@[B]antkm1[/B], this is very interesting. I've sometimes wondered if this de facto message and video communication network of Apple's is a very big deal for the future or not. Maybe the less said about it in public the better, but I would like to know how it's doing in terms of bandwidth vs. the load it carries, and what it could be in the future. The few times I've used FaceTime to my brother in New York, it's been very good, and it really is a kind of virtual visiting. Apple may have another tiger by the tail here, but few see what's going on. Anyway, thanks for the info.
"To little result"? Just your wild hunch that you thought we should all care to know, or do you have any evidence?
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
Well, I have been to IBM's R&D facilities in New Delhi (India) a few times, and while I can't be very specific (due to obvious reasons), I have seen some extraordinary product developments there (and there was nothing ethnographic about it). And I am not talking about stolen/copied, or reverse-engineered stuff either.
A global company like Apple should not subscribe to ignorance. Making some investments can also go a long way in getting some support. I do not see anything wrong with such a move.
I know there are talented people everywhere, but it seems most of the active ones end up working in the west. That may be unfortunate, but it is a pretty factual observation. All the best foreign students in my grad school class are still in the US or Europe 10 years later.
Intel, Microsoft, and IBM have all opened R&D offices in China and/or India (most for many years now.) But I have yet to hear of any yield from them that is of more than localized import. But, by all means, please inform me of their important work. I saw the creation of these ventures as a way of securing market access and understanding (and for access to cheaper execution of research conceived elsewhere) more than as a deep basic research effort.
One of the distinct advantages I had while in China on my last trip was that Apple devices were the only devices I could use to connect back home when the Chinese Government put a lock-down on the Internet during the last year's Chinese elections and the US elections back in October/November. If you were on a computer...I couldn't communicate back home at all. Gmail, Hotmail, Google search...everything was locked down to local search only. The only things that seemed to work for me was my iPhone and iPad via Apple. I couldn't use skype, but Facetime worked. I couldn't use Gmail on a web browser, but my mail app on my iPhone work. My theory was that since Apple's native applications run through services outside of China, it was much more difficult for the Chinese Government to block those connections. But that's just my theory on the matter.
No, it's not difficult at all for them to block access to external services. In fact, it's very easy since all external Internet traffic goes through their firewalls. They can block anything they want, whenever they want. The reason why you were able to access Gmail using the Mail app on your iPhone is because IMAP access to Gmail is not blocked. If you use a mail client such as Outlook Express on your laptop you will be able to access Gmail from within China as well. As for Skype, you need to download a special client for China and I believe it only allows paid calls. That's interesting that you didn't have problems using FaceTime - I have never been able to get it to work when calling friends overseas (however when calling other people here in China it works fine).
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
"To little result"? Just your wild hunch that you thought we should all care to know, or do you have any evidence?
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
Well, I have been to IBM's R&D facilities in New Delhi (India) a few times, and while I can't be very specific (due to obvious reasons), I have seen some extraordinary product developments there (and there was nothing ethnographic about it). And I am not talking about stolen/copied, or reverse-engineered stuff either.
A global company like Apple should not subscribe to ignorance. Making some investments can also go a long way in getting some support. I do not see anything wrong with such a move.
I know there are talented people everywhere, but it seems most of the active ones end up working in the west. That may be unfortunate, but it is a pretty factual observation. All the best foreign students in my grad school class are still in the US or Europe 10 years later.
Intel, Microsoft, and IBM have all opened R&D offices in China and/or India (most for many years now.) But I have yet to hear of any yield from them that is of more than localized import. But, by all means, please inform me of their important work. I saw the creation of these ventures as a way of securing market access and understanding (and for access to cheaper execution of research conceived elsewhere) more than as a deep basic research effort.
No, it's not difficult at all for them to block access to external services. In fact, it's very easy since all external Internet traffic goes through their firewalls. They can block anything they want, whenever they want. The reason why you were able to access Gmail using the Mail app on your iPhone is because IMAP access to Gmail is not blocked. If you use a mail client such as Outlook Express on your laptop you will be able to access Gmail from within China as well. As for Skype, you need to download a special client for China and I believe it only allows paid calls. That's interesting that you didn't have problems using FaceTime - I have never been able to get it to work when calling friends overseas (however when calling other people here in China it works fine).