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Comment: Re:A shot at other OS, computer *and* device maker (Score 3, Insightful) 471

by pherthyl (#45209351) Attached to: Apple Announces iPad Air

>> Apple laptops are not magic, or particularly good value.

Two things that I like about Apple laptops that are unmatched:
1. Trackpad is just first class. I have never seen any windows machine with a trackpad so smooth and accurate. Also the gestures in the OS are actually useful to the point where I prefer using the trackpad over a mouse for most applications (not image editing).
2. Magnetic power adapter. This is just killer compared to the stupid barrel connectors everyone else has. I would pay an extra $100 just for that feature.

Comment: Re:Considered it (Score 1) 177

by pherthyl (#45087955) Attached to: Nest Protect: Trojan Horse For 'The Internet of Things'?

...which is also why there isn't one in my house. "Network-connectable thermostat that I can control from a smartphone and which has a simple UI on top of decent intelligence?" Sure! "Has to phone-home to a company instead of working stand-alone or with a fairly simple piece of software that I can monitor and maintain myself because I'm a competent sysadmin at a company much larger than Nest?" Whoops, this product stays on the store shelf.

The whole point of the Nest is that it is a piece of the smart home automation world without the complexity. If they made it so it had to be tied to a program on your computer, or you had to run your own server it would have been a total flop.

Comment: Re:Annoyed fanboy? (Score 3, Insightful) 419

by pherthyl (#44075601) Attached to: Android Fragmentation Isn't Hurting Its Adoption

>> You must be somewhat mathematically challenged, because even if you and Apple are right, targeting a subset of 75% of the market is still better than targeting nearly all of 17% of the market.

And yet, 75% of app revenue is from iOS. So as a developer the 75% marketshare means nothing if those people aren't buying apps.

Comment: Re:Make it Generic, Please (Score 1) 257

by pherthyl (#43444297) Attached to: What's Next For Smartphone Innovation

>> I want a generic revolution in smart phones. Android goes part way there, but not far enough.

The iPhone has been all the way there since it was created. Nothing comes from the carrier except the packets and the bill. Problem solved.

>> Phones should be modular. Want to upgrade the phone battery? Or radio? Add a keyboard? Not a problem.

This is nonsense. Upgrade the radio? You have no idea how infeasible that is unless you'd like to return to suitcase phones from the 80s.
And you can already add a keyboard, it's called Bluetooth.

Comment: Re:Lots of great new stuff! (Score 1) 81

by pherthyl (#43415377) Attached to: Qt 5.1 Adds Android and iOS Support

>> Good luck fending off the javascript hordes.

No luck needed. JS/HTML5 apps are essentially dead for everything except really simple things. It's no coincidence that Facebook dropped their HTML5 apps completely and replaced them with native. Every developer I've talked to that started with HTML5 for mobile apps has been completely disillusioned by the lack of tools, performance problems, and general buggyness and limitations. It's not a serious way to develop apps unless your app is essentially a repacked website.

Comment: Re:Not native (Score 1) 81

by pherthyl (#43415301) Attached to: Qt 5.1 Adds Android and iOS Support

>> Qt doesn't do tool bars correctly.

Wrong. Qt is perfectly capable of doing the integrated toolbar on Mac. Just because Texworks chose not to do it that way (because they wanted additional flexibility in the toolbars which a unified toolbar doesn't offer) doesn't mean Qt can't do it.

>> The icons look all out of place

Icons are 100% the responsibility of the software creator, not Qt. Clearly you don't understand how software works.

Comment: Re:Regarding the 'too late' part of the equation (Score 2, Informative) 184

by pherthyl (#42816691) Attached to: BlackBerry 10 Review: Good, But Too Late?

>> There is this company called Amazon - I guess you haven't heard of them...

Oh, you mean that company lost $274 million in Q3, had earnings collapse by 45% in Q4, and is anticipating a big loss in Q1 2013? Not sure that is a model to follow.

Amazon sold lots of Kindles because of the low price that's it. They're bleeding money on that venture hoping to make it up in content sales. That doesn't work for Blackberry.
