Mac OS is the new Apple II, iOS is the new Mac OS

This is a thought that I’ve actually had for a while now, but I thought I’d put it in a blog entry.

There’s plenty of signs, in my opinion, that within 5 years, there will be no more Mac OS, or it will be a niche OS for developers and such. Instead, iOS will be Apple’s main platform. And, Apple’s target market will embrace this change.

So, you’re asking, what evidence do I have for this happening? Read after the break, and you’ll see my evidence. Some of this is sourced from rumors, but some isn’t. It’s not in any particular order, either – just because I have it listed earlier doesn’t mean it’s more important. Continue reading “Mac OS is the new Apple II, iOS is the new Mac OS”


How to fix cellular networks, and put control back in the hands of the customer

Right now, in the US, the cellular marketplace consists of an oligopoly (one that’s shrinking, even, with AT&T’s attempted purchase of T-Mobile) that colludes against customers, and small carriers that can’t get a foothold due to their weak coverage.

I’d like to propose a solution to that problem.

I feel that utilities should be provided by customer-owned cooperatives. This way, customers are in control of their own utility service, rather than having to take what some corporation gives them.

However, with cellular telephony, you need a strong national network to be truly successful, and the oligopoly will fight tooth and nail to screw you over with roaming fees, if you don’t have your own national network. And, at a national level, a co-op loses effectiveness as far as effectively representing its customers – not to mention the costs of building out a national co-op cell network.

So, rather than try to build out one large national network, here’s the idea that I’ve had.

Have individual local co-ops that provide service only to the local area. This won’t be very effective on its own, except…

The next step is to have a national organization that all of the co-ops can join. When a co-op becomes a member, their subscribers get fairly priced roaming access on all of the member co-ops. This way, for a relatively low investment, a co-op can start up, join the network, and instantly have national access, and the entire co-op gains even more network coverage.

Obviously, the big challenge would be starting up, although that’s not impossible – small carriers have been known to start up before, after all. And, until the national network is in place, roaming agreements can be made with other carriers.

Other challenges would be selecting network standards, setting roaming rate policies that are fair to all parties, and promotion.

So, does anyone want to see this happen? Especially people who have the knowledge and connections to make it happen?


A retraction from the Why Apple is evil series – Apple not actually patenting third-party applications

So, I’ll admit that I didn’t quite read everything to do with this particular case.

Apple was not claiming the functionality of FutureTap’s application, but rather using it as an example UI.

While it’s still evil to do that much in my opinion, Apple isn’t trying to patent a third-party app.

I’m going to leave the previous post up, but with it made very clear that that post is in error.

Source: Engadget


RETRACTED: Why Apple is evil: Patenting apps from third-party developers

I’ve been saying Apple is evil for quite a while now, but this isn’t just evil. This is kicking puppies (TV Tropes warning) evil. Even if you apply Hanlon’s Razor, in my opinion, incompetence doesn’t adequately explain this, although that’s running rampant here, too.

Apple has filed a few patent applications for mobile applications as of late, and for one of those applications, application number 20100190510, Systems and Methods for Accessing Travel Services Using a Portable Electronic Device, they decided to shamelessly rip off a third party developer’s iPhone app, “Where To?” And, no, they didn’t get permission from the developers.

What the fuck, Apple?

What the fuck?

Now, let’s say that FutureTap fights this in court. Let’s say that they can even win against Apple’s legal budget. Now, their business model is based on selling iPhone apps. We already know that Apple’s app approval process is extremely arbitrary. A win against Apple likely guarantees that their apps will get permanently banned from the App Store, killing their business.

With this, Apple’s sending a very, very clear message to developers: Develop for the iPhone, and you work for us, not for yourself.

Source: GigaOm

UPDATE: I’m retracting this post, as I see that I’m in error. I’m leaving it posted, but please see this post.


Why Apple is evil: Restricting third-party chargers

This one probably isn’t news at all, but I only recently heard of it, so I’m posting it.

Apparently, Apple requires that chargers for their devices use the data lines to signal charging power, and without using those lines, you don’t charge.

Apple requires a confidentiality agreement to get the resistor values, it seems.

Or, you know, you can break the damn thing open and measure the resistors. But still, you shouldn’t have to do that. Maybe to draw over 500 mA, yes – that makes perfect sense, as it’s over USB’s maximums, but not for the standard 500 mA.

Source: Engadget


Why Apple is evil: Jobs confusing signal drops with call drops, smearing competition

This one’s what I intended to post last night, but didn’t get around to it.

So, there was a press conference about the iPhone 4 issues yesterday. In it, Steve Jobs announced what many were asking for – bumper cases for the iPhone 4, free for everyone.

But, before he announced that, he decided to smear the entire rest of the cell phone industry, by saying that all phones have signal drops when gripped a certain way.

The problem with that is, sure, most any phone WILL lose signal when gripped a certain way. But does that translate to dropped calls to the extent of the iPhone 4? Most likely not, because there’s not really complaints about the other phones, just the iPhone 4. Oh, and among my phones, I’ve got a Bold 9700 on AT&T, so I just tried it. I could reproduce a SLIGHT signal drop with a normal grip, and a moderate drop with an extremely tight grip, but not what Apple got. (This paragraph, I will note, is my own opinion.)

Seriously, Apple, just admit that you have a problem, don’t drag others into it when they’re not nearly as bad as you are.

Source: Engadget


Why Apple is evil: Trying to hide the problems with the iPhone 4

I’ve been out of town for a while, and hadn’t gotten a chance to post about Apple lately. But now I’ve got a chance to post, so…

In addition to the problems that have been previously reported, it’s also been reported that there are issues with the proximity sensor malfunctioning, causing face-hangups and such.

In light of all of this, but especially the antenna issues, Consumer Reports decided to recommend against purchasing the iPhone 4. This is a pretty major blow against Apple. Now, a non-evil company would admit to their problems, and do something like provide free bumpers, or even publicly recall all the phones.

An evil company, however, would delete any mention of this on their forums, and deny that there ever was any problem. And seeing as this blog is about Apple being evil…

To be fair, there are rumors that there may be a stealth recall, but that’s still not admitting their screwup. That’s not letting people know their phone might be affected, but rather, trying to make a problem go away.

Source: Engadget


Why Apple is evil: They can’t design a phone worth a crap

Well. Looks like Apple can’t make a phone worth a crap.

For starters, the iPhone 4 has antenna issues, it seems. Remember how Steve Jobs made a big deal about the antenna design? Turns out, if you hold the phone in your left hand, it might stop working. Great design, Apple. Oh, and what does Steve Jobs say? “Just avoid holding it in this way.” (Alternately, one of those iPhone 4 bumpers will apparently fix it.) Yeahhhhhh. It’s totally user error, not a design flaw.

Of course, there’s reports of yellow spots on the displays of new iPhone 4s, too. The rumor mill says that this is because they’re shipping the phones before adhesives have fully cured, and it’ll go away for a few days… um, if they haven’t fully cured, then you’re not supposed to ship them.

Next up, Apple’s said that the iPhone 4 is extremely scratch-resistant. Umm… no, it seems, even in normal use, despite being 30x harder than plastic.

So, let’s say you’ve somehow avoided all of these problems, and then you drop your phone.

Yep, it shatters. (Actually, the fact that it’s 20x stiffer might be part of the problem, there.)

Good job, Apple.

Sources: Engadget (1, 2), CrunchGear (1, 2)


This just got real – Droid X appears to have a 720p screen

So, Apple upped the ante in smartphone resolutions with the iPhone 4’s 960×640 screen, at 330 PPI.

That’s a fairly impressive resolution and pixel density – the highest resolution, and close to the highest pixel density (the LG CYON LU1400, a Korean TV phone from 2008, had a slightly higher 333 PPI on its 800×480 screen) ever sold on a phone.

However, if Verizon’s site is to be believed, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Verizon is claiming that the Droid X, one of the latest wave of 4.3″ “let’s make a small tablet and call it a phone” Android devices, has 720p resolution – 1280×720. That’s a mind-blowing 342 PPI.

If this is real, the PPI race is on like Donkey Kong.

Source: Engadget


MIPS preparing to take ARM on in the smartphone market

Looks like things are about to get interesting. ARM has owned the phone market for quite a few years now, with very little competition.

Sandeep Vij, CEO of MIPS Technologies, has said that penetration of the cellular market is his top priority, and there are two customers of MIPS that are working on chips for the cellular market.

In addition, MIPS has released a port of Android to their CPUs. Android is a good choice, as almost all Android apps are compiled to run on the Dalvik VM… recompile Dalvik for MIPS, and all of those apps will run, unmodified, with no emulation penalty (well, no additional penalty over the VM penalty.)

So, now we’ve got MIPS and Intel both aiming at smartphones, Renesas has a SuperH chip that has the processing power for a mid-range smartphone (although it has on-board RAM, and not much of it,) and the rumor mill is saying that Apple wants to buy ARM (although, admittedly, that one’s not likely.) Interesting times indeed, and this time around, we won’t have the pain of having to know what CPU’s in your phone to run an app, unless it’s Windows Phone (and Microsoft will likely require ARM for the foreseeable future, there,) iPhone OS (and Apple will stick with ARM, I suspect,) or Symbian.