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Comment Just like Satellite radio... (Score 2) 437

by Damathon (#46032065) Attached to: You Might Rent Features & Options On Cars In the Future

This really isn't any different from the common practice of including satellite radio, usually bundled with other car options, and charging a monthly fee to keep it enabled.

It also makes sense in cases where the vast majority of consumers would opt to include a feature and it's cheaper to include it on all cars than manufacture different parts and add options to your assembly line just for a couple cars. Case in point: Tesla included 60KWh batteries on its 40KWh models and software limited them to 40KWh. (reference: http://www.dailytech.com/Tesla...). At a later time, consumers can pay to unlock the extra capacity.

It actually could be useful to enable features at a later time - you might move to a cold state and really wish your car had heated seats. If it really does increase costs so much, there will certainly be some car manufacturers who opt to save costs and we can buy from them instead.

Comment Re:Deserved? (Score 1) 95

by Damathon (#44656861) Attached to: Security Community Raises $12k For Researcher Snubbed By Facebook

That said Facebook WRONGLY deactivated his account when he posted on Zuck's wall AND they quickly reinstated it when they found out what was actually going on.

How is it that they wrongly deactivated his account? He exploited a bug and used it to post on someone else's wall, just like any spammer would have. It's clearly fair to deactivate while investigating further to block him from using the exploit on anyone else.

Comment Re:Well... (Score 1) 1063

by Damathon (#42558809) Attached to: US Near Bottom In Life Expectancy In Developed World

There definitely are problems with the healthcare system, but the cause and effect implied by your post should be reversed. Healthcare costs won't do much to reduce chronic diseases - the ones you list will be more influenced by lifestyle choices and genetics. However, chronic disease rates will have a large impact on healthcare costs.

This means that you can't use high disease rates to support your argument that healthcare costs are higher in USA. It's likely that much of the higher costs are due to the higher disease rates and you need to normalize by disease rate before using per capita healthcare costs to implying that we're overspending.

Comment Re:Inevitable (Score 1) 447

by Damathon (#41974783) Attached to: Samsung Hits Apple With 20% Price Increase

This really just supports my main point: iPhone works better out of the box and Android needs work to get it right. IMO, iPhone is better for the non-technically inclined.

If you wanted bleeding edge updates, you should have chosen a Nexus device

The vast majority of Android devices sold are carrier branded. It's a fair criticism to say that Android devices have slow updates. Apple is definitely open to criticism over their closed model, but there are plenty of benefits that come from developing both SW and HW and forcing carriers to play by their rules.

Comment Re:Inevitable (Score 1) 447

by Damathon (#41960465) Attached to: Samsung Hits Apple With 20% Price Increase

Having switched, Android is much better than iOS, IMO, and once you break out of the lock-in, there's little reason to go back.

So every person that Samsung knocks away from Apple, is likely a permanent loss for Apple.

I switched from an iPhone to GSIII also and my experience has been different. The bigger screen makes the drawbacks worth it to me, but I wouldn't be able to recommend the phone to everyone. IMO, the iPhone works good enough right out of the box. Android might have more potential, but it takes some work to get right.

Pros:
- Bigger screen size, screen size options
- External memory card support (kind of)
- Discounts
- Can carrier unlock

Cons:
- Google/Samsung/Carrier branded apps. My AT&T SIII came with a "Messages", "Messaging" and "Messenger" app. In addition to the "ChatON" and "Talk" apps. There's also a "Play Music" vs "Music Player" and "Email" vs "Gmail". I can imagine the support nightmares if I bought one for my parents.
- External memory card support depends on app (Ex: Spotify's current version has no support). Also, GSIII doesn't properly support ExFAT and it doesn't format an ExFAT card to FAT32 or let you know. In my case, files would disappear and there were a few 'card unreadable' errors before I did some research.
- Doesn't charge properly in computer or car USB ports. I assume this means the GSIII isn't requesting high-power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Power)
- Difficult to sync media. I don't particularly like iTunes, but it seemed to get the job done.
- Slow updates.
- Doesn't work as well with my car's Bluetooth. This may not be a Samsung issue, but iPhone tends to get more third-party testing and support because of the volume.
- Doesn't support Bluetooth Smart sensors (Bluetooth Low Energy) even though it uses the same chip as the iPhone and advertises that support.
Microsoft

Did the Windows Phone 7 Bomb In the US? 609

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-wait-a-minute dept.
Thorfinn.au writes "Microsoft's new smartphone platform is off to what could be considered a slower start than expected in North America. That's according to The Street, which has released a report saying that the company sold some 40,000 units on its first day on the market. Early sales numbers from other phone platform launches include Apple's estimated 500,000 iPhones being snatched up during its launch weekend in 2007, and a million and a half G1 Android phones being bought up by T-Mobile subscribers in the phone's first six months." Do you know anyone with one of these phones? Me either.
Intel

How Much Smaller Can Chips Go? 362

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-call-me-tiny dept.
nk497 writes "To see one of the 32nm transistors on an Intel chip, you would need to enlarge the processor to beyond the size of a house. Such extreme scales have led some to wonder how much smaller Intel can take things and how long Moore's law will hold out. While Intel has overcome issues such as leaky gates, it faces new challenges. For the 22nm process, Intel faces the problem of 'dark silicon,' where the chip doesn't have enough power available to take advantage of all those transistors. Using the power budget of a 45nm chip, if the processor remains the same size only a quarter of the silicon is exploitable at 22nm, and only a tenth is usable at 11nm. There's also the issue of manufacturing. Today's chips are printed using deep ultraviolet lithography, but it's almost reached the point where it's physically impossible to print lines any thinner. Diffraction means the lines become blurred and fuzzy as the manufacturing processes become smaller, potentially causing transistors to fail. By the time 16nm chips arrive, manufacturers will have to move to extreme ultraviolet lithography — which Intel has spent 13 years and hundreds of millions trying to develop, without success."
Power

Arizona Trialing System That Lets Utility System Control Home A/Cs 393

Posted by timothy from the so-you-preferred-the-brownouts-sir dept.
AzTechGuy writes "Arizona Public Service Co., Arizona's largest power company, is implementing a test program that would put customers' thermostats under their control to help balance power needs during critical peak usage times. APS will be able to remote control the customers' thermostats to control power draw from their A/C when there is a critical power transmission issue on the grid. Customers will be able to override these settings if they desire."
Programming

Best Seating Arrangement For a Team of Developers? 520

Posted by timothy from the corner-office-round-table dept.
TekNullOG writes "I was given the job to prepare the logistics involved with moving our office. At the same time my bosses asked me to look into buying new desks for a small team of four developers and to consider if it could benefit the team to sit at a round table. In many offices and departments it increases productivity and makes collaboration easy. However, I am concerned that putting developers around a table could potentially be distracting consequently diminishing productivity by increasing coding errors. What are your thoughts?"
Cellphones

Cell Phone Searches Require Warrant 161

Posted by kdawson from the don't-search-me-bro dept.
schleprock63 writes "The Ohio state supreme court has decided that a cell phone found on a suspect cannot be searched without a warrant. The majority based this decision on a federal case that deemed a cell phone not to be a 'closed container,' and therefore not searchable without a warrant. The argument of the majority contended that a cell phone does not contain physical objects and therefore is not a container. One dissenting judge argued that a cell phone is a container that simply contains data. He argued that the other judges were 'needlessly theorizing' about the contents of a cell phone. He compared the data contained within an address book that would be searchable." The article notes that this was apparently the first time the question has come up before any state supreme court.
Movies

Gaming Netflix Ratings? 235

Posted by kdawson from the stadium-seated-astroturf dept.
Nom du Keyboard writes "Not for the first time, I've noticed a new film that hasn't yet even reached the theaters, yet has hundreds of positive votes and/or reviews recorded on Netflix. This time the movie is Inkheart. For a movie that doesn't even hit the theaters until January 23, it already has 428 votes and a rating of 4.3 (out of 5) on Netflix. Seems more than a bit fraudulent to me. Also, it has a review that doesn't even review the movie, but instead says the books are great, therefore the movie should be too. Does the word 'shills' come to mind? With millions spent to promote a movie, are a few hundred of that going to phony voters? Or have that many people actually seen the film and just can't wait to rush home and log onto Netflix to vote? Just what is Netflix's responsibility here to provide honest ratings?"

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