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Screw it, I'm psyched! It's a great time to be a mobile developer! I was going to write a whole response regarding iOS vs Android until I realized the debate is like religion or politics. Currently both platforms are great and only getting better with each iteration. I'm developing for both platforms and loving it. Just in the latest iterations look at what we can do.

iOS * AirPlay - My phone will be my gaming console and media center, genius! * iCloud - Good, no more transferring files back and forth. * CoreImage & AVFoundation - 30 lines of code to add video editing and filters to my application, sounds good! * GLKit - High-level 3D libraries for a game developer noob like me. I'm in! * TwitterAuth - I'm still going to integrate FB authentication but this is cool too.

Android * Ice Cream Sandwich - No more fragmentation. Unifies hundreds of devices (not just phones). Brand new UI library. I can't wait! * ADK - My home, car, and toaster will soon be at my mobile command while giving me status updates. This is so awesome! I foresee Android powered cleaning robots in the future. * Face-tracking - So my phone can recognize me and focus in on my face and voice automatically. This sounds like fun. * USB Host - I can plug anything USB into my Android phone. Hot damn!


Couldn't agree with you more. I started off doing iphone dev part time just over a year ago. Since then, I've managed to quit my job, become a full time indie developer, and travel the world. The opportunities for independent developers in the mobile space are just incredible right now. I'll have my first android app coming out in a few weeks too. To quote some 90s hip hop, "damn, it feels good to be a gangsta"


Here's my question. In this (somewhat ungrounded in Android reality) article the poster makes the claim that on iOS, you 'just get' a few seconds to finish off everything.

This does not seem like a sustainable model. If my app and the next app a user launches are both memory heavy, I expect my app to be killed to make space. How does this process work on iOS?

Also, nobody really seems to understand how amazing Intents are before they use Android :)


You get notified when the user switches apps away from yours, so at that point you quicky get your shit together and assume you could be killed at any time.


I understand the argument that traffic from your current network is cheaper and therefor enables cap-less ISP services but I think it's nieve to believe these ISPs don't intend to control as much of your purchase and viewing activity as possible. Cable companies do this now with traditional cable and telephony services and it makes them a fortune. Any ISP owner worth their salt would always prefer to have an unfair advantage instead of an even playing field. Capping your competition is an unfair advantage and too good to pass up if legal.

First it's the direct media (movies, music, etc), then it could be gaming networks, VOIP services, cloud file storage and so on. It's entirely conceivable that we would be financially forced to use the lower quality services of an individual ISP instead of a higher quality alternative. Then the real competition would be ISPs fighting over physical turf while online services look to parter with those ISPs instead of focusing on innovative products.


I have the same issues with Intuit mobile and desktop apps.


Inductive charger landing pads, a must have. Let them build forever. Just make sure the pads are plugged into a neighbors outlet ... or their Chevy Volt.

http://translogic.aolautos.com/2011/01/06/ces-2011-gm-brings...


This is awesome! It's sort of like a less precise large-scale 3D printer or MineCraft. I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks this is certainly the beginning of automated construction. It works for assembly lines. We may finally be getting to the point where the same process will work in more mobile volatile environments.


What is a for-loop? Seems to copy my beautiful jQuery each()!

$.each(new Array(3), function(i){ alert(i); });


Funny ads although I think it's difficult to market Windows Phone 7 as being easier/faster than others. Visually the iPhone and Android appear more beautiful and equal if not more obvious to use at first glance, in my opinion. Instead, this new Windows Phone 7 marketing feels like they are saying "buy our phones because the other ones are too difficult to pull away from". If someone wasn't paying much attention to the wording in the ad it may have the opposite intended message which is "buy our phone and you'll forget about everything else".


Perhaps that's what they meant. That the windows phone will show you facebook messages but because of the minimalistic UI when you're done with that you'll just put it back in the pocket. As opposed to other phones where you would just keep staring at beautiful background and lickable icons.


Unfortunately the SEO industry will make this a pain for all of us just like they did with stuffing image alt text in the early 2000's.


Being poor is buying only Oatmeal and Mac & Cheese because they don't require electric refrigeration, can be purchased in bulk inexpensively, and you just add water to eat.

That brings back bad memories. Granted, compared to many parts of the world it's a walk in the park.


Look at this: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#sclient=psy&hl=en&...

What's the point. I bet there are a million bigots, immature kids, and ignorant people asking questions on Yahoo Answers. Unfortunately every country has people like this, it's not exclusive to one area.

Let's just all read this and decide collectively that Yahoo Answers should never again be used as debate source material: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100317231952AA...


You are right. edanm asked for some evidence that there are idiots who think Japanese worship white people. It seems there are many, so the article really targets an existing problem. That's the point.


I was specifically looking for evidence that scholars believe this. I don't doubt there are idiots who believe all kinds of things!

And by the way, what's up with the people posting that Yahoo! question? If it's not a joke, I'm seriously worried about the state of humanity.


Voila:

"The ultimate reason for the lower Japanese body esteem may perhaps concern broader cultural and historical perspectives. Being part of the West, but non-Caucasians, Japanese people seem collectively to experience high incongruence between their Western-oriented bodily ideals and the perceptions of their own body. "

Japanese body image: Structure and esteem scores in a cross-cultural perspective by Rotem Kowner, University of Haifa, Israel, in: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2002, 37 (3), 149–159

http://www.sjsu.edu/people/jennifer.anderson/courses/c5/s1/K...


Fair enough


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