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Attention App Developers: Please come up with an app called "Time Banana". I don't care what it does. It doesn't have to have anything to do with time. It doesn't have to be a game. It can just be a banana with a Casio watch strapped to it.
I have found the easiest way to enable tethering is to goto [help.benm.at], select mobileconfigs, select your country, then select your mobile provider. This will download a new config which you can install and will enable Internet tethering. I have tested this on O2 in the UK but there are loads of others on the site.
I'm still disappointed that they didn't change the physical design of the phone any; I freely admit that I like showing off new gadgets that nobody else has, but since the 3GS looks the same as the 3G, I expect to get a whole lot of reactions along the lines of, "Isn't that just the old one?".
If I already owned the 3G, I wouldn't upgrade to the 3GS, but as someone who has, until now, been unable to purchase an iPhone (thanks AT&T for your 2-year contracts!), I'm definitely going to be picking this up.
That's actually what I would expect them to do. That is, if most consumers weren't morons. But since people will buy this anyways and rationalize their needs around the storage available they could have packaged this with 4GB and people would still buy it.
@NeoAkira: Where did you happen to find the capacities of the player? That hasn't been released afaik, and I would hesitate to make comments that are based on speculation while claiming it is a fact.
Remember all of the comments that went like this: "zune is so behind because they are coming out with 120gb, but ipod will have 240gb!!"
You can tell it's flash-based because of the size. Meaning that the absolute best possible outcome would be 64GB, but seeing as how they're already integrating a bunch of other expensive, battery-draining features into the player, don't expect more than 32GB, especially since the higher the GB the more batter it drains.
Yo, Mr. Pre guy, better be careful about claiming your product acts like a drug or the FDA will come cracking down on you like they did with Cheerios.
"The Food and Drug Administration says General Mills, the maker of Cheerios, is making inappropriate claims about the cereal's health benefits. Enforcement action may include seizure of violative products and/or injunction against the manufacturers and distributors of violative products."
But also man, do you get a hard on from the Pre? Because that is a hilarious fetish. You must go through one of them a day at least with such "love"!
The UI is good looking, but I don't think it's better than the iPod Touch, honestly. The Zune HD, in music and videos at least, looks great and snappy but when navigating between videos and songs and albums and podcasts the iPhone/iPod Touch seems to be easier.
Music on ipod touch: go to the main menu and look for the music app... load music app... go into playlists.... realize you want artist... hit back... go to artists... pick artist.... go to album... play song
Music on zune: tap music... go into playlists... realize you want artists... swipe a time or two... pick artist... go to album... play song.
And every time you want to get in and out of videos or music on the touch you have to open that app. Want to look at pictures while listening to music? pick song/playlist/whatever, hit home, go to the pictures app... look at pictures...
That sounds really intuitive. On zune if I'm looking through pictures and want to listen to music, I open music, got to song/playlist/whatever, hit back a couple of times and I'm at the picture I was just at. Crazy, huh?
@my secret identity: If you go into Playlists, and decide that you wanted to look through the Artists list, there's a row of buttons below that allows you to quickly access them without pressing the backtrack button.
I'm an apple fan, but I'll be the first to admit that thing is sexy. Unfortunately I think Microsoft just came in too late for the PMP to take that share away from Apple. But if anything could do it i believe this would be the device.
@midiac: The file transfer process is convoluted and it hogs system resources. It's not really that bad, but it's pretty clear that the whole system is designed as a music selling platform.
This is why apple should be a'feard- the microsoft method is not to make world beating products, or get to market first.
They find a profitable market, enter it with a first gen product, and then just keep spending cash while they make the product incrementally better and better until nobody can remember when they sucked. See: operating systems, video game consoles, etc.
They're not first, they're not best, but they've got the pockets to outlast anybody. And that makes them dangerous.
@Mykbibby: It doesn't matter. In a world where there's an operating system that dominates by such a wide margin, it only serves as a benefit to know how to use it.
@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M: At least I don't have to be ashamed of listening to Zero Mostel and Milton Greene anymore :D
But yeah, the UI has some pretty fudgy spots. I take issue with the "genius" playlist button being really easy to skim over by accident, but that's a minor quibble.
I'm afraid the Mac client of the Zune that you're wishin' for is a long wait for a train don't come. Doubt that Softie will be codin' 'ny UIX architecturin' for OS X.
@Kaiser-Machead: Over 90% of the global PC market runs Windows. An embarrassing 7% is Mac. Do you honestly think it would be economically beneficial to MS to spend time programming for an irrelevant share of the market? Or would it make more sense for them to spend that time and programming resources improving existing software and developing new features?
The answer is painfully obvious (except to apple fanboys). Apple has no choice but to make their products work with windows, because, well, most of their users are windows users anyways. Much to the dismay of the writers and fanbase of this blog, MS is the 800-lb gorilla in the room, and when you are him, everyone has to play by YOUR rules, not the other way around.
Sorry apple lovers, when Macs become relevant, people will start making their products work with them.
@marm0lade: Are you actually responding to what I was saying, or were you just looking for an excuse to make a huge rant about how puny the Mac market share numbers are? I'm well aware of Apple's position in the computing space. I'm well aware of the incentive (or lack there of) of certain developers to make, or not make, certain products for the OS X platform, Microsoft included. I'm well aware that Apple has a great deal more incentive to make their products cross platform, and I'm well aware of the trivial financial gain that Microsoft would have if they bothered to put time into developing a cross-platform Zune, when the only real device on OS X is the same device that competes with them on Windows. I don't require any lecturing on the matter, unless you were simply responding to BLam in this thread.
@Life Is Eat And Die: Unless you have a strong distaste for iTunes or really like Zune's subscription feature of its Marketplace, I highly recommend selecting an iPod Touch, just for the thousands of applications already available for it.
@EBone: You know they're gonna have apps, come on. Not only are Zunes great pieces of hardware but the software updates are the shiz and ya gotta have a little competition to keep things interesting.
@maven2k: I agree, there will be apps, but based on Microsoft's implementation timelines for the Zune, that could be 18 months away still. You could have worn out an iPod Touch by that time.
Palm Pre or Viagra, this is just too tough a decision. I mean, on one hand, Viagra might send me to a funny-shaped coffin, but on the other hand, I might be distracted by the suppository-shaped Pre and get hit by a bus.
@does the aero shake_Nick: Kaiser's problem is that, well, you know... He's (whispering)one of them(/whispering), er so he wears his around his neck like a tie.
Viagra (Or a certain Motorola employee) would cause him to choke to death.
06/18/09
I just want an app called Time Banana.
06/18/09
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06/18/09
If I already owned the 3G, I wouldn't upgrade to the 3GS, but as someone who has, until now, been unable to purchase an iPhone (thanks AT&T for your 2-year contracts!), I'm definitely going to be picking this up.
05/29/09
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It has all these great features, but if you don't have enough storage then who gives a fuck.
05/28/09
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By being observant and realizing that HD video files are quite large.
@planetarian: When's the last time the iPod Touch and iPhone advertised themselves as an HD audio and video player? Oh that's right, they don't.
05/28/09
05/28/09
SPOILER
By not being a dumbass :D
/SPOILER
@planetarian:
That's actually what I would expect them to do. That is, if most consumers weren't morons. But since people will buy this anyways and rationalize their needs around the storage available they could have packaged this with 4GB and people would still buy it.
05/29/09
Remember all of the comments that went like this: "zune is so behind because they are coming out with 120gb, but ipod will have 240gb!!"
05/29/09
You can tell it's flash-based because of the size. Meaning that the absolute best possible outcome would be 64GB, but seeing as how they're already integrating a bunch of other expensive, battery-draining features into the player, don't expect more than 32GB, especially since the higher the GB the more batter it drains.
05/28/09
"The Food and Drug Administration says General Mills, the maker of Cheerios, is making inappropriate claims about the cereal's health benefits. Enforcement action may include seizure of violative products and/or injunction against the manufacturers and distributors of violative products."
But also man, do you get a hard on from the Pre? Because that is a hilarious fetish. You must go through one of them a day at least with such "love"!
05/28/09
05/28/09
um... how?
I had an ipod touch. HAD.
Music on ipod touch: go to the main menu and look for the music app... load music app... go into playlists.... realize you want artist... hit back... go to artists... pick artist.... go to album... play song
Music on zune: tap music... go into playlists... realize you want artists... swipe a time or two... pick artist... go to album... play song.
And every time you want to get in and out of videos or music on the touch you have to open that app. Want to look at pictures while listening to music? pick song/playlist/whatever, hit home, go to the pictures app... look at pictures...
That sounds really intuitive. On zune if I'm looking through pictures and want to listen to music, I open music, got to song/playlist/whatever, hit back a couple of times and I'm at the picture I was just at. Crazy, huh?
05/28/09
05/28/09
Look for music app? Put it in your doc k.
Load music app? My music app never "loads", it's nearly instantly there.
Go in to playlists? Sure.
Wanna go to an artist? Quickly hit back and go to Artists. It's not like it takes you more then 2 seconds to click "Back"
05/28/09
I forgot about the little thing on the bottom. Click "Artists" and walla.
05/28/09
voila
05/28/09
LOSE, not loaw. Sweet jebus.
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They find a profitable market, enter it with a first gen product, and then just keep spending cash while they make the product incrementally better and better until nobody can remember when they sucked. See: operating systems, video game consoles, etc.
They're not first, they're not best, but they've got the pockets to outlast anybody. And that makes them dangerous.
05/28/09
You, my friend, are talking out your ass.
Is this product good? Sure. But Windows sucks. And if it was all about money, Windows would be miles ahead of OS X and Linux.
05/28/09
05/28/09
Why does it get so side tracked if I go off playlist?
I play one extra damn song from Fiddler on the Roof cause I'm just a dork and it makes me navigate back to my top rate.
WHY WHY?
Does the Zune figure this out? Cause if so I would switch just for that!
05/28/09
But yeah, the UI has some pretty fudgy spots. I take issue with the "genius" playlist button being really easy to skim over by accident, but that's a minor quibble.
05/28/09
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The answer is painfully obvious (except to apple fanboys). Apple has no choice but to make their products work with windows, because, well, most of their users are windows users anyways. Much to the dismay of the writers and fanbase of this blog, MS is the 800-lb gorilla in the room, and when you are him, everyone has to play by YOUR rules, not the other way around.
Sorry apple lovers, when Macs become relevant, people will start making their products work with them.
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jebus man. can't you just tuck it under your belt?
05/28/09
Viagra (Or a certain Motorola employee) would cause him to choke to death.