Convergence of technology is inevitable. That's why seat belts all use the same clip and USB ports are all standard now. It took the fucking cell phone industry FOREVER to settle on a universal charger plug.

BTW - the original tablet pc sucked moose cock - and I mean a HUGE moose cock.

My iPhone takes a proprietary Apple cord, my wife's Blackberry takes a little skinny thing, my older Blackberry takes a different shape and my son's LG takes something different again.

Apple refuses to switch to a now-industry-standard for smartphones microUSB charger port. The older Blackberry is using the previous-standard miniUSB port probably. Assuming the LG is a regular cell-phone, it's probably on a proprietary charger still because the use of Micro/Mini USB would allow it to be hooked to a computer USB port and it's not designed to handle that amount of electricity. Doing so would brick it if it didn't immediately make the battery explode.


MiniUSB left, MicroUSB right.

oh, how much more of an iconic innovator he could have been.

forget a little item called "Newton" by Apple (circa 1993) that was ahead of everyone else.

-P

and it was not the first of its kind:

The first PDA was released in 1986 by Psion, the Organizer II.
Psion's then released the Series 3, in 1991.

I'm not hating on Apple, just correcting your misinformation.

I actually did a little research after I posted and realized that I was completely wrong...sorry.

-P

All big technology companies steal a good portion of their products. They all suck.
Apple just was able to make everyone believe that they are the only innovators when the Open Source community that built BSD wrote most of their OS. Apple put lipstick on it and made it more friendly to use. Microsoft does the same thing.

Not too many people using NetBeui, Appletalk or IPX anymore...just sayin'

...must have a lot of time on your hands.

-P

I got to tell ya that I have only had to call Apple a couple of times in my life (because their products are of the highest quality)...when I did, I got help within 10 seconds. Try that with any other company.

-P

I'm writing this on a Toshiba Satellite. Had a problem with it once. Called customer service. Fixed in 5 minutes.

Are honestly fucking brainwashed! Scary.

The CRT on my Color Classic kept going out and replacing the CRT and other components never fixed it, so I had to send it back. Shame, too--it was the first computer that I bought for myself and I really liked that little Mac while I had it. (I bought a PowerMac 7100/80 a couple of years later and never had to call for support for that one or any of the many other Macs I've owned or used at work since then, fwiw.)

Here's a Color Classic in all its 16 MHz glory:



I have to admit, though, that the second time I called I was on hold so long I actually nodded off for a minute. Note to tech support types: there is such a thing as hold music that's too soothing.

Iphones that don't work right, that people stand in hours for line to buy. They don't just spend hundreds of dollars buying one, they then sign contracts to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of using the thing that drops calls & breaks if you drop it. It's baffling.

But that's why I own Apple stock. If there's one thing you can count on, it's that people chase hot things and companies.

Don't get me wrong. Apple has been innovative, & their products have a coolness factor. But they don't as well as you'd think, from all the hype, and they're overpriced.

But did you notice what OS is running on Gates' 2002 tablet?

XP was worse than shit for a touch interface. I had to use XP for touch devices on the job for a while, and it was minimally functional at best. Gates was on the right track with the tablet, but lacked the vision to understand that such a radically different form factor calls for a completely different interface.