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Yes. Flawless characters aren’t interesting.

24 minutes ago on Zack Snyder explains why Superman was subversive all along 1 reply

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It’s very odd. They don’t show it in Canada either. Perhaps Canada and US are somewhat unique in having varying VAT levels between provinces, whereas other countries have consistent VAT nationwide?

about 2 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes 1 reply

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I know some states have VAT, but it’s certainly uncommon compared to the rest of the world, but your income tax is higher to make up the difference. In Canada, most provinces have 13-15% VAT, and I pay about 20% income tax on an income where someone in my position in the US would pay 25%. There’s also no 0% tax bracket in the US, the minimum is 10%, and the cap on that is still below the 0% tax cap in Canada.

Now, I’ve only looked over this quickly, but at the barrier between tax tiers in the US, you could actually end up with a significantly smaller net income just by making $1 more. Not entirely relevant to VAT but it does go to show how messed up the tax system is, even on the simplest levels.

about 4 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes 1 reply

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I don’t think Apple has ever reported shipping numbers, only ever sales, and I’ve never seen a report about Samsung or Amazon ever mention sales, only shipments, so it’s likely the IDC is comparing two different metrics with iPad versus others.

about 4 hours ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share?

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Well it’s not as if Microsoft’s flagship product is an operating system whose single largest problem is all the backwards compatibility they desire to retain.

about 20 hours ago on Microsoft's Xbox head: 'If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards'

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I never said it could handle it on any resolution, I said it could handle it. Your argument is that it’s not good enough, when by virtue of things still being very much playable, it is.

“Flatline” is, of course, very relative, all I mean to say that the growth at the moment is much flatter than it was ~5 years ago, and will be in the future, but that future isn’t likely within the next ~5 years.

about 21 hours ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming 1 reply

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I just replaced my 2009 iMac, which wasn’t top-end when I bought it, and still played any recent game I threw at it just fine. Outside of the mobile arena, performance progress has rather flatlined, and while this happened before (early/mid-2000s), there isn’t currently new technologies on the horizon to allow for expansion (multi-core back then). (Not saying there won’t be, there certainly will, but things take time and as it stands, it definitely will not be in 1-2 years).

about 23 hours ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming 1 reply

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Less stress, sure (though still 6 months away), but outperform? Not even close. X1 and PS4 are both designed to be much more conservative (relative to current tech) than their high-end predecessors, using integrated graphics and efficient, low-power CPUs. PS4’s use of GDDR5 will definitely give it an edge in graphics (8 GB available versus 2 GB on iMacs and indeed most custom-built PCs) but non-graphical computations will suffer as a result.

about 23 hours ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming 1 reply

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Form factor is a big one, very convenient not having a space heater under your desk.

However, spec for spec, the “4 times cheaper” argument is just false. Competing displays alone are ~$1100.

about 23 hours ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming 1 reply

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I don’t understand the boost-FPS-at-all-costs desire (though I do see it). A video game is supposed to do two things – be a game and have video. Too many games now swing too far in the latter direction, but it certainly still shouldn’t be ignored, and the only benchmark that matters with the video is “Does it look good?” A large beautiful screen is going to make it look amazing.

about 23 hours ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming 1 reply

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The display makes a huge difference. I pumped my iMac to 11 when ordering, came to $2600, but comparable displays are still ~$1100 (at least a 27" LED 1440p Samsung display is). So now it’s comparing a $1500 desktop, which levels the playing field a hell of a lot.

1 day ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming 1 reply

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While you are speaking with a bit of a hyperbole, I agree. Add the 3.4/3.9 GHz i7, a Fusion Drive, and a whopping 24 GB of RAM (8 included + 16 aftermarket), amazing machine, couldn’t be more happy with it.

1 day ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming

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I’ve yet to discover the limits of my iMac’s 680MX. “M” really doesn’t mean what it used to.

1 day ago on Getting a Mac for Gaming

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I do not get why everyone around here is so okay with this. The average person is not willing to replace hardware so frequently (meaning people won’t give up their Xbox 360s so easily), so now Microsoft (and Sony) are asking people to make extra room on the TV stand.

2 days ago on Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games 3 replies 4 recommends

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A fair point, though it should be added Apple does very little lobbying, and have indeed proposed tax reform before (yesterday’s statement actually involved changes that would increase the amount they pay).

2 days ago on Senators blast Apple in hearing for keeping most profits overseas 1 reply 3 recommends

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Technically, sure, but by having the hearing – and getting media like The Verge talking about it – they’re sure as hell making it seem like they are. Sure the end result is that Apple is not charged with any crime, but now the people will be after them to pay their taxes like a proper citizen should instead of getting after the government to fix a broken system.

2 days ago on Senators blast Apple in hearing for keeping most profits overseas 2 recommends

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How’s that tinfoil hat? The release actually points out several loopholes that they don’t use.

3 days ago on Apple denies avoiding taxes, calls for reform in Senate testimony

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Except we’re in the first six months of the Wii U’s life, and if Nintendo’s track record with actual games is any indication at all, the best games of the entire eighth console generation will be out within the next year exclusively for the Wii U.

To paraphrase one Samuel Clemens, reports of the Wii U’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

7 days ago on Electronic Arts is no longer developing games for Nintendo's Wii U 1 reply 8 recommends

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You replied to the wrong person, I think you meant to reply to Glenn Howes. I was merely explaining his comment due to poor wording.

7 days ago on Intel could have been inside the original iPhone, says outgoing CEO

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I agree – why is everyone trying to argue with me? Just because one can explain arguments of one side doesn’t necessarily mean they are on that side.

7 days ago on Intel could have been inside the original iPhone, says outgoing CEO 1 reply 3 recommends

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I wasn’t suggesting they should, was merely explaining the “4x” comment.

That said, while it certainly would be sketchy in the anticompetitive sense, the US government has already set the precedent of allowing such a setup by allowing Samsung to operate in the country.

7 days ago on Intel could have been inside the original iPhone, says outgoing CEO 1 reply 1 recommend

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So? I’m not saying Apple should, but overseas money is not some magically locked-off safe that they can never access; if Apple really did want to buy a company as big as Intel, it would probably be worth it to them to pay the taxes on repatriating.

7 days ago on Intel could have been inside the original iPhone, says outgoing CEO 3 replies 1 recommend

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I believe Glenn may be referring to Apple’s cash (which can be used) is quadruple Intel’s market cap (net value of all Intel’s publicly available shares). As in, Apple has more than enough money to buy a single controlling interest in Intel.

7 days ago on Intel could have been inside the original iPhone, says outgoing CEO 3 replies 1 recommend

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XMPP suport was actually removed for Hangouts. The newly branded platform is now 100% proprietary.

7 days ago on Exclusive: Inside Hangouts, Google's big fix for its messaging mess 1 reply

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You sound like you think I’m some sort of an illiterate jackass, though.

Nope, you’ve just expressed elsewhere your difficulty with understanding the material involved, so came up with a decent analogy from another industry.

9 days ago on A Question on the current working of iOS.

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Ever watch Top Gear?

If not, it’s a British talk show about cars. Nearly every episode they take their car of the week to a custom test track on their grounds (a former airport), designed by Lotus, which has several features to really test a car. Straightaways, U-turns, 90º turns, etc. They keep a record of each car’s track time, as a benchmark for said car.

Numerous times faster cars have been beaten on that track. The most notable is the Bugatti Veyron, which holds the world speed record for production cars, but is a full three seconds slower than the Pagani Huayra.

The takeaway is that benchmarks mean crap all. Just because a car is faster on straightaways doesn’t mean it’s faster on turns. Just because it has a higher top speed doesn’t mean it’s going to get there faster too. The same is very much true of computers. There’s just so many scenarios and so many details that a single numerical benchmark just can’t represent.

9 days ago on A Question on the current working of iOS. 2 replies 6 recommends

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While there’s certainly a lot of optimization going on, the short answer is that, yes, iOS does have lower system requirements than Android, in much the same way that OS X has much lower requirements than Windows.

However, it’s my estimation that the feel of lag (when scrolling, for example) on Android has actually surprisingly little to do with performance, but merely Google’s flawed implementation of the physics algorithms. While it’s still circumstantial evidence, I’m now convinced that this is the same reason why Chrome on OS X and all of Google’s iOS apps (excluding, ironically, Chrome, due to using native web view widgets) all have that same characteristic laggy feel to them. This was indicated further when Facebook Home came about, and despite being on a lower-end Android phone, did not have the same lag. If the algorithms don’t generate smooth motion, then it doesn’t matter how much battery-killing horsepower you put in, they’re still not going to be smooth.

9 days ago on A Question on the current working of iOS. 1 reply 1 recommend

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I’ve been a huge fan of the iPhone since the 3G first went on sale in Canada, I was always down on the large-screened phones, and when iPhone bumped to 4" I was fully in support of them.

However then I used my mother’s Galaxy Note. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still found it a horrendously terrible device that I will be forever confused at how anybody could possibly like such a system (however, that’s just my opinion and not the point of the argument, just expressing the extent of my observation), but I really enjoyed the size of the screen. A few days later, Marco Arment posted his analysis that predicted a 4.95" iPhone at 264 ppi, repurposing the LCD manufacturing from the iPad, and it just seemed like a perfect fit for me. It’s not nearly enough for me to give up the Apple ecosystem, but were one to be made I would jump on it immediately. I do agree with the Android fans that there isn’t one-size-fits-all, but I don’t agree with the manufacturers that 4.5-5.5" fits everyone.

I do think that the intents behind the Android large-screened phones are bullshit, and I just don’t see Apple going that way. It seems a lot of them came about because of a failure to minimize, so making the screen bigger (which adds area without thickness) allowed them to save money on making the components smaller and more efficient. They can use a less dense battery, one that is cheaper albeit bigger with the same capacity. They made have put in 720p and 1080p resolutions, but usually with terrible colour calibration and the like (again cheaping out on the details). Then you have the actual high-end phones, but they’re all big in order to make them seem more premium than the smaller-screened.

I don’t see Apple going this way. I see Apple making 4" and 5" phones, with neither being low-end. The 4" iPhone will still remain the premium build and finish it always had, and the 5" iPhone will have the same specs with a larger battery. Potentially I could see the CPU having a different multiplier, as the greater size would allow for better heat dissipation, so they could pump the CPU higher when needed without overheating. Such a move would be in line with other multiple-screen-size product lines, where the smaller screened devices are just as capable, just the bigger ones push the envelop a bit further, putting it into stark contrast with the cheaper, smaller-screened Android phones that come with outdated software and laggy performance.

10 days ago on My thoughts on larger screens 1 recommend

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It took me a few pans back and forth, but besides the corner radius, there’s a subtle drop shadow on the f that’s not on the Android version icon.

10 days ago on Facebook 6.1 Icon

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The article states that the messages were searchable using Google, but I agree that’s one hell of a straw they’re grasping at.

10 days ago on Thousands of confidential Bloomberg terminal messages allegedly posted online 1 reply 7 recommends