Dan_Dilger

sistrunk05 said:

cpenzone said:

Looks cumbersome even if it had worked.

Let's think about what was shown in that 22 sec demo.....Could it be that some functions are not meant to split into two screens?  Maybe that map app needs extra coding to be used in a two screen format.  From what I understand is that Microsoft has asked android developers to use their 'common sense' when developing apps that could benefit from the use of both screens.  Again this device is still in development (i.e. the developers' workshop sponsored by Microsoft is being held this week).  If people don't like a product/brand that's fine, but let's not use a 22 sec poorly executed demo as the defining moment for a product in development. 

Do you imagine that the demo presenter on stage was just winging it? You don't imagine that his attempt to spread a specific app across both panels was planned out in advance? You think he picked the wrong app? 

No, it just wasn't working properly. There could be many reasons for that, and clearly he expected it to work. But when your demo crashes, and you don't even understand why and don't have a backup, and you're demonstrating to developers you expect to support your platform, that's significant, this far into the "shipping soon" period. 

The fact that the Verge didn't really care about it makes it clear that Microsoft isn't storming into the tablet market with some awesome, refined new product category that will immediately let users pick between Win 10 and Android apps and dive into this Courier wet dream without a price tag. 

It's Essential-ly vaporware bullshit with great product management graphics, just like the whole Windows 10 presentation deck itself, showing how apps were going to scale from Windows Phones right up to $10,000 PC whiteboards. Sugar howling in a vortex of hot air -- call it cotton candy but don't try to build a blanket out of it to keep warm. 

danvm said:

Beats said:

Hypocrisy as usual.

The sad thing is, FaceID did not fail and worked as it's supposed to. It's just like Huawei to mock the company who invented the iPhone and push their iKnockoffs as "better iPhones".

Windows surface running Android?! lol Microsoft needs to quit hardware already.

I don't think MS will quit the hardware business, considering it's was close to $2B last quarter.  

Quarterly revenues, of course that was the peak of the year. Surface revenues have hovered around $1-1.5B each quarter for the last decade.

However, revenues are not profits and $2b in hardware revenues globally is not actually very performant for a company valued at $1T. 

The "beleaguered" Apple of 1995 brought in $3 billion in quarterly revenues from sales of Macs.

Microsoft has rarely made any comments on the profitability of Surface. And while its revenues haven't ever really grown into a significant business, it is maintaining revenues with a product mix that is going downhill, with volumes being maintained with cheaper versions. That's the opposite of what Apple has been doing with iPhones and iPads. That's not sustainable. 

Microsoft makes money elsewhere and can perpetuate a business that isn't making money (or is not making enough to justify the talent and resources spent on maintaining it--opportunity costs are some of the most expensive factors in tech). But at some point, Microsoft will have to decide how valuable it is to be busy making tablets and notebooks that sell to a tiny fraction of the market but cost a lot of money to develop, refresh and support, when it could simply delegate that effort to hardware partners and focus on the things it is good at and can make money on. 

  

Abalos65 said:

I was so happy that the editorials of DED stopped appearing for some time. Sad to see them back again. 

Well I live to make trolls sad.

karmadave said:

This would be the second Apple speaker that has failed to get traction. If I was advising them, I would probably kill the HomePod and acquire a company (Sonos would be my first choice) assuming they still want to compete in this category. Just my 2 cents...

Apple built a business with HomePod in a year and a half that is pulling in about the same revenues as Sonos in its fifth year. Not clear how buying Sonos would further Apple's HomePods/AirPlay2 business. Would it kill existing models? Does Apple need to destroy or remove from the market a minor competitor to build its own product?

But more importantly, why would Apple build a Sonos-sized business, then throw it away to ACQUIRE Sonos, which doesn't further Apple's goals, delivers less to customers, and is less profitable? That doesn't make sense on any level.

As for emarketer, the company publishes these oddly precise numbers that tell us absolutely nothing of interest. We know Amazon is shipping out the most WiFi speakers at around $30. We know Google is also shipping its own, with less success even giving them away. The only thing of interest is how well other rivals are doing in the real business of selling speakers people pay money for, and emarketer provides nothing here but a BS placeholder number for the entire group. That's clearly because it has no real idea and can't make up any numbers with any sort of supportable, defendable knowledge. Either that, or it is withholding data to prevent anyone else from knowing. Either way, totally worthless PR to publish.

The same firm did this with Apple Pay, generating extremely precise numbers that were totally made up, then a few months later published new numbers with zero correlation and which had nothing to do with its previous PR headlines and analysis and predictions. The main thrust of its Apple Pay PR was to attempt to make headlines that the "Starbucks app" was more popular than Apple Pay for making purchases, which is pure asinine rubbish on its face.

M68000 said:

zoetmb said:

According to WebMB, cold and flu viruses can last on a surface from a few minutes up to 24 hours (not 9 days) and is quite weak after just a few minutes.   According to the CDC, "It’s currently unclear if a person can get 2019-nCoV by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes."

So it’s just a “cold” or “flu” then?   Does Webmd also explain why China has cities with millions of people on lockdown for just a cold or flu?  And why other countries are doing quarantines ?

A coronavirus is a specific shape of virus. This new strain, like existing/known versions, causes a respiratory (lung) infection that causes cold symptoms. 

The "common cold" is a generic term for a variety of viral nose/throat/upper respiratory infections, including coronavirus and rhinovirus and is often a mix of viruses.

China is calling the resulting disease of this new coronavirus a form of pneumonia, which is an inflammation of the lungs. 

The "flu" is a viral infection caused by Influenza, a family of RNA viruses more distantly related. It's similar but usually involves a different set of symptoms. 

Making up the idea that a cold virus can survive on a metal surface for days doesn't sound credible It sure doesn't help your case if you just randomly "picked it up somewhere" if you also don't seem to realize that colds and flu infections can be life threatening, or a serious contagion. the Spanish flu that killed millions was also "just a flu."

The very reason why cold viruses like this new coronavirus are believed to be spreading by cough droplets is because the virus can't dry out and stay viable. 

If the virus remained virulent as a dry film on surfaces, it would be spreading differently than it is. 40k infected is a very large number, but Wuhan is a city of 11 million people. So the reported number infected "only" amounts to 3/100ths of the population of that city, but the fear of it rapidly spreading to more in the city--or to China's other massive cities--would be extremely difficult to manage, especially without a clearer understanding of how it spreads and how to control it and what treatment people who have developed an infection need to survive it.