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The Worst Proprietary Gadget Offenses
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The Worst Proprietary Gadget Offenses |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
03/13/09
03/12/09
My top three favorite items in this article:
1.
SD cards are by far the industry standard on memory, and I will be the first to sign a petition outlawing every other memory format (yes, including Compact Flash). But wait! There are multiple varieties of SD cards, too, so we really are not winning any battles here.
2.
CDMA may be disliked (especially by those who have GSM phones), but do not forget that the world has hardly selected one standard for phone carriers. While GSM might be the majority player, like SD cards, it still has multiple varieties. And while the SIM card idea sounds great on paper, we have had a lot of difficulties getting them to work. (GCI in Alaska is our latest example where we have to swap SIM cards because they are moving to a different GSM network. So much for GSM being ubiquitous.)
3.
The sound quality improvement of AAC and WMA is really at very small bit rates, which is stupid in the age of 4gb shuffles. PC Magazine did a study and found that MP3 actually sounds better than both of these formats when using any bit rate above 160K. That leaves only one reason to use a format other than MP3: Because no one wants to pay the small royalties to use it. I am a cheapskate, but that seems absurd to me.
Still, the one thing I have come to accept is that the gadget community will continue to create new standards and formats that will ultimately make all of our lives ridiculously complicated. Consider it job security, folks.
03/12/09
Kodak Disk Cameras.
[en.wikipedia.org]
worst idea they ever had. I mean.. 35mm was plentiful and easy to get and use.. so they create that??
03/12/09
Apple's Mini-DVI, Micro-DVI, Mini-VGA...whatever other video ports they have. Those are just evil.
All the consoles having different video plugs and power cords.
There has to be more...just can't think of them right now.
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Example.
So if you already have a DVI to VGA converter and you want to use either DVI or VGA though your Display Port. You have to buy both adapters.
03/12/09
Another way apple is sucking more money out of their customers. But noo...no one will complain, its apple almost everyone thinks that they are perfect. Yet they seem to be as greedy, if not more greedy then Microsoft.
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It did, to some extent. The Firewire dock cable was much, much faster than USB 1.1, I know that much. I've never compared Firewire 400 vs. USB 2.0 on my iPod, but I've never stared at my iPod in disgust from it being so goddamn slow like I did when I used the USB cable for all of one day, so even if Firewire connector was still faster, it wasn't much faster.
But you're right, the main bottleneck isn't the connector; it's the HDD. USB3 on an iPod won't be much of an improvement, if it's an improvement at all.
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Don't be a douchebag (although from a brief perusal of your posting history that might be difficult for you, but please try).
03/12/09
@blash: Caveats aside, she has a point. The convenience is worth noting, and though I like my little SIM phone, Verizon's service has an edge in that regard.
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And if you're going to bitch about camera equipment, how about all the lenses that won't play with each other. Sure, the companies that don't spell their names CANON and NIKON are trying to get Four Thirds going, but that's in the infancy and doesn't help those who bought a Canon or a Nikon.
03/12/09
It would be nice to get some official converters (between mounts) though, although those converters would inevitably affect the effective focal length of the glass used and degrade the image through additional optics.
03/12/09
If I was a professional photographer, I wouldn't buy into 4/3 because, while it's well-intentioned, it's poorly implemented. It has a shorter focal length and smaller sensor size, resulting in higher cropping and lower signal:noise.
But for hobby purposes, it's not bad.
03/12/09
03/12/09
But for schmucks like me who haven't shot on an SLR since using a Pentax K1000 in film school, it's not bad. It's good enough for hobbyists. And good enough for the rich kids in Billyburg who love dangling D3's from their necks to show how cool they are.
03/12/09
I agree, though that it's mostly evil. I just bought an HTC Touch on eBay (they're cheap now, from Taiwan) and am loving the fact that it uses a standard mini-USB for power and communication. I wish all gadgets would.
03/12/09
Betamax for the consumer is a bit of a different story. From what I heard, it went under because Sony would allow porn to be distributed on it. The quality was actually better than VHS. But, in the end (not a porn reference), the cheap price and our dirty desires won out.
03/12/09
One of my professors from law school wrote the oft-cited article on how porn drives technology.
03/12/09
Can you please post a link to that article?
I happen to currently be involved in a debate with the little lady about porn, and would gladly and happily site that article.
03/12/09
[www.law.indiana.edu]
And yes, I know his name is Peter Johnson. Ha ha ha.
03/12/09
@luckylakey: You're wrong. Porn producers put out HD DVD, not Blu-ray, releases first.
03/12/09
I used to joke that I'd finish working for Peter Johnson and Peter Johnson at 5:30 so I could get to class at 6:30 and learn from Peter Johnson.
03/12/09
It all makes sense! No wonder Japan has such high speed internet!
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I understand your point of view, but it isn't feasible in all markets. A lot of manufacturers have learned the prudence of adhering to standards, but companies like Sony and Apple have always tried to be renegades (mavericks, if you will!) and create the "new" standard.
In rehards to trying to create proprietary dominance, Sony and Apple have failed on almost all counts, but other positive aspects or succesful products have kept their heads above water. Neither has set any spectacular benchmarks for proprietary standards because they both try to play hardball and other people simply don't care. The majority of what they've introduced is either on par with competing technology, or simply has a balanced set of pros and cons, which the consumers must puzzle over then decide upon.
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It must be difficult being more of an elitist douchebag than the average fanboy... you're an unFanboy. Gratz.
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Earthslide is right, if you don't like the proprietary format, don't buy it. Sure, some formats "win", in the short term without consumer support, such a Blu-Ray, but continued lukewarm support of the format will still lead to a shortened lifespan.
The people that read Gizmodo are in a better position than most to find an equal alternative to these proprietary formats... Control your gadget lust!
03/12/09
My posting hasn't changed since day one, and if the star comes or goes, it doesn't greatly concern me. I say what I think, and I don't really pull and punches. Sometimes sensitive people feel hurt and get any whingey. I really don't care.
My point was, almost no matter what you buy you're getting something proprietary and you'll get fucked along the line. Whether it's a power cord, charging cord, charging dock, controllers, remotes, etc... there is no such thing as a consumer boycott, because people buy all this shit because they perceive a need for it. It's just something most companies prefer to do. I don't like it, but I needed a phone and so I had to buy the extra properietary shit necessary to keep it charged and synced.
If you own a cell phone then you own a product with a proprietary adapter. It's that simple.
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You might as well be pissed about every Playstation controller only being compatible with playstations, or the same for XBox, or for Sega, etc...
Have you ever bought a controller to be used with more than one brand of console?
03/12/09
i.e.
Steering wheel
Golf-Club
Tennis-Racket
Light-Saber
etc. ad-nausem