Now I love apple and I'm a total fanboy in that respect. However... i don't demand anything other than email, web, image processing and some 3d work- of which I generally boot into windows anyway. In that respect it suits me fine and I'm happy to do things the way that apple want me to do things. I love my gay phone 4, I had a windows 6.5 phone which was a real pain in the arse. However I could and did spend hours dicking and customising it but it wasn't as seamless and slick as an iPhone. Like all apple things it invites you to play with it. You never feel that you can screw something up or press something wrong. Mainly in part that apple don't want you to and in part because their greatest gift is the ability to make the most complex and involved tasks simple. But you have to do it the apple way. You also have to accept that apple are not software people, they are hardware vendors first and foremost which is why it is in their interest to package design the way they do. They make a top tier high cost item which will have a finite life as all things. Modular and upgrade able are not in their interest or business model. Yet im happy to accept that because the apple way of doing things suits me for the demands I make of it. Yet they are really good at shooting themselves in the foot. iCloud brilliant but yet it's not quite all there is it, why can't I just upload a file, any file into my cloud space instead of only being allowed if I have iWork? Windows users got te iCloud control panel for free. I had to pay fifty quid to get lion which was pretty much nothing more than a service pack with iCloud built in! But, apple know I'll just go ahead and buy it anyway. Why can, four years on I still not get a call recorder which auto records like resco recorder? Just because some Americans are scared of getting sued? The resco on my clunky windows phone help me no end when dealing with some foreign business calls in the capacity of playing back to make sure I'd got my facts right. What I'm trying to say is that iPhones are great because they do what the majority of people want very well. If you like 'customising' or such then you're better off looking at android as you have total freedom. And no, jail breaking doesn't cut it as there are still so many parts of the code which are off limits - like the phone radio. Ask yourself what you want from it. If your answer is what I think it might be, buy the iPhone
I work in the Apple world and I am massively ambivalent about the company. On the plus side, excellent products, superb design, great marketing - really truly brilliant marketing. On the debit side, they treat their resellers like dirt, imposing huge investments in shop fittings, making them sign contracts which give them no power in the commercial relationship and rewarding them for so doing with a 7% gross profit margin. Compare that to Apple's 40%+ gros margin which, as the company transforms itself from a computer maker (now about 14% of profits) to a phone and tablet maker, is actually increasing quarter on quarter. Their suppliers - Chinese mostly - are similarly squeezed, and in order to make some small margin they are cutting safe working practices - taking shortcuts - which have already resulted in avoidable deaths. Apple doesn't seem particularly bothered about this. So ethical, Apple is not. It has massive power and uses it to its own advantage, ruthlessly. Jobs wasn't a cuddly visionary. He was a rock-hard bastard visionary. You can also bet that Apple's products are carefully designed so as to evolve continually, dribbling out upgrades it developed ages ago and which it deliberately doesn't include from the off so that you'll end up buying several iPhones (and binning them in landfill) rather than just one, or possibly two. You can't even change a battery on an iPhone. But then, they game changed phones with the introduction of the iPhone, invented the tablet market, and going back to the 80s reinvented the personal computer. So what's the conclusion? Well, as a consumer you pay a premium to have better products with excellent software which really do work together better than anyone else's product. You put up with the continual planned obsolescence. As a business, the less you have to do with them the better. So while I'm a committed Apple user (because I want as little of my brain taken up with phones and computers as is practicable) an Apple fan-boy I am not.
Glidd tablets were about long before Apple did them, they have reinvented phone user interface but have dumb down smartphone market and set it back decades. Only now Android and MS OS starts heaving back features long present in old windows mobile. I always had smartphones as I could do without laptop but since they came along many companies seen the cash in not selling top hardware, killing off features not to many users used and having phone market segregation to devices they think you need. Only recently Samsung and HTC got back to making one phone that has it all and all other segregated. So it seems apple is consistent in treating everybody as bitches . At first they were to provide free adaptor for new socket in iPhone 5 with all phones. It was part of what is in box. Well they pulled it and are selling a bit of plastic for 30GBP.
Had an Android phone for a bit hated the thing.... it was slow , the battery life was worse then my Iphone. I could not even get a signal in my own house on T Mobile. My ap store kept breaking down I was at my wits end with it.
Tablets were indeed around before the iPad, but only geeks and some businesses used them. A very small market. I ran a pilot for a hospital who wanted their nursing staff to be able to walk around with a tablet to access detailed patient information at the bedside but they rejected it because it was too expensive and didn't provide them with the features they wanted. The iPad changed all that and the tablet market is now much much bigger. Lots of people are now choosing to own a tablet instead of a laptop at home because it suits them more, smaller form factor, ease of use etc... Great for travelling!
No, you're alright. I'm just wondering where the expression came from. It's only used by design and marketing professionals. No one else says it. Sounds American to me. They'd never say "shape" if they could say "form factor". That's why you can't understand astronauts; they use very complicated words instead of simple ones - "Affirmative Houston".
Adds on TV man heard many times items shape being referee to as form factor. Gadgets especially as you hold them or carry them so form factor is important.
What utter tosh! I've had and/or managed just about every smartphone there was before the iphone. The iPhone gave the whole sector a kick up the backside and was a pain for IT departments because although they were a delight to use, they weren't easily managed by corps. The 3G changed that, at which point I couldn't get them in fast enough. User support issues practically disappeared overnight. Then everyone tried to copy them instead of innovating for themselves. THAT is what slowed down smartphone development. As for 'decades'...
Samsung takes the mick: The Next Big Thing is Already Here -- Samsung Galaxy S III - YouTube Even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdIWK...e_gdata_player
Ok no usb storage, no customization, no network load management when using WiFi and sim or two Sims, no support for any video format just selected one's (on going), no support for any music file (on going), no proper voice control till siri (windows mobile one worked like a charm while I was on a bike moving it was that good), we lost IR port as useless but it was used by many as TV remote, change from indestructible (plastic) touch screen with pen support to fragile (glass) finger support. That meant no hand righting recognition (worked faultlessly on win mobile) as impossible with finger, no proper ability to edit graphs (stylus was making much smaller finer lines), no ability to use screen with gloves or in small rain reduced usability as drops interfere with current touch screens and so on. All delivery companies still use windows mobile for that. Pen is only now making a comeback, galaxy note, some tablets that have dual mode touch screens so when using pen finger support is disabled (ability to put your hand on screen when righting). I know I use old windows mobile a lot but it had all the features and more that is still not used or is being introduced as new stuff. Yes decades might be much but then again if money is involved no company will put all they have in to device as it is better business to introduce new phone with one or two new features every year or so.
Have to admit the thousand people or however many it is reported to be camping outside the Apple Store Regent St. to get the new Apple iPhone 5 is a total hoot. How shallow can you be? You'll be able to get the thing in a month's time by just walking into the shop. People's stupidity never ceases to amaze me.
