Change of heart at Apple?

[Talldog]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

They were allowed to buy stock *before* Apple went public. Apple went public the next year and the $1 million in stock became worth about $20 million.

But that wasn't pre-ordained, and it wasn't a purchase of the technology. In fact after Apple sued Microsoft over the GUI, Xerox sued Apple.

[BeccaPrice]

ProfCrash, i agree. My family is standardized on the iPod Nano (5th gen, thank you very much - the 6th gen is unworkably small for our uses) and iTunes for listening to audio books and podcasts and music. Nothing else I've explored allows me to do so much so easily. And if I break down and get a tablet, it'll probably be an iPad, because well, it just works. I feel that way about my Kindle and Amazon - for what I want to do, it just works, and seamlessly.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

... it'll probably be an iPad, because well, it just works.

... or not.

ios apps crash more often than android apps.

[5thWiggle]

Originally Posted by afv011

... or not.

ios apps crash more often than android apps.

From the article:

Still, the study warns against making hasty conclusions - despite what the data might show at the moment, iOS isn't a worse system for making more apps crash. It's just that Apple introduced iOS 5 relatively soon, made it available to a lot of devices simultaneously and is still working to fix its issues on all of them. The scales might tip the other way once Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates start hitting more devices.

What the study was bound to show is that every OS has its more stable and its buggier releases and there's a good portion of apps everywhere that don't behave as they should. Now can we put that debate to sleep, please?

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by afv011

... or not.

ios apps crash more often than android apps.

Thank-you, but not crash enough affect how well work.

i used both. both platforms work ok.

[Ralph Sir Edward]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

ProfCrash, i agree. My family is standardized on the iPod Nano (5th gen, thank you very much - the 6th gen is unworkably small for our uses) and iTunes for listening to audio books and podcasts and music. Nothing else I've explored allows me to do so much so easily. And if I break down and get a tablet, it'll probably be an iPad, because well, it just works. I feel that way about my Kindle and Amazon - for what I want to do, it just works, and seamlessly.

That always leads me to the question, what is seamless worth?

I run Sansa Clip+s for my audio needs. They cost about 1/8 an iPod Nano 5th gen, and sound just as good. But to play something, I have to search and select music, then folders, then usb chip, (it has an external micro usb chip slot), the select the folder (playlist) I want and play. It's around 15 button manipulations.

I don't doubt that the iPod is more seamless. But how much is the 10-15 seconds to get it going worth? (I don't care about the color screen, I use a music player for playing music only, not for seeing color pictures.)

[ProfCrash]

When I bought my IPod's I really didn't know about any other devices. My first IPod was the third generation. Since then I have stuck to IPod's because they are easy to use and I am too lazy to convert or reload my music.

As for the Tablets, well the only ones I was honestly considering, based on ease of use and the like, were the Samsung Galaxies and those are priced pretty close to the IPad. Since more of my friends, read all of them, have IPads I needed to get an IPad to be able to play the games I like to play with them. That was the deciding factor.

[BeccaPrice]

@51 - granted my use is different than most people's. I have terrible insomnia, and sleep with my headphones on and my iPod attached. I need to be able to find and turn on my audiobook or podcast with as little fuss as possible, so as not to wake my spouse. I need to be able to set a sleep timer, so that the device will turn itself off within a set length of time. I can do that quickly and easily on the iPod. I'm not terribly bright at 3:00 am.

and it's not just the hardware, it's the software. I know lots of people hate iTunes, but it's the easiest software I've found that lets me catalog and manage music, audiobooks, and podcasts.

I like the ease of finding, subscribing, and syncing podcasts. I was given a SanDisk player that I never use, because I never could figure out how to get my podcasts downloaded and then loaded on it.

it's not just 15 seconds here and there, it's the time and effort I spend managing three iPod users and dealing with music, podcasts, and audiobooks. It's my daughter not getting frustrated with her mp3 player, but easily finding and playing the music she lives on. It's my husband, listening to audiobooks and podcasts while he drives to work.

so yeah, for me, the premium I paid to find our 5th gen iPods has been worth it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when they finally die (as all devices must) - I really hate the 6th gen ones. Maybe by the time our 5th gens die, Apple will have come to their senses and will give me a non-touch interface that I can manipulate by touch in the dark.

[Namekuseijin]

admit what? That a giant smartphone is an apple patent?

what an asshol...

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Talldog

But that wasn't pre-ordained, and it wasn't a purchase of the technology. In fact after Apple sued Microsoft over the GUI, Xerox sued Apple.

No, sorry, the idea that this is not a purchase is just flatly wrong.

Giving someone the opportunity to buy your stock before you go public can have tremendous value. Particularly in the case of Apple, which was the largest personal computer maker at the time. (Due to the Apple II).

Xerox allowed Apple access to PARC *in exchange for* the opportunity to buy stock at the pre-ipo price. Apple gave Xerox something of value and Xerox gave Apple something of value. That's what a purchase is.

I'm not sure what the relevance of Xerox's suit is here - the court dismissed it.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

IBM sued other companies over its BIOS as well and won. It wasn't until Phoenix proved they used a "clean room" approach and software engineers with no knowledge of IBM BIOS source code to reverse engineer the BIOS that IBM clones could be built.

My recollection is Compaq did it first.
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/d...able-Computer/
Phoenix was the first to *license* an IBM-compatible BIOS to all comers.

IBM, on the other hand, never sued over trade dress or trivialities they *knew* they would lose, just to bleed the smaller company out of the market.
Few companies are that petty.
(Shrug)

Not all lawsuits are unwarranted, but suing for every conceivable reason does lead to a fair amount of unwarranted and losing suits.

[Talldog]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

No, sorry, the idea that this is not a purchase is just flatly wrong.

Giving someone the opportunity to buy your stock before you go public can have tremendous value. Particularly in the case of Apple, which was the largest personal computer maker at the time. (Due to the Apple II).

Xerox allowed Apple access to PARC *in exchange for* the opportunity to buy stock at the pre-ipo price. Apple gave Xerox something of value and Xerox gave Apple something of value. That's what a purchase is.

I'm not sure what the relevance of Xerox's suit is here - the court dismissed it.

I'm not sure how you arrive at "flatly wrong" since Xerox clearly didn't think they sold it. As far as the value of the stock, that's never guaranteed. Don't forget only a few years later Apple almost went under. And the judge who dismissed the suit never ruled on the merits of the claims. He dismissed them for technical reasons related to where and how they were filed. And Apple never claimed that they had bought the technology. They claimed that ideas were not protected by copyright. Here's a good article from back in the day:

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/24/bu...anted=2&src=pm

[Ralph Sir Edward]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

@51 - granted my use is different than most people's. I have terrible insomnia, and sleep with my headphones on and my iPod attached. I need to be able to find and turn on my audiobook or podcast with as little fuss as possible, so as not to wake my spouse. I need to be able to set a sleep timer, so that the device will turn itself off within a set length of time. I can do that quickly and easily on the iPod. I'm not terribly bright at 3:00 am.

and it's not just the hardware, it's the software. I know lots of people hate iTunes, but it's the easiest software I've found that lets me catalog and manage music, audiobooks, and podcasts.

I like the ease of finding, subscribing, and syncing podcasts. I was given a SanDisk player that I never use, because I never could figure out how to get my podcasts downloaded and then loaded on it.

it's not just 15 seconds here and there, it's the time and effort I spend managing three iPod users and dealing with music, podcasts, and audiobooks. It's my daughter not getting frustrated with her mp3 player, but easily finding and playing the music she lives on. It's my husband, listening to audiobooks and podcasts while he drives to work.

so yeah, for me, the premium I paid to find our 5th gen iPods has been worth it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when they finally die (as all devices must) - I really hate the 6th gen ones. Maybe by the time our 5th gens die, Apple will have come to their senses and will give me a non-touch interface that I can manipulate by touch in the dark.

Thanks for responding. Different needs, different devices....

[BeccaPrice]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Thanks for responding. Different needs, different devices....

oh, yeah. I keep looking at other devices, but haven't seen anything as elegant. But a lot depends on where Apple goes with the Nano line in the future.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I held out to the IPad 3. I wanted a tablet, I looked at the Android ones. I was not happy with what I could get there. I looked at my friends who play stupid games that I like and they all had IPad's. I finally bought an IPad.

A part of me hates myself for doing it but the silly thing just works and works well. (shrugs)

I did laugh when I loaded the Kindle App, I got a pop up window asking me if I wanted to download IBooks and I said no. I think the IPad sighed a sad sigh.

My lady friend likes my Samsung Tab 7 Plus. She uses it a good bit more than I do. She carries it in her purse sometimes. She also has the latest iPod Touch which she loves which she used to put in her purse.

She has told me that when Apple brings out a 7" iPad, she wants one.

That's painful man. Painful. (Maybe I will fly down to my kids bar in Florida and check out the new decor.)