Recent Comments:
iPhone gets tweaked Safari in firmware 2.2 {Engadget Mobile}
Sep 29th 2008 12:05PM And the iPhone can't even sync calendar data!
Canon's EOS 50D product shots, test photo leaked {Engadget}
Aug 24th 2008 11:43PM Fake or not, why does Canon still put a *fixed* LCD display on their pro-sumer digicams?
Even the cheap Canon A600 line has a flip-out LCD display.
Meh.
How would you change Roku's Netflix Player? {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2008 8:53PM Oh yeah-
Browsing "Instant Play" isn't the same as Finding "Instant Play"
I've complained to NetFlix TWICE (via phone) about this annoyance. There's no advanced search screen. No support for "quotes". No way to search *just* for "Instant" movies.
And all searches are OR searches! Who does that?
If they can tell *US* what whether the darn movie is "Instant" or not, why can't they provide a user interface to search for the stuff? They claim to have 10,000 "Instant" titles, but how do we know it's true?
Does anyone know if there's a web site that indexes the Netflix database?
Thanks,
Steve
How would you change Roku's Netflix Player? {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2008 8:44PM I've had mine about three weeks.
I like the content, and I'm pretty sure the choice as to whether a title is streamed (or not) is determined mainly by the studio, and secondly by the price Netflix has to pay. Older movies, documentaries, and TV shows are less expensive to re-broadcast via stream.
480P looks good! Also, I like A&E/History channel documentaries, so there's a lot of content to keep me busy. The GUI is nice. Very simple.
Btw, it does run on Linux - It's BusyBox! Here's a link to the open-source files for those interested:
http://www.roku.com/community/gpl_nfp.php
Dislikes:
-You can't turn it OFF! And it needs to be rebooted after it's been on for a few days (because it loses its connection!)
-Popping noises when using HDMI or Fiber connected to an amp/receiver (many people have reported this issue in the forums, and still no comment from ROKU)
-No HD, but I expect that it's possible with new content as the ROKU probably supports it
-Wireless WPA password is shown (no dots or stars) simply by returning to Wireless setup screen
I still really like it! All the dislikes can easily be fixed via firmware updates.
-S
Jobs: China Mobile talks aren't off, because they were never on {Engadget}
Jan 21st 2008 11:30PM This is quite ironic, much like many other facets of the MEE-phone...
The device is made in China, and Apple won't make them available in China because of greedy negotiation cr@p.
So Jobs backs down on a deal because China Mobile didn't agree with the already lucrative offer Steve had in his hip pocket. And China's counter-offer was definitely big bucks...
So Steve walked away! Excellent negotiation, Steve! That's the first rule in negotiation... "Be prepared to walk away from any deal".
The problem with Steve's tough tactics? China Mobile has 350 Million subscribers! Even decreasing the percentage on Apple's take (and the possible repercussions from AT&T), Apple still had the opportunity to sell *at least* 10 million devices (conservative estimate). In reality, probably more like 50-75 million.
Ultimatums never work. In this situation: Tough=Stupid.
Thought Microsoft was evil? As of the iPhone release, all has changed.
Apple is the *NEW* evil software corporation.
Debunking TomTom's iPhone GPS module {Engadget}
Dec 16th 2007 5:18PM The Wonderful iPhone runs Mac OSX (BSD Unix). However...
The iPhone doesn't allow its owners to (legally) install 3rd party apps (although initially Jobs stated the contrary)
It doesn't support Java or Flash.
Most Importantly:
People have spent countless hours hacking it - just so they can use it like ANY OTHER MOBILE DEVICE!
Why buy this crap? Why put up with this crap?
It's like buying a car without a steering wheel.
And when you finally *get* the steering wheel, you need permission from Apple to drive, to turn the wheel, to put in a different CD, to change gears...
A beautiful design - ruined by corporate greed.
Amazon Kindle available now on Amazon -- free EV-DO! {Engadget}
Nov 23rd 2007 4:39PM The iPhone doesn't do eBooks, or Java, or Flash, or 3rd party software. This is because of the wonderful agreement between Apple and AT&Cingular. This agreement allowed the two to milk the cash cow, to the detriment of over 1 million users.
If they weren't so darn greedy, they would already be selling eBooks and a ton of other crap to existing iPhone users... and making even more money. However, the duo is rather short-sighted and more interested in corporate profits than user experience.
But hey, you get multi-touch!
Giveaway: have an iPhone on us! {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2007 12:49AM Shiny
Pretty
Glossy
But...
How long before someone pulls up a terminal session? Installs VNC? Enables Samba? Enables SSH?
That's what I'll be working on.
Apple announces third-party software details for iPhone {Engadget}
Jun 12th 2007 2:29PM CAN WE PLEASE STOP CALLING EACH OTHER DENSE, STUPID, IDIOTS, DUMB, ETC.?
It just makes you, the person posting, look bad.
Apple announces third-party software details for iPhone {Engadget}
Jun 12th 2007 2:25PM I would disagree that Windows Mobile crashes hourly. There have definitely been phones from vendors that were initially unstable (like the Q). However, in my experience, WM5 platform is extremely stable. The .NET compact framework is great for quickly building apps while still using a set of stable, managed API's.
It's like any other operating system. The more 3rd party junk you load onto it, the less stable it becomes. The majority of unstable Windows Mobile devices have been related to wireless providers adding "value" to the device. As for non wireless-phone Windows Mobile devices, (like the Dell Axim, HP series, etc.) those devices are rock solid - and that's from a lot of personal experience.
And by the way - the iPhone is far from being a "first". Windows mobile, formerly CE, actually uses a large subset of the Win32 API, and now a subset of .NET/Mono. Its kernel is also very close to the NT/2k/XP kernel.
The iPhone is OS X on a small ARM/PXA device, which Microsoft has been doing for over 10 years.
