Posts by jbelkin

Mac users burned after Nuance drops Dragon speech to text software

That's why WIN is insecure

that is why WIN is insecure - ANYONE can access whatever and of course, lazy developers make up their own rules and styles without adhering to mac standards. basically, they are lazy and are mad their menus have to follow mac standards and can't just be a round button in green.

But the answer for this for anyone who knows anything about Macs - BOOTCAMP/PARALLELS lets you run any WIN OS ... in case you did not know, only Macs can run Mac OS, WIn, Linux and Unix at the EXACT SAME TIME. And with built in Mac accessibility with voice commands, they can boot in WIN or run parallels in a separate window. Amazing - of course it's been around for 12-14 years?

You might learn a little about Macs - including that outside of security upgrades, you can run old Macs for a LONG TIME. I use my 2009 Mac as my video server.

Google may follow Apple, design mobile chips in-house

Re: Maybe an SoC, but maybe not for mobile

You;re absolutely right but Google shareholders don;t mind paying BILLIONS for blimps and solar panels when Google has NEVER HAD ONE SUCCESSFUL consumer product - they are an ad sales company - a GREAT AD SALES company with delusions of being called a genius like Steve Jobs, E.on musk or even Jeff Bezos. Yes, Google is plowing billions into grocery deliver.

Re: As they say....

That's not correct - Android in its entirety is a copy of every single aspect of iPhone down to its recent "flat design" change that suddenly occurred overnight. Android started out life as a blackberry clone until the initial iphone keynote - so anything beyond a keyboard and a small 240x360 resolution screen is ALL BASED on an iphone. But android is a solid $29 worth of phone as long as you're not paying more than that.

Google shareholders pays for it

Google shareholders don't ind Google wasting their money. If t took Apple years and spending at least $2-5 B to get it up and running - of course, Apple needs about 300 MILLION chips a year ... now that R&D is amortized to a few dollars per chip. Google will spend nearly as much as Apple for their devices that sell about ONE MILLION a year (that's 1/300th the scale of business - yes, just pointing out Google doesn't do that math). So, like Google wasted $12 BILLION dollars in 2 years buying Moto, they will plow BILLIONS into this and after 3 years, realize no plant will charge them less than $150 PER UNIT phone sold to manufacture one million chips - they will literally waste more chips than have completed ones that pass inspection. Another BLIMP boondoggle. It took Google 8 months to sell 1-million phones - about what Apple sells EVERY 2 days.

Sweaty fitness bands fall behind as Apple Watch outpaces sales

Apple LEADS the way again

How many times do people need to realize that when Apple enters a CE market segment, they take over because they know what they are doing. Next up - AR/VR.

Once again, THERE is NO CE market segment until Apple enters ... next up, VR/AR ...

iCloud extortion racket nowhere near as epic as we thought it might be

D'uh - with a billion+ icloud account, are there a fw idiots - of course. It's like people who shoot themselves while trying to unjam a gun - there are always idiots who can defeat safeguards.

Teenagers think Doritos are cooler than Apple

Shocking.

A survey paid for by Google says Google is cool.

I would hope so.

Meanwhile, they failed yet again with another phone.

As long as Google is free, it's useable but ay for anything Google? hardware? yourtube red - no thanks.

HP doorsteps Apple shoppers at the altar of dreams

HP stuck between an Apple Rock and a MS hard "place."

Copying Apple is not innovation. But it doesn't matter. Look at Sony - they made some great PC laptops but could not compete - why? WINDOWS. After 25 years of telling consumers that WINDOWS is all you need to know, buy the cheapest possible has sunk in - it doesn't help that for most of the past 25 years, WINDOWS has been a clunky, virus, malware and trojan ridden mess with expensive OS upgrades thato cost the same as buying a new PC, not to mention tech support that starts with - it's the OS and MS saying it's the hardware. So unless HP can build a macbook knockoff that costs 35% at retail, it's dead. It also doesn't help that MS killed the high end PC by selling a $299/$399 Xbox as a non malware ridden Windows gaming machine. WIN PC's are for jiffy lube kiosks and wedding registries.

Ballmer's billion-dollar blunders: When he gambled Microsoft's money and lost

Ballmer Worst CEO Ever

In addition to the obvious ones, it's clear that being too polite to fire your ex-roommate as your CEO is a death kneel to shareholders. He also presided over killing the MS name as a consumer brand by letting literally 120,000 malware, viruses and trojans pollute WIN PC ... along with poor updates ... in fact, MS bragged they spent $6 BILLION on WIN 8 (before it's release, afterwards - of course,silence) ... Xbox - only MS could spend $30 BILLION to make $20 BILLION on Xbox1 ... but what might be worse, it helped kill the $3K WIN PC market for gamers who almost all switched to a then $399 box to play PC games without driver or malware issues ... or to put it more bluntly, $1k+ WIN PC marketshare has dropped from 97% to 3% in 15 years ... and MS shareholders paid him with $20 BILLION along with the LA Clippers as their parting gift.

Apple taxpayers swarm to stone-age iPhone 6+ purely for the bigness

Not a tax if You Gladly pay It.

Like a holiday, you gladly pay extra for an Apple product because it's worth EVERY bit. Other smartphones are like work, you do it if you have to but it's no holiday.

It's Not a Tax If You Gladly Pay It

Work is something you have to do, Play is something you want to do - same with Apple products. It's not a tax if you gladly pay it because it's a holiday of gadgets - unlike others that are a chore. Evidence = sales and repeated sales.

Apple fanbois are 'MENTALLY UNSTABLE' but you still have to 'SERVICE' them

Jealous much? This sounds like a typical Android-WIN PC buyer who realizes there is a glimmering store (some open 24/7) who will service their purchases for LIFE and FOR FREE. Sure, if it's hardware, the warranty might be out but there's a 10-75% chance Apple will replace it anyway FOR LIFE and FOR FREE. So, yea, jealous much? If it's software, they will try and fix it for you FOR FREE FOREVER. It's that simple. The staff is NOT on commission so there's jo hard sell and they will answer any questions for you. But hey, not everyone can deliver that ...

iPhone 6 shunned by fanbois in Apple's GREAT FAIL of CHINA

You might actually do research before you write about China & technology. They are now set up for ONLINE PRE-ORDERING so all you had to do is take your printed reservation form (just like in the US & EU) - no need to wait in line. That's called proper logistics. The people who lined up did not pre-register and had no phone reserved at the store for them. BTW, Apple has sold 20-MILLION iPhones in China so far in one week of ordering and one day in stores.

iPhone 6: The final straw for Android makers eaten alive by the data parasite?

Google basically played for short term games while Apple is playing chess and going to win in the long term. In the beginning, Google realized that they needed to create a mobile path - Apple could dump them at anytime, Nokia didn't like them and obviously MS was not going to choose them. BBm was neutral but BBM users weere not huge internet surfers. And of course, they built a business of giving the OS (in search) and making money on ad clicks - so of course, android followed their game plan. Google's main mistake was pissing off Apple - first by copying too closely and then not agreeing to update MAPS with Siri so while they made short terms gains like with MAPS, now 3 years later, they are down to 33% market share on iphones (and will continue to drop), Apple no longer has to pay Google for map searches and now safari has added other search choices, google searches will continue to drop across all apple devices. So whiel Apple creates not only world class hardware design but the only integrated softwareOShardware phone (and 64bit), Android is further splintering apart. As Google has no official presence in China, no google search on android phones sold by makers there and no google store. Amazon has their own android also ... as you note, samsungs slumping smartphone profits are dropping plus the fact no other android manu is making money, it's a breakeven business - of course, gaining maretshare is important if there was no APPLE ... Apple will continue to take 80-85% of ALL THE PROFITS in the smartphone segment so they do not care about overall marketshare. Android's main growth in developing countries - does that actually help or hurt google?

Google and Apple in DRAG RACE: It's fanboi Mercs VS fandroid Audis

Guess when MB & BMW link up with Apple, Audi was forced to go with Android but Android is based on copying IOS when they had a chance to peer in the labs of Apple but since their access was cut off, they ave fallen further and further behind - it's like Ford going with WINDOWS and watching their buyer ratings plummenting. Google cannot design an interface - look at their interface design for anything - it's an unholy mess of random icons and text. Audi's satisfaction ratings will plummet.

Forget invisible kittens, now TANKS draped in INVISIBILITY CLOAK

Mayor Rob Ford wants one.

TWO can play this 64-bit mobile game, says Samsung, crossly

Samsung Gets to Look at Apple's 64-bit Chip

Since SAmsung is making apple's chip, they'll obviously be able to make a copy and put it in a smartphone but just like you can drop an 800-horsepower engine into a VW Beetle but if you don't upgrade everything around it, what's the point, The ONLY software that will be 64-bit in the next samsung phone will the benchmarking software that runs at super clock 64-bit speed - nothing else. (pretty much the same as their current smartphones - only the special benchmarking software runs at an overclock speed - everything else runs on java based android).

Re: Why oh why

Spoken like a true last gen smartphone (aka: android user)

Google TV box flop costs Logitech $34m

Google one trick pony

Google can write a working free OS -(android phones) but pay full price for a google OS (google tv or android tablets) - consumers know a weak free OS when they see one - google is a one reck pony -as long as it's free, it good or ok to use ( search, google+, maps) but pay money for it? Uh, no.

Punters favour Amazon to block Apple tablet flood

Amazon choice not real

Basically when FORCED to choose among non apple choices, the best of the rest is amazon but note, through they also note they will NOT pay more than 250 for a non iPad which pretty muhsaysnothing since no one can create a 10" tablet and make money other than apple. Amazon sold kindles for 4 years - apple outsold kindles after 3 months -amazon has NEVER -announced sales numbers for kindles, why? They are humble? Bwahaha ... Amazon is a great company but asking them to compete with apple is like comparing an suv to a fighter jet ... They are two entirely different companies.

Android, Steve Jobs, and Apple's '90%' tablet share

Android "successful" at $.01

Android is "successful" if you measure market share solely - profits or revenue, not very much. People are willing to accept an Android at $.01 (after 3 weeks, all Android phones are cheap or free) because they need a phone and you have to have at least a smartphone but when people have to shell out more than $.01? They choose Apple. look at the ipod - after 10 YEARS, the ipod holds 80% market share. You can buy a walgreen's brand mp3 player for $20 - or do people pay for a $100 nano or a $200 ipod touch? Why? When they have to shell out their own money, they are willing to pay for what works - why Android tablets are dead above $299. Android buyers are bargain hunters who can buy a cheap WIN PC netbook at $349, they believe price is the only measurement tool - they look at specs and at price and believe that is the only measuing stick. They clearly have never used an Apple product but whatever ... No Android tablet above the price of $299 will ever sell more than a few hundred thousand. PERIOD. just like no mp3 player above the price of $49 will sell more than a few thousand units other than Apple. Zoom is the new Zune. Galaxy is Rio and RIM is Creative. Low end of the market - all yours. Like Acer makes $12 per $299 netbook sold, that is Moto, RIm & Samsung if they can get to $299 or $199 ... meanwhile, Apple will clear $200-$250 per ipad sold and then use that to invent the next device ...

Why is Google's new Nexus S like no other smartphone?

Google Going All Out MS

Google realizes they cannot hope to compete with Apple on UI, OS or software so like MS, they figure if they throw a bunch of hardware features at the clueless, they will get some traction but like all android phones, after a few weeks of sales at full price, it quickly drops into the BOGO or $.01 bucket - so yea, another fine bargin hunters delight phone but no iphone.

The Mac that saved Apple (and Steve Jobs)

Still Doubters

Yes, the imac helped kill off the floppy - you don;t have to believe it but it's true. It was launched during the big burst of consumer internet switchers from dialup to broadband - hence the realization that you could just email the file and not bother with 'sneakernet.' Of course, this was before video and large MP digital cameas so it was most low res photos and documents.

The imac is the best selling personal computer of all time.

Admitedly it helps that others name their computers X562-TT and cahnge it in 4 months to X562-TTT but that's how you build a brand name with a REAL NAME and not something called Z562gh-500.

It should also be noted that most dimwit analysts said it was FAIl because no one bought all-in-ones PC's so no one would buy an all-in-one mac.

They failed to actually see the new circumstances of the industry - that around $1k, no one really needed to think all that hard about major upgrading and replacing major components - they would just buy a whole new computer Or in the case of Macs, it would be years later before it would break down. BTW, the imacs I bought are still functioning fine - no problems with CRT - one did stop working after years, I just used the video cable to port the video portion to an external monitor.

These are the same dimwits who thought no would buy a Mp3 player for more than $100, nor would anyone buy an apple branded phone and no way would anyone buy a tablet - those things do not sell at all ... yes, we are surrounded by idiots but as apple's sales growth proves - people do get smarter (well, not everyone)

Apple accused of iPhone ban on 'all single-station radio apps'

Makes total sense

90% of US radio stations are part of some radio conglomerate so yea, what exactly is the point of an app for each of the tens of thousands of stations in the US ...

'Spacetime cloak' could act as 'Star Trek transporter'

Roddenberry DID it to SAVE Money & Artistically

Actually Roddenberry came up with the transporter concept precisely because it was expensive to show them getting in the shuttle and flying down and landing on a planet ... plus it was not visually all tat interesting to see them get into a smaller ship, leave dock, fly and land - when them arriving and interacting on taht planet is much more interestng so hence, the transporter ...

Apple’s iPad lead will face pressure from Google and Nokia

iPad has no competition

There is no software reason to buy an android pad. Androids entire audience are bargain hunters, androids pricing strata is very limited - above $300, why not buy a pc net book while the closest MacBook is $999. If samsung sells 100,000 units it'll be amazing ... A win tablet will sell better. Androids market share is gained by giving the phones away - appleisnt interested in the bargain hunters smartphone buyers nor are they interested in the cheap iPad knock over market ... So sure, apple will lose some market share but like theprofit market share, apple will always be #1 in a runaway. Apple made 8 billion selling 14 million phones - nokia made 9 billion selling 110 million phones ... That is theonly math that's important.

Prisoner of iTunes - the iPad file transfer horror

Complicating the iPad

You missed the point of the iPad. For the average person, email lets you read WORD, EXCEL & PDF's. Any notes you write you can EMAIL to yourself.

NOW, if you want more capability - you can complicate the situation by buying-downloading a PDF reader, mini spreadsheet app or mini whatever. IT IS AN OPTION and if you have the need or interest, there are THOUSANDS of add'l options but otherwise - NOT COMPLICATED unless you choose it to - that is the Apple ecosystem. Very SIMPLE - easy to use BUT if you want more and more complicated, YOU ARE FREE to go down that path - if it's too confusing for YOU personally, just choose the built path.

Operator gang gunning for iTunes

What's after this, world peace and mass hand holding

WEll, good for thisguy to create a $250k a year post for talking but I'll bet these guys can't even agree on what to have for lunch. Middle East peace sounds good also and maybe we should all hold hands and skip around. Other than getting his salary paid and a nice expense account to go to telco trade shows, this has about as much as a chance to succeed as Google does with Android (any franken-OS).

Apple ambushed in Barcelona

More Meetings Than the UN

Concept fine - by the time you get these guys to agree on the right clor chairs for the vice presidents, Apple will be on iTunes 20.1 and iphone 6.0 ...

Dell crowned Bad Santa computer maker by angry customers

Dell Either Couldn't Afford the Components?

So Dell either couldn't afford the components they thought they could buy cheaper? Or they couldn't get anyone to sell it to them? Or buy time at a factory? Not sure why anyone would buy a PC from a company on the death march...

iPhone upgrades - a one-way control-freak street

Phone Not Computer

First, it's a phone and not a computer, 99% of people want to use it as a phone and its internet without having to hack it - if you want to, fine but leave us out of it. AND as you point out, the more controls YOU have - the more problems - Mac OSX - fewer controls - ZERO viruses, ZERO malware and ZERO crashes every 10 minutes (see WIN OS 1992-2009).

Besides, to restore to previous version, run itunes. Select RESTORE. How hard is that - I know you prefer to run TERMINAL or send high beam infra to trip the hard drive but really, it's much easier if you just use the right tools.

Malware house offered bounty for infected Macs

Macs Impenetrable

Of course, they disbanded - no one stepped forward to claim the prize because why pick on a 20-year old muscle bound guy when you can pick on WINDOWS, the sleepy tourist with jet lag and a wad of cash in his back pocket.

Apple grabs number-three US PC market slot

66% share of $1k USD marketshare

Apple's market is least affected by an economic slowdown - 66% marketshare for $1k USD computers ... in other words, Windows Pc's have fallen from 98% to 34% in the $1k category in 7 years ...

Apple tops tech support success poll

You PC Users are Hilarious

Face the facts - you bought an inferior OS. The computer is fine. BY savings a few dollars (and it is down to dollars now), you are a penny wise and and a pound foolish. For $5 more, you get FREE support in 200 stores, iLife and a rock solid OS (zero viruses for 50 million users) but hey, why bother checking out something better when you'd rather use a bash kit computer. Have fun with that.

Behind the Apple vs Universal breakup

You've Been Had

Universal Music is not just greedy but trying to find cash for overpaying to buy Universal Music. Where will you draw the line then? Should car manufacturers pay Tyre/tire manufacturers a royalty also? What about pencil manufacturers to paper maufacturers? Your line of reasoning makes NO SENSE - I can buy an iPod and NEVER put one Universal track on it and use it happily then - will UNiversal rebate me $1? Of course not. GREED.

Or when an artist takes their library from UNiversal - do I get my dollar back?

The ipod can be used to load Universal artists in which I HAVE ALREADY paid for royalties by buying their CD or I can use the ipod to load my own performances, watch just movies or listen just to audiobooks or perhaps I only like Mongolian chants - highly unlikely any Mongolian chanters are signed to Universal, what then?

You would just have us randomly give Universal a dollar each? There are about 10,000 record labels, should Apple give each a dollar just to be safe or only the major 4? Where would you draw the line?

You really need to take a look around and think through before just writing the viewpoint of a guy you met at a cocktail party who is buying you drinks.