Posted on 12/18/2011 4:22:25 PM PST by varmintman
Prior to 02 I'd gone for some time hoping I could die of old age without ever touching a cellphone but that clearly wasn't going to happen; I was getting into too much trouble from not being able to find pay phones which basically stopped existing around that time. I mean, superman never had to look more than 30 feet for a phone booth to change in, but he'd go crazy now.
And then, a bit less than a year ago, the company I work for insisted on me buying an Iphone and the main idea was having access to email on the road. I mean, I'd never wanted anything to do with Apple after the stunt they pulled shutting down the Atari 520ST in 85, but I ignored any misgivings I may have had and bought the thing....
The biggest problem has been the thing getting a mote of dust or lint or something in that little hole for headphones and believing it was working with headphones when it wasn't. That keeps the user from hearing the other guy unless he figures out what's going on and puts the phone on speaker. The problem can usualy be fixed by blowing PC cleaning air into the headphone hole but it can take an hour or more of doing that.
That is still preferable to taking the thing to the local Apple store for service. Their normal mode is to have you make an appointment to be seen in two or three or four days and that basically means going several days off the air.
Then there's the thing about batteries. If a battery dies on any other cell phone you buy a new battery for $20 or $30 and replace the dead one. The Iphone needs to be replaced if a battery dies and, that's right, you need to make an appointment for that and that can mean several days off the air.
I mean, who the hell would buy a car which had to be replaced whenever a battery died.....
But the kicker came yesterday morning when the thing (actually the second one after the first being replaced for a battery), not only pulled its ugly little thing of acting like it thought it was on imaginary headphones, but aside from me not hearing other people other than on speaker, nobody else could hear me.
The normal deal with ATT is to be eligible for phone upgrades every two years; in this case the situation wasn't going to go for another year or more and I simply paid the full price for a Samsung/Android phone and the best ATT could do was a trade-in program which gave me 200 for the Iphone so that the whole deal cost more like 400 than 600, but I view that as money well spent, the Samsung Galaxy appears to be a much nicer phone.
This isn't about an Apple product that can't do anything. It's about a user who can't be bothered to get it diagnosed by an expert and fixed or replaced for free, same day, usually in about 15 minutes.
Limbaugh voted for Obama? I hadn’t heard.
After the fourth or fifth time this has happened, it isn’t a user malfunction.
No, in fact the GUI that Apple used DID NOT originate at Xerox PARC, but was Apple's own design and creation, using some ideas that Apple bought and paid Xerox to use. . . But most were created at Apple. There are some similarities but the differences are glaring and obvious to people who know both SmallTalk and MacOS. YOU obviously don't and buy into the years of myth.
Secondly, Apple did indeed create the Trashcan metaphore icon and it's copyright was the ONE copyright the judge in the Microsoft infringement lawsuit, idiot that he was and non-software ignoramus to boot, ruled WAS completely protected under copyright, and that Microsoft was forced to change! However, Apple did not require GEM to do that! They licensed it to both Commodore and DRI.
This thread is about YOUR claim that ONE iPhone did not make it to that point, a phone that others have pointed out is STILL IN WARRANTY, and you spouting of non factual myths that have been repeatedly shot down with historical evidence while YOU have produced nothing but your unsupported flawed memory and biased opinion! I am not the only one calling you on these flaws! You have ONE failed iPhone and you are generalizing your single experience, which flies in the face of millions of other users', including many on FR, who have NOT HAD A PROBLEM, to claim that Apple is "marketing products which can't make it halfway to the 2-year trade-up point or, at the very least, one of which didn't," to TAR an entire company's product line with baseless calumny.
You made baseless hyperbolic claims that Apple "shut down" a competing product back in 1985 as the basis for your initial animosity toward Apple and your justification for that animosity! A claim that was COMPLETELY UNTRUE! A lie! You would have let that stand, allowing people who did not live through that history to believe it as factual until others called foul. Then you claim it was just a figure of speech! No, sir! THAT, SIR, IS THE EPITOME OF DISHONESTY AND FUD! You are dancing around these facts. . . repeating the same thing over and over does not make them true. I've presented links to contemporaneous articles proving your claims false. Just drop you claims and move on. It did not happen. No one got shut down.
So, Varmintman, EXACTLY how many iPhones did YOU have this happen to... YOU PERSONALLY??? By my count, in your narrative above, you had ONE iPhone exchanged because of a defective battery. The exchanged one then had a problem with the ear phone jack which you fixed by blowing compressed air into its delicate innards for upwards of an hour or so in a do-it-yourself fix because YOU couldn't be bothered to have an expert diagnose the problem? Then the iPhone ups and stops working on you after YOU have blown who knows what contaminants that were shorting out the earbud jack down into the circuit board... And YOU claim that the product is defective???? I DO think it's the user that has the problem.
Enjoy your Android phone. I give it less time than your poor iPhone before it too dies an ignominious death.
The Galaxy appears to be a much nicer phone than the iphone, and I can read text on it without glasses which is sort of nice. I'll let you know what it looks like six or eight months down the road; it it develops any major problems I may just go back to Motorola non-smart phones since I never had any problems with those over a 9-year period.
This is what I LOVE about Free Republic....and observe so very frequently. The experience of the POSTER is ALWAYS the experience of everyone else (or so it SHOULD be in their mind)...and their world view is CERTAINLY the same for everyone else. It reminds me of Pauline Kael, the film critic for The New Republic and The New Yorker, who said: "I can't believe Nixon won...I don't know anyone who voted for him."
Joe...there is a PLANET outside of your experience. On my planet...which is FULL of conservatives (I'm a preacher [SBC] and a military man)...90% of us who have smart phones have iPhones. My right-wing family and in-laws all have iPhones...most of my preacher friends have iPhones.
I think you live in a small planet.
No wonder Verizon subsidizes the sale of the darn things.....
I create my own topo/Google Earth composites using "Canvas", and would buy an iPad to use them in the field for archaeology if I knew I could get such an app.
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I’m an open source guy who hates proprietary software with a passion. The Galaxy puts the Iphone to shame ...
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Windows and Android aren’t proprietary? Then why did I pay for them?
The Galaxy S2 runs Gingerbread - It has not a darn thing to do with Windows. I wouldn’t utilize a Microsoft product even if my life depended on it.
Gingerbread Android is open source and licensed under GNU - I can take it and use it on any of my personal devices that I want (commercial restrictions would obviously apply). I don’t need a license, I can go in and tweak the kernel - all to my heart’s content. Try that with a piece of garbage Windows or Apple product.
To answer your question - you paid for the circuitry and plastic of the phone, not the kernel.
Android is a proprietary version of Linux built and *owned* by Google. Just as proprietary as iOS and OSX. OSX, by the way, is built on BSD open source. You can download the SDK and build an app and sell it tonight. That’s what I do for a living and Apple has made me quite a good chunk of change. You don’t like them: fine. But don’t go all Obama and tell lies. You alter the the Android kernel and you void the warranty. You alter the OSX kernel and you void the warranty. Same thing. You can’t download a legal version of Android and install it on any device you like. I *can* install OSX on any piece of hardware I want because I paid for the privilege.
I like Linux. I like Android, though I hate Google. I love Apple and would piss on 0bama’s shoes given half a chance.
No, I don’t know how to do that. Your point is interesting though, because I also take google satellite images along when I go, simply printed on card stock and laminated. The google images allow individual trees to be resolved along my path, but I don’t get elevation. Several miles of my trip fits onto one page, so between them, I’m set. But I’ve wished for an all-in-one solution, as google empties the photo cache when wifi service ceases. I’ll check again next year for upgrades to Topo that might allow that.
Ummm.... you may want to read post # 38 and follow the links and subsequent links. Applebots ARE leftists, irrespettive of your “right wing” relatives, who whether they use iPhones or not, may not in fact be your typical Applebots. I might also point out that my experiences with Applebots is not liited to people I know, but also encompasses over 15 years of fighting Apple crazies on various tech sites. They are almost always lefists of the worst kinds.
I expect what is needed is an actual GIS program that can create and "georeference" photos -- so that they are adjusted to some common coordinate system like "UTM" or "Decimal Degrees" and aligned to some standard "datum" and scaling system (like "NAD 83"). IOW, the GIS functions align, warp and stretch maps and images from various sources so that they match and align to whatever base map (USGS Topo, for example) that you are using.
There is a hint that NGS TOPO! may have such functionality -- available through their "mapXchange" membership-account online server. (Check out "mapXchange" in NGS TOPO!'s preferences...)
I'll do some research on the subject, and, if I come up with anything promising, I'll share with you here on FR.
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Couldn't resist doing a quick online check...'-} Check out TOPO! Explorer Deluxe, which includes the following:
"SuperQuads™ The new online map set exclusive to TOPO! Explorer. Each SuperQuad contains (6) layers of map information including: USGS 1:24,000, and 1:100,000 scale topographic, I-Cubed Aerial Photography with 4 meter resolution, USGS Digital Elevations and Names, and an exclusive HybridQuad which blends Aerial Photography with topographic linework."
Those "Hybridquads" sound like a canned version of the topo/photo composites we were discussing...
(Of course, what I really want is the capability to create and use my own custom composite photo/maps -- and use them on the iPad, with live GPS tracks overlaid on them...)
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Merry (what' s left of) Christmas!
TXnMA
P.S. For an example of my map creations, check out my draft National Heritage Area Map... (2 MB BIG)
You do beautiful work! I’m impressed.
I’m an IPAD App developer, and I’ll definitely be back in touch should some of your maps fit into the Apps I’ve got in mind.
Here’s the web site for the iOS Topo program:
After making it all the way to 2011 without ever owning a mobile, cellular, or other type of wireless communicator, I finally broke down and bought an iPhone 4S a couple days ago.
It hasn’t been a life-saver for me yet. But it BETTER be! :-D
Glad to hear your story. I just bought an iPhone and I’m hoping for the sort of “sea change” you experienced with yours.
Like everything else (a new hammer, a guitar, whatever), a lot has to do with your willingness to get the feel of it. And I think my attitude towards the whole thing helped. I didn't buy it until I realized, "this is exactly what I've been looking for all these years..."
On top of it, it's a barrel of fun. It makes the occasional pains-in-the-@ss bearable, and helps me to overlook that I'm once again doing business with AT$T.
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