Apple certainly is not scoring well. When you read the court play by play below it gives the feeling that it isn’t as much a problem of legal position as of an incompetent legal team being defeated by a creative legal team. Really curious to see the way Tim Cook reacts. Recall his strong stance on IP. Can he back it up?
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/12/motorola-mobility-wins-german-patent.html
While you generally cannot extend a rule like $5k / sq. ft. just like that, in this high traffic (and high median income) place, they may do even more. Especially that now they let you scan an item with your iPhone (+equivalents), pay with iTunes, and then grab it and leave, the flow should be much improved.
http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/info/demographics.cfm
Your link depicts some amazing demographics. Having departed the station myself some years ago for an interview in White Plains I can attest to the apparent abundance of expendable income.
Interesting how closely this correlates using the number of employees assuming a reasonable salary.
300 x ($481,000 – $50,000) = $129,300,000
http://www.asymco.com/2011/12/08/how-productive-is-an-apple-store-employee/
For my Android friends. If Eddy Cue can’t get email right who’s going to trust iCloud. I do truly hate Comcast so I don’t think I’m missing much.
For @rastard and @sb. The party is finally over for Apple. It was inevitable that Android’s superiority would cause developers to leave for greener pastures. Sell now.
Funny. Even funnier, now I am apparently being lumped in with rastard as a pro-android zealot. A case of “if you ain’t with us, you’re agin us”.
Thing with the Android app development is that Android users are are not spenders. Developers for the same amount of work make much less developing for Android than by developing for iPhone. Apple users are usually well off and willing to pay more for a good product. It is much better demographic group for commercial success. It’s kind of Nordstrom/Wallmart equation. Android is going for volume and cheap where Apple is going for smaller more targeted group that is better off and can spend easier. So even if numbers are bigger for Android it doesn’t mean much in sales as Android must sell more of everything to earn the same amount as Apple does with smaller volumes. Also, if you read “10 Billion Android Applications Downloaded Means Nothing” at Forbes, you can see that Android numbers aren’t that clear either. Google is not stupid but I believe they stretched themselves too wide going into the Android and they will eventually pay for it.
10 Billion Android Applications Downloaded Means Nothing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2011/12/07/10-billion-android-application-downloaded-means-nothing/
Amazon seems to have stepped over the edge. Suspect that a move like this is going to bring sales tax into their future. Imagine what that will do to them.
The sales tax push is getting louder.
http://www.freep.com/article/20111207/NEWS06/112070356/Retailers-want-sales-tax-levied-online-too
I had to laugh when I saw they interviewed a dive shop owner. I think I saved $1,500 when I purchased my and the wife’s gear through Scubatoys versus my local dive shop.
Another Netflix bubble in search of a pin !
Windows deja vu! Ars is not pro Apple so even had to make the title accurate.
Err – back in 2009, researchers already presented a similar Botnet proof of concept — using iPhones: (http://mulliner.org/collin/academic/publications/ibots_malware10_mulliner_seifert.pdf)
Also, the original title was [more] accurate to begin with. In your usual enthusiasm to bash Android — you apparently missed this gem in the current article:
“Weidman said that on iOS devices, a similar botnet could potentially be distributed as part of a “jailbreak” package.”
That’s why Apple does not encourage jailbraking. Have you ever heard of a corrupted system being safe ? Nobody can protect users from their active stupidity.
The rantings of a petulant child as @nicu so correctly pointed out. Yes if you are truly stupid you can jailbreak your iPhone and join the other petulant children. But most of us grow up and choose to throw away childish things. But toddle if you must.
The irony here is rich. You resorting to ad hominem attacks… like a child would — while calling me a toddler. 
Would it have been too much for you to simply admit that all smartphone platforms can be susceptible to botnets under specific conditions? That’s exactly what Researcher Weidman did…
Come on, Birra – name calling does not belong on this board – leave that for the Google board. Though you may find him irritating, it is clear Rastard is not stupid, or even childish. He is typically the only one who posts here who has a counterpoint to the pro-Apple sentiment which is typically expressed here, and does so reasonably well.
“. . . simply admit that all smartphone platforms can be susceptible to botnets under specific conditions? That’s exactly what Researcher Weidman did…”
Not really.
When the “specific condition” is a design decision of the product and it is “susceptible” out of the box,” it’s not the same as when the user has deliberately created the “specific condition” by removing designed in security measures so as to create the “susceptibility.”
Any inability to admit this basic fact would be on par with childish name calling.
and it is “susceptible” out of the box,”
1) Citation needed.
2) There’s little difference between an iPhone user casually choosing to jailbreak their phone without considering the potential repercussions of doing so, and an Android user casually choosing to install apps without considering the potential repercussions of doing so. The Android Market is replete with user reviews for each app, and also provides a clear statement of the permissions and access that each app had access to. Whether jailbreaking or choosing to install apps with broad/unnecessary permissions, users have deliberately chosen to make their phones vulnerable. Any inability to admit this basic fact would be on par with being a pretentious ass.
3) Every year, Macs and Safari seem to get hacked faster than all competing platforms at Pwn2own. Similarly, security researchers seem to regularly release reports calling out vulnerabilities in Apple produces which result in Apple bashers crawling out of the woodwork to claim that Macs aren’t secure. In response to those claims (and rightly so) people here immediately jump to Apple’s defense pointing out that these are merely proofs of concepts, research findings, and theoretical vulnerabilities, not real-world epidemics.
Yet when it’s Android and not Apple, these same proofs of concept, research findings, and theoretical vulnerabilities are all of a sudden real-world epidemics. Fanboy bias much? Any inability to admit this basic fact would be on par with being a… well… a fanboy.
Rastard,
As often is the case, I pity your post, which reeks of desperation.
1.) The only citation needed is reality and critical thinking skills.
2.) Although your whole world view seems to rest on this point, it made me laugh out loud and is truly unworthy of any response. If you really believe this, we are scratching our heads in wonder. But if you are just saying it, how can we in good conscience read anything you post in the future?
3.) First, get the slightest smidgen of a basic education in critical reasoning. Then read the most basic information on electronic security. Finally, discard your obvious preexisting agenda and using your newly acquired skills, carefully read the facts around these accounts. You will discover that despite all the smoke and noise around theoretical and “proof of concept” hacks of OS X and iOS, the reality is, these platforms have never been exploited in any way (although third party software has sometimes produced vectors of exploitation.) Further, in actual “real world” computing, neither OS X nor iOS has never proven vulnerable to any exploit, (although OS X, users have occasionally succumbed to “social engineering” techniques.) One word in your assertion stands out, ” . . . Macs and Safari ***seem*** to get hacked faster than all competing platforms . . . ”
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RE: your parting paragraph
You of course ignore the fact that I have not sensationalized or even posted anything about Android vulnerabilities. Yet you gleefully lash out at me. Nonetheless, there are many documented cases where both Android system vulnerabilities and the feral “system” of Android software distribution has caused serious harm to users “in the wild.” This is not “theoretical,” “research,” or “proof of concept.” It’s just a natural consequence of Google’s design and engineering decisions.
“and it is “susceptible” out of the box,”
1) I’ll say again, citation needed. I’d like to see one reference from this security researcher’s findings (or any other for that manner) that indicates that Android phones are susceptible to botnets right out of the box (i.e. without a user having installed an app).
“The only citation needed is reality and critical thinking skills”
Evaluation and analysis of evidence is actually foundational to Critical Thinking. Your unwillingness to provide any evidence makes it clear that you don’t know the first thing about critical thinking, else you wouldn’t have offered up such a recursive response. You can hide behind all of the long-winded smokescreens and grandiose assertions about your superior intellect that you want, but all those do is reveal you to be a coward without the cognitive ability or critical reasoning skills to actually engage in a reasoned discussion.
2) Your basic reading comprehension apparently is lacking as well, because my point 3 above already stated that the theoretical security risks identified by researchers don’t actually manifest in real-world epidemics.
3) “You of course ignore the fact that I have not sensationalized or even posted anything about Android vulnerabilities”.
In your post just prior, you claimed that Android is “susceptible” [to botnets] out of the box”. That’s a post about Android vulnerabilities. Any inability to admit this basic fact would be on par with being a liar…
People who read more than just blog headlines and who also have basic critical reasoning skills may find this recent academic article on smartphone malware of interest.
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http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~afelt/mobilemalware.pdf
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The authors state in their introduction, “Our survey encompasses all known iOS, Symbian, and Android malware that spread between January 2009 and June 2011. We collected information about 46 pieces of malware in this time period: 4 for iOS, 24 for Symbian, and 18 for Android.”
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And in the conclusion, “We also observed that none of the malware in our data set was approved by the Apple App Store, which indicates that human review may be an effective preventative measure for malware.”
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[That's *zero* malware in the wild on unbroken iOS devices and 18 (and rapidly rising) on any Android device.]
Scientific data and discoveries never had any influence on religious people (regarding their object of cult).
Wow. I never thought I’d see the day where you would acknowledge that you were disregarding data and evidence because of your cultist affection to Apple. That’s really great!
Recognition is the first step to recovery…
You got is, smart boy !
Very true.
I can’t tell for sure if Rastard is religious about Android. It could be he “makes a religion” of something else, but I not sure what—contrariness, conflict, trolling, or maybe just a desire to “win,” “be right,” or be a “lone, rugged, individualist voice, alone on the frontier.” Or maybe it’s just what you say. I don’t know.
Here’s a question perhaps you can answer. Have you ever posted *anything* here critical of Apple, or complimentary of Android in any way?
“One of the things that really stands out using an iPhone is just how smooth it feels compared to using Android. Where as Android is laggy, with a measurable interim between when you touch the screen and when the OS responds, iOS almost seems to anticipate what you want to do before your finger touches the display.
How has Apple managed this incredible feat? A better question might be: “How has Google managed to screw up Android’s multitouch so much?” According to Andrew Munn — a software engineering student and ex-Google intern — Android is so messed up that Google might never be able to match an iPhone or iPad’s performance. Ouch!
Here’s why Android can’t render its touch UI without lagging, according to Munn. In iOS, UI rendering processes occur with dedicated threads in real-time priority, halting other processes and focusing all attention on rendering the UI. . In other words, every time you touch your finger to your iPhone’s display, the OS literally goes crazy: “Someone’s touching us! Someone’s touching us! Stop everything else you’re doing, someone’s touching us!”
Work on Android started before the release of the iPhone, and at the time Android was designed to be a competitor to the Blackberry. The original Android prototype wasn’t a touch screen device. Android’s rendering trade-offs make sense for a keyboard and trackball device. When the iPhone came out, the Android team rushed to release a competitor product, but unfortunately it was too late to rewrite the UI framework.
So why hasn’t Google just changed the UI framework? Well, it’s a daunting task that would involve every app on Android Market to be rewritten to support the new framework. That’s at least a year away, and may never happen.
In other words, for Google to ever fully deal with Android’s lag problems, it needs to basically hit the reset button and destroy its app ecosystem. iOS, on the other hand, was built from the ground up to support multitouch smartphones; hell, Apple was the supreme visionary of it. It’s important to get things right.”
http://www.cultofmac.com/133624/why-android-will-always-be-laggier-than-ios/
From Daring Fireball
http://daringfireball.net/
linking to
https://plus.google.com/100838276097451809262/posts/VDkV9XaJRGS
“Interesting technical look at the design of Android’s graphics and event processing by Andrew Munn, trying to explain why it feels so laggy compared to iOS and Windows Phone:
Android UI will never be completely smooth because of the design constraints I discussed at the beginning:
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I hadn’t really thought about it in those terms before, but I think he’s right. Symbian and the old BlackBerry OS aren’t gone yet, but they’ve been deprecated by Nokia and RIM in favor of OSes designed post-iPhone.
Also funny to see in the comments a few Android fans denying that Android is laggy. “I don’t mind Android’s relative UI lagginess because of X, Y, and Z other things that Android does better than any other mobile OS” is a reasonable stance. “It is a myth that Android has issues with lagginess and UI responsiveness” is not.”
The very definition of stupid.
“The application says that the technology can, among other things, combine and analyze service intelligence modules related to games, financial transactions, and medical diagnostics.”
“The ease and ability of Android licensees to modify the software they install on their smartphones has opened vast security holes that enable rogue apps to record calls, monitor users’ locations and access sensitive data without permission, researchers say, noting that while Google and Motorola acknowledge the issues, HTC and Samsung have ignored their findings.”
But, but, but … it’s OPEN
also, they get blocked in open ways
http://9to5google.com/2011/12/05/verizon-is-blocking-google-wallet-likely-because-of-isis-partnership/
Wow, I thought the battery was a big problem, at least, that’s what they told me.
Birra 12:21 am on December 10, 2011 58 days ago Reply
Here’s my ‘original’ thinking on how Apple can win in the courts. With close to a $100 billion they certainly ought to be able to buy Quinn Emanuel’s representation. Unless of course they value their morals so much as to refuse such a lucrative offer.
Birra 5:59 pm on December 10, 2011 57 days ago Reply
A low hassle protection approach. Borrow your neighbor’s pit bull.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/12/10/apple.has.unusual.digitude.pact.on.mobile.patents/