I knew about the "planned obsolescence" of bulbs and nylon stockings, but this video had more details.

I gotta call B.S. on the "everlasting LED bulb" comment he makes at the end. I've had many LED bulbs fail after 2 years when they are supposed to last at least 8. Most of them Feit brand. Sure I could request a warranty replacement, but I'd have to pay shipping both ways, which costs more than getting a new one.

Apple has had class-action battery lawsuits almost every year since the iPod introduction. I did take advantage when they had $30 battery replacement for iPhones, but guess what - that's gone back up to "overpriced" as of last year. At least they support iOS devices with 5 years of software updates. Google has always been worse, and some 3rd party (HTC for example) ship new Android phones (at least their cheaper non-flagship models) with outdated software, and never release a patch.

I wonder how these cell phone based VR setups compare to more traditional ones like Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. Are they as immersive, or are they more like a poor mans VR solution.

#1 bluetooth uses a slight offshoot of mpeg2 audio compression which gets worse because you are most likely recompressing something already compressed with mpeg and that makes things even worse. This is the strength of AptX, it is an audio compression designed to not get exponentially worse when dealing with mpeg compressed audio. THAT SAID! Anyone know what phone he is using? The GOLD phantom supports AptX, so if he uses a samsung/htc/lg phone he would have been using AptX.

#2 speaker construction, it is an overblown Flip3 with radiators on the side. The radiators are designed to capture the back pressure of speakers and convert it into more audible sound waves, very good at saving the low frequencies and directing them back at the listener. The problem is it is a secondary uncontrolled speaker. This means your sound balance can go out of wack. Perfect for a $79 portable speaker, not ideal for a $3000 home theater setup. Also the speaker appears to be..mono? so you need 2 of them for stereo?

Yea, sorry, you can buy speakers that are not much bigger than this, hell you can buy a SET of front facing speakers and a good sub for $3000 and do better.

that htc blows

I always have Steam powered up but I haven't thought about Valve as Valve in a while and though I liked both Portal's I almost never considered them Valve games, just games they bought the rights to and plopped the developers in their offices .

But, it seems like Valve are done with games. They're a software platform & hardware developers now. What is sad about that is I don't give two shits about any of their hardware products: HTC Vive, Steam controller, Steam machines.... it's all rubbish.

Go back to making good games!!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

This might be reason enough to buy the HTC Vive instead.
http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/24985/everything-you-need-to-know-about-htc-vive-and-steam-vr-release-date-price-1

It's not just Apple; Samsung and HTC are just as bad.

The sad thing is that you could easily pay all these people a decent wage and it would barely make a dent in their profit margins.

As for clothes, I try to buy locally made stuff as much as possible, but equally, I don't really care about clothes, so I hate spending money on expensive clothes (other than outdoor/sporting gear.... I spend stupid amounts on that )

Apple's strategy appears to be progressive in releasing new products and conservative in making iterations.

It's particularly obvious on the iPhone. (1) On screen size they've barely budged while competitors have offered options varying widely from 3-7 inches. While some would argue phones larger than 5 inches are ungainly, it's very much a personal preference and where there's clearly demand say for Samsung's Note series, the option should be available. (2) The UI may have also been revamped but compared to the customisability of Android, it's still immensely basic and locked down, (3) File access continues to be restricted through iTunes which keeps transferring files, and sharing them between apps a massive pain. Apple's bandaid solution to this is to stick a 'share' button everywhere, but this is hardly a real solution.

The problem is Apple's slow pace of change means they're losing their competitive advantage. I'd argue the big change that has kept the iPhone successful even as Android was beginning to catch up several years after the first iPhone was the (1) all metal design that came with the iPhone 4 & (2) the smoothness of their UI. Now with phones like the HTC One, the durable/water resistant series from Sony and the rumor that Samsung is going all metal with its next generation, the first advantage is going. The second went with Android Jelly Bean which mostly fixed Android's laginess. I just don't see anything coming along that will significantly differentiate them in the future, both the iPhone 5 and 5S really didn't offer anything as compelling as the build quality of the 4.

The iPhones main remaining advantages are its user friendliness and the relative strength of its app store. I'd argue the first is over-exaggerated, and even if it is such a large factor, the sheer fact that it has already seen sizable portions of the older generation being enticed into smartphones makes the next step of moving to a new UI a relative cinch. Effectively Android phone makers/Google can capitalize on the market Apple helped create. With the build quality gap diminishing and Android device prices coming down, while iPhone prices remain largely unchanged I think the incentive to switch will rise.

The App Store's strength is largely a factor of the revenue that it brings in for app creators. Yes, no doubt iOS apps are generally pricier and it's users more willing to pay. But with the dominance in market share for Android in developing markets, even if their consumers are poorer, it's only a matter of time before at the very least app makers move from the iOS first, Android second model to a simultaneous release. From there I think it will be a steady decline for iOS.

What they're proposing is essentially similar to how desktop PCs work.

You have a central motherboard and then you swap in and out components.

But there are several problems with this:

First, a technical challenge: You can't simply rearrange the blocks like that. The connections between the cpu and the ram and storage and power are all different and for good reasons.

Next, upgradability: later this year, I will upgrade my primary work/gaming PC. What it really needs is a new CPU. But a new CPU means a new motherboard and probably new RAM. So I don't see this being as upgradeable as they think.

That said.. those are solvable problems compared to the main issue. Economics.

What is the incentive for Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc to produce one of these, or even parts for one? They would essentially commodify their own products and reduce any point of differentiation.

So it's an ad for HTC?

A) Thought it was an HTC ad
B) Nobody wakes alone in pants, puts on a shirt and gets straight in the shower.

Whole semi naked chick in oversized shirt was pushing it really.

HTC were doing smartphones long before apple was. I'm surprised they don't have a few choice patents of their own lying around.

HTC Evo. I have that phone. :3

I suspect alot of the iphones I see in Beijing are sciphones.

Chinese and other emerging market consumers can get quite alot out of a regular phone; that has always amazed me.

>> ^Diogenes:

heh heh, nice vid...
here in china, the iphone is all the rage - but like the vid implies, people here buy it mostly for the name recognition and 'prestige' ... even when the features don't match up to the latest devices by samsung, htc, etc
although most of these phones and/or their components are made right here, the masses seem less tech savvy than westerners
case in point, i'll be sitting around with chinese friends and everybody's got their smartphones at hand... i'll start doing a comparison of the various handsets, and they'll just stare blankly... go silent for a minute or so, and then blurt out, 'but this is an iphone!' hahaha
right now they're all excited about the iphone 4s, and especially siri - i haven't yet had the heart to tell them that siri doesn't support chinese (in fact, most people don't seem to be aware that siri was available over a year ago, but apple snapped up the company, reworked the app, and launched it with the 4s as something new and revolutionary)
anyway, it's all funny - i'm pleased as pie with my htc... with better camera, vid resolution, memory, processor, screen size, and gps -- zero problems and more fun and free apps than i have time for... as well, my provider gave it to me for free (~us$700) after 10+ years of customer loyalty
only possible gripe would be battery life, but between the recharges i get while driving, sitting at the comp, or even with my portable recharger (us$28), it's never really been much of an issue

Crap, my HTC Hero is too slow to run it.