3G

[amigadave]

Who here is thinking of getting a new cell phone on July 11th?

Half the price and twice the speed for the new Apple iPhone is very tempting for me, I just wish that it would work on my phone provider of choice "Verizon", as they have the best coverage in my area.

My laptop of choice is a MacBook, I have an Intel MacMini as my Carputer in my Dodge Nitro R/T 4x4 (Sunburst Orange and gorgeous, full black leather interior w/heated front seats, 20" chrome wheels, bought before I was forced to retire), my monsters sized Dell XPS tower with WindowsXP Media Edition will be converted to a Hack-Intosh with Parallels, or Boot Camp as soon as I can figure out how to do it safely.

I am impressed with the world of "Mac" and think that Apple has done a great job at creating some innovative products and the most usable - user friendly OS on the planet.

Amiga for fun and old school video editing, Mac for everything else would be great for me.  I would love to dump MS Windows forever, I just hate the thought of learning another CAD program and still have not found a decent navigation program for the Mac.  I just wish that the Mac had more market share to get more developers and provide ALL the programs on the Mac that are available for Windows.

[Nlandas]

    Is that Troll bait? Because I for one won't own a product by Apple if they paid me. Steve Jobs is far worse than Bill Gates.

I am quite happy with my free with contract Treo.

[amigadave]

Nlandas wrote:
    Is that Troll bait? Because I for one won't own a product by Apple if they paid me. Steve Jobs is far worse than Bill Gates.

I am quite happy with my free with contract Treo.

Nooooooo!  I don't troll here or anywhere other than Big Bear Lake for trout.

Why so much dislike for Apple products and how can you compare Steve Jobs with Bill Gates?  Steve is an a$$h0le and Apple products are over priced, but Bill Gates is a criminal and has harmed the entire computer community in so many ways for so many years, there is no comparison.  Where would we be today if DOS and Windows had not held back innovation and creativity by killing dozens, if not hundreds of competing companies with unethical and many times illegal business practices?  What would computing be like if we had choices and developers were free to create without being forced to use DOS/Windows crippled tools because there was no other financially viable choice to make?

Apple is not a perfect choice, but it is light years ahead of anything that MS has to offer.

[chiark]

Already have an iphone, bought 6 weeks ago when the price dropped in the UK to 169, and unlocked to work with my work-provided SIM.

Will I change to the new version?  Yes, as long as I can unlock it.  By the sounds of it, I'll need to sign a contract in store to get a new iphone, and I'm not really interested in that though unless they do a cheap data only rate.

Major reason for changing? Tomtom.  At the moment I use a Windows Mobile device for Tomtom navigation: if the iphone can do that as well as everything it does, it's the one device I need...  

The only thing innovative Apple has created recently (and I'm thinking post-Lisa, really) is a very nice, effective system for marketing their products. Oh, that and the iPod.

OS X would have been innovative, had it been released as version 8 of the MacOS instead of version 10. UNIX on the home desktop was still a new idea back in the 90s, but Linux is the platform that really pushed multiuser operating systems into use by consumers, not the Mac. OS X was catchup, a way for Apple to avoid losing what little market share they had, no more.

However, I'm in complete agreement with your comments about Microsoft and Bill Gates. He has stolen at least half of what they sell, and the other half leaves me with the same feeling I get when I look at a Kia - it works, but I wouldn't be caught dead driving one!

I have to use XP on my laptop for work - have to, because the very small company I work for is dependent on a legacy system written to run in MS Access. Between other projects, I'm working on replacing that entire system, and I'm really happy about that and can't wait until I can replace XP with something else. _Anything_ else.  :madashell:

amigadave wrote:
Where would we be today if DOS and Windows had not held back innovation and creativity by killing dozens, if not hundreds of competing companies with unethical and many times illegal business practices?  What would computing be like if we had choices and developers were free to create without being forced to use DOS/Windows crippled tools because there was no other financially viable choice to make?

That's a good question, and one to which we may never know the answer. No one with power seems interested in doing anything about Gates's crimes, probably because he pays his taxes. Personally, I think it'll take an act of god to get rid of him and his legions of bottom of the barrel programmers. (That's not to say they're all like that, I'm sure there are a few good hackers up there in Redmond, but the quality of their products reflects poorly on them as a group.)

I think it'd be hilarious if some group of people out there just started ripping off MS's stuff right back. A great place to start would be designing a kernel for the PC that could use Windows device drivers. Forget about coding them, just steal them from Gates!  :idea:

[Nlandas]

Sorry AmigaDave, I didn't mean to rant -- I'm simple amazed at the shear about of free iPhone press that Apple is getting and it just "set me off" when I saw it here. I apologize in advance and I'm sure I just ruined your thread, as it'll now devolve into a platform thread. It's just that Apple's iPhone isn't all that innovative - smartphones have been doing the majority of it's features for years. As normal Apple has simple done a good job of packaging and marketing their version of it.

Bill Gates, while a ruthless competitor typically stands by his deals. I do believe that both Bill and Steve have held back the industry. The book "On The Edge" does a great job of describing Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Steve is by far the worse. I believe that Apple has lied more in it's marketing than any other vendor in the PC industry. They still do it today in their Mac vs. PC adds.

I have no love for Microsoft either, my Treo runs PalmOS and my next will run a Linux variant. Apple has been ripping off consumers for years. As you say, their products are over priced and they are the sole source of those products. While Windows may be a virtual monopoly, it runs on thousands of hardware vendors machines. I have more choice with Microsoft OSs than someone has with Apple. (Yes, I realize the irony that Amiga was a sole source provider of AmigaOS hardware as well - I never liked that either. I thought they should have allowed cloning back in 1987.)

Of course I'd rather run Linux or actually AmigaOS if it's ever updated and released on modern hardware, I stand by my statement -- I will never own an Apple product. It'd rip my heart out if AmigaOS 4 was ported to Mac Mini like many here talked about.

I don't agree that Apple is light years ahead of anyone, except in marketing. We have 50+ Mac OS X machines here that we support and they are not any easier to use and are harder to support. (There are simply less sources of information and no local repair shops.) OS X crashes, has bugs, doesn't well support all hardware(especially printers) contrary to Apple's marketing. All OS X is, is a variant of NextOS/BSD with a pretty front end with a premium price tag. Once again Apple has done a GREAT job of marketing Unix to the masses.

To go slightly more back on topic -

The RIM 9000 looks really neat. As does the new Palm slated to use a Linux variant.

Other than the multi-touch interface, why do feel that the iPhone's interface is really that compelling over the RIM or Treo lines or even the new Samsung with multi-touch?

[persia]

Yep, 3G and US$199, not a bad phone.  I'll take one...

[amigadave]

Well, I have never seen a crash on any of my Macs, but I have only been using Mac devices since my first Mac, a G4 Powerbook of a few years ago.

When it comes to computers, I don't mind tinkering with my Amigas and I know that there is no support from anyone except the community and my own brain.  But when it comes to a mainstream computer that I want to use for working, I want and expect it to work just like every other appliance in my home, just like my TV, phone, refrigerator, etc.  I just want to plug it in and use it for what it is intended.  With a Mac, that is what happens, it just works.  It finds network wifi for me and the OSX interface is more intuitive IMHO than Windows will ever be.  As for Linux and its cousins, I am all for them and hope that they will mature some day to be useful to people in general and not just geeks and nerds that go under the hood and make it work the way they want, or the way it should without any intervention.

Some people don't like Macs because Apple is too controlling and limiting in the way they work.  I happen to like the direction Apple has gone and love that their products work so well together, so I like the fact that an iPhone will integrate with my laptop, Carputer and iPod and hopefully some day with my Dell tower.  All without me having to be an expert at configuring each device to recognize each other.

It just works, so it works for me.

I don't have enough hours in the day to do all the tinkering I want to do on my Amiga collection, so why would I want to have to tinker with my other devices.

That is me, others will feel much differently and the Mac experience is not for you.

By the way, Palm comes in a close second in my opinion.

[bloodline]

I've had a 1st generation iPhone since release in the UK... It's a great phone and by far the best PDA I've ever used. Like the Mac it benefits from the tight OS/Hardware integration... But what really sets it apart is the work of genius user interface, which is unmatched by other devices. I'll be first in line for a 16gig 3G one in July!

[motorollin]

I'll be upgrading to a new 3G iPhone too. I'll unlock the iPhone I've got now and eBay it. Hopefully I'll make back the cost of the upgrade :-)

bloodline wrote:
I'll be first in line

I'm sharpening my elbows...

--
moto

[spihunter]

 I agree with alot the anti Bill Gates & Apple stuff thats been said here but this is a phone not a home computer.

There's alot of competition on the smart phone market these
days. thats why they keep getting better and better at a fast rate.

Right now the 3G iphone is the "Amiga" of smart phones. I dont care who made it. Its pretty awesome and I'm thinking about getting one.

[Nlandas]

amigadave wrote:
Well, I have never seen a crash on any of my Macs, but I have only been using Mac devices since my first Mac, a G4 Powerbook of a few years ago.

(EDIT)

But when it comes to a mainstream computer that I want to use for working, I want and expect it to work just like every other appliance in my home, just like my TV, phone, refrigerator, etc.  I just want to plug it in and use it for what it is intended.  With a Mac, that is what happens, it just works.  

(EDIT)

By the way, Palm comes in a close second in my opinion.

    I'm glad you've had such a positive experience with them. I can tell you after supporting them for 18 years that everything doesn't always go smoothly with them. If you only use Apple devices or certain products listed as compatible you are usually OK. They do get a lot less support than PC compatibles do when it comes to drivers and bug fixes to drivers. In an enterprise environment this can be a pain.

     We have Mac users telling us but Apple says it just works. you hook it up and it finds the device and it just works. Meanwhile, the piece of graphics software they are using has a bug that causes it to not correctly talk to the Xerox driver and print server and when it does, it doesn't support the paper size that they want to use, unless you first type a cryptic command into the CLI. We literally have to create little guides of "work arounds" for our Mac labs and the users simple accept them as normal.

     I don't love Windows but I've installed thousands of systems with it and believe it or not, it just works too. Finds a wireless network and sets it up, plug and plays printers, etc. Really don't love Microsoft but wow, if Apple were a political party they'd be the kings of rhetoric.

Doesn't crash.
Can connect to any device automatically and work with it.
It just works.
Runs faster than any other PC.
Is easier to use.
Is better for graphics.
Makes you cool.

I thought Amiga had a cult following. :-o Then I realized that most Amiga users have no problem using other technologies, they just had reasons for liking the Amiga.

Keep on keeping on.  :-D  We'll just have to agree, to disagree on how evil Apple is. Sounds like we have some common ground on Palm and Amiga. RIM is pretty cool too - I guess they all run on a Linux variant and the times I've been able to play with a blackberry it's been easy to use.

I guess I'm still a hold out, who'd love to see AmigaOS used as the strong basis for a new modern OS that runs on common hardware.

[bloodline]

motorollin wrote:
I'll be upgrading to a new 3G iPhone too. I'll unlock the iPhone I've got now and eBay it. Hopefully I'll make back the cost of the upgrade :-)

bloodline wrote:
I'll be first in line

I'm sharpening my elbows...

--
moto

Fine fine... I'll go second then... Gah, you can't take him anywhere :roll: :lol: ;-)

[Nlandas]

spihunter wrote:
 I agree with alot the anti Bill Gates & Apple stuff thats been said here but this is a phone not a home computer.

There's alot of competition on the smart phone market these
days. thats why they keep getting better and better at a fast rate.

Right now the 3G iphone is the "Amiga" of smart phones. I dont care who made it. Its pretty awesome and I'm thinking about getting one.

So, if the anti-christ made a really cool techno-widget you'd be sure to send him your do re me? Yes, it's a phone but it's profits go to Apple. :-P

If I needed 3G, I'd wait for the RIM to be done.

However, it's not my money - but I send none of it to Apple and as little of it to Microsoft that I can't help.

To each their own. :crazy:

-Nyle  

[niklasni1]

Linux is the platform that really pushed multiuser operating systems into use by consumers

Errh? "No"?

As for the JesusPhone, I don't want one.