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Really?

Really.

You can easily install Window, OpenSolaris, Linux, etc on a Mac.

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

Yes, I do.

Do you have any clue about what I'm talking about? Apparently not.

And yes, Encryption EXISTS, and is SUPPORTED, but is not always actually on. For that, it requires manufacturer support (I think this may have changed in ICS). And, a lot of phones you can buy right now come with... GINGERBREAD! Which can be encrypted, but it's solely left to the manufacturer.

a Macbook Pro might be nice software-wise, because you can run everything under either Lion or Windows Bootcamp, but I am not to happy with the HARDWARE of my Macbook Pro (a late 2011 15"). The notebook has two very annoying "features". One is that it has a real heat problem - if you run a game or any other software which stresses both the CPU and the GPU, it is easy to get the CPU to a thermal level at which it throttles in self-defense (apparently there is one heatsink which is shared between the CPU and the GPU). Also, the Magsafe power supply is sized too small - there are lots of posts on the Apple forums by users who have the problem that when plugged in while using CPU/GPU-intensive software, their Macbook Pro not only does not charge anymore, it actually NEEDS the battery, too, to run. Meaning the battery is discharged and when it is empty, the notebook shuts down because the power supply itself cannot maintain the power needed.

Like I said, I own a Macbook Pro and I really like it for everyday work - since I upgraded it with a SSD and more RAM, it is under normal load a very quiet and nice-to-work-with piece of hardware. I am just very disappointed that unlike every other notebook I ever dealt with (e.g. the high end HP ones I get to use at work), it seems to be not designed at all for anybody who actually wants to use all the CPU/GPU power they put into it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2787732

https://discussions.apple.com/message/17771835

a Macbook Pro might be nice software-wise, because you can run everything under either Lion or Windows Bootcamp, but I am not to happy with the HARDWARE of my Macbook Pro (a late 2011 15"). The notebook has two very annoying "features". One is that it has a real heat problem - if you run a game or any other software which stresses both the CPU and the GPU, it is easy to get the CPU to a thermal level at which it throttles in self-defense (apparently there is one heatsink which is shared between the CPU and the GPU). Also, the Magsafe power supply is sized too small - there are lots of posts on the Apple forums by users who have the problem that when plugged in while using CPU/GPU-intensive software, their Macbook Pro not only does not charge anymore, it actually NEEDS the battery, too, to run. Meaning the battery is discharged and when it is empty, the notebook shuts down because the power supply itself cannot maintain the power needed.

Like I said, I own a Macbook Pro and I really like it for everyday work - since I upgraded it with a SSD and more RAM, it is under normal load a very quiet and nice-to-work-with piece of hardware. I am just very disappointed that unlike every other notebook I ever dealt with (e.g. the high end HP ones I get to use at work), it seems to be not designed at all for anybody who actually wants to use all the CPU/GPU power they put into it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2787732

https://discussions.apple.com/message/17771835

http://apple.com/retail

"It needs a good CPU, but we almost don't care about the GPU (HD 3000 graphics are acceptable). A model that doesn't get very hot would be nice. We'd like an SSD and an internal optical drive. A 15"-17" screen at 1366x768 or higher would be ideal. Budget is around $1,500, but could go up to $2,000 if it's really worth it."

Get a 15" MacBook Pro:

2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
128GB SSD
Slot-loading 8x DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW
15" 1440x900 screen

$1999 (with the SSD). Really worth it.

(Alternatively, get a 13". 'Only' 1280x800, not quite as beefy video chip, but only $1399.)

"It needs a good CPU, but we almost don't care about the GPU (HD 3000 graphics are acceptable). A model that doesn't get very hot would be nice. We'd like an SSD and an internal optical drive. A 15"-17" screen at 1366x768 or higher would be ideal. Budget is around $1,500, but could go up to $2,000 if it's really worth it."

Get a 15" MacBook Pro:

2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
128GB SSD
Slot-loading 8x DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW
15" 1440x900 screen

$1999 (with the SSD). Really worth it.

(Alternatively, get a 13". 'Only' 1280x800, not quite as beefy video chip, but only $1399.)

https://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/

Assuming they're not making them and immediately burying them in a landfill somewhere...

and IOS, while pleasant enough, is too much of a limiting walled garden for me. I like being able to use VNC over an SSH tunnel, for instance, or get a terminal on my phone.

I'm not arguing that iOS isn't a "walled garden", but there are apps out there that will allow you to tunnel VNC (or even RDP) over SSH. I use iSSH and it's freakin awesome. I've used several other SSH apps, but iSSH so far is the best IMHO.

Hopefully instead of holding his dick, he'd have the presence of mind to use one of these:

http://www.samsung.com/us/photography/camcorders

or maybe on of these:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/#hdvideo

Wrong wrong wrong, even if you pay the $99 for a developer membership you still can't use those APIs if you don't sell your app through the store...nice try retard!

Another move of the goalpost. You started out by saying Apple provided hosting services for non-paid developers, and that was wrong. Now you're talking about how you can't use the APIs if you aren't approved through the store, which is incidental to the fact that you still need a paid developer membership to use the APIs in the first place, complete with signed entitlements.

You're so out of it that you don't even realize that bringing up the app store refutes your earlier argument--which you've suddenly abandoned--about users paying for iCloud's sync services through the purchase of extra disk space, because being on the app store means that not only do you have to be a paid developer, but Apple gets a cut of any purchase price. Hey, it's almost as if that money goes toward the services the app is using.

Rubbish again, you're so full of shit you don't even understand the issue. It's nothing to do with whether you are a paying apple developer, it's about whether you sell it in the app store, even if you are a paid developer you still can't necessarily use those APIs!

In your quest for a foothold, you've decided you're going to latch on the app store, an argument you weren't even making before. Nothing you're saying refutes the fact that one must be a paid developer to use the iCloud APIs. Whether or not the developer actually uses them is irrelevant.

That puppetmaster reveal is coming any moment now!

You're bad at this. Next.

People keep saying it's for sale on iTunes. That's exciting! There's just one little problem...

Putting aside the season 1 vs 2 issue, here is the link Google gave me for Season 1: GoT Season 1. If anyone has a better link, please share it. Let's bend over backward trying to find an alternative to piracy, looking at the publisher's efforts in the very best light, with the assumption that there's no dishonesty and that they are actually willing to sell what people want.

The above link takes me to a page that describes season 1, but is prefaced by an ad for some application software called iTunes (wait, is "iTunes" a store or an application?). Pretty much every link on the page turns out to take me to a page that tells me to get this application, except of course it hasn't actually been ported to anything except two OSes, neither of which is what I use.

How important that is, though, I'm not sure. So far, I have not found a link to a page I fill out some web form to arrange payment and they'll then let me download a file (which I assume would work in mplayer (ideally) or vlc or something). That doesn't mean the web page doesn't exist, merely that google and bing and wikipedia and hbo.com's own pages don't know about this link yet, so I don't know it either. Does anyone have it? Just because I can't find it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Maybe I'm an idiot.

I'll consider the publishing of this link to be HBO's Open For Business sign, even if they are trying to hide it. I know lots of businesses with truly shitty marketing, which are nevertheless intended as for-profit businesses. How an entertainment company could be one of them, I don't know, but that's beside the point. Maybe they just need our help. Anyone got the link?

Has anyone bought the GoT files from Apple without having to use a special client? How did you do it? Got an URL?

Some people have mentioned Amazon, but all I have found over there (so far!) is a shitty Flash streaming service.

This particular defect in Amazon may be totally irrelevant, of course. Amazon does, in fact, sell music in a variety of ways that work excellently and require no bizarre player or client. They sell CDs, every one of which has been compatible with cdparanoia, and they also sell downloadable mp3s (which aren't what I prefer, but are good enough). I just can't find where the sell the video files, though. (And the Blu-Ray discs they sell have DRM, so it's illegal to read them, in addition to being a pain in the ass. So please, let's not talk about Blu-Ray discs until that tech becomes ready.)

Has anyone bought the GoT files from Amazon without having to use a special client? How did you do it? Got an URL?

It all sounds so promising, as though HBO were really open for business. But either they keep failing to close the deal, or I'm too dumb to see where they do it, or somewhere in the middle where we're just not communicating. What's going on?

On thing's for sure, though: the premise where we look at HBO in the best light and assume they are honestly trying to sell the product, does require they are at least up to mid-1990s tech for their store. Somewhere there's gotta be a page where I can give payment info (whether it's credit card info or what .. maybe HBO is too smalltime so they only take paypal, and if so, that's acceptable for now, and maybe they can their little startup out of the garage over the next year) and they will let me download the file. The post I'm replying to comes close to implying this is possible, but stops short of actually saying it, fading into weird terminology ("open iTunes"). Surely someone is about to give me the huge enlightenment+smackdown by posting the mystery URL.

just tried it, out of curiosity.

This is what I got :

"To use iCloud, first set it up with your Apple ID on a device with iOS5 or a Mac with OS X Lion 10.7.2. Not sure which Apple ID to use? Learn More"

So the answer ist actually "No. You can't"

Actually, Yes, you can

It's a lot harder to find 15" laptops WITHOUT a number pad. And the touchpad is always off center. It's annoying. I don't need a numpad, and would like to not have to be stuck with one.

You're searching wrong. Even their 17" laptop doesn't have a number pad! :-)

Apple developer tools must be installed from the App store, costs nothing but you still need a credit card. And command-line tools doesn't install by default, which is most of what I want.

You don't need a credit card to download free stuff from the App Store.

And Xcode need not be installed from the App Store: installers for both Xcode and the standalone command-line tools packages are on developer.apple.com/downloads (registration required).

Hmm, no, I don't believe so. Not specifically. I don't even think Siri was a response to Android. Apple has been toying with the idea of Intelligent Agents since the '90s. I think they have long-term goals with Siri, and they want to get to the stage of a conversational agent that has enough APIs and natural language abilities to abstract the internet. Need a flight to Seattle tomorrow? It'll buy you a ticket using your FF number, schedule travel times based on your calendar itinerary, and automatically find the best restaurants for you. A personal assistant is the long-term "point" of Siri.

From Apple's FAQ on Siri:

Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. But Siri isn’t like traditional voice recognition software that requires you to remember keywords and speak specific commands. Siri understands your natural speech, and it asks you questions if it needs more information to complete a task.

If you get the Science Channel, there was a recent episode of "An Idiot Abroad" where Karl went there. Available on iTunes too (it's the Trans-Siberian Express ep).

Since OS/X is based on Linux, they're required to furnish the source code, and they don't, yet we don't hear a peep out of anyone about it, do we?

You think maybe there's a reason for that???

You have to put on OS X 10.6 first. But still...

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?n=osx&fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&s=topSellers

It's not quite as impossible as you think.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?n=osx&fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&s=topSellers

    The only thing that has really changed between then and now is the price. OS X 10.6 is only $29.00 with free shipping, or you can pick it up at an Apple store. It doesn't appear that you need to provide a system serial number, Team Apple badge, nor decoder ring.

    Seriously, doesn't anyone check before writing?

    I think the difference here is, Coleco had a free standing product. It was an add-on module which allowed compatibility with other cartridges.

    Psystar was offering a clone of part of the product (hardware), which required part of the original product (software). Apple's license didn't allow for this, which is what the courts have upheld.

    If he were to say sell the machines with *no* OS on them, he's just selling hardware, which is acceptable. He could provide information on where to get the operating system, and the EFI loader. Basically, "buy my hardware, and go here to buy the software.

    I don't personally agree with it. He was just being a vendor for Apple software. They should have been happy that they were making more sales.

    As the machines should work with any operating system of choice, he would not be in violation. Selling the EFI loader and OS put him in violation of the software license, DMCA, and EULA, and in direct defiance of court order. That put him in the wrong, every which way you look at it. Now, it appears he sold a handful of machines, and owes millions in fines. He made a poor choice to gamble with this, and lost.

WRONG.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A

http://opensource.apple.com/

Of -course- you can install another browser on Apple mobile devices. Before you harp on what you can't do on any given platform, consider a bit of research so your entire statement doesn't get completely debunked by one tiny link surrounded by a healthy bit of snark. ;-)

Disclaimer: I'm certainly not an Apple fan. If my generation 1 iphone weren't gifted to me, I'd not be using an Apple phone.

I looked at that one... you can't hook up more than one computer and you can't hook up anything that's not thunderbolt.

That last one is a lie. If you had actually seen one of those Thunderbolt monitors you would have noticed that on its back there are three USB ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Ethernet port, and one Thunderbolt port for daisy-chainning. So when you get to work with your laptop you can use a single TB cable to hook it up to external USB/FireWire/TB disks, printers, keyboard+mouse, the gigabit network, and two or more external monitors (if your laptop supports them... MacBook Pros do), all running through the TB interface.

If you're going to spend $1000 on a monitor, get the Dell which has more screen space (area and pixels), and allows hooking up 5 computers and switching between them.

That's very cool. I couldn't find that monitor that allows "hooking up 5 computers" in Dell's website though, but I guess that's because they are not trying too hard to promote a very niche feature that can be obtained with fairly inexpensive gear like this or this.

Woz's Apple would have run out of business before you finished reading this sentence.

Tablet designed by Woz
Tablet designed by Jobs

Apple has a long history of contributing back as well as starting open source projects.

http://opensource.apple.com/
http://www.macosforge.org/

1) All the bug fixes from Macports / Darwinports.
2) Darwin itself
3) Bonjour / zeroconfig networking
4) Webkit
5) launchd
6) MacRuby

etc..

The BSD guys are an interesting crowd. Well they can continue to watch Microsoft and Apple pilfer their software stack usually giving nothing in return while they can use GNOME or KDE or whichever other GPL or LGPLed project exists on their system (takes only a recompile) because otherwise they don't have a useable desktop and are stuck with 1980s user interfaces.

Pretty sure neither Microsoft nor Apple uses GNOME or KDE, but don't let that interrupt your rant.

I have used clang and it was neither faster to compile nor produced faster code than GCC. The only noticeable thing is the ANSI colored error messages... blech. I understand it is supposed to be easy to port because of LLVM but the fact is GCC has already been ported basically to every architecture that matters so it probably wasn't that hard to port GCC either.

I take no issue with this part of your opinion... as it is close to mine.

Apple just wants to clamp down everything to be BSD so they can batter down all hatches eventually for the day when they give nothing back. All it takes is a change of heart or leadership. I still remember in the early days they only released source code much time after they did the release which is counter to the GPL people had to beg to them to get access to the source code or, heaven forbid, actually participate in development (it seems for Apple all developers outside of Apple are a bunch of idiots who can't code or something).

Just fyi, Apple is an enourmous contributor to OSS. Here's what they admit to, but even if there wasn't all that, IMHO, WebKit alone would be sufficient to compensate humanity for all the OSS technologies from which they have freely and legally benefitted.

iXsystems. Juniper Networks. Apple

I'm willing to bet that all three have some proprietary stuff that they're not feeding back. It doesn't mean that they completely ignore the community. Apple owns CUPS now. iXsystems picked up FreeNAS development.

GPLv3 wouldn't probably make it anywhere into these companies.

Goto http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ and it tells you what 4G means. While I cannot speak for the content of that page and the iPad WiFi+4G prior to the ruling, it is possible to pull up the page with archive.org for the previous model. In that case, they were telling you what the 3G meant in the iPad WiFi+3G.

The problem is two-fold. One is that consumers have become very sloppy when it comes down to research, and will often take marketing claims at face value while neglecting to ask questions about things that they aren't told about. The second is that they were buying a product based upon a pure marketing term, which can vary from vendor to vendor and from region to region.

The readability is a bit clearer in C#, but Apple is already fixing that in Obj-C with changes like auto synthesizing properties and making the declarations of common objects simpler like the initial poster showed (with code examples). But aside from simple things like that, the readability of the code depends a lot more on the programmer than on the language.

If you haven't used Obj-C, at least not on an Apple platform, then that's why you don't know that Apple provides excellent frameworks very much like MS provides .NET. Check out: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/navigation/#section=Frameworks Almost anything you want to do, Apple provides the foundational building blocks to help you build the application, and not waste time implementing a queue, list, or talk to a webserver.

Facebook didn't do what?

Sure. Apple puts out an annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. The earliest I found online was from 2007 (which covers the supplier audits of 2006). These are in PDF format:

2007 report
2008 report
2009 report
2010 report

Sure. Apple puts out an annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. The earliest I found online was from 2007 (which covers the supplier audits of 2006). These are in PDF format:

2007 report
2008 report
2009 report
2010 report

Sure. Apple puts out an annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. The earliest I found online was from 2007 (which covers the supplier audits of 2006). These are in PDF format:

2007 report
2008 report
2009 report
2010 report

Sure. Apple puts out an annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. The earliest I found online was from 2007 (which covers the supplier audits of 2006). These are in PDF format:

2007 report
2008 report
2009 report
2010 report

I think a notification/warning would be nice prior to purging it from the system. Maybe it does, I don't know. But at least let the owner of the computer know that...

It doesn't - purge that is: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5271?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

If Safari 5.1.7 detects an out-of-date version of Flash Player on your system, you will see a dialog informing you that Flash Player has been disabled. The dialog provides the option to go directly to Adobe's website, where you can download and install an updated version of Flash Player. Additional Information If you need to re-enable an out-of-date version of Flash Player, you can do the following:
Navigate to the /Library/Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled) folder.
Drag "Flash Player.plugin" into /Library/Internet Plug-Ins.
If the browser is running, quit and restart it.

Late last Wednesday 9 May 2012, Apple released the OS X 10.7.4 update for both the client and server editions of the OS, that corrects this error and closes this security vulnerability, amongst other issues. The update is available thru the standard automated Software Update channel as a delta update for 10.7.3 users or as a combo update for all 10.7.x users, or as downloadable updaters found in http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macosandsoftware The delta update is around 400MB (700 for the standalone downloadable) and the combo update is around 1.3GB (1.55 for the standalone downloadable). From the official blurb:

The 10.7.4 update is recommended for all OS X Lion users and includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac including fixes that:
Resolve an issue where the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled
Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards
Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to a server
Improve the reliability of copying files to an SMB server
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5167.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Late last Wednesday 9 May 2012, Apple released the OS X 10.7.4 update for both the client and server editions of the OS, that corrects this error and closes this security vulnerability, amongst other issues. The update is available thru the standard automated Software Update channel as a delta update for 10.7.3 users or as a combo update for all 10.7.x users, or as downloadable updaters found in http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macosandsoftware The delta update is around 400MB (700 for the standalone downloadable) and the combo update is around 1.3GB (1.55 for the standalone downloadable). From the official blurb:

The 10.7.4 update is recommended for all OS X Lion users and includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac including fixes that:
Resolve an issue where the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled
Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards
Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to a server
Improve the reliability of copying files to an SMB server
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5167.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Late last Wednesday 9 May 2012, Apple released the OS X 10.7.4 update for both the client and server editions of the OS, that corrects this error and closes this security vulnerability, amongst other issues. The update is available thru the standard automated Software Update channel as a delta update for 10.7.3 users or as a combo update for all 10.7.x users, or as downloadable updaters found in http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macosandsoftware The delta update is around 400MB (700 for the standalone downloadable) and the combo update is around 1.3GB (1.55 for the standalone downloadable). From the official blurb:

The 10.7.4 update is recommended for all OS X Lion users and includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac including fixes that:
Resolve an issue where the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled
Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards
Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to a server
Improve the reliability of copying files to an SMB server
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5167.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

What about iBrowser?

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/firefox-home/id380366933?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dolphin-browser/id452204407?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8

And which one of those is a standalone browser? Here's a hint: Not a single one.

Dolphin is a different UI wrapped around the Safari/Webkit core. It's exactly equivalent to the Maxthon and Neoplanet IE-based browsers from the pre-Firefox dark ages. These are fully allowed and have been since day one.

Opera Mini looks like a web browser, but it's actually a renderer for Opera Binary Markup Language. Opera's servers run the real web browsers and translate page content to a mobile-friendly format intended for use on underpowered J2ME phones and old WinMo/Symbian devices where a full modern browser is not feasible. They've also released it for iOS so they can offer something there. It's the closest to a real alternative web browser as exists on the official store, but it isn't really one when you look at it. Try accessing a local server over WiFi and see how much of a web browser it actually is.

Firefox Home isn't even something that looks like a browser. It's nothing but a launcher that syncs up with your Firefox Sync account and provides access to your bookmarks and lists of open tabs from Firefox sessions. Click one though and it opens Safari.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/firefox-home/id380366933?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dolphin-browser/id452204407?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8

And which one of those is a standalone browser? Here's a hint: Not a single one.

Dolphin is a different UI wrapped around the Safari/Webkit core. It's exactly equivalent to the Maxthon and Neoplanet IE-based browsers from the pre-Firefox dark ages. These are fully allowed and have been since day one.

Opera Mini looks like a web browser, but it's actually a renderer for Opera Binary Markup Language. Opera's servers run the real web browsers and translate page content to a mobile-friendly format intended for use on underpowered J2ME phones and old WinMo/Symbian devices where a full modern browser is not feasible. They've also released it for iOS so they can offer something there. It's the closest to a real alternative web browser as exists on the official store, but it isn't really one when you look at it. Try accessing a local server over WiFi and see how much of a web browser it actually is.

Firefox Home isn't even something that looks like a browser. It's nothing but a launcher that syncs up with your Firefox Sync account and provides access to your bookmarks and lists of open tabs from Firefox sessions. Click one though and it opens Safari.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8

You mean like this?

You've been able to buy unlocked GSM iPhones right from Apple for awhile now, though they're pricy

Here

Second, even among GSM carriers, unlocked phones aren't widely available in brick-and-mortar stores in the United States. If you're considering buying one sight unseen through mail order, what do you plan to do should you find its display or touch screen unusably unergonomic?

If you don't mind a lack of choice, you can march into a brick and mortar store and buy an unlocked phone. In the US, there is at least one big retailer selling unlocked phones. And they'll happily take your cash for it.

Not even sight unseen - they have WORKING MODELS on display (a lot of them!) for you to play with, too. You can feel them up and everything.

If you need an unlocked phone in a hurry, they may be the only option, though they can sell out. Though like I said, the choice can be limited.

In Canada, Best Buy also sells unlocked phones - they have a small "unlocked phone" section though it's mostly blackberries and Nexus S's.

The other place would be online with Google, in which case you can go to the store and see how the phone is. (I refuse to acknowledge Android compatible phones - there's only one current Android phone, and it's the Galaxy Nexus).

FYI - Galaxy Nexus also unlocked. Though it's a HUGE PITA to buy without contract since few stores are willing to sell you one. Best bet are those small AWS carriers that only do PAYG.

Third, even for GSM phones purchased through mail order, some carriers have been known to "slam" a subscriber to a more expensive plan should the carrier detect that the subscriber is using the SIM for a dumbphone plan in a smartphone.

Well, that's easy for the carrier to tell - the IMEI reveals all - phone model and everything. Since the IMEI is required to connect, the carrier knows when you switched phones and what phone you're using. So hiding a smartphone is impossible from the carrier. And since data is where carriers make money ...

Agreed. There are some great recipe apps available. I find that timer apps are the most useful, and my favorite is KitchenPad Timer.

In order for this not to happen again do the following:

Stop using Windows and MacOSX.

So you are saying that full disk encryption on Windows and Mac OS X has backdoors? Any link to back that up?

Download and install Fedora F16.
When installing, encrypt the harddrive with a really hard to break password.

Now you are saying that Fedora has no backdoors. But the only way the Syrian activists will be sure is if they download the code, check it themselves, and compile everything, as it is pretty much impossible to know that the precompiled binaries haven't been tampered with. But the code for the relevant parts of Mac OS X is also available. In any case, the Syrian activists, being social activists and not hackers most likely lack the skills and the time to understand the code and to compile it themselves, nullifying the advantage.

Install pidgin and off the record like this: 'yum install pidgin pidgin-otr'

Pidgin? You mean the open source messaging client that also runs on Windows and Mac OS X?

Generate keys and verify them before communicating.

Yeah, cause we all know there is no SSH nor GPG for Mac OS X or for Windows. Oh, wait...

And not using major OSes will keep you away from the most common exploits and trojans.

Except that there is far more malware for Linux than for Mac OS X. (Why? Because Linux is widely used in servers that the "evil doers" specifically want to crack.)

Also, try to use TOR, HTTPS-everywhere and other good tools.

Again, tools available for Mac OS X and Windows.

In order for this not to happen again do the following:

Stop using Windows and MacOSX.

So you are saying that full disk encryption on Windows and Mac OS X has backdoors? Any link to back that up?

Download and install Fedora F16.
When installing, encrypt the harddrive with a really hard to break password.

Now you are saying that Fedora has no backdoors. But the only way the Syrian activists will be sure is if they download the code, check it themselves, and compile everything, as it is pretty much impossible to know that the precompiled binaries haven't been tampered with. But the code for the relevant parts of Mac OS X is also available. In any case, the Syrian activists, being social activists and not hackers most likely lack the skills and the time to understand the code and to compile it themselves, nullifying the advantage.

Install pidgin and off the record like this: 'yum install pidgin pidgin-otr'

Pidgin? You mean the open source messaging client that also runs on Windows and Mac OS X?

Generate keys and verify them before communicating.

Yeah, cause we all know there is no SSH nor GPG for Mac OS X or for Windows. Oh, wait...

And not using major OSes will keep you away from the most common exploits and trojans.

Except that there is far more malware for Linux than for Mac OS X. (Why? Because Linux is widely used in servers that the "evil doers" specifically want to crack.)

Also, try to use TOR, HTTPS-everywhere and other good tools.

Again, tools available for Mac OS X and Windows.