This is a screenshot from the Boycott SOPA Android app that lets you scan the barcode of a product to determine whether the manufacturer supports the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is an awful bill for a number of reasons detailed here, and therefore will be passed with a bipartisan majority despite a threatened blackout from some of the biggest sites in the world. Thanks to this app, I discovered that Cheerios are linked to a SOPA supporter, while Softsoap and Aveeno are not. I will be clean but hungry this morning.
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EZSmirkzz
Well you can come over to my place for breakfast, coffee and cigarettes.
Social Outcast
What is the connection between Cheerios and SOPA?
Napoleon
But what if you use it to scan Tim Tebow?
mistermix
@Social Outcast: I think General Mills would like to block use of their copyrighted brands and supports SOPA for that. That’s wrong for two reasons. First, it’s like killing a fly with a sledgehammer to shut down a whole site because someone posted something about Cheerios using General Mills’ copyrighted materials. Second, a lot of the anti-brand websites (which is what really upsets those manufacturers) are protected speech under the First Amendment. cheerios-suck.com, for example, would probably be protected, depending on the content.
lacp
“Yon mistermix hath a clean and hungry look.”
The Fat Kate Middleton
Is there anything like this for iPhone?
MikeJ
@Social Outcast: Good question since General Mills isn’t on the devs “bad companies” list, but various individual products are on their “Companies that are intimitely related to those that support SOPA” list.
It’s a pity they don’t have links to any sort of documentation of the political stand of these companies. It looks like they just add whatever random people on the internet put in comments on their blog.
reflectionephemeral
Huh, funny, in light of this week’s This American Life about the factories in China that make our phones, I was just wondering if there were an ap that has similar information about products’ factory conditions. Thanks for pointing this one out.
Scott
My phone is weirdly fucked up in ways that won’t let me update it to new versions and thus won’t let me download fun stuff like code readers or UPC scanners or “Arkham Horror” apps. My life is fail. :(
WaterGirl
Wow. An app like that could change everything. The future of boycotts, indeed.
Anya
Don’t you mean clean and healthy, mistermix?
The Fat Kate Middleton
@WaterGirl: Totally agree. For the first time, I’m wishing I had an android instead of iPhone. C’mon, Apple – get with it.
superluminar
@mistermix
Why are you opposed to preventing piracy? These job creators are doing their best to support the American economy, but you are happy to support people who would steal that property not to enhance the Commonwealth but rather to enrich their own pockets. You aren’t supporting the Steve Jobs of this world, just the online equivalent of the banksters. I hope you’re proud of that.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@EZSmirkzz: Because of you, I had to switch from what I was currently listening to over to Jimmy Eat World.
MikeJ
@The Fat Kate Middleton: You’ll be able to get it for the iphone when1) somebody writes it and 2)Apple approves it. In theory it might be interesting to hear the conversations about this app among the Apple legal team, but in practice I’d bet the conversation would be a rather boring unanimous “no”.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@superluminar: I am opposed to supporting a dying system like distribution companies that are getting replaced by digital distribution. I have bought a number of albums online because the money goes directly to the artist. This isn’t about piracy, it’s about Sony executives getting paid for something they didn’t create.
mistermix
@superluminar: I’m against piracy, but using SOPA to stop piracy is like using the death penalty for white-collar crime. It’s an over-reaction.
MikeJ
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
It’s not even about that for me. The evilness of the way labels treat musicians is a separate issue. The issue here is if Sony should be allowed to prevent US based DNS servers from resolving the names of entire foreign web sites because of one link to infringing material.
sparky
thanks for posting this. now if it just sent feedback to the relevant firms….
imagine something like this for proposed legislation generally. wouldn’t counter lobbying/cronyism, but it would be a start.
Scott
@mistermix: I’d say it’s more like committing global genocide because some kids spray-painted their names on a wall.
MikeJ
@mistermix:
I would argue that white collar crime is the best place to use the death penalty. The death penalty isn’t going to stop anyone from getting drunk and murdering somebody in a bar fight, but put the heads of few of the masters of the universe on pikes and you might see better behavior.
EZSmirkzz
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Lacking a best foot to fast forward, I do my best theories instead.
WereBear
Now that China has implemented this variation, we’ll see how it shakes down.
I have used Mr WereBear’s research skills to stop buying Bounty/Sparkle paper towels even in an emergency, because they are owned by the Koch Brothers. (I try to buy recycled and other responsible choices as far as my finances/travels allow.) Just imagine, if the left blogosphere would support JUST STOP BUYING BOUNTY AND NORTHERN/ANGEL SOFT.
The effects might have an effect.
Karmakin
I’m pro-piracy (even though I don’t actually pirate things) and here’s why.
#1. Because it follows deep-rooted cultural traditions that culture and content should be reasonably accessible to all. In short, we pay for the package, and not the content. And this works. The way I describe it, is that you go to a diner, you see a newspaper sitting there. Most of us if we want to read it will pick it up and read it without thinking twice about it. But yet, you’re not paying for that content. You are pirating it. We’ll lend out or get a lend of culture/content goods without even thinking about it. We’ll get books out of public libraries.
It’s absurdly deep-rooted, and on the whole it’s a good thing, as culture holds societies together. The way that big media wants to see cultural goods these days, is as interchangeable widgets with no redeeming value whatsoever. Needless to say I think that view needs to be squashed like a bug.
#2. It forces innovation, both in technology and business. Now forces is a really weird word there. Usually you see drives. But no, I really mean forces. It means that companies have to adapt to consumer demands instead of being able to dictate consumer needs. It changes things to pull from push. This again, is a great thing.
#3. It provides a legal barrier for grey market activities. If Big Media didn’t have to worry about piracy, they’d be focusing their attention on getting laws passed that would further expand their control. Shutting down used media shops, further linking content to a one purchase/one viewer (or even one view) model, limiting public libraries, etc. This is actually where it would really hurt me, as I tend to get all my books out of the library or used book shops, buy used movies, buy used games or get them on deep discount (hi Steam!), etc.
These are reasons why I see piracy as not a strictly negative thing for society. Can it go too far? Sure. Is it even close to doing that? Nope. Generally speaking people are still spending their entertainment dollars. It’s just that people are getting more bang for their buck. That’s all.
superluminar
@belafon
The only reason any of the talent get publicity at all is because companies like Sony do a lot to promote it. Are you saying they should not be adequately compensated for that work?
@mistermix
By your reasoning, sharing the wealth=Hitler!
Redshift
Let me be the first to say it — this is DougJ trolling the blog again, right?
Scott
Silence, troll-creature.
gaz
@reflectionephemeral: LOL that would be so ironic.
Like an online 12-step program for Internet addicts…
(Oh wait, that’s been done already)…
I don’t think you can find a sweatshop and exploitation free smartphone.
If nothing else, some of the fiddly bits inside are powered by the souls of Dead African Children (Yeah – I kid, but not by much – if you mine in Africa, or buy minerals from someone who does, chances are you’ve supported massacring Africans… not much different than blood diamonds)…
Hey Apple? How many African Children have you raped today?
WereBear
Woo! Hurt myself laughing there.
Frankly, I think people like Sony would KILL the internet if they could. They were much happier controlling all the means of distribution.
daveNYC
I’d say this is more like putting spike strips on all the roads in order to prevent speeding. There’s a huge difference between having penalties for piracy, and writing derp filled laws in an attempt to make piracy impossible.
Benjamin Franklin
Holy Moly…
http://theoriesofconspiracy.com/2011/11/list-of-major-companies-supporting-sopa.htm
359 corporations support SOPA.
Isn’t this just about everyone? Boycott Everything.
some guy
wow, a new Great Firewall, with Deep Packet Inspections for All, which will also become the Lawyers Full Employment Act of 2012. an excellent way to become the new China
Hopefully, Google and the telcos can shut this down.
Djur
SOPA is a bad idea regardless of the current copyright regime. You don’t have to be pro-piracy to be anti-SOPA.
superluminar
@Karmakin
You’re analogy at #1 is flawed. When you describe someone picking up a paper at a diner, we are talking about something that has already been paid for, so not really supporting your point at all…
gaz
@Djur:
Agreed. And the fact is, people that are adept at piracy won’t be affected by SOPA at all. Therefore, I don’t think any apolitical pirates will give a damn. They’ll just get their DNS from canada or something.
gaz
@superluminar: I had plenty of things I disagreed with about that post – but I understood Karmakin’s point about that paper – and I think you missed it.
Karmakin is saying that in a newspaper companies ideal, a paper would be purchase-per-view. If you leave papers lying around at a coffee shop for the customers, you are in essence undercutting the papers profit-margin for that edition, whereas if you didn’t leave them out, but offered the paper to customers for the papers face value, you wouldn’t be.
Pretty clear to me, anyway.
WaterGirl
@The Fat Kate Middleton: It’s not apple that writes all those apps. I suspect there will be an iPhone app that does that same thing in about 45 minutes. (Figuratively, not literally)
There are probably dozens of people writing this iPhone app right now.
@MikeJ: I hope you are wrong about the Apple legal team.
gaz
@WaterGirl: Well, apple didn’t write the app for sure.
But since they CONTROL ALL DISTRIBUTION of ALL APPS, that kinda means they’ve also taken responsibility for each of them, doesn’t it?
I mean, you can’t really have complete control over what software is “allowed”, and abdicate any responsibility for the content of your software catalog, now can you?
Villago Delenda Est
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
DING DING DING DING
SOPA is about keeping the parasites alive.
Death to the parasites.
Benjamin Franklin
@gaz:
Ad rates are based upon circulation. The papers sold at retail (non-subscription) do not count toward that. But circulation through vending machines is still circulation, because each reader sees the masthead, reads
an article or two, see ads. Newspapers spend a lot of capital on this because it does move their ad rates through public recognition, leading to subs.
Doug Danger
Does the uncurated Android app come with a free virus/Trojan?
Sadly, most Android users are going to have to deal with the “I can’t run this” problem at some point, since Android updates are the purview of the device manufacturer/carrier, NOT Google. So if the newest hot app requires Android 3, and your six-month-old phone still has 2.3, chances are it won’t ever get updated. You’ll have to wait until your contract terms out and get another new device – made in China in a factory right next to Apple’s without the onsite monitoring Apple has in place.
Apple, which is still maintaining current software updates for three-year-old phones.
Pick your poison, but just because Google wears “don’t be evil” on it’s sleeve doesn’t mean squat about their partners who actually make the phones or the carriers who charge hundreds of dollars per megabyte for super special text message data.
WaterGirl
@gaz: I don’t see why the Apple legal team would not approve that app. Maybe I’m naive. They need to stay competitive with the android, so if they are prohibiting good apps that folks can get on the android, they are shooting themselves in the foot. They have to walk a fine line here, I suppose. But undermining the 99% and supporting the 1% is not the way to keep their market share.
Edit: That might have flown a year ago, but I don’t think that flies now. Oh, and the folks who think OWS hasn’t accomplished anything are just not paying attention. They have completely changed the dialogue in this country.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@superluminar: Do you think that pirated CDs are copied from the ether, then?
Maybe there are some cases of a movie-cammer who snuck into the show, but for the most part anything pirated was bought at one point.
To me, the biggest benefit of piracy is that it forces these companies to give us better product. Even when I buy a DVD, I’d usually prefer to download a copy from a torrent to actually watch. Why? Because the pirated copy won’t make me sit through ten minutes of commercials before I’m allowed to watch the movie I fucking paid for.
The entertainment industry’s attitude toward its customers for years was a resounding “fuck you, you’ll eat this shit and like it!” They still think that $25 is a reasonable price for a movie on disc, including 15 minutes of unskippable ads. Well, now that the customer has a choice they’re choosing not to be fucked. Imagine that.
gaz
@Doug Danger: unmetered prepaid pretty much takes care of the gouging, dontcha think?
Net10 for example – $50 a month unmetered w/ android – after a few months or so (IIRC) it drops to $35 – regardless of how many bits you use =)
(Other than admittedly having to pay out of pocket – up front – for the phone itself)
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
Can we scan Mitt Romney’s barcode?
gaz
@WaterGirl:
Really?
I think you are a bit overconfident about the “benevolence” of Apple. For starters, why do you think they demand a tyrannical level of control over their software catalog, hell even their service (look at what Verizon was required to do just to sell apple?)
I have long, sordid history with Apple, going back to 1986. I know better than to trust them.
(oh, I agree with you about OWS, btw)
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: And BTW, many, many studies have shown that pirates are also the biggest spenders on content. Here’s an article about one such study which was commissioned by anti-piracy lobbyists, but then suppressed because it showed that so-called pirates were in fact the biggest spenders on content. Not only that, but shutting down piracy sites actually hurt sales.
It’s almost as though these companies care more about control than they do about profit! Golly gee.
joes527
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
gaz
@Benjamin Franklin: Doesn’t the coffee shop thing more or less undercut the reported circulation numbers? and therefore, dip into ad-revenue?
Edit: Adding, I’m sure that the papers factor in stuff like this (filed under CODB) i’m sure. But do you think they’d do that if they had another choice? I don’t.
MikeJ
@WaterGirl:
Apple are partners with all of the big content companies that would be boycotted. Apple makes money by selling their products on ITMS.
More than that though, good lawyers are lawsuit averse. They don’t want to be sued by any company that might be listed. What’s the upside for Apple allowing this app? The downside is loss of sales and possible lawsuits.
Lurker
@Djur:
Yep. Under SOPA, the poster of this video would go to prison for five years for the first-time offense of posting copyrighted material on the Internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CU2JhYM8tY
It uses both someone else’s song and music video.
Benjamin Franklin
@gaz:
Newsprint and ink are the cheapest commodities. Their cost-per-unit declines with each copy printed. They spread the surplus around without the circulation benefit, because it is cheap advertising for the daily fishwrap, and leads to subscriptions, which do lead to higher ad rates.
WaterGirl
@gaz: Well, Apple will have a chance to change my mind if they won’t approve an app like this. You may be right, but I hope you’re not. :-)
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@joes527: I think 3D was more about finding an excuse to jack up ticket prices by $3-4 than anything as remotely high-minded as the movie-going experience.
I’d also say that some movies are in fact enhanced by 3D. A few of them, not most by any means. Most of the time the effect is awful and tacked on just so they can charge $15+ for the ticket. Still, it’s not like its the first time 3D was a thing at the movies, and it didn’t kill the art of film-making the first time.
Another point about piracy: I think a lot of the losses supposedly caused by piracy are really just the result of the bad economy. People have less money to spend on going to the movies and buying discs, so they spend less money. I personally know a few pirates who’d be spending more money on music and movies if they had money to spend. Maybe the perfectly moral thing for them to do is just disconnect from their culture until they can get a job, but then I also think it’d be pretty moral to provide such jobs and I don’t see Sony or the others stepping up to do that, so fuck ’em.
I guess those tax cuts these bigwigs liked so much aren’t quite paying for themselves after all!
WaterGirl
@MikeJ: Thanks a lot! You and Gaz can now count me as officially depressed. You guys make a good case, but I still hope you’re wrong. We’ll know soon enough, I guess.
If someone(s) create this same app for the iPhone and it doesn’t get approved… surely they would be smart enough to take the fight to Apple in a public way. Or maybe I’m wrong about that, too?
MikeJ
@Lurker: The only enhanced sentences are for counterfeiting(§2320(a)) and economic espionage(§1831).
That doesn’t mean SOPA is good. Far from it. It’s a pity that there is so much misinformation about this bill when the truth is bad enough.
superluminar
@Baron Jrod etc…
If you’re not fucking paying for it, what right have you got to complain about the content?
gaz
@WaterGirl: When it comes to apple, it’s only a matter of time. If not this issue, another one will come up. It’s just how they do business.
Have you ever even wondered why they have not significantly dropped the price of their computers since the mid ’80’s?
Have you ever wondered why they charge $1200 for what is basically an inconveniently large iphone?
Have you ever wondered why any Firewire only device costs twice as much as a USB cousin?
If you haven’t found a reason to distrust Apple yet, you haven’t been a customer of theirs for long enough yet – or you haven’t been paying attention.
Sorry. That’s just the way it is. This particular leopard has had over 20 years to change it’s spots. It ain’t gonna happen. (Barring Woz stepping in somehow gaining influence over the board and direction of the company, yeah right)
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@superluminar: I am paying for it you fucking moron. Pay attention.
joes527
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: This iteration of 3D is different from the blue/red iteration that came and went. That one was _always_ a novelty, limited to a few films that wanted to cash in on the novelty. With current 3D, we see the same film in 2D and 3D (often playing at the same time at the same theater) We even see 3D added to films that were originally 2D. (I have no idea how this is possible)
You can bet the mortgage that a huge number of films being produced today have 3D and D-Box consultants “punching up” the screenplay regardless of whether the decision has been taken to produce it in 3D.
My complaint is up to this point, the “punching up” has been so ham handed that the scenes jump out as gimmicks and the whole immersion in the movie is broken — even if you are watching in 2D in a stationary seat. “Oh look, that fill-in-the-blank just came right at the camera. I’m sure that was for the 3D effect.” “Oh look, the film is taking us first-person on a roller coaster. I bet the DBox seats are rocking and a rollin.”
The problem isn’t that there are novelty films that take advantage of these gimmicks. (as there were with the early 3D) The problem is that these gimmicks are becoming a required feature of all films.
gaz
@WaterGirl: I’ll go ahead and give you a tip.
If you just really like Mac OSX,
Send your especially geeky kid to hackintosh.com and give him a $600 budget to build you a $2000 apple computer.
That way you can have your cake, and eat it – at least in the computer realm. And you can cut down on the money you are throwing at apple (control is the lifeblood of apple – without it, they’d sink, there are ways to thumb your nose at that, and still have some “appley goodness”)
If you want a tablet – you could check out samsung or one of the many other manufacturers. Wait a few months and you’ll see a stream of them that are far more capable than what apple offers – at half the cost – same with any phone or mp3/vid player they make
PIGL
@MikeJ: this….just this. One place the Chinese have the right idea.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@joes527: I don’t disagree with any of that. I just don’t really see it as being any worse than the rest of the corporate meddling that’s gone on in film-making for decades. Soulless suits altering a movie to better fit some paradigm has been going on for awhile.
Of course, shoehorning in a love interest and a sassy black stereotype and several Pepsi cans carefully facing the camera and whatever special effect is big right now doesn’t give anyone an excuse to jack up ticket prices, so I suppose it is worse in that sense. I just don’t think it’s going to make the already rickety art of film-making worse than it already is.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: It won’t let me edit, FYWP.
I also want to add that 3D does have the potential to enhance a movie, even if in most cases it doesn’t. Hugo for example, and Avatar I grudgingly admit.
gaz
WRT to Sony:
with all the rants about sony – I just gotta say:
First, Sony *does* often suck. Most of what people are saying about sony is true.
However, I’d just like to say there’s a huge difference in Sony’s Entertainment arm and Sony’s technology arm – some of you may recall that Sony Entertainment actually attempted to *sue* Sony technology over an MP3 gadget. So there’s a pretty big disconnect there, despite being part of the same parent company.
And sony has certainly been guilty (over and over) of producing overpriced, crappy hardware. But a lot of that changed back when the head of the Sony playstation line became CTO of the whole company.
I’ll never buy another sony cordless phone (not that I use landlines anyway) and I’ll never buy any sony audio gear (because it is shite)
but their TV’s have always been top-tier (Trinitron, DLNA and XMB in the modern sets, etc)
And their playstation line has been spectacular since day fucking one. (Sorry folks – MS gouges WAAAY more for the xbox360 than sony does for the ps3 – once you buy all the ‘upgrades’ for the xbox to make it do the things the ps3 can do stock.. and it STILL CAN’T PLAY BLURAY!)
Fair’s fair, so I had to add that.
WaterGirl
@gaz: You shared a lot of interesting info, and I appreciate that. Big Apple fan here, since I first used one in 1992, so I don’t think you’ll convert me to being anti-Apple.
As to price of computers, I’m pretty sure I paid 3,000 for a macbook pro 10 years ago, and paid about half the price for my most recent purchase. So I’m not sure I agree with you on that one.
Edit: I do find it interesting, though, that I am staunchly pro-Apple when I pretty much hate all other big companies except Target.
The only act of vandalism I have ever condones with in the late 70s, I think, when someone took the entire fleet of Bell Telephone vehicles in our town and put bumper stickers on them.
They had the big blue bell, in the right color, and the sticker said:
We don’t care. We don’t have to.
I loved that!
gaz
@WaterGirl: You may be right that they’ve dropped some. Doesn’t change the fact that I can still pay often less than half price for the same hardware (minus the apple logo) and put OSX on it.
I’m not really so much interested in converting you, as giving you options, info, and a way out.
WereBear
@gaz: Oh, I hear you, but one of the things about Apple, that people will pay extra for, is that they can get geek-performance; without being a geek, or having access to one.
That’s what Apple’s “Genius Bar” is all about. It’s true Rent-a-Geek.
gaz
@WaterGirl: FYBJ, I couldn’t re-edit my post. heh
If I come across as bitter about Apple it’s because I am – I’ve been burned. Big time, by them – and I still haven’t gotten the fuck over it (it kept me behind in IT, I lived in Apple’s walled garden when I first learned how to code, and it SUCKED – I would have learned C years earlier otherwise)..
So yeah – but I try to make my case on the merits, despite being bitter, and biased about them – so if I came across that way – in the interest of full disclosure, it’s because I’m bitter. I don’t like being burned. I owned an Apple ][gs – that should say everything about my history with apple – fuck them.
My point stands on the hardware and price gouging, and market control.
My primary interest is though, giving people a way out. And also, I really hate seeing people get fleeced. Especially when I see non-tech savvy people like musicians, artists, and writers shelling out BIG DOLLARS for something that is inferior (nowadays at least) to something that is half the price or less. All of that contributes to my rants…
Also too, Steve Jobs fostered a cult of personality. He knew it, and was an asshole because of it. He practically based his business model on his “hipster cred”, and by extension, the “hipster cred” of Apple’s (overpriced) products. So there’s that too. Steve Jobs was basically the Kim Jong Il of IT, AFAIAC.
Doug Danger
Gaz: stop telling lies. You have Internet, and iPads don’t cost $1200.
gaz
@WereBear:
That’s a falsehood. The latest PC’s always outpace what apple offers. If you want the best performance, do NOT get a mac – you’ll be waay behind the bar.
Adding, I crash OSX waay more than I do win7
gaz
@Doug Danger: You’re right – i looked they are $500… that *was* hyperbole on my part and I considered looking it up. But I didn’t.
galaxy tab 10.1 can be had for around $350
Brachiator
@mistermix: I agree with you that SOPA is very bad law, but I don’t see much point in the overly broad boycott approach.
The irony here is that a lot of entertainment companies that donate to the Democrats are heavily pushing SOPA. It’s also unfortunate that there are many in the tech community who just want to put up a pseudo-libertarian “keep out” sign instead of coming up with innovative solutions to a thorny problem.
@Karmakin:
Yes, the desire of some to want to steal is deeply rooted.
By the way, lending libraries in America, especially, are rooted in American publishers violating British copyrights and publishing gazillions of cheap editions, paying the authors nothing.
On the other hand, publishers are stupidly artificially limiting the number of times that a library can lend an ebook.
It’s a huge freaking mess.
gaz
@Doug Danger: Actually, briefly comparing the specs, seems like you’d have to pay roughly $829 – for the iPad that comapares (feature-wise) with the galaxy tab 10.1
FBi Surveillance Van Down By The River
@gaz:
You crash OS X more than Windows 7, hugh?
Tell me again, how much did you pay for the copy of Mac OS X you’re running, and how much did you pay for that copy of Windows 7 that stops working if it doesn’t phone home to Microsoft occasionally, checking on it’s ability to be run on your current hardware?
You can’t have it both ways, pal. And you may want to check with the folks at the Google and the Facebook about the whole “Mac OS X is too much trouble” line, because last I checked (this morning), about 70% of the employees at each place _elect_ for Mac Book Pros or Airs running Mac OS X – precisely because it works.
I’d done with your ‘hyperbolic’ BS. Enjoy pooping on the thread in furious anger.
WaterGirl
@gaz: Appreciate the explanation! I was with you in spirit all the way until the last paragraph, comparing Jobs to Kim Jong Il. Then I laughed! You really are bitter, but you recognize it, so I don’t know that that’s a bad thing.
Brachiator
@gaz:
Specs are not always very important. The most successful (and considerably cheaper) Android tablet is the Kindle Fire, which hardly measures up to either the galaxy tab or the iPad, but provides users with a useful range of services right out of the box.
I also like how amazon mixes up its strategy. It makes a Kindle app that you can use on any PC or device, but also reserves some premium features for use exclusively on Kindle devices for amazon prime members.
Meanwhile, other Android device makers are stuck in thinking about tablets as PCs without keyboards are variations of big smartphones.
FBi Surveillance Van Down By The River
Bwahahah. Of course Samsung’s product is marginally cheaper. They have 3% of the tablet market with a product that runs and OS they’ll never update and don’t own – and they don’t even have to do any industrial design or testing, as they blatantly ape the product design and industrial design of everything that comes out of Cupertino.
Seriously – Apple made it so you couldn’t learn C? On what planet? I’m sure Morotola bought CodeWarrior because it was such a piece of Mac-first junk back in the 90s….
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
What do you buy instead? Because I am on the Bounty/Northern train right now.
The Other Bob
@reflectionephemeral:
I came here to post the exact same thing. If there was an app that allowed us to scan products and reject those made in sweatshops, would an iPhone be able to scan itself or just create a endless loop that blows itself up?
Lurker
@MikeJ:
Wouldn’t posting a song on YouTube count as “counterfeiting” under SOPA because it imitates legal digital streaming services? Especially since both YouTube and the original poster have a chance to benefit financially from the posted content.
gaz
@WaterGirl: Yeah – well for me, cult-of-personalityism has lead to plenty of nasty things.
Unfortunately I haven’t had many iron-curtains/gulags/and mao style cult-of-personality leaders to compare with since the cold war – so my pickings are kinda slim.
Maybe he’d be more analogous to (the worst aspects of) Chavez, or even one of those damned ayatollahs. Except he shilled gear, instead of religion or blind nationalism…
FBi Surveillance Van Down By The River
@WaterGirl:
Seriously – this gas person has a giant chip on their shoulder. Do your own research – Apple, unlike HTC, Samsung, etc. has monitors all over their contracted factories in China. Their employees actually care quite a bit about liberal causes. And Apple has never refused to approve any apps that promote political activism, while quite a few* apps with trojans other malware that appear on the Android store have been stopped.
They do not discriminate at the Apple App Store based on anyone’s politics, but they will put the brakes on any app that will get _Apple_ sued. I don’t hold stock, nor do I work there, but if it were my boss, I’d want them to keep from getting the company sued as well.
Gaxz is entitled to his/her own opinion, but not his/her own facts. In 1991 I paid $16,000 for a top of the line Mac IIfx with a video card and 14″ monitor. Apple’s top-of-the-line workstation today costs less than the equivalent Windows-based workstations from HP and Dell.
Seriously – you have the internet. Don’t rely on my post or gaz. But don’t let someone’s irrational hatred of a company that somehow prevented him from learning how to write software (rolls eyes) prevent you from getting hat’s right for you.
Quite frankly, I think Android is nice. Choice is good. But I won’t patronize Samsung, a company that is too lazy to hire world-class designers for products, choosing instead to blatantly ape in dimension, design, (even chamfering and radius) Apple’s award-winning designs.
I like Apple stuff because it is well-integrated and ‘just works’ most of the time. I don’t understand how someone can claim that windows is somehow cheaper when the “Ultimate” Windows 7 costs more than Mac OS X, comes with a license for only one computer (apple give you five licenses for free), and has so much screamingly-loud crud grafted on that treats me like an idiot instead of getting out of my way by default. (Your document has been printed! – My favorite example of Windows notification-craziness)
Apple takes care of customers face to face for free if you have access to an Apple store – no phone calls to India, trying to explain an error message – just bring the damned thing in and let the Genius fix it or try to. And they DO stand behind their products (even if they’ve needed prodding in the past) when component defects or other problems mean a higher-than-normal failure rate.
I think it’s funny that people point to Apple’s contract manufacturers in China as examples of “evil” while Apple spends a lot of money on ‘partner compliance’ and sets the bar for the industry, while employing tens of thousand sin the United States at decent-paying, foot-in-the-door positions at Apple Stores. It’s a retail job where you can actually learn enough to make the jump to IT in a small company and move up from there. Yeah – Apple is real evil.
Just my opinion, backed up with easily-researched facts.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@FBi Surveillance Van Down By The River: Well, gaz did admit to using OS X on a “hackintosh”, which is not quite a supported system.
gaz
@FBi Surveillance Van Down By The River: okay well you probably weren’t coding in 1986. Back then if you wanted a C compiler – you had like one vendor for apple. And that was Orca. And it was extremely expensive.
Also, the only reason I have a Mac at all is for audio production stuff. My PC DAW is actually better at it, unless I’m dealing with a ton of firewire gear and audio units plugins… meaning I’m working with another tech, because I don’t use that stuff.
My mackie onyx mixer/breakout hates macs. Always has. I’m sure the firewire model works well with it, but then I suck perf in other ways – and I’m more likely to be able to plug a PCI card into the odd machine than I am firewire – although nowadays USB3 makes that moot =P
Bottom line is I don’t use macs for what you use them for. And I couldn’t actually run MacOSX based DAW on “genuine” mac hardware if I wanted to – because I can’t freaking afford to abandon most of my DAW hardware budget to a pure mac platform – and I can’t be jailed into not using the latest VST3s or things like FL Studio or Reaper…
Ken
Semi-hypothetical question: I suspect that at least one Representative or Senator (or actually, one of their staffers or interns) has, in putting together the congressperson’s web site, grabbed at least one picture or clip art from the web without getting permission. Under SOPA, would that shut down just the congressperson, or everything at house.gov and/or senate.gov?
gaz
@The Other Bob: LOL
ditto for any smartphone though.
and most high-tech gadgets nowadays.
WereBear (itouch)
@Steeplejack: I like Scott Naturals for paper towels, Marcal is recycled/not bad in that same area. We got with the TP with the stupid bears; I hate those commercials but this is SO’s favorite
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson
For sheer fucked-up preening ignorance, this has to set some sort of record. The Kims have killed millions of their own countrymen through famines brought about by their own grotesque blend of corruption, ideology and incompetence. Jobs undoubtedly had his loathsome side, despite all the fawning publicity – but can you name me one person he killed?
gaz
@MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: Hyberbole, it’s what’s for dinner.
I was drawing a gross analogy. I know that.
Hey man, I said I was bitter.