It's pretty obvious what the left-handed advantage is when you have sports where lefties can compete directly against other lefties. In my own sport of fencing, lefties enjoy disproportionate success (close to 50% of world champions are left handed), and they are widely regarded as difficult opponents. But pit two lefties against each other and you will often get a shitshow of awkward, hesitant, and poorly-executed techniques, despite the fact that the tactical situation is identical to right-vs-right, the most common and well-understood scenario in the sport.

The reason is easy to understand - everyone, regardless of handedness, gets 85% of their practice against right-handers. Lefties are, quite simply, weird, even to other lefties. We don't get enough practice with them, we don't get the time to develop highly-trained "favourite moves" with them, and we don't ever enjoy the comfort and ease of familiarity. Our cognitive load is increased, and our reaction time is slower.

Unless you're lucky enough to have a left-handed coach, or a disproportionate number of lefties in your club to practice with. Or you simply stick with the sport long enough that the 15% of lefties you meet eventually adds up to a lot of experience.

Apple began work on the Newton in 1987, so he's going to have to better than a 1992 napkin sketch, methinks.

In the 1990s, maybe. And that's because Microsoft commoditized the hardware, thereby transferring the PC industry profits to themselves as the only company left in the stack that could still charge a significant margin. Apple lost that war, was forced to switch to the hardware platform that Microsoft commoditized, and now that things are pretty much even on that score, now it's Microsoft that is too expensive for what you get.

So, it is the most user-friendly for people who expect their phones to behave like clunky desktop systems, then?

So let me get this straight. We know iOS maps suck because we read it somewhere on the internet, not because we have actually used them. And when we talk to someone who has actually used them, their opinion is not adding anything to the conversation. Because everybody knows, comments are not supposed to be used for communicating personal experiences and knowledge, only trolls do that. Please confine all comments to hysterical opinions heard somewhere else.

Okay, got it. Thanks for your input. Keep up the good work keeping the Internet free of bullshit.

Way to miss the point, which was that first-hand reviews that have something nice to say should never be moderated "troll". Look up the meaning of the word. It says a lot about the state of the Slashdot community that (A) this got moderated troll in the first place, and (B) that some people feel a need to defend this moderation.

But since you want more data points, I downloaded iOS6 just to see how much of a colossal clusterfuck Apple maps really were. I was kinda disappointed -- they were actually way better than Google Maps in my area. More accurate, more current satellite imagery, cooler features, better technology, and much lower data usage. I was not able to post any screen caps of ridiculous mapping disasters or otherwise participate in the witch burning, which was kind of a bummer, because I love Internet mobs just as much as the next guy. I even installed the recommended work-around by putting the web-based Google Maps back on my phone, but I don't actually use it because it's kinda sucky by comparison. Count me with the "troll". The maps themselves are pretty fucking good for a 1.0 release, although I'm sure your mileage will vary depending on the data quality in your region.

Oh dear, Slashdot, look what you've done. You moderated the only nice comment in the entire thread as "Troll". Hundreds and hundreds of comments talking about mapping "disasters", fucking over Microsoft, patent trolling, ass-fucking Google, the unspeakable incompetence of Tim Cook, the creepy toadyism of Elop, and other bits of nasty, bitter, unfocused nerd rage.

And then some guy comes along and says "you know, those apple maps are pretty good, if you, like, actually use them", which may be the only bit of actual first-hand knowledge offered in the entire thread.

TROLL! TROLL! BURN HIM!

I upgraded just to see what all the maps bitching was all about, and was surprised to discover that the Apple maps were actually quite superior for my area. Google maps actually got street names wrong, where Apple had them right, and the Google satellite views were 3 years old, showing construction zones where Apple showed fully occupied developments. And I'm in Canada where I would have expected them to skimp on data quality for first release.

And the 3D map view with compass turned on is beyond sweet - it's like bird's-eye augmented reality.

It's not an inlaid mahogany chest lined with velvet, mirror balls, and Steve Jobs air fresheners.

We're talking about a small cardboard box. The lid slides off. There's your gadget. It's the opposite of fancy.

Wondered how far I'd have to search for the logic that because Apple puts way more thought into packaging, it is therefore stupid. Slashdot, you never dissapoint.

Making a console with a disastrously high return rate has trained Microsoft in how to manage hordes of angry hardware customers.

Ahem... what charges?

Cool, you're in 1996. Buy Yahoo stock, then sell it in 2000. In fact, start giving up all your tired opinions in 2000, as they will start to become invalid around then. By 2012, the entire industry will struggle for years to compete with Apple on price, and fail.

If the presentation was on Keynote on OS X, it would look fantastic!

The presentation, that is. Microsoft, not so much.

If it was PowerPoint on Windows 7, it would look like ass. The presentation, that is. But kinda cool for Microsoft. "Look, we are everywhere! Resistance is futile!"

Considering how appalling the memory leaks were for YEARS while the moz folks insisted there weren't any problems, it will probably take at least as many years before any of us believe anything they say about memory usage.

I for one, won't believe they have any competence in memory management until I have spent 5 years without having to restart Firefox every other day.