When more than 3 million people are known to want to purchase it, it makes it a possibility.
this is p ridiculous
if you can even come up with any data that suggests they're throttling supply, i'd like to see it.
it gets asserted up and down every time there's a shortage in a new electronic product, and i can't remember the accusation ever actually turning out to be vindicated.
I hated WinAmp, but i generally dislike these software packages developed by or aimed at GNU/ open source/ hackers/ customizers. I just want the thing to do its function in an elegant way without having to fuck with it too much.
winamp is closed source proprietary o_O
are you sure you're not thinking of foobar? While it is also closed source it is a lot more of a "tweaker" app than winamp
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
if you don't want to put a case on your phone and want to use it in low signal areas and it's very important that your ringer always works, then you probably shouldn't get any AT&T phone in the first place. I'm not sure where you are located, but you should probably use whatever network is most reliable in your area.
Sure. But I've been on AT&T for 4 years and never had a problem with reception, so I don't think that's an issue.
The anandtech article indicated that even putting krylon tape (or, presumably, invisishield or any other flim-based protector) around the antenna reduces the attenuation of the phone to the same level as the other phones they tested. So, if AT&T is your best local network and you don't want to wear a case and it's very important to you that you maximize your ability to take a call then that's an option i guess.
But again, why should I buy a phone that i then need to put a shield on instead of a phone that simply works out of the box? Yes, I could get an iphone and put a sticker on it, or I could just get a different phone. It seems like we're working from opposite positions - yours is "Can I get an iPhone4 and make it do what I want", and the answer is obviously yes. I'm working from the position of "What phone can I get to fit my needs with the least amount of work", and it doesn't seem like that's the iphone4. Does that seem about right?
I guess i misunderstood your position. It sounded like you wanted the i4 for whatever reason (it looked nice, you liked the UI, it seemed like a good value, whatever) , but then changed your mind because you were afraid that you would get slammed by the inevitable antenna issue and saw no way around it.
Now it just sounds like you have no personal reason to prefer the iPhone to other offerings in the first place, which is kind of a different situation. You should get whatever phone appeals to you the most.
iTunes for Windows is such a buggy resource-hog. Having to use that is my main frustration with owning an iPhone.
I guess my only other music players i've used on widows were:
1) RealPlayer
2) Windows Media Center
3) WinAmp
Realplayer was terrible. It would slowly destroy your system.
WMC isn't awful, but is not great. Definitely fewer features for organization/ shopping/ etc than iTunes, and it's not the pinnacle of stability On the up-side, it can stream video to a 360.
I hated WinAmp, but i generally dislike these software packages developed by or aimed at GNU/ open source/ hackers/ customizers. I just want the thing to do its function in an elegant way without having to fuck with it too much.
I now use a mac, and iTunes runs pretty well over there.
I'm definitely not an expert, but I have used all three of those on Windows, and iTunes isn't really a good equivalent. WMC is, to my knowledge, basically intended to stream to as many weird extensions (video game consoles, digital assistants, other PC with different OS, etc.) as possible. It's not intended to buy anything, last I checked.
Something closer would be Windows Media Player 12, works very well with codecs (it basically plays anything that exists when coupled with any of the many generic codec packs), and also streams to the Xbox 360 (and the PS3, if I understand correctly) very well. The interface is pretty user friendly (at least in my experience), and it's rock solid in its present form, even with stranger formats. It's also very, very popular (what with it being installed with Vista and 7), on a level of popularity totally separate from WMC or RealMedia (hell, or probably WinAmp, which has really fallen from its height a few years back, I think).
Windows Media Classic is the "open" version of the same thing, less system intensive (though not by much, WMP12 has a small footprint), but does not offer streaming option (to my knowledge). Being "open", there are quite a few versions of it available, if that makes a difference to anyone. It even plays 'obsolete' formats for Windows like Quicktime MOV and Realmedia.
Another comparable program might be the Zune software--like iTunes, it is deliberately designed to function with a line of MP3 players. It's only available on Windows, and it's much, much better than iTunes on Windows. It's kind of unfair to compare to two, since it was designed from Windows up by Microsoft, of course, so we'd expect no less. It also has a large market of music and video to purchase, and some people prefer the subscription service to that of iTunes (back when Apple was handling the issue of how to transfer audio to other PCs, many people on this forum stated their preference for the Zune subscription model, though that is in the past). However, since it's intended to work with a specific device, its media format support is limited (I think iTunes has a similar setup in this area). It also streams to the Xbox 360 (and does a fantastic job in my experience).
All three of these are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit. iTunes is available in 64-bit now, which is a surprise to me (I honestly never knew it was available on Windows for 64-bit).
I don't want to sound too haughty or anything, but I did want to put up what I felt were better examples. And, of course, iTunes is still pretty horrible on any Windows platform. Honestly, every time I am considering an iPod purchase, one (or both) of two things scare me off: looking at the price of a specific iPod compared to similar models (from Creative, Archos, Samsung, and more recently, Microsoft), and reinstalling iTunes to see how it'll handle. Sometimes iPod pricing gets competitive, but re-living iTunes is always very disappointing.
1) The graph ranking Apple #1 in 'most vulnerabilities' is "not an indication of the individual vendors' security."
2) Much of what is used to rank the vendors is subjective and "cannot be read out of mere aggregate numbers." The raw data doesn't come close to supporting the claim that apple has the most vulnerabilities.
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
I hated WinAmp, but i generally dislike these software packages developed by or aimed at GNU/ open source/ hackers/ customizers. I just want the thing to do its function in an elegant way without having to fuck with it too much.
winamp is closed source proprietary o_O
are you sure you're not thinking of foobar? While it is also closed source it is a lot more of a "tweaker" app than winamp
possibly. A long time ago I had a really early free version of winamp - probably 2002 or so - and that's been my only experience with it. I wasn't really impressed with it compared to iTunes even at the time. I remember trying to hunt for and install skins and organize music directories, and didn't really care for what it had to offer.
But, you know, a lot of people live for that sort of thing, so i understand it's personal taste.
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
I'm definitely not an expert, but I have used all three of those on Windows, and iTunes isn't really a good equivalent. WMC is, to my knowledge, basically intended to stream to as many weird extensions (video game consoles, digital assistants, other PC with different OS, etc.) as possible. It's not intended to buy anything, last I checked.
Something closer would be Windows Media Player 12, which is free (not surprising), works very well with codecs (it basically plays anything that exists when coupled with any of the many generic codec packs), and also streams to the Xbox 360 (and the PS3, if I understand correctly) very well. The interface is very user friendly (at least in my experience), and it's rock solid in its present form, even with stranger formats.
Windows Media Classic is the "open" version of the same thing, less system intensive (though not by much, WMP12 has a small footprint), but does not offer streaming option (to my knowledge). Being "open", there are quite a few versions of it available, if that makes a difference to anyone. It even plays 'obsolete' formats for Windows like Quicktime MOV and Realmedia.
Another comparable program might be the Zune software--like iTunes, it is deliberately designed to function with a line of MP3 players. It's only available on Windows, and it's much, much better than iTunes on Windows. It's kind of unfair to compare to two, since it was designed from Windows up by Microsoft, of course, so we'd expect no less. It also has a large market of music and video to purchase, and some people prefer the subscription service to that of iTunes (back when Apple was handling the issue of how to transfer audio to other PCs, many people on this forum stated their preference for the Zune subscription model, though that is in the past). However, since it's intended to work with a specific device, its media format support is limited (I think iTunes has a similar setup in this area).
All three of these are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit. iTunes is available in 64-bit now, which is a surprise to me (I honestly never knew it was available on Windows for 64-bit).
And, of course, iTunes is still pretty horrible on any Windows platform. I don't want to sound too haughty or anything, but I did want to put up what I felt were better examples.
You know, I think i was mixing up WMC and WMP in what I mentioned. I currently run WMP (11? 12?) on my windows box to stream video to my xbox, and it does this fine. I guess I don't particularly care for it, but it generally does its job.
I used to run windows media edition- i think it was kind of a variation on XP and had a WMC application - on a Toshiba "media laptop" and it was fuckin awful. It's probably not really a good comparison to iTunes either.
I think you're probably right about Zune. I don't have any experience with it at all, and frankly I'm kind of surprised it doesn't come preinstalled on Windows PCs these days. I'm sure it's fine - MS put a shit-ton of money into their Zune project and really tried to focus on user experience for a change.
When more than 3 million people are known to want to purchase it, it makes it a possibility.
this is p ridiculous
if you can even come up with any data that suggests they're throttling supply, i'd like to see it.
it gets asserted up and down every time there's a shortage in a new electronic product, and i can't remember the accusation ever actually turning out to be vindicated.
I think Coleco was busted holding back Cabbage Patch Kids in the early 80s.
That's pretty much it though.
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
edited July 2010
Also, I kind of think that iTunes has outlived its basic usefulness. It's original design role was to organize and play music on a computer and to interface with the iPod. As it's expanded to include the store, then the iPhone, now the iPad and photo handling etc, it's become kind of clunky.
They probably need to rethink their device interface theory and either develop a coordinated suite or just restructure iTunes.
I'm definitely not an expert, but I have used all three of those on Windows, and iTunes isn't really a good equivalent. WMC is, to my knowledge, basically intended to stream to as many weird extensions (video game consoles, digital assistants, other PC with different OS, etc.) as possible. It's not intended to buy anything, last I checked.
Something closer would be Windows Media Player 12, which is free (not surprising), works very well with codecs (it basically plays anything that exists when coupled with any of the many generic codec packs), and also streams to the Xbox 360 (and the PS3, if I understand correctly) very well. The interface is very user friendly (at least in my experience), and it's rock solid in its present form, even with stranger formats.
Windows Media Classic is the "open" version of the same thing, less system intensive (though not by much, WMP12 has a small footprint), but does not offer streaming option (to my knowledge). Being "open", there are quite a few versions of it available, if that makes a difference to anyone. It even plays 'obsolete' formats for Windows like Quicktime MOV and Realmedia.
Another comparable program might be the Zune software--like iTunes, it is deliberately designed to function with a line of MP3 players. It's only available on Windows, and it's much, much better than iTunes on Windows. It's kind of unfair to compare to two, since it was designed from Windows up by Microsoft, of course, so we'd expect no less. It also has a large market of music and video to purchase, and some people prefer the subscription service to that of iTunes (back when Apple was handling the issue of how to transfer audio to other PCs, many people on this forum stated their preference for the Zune subscription model, though that is in the past). However, since it's intended to work with a specific device, its media format support is limited (I think iTunes has a similar setup in this area).
All three of these are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit. iTunes is available in 64-bit now, which is a surprise to me (I honestly never knew it was available on Windows for 64-bit).
And, of course, iTunes is still pretty horrible on any Windows platform. I don't want to sound too haughty or anything, but I did want to put up what I felt were better examples.
You know, I think i was mixing up WMC and WMP in what I mentioned. I currently run WMP (11? 12?) on my windows box to stream video to my xbox, and it does this fine. I guess I don't particularly care for it, but it generally does its job.
I used to run windows media edition- i think it was kind of a variation on XP and had a WMC application - on a Toshiba "media laptop" and it was fuckin awful. It's probably not really a good comparison to iTunes either.
I think you're probably right about Zune. I don't have any experience with it at all, and frankly I'm kind of surprised it doesn't come preinstalled on Windows PCs these days. I'm sure it's fine - MS put a shit-ton of money into their Zune project and really tried to focus on user experience for a change.
Fear of anti-trust accusations. Apple is allowed to ship with iTunes (I think?) but Microsoft is not allowed to ship with Zune.
Actually, I have zero idea. Xbox 360s now use the Zune Marketplace universally for video (originally, they just shared the MS point system, which you can use on XBL or Zune Marketplace). In a few years, they might go ahead and start shipping Windows with Zune, for all I know.
WMC is pretty new (really, it's something that came into common use with Vista, and not in XP, to my knowledge), so you may have been running one of the early prototypes that MS released for free to figure out what people wanted. As for WMP....12 is significantly better than 11 in my experience, and they're both completely free to anyone who has an OS that can run them, it would appear.
Media streaming isn't easy, but the Xbox 360 does have the most options in that specific area (more than the PS3 anyway). Given iTunes' reliability on Windows, if you're having trouble with stuff like WMP or the like, I'd say definitely stay the hell away from iTunes media streaming to the Xbox 360 (which, apparently, it can do on its own without the use of external programs now, to Apples' credit). TVersity (which is purely a media streaming program, not a PC media player), Zune, WMP, even WMC all have way better records of reliability PC side, and I wouldn't expect something that is unreliable on the PC side to work well in a PC-Xbox 360 media streaming network.
But, this isn't an exact science. It's very loose, so you have to figure out what works with your specific scenario. For example, I use Zune to stream music to my 360, because I've organized everything on my actual Zune HD the way I like it, and the 360 can read those labels properly (genre, artist, etc.). But a DRM problem forced me to spend two hours on a telephone with an Xbox 360 tech rep getting it to work after I got a new Xbox 360 S. I don't blame him, because the guy was incredibly patient and helpful, but media streaming can be tricky.
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Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
When more than 3 million people are known to want to purchase it, it makes it a possibility.
this is p ridiculous
if you can even come up with any data that suggests they're throttling supply, i'd like to see it.
it gets asserted up and down every time there's a shortage in a new electronic product, and i can't remember the accusation ever actually turning out to be vindicated.
Fundamentally the issue here is: How fast can you build the fuckers?
If you have a factory that can churn out 200,000 finished units per week and your market research guys say you won't get more than 2M purchases in the first week, you run the system for 12 weeks beforehand to build up enough stock, plus a bit for marketing gifts, demo units, and to cover potential defectives. Makes sense?
Now, what if the market research guys are wrong? Or, more likely, with about a month to go and the release date already announced, they come back and say "oops, we forgot to carry the one; you're going to need 3M units at launch" - what then?
You can't realistically increase production in time, nor can you push back the date, and appropriating international stock is difficult because it already has the French manual and the Euro-zone power adaptor in the box.
Fortunately you were thinking ahead and had that extra two weeks of buffer there but that still leaves you short 600K units and without any replacement stock until the factory comes through with some more.
What do you do?
Tell the factory to step up production if possible (offering to cover any contractual loss the factory suffers because it can't fulfil its other contracts in time), sell your limited stock knowing it wont be enough, and hope those customers are still there the next week.
That's basically all anyone can do. Happened to Nintendo, happened to Apple, happened to Nintendo again, etc. Either you take a gamble on an overstock early on, which you literally may not be able to afford to do depending on your business model and war chest, or you grin and bear it when the intertron accuses you of deliberately limiting supply for some mysterious reason.
I hated WinAmp, but i generally dislike these software packages developed by or aimed at GNU/ open source/ hackers/ customizers. I just want the thing to do its function in an elegant way without having to fuck with it too much.
winamp is closed source proprietary o_O
are you sure you're not thinking of foobar? While it is also closed source it is a lot more of a "tweaker" app than winamp
possibly. A long time ago I had a really early free version of winamp - probably 2002 or so - and that's been my only experience with it. I wasn't really impressed with it compared to iTunes even at the time. I remember trying to hunt for and install skins and organize music directories, and didn't really care for what it had to offer.
But, you know, a lot of people live for that sort of thing, so i understand it's personal taste.
Man...I used to love Winamp back then, in my opinion it was one of the best Windows music players available around that time, but then they fell into the inevitable developer bloat and it got worse and worse. I-tunes kind of started out the same way didn't it? It used to be fairly slick and nice even on windows machines. But then before you know it that got bloated and nasty too, and now it does stuff like install extra Apple programs like Bonjour that you find in your task manager randomly.
When more than 3 million people are known to want to purchase it, it makes it a possibility.
this is p ridiculous
if you can even come up with any data that suggests they're throttling supply, i'd like to see it.
it gets asserted up and down every time there's a shortage in a new electronic product, and i can't remember the accusation ever actually turning out to be vindicated.
Fundamentally the issue here is: How fast can you build the fuckers?
If you have a factory that can churn out 200,000 finished units per week and your market research guys say you won't get more than 2M purchases in the first week, you run the system for 12 weeks beforehand to build up enough stock, plus a bit for marketing gifts, demo units, and to cover potential defectives. Makes sense?
Now, what if the market research guys are wrong? Or, more likely, with about a month to go and the release date already announced, they come back and say "oops, we forgot to carry the one; you're going to need 3M units at launch" - what then?
You can't realistically increase production in time, nor can you push back the date, and appropriating international stock is difficult because it already has the French manual and the Euro-zone power adaptor in the box.
Fortunately you were thinking ahead and had that extra two weeks of buffer there but that still leaves you short 600K units and without any replacement stock until the factory comes through with some more.
What do you do?
Tell the factory to step up production if possible (offering to cover any contractual loss the factory suffers because it can't fulfil its other contracts in time), sell your limited stock knowing it wont be enough, and hope those customers are still there the next week.
That's basically all anyone can do. Happened to Nintendo, happened to Apple, happened to Nintendo again, etc. Either you take a gamble on an overstock early on, which you literally may not be able to afford to do depending on your business model and war chest, or you grin and bear it when the intertron accuses you of deliberately limiting supply for some mysterious reason.
I think this raises another good point— it's not like there's unlimited manufacturing capacity out there waiting to be tapped. Assuming you're releasing a product with a high initial demand, your only real option to avoid a shortage is to wait longer before releasing it. How does that help anybody?
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
Fear of anti-trust accusations. Apple is allowed to ship with iTunes (I think?) but Microsoft is not allowed to ship with Zune.
Actually, I have zero idea. Xbox 360s now use the Zune Marketplace universally for video (originally, they just shared the MS point system, which you can use on XBL or Zune Marketplace). In a few years, they might go ahead and start shipping Windows with Zune, for all I know.
WMC is pretty new (really, it's something that came into common use with Vista, and not in XP, to my knowledge), so you may have been running one of the early prototypes that MS released for free to figure out what people wanted. As for WMP....12 is significantly better than 11 in my experience, and they're both completely free to anyone who has an OS that can run them, it would appear.
Media streaming isn't easy, but the Xbox 360 does have the most options in that specific area (more than the PS3 anyway). Given iTunes' reliability on Windows, if you're having trouble with stuff like WMP or the like, I'd say definitely stay the hell away from iTunes media streaming to the Xbox 360 (which, apparently, it can do on its own without the use of external programs now, to Apples' credit). TVersity (which is purely a media streaming program, not a PC media player), Zune, WMP, even WMC all have way better records of reliability PC side, and I wouldn't expect something that is unreliable on the PC side to work well in a PC-Xbox 360 media streaming network.
But, this isn't an exact science. It's very loose, so you have to figure out what works with your specific scenario. For example, I use Zune to stream music to my 360, because I've organized everything on my actual Zune HD the way I like it, and the 360 can read those labels properly (genre, artist, etc.). But a DRM problem forced me to spend two hours on a telephone with an Xbox 360 tech rep getting it to work after I got a new Xbox 360 S. I don't blame him, because the guy was incredibly patient and helpful, but media streaming can be tricky.
iTunes ships with OSX. Probably when you're rocking an (optimistic) 10% install base, you don't tend to get scrutinized for anti-trust violations in the same way
I haven't tried to use iTunes to stream to my Xbox - i googled it at one point because i'd kind of like to retire my HP box and just rely on my iMac - but it sounded like a trial and really i don't want to have to mess with compatibility layers on my home network. I might give either the new WMP a try or else the Zune software on my XP box, for use of streaming to my 360. Whatever version i have doesn't support HD streaming, so maybe the new version will!
Honestly, I can't remember a time where iTunes was really good on Windows machines. It just...didn't happen. When it first was available, it had to compete with WinAmp at the height of its popularity and success (or maybe a little before that apex), and it was just so unstable and clumsy. One thing I hated was that closing it would actually just leave it open in the background and system tray. That's normal, of course, lots of players do that nowadays, but the option to remove it from running in the background was hidden and wouldn't always work if you disabled it properly due to conflicts.
It's gotten better since then, but so have all the other commercial/open media players available for Windows. And it still has problems, last I checked.
iTunes ships with OSX. Probably when you're rocking an (optimistic) 10% install base, you don't tend to get scrutinized for anti-trust violations in the same way
I haven't tried to use iTunes to stream to my Xbox - i googled it at one point because i'd kind of like to retire my HP box and just rely on my iMac - but it sounded like a trial and really i don't want to have to mess with compatibility layers on my home network. I might give either the new WMP a try or else the Zune software on my XP box, for use of streaming to my 360. Whatever version i have doesn't support HD streaming, so maybe the new version will!
Yeah, if Hitlinks is to be believed, that's a pretty optimistic market share in OS (probably closer to half that), but it may be a matter that Apple escapes federal scrutiny. Who knows?
I imagine the iTunes streaming option should be completely free (honestly, it's the only way to compete), but things like codec support are what would really leave me skeptical (the Xbox 360 comes with a few does pre-installed as part of NXE and older codec packs, if memory serves--and they're all closely associated with WMP/Windows in general).
You must have an older version, though. Zune and WMP can both stream HD video (720p and 1080p), no problem, so long as you have the bandwith. If you're like me, the bigger limitation will be your wireless router or your crappy ISP (unless you use a LAN to handle it).
Clearly consumers hate Apple SO MUCH that they are buying all their products in RECORD NUMBERS so that they can teach them a lesson they'll never forget!
iTunes ships with OSX. Probably when you're rocking an (optimistic) 10% install base, you don't tend to get scrutinized for anti-trust violations in the same way
I haven't tried to use iTunes to stream to my Xbox - i googled it at one point because i'd kind of like to retire my HP box and just rely on my iMac - but it sounded like a trial and really i don't want to have to mess with compatibility layers on my home network. I might give either the new WMP a try or else the Zune software on my XP box, for use of streaming to my 360. Whatever version i have doesn't support HD streaming, so maybe the new version will!
Yeah, if Hitlinks is to be believed, that's a pretty optimistic market share in OS (probably closer to half that), but it may be a matter that Apple escapes federal scrutiny. Who knows?
I imagine the iTunes streaming option should be completely free (honestly, it's the only way to compete), but things like codec support are what would really leave me skeptical (the Xbox 360 comes with a few does pre-installed as part of NXE and older codec packs, if memory serves--and they're all closely associated with WMP/Windows in general).
You must have an older version, though. Zune and WMP can both stream HD video (720p and 1080p), no problem, so long as you have the bandwith. If you're like me, the bigger limitation will be your wireless router or your crappy ISP (unless you use a LAN to handle it).
thanks for the information on WMP and Zune. I'll probably look into updating my home PC tonight to see if it works any better for streaming media.
i think i heard an interview with Steve Jobs where he discussed the issue apple has with streaming video from itunes. apparently they've been kind of the trailblazers in terms of trying to get music, TV and movie studios to sell their products digitally online and are basically constrained by what the studios will let them do.
Windows (and even moreso, Linux) has traditionally operated from the opposite premise - "we don't know or care how you got your media onto your computer or its legitimacy; we just provide a service that allows you to stream/ copy/ distribute your wink wink nudge nudge legitimately owned and licensed property"
It's clearly kind of a painful issue for Apple, since their iTV push has really stagnated for years because they've been trying to play ball with the studios, while de facto standards are being established via xvid, torrents, etc on the grey market. When the time comes, the studios are probably going to jump onto the standards already established by piracy and illegal distribution.
if you don't want to put a case on your phone and want to use it in low signal areas and it's very important that your ringer always works, then you probably shouldn't get any AT&T phone in the first place. I'm not sure where you are located, but you should probably use whatever network is most reliable in your area.
Sure. But I've been on AT&T for 4 years and never had a problem with reception, so I don't think that's an issue.
The anandtech article indicated that even putting krylon tape (or, presumably, invisishield or any other flim-based protector) around the antenna reduces the attenuation of the phone to the same level as the other phones they tested. So, if AT&T is your best local network and you don't want to wear a case and it's very important to you that you maximize your ability to take a call then that's an option i guess.
But again, why should I buy a phone that i then need to put a shield on instead of a phone that simply works out of the box? Yes, I could get an iphone and put a sticker on it, or I could just get a different phone. It seems like we're working from opposite positions - yours is "Can I get an iPhone4 and make it do what I want", and the answer is obviously yes. I'm working from the position of "What phone can I get to fit my needs with the least amount of work", and it doesn't seem like that's the iphone4. Does that seem about right?
I guess i misunderstood your position. It sounded like you wanted the i4 for whatever reason (it looked nice, you liked the UI, it seemed like a good value, whatever) , but then changed your mind because you were afraid that you would get slammed by the inevitable antenna issue and saw no way around it.
Now it just sounds like you have no personal reason to prefer the iPhone to other offerings in the first place, which is kind of a different situation. You should get whatever phone appeals to you the most.
Somewhere in the middle. I wanted the phone that best suits my needs with relatively little time investment which, up until the antenna thing, I felt was the i4. Now, with this issue, I don't think it is.
I heard that promises of iTunes streaming to the Xbox 360 was seen as a cheap/free alternative to iTV...maybe that fear caused Apple to kill it? I've never heard of iTunes streaming to the PS3 either, but I would assume it would be similar.
Funny part of this is I don't stream video to my Xbox 360 anymore--only music--because I forked over money for 50 feet of HDMI cable and 3.5mm audio cables, which, while inconvenient, work flawlessly. I do set it up for other people though.
if you don't want to put a case on your phone and want to use it in low signal areas and it's very important that your ringer always works, then you probably shouldn't get any AT&T phone in the first place. I'm not sure where you are located, but you should probably use whatever network is most reliable in your area.
Sure. But I've been on AT&T for 4 years and never had a problem with reception, so I don't think that's an issue.
The anandtech article indicated that even putting krylon tape (or, presumably, invisishield or any other flim-based protector) around the antenna reduces the attenuation of the phone to the same level as the other phones they tested. So, if AT&T is your best local network and you don't want to wear a case and it's very important to you that you maximize your ability to take a call then that's an option i guess.
But again, why should I buy a phone that i then need to put a shield on instead of a phone that simply works out of the box? Yes, I could get an iphone and put a sticker on it, or I could just get a different phone. It seems like we're working from opposite positions - yours is "Can I get an iPhone4 and make it do what I want", and the answer is obviously yes. I'm working from the position of "What phone can I get to fit my needs with the least amount of work", and it doesn't seem like that's the iphone4. Does that seem about right?
I guess i misunderstood your position. It sounded like you wanted the i4 for whatever reason (it looked nice, you liked the UI, it seemed like a good value, whatever) , but then changed your mind because you were afraid that you would get slammed by the inevitable antenna issue and saw no way around it.
Now it just sounds like you have no personal reason to prefer the iPhone to other offerings in the first place, which is kind of a different situation. You should get whatever phone appeals to you the most.
Somewhere in the middle. I wanted the phone that best suits my needs with relatively little time investment which, up until the antenna thing, I felt was the i4. Now, with this issue, I don't think it is.
I don't see how the antenna is a major time investment? Overwhelming chances are that it wont affect you, but you can get a free case in the off-chance that it does, even without having to demonstrate it.
The only way that it could possibly be a large time investment is if you have some kind of OCD about touching phones in their bottom left corner while you make phone calls.
i love winamp
you don't have to fuck with it if you don't want to, it works out of the 'box'
it just happens to do as much or as little as you want
Winamp desperately needs a proper extension which writes song organization data directly to the ID3Tags of your media though. The only player which seems to do this properly is WMP.
iTunes is just average. It's not bad, but since I have to use it with my iPhone I tend to use it.
iTunes tends to do a very good job tagging for me. Or it used to. It seems like it really hates writing album art anymore.
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
edited July 2010
I ripped hundreds of CDs to my iTunes and while it took a while to copy-paste all the album art from amazon, it wasn't bad in terms of the interface. Short of it just recognizing hte album and automatically populating, I can't think of a way they could make it much easier.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Download the album and charge your account the minute you think you want it.
I-tunes kind of started out the same way didn't it? It used to be fairly slick and nice even on windows machines.
Good god no. At release it was crashy as all hell and didn't even support something as basic as "when you restart the player queue up the song you finished playback at". Also ate up system resources like they were candy.
I-tunes kind of started out the same way didn't it? It used to be fairly slick and nice even on windows machines.
Good god no. At release it was crashy as all hell and didn't even support something as basic as "when you restart the player queue up the song you finished playback at". Also ate up system resources like they were candy.
and renamed your library if you werent paying attention :P
I hated WinAmp, but i generally dislike these software packages developed by or aimed at GNU/ open source/ hackers/ customizers. I just want the thing to do its function in an elegant way without having to fuck with it too much.
winamp is closed source proprietary o_O
are you sure you're not thinking of foobar? While it is also closed source it is a lot more of a "tweaker" app than winamp
possibly. A long time ago I had a really early free version of winamp - probably 2002 or so - and that's been my only experience with it. I wasn't really impressed with it compared to iTunes even at the time. I remember trying to hunt for and install skins and organize music directories, and didn't really care for what it had to offer.
But, you know, a lot of people live for that sort of thing, so i understand it's personal taste.
It has changed a lot. It has a media library now. It has a big multipage interface like itunes or wmp. It still has skins but that scene is a shadow of its former self. It's gotten kind of cludgy. In fact, I stopped using Winamp because in recent years it has become more and more like iTunes. Having said that, it has the best damn visualizations anywhere.
foobar2000 is a pain in the ass at first but once you have it configured to your liking it's like your own personalized music player with only the features you want and nothing else. It's not frilly, but it can be if you want. Most important, it outperforms every competitor and it just works flawlessly.
I hated WinAmp, but i generally dislike these software packages developed by or aimed at GNU/ open source/ hackers/ customizers. I just want the thing to do its function in an elegant way without having to fuck with it too much.
winamp is closed source proprietary o_O
are you sure you're not thinking of foobar? While it is also closed source it is a lot more of a "tweaker" app than winamp
possibly. A long time ago I had a really early free version of winamp - probably 2002 or so - and that's been my only experience with it. I wasn't really impressed with it compared to iTunes even at the time. I remember trying to hunt for and install skins and organize music directories, and didn't really care for what it had to offer.
But, you know, a lot of people live for that sort of thing, so i understand it's personal taste.
It has changed a lot. It has a media library now. It has a big multipage interface like itunes or wmp. It still has skins but that scene is a shadow of its former self. It's gotten kind of cludgy. In fact, I stopped using Winamp because in recent years it has become more and more like iTunes. Having said that, it has the best damn visualizations anywhere.
foobar2000 is a pain in the ass at first but once you have it configured to your liking it's like your own personalized music player with only the features you want and nothing else. It's not frilly, but it can be if you want. Most important, it outperforms every competitor and it just works flawlessly.
Yeah, but to configure foobar, you really need to be able to code it a little if you want it exactly how you want. Example: I hate rating songs, so I go through and trim that code out of pre-created configs, and end up having to change some other stuff that relies on it. It can be a pain in the ass. Plus, global shortcuts don't work with my Logitech keyboard hardly at all, which is annoying when I'm playing a game and trying to control my music.
Winamp isn't so bad, as you can just opt to not install a lot of the stuff you won't use, like video for me. All I want is a slim music player, so I didn't install a chunk of extra things for it, so it runs pretty smoothly and without a whole lot of resources. There really does need to be a new influx of skinning talent, though, and better album art integration.
I dig the Zune software. I ended up ditching iTunes for Zune when I got a free Zune HD player. As far as aesthetics are concerned, it's pretty sharp for a media player. I find it easy to navigate, and seems to do a much better job at picking other artists I would like compared to Genius. I also haven't had issues regarding crashes or resource hogging like I did with iTunes.
I can't say that I have used it for streaming anything, but the marketplace is generally very handy with a lot of the same stuff you would find with iTunes (without a lot of apps for the Zune PMP, of course).
Yeah, but to configure foobar, you really need to be able to code it a little if you want it exactly how you want. Example: I hate rating songs, so I go through and trim that code out of pre-created configs, and end up having to change some other stuff that relies on it. It can be a pain in the ass. Plus, global shortcuts don't work with my Logitech keyboard hardly at all, which is annoying when I'm playing a game and trying to control my music.
Winamp isn't so bad, as you can just opt to not install a lot of the stuff you won't use, like video for me. All I want is a slim music player, so I didn't install a chunk of extra things for it, so it runs pretty smoothly and without a whole lot of resources. There really does need to be a new influx of skinning talent, though, and better album art integration.
I've never touched a line of code in foobar2000 and I've been using it heavily for years. One of the very first things I did do, though, was hide the "rating" column, because I agree that this is a silly thing for silly people and needs to not be visible to me. That's way easier to accomplish than you are making it out to be though.
EDIT: actually I may not have any idea what I'm talking about, because the thing with the columns is iTunes; I can find no evidence of a rating system even existing in my slightly-outdated version of foobar.
Yeah, but to configure foobar, you really need to be able to code it a little if you want it exactly how you want. Example: I hate rating songs, so I go through and trim that code out of pre-created configs, and end up having to change some other stuff that relies on it. It can be a pain in the ass. Plus, global shortcuts don't work with my Logitech keyboard hardly at all, which is annoying when I'm playing a game and trying to control my music.
Winamp isn't so bad, as you can just opt to not install a lot of the stuff you won't use, like video for me. All I want is a slim music player, so I didn't install a chunk of extra things for it, so it runs pretty smoothly and without a whole lot of resources. There really does need to be a new influx of skinning talent, though, and better album art integration.
I've never touched a line of code in foobar2000 and I've been using it heavily for years. One of the very first things I did do, though, was hide the "rating" column, because I agree that this is a silly thing for silly people and needs to not be visible to me. That's way easier to accomplish than you are making it out to be though.
Hm... maybe. I will admit there are some incredible configurations available, and it is a great music program overall, though. I've just found in my experience there's a lot of stuff that people code into those skins that I don't want or use, so I find myself just manually editing the skin to get rid of it. No need for the program to even have the code if you're not going to use it, you know?
Yeah, but to configure foobar, you really need to be able to code it a little if you want it exactly how you want. Example: I hate rating songs, so I go through and trim that code out of pre-created configs, and end up having to change some other stuff that relies on it. It can be a pain in the ass. Plus, global shortcuts don't work with my Logitech keyboard hardly at all, which is annoying when I'm playing a game and trying to control my music.
Winamp isn't so bad, as you can just opt to not install a lot of the stuff you won't use, like video for me. All I want is a slim music player, so I didn't install a chunk of extra things for it, so it runs pretty smoothly and without a whole lot of resources. There really does need to be a new influx of skinning talent, though, and better album art integration.
I've never touched a line of code in foobar2000 and I've been using it heavily for years. One of the very first things I did do, though, was hide the "rating" column, because I agree that this is a silly thing for silly people and needs to not be visible to me. That's way easier to accomplish than you are making it out to be though.
Hm... maybe. I will admit there are some incredible configurations available, and it is a great music program overall, though. I've just found in my experience there's a lot of stuff that people code into those skins that I don't want or use, so I find myself just manually editing the skin to get rid of it. No need for the program to even have the code if you're not going to use it, you know?
Oh, totally - you're absolutely right, of course - I just don't want anyone to get the idea that they need to be all l33t haxx0r in order to enjoy foobar. Hell, I've been using its default skins all this time, myself; just haven't felt a need for more and it's only going to be minimized anyway.
I don't see how the antenna is a major time investment? Overwhelming chances are that it wont affect you, but you can get a free case in the off-chance that it does, even without having to demonstrate it.
The only way that it could possibly be a large time investment is if you have some kind of OCD about touching phones in their bottom left corner while you make phone calls.
You really can't say that unless you know what kind of network coverage he has.
The phone needs a case. Period.
But yeah not exactly a huge time investment getting a case and putting it on.
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
edited July 2010
the i4 looks really slick without the bumper. IMO easily the best looking phone on the market.
it's true that the bumper robs it of some of its visual distinctiveness. still, between the exposed glass edges and the antenna issue, i use the bumper. even with the bumper, though, it's still a handsome, classy-looking phone.
the i4 looks really slick without the bumper. IMO easily the best looking phone on the market.
If it had an AMOLED screen and some kind of trackpad/ball there would be no question in my mind.
why the hell would you want or need a trackpad/ball on a iphone?o_O
Because I like to have a more precise interface option for things like moving a cursor around in a text field. My fingers are not precision instruments.
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you don't have to fuck with it if you don't want to, it works out of the 'box'
it just happens to do as much or as little as you want
this is p ridiculous
if you can even come up with any data that suggests they're throttling supply, i'd like to see it.
it gets asserted up and down every time there's a shortage in a new electronic product, and i can't remember the accusation ever actually turning out to be vindicated.
winamp is closed source proprietary o_O
are you sure you're not thinking of foobar? While it is also closed source it is a lot more of a "tweaker" app than winamp
I guess i misunderstood your position. It sounded like you wanted the i4 for whatever reason (it looked nice, you liked the UI, it seemed like a good value, whatever) , but then changed your mind because you were afraid that you would get slammed by the inevitable antenna issue and saw no way around it.
Now it just sounds like you have no personal reason to prefer the iPhone to other offerings in the first place, which is kind of a different situation. You should get whatever phone appeals to you the most.
I'm definitely not an expert, but I have used all three of those on Windows, and iTunes isn't really a good equivalent. WMC is, to my knowledge, basically intended to stream to as many weird extensions (video game consoles, digital assistants, other PC with different OS, etc.) as possible. It's not intended to buy anything, last I checked.
Something closer would be Windows Media Player 12, works very well with codecs (it basically plays anything that exists when coupled with any of the many generic codec packs), and also streams to the Xbox 360 (and the PS3, if I understand correctly) very well. The interface is pretty user friendly (at least in my experience), and it's rock solid in its present form, even with stranger formats. It's also very, very popular (what with it being installed with Vista and 7), on a level of popularity totally separate from WMC or RealMedia (hell, or probably WinAmp, which has really fallen from its height a few years back, I think).
Windows Media Classic is the "open" version of the same thing, less system intensive (though not by much, WMP12 has a small footprint), but does not offer streaming option (to my knowledge). Being "open", there are quite a few versions of it available, if that makes a difference to anyone. It even plays 'obsolete' formats for Windows like Quicktime MOV and Realmedia.
Another comparable program might be the Zune software--like iTunes, it is deliberately designed to function with a line of MP3 players. It's only available on Windows, and it's much, much better than iTunes on Windows. It's kind of unfair to compare to two, since it was designed from Windows up by Microsoft, of course, so we'd expect no less. It also has a large market of music and video to purchase, and some people prefer the subscription service to that of iTunes (back when Apple was handling the issue of how to transfer audio to other PCs, many people on this forum stated their preference for the Zune subscription model, though that is in the past). However, since it's intended to work with a specific device, its media format support is limited (I think iTunes has a similar setup in this area). It also streams to the Xbox 360 (and does a fantastic job in my experience).
All three of these are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit. iTunes is available in 64-bit now, which is a surprise to me (I honestly never knew it was available on Windows for 64-bit).
I don't want to sound too haughty or anything, but I did want to put up what I felt were better examples. And, of course, iTunes is still pretty horrible on any Windows platform. Honestly, every time I am considering an iPod purchase, one (or both) of two things scare me off: looking at the price of a specific iPod compared to similar models (from Creative, Archos, Samsung, and more recently, Microsoft), and reinstalling iTunes to see how it'll handle. Sometimes iPod pricing gets competitive, but re-living iTunes is always very disappointing.
Page 6 states two important things:
1) The graph ranking Apple #1 in 'most vulnerabilities' is "not an indication of the individual vendors' security."
2) Much of what is used to rank the vendors is subjective and "cannot be read out of mere aggregate numbers." The raw data doesn't come close to supporting the claim that apple has the most vulnerabilities.
possibly. A long time ago I had a really early free version of winamp - probably 2002 or so - and that's been my only experience with it. I wasn't really impressed with it compared to iTunes even at the time. I remember trying to hunt for and install skins and organize music directories, and didn't really care for what it had to offer.
But, you know, a lot of people live for that sort of thing, so i understand it's personal taste.
You know, I think i was mixing up WMC and WMP in what I mentioned. I currently run WMP (11? 12?) on my windows box to stream video to my xbox, and it does this fine. I guess I don't particularly care for it, but it generally does its job.
I used to run windows media edition- i think it was kind of a variation on XP and had a WMC application - on a Toshiba "media laptop" and it was fuckin awful. It's probably not really a good comparison to iTunes either.
I think you're probably right about Zune. I don't have any experience with it at all, and frankly I'm kind of surprised it doesn't come preinstalled on Windows PCs these days. I'm sure it's fine - MS put a shit-ton of money into their Zune project and really tried to focus on user experience for a change.
I think Coleco was busted holding back Cabbage Patch Kids in the early 80s.
That's pretty much it though.
They probably need to rethink their device interface theory and either develop a coordinated suite or just restructure iTunes.
Fear of anti-trust accusations. Apple is allowed to ship with iTunes (I think?) but Microsoft is not allowed to ship with Zune.
Actually, I have zero idea. Xbox 360s now use the Zune Marketplace universally for video (originally, they just shared the MS point system, which you can use on XBL or Zune Marketplace). In a few years, they might go ahead and start shipping Windows with Zune, for all I know.
WMC is pretty new (really, it's something that came into common use with Vista, and not in XP, to my knowledge), so you may have been running one of the early prototypes that MS released for free to figure out what people wanted. As for WMP....12 is significantly better than 11 in my experience, and they're both completely free to anyone who has an OS that can run them, it would appear.
Media streaming isn't easy, but the Xbox 360 does have the most options in that specific area (more than the PS3 anyway). Given iTunes' reliability on Windows, if you're having trouble with stuff like WMP or the like, I'd say definitely stay the hell away from iTunes media streaming to the Xbox 360 (which, apparently, it can do on its own without the use of external programs now, to Apples' credit). TVersity (which is purely a media streaming program, not a PC media player), Zune, WMP, even WMC all have way better records of reliability PC side, and I wouldn't expect something that is unreliable on the PC side to work well in a PC-Xbox 360 media streaming network.
But, this isn't an exact science. It's very loose, so you have to figure out what works with your specific scenario. For example, I use Zune to stream music to my 360, because I've organized everything on my actual Zune HD the way I like it, and the 360 can read those labels properly (genre, artist, etc.). But a DRM problem forced me to spend two hours on a telephone with an Xbox 360 tech rep getting it to work after I got a new Xbox 360 S. I don't blame him, because the guy was incredibly patient and helpful, but media streaming can be tricky.
Fundamentally the issue here is: How fast can you build the fuckers?
If you have a factory that can churn out 200,000 finished units per week and your market research guys say you won't get more than 2M purchases in the first week, you run the system for 12 weeks beforehand to build up enough stock, plus a bit for marketing gifts, demo units, and to cover potential defectives. Makes sense?
Now, what if the market research guys are wrong? Or, more likely, with about a month to go and the release date already announced, they come back and say "oops, we forgot to carry the one; you're going to need 3M units at launch" - what then?
You can't realistically increase production in time, nor can you push back the date, and appropriating international stock is difficult because it already has the French manual and the Euro-zone power adaptor in the box.
Fortunately you were thinking ahead and had that extra two weeks of buffer there but that still leaves you short 600K units and without any replacement stock until the factory comes through with some more.
What do you do?
Tell the factory to step up production if possible (offering to cover any contractual loss the factory suffers because it can't fulfil its other contracts in time), sell your limited stock knowing it wont be enough, and hope those customers are still there the next week.
That's basically all anyone can do. Happened to Nintendo, happened to Apple, happened to Nintendo again, etc. Either you take a gamble on an overstock early on, which you literally may not be able to afford to do depending on your business model and war chest, or you grin and bear it when the intertron accuses you of deliberately limiting supply for some mysterious reason.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Man...I used to love Winamp back then, in my opinion it was one of the best Windows music players available around that time, but then they fell into the inevitable developer bloat and it got worse and worse. I-tunes kind of started out the same way didn't it? It used to be fairly slick and nice even on windows machines. But then before you know it that got bloated and nasty too, and now it does stuff like install extra Apple programs like Bonjour that you find in your task manager randomly.
I think this raises another good point— it's not like there's unlimited manufacturing capacity out there waiting to be tapped. Assuming you're releasing a product with a high initial demand, your only real option to avoid a shortage is to wait longer before releasing it. How does that help anybody?
iTunes ships with OSX. Probably when you're rocking an (optimistic) 10% install base, you don't tend to get scrutinized for anti-trust violations in the same way
I haven't tried to use iTunes to stream to my Xbox - i googled it at one point because i'd kind of like to retire my HP box and just rely on my iMac - but it sounded like a trial and really i don't want to have to mess with compatibility layers on my home network. I might give either the new WMP a try or else the Zune software on my XP box, for use of streaming to my 360. Whatever version i have doesn't support HD streaming, so maybe the new version will!
It's gotten better since then, but so have all the other commercial/open media players available for Windows. And it still has problems, last I checked.
Yeah, if Hitlinks is to be believed, that's a pretty optimistic market share in OS (probably closer to half that), but it may be a matter that Apple escapes federal scrutiny. Who knows?
I imagine the iTunes streaming option should be completely free (honestly, it's the only way to compete), but things like codec support are what would really leave me skeptical (the Xbox 360 comes with a few does pre-installed as part of NXE and older codec packs, if memory serves--and they're all closely associated with WMP/Windows in general).
You must have an older version, though. Zune and WMP can both stream HD video (720p and 1080p), no problem, so long as you have the bandwith. If you're like me, the bigger limitation will be your wireless router or your crappy ISP (unless you use a LAN to handle it).
I don't hate the thread. I'm saying it's founded on a patently false premise.
thanks for the information on WMP and Zune. I'll probably look into updating my home PC tonight to see if it works any better for streaming media.
i think i heard an interview with Steve Jobs where he discussed the issue apple has with streaming video from itunes. apparently they've been kind of the trailblazers in terms of trying to get music, TV and movie studios to sell their products digitally online and are basically constrained by what the studios will let them do.
Windows (and even moreso, Linux) has traditionally operated from the opposite premise - "we don't know or care how you got your media onto your computer or its legitimacy; we just provide a service that allows you to stream/ copy/ distribute your wink wink nudge nudge legitimately owned and licensed property"
It's clearly kind of a painful issue for Apple, since their iTV push has really stagnated for years because they've been trying to play ball with the studios, while de facto standards are being established via xvid, torrents, etc on the grey market. When the time comes, the studios are probably going to jump onto the standards already established by piracy and illegal distribution.
Somewhere in the middle. I wanted the phone that best suits my needs with relatively little time investment which, up until the antenna thing, I felt was the i4. Now, with this issue, I don't think it is.
Funny part of this is I don't stream video to my Xbox 360 anymore--only music--because I forked over money for 50 feet of HDMI cable and 3.5mm audio cables, which, while inconvenient, work flawlessly. I do set it up for other people though.
I don't see how the antenna is a major time investment? Overwhelming chances are that it wont affect you, but you can get a free case in the off-chance that it does, even without having to demonstrate it.
The only way that it could possibly be a large time investment is if you have some kind of OCD about touching phones in their bottom left corner while you make phone calls.
Winamp desperately needs a proper extension which writes song organization data directly to the ID3Tags of your media though. The only player which seems to do this properly is WMP.
iTunes is just average. It's not bad, but since I have to use it with my iPhone I tend to use it.
With telepathy.
and renamed your library if you werent paying attention :P
foobar2000 is a pain in the ass at first but once you have it configured to your liking it's like your own personalized music player with only the features you want and nothing else. It's not frilly, but it can be if you want. Most important, it outperforms every competitor and it just works flawlessly.
Yeah, but to configure foobar, you really need to be able to code it a little if you want it exactly how you want. Example: I hate rating songs, so I go through and trim that code out of pre-created configs, and end up having to change some other stuff that relies on it. It can be a pain in the ass. Plus, global shortcuts don't work with my Logitech keyboard hardly at all, which is annoying when I'm playing a game and trying to control my music.
Winamp isn't so bad, as you can just opt to not install a lot of the stuff you won't use, like video for me. All I want is a slim music player, so I didn't install a chunk of extra things for it, so it runs pretty smoothly and without a whole lot of resources. There really does need to be a new influx of skinning talent, though, and better album art integration.
I can't say that I have used it for streaming anything, but the marketplace is generally very handy with a lot of the same stuff you would find with iTunes (without a lot of apps for the Zune PMP, of course).
I've never touched a line of code in foobar2000 and I've been using it heavily for years. One of the very first things I did do, though, was hide the "rating" column, because I agree that this is a silly thing for silly people and needs to not be visible to me. That's way easier to accomplish than you are making it out to be though.
EDIT: actually I may not have any idea what I'm talking about, because the thing with the columns is iTunes; I can find no evidence of a rating system even existing in my slightly-outdated version of foobar.
Hm... maybe. I will admit there are some incredible configurations available, and it is a great music program overall, though. I've just found in my experience there's a lot of stuff that people code into those skins that I don't want or use, so I find myself just manually editing the skin to get rid of it. No need for the program to even have the code if you're not going to use it, you know?
Oh, totally - you're absolutely right, of course - I just don't want anyone to get the idea that they need to be all l33t haxx0r in order to enjoy foobar. Hell, I've been using its default skins all this time, myself; just haven't felt a need for more and it's only going to be minimized anyway.
It takes effort but you can do virtually anything with it
You really can't say that unless you know what kind of network coverage he has.
The phone needs a case. Period.
But yeah not exactly a huge time investment getting a case and putting it on.
it's true that the bumper robs it of some of its visual distinctiveness. still, between the exposed glass edges and the antenna issue, i use the bumper. even with the bumper, though, it's still a handsome, classy-looking phone.
If it had an AMOLED screen and some kind of trackpad/ball there would be no question in my mind.
why the hell would you want or need a trackpad/ball on a iphone?o_O
Because I like to have a more precise interface option for things like moving a cursor around in a text field. My fingers are not precision instruments.