The Q5 looks VERY interesting and I hope they decide to bring it here. There are a lot of people who will want it simply for the color selection and lower price-point. That sounds dumb, but it is what it is.
I played with a S4 for a while recently and was unimpressed. In the T-Mobile store they had two (different colors are important, you know) and one of them was actually LOCKED UP (!!)
The flow of the OS was effectively identical to what's on my S2 and other than being a bit thinner, lighter, and slightly larger in form factor I didn't see the major improvements. It's a bit faster and has an actual hard home button as opposed to all soft buttons, but that's got its bad points -- it's something else that can fail where soft buttons don't as there is no physical actuator to fail with them.
I didn't see the point of the S3 (over my S2) and still don't with the S4. If you have the S3 I see no reason at all to pony up for north of half a kilobuck for the new one. From the S2, maybe.
It comes down to form-factor preference. I found the S2 to be marginally ok in that regard but the S4 and Note are just too big to comfortably fit in my pants pocket. The Z10 is just right -- slightly larger than the iPhone, but not enough to get into the "annoying" range, even with a modest protective snap-on case (and that's important.)
In terms of functionality IMHO the Z-10 is damn hard to beat.
WinMo8 apparently has ZERO VPN support. I don't know how Microsoft could be that stupid, but apparently they have been.
I run my Z-10 with the VPN enabled at all times in "autoconnect" mode. The cost is a slight decrease in battery life (encryption costs CPU cycles) but the security improvement for anything going over the network is extraordinary. If you want to pick off my communications (e.g. serve a wiretap order as done with the AP) you're going to have to serve ME, since the IPSEC server the phone is talking to is at MY location.
Hacked, no. You can't hack the BlackBerry firmware as anything that goes on the phone has to be signed, and all OS components must be cryptographically signed by BlackBerry themselves. I know of nobody who has managed to steal the private keys for doing so, which would be required to actually "hack" the firmware.
But LEAKED firmware, yes. It's official firmware, but not yet in the wild. Carriers want to do their own testing and adding of bloatware and such before release. This is common to all carriers.
I was running 1720, which is what the carriers in Europe and Canada just pushed out to customers, for a fair bit before it was "officially" released.
You have to be careful doing this as some of the leaks are (by definition, since they're in testing) unstable. There is of course no support on them either. But an interesting discovery has been made -- it is possible to load them non-destructively, which Android was never easily capable of (and IOS can't do at all); this is a big deal for someone who is willing to tinker and try to discover what's coming down the pipe.
BTW while the phone's public key is (of course) accessible the private key is not. In order to actually root it (and "hack" it) you'd have to get that, or break that security. I am unaware of anyone who has done so at this point.
Adobe Goes 'Cloud Only': (Grisly) Film At 11 [View article]
OK, how about this problem?
I OWN my creative content and the timeline of actions to create it. You propose that in order to access it I must pay for forever on a perpetual basis.
I won't do that as I consider it extortion and the "licensing" model for software prevents any means of solving that issue.
Obviously Adobe thinks they OWN my creative timeline or they wouldn't demand what amount to ROYALTIES in perpetuity so I can access it on an ongoing basis.
I have two words for that and they're not suitable for polite company (but I do use them on my own page :-))
As an owner of multiple Samsung devices (before I bought the Z-10 I used a SGS-II and still have it; before that the Vibrant) I'm well-aware of what Samsung is and is not. I like their devices.
I'm simply pointing out that the Android and IOS models are not what they appear to be and that neither side of this coin is currently innovating -- they're releasing incremental changes that are of questionable value if for no other reason than they're not "solid" in their functionality.
Siri is an example of this; cute, but not particularly useful if it only gets what you want 50, 60, 70 or even 80% of the time. If it did 99% of the time it would be, but it doesn't. Likewise, "eye control" of media is great if it works 99% of the time. If it works half the time it's a gimmick as functionally it's worthless.
That manufacturers are into that model tells me a lot about where they are in ability to innovate and what's in their pipeline.
When you start selling nothingburgers you're being sustained by fanboi games instead of innovative products.
However, Android required this too, so I already had it in place when I switched.
Would I like a native Outlook connector? Yeah, maybe. There is one through Exchange, but small businesses don't typically use Exchange (and large ones shouldn't for a whole host of reasons I won't get into here, but they do -- Exchange is a royal POS IMHO, although it does an essential job.)
The problem at its root lies with Outlook which is not standards-compliant. Like all good monopolists Microsoft thinks it owns the world and everyone else should play by their rules, for which they want money. They are becoming less and less able to make that stick as time goes on, but at least for now still get SOME purchase from that argument.
The Z-10 doesn't use BIS for email; you're completely independent. Only BBM goes through their infrastructure.
Incidentally the Z-10s email client works well with IMAP (instant push email) and STARTTLS options for SMTP, giving you fully-encrypted transport (both directions) and authenticated transmission.
Sync with Outlook calendar can be done through Google and a little "connector" for those not using Exchange. I used this same technique to get Android to sync with Outlook -- Microsoft does NOT support standards such as CalDAV, which is where the problem lies.
Nonetheless I have reliable and operational 2-way Outlook calendar sync on the Z-10 exactly as I did on Android, using the same technique.
Yeah, if you have enough to be able to build your own ladder it works. The problem is that you have to be very careful about hidden liabilities in these municipalities, and many of them cheat in some form or fashion, taking on obligations (e.g. the aforementioned pension issues) that are not formally recognized in bond issuance and similar.
It can be done but much care is required. The problem with those hidden liabilities is that nobody knows exactly where the breaking point is from a market perspective -- these sorts of things are always a case of "everything is and will be ok" right up until it's not, ala Lehman.
If you have 10,000 units of credit and currency in the system and 10,000 units of output, and you emit another 10,000 units of credit or currency then the value of a unit of output is cut in half.
There is no way around this. Denominating GDP in dollars is a notorious, public and obvious fraud, as you are now denominating a thing in a non-invariant. This is basic algebra.
You can't get around arithmetic; it is not a political thing and cannot be manipulated in that fashion. It just IS, and the FACT of the matter is that if total outstanding credit is expanding faster than GDP stated in the same units of credit and currency then organic GDP is contracting. The cost of this must fall on SOMEONE.
Actually, there are plenty of examples where you could cut it by NINETY percent.
Read some more of my Tickers -- not only has TIME done a recent expose on this (although many will not trust the source) JAMA recently published an article that is even-more damning, showing 10x+ price disparities between top-rated hospitals for the IDENTICAL procedure.
I understand full well the political problems with fixing this; it is in fact a major section of my book published over a year ago.
Nonetheless if we don't do it, and do it now, we're screwed.
But, But BlackBerry Was Dead [View article]
But, But BlackBerry Was Dead [View article]
The flow of the OS was effectively identical to what's on my S2 and other than being a bit thinner, lighter, and slightly larger in form factor I didn't see the major improvements. It's a bit faster and has an actual hard home button as opposed to all soft buttons, but that's got its bad points -- it's something else that can fail where soft buttons don't as there is no physical actuator to fail with them.
I didn't see the point of the S3 (over my S2) and still don't with the S4. If you have the S3 I see no reason at all to pony up for north of half a kilobuck for the new one. From the S2, maybe.
It comes down to form-factor preference. I found the S2 to be marginally ok in that regard but the S4 and Note are just too big to comfortably fit in my pants pocket. The Z10 is just right -- slightly larger than the iPhone, but not enough to get into the "annoying" range, even with a modest protective snap-on case (and that's important.)
In terms of functionality IMHO the Z-10 is damn hard to beat.
But, But BlackBerry Was Dead [View article]
1720/21 is, as far as I can tell, completely stable. This is the official firmware that Rogers and Telus, among others, pushed recently. It rocks.
But, But BlackBerry Was Dead [View article]
I run my Z-10 with the VPN enabled at all times in "autoconnect" mode. The cost is a slight decrease in battery life (encryption costs CPU cycles) but the security improvement for anything going over the network is extraordinary. If you want to pick off my communications (e.g. serve a wiretap order as done with the AP) you're going to have to serve ME, since the IPSEC server the phone is talking to is at MY location.
No surprises ala AP will work.
But, But BlackBerry Was Dead [View article]
But LEAKED firmware, yes. It's official firmware, but not yet in the wild. Carriers want to do their own testing and adding of bloatware and such before release. This is common to all carriers.
I was running 1720, which is what the carriers in Europe and Canada just pushed out to customers, for a fair bit before it was "officially" released.
You have to be careful doing this as some of the leaks are (by definition, since they're in testing) unstable. There is of course no support on them either. But an interesting discovery has been made -- it is possible to load them non-destructively, which Android was never easily capable of (and IOS can't do at all); this is a big deal for someone who is willing to tinker and try to discover what's coming down the pipe.
BTW while the phone's public key is (of course) accessible the private key is not. In order to actually root it (and "hack" it) you'd have to get that, or break that security. I am unaware of anyone who has done so at this point.
Adobe Goes 'Cloud Only': (Grisly) Film At 11 [View article]
I OWN my creative content and the timeline of actions to create it. You propose that in order to access it I must pay for forever on a perpetual basis.
I won't do that as I consider it extortion and the "licensing" model for software prevents any means of solving that issue.
Obviously Adobe thinks they OWN my creative timeline or they wouldn't demand what amount to ROYALTIES in perpetuity so I can access it on an ongoing basis.
I have two words for that and they're not suitable for polite company (but I do use them on my own page :-))
Samsung's S4 Delayed [View article]
I'm simply pointing out that the Android and IOS models are not what they appear to be and that neither side of this coin is currently innovating -- they're releasing incremental changes that are of questionable value if for no other reason than they're not "solid" in their functionality.
Siri is an example of this; cute, but not particularly useful if it only gets what you want 50, 60, 70 or even 80% of the time. If it did 99% of the time it would be, but it doesn't. Likewise, "eye control" of media is great if it works 99% of the time. If it works half the time it's a gimmick as functionally it's worthless.
That manufacturers are into that model tells me a lot about where they are in ability to innovate and what's in their pipeline.
When you start selling nothingburgers you're being sustained by fanboi games instead of innovative products.
Surprise! Sprint Gets Dished [View article]
BlackBerry: Status Update [View article]
However, Android required this too, so I already had it in place when I switched.
Would I like a native Outlook connector? Yeah, maybe. There is one through Exchange, but small businesses don't typically use Exchange (and large ones shouldn't for a whole host of reasons I won't get into here, but they do -- Exchange is a royal POS IMHO, although it does an essential job.)
The problem at its root lies with Outlook which is not standards-compliant. Like all good monopolists Microsoft thinks it owns the world and everyone else should play by their rules, for which they want money. They are becoming less and less able to make that stick as time goes on, but at least for now still get SOME purchase from that argument.
BlackBerry: Status Update [View article]
Incidentally the Z-10s email client works well with IMAP (instant push email) and STARTTLS options for SMTP, giving you fully-encrypted transport (both directions) and authenticated transmission.
BlackBerry: Status Update [View article]
Nonetheless I have reliable and operational 2-way Outlook calendar sync on the Z-10 exactly as I did on Android, using the same technique.
Nowhere To Hide: Munis [View article]
It can be done but much care is required. The problem with those hidden liabilities is that nobody knows exactly where the breaking point is from a market perspective -- these sorts of things are always a case of "everything is and will be ok" right up until it's not, ala Lehman.
Nowhere To Hide: Munis [View article]
Why We Must Stop Deficits Now [View article]
If you have 10,000 units of credit and currency in the system and 10,000 units of output, and you emit another 10,000 units of credit or currency then the value of a unit of output is cut in half.
There is no way around this. Denominating GDP in dollars is a notorious, public and obvious fraud, as you are now denominating a thing in a non-invariant. This is basic algebra.
You can't get around arithmetic; it is not a political thing and cannot be manipulated in that fashion. It just IS, and the FACT of the matter is that if total outstanding credit is expanding faster than GDP stated in the same units of credit and currency then organic GDP is contracting. The cost of this must fall on SOMEONE.
Why We Must Stop Deficits Now [View article]
Read some more of my Tickers -- not only has TIME done a recent expose on this (although many will not trust the source) JAMA recently published an article that is even-more damning, showing 10x+ price disparities between top-rated hospitals for the IDENTICAL procedure.
I understand full well the political problems with fixing this; it is in fact a major section of my book published over a year ago.
Nonetheless if we don't do it, and do it now, we're screwed.
That's the math.