkitted device to respond to a simple signal, but they didn't actually do anything with the firmware outside of that because even still, the root kit itself is limited to the proper use of Apple's internal function calls and security model, and everything else, including how to actually get a rootkit in there in the first place, is still a thory?

Exactly

So the idea is, that if someone theoretically gets past the FIRST hurdle (actually getting a root kit on your phone without first stealing it), then it;s possible that if it was running (can't run in the background), it might respond to a signal that the carried already blocks in their network (blank or malformed SMS messages), and even then they'd have to know your phone number.

Yea, nothing to see here... The author knew it had "Apple" and iPhone" in the title, so we knew we'd get advertising hits, and they threw in iPad for good measure even though the article didn't mention it (since the attack vector is SMS, which the iPad doesn't have support for!!!)

Apple to take iPad orders this week?

No imagination

You spend a lot of time finding faults, but you have failed to grasp it's simple and elegent place in your life, and why it will be extremely popular with the masses:

1) You won't use it as a phone, primarily, but when you're using it, and the phone (or VoIP) is ringing, its linked via bluetooth, and you simple pick up by clicking on screen instead of having to get up and get the phone. Its convennience. Also with a bluetooth camera, its a great video chat platform (and yes, it DOES do video chat, it's all there in the SDK).

2) Surfing you can do on a netbook sure, but you have to wait for it to boot up and conenct to a network, where the iPad is ALWAYS ON. If you don't have free wifi (most of us have at best limited access, especially when driving around, and wifi is banned in our business network for security reasons) then you can not beat $29 a month for unlimited access (or $14 for 250mb), especially without a contract being required. Also, surfing via touch is far superior to surfing with a microscopic trackpad on a netbook. Finally, portrait mode? Your netbook can't do that, and your portable devices can't surf the web properly, not even an iPhone is useful for more than a casual lookup of something important.

3) Skype is free on this too, as are all your chat and VoIP aps, and M$ has already admitted to developing messenger and Microsoft Live too.

4) This is not for taking photos, it's about MANAGING photos. Sync to your camera into iPhoto, sort, catalog, etc. $20 photoframes? seriously, even if you could find one, they're not 10" and photoframes are not wireless, don't share photos, don't integrate to weh sites, and don;t get passed around a table, hell most don't work without a wall wort. However, this is not even a top feature of the iPad, it;s a gimmick, and one noone but you mentioned as a strength o target of the device.

5) Media player? So all your gadgets to 720P or higher output to a TV? (The iPad actually supports 1080p, we're simply waiting on the announcement of a wireless HDMI Dock adapter...) I know your netbook either doesn't do 720p at all (probably can't even do 480p in h.264), and if it does, well, there's no netbook on the market capable under $500 today.... Plus, can you hang your notebook from the back of a car steat to use as a movile video platform? no. Will it play videos over WiFi for 10 hours on a charge? no. Will it play any of your iTunes TV purchases (or any other encrypted video from ANYONE in HD quality), no. The iPad is simply a premium platform in this class, nothing touches it in this category alone for less money. Oh, and the iPad conencts to your stereo via A2DP as well, so no wires in the car...

6) emails? For the occasional message, and a quick reply, a blackberry or iPhone works fine, sure. Gotta deal with a mass of messages, long or complex replies, HTML based e-mail responses, embedded couments, then you need a real email clinet. Managing your inbox and lots of lessages as well? a real pain to do on a mobile platform. The iPad has a great visual, touch enabled e-mail client. I think i'll be doing more e-mail on it than I do in Outlook...

Wow factor, pity, other negative comments? Thanks for indicating your level of maturity for us.

and with all this chatter and FUD, you missed the big points:

A) Document editing, with a full office suite, including performing presentations, all on your companion PC device without having to whip out, boot up, and deal with your PC

B) synced through the cloud. Yes, netbooks can do this too, but few other device types can

C) instant gratification. Need to look something up, and have to wait 2 minutes to get a browser open and connected, is a problem. Sitting in fron of the TV with the iPad handy I copuld look anything up in seconds, and never no have the answer that ends an argument before it begins again. This device will save my marriage!

D) It's always on, allways receiving notifications. Your netbook doesn't do that, even your multitasking phone has trouble doing it properly (and your blackberry is lucky to get e-mail and text, let alone VoIP, Chat, facebook, and other notifications).

E) Its hermetically sealed, unlike a netbook, which means its a durable outdoor device, perfect for beaches, doesn't mind the rain, etc. Put a hard case on it, and its the equivalent of a toughbook tablet, for about $1500 less.

F) NO MAINTENANCE REQUIRED. It takes care of itself outide of the occasional OS update, which happens with a simple sync. No backups to do, no patches to install, no antivirus to worry about. I don;t want a desktop AND a netbook because then I have twice the effort in maintenance and troubleshooting. I want a simple device that does what a netbook does without bothering me!

G) SOFTWARE LICENSING. A netbook that runs a desktop OS (poorly) requires desktop licenses. I need Office on my netbook, and my PC. I don't want to buy it TWICE for $349. Nor do i want to do that with all the other software I require on a netbook, of which the iPad comes with most of it for free and the rest are only $1-10 licenses away, licenses which work uon up to 25 devices in my home (up to 5 PCs, each with up to 5 registered devices).

H) It replaces any need i have for en e-periodical reader. Comics, books, magazines, newspapers, all in either portrait or landscape, and accessed via a fluid look and feel of a touch system.

I) Games, glorious 3D games, better than you can get on a PSP or DS, even better than the PS2 in many cases, also all on the ssame device, and it will play for hours on end without a charge.

Here's my use case:

While the wife's watching something I could care less about, I can be using the iPad to watch TV on my own, in a quality resolution. I can instanty switch to the web, and the whole time i'm connected and getting e-mail and messages. The phone can live in its carger, instead of bothering me on my hip, and I can take calls on-screen when i feel likel it. I can look up things for the wife, edit the grocery list, read a book (or comic), and all on the same device. It;s a single device, not a collection of them, to do all these things and more. As software is released, it will be even more powerful. ...then there's OS 4.

ergonomics

because a netbookl doesn't do portrait, only landscape. nuff said. Also, the iPad is hermetically sealed, unlike a netbook (and even a newspaper). get it dirty all you want, just wipe it clean...

It's is also NOT a tablet. A tablet is a $1,000 full fledged PC, ($1700 if it can do h.264 decoding). It requires expensive software and constant maintenance, and less than 5% of the apps made for it are even touch aware, let alone the OS itself...

This is a COMPANION COMPUTING DEVICE. It is not MEANT to replace your netbook (though it might as well, given the anemic performance of what people call one, and after you buy Office for it they're way more expensive than an iPad), it's designed to compliment both your PC and your phone. It pairs with your phone for making/taking calls as well as doing VoIP calls, handles large amounts of e-mail beautifully, handles photos on the run, entertains the kids and you, hang easily from a car seat so the kids can watch video in the car withough buying a seperate system to handle that, and its the best ebook system i can imagine (I treid both the Kindle and Nook for more than a week each, e-ink sucks except in certain lighting conditions, i MUCH prefer my IPS MBP screen in both bright light and dim rooms...)

Experts reboot list of 25 most dangerous coding errors

Not as much as you think

Storing and registering code commits is easy, and most shops use code management tools like PVCS, Harvest, etc already. Small time devs don't, but would not agree to these terms without much increased fees. They're not interested in that type of application development.

Background checks are cheap. I do them for my tenants. most businesses already do this for employees. Even going further and getting C2 clearance certifications for each employee is only a few hundred bucks, and your devs are probably making $50-150K anually, so that's chump change.

Avoiding the most common, published mistakes? You should be doing that anyway. Yes, going through millions of lines of old code to find this is an issue, but new developments should be starting clean.

Devs who do "internal" work are likely doing that for external customers, and those customers can just as easily hold your internal devs to the same terms...

Development of this kind of code we're limiting here to applications that touch protected content, or open system level risks. macro's in word? We're relying on WORD to have a code base that itself prevents Macros from causing harm, so writing a bad macro should not be able to interfere with your system and this is not a concern, and does not require this effort. Further, we're talking about CONTRACTED development here. If you are being paid to write macros, you SHOULD be doing it right.

Writing good code, and doing good testing IS economical. it reduces tech support loads, eliminates dissatisfied customers, and avoids contract disputes and legal action when customers simple sue over "bad code" they commissioned to be written. If the contract does not have these specific terms, you can easily be sued, and if there are glaring errors, including these common industry accepted and published dangerous errors, you can easily be ruled incompetent, and that you produced a flawed product, and can be ordered to refun and pay legal fees, if not damages. Having these terms provides customer level of comfort, requires only minimal training for your devs, and no one said you have to include ALL the contract stipulations (like 3rd party code review).

what?

i know a LOT of coders. We employ about 600 of them, across 6 different development platforms in languages from COBOL to C to Java. A previous firm i worked for had about 10. I also worked for resellers and supported a number of coding shops.

Coders typically make well more than I do, and I'm not exactly underpaid... It's rare to find an "underpaid" coder.

Yes, some niche developers make poor wages, as do some guys in startup and small firms, and guys writing simply batch code. Most of those guys are also "starting" coders, who in 4-8 years will be making $60K+ given their experience. I started in IT making less than $20K a year too.

I also know very for coders who don't get vacation, and it's commonly held nowadays that lack of sleep make WORSE code. Well rested devs working 40 hours write more lines of complete code than thos who work 60+ hours... Most firms won't LET their coders work more than a set number of hours straight (though development emergencies sometimes override that in small firms).

"well trained?" we're not talking about complex math and rare algorithms here. We're talking about avoiding common, predictable mistakes. It's a simple few days of training, tops.

Management IS held responsible. If the devs push out bad code, and the company looses money, do you not think the investors will be looking at management for reasons why? management can't often read the code themselves, so all they can do is put in place people who can, and set up PROCESS for review. If that process fails, is it really some exec's fault, directly? No, it's a senior developer's problem. Commissioning code means "write something that does this" and has NOTHING to do with the internals of that code. it's not micromanagement.

Virtualisation and packaged applications

Virualization IS hardware redundancy

...but without cluster licensing in most cases, costing even less.

Look, if you're visualizing tier 3 or higher apps (apps typically load balanced, clusterd, in some other way highly available, or even that have fall back plans that don't require standing up a new server, like swinging a QA server into prod quickly as a backup), then you do NOT put them on a single piece of hardware.

A VMWare implementation should ALWAYS be at least 2 pieces of hardware, connected to redundant storage. Use of HA is ASSUMED in production environments. The exceptions being actual clusters (in which case you disable HA and simply home each node to a separate VMWare chassis).

Dedicated hardware is no diferent that hard provisioning, if you really feel the need, however, priority based dynamic provisioning is superior on most levels. (under heavy load, and with vSphere 4, hot add some additional CPU power to push through a heavy use period).

Also, lots of "package" apps don't take good advantage of multi threading. However, vSphere does, even for single-threaded apps, spreading load across multiple CPUs where the app itself can not, providing 50-300% more performance in a VM instance than on bare metal hardware!

VMWare is not what it used to be in version 2. It;s not just basic hardware visualization anymore, it's live dynamic partitioning, priority scaling, real-time fail over, fault tolerance not just HA, and not IO visualization as well, and thin app provisioning. Dynamically built whole systems based on templates you create, hot-add nodes on the fly, and more.

VMWare is becoming the CHOICE for highly available high performance production systems, not the choice for lab quality and low priority, easy to consolidate systems.

We have a about 550 VMWare guests today, and about 400 in z/VM. Our choice is basically determined based on software availability and the software license model (anything licensed by IFL or CPU that runs in Linux goes to the mainframe, anything licensed by guest or instance, and anything Windows-only goes in VMWare. ALL of our critical production systems are either in, or moving to a visualized platform. We're visualizing and thin provisioning our storage later this year, and we'll be doing full multi-site replication of guests and data by the end of next year for all tier 2 and higher apps.

Apple to stick padlocks on books for iPad

Agreed

Total fail on the author for not mentioning the DRM was optional for all publishers, and for selections from that publisher, and by default unless otherwise told, all works would be DRM free. The DRM is there for the paranoid publishers who think people would pirate their books so they'll actually join the service, however, small publishers, and authors against DRM, and unsigned authors (yes, you'll be able to essentially self publish, the same way small bands can get on iTunes, via an intermediary, and after spending a few bucks), likely they'll go DRM free.

Apple bans iPhone hackers from App Store

Keep this in mind

It;s not Apple on their own. There are clauses in the carrier contract requiring Apple, to the best of their ability, to stop people from interfering with the operation of the device on their networks. Lets point a little blame where blame is due; at the carriers for forcing locked devices in the first place and draconian militant policies on the device manufacturers, and on the media providers who won't allow their wares in online stores without proprietary, non-portable DRM.

Archos 9

iPad "equivalent" for Win 7???

Seriously?

- Is Win 7 or this Archos tablet always on? No.

- Is Win 7 instant on? No, about 2.5 minutes to boot on the processor...

- Is it touch optimize and designed? No.

- Will it support auto rotate? Possibly, though many apps have issues with this.

- Can you share licenses with your other PCs? No.

- Can I get 3G data without a contract for $29? No.

- Does it require near zero maintenance like an iPad? No.

- 1/2" in think? no.

- under 1.5lbs? No.

- 10+ hours watching video over wifi? No, just over 2 hours, with WiFi OFF.

- 30 days standby? well, yes likely, since it's not always on...

- 1024x768? Nope, only 1024x600.

- 720P h.264 decode support? Oh, sorry, no on the GMA... Can't even do 420p.

- GPU? Nope.

- Processor to compete with A4/2GHz snapdragon? Nope, Atom 1.1Ghz... especially with only 1GB RAM for Win7, ouch!

- 32GB storage? Nope, it;s 60GB drive has only 25GB free out of the box...

Other than it has a touchscreen, it seems Archos saved EVERY expense. It competes with an iPad in ZERO categories. It;s slower, bulkier, 1/5th the battery, not IPS, lower resolution, less storage, no native 3G, and to top it all off, MORE expensive. Most regular nebooks are faster, lighter, and cheaper. EPIC FAIL.

Putting an iPad through the Motions

Disinfected?

The iPad is hermetically sealed morons! You can do everything short of SOAK it in disinfectant and it will be fine. There's no buttons, riedges, etc to get in the way of a simple antibacterial polishing, even the screen is hard glass and can be easily cleaned.

WTF this guy from Motion talking about?

Is the iPad going to be used in environments where hard durability is a requirement? Probably not, but then again, with it's slim form factor, adding a near bulletproof casing to it, like the OtterBox ,is going to happen soon, and could make it easily as durable as a full fledged Toughbook that costs thousands.

iPhone must-have crowd inflates UK gadget insurance claims

Seriously misinformed FUD

C'Mon man, if you;re gonna make false claims, at least have a BS link to back it up.

I have an iPhone 2G that's over 2 years old, has been dropped enough times to have scratches and dings all around the metal, not a scratch on the screen, for which i don't even use a screen protector, and it's still getting 90% or better it's advertised battery life. My 3GS which was bought mere days after release is in pristine condition, and also gets 90+% of it's battery life. These things are near bullet proof, unless you torque the screen by sitting on it. No moving parts, hermetically sealed, solid metal construction, few build a hardier device, and I've never met ANYONE who argues that until you. The LiPo batteries that have 5000+ life cycle charges in the iPhones are far superior to the Li-Ion in most phones, and don;t have explosive risks either (2G had Li-Ion). Also, the connector ports are metal in-cased, not plastic, and you;re FAR less likely to damage it by dropping it with headphones or a charging cable attached.

I've had a number of PDAs and Smartphones. The Palm devices rarely lasted 18 months before needing warranty service. RIM were not much better. Any device with a removable battery would break the connector that held it in after a few hard drops and I'd need to buy a new one (not to mention ejecting the battery across the room/road). The keyboards would gum up and need cleaning regularly too.

I've owned and serviced a lot of Apple product. Short of common component failures beyond their control (A Western Digital HDD in a Mac is as likely to fail in a PC), they build with higher durability and quality from day 1, include heartier power supplies and superior motherboards that handle voltage irregularities better, and overall QUALITY is what Apple is KNOWN for.

Apple devices hold as much as 50% of their retail value 4 years in, and are priced nearly identical and often CHEAPER than competing class equipment; and currently undercut Dell's price in every model from the Mac Pro to the mini with the exception of the 17" MBP. No there's not $400 Mac, with good reason, NO ONE sells a machine with a GPU and this build quality at that price, not a single vendor. The "Mac Tax" has been a forgotten myth for years, and assholes like you refuse to accept that.

Apple's vs local store stocks

Apple DOES stock replacements and spare parts, and will replace an old model with an old model so long as there's a warranty. The difference with INSURANCE is THEY don't have access to Apple stock. They have to BUY you a new one (read the policy: comparable or newer replacement up to original value).

I've actually received written confirmation of 3rd party "insurance" terms from my insurer. I have 2 policies: 1 is loss/damage/theft rider on my homeowners policy; which has a $250 deductible per incident, covers items in my car, on my person, and anyone else with me. If something is lost/destroyed through NO ACTION of my own, I pay the first $250 and they replace everything, with comparable units, even if that means newer better models. This costs me about $40-50 a year. The other policy I buy per-device, and is a rider to the first policy. It costs about $30 per device, depending on the cost. This augments the policy for that device to include accidental and incidental damage. All i have to do is drop something, and they replace it, and the deductible is $100 instead of $250 for devices over $1,000 value, and $50 for devices under $1,000. I confirmed, in writing, I can literally destroy a device in anger, willfully, and they'll simply charge the deductible and replace it. Do that a bit too much and I risk rate changes and possible insurance termination, but it IS within my policy rights, and I have coverage this way. (never used it, btw, except for a car wreck where my car insurance didn't cover my laptop getting destroyed).

If the policy they're bitching about "fraud" with has an accidental/incidental coverage policy, it is NOT fraud, unless you lie about how it got destroyed.

Intel says warranties evaporate when kit resold

This is new? The is news?

If a warranty does not have a "transferable" clause, it's not transferable. Even in cases where it is, typically the original owner would have been required to register (many, many warranties are simply void if you fail to register, read the fine print...), and then before YOU can file a claim, you also have to process an official transfer of warranty (the person who buys it from you can not transfer the terms into their name, YOU have to process the transfer to them).

I buy products at BestBuy, with their extended warranty instead of the manufacturer's option in big part because it IS transferable, and also extensible usually by 1-2 years beyond it's initial term as well (I typically pay the $60-120 to add a 4th year to a PC/laptop warranty, and always pay the $20 to extend printers, in fact, I've not actually BOUGHT a printer from BestBuy in 9 years, they keep replacing them after they die under warranty, and I simply pay $29 to get a new warranty on the new printer, especially nice when it;s a top of the line $399 model). Apple's AppleCare plan is also transferable, if you actually contact Apple to change the registration information. Del;'s policy equally can be moved, though i don't know anyone who'd pay dell's price for a warranty when they could get one cheaper from BestBuy and get local service, and never have to call India for support.

Also, many PC components are not only not transferable, but the warranty only applies to the original system the part is installed in. Moving it from system to system causes "undue wear" or the "product is not meant to be handled more than to be installed" and terms in the warranty (though its almost impossible for a manufacturer to prove you did move it), are real.

Researchers rip iPad apart to reveal Apple's profits

exactly

parts cost + manufacturing cost certainly is not equal to actual cost. This is something the press keeps running with that no one gets, and iSuppli doens't help the matter.

This cost doers not include R&D, which likely cost Apple over 200m, if not a lot more considering this thing's been in development for more than a decade in multiple revisions and iterations. It does not account for logistics and supply concerns, warehouse storage, nor any FACILITIES costs for assembly (only labor estimates and component costs from 3rd parties are considdered). How about what apple spent on that A4 processor as well?

Then there's the fact that Apple's retail price has to account for them still making a profit when they sell these through 3rd parties, like BestBuy, MacMall, and Authorized resellers, who themselves would like to clear a fairly standard 10-20%. When apple sells direct, they've got people to pay that make that sale too, and that washes most of the difference between retail and wholesale prices.

Finally, there's warranty support costs. The people that answer apple's phones (or more regularly call you at a scheduled, convenient time so you don't have to wait on hold), also cost money.

If Apple clears, end over end, $50 per device, they'll be doing GREAT. Yes, the high end will reap a lot of profit, especially if that $130 3G connector price holds (I think that will drop to $79 real fast, and $50-100 come off the base model within 6 months).

Dell servers block un-Dell HDDs

Ditto

"a better stance might have been to allow third-party (meaning: non Dell tested) disks but under a blanket understanding that fitting a non-approved drive could void your maintenance contract."

This is exactly what IBM is in trouble for with their mainframes, refusing to allow the use of commodity or 3rd party components. Yes, they can refuse to SUPPORT your kit once you use a 3rd party piece with it, but they can not legally BLOCK you from using a part that meets the industry spec you advertise to support through a logo on the chassis.

HP, EMC, and Hitachi get away with this in their SAN systems be refusing to sell disk shelves that don;t come half or fully populated with drives. Dell has no such restriction, as Dell's storage is far from Enterprise class, and people who only need a basic RAID 5 of a couple TBs are not going to buy a fully populated rack shelf of 16 disks to do it.

That said, if Dell's per-disk pricing was market equivalent, and they offered price matching from any competing vendor, the courts might overlook this, but charging 3-04 times the standard rate, that's insane.

Wh pay between $5 and $20 per terabyte for our SAN storage, depending on Tier and how mmuch we buy in one purchase (usually in blocks of 5TB for us at the moment), but that's for PRESENTED storage, includes the Rack Shelfs, deduplication licensing, visualized storage licensing, replication, etc. 1TB of presented Tier 0 replicated storage on 15K FC drives actually gets us 3 shelves full of drives (of which 1TB is presented, striped across 14 disks per tray, RAID 10, online spare parity drives, and the extra capacity left over gets licensed and turned on next time we bey more...)

done and done

We turned out backs on Dell 3.5 years ago, and replaced them with the much more expensive IBM systems. Funny thing is, our 4 year budget outlook is actually LESS than we spent with Dell, due to lowered maintenance costs, better operational monitoring, better tools to identify unused CPU cycles and properly scale systems, and overall lowered operational costs. We shed half a dozen IT people it took to maintain all those servers. We saved a ton in the end... (and got better discounts on our mainframes, AIX, and other platforms too).

We're rolling over our Dell desktop systems now. We did keep buying those for an extra year or two after we stopped buying their servers. They have not made a formal determination on vendor, and since IBM let Lenovo go they won't get the biz, and as much as we like Apple desktops there's no onboard management utilities found in true business class desktops (which cost more than Macs BTW from anyone we're looking at). We'll be replacing 2K desktops a quarter for the next 7 quarters, and Dell won;t see a penny of it, even though they'll probably be the low bidder.

US judges leave definition of obscenity to Amish, Kansas

Other issues

This also makes gambling of any kind online, even free, illegal in every state. It makes certain types of sales illegal in the whole country as well. It could apply local tax collection laws to companies that don't have such systems implemented. Worse, it could easily cause conflicts, where in one locality, you;re required by law to list certain details on your site, but in another, those details either can't be published, or have to be in a different specific place on your site (contact information for the company, etc). It also opens the door to states passing laws that run afoul of anti-competitive legislation, by passing laws that make it difficult or impossible for non-local companies to sell across state borders online favoring their own local companies. This will all lead to continual court challenges, and waste billions of dollars and tie up court time, and in the end, either Federal Congress will alter the Code of Commerce to correct this, or the supreme court will get involved, undo all this stuff, and then MORE lawsuits will fly.

Here's a simple option, if the judges and congress really think this is a good idea, and don;t stop it, make one minor change: State and local laws enforced outside of the municipality require FULL FUNDING from that local municipality for the continuing education, and money to implement systems to permit compliance, for all non-local entities subject to the law. In other words, if i can't sell something in your community online, I need software to help prevent that sale (since there's no human interaction to prevent it), and the COST of implementing that software should be billed to the municipality, after which an implementation grace period applies, before the seller can be subject to any punishment at all. Should a company sell something into a municipality, and then receive a summons, without having first been notified in advance of the law, and been provided paperwork to begin a funding process, (which a local court in the SELLERS back yard gets to determine what is "reasonable" funding), then any action against the seller is automatically dismissed by the courts, and the locality pays all attorney's fees.

This is a fair and balanced system, where I can enforce my law on you, but I have to PAY for it.

Apple bets on Mac-only photo land grab with Aperture 3

"Caught Dead"

I'll tell you what, we met about 3 dozen photographers at a convention before our wedding, and interviewed about 10 of them. One thing was simple a fact a that time, when we asked one about their equipment (cameras and computers alike), if they used a PC, whether or not they had Photoshop on it, they were immediately crossed off our list. It wasn't that cut and dry, it wasn't like the fact they didn't have a Mac got them disqualified, no. When we discovered they had a PC, we asked how they managed and edited their photos, what kind of cameras they were using, and how they integrated photos and videos into their work if they were also a videographer. Every single one that had a PC was far less professional, they pretty much just "took and cropped photos" instead of "managing and editing" photos. They also tended to have inferior equipment, only one or 2 cameras, some were even using PnS cameras as their "backup" cameras...

I've head several friends get married in the lest 5 years, and been to a lot of family weddings as well. ONE had a non-Mac owning photographer. Apple may only have 9% of the market, but they have about 75% of the photographers, and for good reason. Lightroom is a nice app, but it's just not as good at project management as Aperture. It may do a bit aperture doesn't, but any real photographer is going to use Photoshop or Gimp for more than simple cropping, editing, and basic effects. That's not Aperture's role.

Adding the ability to make projects portable, and sync them back to a larger collection later is impressive. This really should have been highlighted in the article. That's a tool real pros can really use...

If you're a pro photographer, and you try out a Mac for 90 days, you will not go back to PCs for your professional work. The same applies to videographers in most cases. Some of the best wedding videos I've seen were done on a Mac with iMovie alone by people in the wedding party, vs. professional guys who charged thousands for professional videographer services, and handed over inferior quality garbage that took days to produce on a Windows box running a multi-thousand dollar video suite. We've done whole wedding videos, taking film from as many as 6 cameras, in a matter of hours that look better.

something's not right...

I've got it running on a Circa November 2009 MBP 15" Core2 2.53 with 4GB, with a Windows VM running at the same time in parallels, and it's FAST. Does your mac have a dedicated GPU, or just the 9400 (or older)? If the app is "bloated" and slow, perhaps it;s also something to do what what else is running on your mac.

Also, consider this is for PROFESSIONALS, and 4Gb of ram? That's not professional grade... and neither is running from a 5400RPM drive or running on one of the more budget conscious GPUs. If you think Aperture is bloated, Photoshop must suck for you...

This isn't iPhoto, it should run slower, it should feel more bloated, it;s a HELL of a lot more app.

Cultists aquiver as Applestore goes into hibernation

Just Aperature 3

Yup, just new software. Other than that, some new graphics, cleaned up outdated "new" tags, fixed the "order by" date on iPods for Valentine's day to be not yesterday, that's it.

Aperture itself is an awesome program, but i have not yet had the desire to spend $179 on it (teacher discount, normally $199). We're getting 2 new cameras this year, and that will probably change my outlook, but I'll probably hold off and get iLife/iWork 10 and Aperture all at the same time.

Mozilla becomes latest to dump Mac OS X 10.4 support

Where do you get your data?

"x86/x64 Macs are just Commodity PC parts and a Pretty GUI on a BSD ripoff. Both add nothing to Computer Science or Engineering, its Marketing. An upmarket Brando gadget."

First off, it's not a BSD ripoff, it's an evolution of the NeXT operating system, which was itself based on FreeBSD years before, released in 1989 for christ's sake. That's like saying Windows 7 is based on DOS. True yes, but a meaningless fucking statement. In 10.6, very, very little of that old code remains, having been replaced by Apple's own Core architecture, and a whole new GUI, and it runs on the Mach 3 microkernel, not the BSD kernel.

next, the chips are not exactly commodity. Apple does not use the generic Intel retail parts you find in Dells and HPs, they're using the cutting edge (at time of release) Core Architecture, and they include the VT, x64, and additional features in ALL the processors in all the products, where you may find some pretty powerful, and cheap, Dell systems, they often lack VT, making them useless for power users and incapable of supporting XP mode under Windows 7. Apple does not use Celeron, Centrino, i3, or other crap processors pushed by their competitors.

The DVD, HDD, memory, video card, yea, that's all commodity stuff. Always has been (except some early Macs based on SCSI hardware). There are no NON-comodoty components anymore in those classes unless you're talking high end CAD components and minicomputer subsystems costing thousands.

The build quality, you can't argue that. Apple has always been tops. Dell tries to compete with their Adamo line, but it's HUNDREDS more than an equivalent Apple ($400-700 more for the same parts, which don't even go as high in spec as the same apple model offers).

Then there's the "extras" that get thrown in no one notices. Webcams, high quality (not tinny) speakers, back lit keyboards, bluetooth in all models, MiMo dual band 5/2.4GHz wifi instead of generic 2.4GHz N, IR port for a remote, TosLink 5.1 fiber audio support in the same jack as the regular headphone jack, extremes in weight reduction without sacrificing rigidity and durability, extended life batteries getting 7+ hours (and yes, it really will play an MMO for 5+ hours with the second GPU active, we do that all the time, it's not a bullshit ideal battery life marketing number, and it will surf the web for over 7 hours), slot load drives. Apple sells their "commodity" machines in most cases under the same price Dell's equivalent hardware sells for, excluding these features. Currently, you can not BUILD a 27" iMac cheaper even excluding the OS and all the "bonus" parts, nor can you do that with a Mac mini, and no one competes on performance and price with the MacBook Pro line until you get into high performance 16 and 17" alien ware machines (and those often still cost more than a Mac).

They back it up with industry leading warranty pricing (and a warranty you can buy up to a YEAR later and still get full support!), a support department that isn't strictly break-fix focused (they'll assist you with a process as quickly as help you diagnose a problem), a support department where everyone you talk to speaks English as their first language, a support department that CALLS YOU, on schedule, instead of you waiting on hold. Oh, and you can bring it in to any Apple store or local retailer and in a lot of cases get same day repair, next day usually worst case, no shipping your system off and hoping UPS doesn't screw it up and waiting a week or more for it's return.

Run Windows on the Mac, sure, it simply increases the available software base. You can not do the same on PC hardware, run OS X that is, and if you want something that's even half as nice as using iLife, or to get your hands on powerful software like Aperture, Film Maker Pro, and a slew of other professional Mac-Only titles, then you're screwed. Even running a VM is better on a Mac than on a PC, as the two become completely integrated in a single experience, and do not require switching back and forth between guest and host and dealing with syncing files between them.

OS X is not cheap. The UPGRADE is cheap. Apple does not sell OS X in a box for a very good reason, their support groups would be OVERWHELMED. They'd get to 3-4 times the user base in a year or two. They simply can not staff up fast enough to do that, and Apple is not willing to sell the OS without including their industry leading support. They're completely comfortable to have 20-40% annual growth. In fact, that consistent, yet impressive, growth is a foundation of their stock price as well. We can COUNT on Apple doing better every year, and that would not be the case if they opened the OS to the market (which they have previously stated publicly would come in around $329 without iLife and $399 with it. (aka not cheap).

Upgrading from 10.4 to 10.6 does NOT require new software either. Yes, to take advantage of some new features, yes, and if you have some 10.3 or older software they again, yes, an upgrade MAY be required (comparability mode works quite well though). If you have a PPC with 10.4, then yes, some new software may not run, but you are not required to upgrade to it. Then again, if you have 10.4 or 10.3 native software that for some reason is not 10.6 ready, and there's not a free patch to make it compatible, and it doesn't work in compatibility mode, then why SHOULD you complain about having to buy an upgrade for software you've had at least 4 years if not 5??? Good luck going that long on Windows, all but a few programs made the transition from XP to 7... many didn't make it from XP to Vista. Office 2004 works fine under OS 10.6. So Does QuickBooks 2005. iLife needs an upgrade, but that's why it's INCLUDED in the 10.4-10.6 upgrade pack (as opposed to the 10.5-10.6 $29 pack).

Firefox is also decidedly NOT dropping 10.4 as an OS, they're dropping PPC as a hardware platform (which includes most people who have not upgraded to 10.6, though MOST can upgrade to 10.5 and maintain support...) They're dropping support because JAVA did. The PPC user base on 10.4 is less than 20% of Apple's base at this point. Also, what IS available for it isn't exactly disappearing, nor is Mozilla dropping PATCH support, just dropping PPC from NEW RELEASES.

If you're still on a PPC, and still on 10.4, than just like any XP user with a 4-5 year old machine, you're WELL AWARE that you're stuck until you replace hardware. No One bought a PPC Mac other than a Mac Pro after March 2006 (unless they went for a deal and bough back stock). No Macs with PPC were sold at all after Aug 2006, and those were the Mac Pro, which was a very small percentage of their sales. That means EVERY computer just cut off by Mozilla is at least 3.5 years old, most are well over 4 years old. That is by no means an outrage.

Where was this pouring of hatred for Microsoft, who's in a few weeks cutting off people from online play who bough games for the xBox 360 as recently as CHRISTMAS, and the vast majority of games which are 2-3 years old?

Can't "afford" an equipment upgrade? It;s a 4-5 year old machine. If you had not planned to replace it by now, you can't afford A COMPUTER. Macs cost the SAME to replace as PCs, however, they happen to have amazing resale value. I sold a PPC based iMac 17" with 1GHz processor and 768MB orf RAM about a year ago, it was 4.5 years old at the time, and it sold for $750. $750 is $100 shy of a new MacBook White. That's not exactly expensive for a brand new notebook with far more horsepower. Yea, it's not a $300 netbook, but a netbook is NOT a PC, it's a Piece of Crap. No one who is used to editing video, playing games, and managing tens of thousands of photos is going to settle for a $500 piece of shit low end Core2 Dell with no GPU, let alone a Netbook. That's NOT an upgrade. If you really need a new mac for critical software, and 10.6, you can pick one up lots of places under $500. (refurb Minis or backstock).

Server virtualisation beyond the x86 environment

z/VM

We have a fairly large Windows visualized farm on VMWare. A few hundred servers we've migrated over or built on VMWare over the last 3 years or so.

However, in the last 12 months, we've gone from having 2 IFLs to play with, to more than 20, running well in excess of 400 Suse Linux servers on the Mainframe. We expect to at least double that this year, and ANY server that CAN run on Suse is being migrated to Suse.

Windows needs 1 license per virtual server in most cases (OS excluded), where most IBM license is by the processor underneath. A P6+ 4 core processor is 480PVUs worth of license. An IFL is 120PVUs, and can run 4-6 times the number of guest servers.

You can now get a mini-mainframe (Buseinss class z10), with 2 starter IFLs for under $200,000. That can run 40-60 servers easy. The same capacity on a 570 or 590 platform will cost about the same, if not a bit less (we pay about $80 per fully loaded VMWare chassis), and it will also run 40-60 guests. However, licensing costs between them, for things like WebSphere, are about 8 times higher on the VMWare side, and on top of that you need the VMWare licenses themselves, plus the OS. A z10 BC can hold a whole lot of IFLs, a few ZIIPs and ZAAPs too. If you;re visualizing a few hundred web and Java servers, DB2 or PGSQL/MySQL databases, WebSphere or MQ, then z/VM linux on a z10 IFL is by FAR the cheapest way to go. We've also seen cost reductions in Oracle pricing, VRU services, and more.

The single binary image model is far superior to image independent VM guests (patch one system to patch a hundred). Operational issues are lessened by not running Windows, no one writes viruses compiled for OS390X hardware (since you'd actually need access to a mainframe or Hercules VM server to do it), and LPAR replication between 2 chassis is easy (and you don't have to license the second chassis).

If you look at IBM list pricing for the IFLs, ZIIPs, and Chassis, it sounds like a bad deal, but consider, NO ONE pays list price for IBM mainframe hardware (we pay about half).

Is this a solution for an SME, with 30-50 servers? no, but then honestly nether is a true VMWare infrastructure...

iPad launch raises awareness, boosts disinterest

false logic

By your logic, the correct statement is 60% of all people who buy an iPad without researching the specs are morons. A remaining 21% have researched the specs, and are considering purchase anyway, meaning 25% of iPad purchasers are decidedly not Morons by your analysis.

This is in contract to anyone who buys a Dell machine for any reason, a full 100% of Dell purchasers, since anyone who looked at the specs and priced vs. the competition at all would never buy a Dell. So, 40% of Apple fanboi's are still smarter than anyone who owns a Dell.

(I state this in complete jest, I just love throwing false logic at people who don;t understand logic or statistics yet like to make statements as if they do).

WRONG CONCLUSION

Per the survey results, the number of people "committed" to buying one went from 3% to 9%. Thats' 3X the number of people who claim they WILL buy one on launch.

The category of people "Interested but NOT considering buying one" did in fact double, however, the results clearly indicate that the doubling came mostly from the "never heard of it" and "completely disinterested" categories, which went from 35% to only 18%. Essentially, half the people completely disinterested have become people interested but still not committed. Also, the "Interested but I need more data" group dropped from 36% to 21%. It appears 6 of the 15, or about a third, moved into the "I'll buy" column, and the rest to the "interested but no or not yet" column.

The survey fails to differentiate between a "no never" and "no not yet" group of people, shedding some negative light. A lot of those people, as I've found elsewhere, are incorrectly informed about the specs, and especially most think it does a) nothing more than an iPhone (it edits documents in full, can run presentations, can output HD to a TV, can manage documents in your iDisk and iWeb sites, and much more), b) it has no SD card slot (there's an adapter), mostly C) there's no camera (there's full bluetooth support and UI bits in the SDK to fully support video conference, and finally D) it has no phone features (it clearly does and with VoIP over 3G, or paired with a regular phone over bluetooth, is a complete communications platform.) Corrected of the actual specs and capabilities, almost every one of the people I've spokent to (well over a hundred) who were naysayers, turned tail and began considering it, especially when they were reminded there are clearly sacrifices between a $900 device and a $500 device to be had. (with almost all of the sacrificed features coming in the form of a $20-30 dongle adapter or a $50-60 bluetooth camera add-on).

Drink beer not fizzy pop for pity's sake, say boffins

No wonder everyone in my family lives into their 90s

Italian heritage, with a smash of German and Irish.

Grandma on Dad's side drank 3-4 beer a day until she died in her late 80s (cancer, she smoked every day of those 80+ years since she was 14 on.) Grandpa on that side is 88 and still playing golf a few days a week (and scoring under his age almost every time). Grandma on my mom's side had 1 beer every night with dinner, and made it to 96. Her husband worked underground on the NY water tunnels a good chunk of his life, and dies of cancer in his 70s. However, great grandparents on both sides made it to their 90s. 2 made it past 100.

All we typically eat is pasta (tomato based mostly), bread, chicken steak and venison, a mix of veggies, heavy on the garlic, Olive oil in the pans instead of butter, and wash it down with either red wine or beer (and typically the darker beers if not a stout).

Given the powers of red wine, beer, garlic, tomato, and all the spices, it's no wonder everyone is fat and happy into late years. The only cancer cases have been extreme long term smoking, or industrial hazard related. Pretty much every single member of the family dies of heart disease, but in your 90s, i call that natural causes...

It's simple

If you can see through it with less color distortion than dark sunglasses would apply, and it's not either water, white wine, or above 100 proof, then it's not worthy of consumption. I prefer my beer to be much closer to opaque personally.

State officials seize InPhase assets in lieu of taxes

"everything?"

As in, including any Patents and other IP owned by InPhase??? Porbaly will fetch more than the physical assets by far... (and show up in a patent troll article here on El Reg in a few years).

Brits take iTablet moniker for 12in iPad rival

Pointless!

I don't want a 3lb brick that's a full PC, that has to be MAINTAINED like a full PC and requires full, expensive PC licenses separate from the licenses I already won on other PCs, and has to be secured like a PC, and uses a PC OS that a touch interface is at best hacked on top of, and the software I load on it is not designed inherently to be used in a touchscreen environment and does not support multitouch.

Further, Windows won't run 24x7 in standby, notifying me of alerts even when it's "off." The iPad is always on in standby (30 days of it), and is near constantly collecting mail, massages, chat events, and other notifications. Windows in hibernate isn't going to do that.

Further, Windows is slow to load, the tablet is instant on, like a cell phone.

A Media tablet needs to be :

- a slick interface

- always connected

- instant on

- take care of itself

- basically, a COMPANION to my PC, not another damn machine I have to care for and lug around.

I might as well just have a frigging laptop if i have to accept all the disadvantages of one anyway... A full keyboard and a mouse is a better interface for the majority of work, but I'm NOT doing WORK on this, I'm using it for entertainment; checking news, reading, watching video, keeping up with popular sites, uploading my latest snapped pics. It does everything the PC should be forced to, everything I want to do quick, without hassle, and without additional software. making it a great platform for games in addition, a bluetooth camera optional for the 20% that will do video chat (thats for NOT including that btw... I really can't imagine a camera that doesn't point at my face unless I contort and hold the unit in an uncomfortable position, while the person on the other end watches the video shake as I shake.... BAD idea to have a camera in a tablet for chat, it BEGS to be externalized!)

An what may I ask is this essentially full blowen but underpowered touch enabled Win7 PC going to cost me? HP is currently charging a $700 premium on their 22" all-in-one just for adding a touch screen... It's certainly not going to compete at the $499 price point. And 3G is extra? and it;s a full PC? OK, so $60/month for a capped plan instead of $29 for unlimited too, and the PC tablet requires a contract?

Seriously, do they really think we're that thick???

Dear Adobe: It's time for security rehab

uninformed, ignorant.

Mr Jobs has nothing to do (directly) with what the HTML spec does and does not include. Apple is a member of the coalition, and they submit technology and ideas, but they are but one member...

Also, no one is claiming any costs for h.264 outside of the people who WRITE codecs, sell software including them, or manufacture devices with hardware h.264 decoding, and those that broadcast non-free TV content using the codec, and some broadcast websites that profit directly from the use of the codec.

YouTube falls in a grey area, as there are no fees for accessing their content, however, they do profit from the advertising. This is covered under the provision for videos less than 12 minutes, for which there are no fees for "indirect revenue". Videos longer than 12 minutes cost 2% of the retail price to view, or 0.02 per year for indirect revenue viewing. However, the MAX annual fee, for an organization with a subscriber base in excess for 1,000,000+ users, the fee maxes out at $100,000 annually (0.10 per user per year). Entities with fewer than 100,000 subscribers pay NO FEES unless they direct charge for video viewing. when combinations of direct and indirect models are in use, fees max out at $5M per year regardless of number of subscribers, and those fees can not go up more than 10% from the previous year (if the cap was previously met). Anyone who makes no profit from these videos (they exist say for training, are on personal web sites (myspace), etc, no fees are pair.

Additionally, there's a clause stating "the royalty shall be no more than the economic equivalent of royalties payable during the same time for free television."

Use of H.264, for most people, will cost nothing. For major commercial sites like YouTube, $5M is NOTHING, they pay far more in other royalties and software costs every months, let alone annually.

Between now and 2016 (which likely would be extended again, this is their 3rd extension without debate...) do you seriously think there might not be another viable alternative codec we'de migrate to if one came out completely free, and do you not think the MPEG LA would again extend the free term, and for those who were paying come up with fees low enough that switching to a free alternative would actually cost more?

iPad forces operators to shave their SIMs

Way to go Apple.

"Apple has been saying the Micro SIM will also support a more-comprehensive phone book as well as greater security."

In other words, the tech is there and compatible with the SIM today, but NO ONE uses it, so Apple, in their ability to F* with the market as they do, are essentially mandating support for these better security standards and better phone book model and enforcing operators to move to more secure and more user customizable systems if they want to make millions hocking Apple's to-die-for products.

Nice.

no.

What you;re basically saying is that a carrier can't tell the difference between a phone and a tablet if you swap a SIM. That is WRONG. In fact, they can actually tell the difference between your smartphone and the machine tethered to it using that same connection...

Basically, any access to the web included in the packet header information about the device making the request. Somewhere in there, the carrier will EASILY be able to discern between iPad and some random other device, if nothing more than to look at the MAC address of the device making IP requests.

Unisys lands $187m Pentagon mainframe deal

MCP

Wow, just had a Tron flashback...

Apple vs the iPad Bedwetters

Wow

GREAT article.

Amazon Kindle DX

$450+?

Look, it's a black n white e-reader+ with a non standard keyboard layout, no touch screen, no color, no application support, no bluetooth, no TV connectivity, no camera support, no file system to speak of, no document editing capabilities, and it's still smaller than the iPad.

I hear a LOT of people, who have not actually bought either an IPS screen nor an e-reader, speaking to the point that e-Ink is superior to LCD in terms of eye strain. Let me tell you, as someone who works under florescents for 9-10 hours a day staring at a cheap ass Dell LCD, then goes home to a dark room and stares at a far superior Acer LCD panel for several more hours on my PC, and when I'm feeling like something other than gaming, i sit on the bed in complete darkness reading ebooks of my wife's MacBook pro, often in 3-4 hour sessions.

I borrowed a kindle from a friend, and a Nook from another, for a week each, to see if I felt investing in a formal ebook reader was worth the $300-400 in cash plus the cost of non-portable proprietary DRM books. I spent just shy of 16 reading the kindle, and although i found the e-Ink to be quite nice in normal light, it was somewhat tough to read in bright sunlight, and the backlight quality with e-ink in a dark room made my eyes hurt after only an hour or so trying to read it. The Nook was superior in almost every way to the Kindle, and did better in daylight, but equally poor in a dark room. On one night, I managed to read the kindle in the dark for just about 4 hours, i don't think I could do that again...

Apparently, the majority of people complaining about LCD in dimply lit rooms complain about not being able to dim the screen far enough, and complain about the harsh light. First off, who told you to read black text off a white screen as an e-reader!?!? Change the background color to a deep set near-black, and the text to a soft contrast color. With a computer, or software based e-reader on an iPhone or iPad, that is completely under your control! There are also a number of very cheap screen protectors that filter excess backlight that leaks through parts of the screens and that greatly reduces "wash" in the display if your LCD is particularly susceptible to that (most LED IPS panels are not), but cheap LCDs can be.

I'm glad I had the chance to try both competing e-readers for extended periods. It absolutely confirmed I will never own an e-Ink device, at least not until there's one that fully supports open, unenctypted books, or provides a book sharing mechanism for DRM books from multiple outlets, and at the same time, costs less than $150. Also, it really needs a screen larger than 6". That's fine for text-only content if you have good vision, but for anything including graphics of any kind, or layouts of text (periodicals), anything less than 9" is too small.

I'm not jumping on an iPad immediately. I have 6 other things in front of it in my budget plan, including a new iMac 27" to replace an aging gaming PC, a new washing machine, furniture for my 2 year olds room, shelving in my garrage, and new couches in the living room... However, by Christmas at the latest, I'm sure I'll get around to getting an iPad.

Steve Jobs dubs Google's 'don't be evil' motto 'bulls**t'

HW accelerated vs encrypted FLV

There might eb a lot of "hardware accelerated" flash out there, but that only means for flash APPS and basic flash video. Video files like Hulu uses are encrypted flash, and rely on Java applets as well as flash code to run, and take significantly more horsepower as well. You will NOT be able to watch hulu on Flash accelerated phones and tablets, not in this fashion, and not without FULL multitasking (above and beyond what even Android allows, including hot loading one app from within another). This practice of DRM is one major reason why flash violates so many security rules, and given Adobe's lazy programmers and lack of vision, it;s no wonder it;s one of the least stable and most insecure applications in history.

i have flash nowhere near my stuff. I have it on one PC only for the sites I'm occasionally sent to for business that don't have non-flash versions.

HTML5, webkit, java, and I hate to say it but Silverlight, all have Flash in their sites.

Apple iPad vs netbooks: fight not over yet

you are not getting it either

0: touchscreen on XP/Win7/Linux are simply not the same, the OS does not have native proper support for it, not do any available Windows apps. Single touch, yea, but multi-touch is not developed properly yet.

1: that hinge, and the compenents underneath for the keyboard, extra bezels, and core components, mean that thing can't be much less than 1" think, and then it will also either be very flimsy, or way more than $499. That also increases weight and reduces battery compartmentalization. plus, that thin screen is going to have its own issues as well... The iPad is a SOLID built device you;re not afraid tyo toss onto a couch. A cheap plasitc netbook with a touch screen that would try to compete within $100 of the price point of the iPad will fall apart in a year of casual use...

2: THE iPad DOES SUPPORT THE BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD PROFILE. Read the fucking specs!

However, my BIGGEST gripe with any alternative is this: I want a DEVICE to accompany my PC, NOT a second PC I have to patch, maintain, and buy expensive software licenses for! The iPad already runs the 40+ apps I have for my iPhone, exchange support is free, and a complete office suite is only $30 (and can run on up to 54 other iPads under the same license). I don't need to AV protect the iPad, It needs patching only infrequently and that's automatic when docked, and it;s easy to get files in/out of and through the cloud through all the services i already use today.

Oh, and an instant gratification device, like a reader, tablet, etc, needs to be INSTANT ON. I can't STAND waiting for a netbook to boot, and when it;s hibernating, it doesn't get notifications. The iPad has 1 months standby time on Wifi/3g. That's amazing, since I'll get e-mails, chat notifications, or be able to look up something on my mind or that I see on TV nearly instantly, without going into the other room to get the laptop, wait for it to boot up, just to check a message, and by then I've forgotten what i was looking up, or missed something on TV...

This device is not an end-all be-all replacement for a portable PC, but it filly 90% of what i want a portable system to do, so now i only need this and one real, full performance notebook.

Oh, a netbook is NOT a good vehicle video Solution for the kids. The iPad, hung from the back of a seat, would be PERFECT!

"rea;" applications?

You mean, like iWork? Creating full documents, spreadsheets, charts, presentations? If it can do that, it can do just about anything else... Editing/croping photos won't be far behind with a software update, OS 4 will have much improved multitasking support (already confirmed).

Considdering it's cloud connected, and designed to stream, i see no reason at all for more than 32GB on it. For those who will never take it out of their home, 16GB would be compeltely fine.

Netbooks have 120GB HDDS not because there's a use case for them, but because THAT'S THE SMALLEST HDD YOU CAN GET!. SSDs are 32 and 64GB for most machines, and most people don;t use 100% of that. Also, with a Windows OS, you need 30% free at all times for fragmentation/OS performance/cahce files/snapshots, etc. The iPhone OS could use 99% of the storage and not suffer performance, so a 64GB flash disk is the same or better than a netbook with an 80 or 120GB SSD. (and the flash here is high performance class 4+ flash, and should outperform spinning disk without question).

Glorigfied color e-book reader? No. Glorified car video solution, maybe, at a lower price point, and including free exchange support, not needing AV, and not needing PC licenseing, and not needing PC maintencance, with better battery life and half the weight and size? Find me a REAL comparrison that satrts at $499 and I'll print this text and eat it.

small deal

You might have just eliminated about one thousandth of one percent of people: editors who ride the train and do something other than read the paper...

"people who really use netbooks" Ok, that's about 1 in 100 people i know who own a netbook. most of them barely use it to send a few e-mails, take some notes, and update facebook... Anyone with serious document managament needs, and especially every single "editor" i know, have MacBook Pros or Airs. The rest have regular, full performance notebooks. No one who "really uses" a newbook has a use case for a netbook the iPad can't fill. Very few people care about a real keyboard that much, especially since an iPad in it;s sleve actually presents a better ergonomic position than a netbook on a lap in a vehicle...

A netbook does not do portrait. A netbook does not have multitouch, a netbook can;t hang from your carseat and entertain the kids with a 720p video (since they don't do 720P on their piss ass processors at all)

Is this a great PC replacement for everyone? absolutely not, no way. However, for 50% or more of the people considdering a secondary PC device and/or ebook reader and/or car based video system, this is cheaper and better in almost all use cases. It;s also tougher (unibody build and solid glass/not plastic screen), and it;s weather sealed unlike a netbook at a beach which would get caked with sand and sea air...

yes, yes, yes

1: the keyboard position on your lap would not be different between this and a netbook/notebook, so I'll cimply dismiss this point you failed to make.

2: the sleve for it, which is a real nice way to carry and protect it, not to mention the ergonomics it adds to it, can acutally give you an even better keyboard position than a notebook, and, the keyboard being dynamic means it is by FAR the best system for working in spreadsheets, charts, and presentations...

3: Eye Strain? Have you really tried to read an ebook in the dark using it's backlight? I borrowed a kindle for a few nights from a friend, tried to read in bed. Very glad I did not waste $300... I read from my nice MacBook Pro IPS panel all day long with no issues, including at night in bed for hours straight, and I also have no issues at all outside in direct sunlight. Maybe you should actually TRY it in these scenarios before you compare it to something else you also likely don;t own and have not tried. The ONLY advantage to e-ink I have ever experienced was long battery life (and only while not using a back light, which will kill the batteries in 6 hours or so).

4: Really, you already have a system for connecting a PC conveniently to your TV to stream movies to it? Good for you. The 98% of the restu of us who've been considdering an Apple TV, hassling over cabling up a notebook properly (including power), or looking at other set top options think the iPad is the perfect option to solve this.

5: the living room if NOT the only place I watch video. hanging an iPad behind the car seat for the kids to watch would save me over $800 equipping the car with a video system that's half that good. Car DVD players with 10" screens at 480i resolutions may be cheaper, but they're DVD based, and that's a pain for kids that can't reach the player to change disks... Also, at the beach/pool, on vacation, in a hotel, and on top of all this and an e-reader, it also plays some damn nice 3D games?

6: You underestimate the value of portrait view for both websites and photo management.

7: USB and SD adapters are already advertized, $29 for both. Yea, probably should have been built in, but the form factor would have to change to even include micro-USB, let alone SD. And really, beyong 32GB I can't think of anything I;d need on the device I could not stream over wifi or 3G. (free software already makes this possible on an iPhone).

It;s not going to fail. It;s going to be a huge success, likely selling 3-4 million devices by years end, and then a newer more powerful model next year WITH SD and a camer integrated will be the same price next year.

Keep in mind, Apple can't make the PERFECT device the first time. There's a demand curve that has to be handled as manufacturing ramps up performance. They're not making 30 million A4 chips this year, NO ONE has the fab to handle that today. Its market strategy. 2-3 million people will buy one regardless in the USA alone. Give them just enough, and bring out a better one next year, and a better one a year after that, and they'll sell 20 million in the US in 2.5 years.

IBM's monster tape will take three days to fill

more than ONE head?

LTO4 typically already writes 16 concurrent tracks using as many heads... I can't find specs on LTO5. I'd assume more tracks per inch means more heads, otherwise we'd have to dramatically increase how many times the tape has to be reversed in order to fill it, meaning more passes through wheels and across scanning/writing surfaces, dramatically increasing tape wear and increasing the likelihood of bit failures. I can only assume that 23x density and smaller heads would mean MANY more heads. I can also assume, as with each previous leap in technology, improved bit write performance from each head. I'd be willing to bet full 35GB write completion in less than 8 hours.