Apple Implements the CalDAV Standard For MobileMe 152
Vermyndax writes "Apple announced the new MobileMe Calendar beta on July 6th. The mainstream press picked up the story and plugged the gorgeous new iPad-like interface for all devices. It seems, however, that they missed the real story: MobileMe's new Calendar application is an implementation of CalDAV, the proposed calendaring standard. This may be the same implementation that exists in Snow Leopard Server and is open sourced. The hidden gem in all of this is that Apple plans to bring this CalDAV connectivity to Outlook users on MobileMe. Where might they take it next?"
Re:Unpossible (Score:5, Insightful)
Pointing out that Slashdot is full of anti-Apple fanboys means your "braiin was washed in Apple juice"?
iCal (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple was one of the three companies that wrote the CalDAV RFC and they implemented it immediately in iCal in 2007. (iCal is the built in calendaring app in OS X.) Previous to that that iCal already used WebDAV. They offer an OSS CalDAV server in OS X server. Why would anyone find it surprising that the rewritten WebApp version of iCal is using CalDAV?Apple has already been pushing it as hard as possible as an open standard alternative to Exchange.
Re:Unpossible (Score:2, Insightful)
You're an idiot. Nearly every Apple story gets flooded with Apple haters invented melodrama where there is none, because it's such a horrible thing for a company to approve what runs on its device (even though every console manufacturer does exactly the same thing).
Re:Does it matter? (Score:4, Insightful)
Back when it was known as iTools [wikipedia.org], it was a loss leader. They gave that up after 2 years so there was a probably a good reason. Perhaps because people are willing to pay?
Re:Close (Score:5, Insightful)
In all fairness, no platform is perfect, let's face it. You seem to be commenting on OS X (hard drives, 3d performance, etc.), so let's see:
If you want non-working cut and paste (the general case is it only works for text), no 3d performance at all, barely any wireless support, no commercial software support including de facto standards like MS Office and Photoshop, no games, amateurish and inconsistent guis, etc. ad infinitum, then run desktop Linux.
If you don't mind a pretty substandard operating system in return for all the software you could ever want and you don't need Unix, run Windows.
If you want a usable, well thought-out desktop Unix with lots of commercial software (though much less than Windows), good open source and open standards support, and you don't care about games, run OS X.
As cliche as it sounds, it's all about what works best for you.
Re:Google and Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple became the white knights of Opensource by adopting a BSD-based userland (It wasn't Linux but it gave the Linux fans the ability to say "See, Apple is doing it we can too"). Then Apple embraced and extended CUPS. But it's been how many years and they've not extinguished it. CUPS is used by every Linux distro I've tried and Apple has done nothing to stop them. Same with all their other technologies, they embraced the open standards and contributed a lot to different projects, but still held parts to be propitary. They were "open" but not "open enough" for some people. But largely the early appeal of OSX was to the geek crowd. Every LAMP developer I knew at the time left Linux for OSX as their desktop (usually laptop) of choice. I was one of them after spending 2 years trying to get printers and my sound card to work with Linux I got tired and just wanted something that worked. So I bought an iBook and never looked back.
Then things changed when Apple forked KHTML. For some reason, that was seen as suspicious by the /. crowd. I'm not sure why. Eventually Apple created Webkit and offered it back to the community with the KHTML folks eventually adopting it (iirc). But that's when the negativity began and then continued with the iPods.
But then, there was iTunes and the iTMS. Apple was against DRM, but added just enough DRM to get labels to sign up. And the DRM they added never once got in my way. If I wanted to burn to CD to listen in my car, I could. I could copy to a number of computers and iPods and listen to what I had purchased and the biggest factor was I could buy the couple tracks I wanted from a CD and not the entire album for $.99. It didn't mesh with some peoples idea of "freedom", but to the masses it became having cake and eating it too. Apple was the first company that was able to put it all together in a package the average person could use.
And because Apple was for the masses now and no longer aimed for the "geeks", the /. crowd began hating Apple as Apple found more and more success with more people. It was OSX that was becoming the *iux of the masses, not Linux. This continued with the iPhone. Although at first it was more of a shrug, then came the iPhone 2 with the App Store and it was full on rabid hatred. Mainly I think because, again, Apple developed a product that went over extremely well for the masses, but ignored what the "geeks" might want.
And so the Geeks went to Google. What was not to love about google, lots of geeks, lots of geeky tools made by geeks for geeks. And so, Google is now the company that replaced Apple about 2007 as the great "white knight". It will last another 3 - 5 years, and then Google will become the new "Evil company that must die" replaced by someone else. Who knows, maybe by that time the new white knight will be Microsoft. Stranger things have happened.
Re:Unpossible (Score:5, Insightful)
A year ago I would have agreed with you, as things tended to be pretty balanced, and pretty fair, with initial flambait, troll mods balanced out after a few hours. One of the most recent posts about Apple tells a different story with any positive posts about Apple all being modded down as troll or flamebait regardless of content.
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/07/06/1839240/More-Trouble-In-Apples-App-Store [slashdot.org]
Look at the above link, at what's being modded 'Insightful', 'Informative', and on the opposite side, trolling and flamebait.
Claiming that things are pretty even handed looks a little ridiculous. The above link is about a story where someone hacked an iTunes account and bought his own app. It immediately turned into a slew of Apple is Evil, the Walled Garden doesn't work, the app store is a failure, all modded insightful and informative, when it had nothing to do with apps other than the guy hacking the accounts bought his own app.
Slashdot has become a haven for anti-Apple trolls. Look through that link and tell me that the posts deserved Insightful, and that the trolls deserved the bashing. It's pointless anymore to even enter an Apple thread as it is immediately filled with FUD, "Apple Sucks +Insightful", and "Evil + Informative".
I particularly like the one stating "WTF, did you suck Steve's dick or something" being modded Insightful and Informative.
Re:Close (Score:3, Insightful)
Sometimes the term is deserved. Look at the interface of the HTC/Android, and the newer touch RIM devices.
Why? Just look at pre-iPhone smartphones. Only a complete moron couldn't admit Apple is a mover and shaker.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:1, Insightful)
You'd pay for Finding your Phone? Most other mobile platforms that have GPS can read an incoming SMS and report back the GPS coordinates, or remotely trigger the ringer, etc, etc. It's just a simple program on the phone that sits there idly. Most of the time, there's at least one that's free.
Oh wait, that's right. The Fruit only recently added background services, and even then, would probably ban all the apps that competed with their own service. /don't have any Fruits.
Re:Unpossible (Score:5, Insightful)
I've done that, and I have to say that I think people misjudge the bias on Slashdot. I've posted positive/negative comments about Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Linux, and I'll tell you that the response can be fairly random. You can get modded up for posting positive things about Windows and you can get modded down for posting positive things about Linux.
Beyond that, the trends aren't what most people assume. In my experience, interesting and insightful comments about any of these companies/products can get you modded up, but annoying snide cliched complaints will probably get you modded down.
If there is a bias, I think it's most heavily anti-Apple, but in a specific way: irrational and ignorant complaints against Apple are more likely to get modded up than irrational and ignorant complaints against anything else (at least within the sphere of computing. Irrational complaints about religion are probably most likely to get modded up (no, I'm not religious)). I think the reason (if I had to guess) is that there are still a fair amount of Windows/Linux/Android users who are so anti-Apple that they won't give the products a fair shake and never really use them or learn what the situation is. On the other hand, most Apple users have used other operating systems.
As a result, complaints against the one-button mouse get modded insightful and complaints against WGA/WAT get modded overrated (I guess because people think you're just piling on).
That's my interpretation, but I guess you could accuse me of being biased.
Anyone want to talk about the article? (Score:1, Insightful)
So, lots of weird meta comments about the nature of Apple fanboy-ism and rabid Apple hatred, the intricacies of pro/anti Apple moderation, gayness, etc.
Haven't seen a comment about the actual STORY though. Or the CalDAV standard. Or anything pertaining to the article at hand.
I submit that you are all horribly short on critical thinking and long on free time.
Re:Close (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the same old arguments every time. Apple devices refine existing technologies and make them actually usable for the mass market. That's the "revolutionary" aspect. Before the iPhone came along, web browsers on mobile devices sucked. Now the bar has been raised. The same will happen with things like Face Time/video chat. The iPad wasn't the first tablet either, but it's the first tablet which actually makes sense for the mass market.
As for iPhones sucking for making phone calls, that's bullshit (to use your words). Never had a problem with reception on mine.
If you think Apple's marketing is a load of crock, you must live a pretty miserable life. They're not doing anything that any other advertiser isn't doing whenever you turn on the TV.