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The Gloves Are Officially Off: Google Vs. Apple
- stcredzero 16y agoWith the acquisition of SimplifyMedia, it seems like Google's aiming straight at Apple's "Digital Hub" strategy. (Which I doubt Apple is still really following.)
- alanthonyc 16y agoIt's interesting how Apple's real, live products constantly have to compete against demos.
- timmorgan 16y agoWasn't it not too long ago Steve Jobs did the same thing on a stage for Snow Leopard (or just Leopard, can't remember), comparing it to Vista? This was months before it shipped.
- alabut 16y ago"This was months before it shipped." But it actually shipped. And in months, not years. Plus what they demo tends to match what they ship. Whereas designers like me drooled over the demo videos of the Microsoft Courier dual screen tablet for what, a year? And it ended up never getting made. Drooled over the Crunchpad too and we all know how that went.
- elblanco 16y ago> Drooled over the Crunchpad too and we all know how that went. I know, it's awesome how it turned into an iPad!
- timmorgan 16y ago"But it actually shipped." And so will Android. I'm not sure what you're arguing here.
- alabut 16y agoTheir constant battle with vaporware of various stripes isn't with only one company - some of the competitors ship but slip way behind on dates and/or release hurried crappy releases, some don't ship at all and make true vaporware demos, but Apple tends to rarely pre-announce things and therefore doesn't ever slip behind publicly committed ship dates. Or ship stuff that's clearly beta because of a publicly committed ship date. Check out how Google hedged their bets by fudging the UI of Google TV. Who knows how this thing will actually work like because the interface in the video was drawn with frigging crayons.
- jrockway 16y agoIt's also interesting how I can "git clone git://android.git.kernel.org/whatever", edit the code, and install it on my phone. Without any permission from anyone.
- swannodette 16y agoWhich is interesting (much less understandable) for about 0.0001% of the people that have a phone. But yes, you have point. That is nice.
- poppysan 16y agohttp://gear.ign.com/articles/108/1088942p1.html http://gear.ign.com/articles/108/1088942p1.html
- rictic 16y agoIt is my understanding that very few of those devices are developer devices, where the user is allowed to install their own OS. Otherwise you have to root the phone, which is a violation of the increasingly international DMCA-style anti-circumvention law. I haven't checked this info in a little while though, if most Android devices are sold with root I'm very happy to be corrected.
- jrockway 16y agoRooting your phone is not a DMCA violation. sudo simply is not pre-installed, it's an app you have to add yourself, just like anything else. Reverse engineering for interoperability is a DMCA exception, and there are plans to make the language in the law specifically refer to "jailbreaking" phones. Also, at least with Android devices I've worked with, there is no trickery involved to flash a new firmware. You just do it.
- jrockway 16y agoYou're right, most end users don't hack Android. Or their computer, or their car, or their washing machine, or anything. But, these people can pay others to do so. Anyone can make their own Android-based device, just like anyone can fix your computer or your car or your washing machine. Compare this to the competition, like iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. You simply can't sell a device with one of those OSes without permission from the vendor. And the vendor is not going to give you permission, except maybe Microsoft for Windows. That's the power of Android - anyone can improve it and profit from their improvements, without permission from anyone else.
- derekc 16y agoPerhaps Apple TV debuted at the wrong timing. Google simply waited.
- jws 16y agoThey both still have to wait for the content providers to play ball.
- not_an_alien 16y agoThe keynote was a mix of real stuff that's just being released and forthcoming stuff, just like every Apple keynote. Not sure what you're talking about.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- martythemaniak 16y agoYeah, Apple never demos products several months before availability. They're so awesome!
- jasonlotito 16y agoIt goes both ways. Apple has to compete against demos. People have to compete against Apple demos. Apple goes up on stage, shows off something that isn't yet release, still, and yet people keep talking about it as if it's here.
- AndrewO 16y agoOk, I think I missed the genesis of whole rainbows and ponies meme. Someone mind clueing me in? I seem to recall first hearing it connected with Django somehow, but I figured it was a reference to something I didn't get...
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoThere are various pony memes, including a Django one, but in this case I believe they're just trying to exemplify openness by using a picture of a toy that lets you complete the design yourself: http://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Decorate-Figure/dp/B001E3P5F2 http://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Decorate-Figure/dp/B001... Also, I don't think it's rainbows, just colorful hair.
- TotlolRon 16y agoOH: Why would thet need all these people on stage? One Jobs does a better job.
- joezydeco 16y agoI give Google some slack for trying to be different than Apple in this respect but man, you're so right. Maybe it's the democratic way of Google having each manager demo the feature they're responsible for. But it felt like at one point the techno music wouldn't stop as people shuffled in and out of the stage. Did we really need the music bringing all the CEOs out? It just got silly at that point. And was it me or did Vic come off like a douchebag during this second keynote?
- jeduan 16y agoVic ended up pretty badly too with Conan O' Brien
- stuntmouse 16y agoI actually thought Conan gave him too hard a time. Vic came out looking like an affable, though slightly stiff, nerd.
- blhack 16y ago“We discovered something really cool, it’s called the Internet.” Ouch. Also, bad form for injecting "READ MORE! http://techcrunch.com? http://techcrunch.com? into my copy paste, techcrunch.
- gyardley 16y agoThat link injection is Tynt's product. Can't stand it myself, although the company's growing like a weed. Opt-out link for Tynt's link injection is here: http://www.tynt.com/support/opt-inout/ http://www.tynt.com/support/opt-inout/ Nice of them to offer an opt-out, I suppose, although they don't exactly highlight that it exists.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- Seiwynn 16y agoThis is why I am beginning to consider NoScript essential for web-browsing.
- stanleydrew 16y agoYou know Google Chrome has noscript functionality built in right?
- ramchip 16y ago"This is why I am beginning to consider heated outside mirrors essential for driving in cold weather" "You know the Toyota Prius II has heated outside mirrors built in right?" (Edit: Oh, I think I somewhat see your point: noscript is the Firefox-specific name for this function. Still, Chrome isn't the only browser to have this.)
- stanleydrew 16y agoRight, I didn't mean to imply that no other browsers have some kind of noscript functionality built in.
- axiom 16y agoThe moment flash was announced for the Android I realized that my next phone won't be an iPhone, but a nexus one. Sad. History is repeating itself.
- sshumaker 16y agoReally? You miss flash that badly? Other than the occasional restaurant website, what are you missing? Most flash apps are very awkward on a phone, having been designed for a mouse. And most flash games apparently don't perform remotely acceptably on Android (not enough horsepower in the phone). The remaining reason would be Hulu - but they won't stream to your phone, even with flash - since they don't have mobile distribution rights to the content.
- freddier 16y agoHave you actually tried Flash Player 10.1 on an Android phone? I have, today, on Google I/O. It works very well and it's not how you say at all. There are lots of videos showing it as well. Please, try before you judge.
- WiseWeasel 16y ago"Very well" is apparently relative. The Engadget review was less stellar: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/20/android-2-2-froyo-beta-hands-on-flash-10-1-wifi-hotspots-an/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/20/android-2-2-froyo-beta-ha... The videos they have of the device playing Flash videos also seem to confirm that the performance is rather poor. Also note the 'significant dent' to the battery charge from playing Flash videos mentioned in the review.
- tensor 16y agoThat is simply a lack of hardware acceleration. Something that HTML5/JS apps do not have either. At least for flash, you can expect it to have hardware acceleration eventually. The bottom line is that you have the option to use flash, or not. On the iphone, you have no option. There is no losing here.
- joubert 16y ago"On Android’s upcoming over-the-air music download capabilities versus Apple’s tethered syncing: “We discovered something really cool, it’s called the Internet.” huh? did this guy even say that with a straight face? itunes (i.e. music, movies, tv, podcasts, audiobooks and iTunes U) is available on the device.
- stanleydrew 16y agoHe meant that you can sync your music library to an Android device without physically connecting the phone to a computer.
- joubert 16y agoso they're going via the internet to sync your music library with a computer? why not just using the local network?
- sandipc 16y agobecause sometimes, with my android smartphone, I find myself out of range of my local network
- joubert 16y agoso you can sync your music library between your android smartphone and your computer as long as you have an internet connection?
- stanleydrew 16y agoI think he was using the term internet loosely.
- enjo 16y agoDo this fun experiment: Go buy an iPad and try to figure out how to use it WITHOUT another computer to sync it against. That's what they're talking about.
- invisible 16y agoI think this is big for online video advertising. The price (I believe) is substantially less than regular TV now. But put in online video advertising being on a TV in front of the average user and you gain a ton of potential dollars. I'd actually be surprised if the only thing that Google TV doesn't ask from you is your zip code for giving localized ads.
- invisible 16y agoI'd like to clarify I was talking about the price of online video advertising, not the cost of google TV - I think that may have been confusing.