That HTML5 comment was not smart. Way to undermine your (current) developers dude.
People always worry that someone will come along and copy Apple and eat their lunch. But like someone once said (Guy Kawasaki?), the same reason they don't invent the stuff themselves in the first place also means they don't know what to copy. In this case they thought curation was an inessential feature and so did not copy it, but it looks like they were wrong.
Actually, that's a very good point. When you take the Desktop and Server Linux market (by opposition to phones), you'll essentially see distributions. The software is "open source", which essentially means for you as a user that you can compile it yourself, and modify it if need be. However, most users of Linux want things that "just work". In order to get this, you need a compatible computer (which is actually often the case "out of the box", given Linux's huge driver base) and a reliable distribution.
What this means is, Linux users delegate curation of their software to people. When, for example, you aptitude install software on your Debian, what happens is your computer goes to the Debian App Store (a very revolutionnary concept of the 90's), which is called a repository, and asks it for a curated version of that software, precompiled for your computer.
Yeah, that's sweet. And it runs just fine under the amazing Mac hardware.
However, when your try to take that metaphor to the telephone, you hit a brick wall. The main problem is that reinstalling your computer is easy. I installed my first Debian with floppies! "Reinstalling" a mobile phone is not for the faint of heart. Resinstalling a computer, simple as it is, is already complicated enough for the base user, imagine the act of reinstalling his/her phone...
Hence, it becomes extremely hard to have a "Ubuntu" of mobile phones, that anyone could install and that would have a curated repository of apps.
Google could have gone the route of curation, of course, with Android, but it would have undermined its position with the hardware vendors, as well as with the service companies, since it would have given Google way too much control over the phones. Android would have failed from the start, where it actually has a healthy market share right now.
In the end, if you want real open source, Debian Style, you need OpenMoko or some sort of Debian Android. If you want complete peace of mind, and are ready to sacrifice a bit of freedom, you need an iPhone. And if you want something in the middle, you can get an Android phone.
There is, however, yet another solution. You can get an iPhone, get a Apple (cheap) developper license, and find the open source software you want on the Internet. Then you can compile it on your iPhone, and do the curation yourself, the way Linux users did it "in the days"... and since that solution is available, maybe, just maybe, the real open source platform is the iPhone (when you only consider the software that runs on it, and not the OS...)
what they have really done is created and extended a culture of "free" where people are devaluing their personal information to receive "free" services
Very true, and very sad. I am a Mac OS X user, as well as a Linux user. I have an iPhone. I never download anything illegally, because I believe that anything that is worth dowloading is worth buying. I do download free stuff though, at places such as Jamendo... I also use iTunes and the App Store. My iPhone is NOT jailbroken. And I despise people who go cheating, downloading, stealing, and complaining about their (bad) experience. But, as you said, Google has done something very unhealthy for our society, making information look like it's without value.
Information is power. Giving you anything for "free" against a tiny bit of "information" translates to "selling you something for power". That's quite different.
I believe in Open Source, and Mac OS X benefited tremendously from Open Source. Just look at Safari.
But I think Android is, at the moment, a tool for Google's information harvesting business.There is no way I'm getting one, and I find sad that so many people will get one for the "cheapness" reasons.
In the end Googles Android is nothing more than a Mobile version of the Linux desktop - too Open for it to ever be successful as anything other than a cheap imitation of the real deal.
I guess you work for Microsoft's PR?
Android is based on Linux, it is far from being a "mobile version of the Linux Desktop" (see my above post why). The linux Desktop, anyway, is rather successful, and would be even more if not for the might of the Redmond giant and its well known, unethical business practices, for which it has been hilighed quite a few times. I suppose you'll deny this fact. I will not mention the numerous times where rules have been bended in international committees to make Microsoft keep that position, though you might look into (yes, I know you won't) the comedy that was the Microsoft XML document standardization. My point is, openness is not the issue, and "success" seems to be measured in different units by you and me. Given the incredible power Microsoft had, the market share of Linux is a huge success. That's a fact. Yes, Linux doesn't have a 80% market share. What it has is however impressive.
But I know I won't succeed in changing your mind. Keep your Windows mobile "real deal". I'll keep my UNIX iPhone, based on an opensource Darwin OS, using open standards.
Apple has been heavily advertising their App Store and Apps on television for THREE YEARS!
When was the last time you saw an Android Market commercial???
How about, NEVER???? I would wager that a huge % of android phone owners never even
click on the Android Market.
Yet, Google thinks they deserve the same cut that Apple takes for each app sale (30%)
PLUS the fees they charge for using google checkout to process app sales!
We released an app for Android market in December 2010.
A men's magazine "Spicy Magazine Sexy Latinas HD"
The free trial version got over 13,000 downloads in 1 month.
In that time, the paid version only got about 200 downloads.
This tells me the Android users that do use the Market, in large part are not paying for apps. Selling 100 million android phones is worthless to app developers if most of these people aren't shopping for apps.
As this article indicated, I hope google sets up a review team to reject garbage apps. All our content is properly licensed, and we spent time and money to make a quality interface for it. But it's visibility in the Android Market is hindered by the zillion copyright infringing, crappy apps that are just trying to push ads by releasing a new app every day and make the entire Market look like garbage.
Apple App Store had more quality apps 2 months into their launch then Android Market has now.
I have seen the "Marketplace" ads (sort-of), but Google doesn't run them. Verizon runs them, and all they say is "thousands of apps from the ever-expanding Android universe" or something like that. Not much of an ad really, since it is an ad for the phone hardware (Droid) not the Google Marketplace.
App did more to promote their App Store than Google has ever done. Hell, Google apparently thinks nobody watches TV. When was the last time you saw a Google ad on TV?
My brother just got an Android phone on Cricket. He has not set up his GMail account on it yet because he can't figure out how. He called me and asked me how he can get iPhone apps on his phone. He "chose" an Android phone because:
1. It was free.
2. He was told he needed a "smart phone".
The networks are selling Android like crazy to anyone - whether or not they even know what the heck to do with it.
I know this is just one example (I have a few other more tech-savvy friends who use the heck out of their Android phones - but two of them only use free-as-in-beer apps).
However: my wife, sister, daughter, niece, brother-in-law, and nephew all have iOS devices and buy apps regularly (my nephew just topped 500 apps).
Also, my other brother-in-law has a Windows phone 7 - and he can't figure out the windows app store, and we couldn't get app store gift cards for him for Christmas - while every iOS user we know got iTunes gift cards in their stockings...
Anecdote is not equal to fact. But it is something to think about...
I think this is something the Register highlighted recently. iPhone buyers buy an iPhone. Android buyers buy a Smartphone. The fact that the iPhone is an iPhone is the key part of the iPhone purchase, but the fact than an Android is an Android is by the by to your average android buyers - it could be WinMob, Linux, or even a port of AmigaOS for all they care.
10 BILLION downloads would seem to suggest ..... you're wrong!!! ....
No, he's right. The App store is hard to find what you're looking for. The entire iTunes store is well overdue for a resdesign. It might have worked okay when there were less items in it, but its just a mess now.
Sense has a borked up soft keyboard that doesn't respond the same way as stock. As in some of the freaking events are ignored which makes for some ugly code and hacks to work around the inability of some idiot at HTC to read a frigging spec.
Can you provide some specifics on what the problem is? I just checked my app on my friend's EVO and I couldn't find any problems. Used text, numbers and special characters.
The google marketplace is awesome that I can upload an app and have it available to users instant. Another downside is I can't give users a link to my app info in market place like you can in iTunes -- you need to be on the device to browse the android marketplace.
I used to browse the Android market daily when I got my G1. Having few apps made it possible. After a couple of months I couldn't keep up. Now, I almost never browse the market. AppBrain on the other hand is excellent. Before the Froyo update, I could also install the apps OTA directly from the web on to my phone. I expect that when Google releases the web app they showed last year at I/O, app discovery and installation will be as good as mail, contacts, calendar etc. seamless syncing is today.
For a company that has spent the last decade steering people towards the web, not having a web based Market and a hopeless search in the Market app is a complete head scratcher.
10 BILLION downloads would seem to suggest ..... you're wrong!!! ....
Millions of people used Windows worldwide. It wasn't that great of an OS until Windows 7 came out and changed everything. For me, I had just about enough of iTunes. In the end, before I sold my iPod Touch and iPad 2 weeks ago, I used the devices to search for and download software. I can go on an on about how much the experience sucked for me. But it doesn't matter. As you said, millions of people use the App Store and if they are happy with it, good for them.
"Chu also indicated that Google planned to turn users' Address Books into a "social graph" that third party apps could tap into."
This is outrageous, and a violation of any rational privacy rules. This should be investigated by Congress and the FCC. Being in someone's address book does not mean I have agreed that my information can go out to Google or any developers. This is criminal.
No, he's right. The App store is hard to find what you're looking for. The entire iTunes store is well overdue for a resdesign. It might have worked okay when there were less items in it, but its just a mess now.
well let's see .... on one hand is the opinion of the 2 of you .... otoh is the opinion of 10 FREAKIN' BILLION .... hmmmm 2 of yo .... 10 billion .... I dunno .. tough call ....
Millions of people used Windows worldwide. It wasn't that great of an OS until Windows 7 came out and changed everything. For me, I had just about enough of iTunes. In the end, before I sold my iPod Touch and iPad 2 weeks ago, I used the devices to search for and download software. I can go on an on about how much the experience sucked for me. But it doesn't matter. As you said, millions of people use the App Store and if they are happy with it, good for them.
As anyone who reads my posts will know I am not a windows fan by any stretch of the imagination .... but even I might have to say that windows 95 and XP were a pretty good OS for their time ... not better than Mac OS, imho, ... but still good.
Having said that I have to recognize the fact that no matter how many billions of any thing are used they may not be a fit for everyone.
I would be interested in knowing what version of iTunes you're using. I absolutely love iTunes ... but I run it on an intel iMac and am still using version 9.2.1 (4) .... that might be the difference between our two experiences.
well let's see .... on one hand is the opinion of the 2 of you .... otoh is the opinion of 10 FREAKIN' BILLION .... hmmmm 2 of yo .... 10 billion .... I dunno .. tough call ....
But it isn't 10 billion opinions, is it?
First of all, several dozen of those purchases are mine. You need to first establish how many purchasers your average purchaser makes. Yeah, its still a lot of buyers, but its not 10 billion.
None of those purchases I've made can be taken as an "Endorsement" that I think its well designed - it means on this occasion I managed to find something I want.. But how much could I want that I simply don't know is there?
Just like when I buy a Big Mac, it doesnt mean I like the way the McDonalds outlet is designed (the green colour they seem to be painting them now is awful)... it means I want a Hamburger.
None of the other purchasers are an endoresement of the store's design. It again means someone found a product in there... But again, if it was better designed, how many more items could have been sold?
If you want to use the sales figures as a barometer as to how well its designed (which is still ridiculous), then I'm afraid you're going to need to head into a parallel reality where it is better designed, and compare the sales figures. I'm going to go ahead and guess your name isn't Quinn Malaroy
First of all, several dozen of those purchases are mine. You need to first establish how many purchasers your average purchaser makes. Yeah, its still a lot of buyers, but its not 10 billion.
But I'd be willing to bet it's still bigger than TWO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChickenHawk
None of those purchases I've made can be taken as an "Endorsement" that I think its well designed - it means on this occasion I managed to find something I want..
Then the "design" must be working for you, or else you wouldn't be bothered using it for those "several dozen of purchases" would you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChickenHawk
But how much could I want that I simply don't know is there?
Haven't you ever "Googled" something only to find there were several 1000s, even 10s of 1000s of suggestions? ... do you look at them all ... do you feel "left out" because you don't know what the rest of the suggestions are? Probably not, so what's so different about searching for apps or googling? As long as you're finding something that works for you .... it's working.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChickenHawk
If you want to use the sales figures as a barometer as to how well its designed (which is still ridiculous), then I'm afraid you're going to need to head into a parallel reality where it is better designed, and compare the sales figures. I'm going to go ahead and guess your name isn't Quinn Malaroy
That's just a ridiculous statement to make. What other criteria are you going to use, other than downloads. Clearly, if it was such a lousy design it wouldn't be as popular as it is ... and 10 billion downloads tells me, and any other unbiased observer, that it is indeed, very popular.
PS ... Nice "Sliders" reference ..... I used to really enjoy that show .... the whole "time travel" thing is one of my favorite things to watch.
The linux Desktop, anyway, is rather successful, and would be even more if not for the might of the Redmond giant and its well known, unethical business practices, for which it has been hilighed quite a few times.
Dude, the OS is free and it has a 1%-2% desktop market share. That's not successful at all.
Given the massive failure of Linux in Munich, Vienna, and Soluturn it wasn't MS ebilness that killed Linux in those cities but that the OS just sucks as a desktop OS.
Quote:
I suppose you'll deny this fact. I will not mention the numerous times where rules have been bended in international committees to make Microsoft keep that position, though you might look into (yes, I know you won't) the comedy that was the Microsoft XML document standardization.
No more of a comedy than ODF. IBM, Sun, Novell, et al pushed ODF though with the intent of shafting MS in selling Office to the government markets. Too bad all of those initiatives are pretty much dead eh? Too bad that Sun and Novell are dead as well.
That's a cynical use of standards to screw over a competitor. I much prefer the tack that Apple tends to take: create a product that blows the competition away.
Something that FreetardOffice, IBM, Sun, Novell, et al were completely unable to do. Attempting to legislate an "open standard" that excluded MS Office was simply an admission that they simply could not compete on a technical level with MS.
Which is pretty damn sad. Apple created Keynote which if they ever ported over to Windows would give Powerpoint a real run for the money.
Quote:
My point is, openness is not the issue, and "success" seems to be measured in different units by you and me. Given the incredible power Microsoft had, the market share of Linux is a huge success. That's a fact. Yes, Linux doesn't have a 80% market share. What it has is however impressive.
If Linux had 8% share that would be impressive. Linux on the desktop has been a decade of failtrain. Instead it trails behind an OS that is tied to expensive hardware.
Quote:
But I know I won't succeed in changing your mind. Keep your Windows mobile "real deal". I'll keep my UNIX iPhone, based on an opensource Darwin OS, using open standards.
There's a lot of open source stuff at MS as well. This is such a bizzaro post...Apple is not the poster child for Open. It might be the poster child for being Open in a smart way. Sun would be the poster child for being Open in the stupid way. Google the poster child for being open in the cynical way. IBM the poster child for being open in the evil way.
Can you provide some specifics on what the problem is? I just checked my app on my friend's EVO and I couldn't find any problems. Used text, numbers and special characters.
It's been a few months but I'm guessing you're not using imeOptions. Sense doesn't honor the Done key behavior. You can't use IME_ACTION_DONE but are stuck with needing to trap KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER via an OnKeyListener as well. And the behavior doesn't work quite right either so I have one screen that's slightly broken on HTC phones. On stock you can set an OnEditorActionListener and trigger behavior on IME_ACTION_DONE.
I also ran into this weird behavior with OnEditorActionListener with Sense:
Technically, softkeyboards don't have to honor imeOptions. In practice it's a mess when they don't. Okay, I understand when something like Swipe might not but the base keyboard for Sense really should.
So my Android code is littered with hacks for various stuff that I've labeled with FIXME in the hopes I can make them go away in the future.
Comments
That HTML5 comment was not smart. Way to undermine your (current) developers dude.
People always worry that someone will come along and copy Apple and eat their lunch. But like someone once said (Guy Kawasaki?), the same reason they don't invent the stuff themselves in the first place also means they don't know what to copy. In this case they thought curation was an inessential feature and so did not copy it, but it looks like they were wrong.
Actually, that's a very good point. When you take the Desktop and Server Linux market (by opposition to phones), you'll essentially see distributions. The software is "open source", which essentially means for you as a user that you can compile it yourself, and modify it if need be. However, most users of Linux want things that "just work". In order to get this, you need a compatible computer (which is actually often the case "out of the box", given Linux's huge driver base) and a reliable distribution.
What this means is, Linux users delegate curation of their software to people. When, for example, you aptitude install software on your Debian, what happens is your computer goes to the Debian App Store (a very revolutionnary concept of the 90's), which is called a repository, and asks it for a curated version of that software, precompiled for your computer.
Yeah, that's sweet. And it runs just fine under the amazing Mac hardware.
However, when your try to take that metaphor to the telephone, you hit a brick wall. The main problem is that reinstalling your computer is easy. I installed my first Debian with floppies! "Reinstalling" a mobile phone is not for the faint of heart. Resinstalling a computer, simple as it is, is already complicated enough for the base user, imagine the act of reinstalling his/her phone...
Hence, it becomes extremely hard to have a "Ubuntu" of mobile phones, that anyone could install and that would have a curated repository of apps.
Google could have gone the route of curation, of course, with Android, but it would have undermined its position with the hardware vendors, as well as with the service companies, since it would have given Google way too much control over the phones. Android would have failed from the start, where it actually has a healthy market share right now.
In the end, if you want real open source, Debian Style, you need OpenMoko or some sort of Debian Android. If you want complete peace of mind, and are ready to sacrifice a bit of freedom, you need an iPhone. And if you want something in the middle, you can get an Android phone.
There is, however, yet another solution. You can get an iPhone, get a Apple (cheap) developper license, and find the open source software you want on the Internet. Then you can compile it on your iPhone, and do the curation yourself, the way Linux users did it "in the days"... and since that solution is available, maybe, just maybe, the real open source platform is the iPhone (when you only consider the software that runs on it, and not the OS...)
what they have really done is created and extended a culture of "free" where people are devaluing their personal information to receive "free" services
Very true, and very sad. I am a Mac OS X user, as well as a Linux user. I have an iPhone. I never download anything illegally, because I believe that anything that is worth dowloading is worth buying. I do download free stuff though, at places such as Jamendo... I also use iTunes and the App Store. My iPhone is NOT jailbroken. And I despise people who go cheating, downloading, stealing, and complaining about their (bad) experience. But, as you said, Google has done something very unhealthy for our society, making information look like it's without value.
Information is power. Giving you anything for "free" against a tiny bit of "information" translates to "selling you something for power". That's quite different.
I believe in Open Source, and Mac OS X benefited tremendously from Open Source. Just look at Safari.
But I think Android is, at the moment, a tool for Google's information harvesting business.There is no way I'm getting one, and I find sad that so many people will get one for the "cheapness" reasons.
In the end Googles Android is nothing more than a Mobile version of the Linux desktop - too Open for it to ever be successful as anything other than a cheap imitation of the real deal.
I guess you work for Microsoft's PR?
Android is based on Linux, it is far from being a "mobile version of the Linux Desktop" (see my above post why). The linux Desktop, anyway, is rather successful, and would be even more if not for the might of the Redmond giant and its well known, unethical business practices, for which it has been hilighed quite a few times. I suppose you'll deny this fact. I will not mention the numerous times where rules have been bended in international committees to make Microsoft keep that position, though you might look into (yes, I know you won't) the comedy that was the Microsoft XML document standardization. My point is, openness is not the issue, and "success" seems to be measured in different units by you and me. Given the incredible power Microsoft had, the market share of Linux is a huge success. That's a fact. Yes, Linux doesn't have a 80% market share. What it has is however impressive.
But I know I won't succeed in changing your mind. Keep your Windows mobile "real deal". I'll keep my UNIX iPhone, based on an opensource Darwin OS, using open standards.
Edit: Since Open sucks that much, why don't you write to Steve Jobs to suggest he takes those parts of Apple's Site down? http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/ http://images.apple.com/macosx/techn...UNIX_TB_FF.pdf http://www.apple.com/opensource/ Yes, that's horrible, Mac OS X is Open Source - based. That's a cheap imitation of the real deal, your Windows Vista, right?
Gee. Let's see.
Apple has been heavily advertising their App Store and Apps on television for THREE YEARS!
When was the last time you saw an Android Market commercial???
How about, NEVER???? I would wager that a huge % of android phone owners never even
click on the Android Market.
Yet, Google thinks they deserve the same cut that Apple takes for each app sale (30%)
PLUS the fees they charge for using google checkout to process app sales!
We released an app for Android market in December 2010.
A men's magazine "Spicy Magazine Sexy Latinas HD"
The free trial version got over 13,000 downloads in 1 month.
In that time, the paid version only got about 200 downloads.
This tells me the Android users that do use the Market, in large part are not paying for apps. Selling 100 million android phones is worthless to app developers if most of these people aren't shopping for apps.
As this article indicated, I hope google sets up a review team to reject garbage apps. All our content is properly licensed, and we spent time and money to make a quality interface for it. But it's visibility in the Android Market is hindered by the zillion copyright infringing, crappy apps that are just trying to push ads by releasing a new app every day and make the entire Market look like garbage.
Apple App Store had more quality apps 2 months into their launch then Android Market has now.
I have seen the "Marketplace" ads (sort-of), but Google doesn't run them. Verizon runs them, and all they say is "thousands of apps from the ever-expanding Android universe" or something like that. Not much of an ad really, since it is an ad for the phone hardware (Droid) not the Google Marketplace.
App did more to promote their App Store than Google has ever done. Hell, Google apparently thinks nobody watches TV. When was the last time you saw a Google ad on TV?
..... But the AppStore is no great shakes either. It also sucks, albeit a little less.
10 BILLION downloads would seem to suggest ..... you're wrong!!! ....
Here is one simple anecdote:
My brother just got an Android phone on Cricket. He has not set up his GMail account on it yet because he can't figure out how. He called me and asked me how he can get iPhone apps on his phone. He "chose" an Android phone because:
1. It was free.
2. He was told he needed a "smart phone".
The networks are selling Android like crazy to anyone - whether or not they even know what the heck to do with it.
I know this is just one example (I have a few other more tech-savvy friends who use the heck out of their Android phones - but two of them only use free-as-in-beer apps).
However: my wife, sister, daughter, niece, brother-in-law, and nephew all have iOS devices and buy apps regularly (my nephew just topped 500 apps).
Also, my other brother-in-law has a Windows phone 7 - and he can't figure out the windows app store, and we couldn't get app store gift cards for him for Christmas - while every iOS user we know got iTunes gift cards in their stockings...
Anecdote is not equal to fact. But it is something to think about...
I think this is something the Register highlighted recently. iPhone buyers buy an iPhone. Android buyers buy a Smartphone. The fact that the iPhone is an iPhone is the key part of the iPhone purchase, but the fact than an Android is an Android is by the by to your average android buyers - it could be WinMob, Linux, or even a port of AmigaOS for all they care.
10 BILLION downloads would seem to suggest ..... you're wrong!!! ....
No, he's right. The App store is hard to find what you're looking for. The entire iTunes store is well overdue for a resdesign. It might have worked okay when there were less items in it, but its just a mess now.
Sense has a borked up soft keyboard that doesn't respond the same way as stock. As in some of the freaking events are ignored which makes for some ugly code and hacks to work around the inability of some idiot at HTC to read a frigging spec.
Can you provide some specifics on what the problem is? I just checked my app on my friend's EVO and I couldn't find any problems. Used text, numbers and special characters.
The google marketplace is awesome that I can upload an app and have it available to users instant. Another downside is I can't give users a link to my app info in market place like you can in iTunes -- you need to be on the device to browse the android marketplace.
I used to browse the Android market daily when I got my G1. Having few apps made it possible. After a couple of months I couldn't keep up. Now, I almost never browse the market. AppBrain on the other hand is excellent. Before the Froyo update, I could also install the apps OTA directly from the web on to my phone. I expect that when Google releases the web app they showed last year at I/O, app discovery and installation will be as good as mail, contacts, calendar etc. seamless syncing is today.
For a company that has spent the last decade steering people towards the web, not having a web based Market and a hopeless search in the Market app is a complete head scratcher.
10 BILLION downloads would seem to suggest ..... you're wrong!!! ....
Millions of people used Windows worldwide. It wasn't that great of an OS until Windows 7 came out and changed everything. For me, I had just about enough of iTunes. In the end, before I sold my iPod Touch and iPad 2 weeks ago, I used the devices to search for and download software. I can go on an on about how much the experience sucked for me. But it doesn't matter. As you said, millions of people use the App Store and if they are happy with it, good for them.
"Chu also indicated that Google planned to turn users' Address Books into a "social graph" that third party apps could tap into."
This is outrageous, and a violation of any rational privacy rules. This should be investigated by Congress and the FCC. Being in someone's address book does not mean I have agreed that my information can go out to Google or any developers. This is criminal.
No, he's right. The App store is hard to find what you're looking for. The entire iTunes store is well overdue for a resdesign. It might have worked okay when there were less items in it, but its just a mess now.
well let's see .... on one hand is the opinion of the 2 of you .... otoh is the opinion of 10 FREAKIN' BILLION .... hmmmm 2 of yo .... 10 billion .... I dunno .. tough call ....
Millions of people used Windows worldwide. It wasn't that great of an OS until Windows 7 came out and changed everything. For me, I had just about enough of iTunes. In the end, before I sold my iPod Touch and iPad 2 weeks ago, I used the devices to search for and download software. I can go on an on about how much the experience sucked for me. But it doesn't matter. As you said, millions of people use the App Store and if they are happy with it, good for them.
As anyone who reads my posts will know I am not a windows fan by any stretch of the imagination .... but even I might have to say that windows 95 and XP were a pretty good OS for their time ... not better than Mac OS, imho, ... but still good.
Having said that I have to recognize the fact that no matter how many billions of any thing are used they may not be a fit for everyone.
I would be interested in knowing what version of iTunes you're using. I absolutely love iTunes ... but I run it on an intel iMac and am still using version 9.2.1 (4) .... that might be the difference between our two experiences.
well let's see .... on one hand is the opinion of the 2 of you .... otoh is the opinion of 10 FREAKIN' BILLION .... hmmmm 2 of yo .... 10 billion .... I dunno .. tough call ....
But it isn't 10 billion opinions, is it?
First of all, several dozen of those purchases are mine. You need to first establish how many purchasers your average purchaser makes. Yeah, its still a lot of buyers, but its not 10 billion.
None of those purchases I've made can be taken as an "Endorsement" that I think its well designed - it means on this occasion I managed to find something I want.. But how much could I want that I simply don't know is there?
Just like when I buy a Big Mac, it doesnt mean I like the way the McDonalds outlet is designed (the green colour they seem to be painting them now is awful)... it means I want a Hamburger.
None of the other purchasers are an endoresement of the store's design. It again means someone found a product in there... But again, if it was better designed, how many more items could have been sold?
If you want to use the sales figures as a barometer as to how well its designed (which is still ridiculous), then I'm afraid you're going to need to head into a parallel reality where it is better designed, and compare the sales figures. I'm going to go ahead and guess your name isn't Quinn Malaroy
But it isn't 10 billion opinions, is it?
First of all, several dozen of those purchases are mine. You need to first establish how many purchasers your average purchaser makes. Yeah, its still a lot of buyers, but its not 10 billion.
But I'd be willing to bet it's still bigger than TWO.
None of those purchases I've made can be taken as an "Endorsement" that I think its well designed - it means on this occasion I managed to find something I want..
Then the "design" must be working for you, or else you wouldn't be bothered using it for those "several dozen of purchases" would you?
But how much could I want that I simply don't know is there?
Haven't you ever "Googled" something only to find there were several 1000s, even 10s of 1000s of suggestions? ... do you look at them all ... do you feel "left out" because you don't know what the rest of the suggestions are? Probably not, so what's so different about searching for apps or googling? As long as you're finding something that works for you .... it's working.
If you want to use the sales figures as a barometer as to how well its designed (which is still ridiculous), then I'm afraid you're going to need to head into a parallel reality where it is better designed, and compare the sales figures. I'm going to go ahead and guess your name isn't Quinn Malaroy
That's just a ridiculous statement to make. What other criteria are you going to use, other than downloads. Clearly, if it was such a lousy design it wouldn't be as popular as it is ... and 10 billion downloads tells me, and any other unbiased observer, that it is indeed, very popular.
PS ... Nice "Sliders" reference ..... I used to really enjoy that show .... the whole "time travel" thing is one of my favorite things to watch.
The linux Desktop, anyway, is rather successful, and would be even more if not for the might of the Redmond giant and its well known, unethical business practices, for which it has been hilighed quite a few times.
Dude, the OS is free and it has a 1%-2% desktop market share. That's not successful at all.
Given the massive failure of Linux in Munich, Vienna, and Soluturn it wasn't MS ebilness that killed Linux in those cities but that the OS just sucks as a desktop OS.
I suppose you'll deny this fact. I will not mention the numerous times where rules have been bended in international committees to make Microsoft keep that position, though you might look into (yes, I know you won't) the comedy that was the Microsoft XML document standardization.
No more of a comedy than ODF. IBM, Sun, Novell, et al pushed ODF though with the intent of shafting MS in selling Office to the government markets. Too bad all of those initiatives are pretty much dead eh? Too bad that Sun and Novell are dead as well.
That's a cynical use of standards to screw over a competitor. I much prefer the tack that Apple tends to take: create a product that blows the competition away.
Something that FreetardOffice, IBM, Sun, Novell, et al were completely unable to do. Attempting to legislate an "open standard" that excluded MS Office was simply an admission that they simply could not compete on a technical level with MS.
Which is pretty damn sad. Apple created Keynote which if they ever ported over to Windows would give Powerpoint a real run for the money.
My point is, openness is not the issue, and "success" seems to be measured in different units by you and me. Given the incredible power Microsoft had, the market share of Linux is a huge success. That's a fact. Yes, Linux doesn't have a 80% market share. What it has is however impressive.
If Linux had 8% share that would be impressive. Linux on the desktop has been a decade of failtrain. Instead it trails behind an OS that is tied to expensive hardware.
But I know I won't succeed in changing your mind. Keep your Windows mobile "real deal". I'll keep my UNIX iPhone, based on an opensource Darwin OS, using open standards.
Edit: Since Open sucks that much, why don't you write to Steve Jobs to suggest he takes those parts of Apple's Site down? http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/ http://images.apple.com/macosx/techn...UNIX_TB_FF.pdf http://www.apple.com/opensource/ Yes, that's horrible, Mac OS X is Open Source - based. That's a cheap imitation of the real deal, your Windows Vista, right?
There's a lot of open source stuff at MS as well. This is such a bizzaro post...Apple is not the poster child for Open. It might be the poster child for being Open in a smart way. Sun would be the poster child for being Open in the stupid way. Google the poster child for being open in the cynical way. IBM the poster child for being open in the evil way.
Can you provide some specifics on what the problem is? I just checked my app on my friend's EVO and I couldn't find any problems. Used text, numbers and special characters.
It's been a few months but I'm guessing you're not using imeOptions. Sense doesn't honor the Done key behavior. You can't use IME_ACTION_DONE but are stuck with needing to trap KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER via an OnKeyListener as well. And the behavior doesn't work quite right either so I have one screen that's slightly broken on HTC phones. On stock you can set an OnEditorActionListener and trigger behavior on IME_ACTION_DONE.
I also ran into this weird behavior with OnEditorActionListener with Sense:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4...nseui-keyboard
Technically, softkeyboards don't have to honor imeOptions. In practice it's a mess when they don't. Okay, I understand when something like Swipe might not but the base keyboard for Sense really should.
So my Android code is littered with hacks for various stuff that I've labeled with FIXME in the hopes I can make them go away in the future.