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Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

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21–30 of 204 posts

Re: Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

#21

Market share: iPhone 28%, Android 9% Mobile browsing: iPhone 58.2%, Android 22.7% Looks like Android is edging the iPhone in mobile pageviews per user. Or am I thinking about this wrong?

That seems right, but it's possibly because iPhone users are more likely to use the native-app version of popular websites.

Re: Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

#24
post #12

The antenna idea (the metal frame is divided, acting as multiple antennas) is really nice, and so obvious in retrospect. Yeah, everything's simple in hindsight. I wonder if Apple invented and thus patented that.

It has been done in laptops for wifi antenna for a while now. the macbook air uses its frame as a wifi antenna as well. I doubt you could patent it (or protect it)

Re: Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

#27
post #15

I'm not really clear on what the gyroscope adds that wasn't there before, can someone clarify?

I think the accelerator can only pick up pitch, yaw and roll while the gyroscope might also be able to pick up left/right and up/down (or is it the other way around?). Not sure about that, though.

Re: Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

#28
post #15

I'm not really clear on what the gyroscope adds that wasn't there before, can someone clarify?

If you have ever used a wii remote, it's like the Wii Motion Plus add-on (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_MotionPlus)

In short, the accelerometer detects movement the gyroscope detects exact direction.

Re: Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

#29
post #12

The antenna idea (the metal frame is divided, acting as multiple antennas) is really nice, and so obvious in retrospect. Yeah, everything's simple in hindsight. I wonder if Apple invented and thus patented that.

Won't your body affect the antennae when you hold the device though?

If you touch the two parts, in theory you short the antenna to the ground and you absorb most of the radiated power. But I'm sure they have thought of that. You see, RF (radio frequency) waves behave quite differently than DC (direct current). Your skin must have a high enough impedance to RF that it does not affect the antenna.

But then, what happens if you short the gap with metal ? That sounds a lot less nice. I'm sure the RF power amp must be shortcut protected, so you don't risk damaging it, but if you short the gap, and thus the antenna, bye bye outgoing packets.

Maybe it's more complicated than that, and the other metal half is not the ground for the antenna, but it's insulated - floating - from the exposed antenna. Therefore shorting the gap would not short the antenna to ground but it would modify the physical characteristics of the antenna, therefore its impedance, therefore the radiating efficiency. This is all messy, as I have never practiced RF design, only took classes.

Re: Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2010

#30
post #15

I'm not really clear on what the gyroscope adds that wasn't there before, can someone clarify?

Accelerometers can only detect orientation relative to gravity, gyros can detect it relative to themselves.

This is the same thing that Nintendo added to their controllers a few months ago.

For example I wrote an app that calculates Horsepower based on weight and acceleration, however it's hard to determine if detected acceleration is due to the vehicle or gravity (if the device tips or tilts during the test). By having the gyros available, I can detect and compensate for the error-inducing influence of gravity.

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