Funny you should mention incompatible accessories. I seem to recall that an iPhone's Bluetooth will only talk to another iPhone. Likewise Apple have ditched USB on their latest Macs and gone with their own proprietary connection for peripherals. They seem to like locking their products down to only work with other Apple devices. What about the latest Macbooks not having an optical drive? If you want one you have to buy their proprietary external optical drive, which funnily enough is a lot more expensive than a standard USB DVD external drive.

 

You might want to do a little research. It is very much possible to pair iPhones with other devices over Bluetooth. I've done it with both a Nexus 7 and a TouchPad. Works great.

 

Next, all of Apple's laptops and desktops still have USB ports. What they did was add Thunderbolt ports. This new port was developed with Intel, and is now starting to appear on motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte and others. So, no it is not a proprietary Apple port.

 

Now as for the lack of DVD drives, go take a look a the various Ultrabooks out there. Few, if any, have an optical drive of any kind. And if you need an optical drive, the $30 models from Samsung and others work just fine with Macs. Although with Macs the need for an optical drive is rapidly diminishing. Most all Mac software can be bought digitally, and if you need removable storage, USB memory sticks are faster and offer more space. About the only use I've had for an optical drive on my MacBook Pro is for installing Windows and Windows programs in a VM.

 

Can you play mkv files on Apples platform?

 

Yes. On a Mac you just need to download either VLC or Mplayer. For iPhones or iPads you will probably want to convert the files, but there are free programs for this. I believe Handbrake is one example.

Can you play mkv files on Apples platform?

 

Well, the answer seems to be: not out of the box. I believe that Apple had a "thing" about other video formats both because of security in Flash's case, or processor usage and power consumption in the case of formats like Mkv. What I did originally was convert on the PC using any number of programs that will change a video to Apple formats, but that was a while ago.

 

So Instead, I did a quick search on the App-Store using the query MKV, and instantly got pages of apps that will either convert or simply play uploaded videos. I chose one at random (Moliplayer, which reviews say is not even the best one, but hey it was free) installed it and plugged my iPad into my computer where I selected an old MKV file and transferred it to the MoliPlayer video folder.

 

Elapsed time about 15 minutes and I was playing MKV video.

 

It seems that with the faster processors, newer iPad's/phones have none of the original lag issues of the original phones/pads and playback was perfect with no slowdown or glitching, and no problems displaying subtitles.

 

EDIT: There is also another program I sometimes use (rarely, but it wows people) called Zumocast where you can stream data to your device from your home computer wirelessly over 3G/4G or WiFi. This includes music, video or data, including streaming MKV and other types of videos. (They are converted on the fly and can even be saved to the pad/phone)

EDIT: There is also another program I sometimes use (rarely, but it wows people) called Zumocast where you can stream data to your device from your home computer wirelessly over 3G/4G or WiFi. This includes music, video or data, including streaming MKV and other types of videos. (They are converted on the fly and can even be saved to the pad/phone)

 

Now you are talking - I want to get my son off my phone and tab (easy to do on a 'droid :lol: ) and let him stream his movies from our home server to his ipod touch. Certainly better than converting and certainly better than buying the 7 year old a Nexus 7.

Plex has a client for iOS devices too.

 

http://plexapp.com/

Now you are talking - I want to get my son off my phone and tab (easy to do on a 'droid :lol: ) and let him stream his movies from our home server to his ipod touch. Certainly better than converting and certainly better than buying the 7 year old a Nexus 7.

 

Well doing a quick check shows a problem. Zumocast has been purchased by Motorola and they pulled from the iPad and made it a droid only app. Only people like me who got it ages ago can still use it, but no problemo!!! Where there is a need and a large market, that need will be filled.

 

Try Air Play It, instead.

 

Honestly, nothing else I see now seems as easy, complete and versatile as Zumocast was. Perhaps that's why it was snapped up. :-(

Plex has a client for iOS devices too.

 

http://plexapp.com/

 

My bad, I always thought Plex was Mac specific. Looks good! Of course, its not free, but what the heck!

So, on a random impulse I brought the latest Ipad3 64gig wi-fi/4g and am playing with it now. As usual, the Apple ecosystem is the main draw, with the pad itself simply being workmanlike.

 

Not sure if its a result of a placebo affect, or of the faster pad, but the maps seem clearer now. (whatever)

 

After playing with Sirii, I am not sure whether to be impressed or not. The voice recognition is stellar, but what she then does with it is a mixed bag. I am told that the Google implementation of AI is very impressive too. When I go to upgrade my phone in a week or so I will have to look at it.

 

In the meantime, for those still looking for a nice navigation app, take a look at Waze, its free, crowd-sourced, very friendly and very nice!

By the way, if anyone is still keeping track of this, google appears to have flipped a switch somewhere and street view is now available in the web based version of google maps for apple devices. It's confirmed to work in both safari and chrome.

 

Look for an icon at the bottom of the screen with the google street view man.

After playing with Sirii, I am not sure whether to be impressed or not. The voice recognition is stellar, but what she then does with it is a mixed bag. I am told that the Google implementation of AI is very impressive too. When I go to upgrade my phone in a week or so I will have to look at it.

 

Ask Siri to spell "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" I use Voice Actions Plus (available for both platforms) and it demonstrates that both Siri and Google Voice still have a long way to go.

Ask Siri to spell "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" I use Voice Actions Plus (available for both platforms) and it demonstrates that both Siri and Google Voice still have a long way to go.

 

Well I asked, and she said: Is that you, Mary?

 

No, I'm not kidding.

Well I asked, and she said: Is that you, Mary?

 

No, I'm not kidding.

 

:LMAO: I know, I did that to a friend the other day! Very clever and funny! :clapping: Voice Actions Plus will also spell it letter by letter.

I'm not too sure about the Google alternative, but I thought that what Siri did/does was very funny! As for the voice recognition, this entire message was typed up for me by Siri as I spoke out loud. All I added was the punctuation.

 

And it turns out that I didn't even need to do that!

 

This really is Star Trek stuff.

Yup, I stopped typing txts a long time ago and for the most part it works well.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

 

The most plausable answers are found here: http://www.freakface.com/speedofdark/

 

Pay special attention to Experiment #1: http://www.freakface...rk/#experiment1

 

However, it can easily be shown by symmetry arguments that the speed of dark is related to the speed of light by the following formula:

,

 

B)

the speed of dark is related to the speed of light by the following formula:

,

 

That logic is flawed - can you not spot the deliberate error? :wacko:

 

And now going totally off the original topic "If light and sound have a measurable speed doesn't that mean that everything we see or hear has already happened? And doesn't it also mean that each and everyone of us is always living in the past?" :Thinking: