iOS 4 Releases Today 702
tekgoblin writes "Today Apple releases the much anticipated iOS 4 for iPhones and iPod Touches. No word on when we will see this update on the iPad." Can't wait to see all the neat new stuff that won't run on my stale phone.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)
There are always going to be "bleeding edge early adopters". They serve a purpose: they allow those of us who are more patient to see how well/poorly something new works. I expect glitches and other problems for those upgrading
Something baffles me slightly (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, I have an iPad and I love it, but I am baffled as to why Apple once again puts noses out of shape by making such an obvious difference in spec between the two products. Its almost as tho the iPad is the last of the previous generation, rather than the current generation.
Features (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:4, Interesting)
Slashdot is wise enough to list all the evils for users to note.
Our last real freedom is Linux.
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:2, Interesting)
I am not so sure that is really true, at least if the sort of people I interact with IRL are any indication. They are certainly aware that there are limitations, and some even have a vague notion that those limitations are deliberately imposed by Apple, but very few people seem to be aware of the full extent of what Apple is doing. Most people seem to have either forgotten or completely missed the news about political cartoon apps being blocked, or the Ulysses app, or the apparently arbitrary nature of what Apple decides to reject. It is even worse with the iPad: people have become conditioned to having their cell phones restricted and sabotaged, but the idea that Apple would ever try to do such a thing to a tablet computer seems to be lost on the average consumer.
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.tivo.com/ [tivo.com]
I think you meant, "Our last real freedom is GNU/Linux," or perhaps you meant, "Our last real freedom is GPLv3 software," or just, "Our last real freedom is Fedora/Ubuntu/Slackware/[distro of choice]."
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh good! The trolls are out in full force! (Score:2, Interesting)
Really? Have you gotten Android 2.2 on your "far more flexible and updatable" phone yet? No? Oh.
Why is it not a phone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Ignoring the fact that we're entering an era of mobile computers, iOS 4 runs on the iPad too. Is that a phone too by your twisted logic?
It can connect to cell networks.
Using skype I can make calls on it.
By what definition is it not a phone?
Just because it's large doesn't mean it can't be a phone too. Otherwise the NGage would have been an impossibility.
And before you start chuckling about holding up an iPad to your head, two words - bluetooth headset.
For someone on Slashdot you seem to have a pretty dull imagination as to what a phone can be.
Somebody call the whaaaambulance (Score:5, Interesting)
Can't wait to see all the neat new stuff that won't run on my stale phone.
I bought an original base (4 GB) iPhone a couple months after it came out--refurbished, $249. When the 3G came out I sold my original one on eBay for right about what I paid for it*, plus or minus a few bucks (I forget exactly, and I had a case but lost the headphones, etc.) and bought a base (8 GB) 3G. When the 3GS came out I sold my $199 3G for $305 and got I a base (16 GB) 3GS--I just had to wait a couple months for an anniversary to roll around and then the upgrade price dropped from $399 to the regular $199. Now, for some reason, AT&T is telling me I can upgrade to an iPhone 4 for good old $199 [tuaw.com] so I'm just gonna wait a few weeks--a) for them to become available again and b) because I never buy new stuff right away.
So basically, I paid $249 three years ago and for that, I've gotten an annual free upgrade to a faster phone with more features and double the storage every time (this is the first year that won't happen) and, as a nice bonus, my phone has never been out of warranty. You'd think someone who runs a tech [slashdot.org] site might be aware of all this.
* vendor lock-in is usually evil but it has treated me very well. :-) Due to Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T, people who want iPhones but are on other networks pay quite a bit for used ones.
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:2, Interesting)
> There is lots of outcry here about the DRM and walled garden
Please don't use those terms together like that.
Yes, Apple has used its proprietary, non-licensable, DRM to help enforce its walled garden, but DRM does not have to be used like that.
For me, DRM would be acceptable, if it were not used as a tool to lock me in to a particular vendors products or otherwise restrict my legit use of the product. I'm a proponent of open technology, but I understand and accept the content owners desire to put some restrictions on the duplication of their content.
So, you are free to hate both DRM and the wall, but please don't lump them in together like that.
Opening as always (Score:2, Interesting)
I personally can't wait to see what measures this new software takes to control its users and limit their access to other programs.
Obviously you were trolling, but just in case you are really that ignorant...
With each release, Apple opens the device further. Can you download an application from anywhere and run it without jailbreaking? No, but then you never could, so that's not a reduction in user freedom.
So what can a user do that they couldn't before?
Multitasking
More choice in search engines
Freedom to use any bluetooth keyboard with the phone (finally).
Applications that have full access to camera, phone API, and many other system features finally accessible.
The thing people like you always miss about Apple is that they start off with very limited products, and then slowly open them up as they figure out what works. So in the end you and people like you are stuck in your old mindset of any given Apple product being incredibly closed because you never bothered to look at many details beyond the first iteration, while the later models of products have a ton of capability and people think you are bonkers for complaining.
If you want to see if an Apple product will be successful, you only have to think of it like this - compared to the competition how much ability not offered by the Apple product COULD be offered via a software update, vs. something that is missing from the core design? When you start thinking about it that way, you may gain a better understanding as to what will work in the market.
Using this technique for example, you could have easily predicted the AppleTV wasn't really going anywhere while realizing the iPad would be a hit.
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:4, Interesting)
Bullshit. Here's Slashdot's RSS feed as of this post:
Carbon Nanotubes Batteries Pack More Punch
iOS 4 Releases Today
Toshiba Demos Dual-Touchscreen Notebook
Google Wave Out of Beta
Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart
New Air Conditioner Process Cuts Energy Use 50-90%
What US Health Care Needs
California Wants To Put E-Ads On License Plates
Former Soviet Republic of Georgia To Become IT Tax Haven
In NJ, Higher Tech Lowers Crime
Swype Beta For Android Is Open, Temporarily
Windows Phone 7 Lacks Copy-and-Paste
German Radar Satellite Lifts Off Tonight
Utah Attorney General Tweets Execution Order
AU National Broadband Network Signs $11 Billion Deal With Telstra
Made-For-Torrents Sci-Fi Drama "Pioneer One" Debuts
Verizon Makes Offering Service Blocks A Fireable Offense
Better Development Through Competition?
DHS Wants To Monitor The Web For Terrorists
"Cumulative Voting" Method Gaining Attention
UK's RIAA Goes After Google Using the US DMCA
Potato-Powered Batteries Debut
Turning Attackers' Tools Against Them
Google Builds a Native PDF Reader Into Chrome
Apple Quietly Goes After Mac Trojan With Update
Getty's Flickr Sales, Money Spinner Or Ripoff?
Why Google's Wi-Fi Payload Collection Was Inadvertent
SpaceX Falcon 9 Relatively Cheap Compared To NASA's New Pad
If anything gets covered to a higher-than-average degree, it's Google and Google products, and even that's not by much. It's just a lazy, mindless meme from Apple-haters to claim Apple gets more coverage, because they are apparently unable to use their mouse to manipulate the scrollbar and move past the big ol' Apple story on the front page that they hate so much.
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The iPhone and finally walk and chew gum! (Score:2, Interesting)
Jailbroken 3G user here. And backgrounder/circuitous is frankly the only reason I have to jailbreak the thing. I do have to say, the ability to go do something else while Pandora or iHeartRadio is playing in the background is very, VERY nice. But I've never run into another need for multitasking on the thing. And *nothing* else I've found on Cydia has been compelling enough to keep.
When I get my iPhone 4 on Thursday, I will most like never jailbreak it. There's just nothing in the jailbreak scene that I need or want besides backgrounder.
Re:iOS 4 ignored IMO the two biggest feature defic (Score:3, Interesting)
1: A notification system that doesn't use annoying modal popups 2: Speech-to-text into all fields (*note* I refrained from mentioning the AT&T lock-in, but we all know it's an issue)
How about "wireless sync"? Can someone tell me why a wireless device has to be plugged in to sync a damn MP3 file? I have no less than 6 apps on my iPhone that do some form of wireless sync with my PC, but the core phone features dont' support it. I'm sure we know the reason: "Steve doesn't like it", but what I want to know is WHY??
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:3, Interesting)
And I gave up administering "real computers" ages ago in favor of a higher salary and a much more interesting job. What a high holy pain in the ass THAT was.
And lastly, I don't actually flaunt my ipad, because I live in the middle of New York City and I don't want it stolen. I keep it to myself, except at work and at the coffeeshop near my apartment, where I have been known to break it out occasionally and play with Wolfram Alpha. And figure this out: I still adore it, despite not flaunting it everywhere I go. Because I didn't get it to make people feel bad, friend. I got it because I really, really like them.
I'm sorry if my motivation doesn't fit the character of the cut of the jib you seem to be laying on me, but maybe this is a good opportunity for you to "think different".
Bahah. I see what I did there.
Re:The iPhone and finally walk and chew gum! (Score:4, Interesting)
Bang on-- the only reliable example of people really missing it are Pandora. Or, possibly, GPS turn directions? Basically, audio-only stuff, which brings us to an interesting point, with both iPhone and iPad, YOU'RE not really a multitasking device either -- it's nice how these devices don't try to divide your attention, and running a new app is a bit like running a new, more specialized device.
That said -- 90s era Palm had better culture of "resuming right where you left off" apps, but now maybe iOS gets that back... and I think I might start liking that bottom of screen app bouncing the same way I like alt-tab in Windows...
Re:Can't wait to see (Score:3, Interesting)
With nothing new, there's no news to post; unless you count self-indulgent pontificating
If we put a moratorium on self-indulgent pontificating, Slashdot would dry up and blow away overnight. :)
Re:How is that not a phone? (Score:4, Interesting)
If Apple really was interested in stability, it'd a lot easier to swallow, but every time they update their licensing they put the lie to that sentiment.
Some people may not like it but a lot of the public seems not to mind at all, so far - because Apple has been careful about making user restrictions as invisible as possible.
Which is part of the danger, since its not just apps that Apple censors (at random), but apparently what gets sold in things like the book store (less random, which is worse). When the public is unaware that they're being censored, that makes the censorship all the more potent. I'm pretty anyone who'd want a book banned would salivate at the opportunity to ban a book to the point that most people don't know it even exists.
Re:The Correct Way(TM) (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm sorry old bean, but regardless of the unix `date` command output, only American says "June 21st". The rest of the world uses the correct date expression of "the 21st of June". Even enlightened Americans agree.
Re:The Correct Way(TM) (Score:1, Interesting)
Some (older) people do say half of three, or quarter of three (less often three quarters of three, more often one quarter to four), and I am sure there are precedents for this in other languages. And despite what arrogant Americans may think, most English speakers around the world do say "22nd of June" and not "June 22". While I do, in general agree with your rant (which is largely about the ISO endorsed date format, and the reasons behind it, after all), I do think the big-endian date format you talk about is just one of two "most-valid" representations- the other being this little-endian format I have just exemplified. The one unfortunate thing about little-endian, however, is that it doesn't mesh with our left-to-right language's odd choice of writing arabic numbers backwards (as if we were quoting them) instead or reordering them to fit our word order.