Tuesday, May 31, 2011

countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex
  • Countess of Wessex



  • dukebound85
    Apr 12, 06:24 PM
    she is clearly carrying a bomb





    countess of wessex. Sophie, Countess of Wessex
  • Sophie, Countess of Wessex



  • *LTD*
    Mar 11, 04:28 PM
    Links to Steve's presentations and nothing else, eh? If computing has changed, then why do we still have laptops and desktops? Even better, why does Apple still sell them?


    Transition.

    The industry is undergoing a massive paradigm-shift, thanks to Apple.





    countess of wessex. Sophie, Countess of Wessex
  • Sophie, Countess of Wessex



  • wolfboy
    Apr 29, 03:20 PM
    To the people posting screenshots: You do know that you're breaking the non disclosure agreement you made with Apple when you signed up for the Mac Dev Program? If they track you down, the small print pretty much says they can do very evil things to you. Tred carefully, it's likely Apple will be watching out for people like you.

    Who reads those things anyway...





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex wearing a
  • Countess of Wessex wearing a



  • G5isAlive
    Jul 22, 08:22 AM
    They're not stooping. They are defending their product by demonstrating that the issue is not unique to their phone. I think most people instinctively knew this before the iPhone - telling someone that holding a phone a certain way might reduce the signal would have resulted in a shoulder shrug. Of course it will, it's a radio.

    The N1 can't maintain a 3G signal when touched, period. Yet it didn't cause this kind of outcry because it wasn't from Apple.

    truth.

    it's called putting a problem into context so you can determine what is a possible fix. Apple can't change the laws of physics. My iPhone4 is a superior phone to my 3GS. I like it, and its reception, way better. and yes I use a case. I always have.





    countess of wessex. HRH The Countess of Wessex
  • HRH The Countess of Wessex



  • Tundraboy
    Apr 30, 08:04 AM
    Who said there couldn't be custom software? You'll simply need a developer package. Students might get a special 'exception' area on the App store or private access or whatever, but it doesn't mean they won't start closing down the system at some point. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon....



    They've been driving away the professional market for a few years now by releasing consumer gear labeled as "Pro", ignoring pro features on previously true pro hardware and not updating their professional software and taking too long for updates on the Mac Pro. Then there's using non-standard connections (oh yeah; Mini-Display Port is supposed to be a standard now even though hardly anything supports it), dumping professional video cards for the Mac Pro (this alone kills the platform for some). So based on their 'who cares' attitude towards the professional market, what makes you think they'd care about whether some students didn't like the new system? They're already convinced they would LOVE it based on iPhone/iPad sales. A little inter-connection accommodation and what does it matter if most consumer software has to be App store installed as long as 'developers' have some flexibility? Pony up a nice developer fee and Apple makes even MORE money from all those college students and teachers.

    Again, I'm not saying it will happen that way, only that it's looking to be a stronger and stronger possibility the more steps I see from Apple. They seem to be heading in that direction. The only question is whether they will close down the 'open' interface to OSX at some point and that's a big 'maybe' in my book. Apple ultimately does what Apple thinks is best for them and doesn't care what 'some' consumers want. They ultimately have the 'yes' crowd telling them everything they do is great so who cares about a few whiners that want certain things to stay the same?

    Well Said!!!!!





    countess of wessex. HRH The Countess of Wessex and
  • HRH The Countess of Wessex and



  • JadedBen
    Apr 16, 05:07 AM
    I want My next iPhone to look like this,

    222383



    Also agreed. If they make that (with or without the black strip) i would buy one in a heartbeat.. plus i wouldn't have to buy another iPhone in years as i can't see how they could improve on a physical design like that imho.

    Although i'd probably have to upgrade in 2013 when they drop the software support for it..





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex is
  • Countess of Wessex is



  • mizzoucat
    Sep 12, 08:15 AM
    Good catch, but someone found that yesterday or last night also. Apple must be getting SO much traffic right now...:p

    I found that page last week but didn't think much of it...... :)





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex Sophie,
  • Countess of Wessex Sophie,



  • Stellarola
    Apr 26, 06:45 PM
    Anyone notice how much us nerds flame companies for the slightest of changes? It's kinda f'd up. :rolleyes:





    countess of wessex. The Countess of Wessex arrives
  • The Countess of Wessex arrives



  • twoodcc
    Jul 30, 10:08 PM
    too bad osx cant utilise GPUs and whatnot. :( otherwise id let my 4850 have a crack - better then the CPU thats for sure!

    yeah i wish they had gpu folding for mac os x. but really, there aren't that many mac video cards





    countess of wessex. SOPHIE COUNTESS OF WESSEX
  • SOPHIE COUNTESS OF WESSEX



  • dr_lha
    Oct 17, 09:58 AM
    Before people start quoting VHS vs Betamax, can people use actual facts rather than urban legends?

    For example: Betamax being superior to VHS is a myth, most people cannot tell the difference between the two formats. Read this excellent article:

    http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/comment/story/0,12449,881780,00.html

    The real reason VHS beat Betamax is the following:

    1. VHS had longer tapes, Betamax's tapes were smaller, and Sony had difficulty coming out with larger capacity tapes. Faced with one system that's standard tapes could record 1 hour and one that could do 3 hours, most people chose the latter (VHS).

    2. Sony's tight grip on the Betamax format kept prices high and innovation low. VHS decks were cheaper and made by more manufacturers, and hence consumers had more choice.

    3. The porn industry chose VHS.





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex,
  • Countess of Wessex,



  • GoKyu
    Mar 24, 05:08 PM
    As a switcher in I feel I have to give a big thanks to Microsoft and Windows Vista - after all, if Vista hadn't been so terrible, I might not have switched ;)

    Happy birthday OS X - here's to another 10 years!!





    countess of wessex. The Countess of Wessex and
  • The Countess of Wessex and



  • flopticalcube
    Apr 16, 04:47 PM
    People being gay and then teaching children gay history are 2 different things. I'm afraid that one is an affront that should not be tolerated by any good parent. I'd advise those parents to just pull their kids out of the public school system, which they should have never put their kid into in the first place.

    Narrow-mindedness is an affront.





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex (Sophie
  • Countess of Wessex (Sophie



  • k8to
    Nov 17, 11:44 AM
    To software, AMD and Intel are compatable parts. They aren't identical, but most software won't care at all. So this wouldn't be a "switch" like IBM to x86. Nothing disruptive.

    The question is, of course, where is the lower-power AMD cpu. Tulatins are not _bad_ chips for power efficiency, but they're certainly bested by core 2 duo. The lack of any strong competition makes this rumour just that.





    countess of wessex. Sophie Countess of Wessex and
  • Sophie Countess of Wessex and



  • fr33 loader
    Jan 10, 11:01 PM
    Hahaha, that would be hilarious! C'mon guys, seriously. No harm done.

    Unless you are the one standing and giving the presentation. The wasted manpower to fix it. Money to use the stage for certain alloted time. Negative effect on brand name thinking it was a real malfunction on the TV set. All of this to gain what?:(





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex,
  • Countess of Wessex,



  • goMac
    May 3, 03:12 PM
    1. Root
    2. XDA Forum
    3. Side load
    4. ???
    5. Winning.

    At that point, why not use a jailbroken iPhone?

    Android kind of loses it charm.





    countess of wessex. The Countess of Wessex Sophie
  • The Countess of Wessex Sophie



  • BBEmployee
    Apr 8, 02:42 PM
    I'm a current employee at Best Buy and thought I'd offer my two cents on a few issues.

    First, I don't really like Best Buy. I got a job there to work for around 4 hours a week to get the generous discount. It's particularly generous when dealing with open-box items. Even so, I am miserable leading up to heading in and I do not enjoy the time that I spend there. Thankfully, I have a good full-time job plus a lot of side work and I'm planning on quitting in the next month or so as the thrill of the discount has long worn off.

    That said, I have no problem being very open and honest about Best Buy and my experiences there.

    In regards to the iPad situation, I haven't been in since this issue came up and won't be in for awhile, so I don't really know what the buzz is on this matter exactly. I do know that they wouldn't put a freeze on selling new iPad 2 stock if they regularly had it for a random promotion, if only for the very reason that many think caused the initial problem: quota.

    I'm betting 1 of 2 things happened:

    1) They did indeed get in trouble with Apple for something. Sure, it's possible, and it's the easiest reasonable conclusion. I don't know why this would be though, and I'm skeptical about the whole hording thing. And again, this is coming from someone who has access to the inventory systems and all the places that would hide "horded" iPads. Plus, I have a good enough relationship with multiple managers (ones who know the score about Best Buy in an objective world...) who would be honest about this with me.

    Generally speaking, when they say there are no iPads for sale, there are no iPads for sale. It's really that simple. Demand is real, and supply is lacking. When we have them for sale, they're in the cages, and this would occur after passing through the pre-order system. White Verizon iPads tend to be the ones most often available, usually just a couple, and they're gone almost immediately all the same.

    Another factor in the equation though is processing shipments. I saw someone noted that after an open-box controversy between two customers, the manager was able to procure a new iPad 2 for a disappointed customer when apparently there were none for sale. Well, there probably weren't. He either bumped someone back on the pre-order list to be nice to the pissed off customer in the store or perhaps a shipment came in on the truck that had yet to be processed and he worked it out with the ops team to get them to process one so he could get it out. Oftentimes the managers do actually try to make the customer happy, even if it's somewhat unreasonable. The ops guys have their procedures, and it's rarely slimy in intent so much as rooted in overall efficiency, so sometimes a shipment won't go to the floor for sales until the next day because the processing takes time. If the manager pushes to work something out in that situation, the manager is doing you a favor and pissing off some ops guys to do so.

    Anyways, on to the 2nd scenario...

    2) This is what I'd really venture to bet is the problem: the pre-order system is a huge mess. It was a rush job authorized by corporate at the last minute and handled by less-than-informed employees who were also in a rush. From day 1 it was clear that problems were going to creep up, and they absolutely have. Nobody in store is happy about it. The employees don't like telling customers that they have to wait on a pre-order list, they don't like the 48 hour pickup window, they don't like having to deal with customers pissing and moaning and crying about conspiracy theories when only a 64 GB white Verizon iPad 2 is available once in a blue moon when a pre-order turns it down. It's not fun, for anyone, and unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it.

    So what I'm guessing is really happening is that Best Buy is just digging out of this pre-order mess as fast as possible and skipping anything else until they get past the ramifications of a stupid decision. Considering there's little to skip seeing as supply is so low and we rarely have the most in-demand models available anyways, it's easier for them to just bow out of this for a couple of weeks and in a sense re-launch the normal sales when supplies are less constrained and they don't have a stupid pre-order process hanging over their heads. It's a cut and dry move that will allow them to gear up again in a more normal, focused way. Considering how things have gone there in the last month in dealing with anything iPad related, this might be the best decision for them.

    All in all, Best Buy is Best Buy: a brick and mortar retailer lost in an internet-connected world. Best Buy isn't nearly as evil as they are lost and longing for the 20th century. Sure, there's a lot of margin on accessories, but it's because there's more often than not no margin on anything else. They don't make much money at all on TV's and Computers anymore. If they're on sale, and at Best Buy, almost everything is always "On Sale," it's likely at cost or within a few dollars of cost. There's little margin in the shrinking physical media world either. The only departments with major products that have margin still are appliances and for certain stores, musical instruments. This is why Best Buy will likely be dead in 5 years if they don't drastically change their business model. They did a better job at adapting to the new world than other electronics chains, but they haven't done nearly enough. It's not an easy business at this point though as it has as much to do with dealing with suppliers suffering the same pinch and customers who want to have it all but don't want to pay for it.

    Also, in regards to stupid employees and sleazy mangers, yeah, they do exist. But more employees know their stuff than you might think. And there are quite a few managers who actually do care about trying to do a good job and help the customer.

    As far as the employees, the biggest shock to me after working at Best Buy was realizing that so much of the supposed employee ignorance has more to do with incessantly having to dumb things down to the most absurd of levels with customers. 90% of the people who come in are nice people who just don't know much of anything about what they're buying. You have to learn to communicate on their level and not over-complicate things for them. It's easy to get stuck in that default mode and you have to actively snap yourself out of it on the rare occasion when you get customers who can actually hold their own in a conversation about the technology. And make no mistake, it's a huge relief for most of us when that happens because most of us that work there actually are pretty excited about the technology.

    Now on the other hand, sleazy managers and supervisors can screw so much of this up. While most of the employees aren't making a career out of working at Best Buy, the sups and managers typically are on some level at least, and it takes a certain, umm, level of person to get, err, stuck, yes, at that level if you know what I mean. There's a lot of inconsistency in these types of people. If you get good ones though, they tend to hire good employees and foster a good environment for customers. My store has good management. It's the only thing that makes it remotely tolerable to me. The employees actually know their stuff and are honest with the customers. They also work as a team because the management pushes it and thankfully we don't have commission to muck things up. And customers do love us for it. You'd be shocked by how often a selling relationship turns into a friendship practically at our particular store. We get invited out after work all the time. Honesty goes a long ways, and when you're helping people save money by making sure they make a smart decision for their needs, it goes a long ways. And our managers are objective enough (and not locked into Best Buy corporate brainwash mode) to know that the only thing Best Buy has to offer over Amazon is the possibility of a good customer service experience. They do all they reasonably can to ensure that it happens.

    But again, this simply isn't the case everywhere at all, and it so often boils down to the luck of the draw on management. Good managers hire good people leading to good teams leading to generally happy customers and good sales. Bad managers hire their dumb friends, play games with customers, lie, cheat, and usually they don't put up good numbers.

    At the end of the day though, the good stores and the bad stores are equally screwed because the industry is a mess, the world is changing, and Best Buy corporate utterly and completely lacks the talent and leadership to be innovative in the 21st century. They refuse to reasonably acknowledge change, they're too scared to piss off manufacturers who have lines all across the store that vary dramatically when it comes to success and quality, and they're wildly inconsistent and disorganized with their processes and as they put it, "solutions." As said, if things don't drastically change, and I don't believe they will without a major shift in leadership, they'll be dead in 5 years. It's a sinking ship. I'll be happy to be out of there.

    Again, I don't think they're near as evil and corrupt as they are just lost. When you're lost, things can get confusing real fast. Bear in mind that oftentimes when employees appear aloof, they're probably confused because corporate changes things all the time and does little to help keep us informed of these changes. Also, don't mistake conspiracy theories for sheer stupidity. Like we saw in this whole conversation, people will say some wild things. It's easy to think it from the outside. I can assure you from the inside, that oftentimes what looks like scheming and maneuvering is really just disorganization, stupidity and/or confusion due to the muddled processes and the ever-foggy way in which corporate outlines these processes.

    I don't blame people for not liking Best Buy. I don't like them either. Just go easy on the guys on the floor and in the back. Unless they're the total goof-off employees which do exist, what you're pissed about is probably not their fault at all.





    countess of wessex. Sophie Countess of Wessex
  • Sophie Countess of Wessex



  • joefinan
    Apr 9, 10:51 AM
    It was amusing at first but when you think how much effort went into all those presentations it's not too fair.

    How would gizmodo feel if their site kept randomly going offline...?

    They had it coming...

    What did who have coming?





    countess of wessex. Countess of Wessex#39;#39;s
  • Countess of Wessex#39;#39;s



  • T-Will
    Apr 6, 11:27 AM
    This is probably a way for Apple to pad their iAd numbers before WWDC.





    countess of wessex. HRH The Countess of Wessex,
  • HRH The Countess of Wessex,



  • Arran
    Mar 17, 07:03 AM
    OP: Just curious. Roughly what bill denominations did you hand over? Was it mostly big bills? Or a mess of ones, fives, tens, twenties and coins?

    Did you count it along with him? There's no chance a relative secretly slipped an extra $300 in your iPad fund - just to be nice to you. It's been known to happen.





    DewGuy1999
    Apr 10, 05:53 PM
    A&W Coney, Onion Rings and Root Beer for dinner...yum!





    ctdonath
    Oct 1, 08:59 AM
    Local people and conservation societies defended the building as a unique witness of the region's architectural development. It's not a particularly pretty building but it's certainly one with some history around it. ... But leaving the building to the elements with no maintenance is in my opinion wrong, immoral and a disregard of what property ownership should be about. ... If Jobs wanted a modern building ... then he should have got his rich ass moved to another large plot and built his modern glassbox there, after he sold Jackling House to somebody who wanted to live in that and respect local conservationist's and planning authorities' wishes.

    I appreciate the sentiment. Anything which has outlived its owner[s] should be given some consideration & deference for historical value. One should treat antiques with respect the spirit of its creation and prior ownership, not just abusing/mangling/destroying it out of a sense of "it's mine so I can do what I want with it." Problem is: where to draw the line, and drawing the line is the prerogative of the current owner.

    Are the locals & conservators doing so out of genuine concern for the Jackling House? Is it in fact a worthy part of history, or a notable example? or are they closer to naysaying for the self-serving benefits thereof (striving for relevance, trying to keep a billionaire off the street, whatever)? I'm guessing somewhere in the middle: yeah, a mansion of a distinct style is worth consideration for preservation, and those insisting thereon need something to insist thereon lest their relevance evaporate.

    Leaving it to rot shows poor character, either by not caring for what one owns (disrespectful of one's own efforts and possessions) or as a tactic against busybodies (a nasty you-can't-make-me tone). It's his, it should at least be in nice enough shape to have lunch or spend a mundane night there. FWIW, I've owned a remote home, so appreciate the annoyance of long-distance maintenance.

    Comes down to the fact that it's located in a high-price-tag area, and the value of the land alone exceeds the building's historical value. We don't know if anyone would have paid the millions to live there, and can be sure nobody would have paid the millions to preserve it for its own sake. The only reason AFAIK anybody is taking an interest in it (ex.: we're talking about it here) is that Steve ***** Jobs is about to destroy it. That a tiny number of people may have genuine interest in preserving either Spanish Revival or Jackling artifacts IMHO just does not give enough weight to overrule the house's owner. If they can't come up with enough of their own money (NOT coerced taxpayer-confiscated funds) to buy it outright or at least relocate it, and there isn't any other broad compelling reason (we're talking Jackling here, not Tesla, and Spanish Revival, not F.L.Wright), then fire up the bulldozers. Fact is, there just isn't that much desirable acreage in that region suitable for a billionaire's estate; "go somewhere else" holds little traction when proximity to Apple's campus is vital and there isn't much else suitable.

    As I start to peek "over the hill", my perspective of preserving works is changing. Much has sentimental value, but little warrants outright indefinite preservation. Jackling was one man, long gone; time for his spiritual successor in business success and industrial influence to take his place and leave a new mark.





    dunk321
    Mar 17, 01:24 AM
    JohnnyQuest chill out man you sound worse then my Dad growing up as a kid. Just telling a story, and sorry for my grammar must be that UCF education I paid for. Go to the fridge and bust open a bottle of that hater-aid or better yet, go get laid. Since you obviously seem pretty stressed over the story. Who are you anyway? Judge Jury and Executioner? Please





    oceans777
    Apr 8, 07:02 PM
    I got my iPad 2 at the magical store. CompUSA. Winner.





    gaseby
    Aug 3, 04:58 AM
    The newspaper VG in Norway have an article today where they have interviewed a spokes person from the Council:
    - They see the answer to be positive and in the right direction, however a lot remains
    - The outstanding issues are:


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