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General feelings from the Apple side is that this is unfortunate but would rather Apple stop wasting time on it. General opinion from the Samsung/Android side is, **** Apple, waste as much money as possible.

This had *nothing* to do with feelings. Apple is unable to maintain its massive mark-ups of rebadged foxconn phones through innovation; its massive market share gone; the days of the iPhone killer long behind us; its marketing machine pushing it as the *one* phone turning on Apple.

[cough]iPhone snags its highest U.S. market share ever[/cough]

Most of your argument works for email just as well for calling.

Exactly my point. Exactly! Finally you start to understand.

Spam email accounts for 72% of all email traffic. Its down from 90% in 2009.

  Why? Because it is essentially free. Its IP based and easily can avoid detection, and reroute around blocklists.

Thanks for the obvious strawman and not addressing anything I wrote. Should I take this to mean you will not be parroting your bogus and unsubstantiated supplier report anymore?

But sure, I'll take this opportunity to add some more links. How about NPD's report on Holiday sales, showing that average selling price of PCs actually increased over the Holidays even though net total shipments were down. Further "Sales of Windows notebooks under $500 fell by 16 percent while notebooks priced above $500 increased 4 percent." So if people are buying fewer cheap Windows notebooks, how do you think that looks to a manufacturer who has a reputation for selling almost exclusively cheap Windows PCs? Acer's definition of Windows being a success is if it lifts the entire PC industry.... but Windows 8 was never designed to do that; Windows 8 is designed to sell more high end touch screens and tablets, and it looks to be doing exactly that. People are shifting away from cheap systems, and Acer, known for selling cheap systems, is hurting. Big surprise there.

Some manufacturers have embraced Windows 8 and have released some really innovative laptop designs that take advantage of its strengths, rather than releasing just another laptop with Windows 8 installed. Let's see what they have to say about it. Dell says Windows 8 demand is high. Lenovo is enthusiastic after huge tablet demand. Lenovo also says they didn't realize how big touch screen demand would be. Coincidentally, these are bigger manufacturers than Acer and especially Fujitsu, who are actually taking Windows 8 seriously. It's not surprising they're getting all the demand.

Or maybe you care to look at actual physical Windows 8 adoption instead of what CEOs have to say. According to Statcounter, Windows 7 was growing at a rate of .027 percentage points per day in the months leading up to Oct 26. Windows 7 hit a wall on Oct 26 and has been declining since. Today, Windows 8 is growing at a rate of... wait for it... .025 percentage points per day, statistically the same rate. So to say Windows 8 is experiencing terrible growth is to say that Windows 7 was experiencing terrible growth.

So that "megabomb"? It sold 60m copies in 2 months and earned Microsoft 6 billion dollars. I'd love to have that kind of "megabomb".

The fact that MSFT had to cut their Surface order in half [bgr.com] should be a surprise to nobody

I've seen you post this at least a dozen times. Every time you start a rant about Surface, you invariably bring up this unsubstantiated claim from unnamed Eastern component suppliers. After this "rumor" hit the web, Microsoft actually increased retail distribution, said they're increasing production, are increasing availability to more countries, and said they're expanding the product lineup. Together, these point to a completely different direction than your stale, 3 month old rumor.

You're starting to sound like a broken record.

Hell even with this, is it 23GB in base 2 like the OS, or is it base 10 like the manufacturers?

It's base 2.

all those people getting home and finding none of the Windows software they've accumalated for years will run on the damned thing, THAT is what is gonna make this into a megaflop.

All the software they've accumulated over the years WILL run on the Surface Pro. That's the entire point of this device. It runs full Windows 8 on an Intel Core i5. You don't seem to know much about this product you constantly are blasting. Even 23GB is enough for any application I've come across, but this can be expanded to 30+ GB by removing the recovery partition. This is the same you'd get with a Macbook Air at 64GB. You can even expand storage easily with an SD card.

The fact that MSFT had to cut their Surface order in half [bgr.com] should be a surprise to nobody

I've seen you post this at least a dozen times. Every time you start a rant about Surface, you invariably bring up this unsubstantiated claim from unnamed Eastern component suppliers. After this "rumor" hit the web, Microsoft actually increased retail distribution, said they're increasing production, are increasing availability to more countries, and said they're expanding the product lineup. Together, these point to a completely different direction than your stale, 3 month old rumor.

You're starting to sound like a broken record.

Hell even with this, is it 23GB in base 2 like the OS, or is it base 10 like the manufacturers?

It's base 2.

all those people getting home and finding none of the Windows software they've accumalated for years will run on the damned thing, THAT is what is gonna make this into a megaflop.

All the software they've accumulated over the years WILL run on the Surface Pro. That's the entire point of this device. It runs full Windows 8 on an Intel Core i5. You don't seem to know much about this product you constantly are blasting. Even 23GB is enough for any application I've come across, but this can be expanded to 30+ GB by removing the recovery partition. This is the same you'd get with a Macbook Air at 64GB. You can even expand storage easily with an SD card.

Time to make an example outta her, the stupid power-hungry political climbing CUNT that she is: That's all, pretty simple.

---

Swartz didn't face prison until feds took over case, report says:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57565927-38/swartz-didnt-face-prison-until-feds-took-over-case-report-says/

---

* It's funny - you see the savings & loan scandal SCUMBAGS get away with all the crap they did, same with hedge fund scammers who burned 1,000's of unionized construction workers too...

I think people have had QUITE ENOUGH of assholes with ca$h pulling their shit at the expense of the rest of us, money-wise, but when it comes to someone's LIFE being taken?

Enough, is enough... see above - they want to make examples? Tit for tat - give their "kind" (the biggest TRASH there is) a dose of their OWN medicine...

APK

P.S.=> I absolutely "HATE" their kind, like you all have NO IDEA - they are trash, ruining our society, like cancer (slowing, by draining the life & WILL out of the people, not just our monies)...

... apk

I might add the Swartz was charged with 13 felonies, with a maximum sentence of 65 years in felony lockup

Wow, looking for a martyr? From this soruce:

Those charges carried a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.

Today it's 65, tomorrow it's 75, soon it will be life in prison and lastly he will actually have been executed on a cross.

"Seems like bullshit to me."

No doubt most people would agree with you. :-) That is part of the reason the US economy is in such a mess. :-(

But hey, if people won't listen to a Nobel Prize-winning economist like Paul Krugman for ideological reasons, why should they listen to me? His book on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_This_Depression_Now!
"But the essential point is that what we really need to get out of this current depression is another burst of government spending. Is it really that simple? Would it really be that easy? Basically, yes."

But before I reply to your points, agreeing with some and elaborating on other, let me make one point clear. I feel a healthy society balanced four different types of economic transactions -- subsistence, gift, planned, and exchange, while minimizing theft. I write about that on my site.
http://www.pdfernhout.net/media/FiveInterwovenEconomies.pdf

The rest of this is my musings about getting the exchange economy moving again (short of a basic income which would be better) and is certainly arguable. But what I feel is unquestionable is that ultimately we need all four types of those economic transactions for a healthy society. The USA has been suffering a huge loss in those other three areas of subsistence, gift giving, and planning, meaning those areas were not as available recently as they could have been to pick up the slack when the exchange economy started failing a big percent of the US population.

In many ways, getting those other types of economies to function well is a more important issue than tinkering with the money supply. As Zimbabwe shows, one can always make mistakes with regulating a money supply. We can't count only on fiat dollars to sustain a healthy society, even though they are by themselves easy to count and so mainstream numerically-oriented economists tend to focus on exchanges of them while ignoring non-monetary gifts like posts on slashdot, or subsistence efforts like people being able to print their own toys at home or generate their own solar power on their roof.

Those areas are actually in resurgence these days and will interact or substitute for the exchange economy more and more in years to come. Which actually might argue for a decrease in the need for as much money supply. :-)

Now on to your points.

"If there really is inadequate money supply there wouldn't be inflation, you'd get deflation."

True in general as the economy freezes up. I don't think I said we face much inflation overall right now? My point is the economy has stopped functioning for many people in the USA and also China (leading to few jobs for the college educated in China due to having an product-export-oriented economy needing factory workers until they can be automated away).
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57549450-92/foxconn-reportedly-installing-robots-to-replace-workers/

"The last I checked that was not happening at least with the US dollar."

Well, over the last few years, US household have lost on the order of US$8 trillion in wealth; seems like something must have deflated in value to me (mainly real estate, but some other things too like some stocks etc.):
http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/09/news/economy/household_wealth/index.htm
"U.S. household wealth fell by about $16.4 trillion of net worth from its peak in spring 2007, about six months before the start of the recession, to when things hit bottom in the first quarter of 2009, according to figures from the Federal Reserve. While a rebound in the stock market, an improved savings rate and consumer steps to reduce debt resulted in net worth g

That may be true in Canada, but prepaid is generally cheaper in the US. The pre-paid plans differ from the post-paid ones enough that its difficult to compare them, but pre-paid is often the cheaper way to go. A more in depth comparison is here: http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-57547193-85/prepaid-or-postpaid-the-fight-for-your-cell-phone-dollars-smartphones-unlocked/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57566024-71/the-ultimate-gall-of-a-heartless-iphone-thief/

Federal Prosecutor Oritz said Aaron's suicide won't change how she handles cases:
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/01/ortiz_says_suicide_will_not_change_handling_cases

And Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Heymann 'drove another hacker Jonathan James to suicide in 2008 after he named him in a cyber crime case':
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262831/Revealed-Aaron-Swartz-prosecutor-drove-hacker-suicide-2008-named-cyber-crime-case.html

Here are some other grubby cases Oritz has been involved in: http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/01/17/carmen-ortizs-sordid-rap-sheet/

Ortiz’s husband attacked the Swartz family on Twitter: "Truly incredible that in their own son's obit they blame others for his death and make no mention of the 6-month offer ... 6 months is not 35 years or lifetime" What an asshole.
http://www.boston.com/business/innovation/blogs/inside-the-hive/2013/01/15/attorney-carmen-ortiz-husband-attacks-swartz-family-twitter/vzxbY5lrrG7BvGjQGnNDtJ/blog.html
http://twitchy.com/2013/01/15/husband-of-mass-attorney-general-deletes-twitter-account-after-defending-prosecution-of-aaron-swartz/

There are "We the people" petitions to remove both Orirz and Heryman, but don't hold your breath. She is an Obama appointee and Heymann's father is a Clinton staffer. How about Someone in the press corps ask Obama what he thinks of his appointees killing off bright young kids?
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/fire-assistant-us-attorney-steve-heymann/RJKSY2nb?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Civil liberties attorney Harvey Silverglate said of Aaron: "He was being made into a highly visible lesson, He was enhancing the careers of a group of career prosecutors and a very ambitious — politically-ambitious — U.S. attorney who loves to have her name in lights.” http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57564212-38/prosecutor-in-aaron-swartz-hacking-case-comes-under-fire/

The problem is Federal Prosecutors pick a career-building target and then shop for a crime. Big Criminals are too much work, but small fry like Aaron don't have the resources to fight back so all they have to do is bully them into taking a plea bargain and then bask in the glory. It's been going on for a long time and many people have been swallowed up, but the media usually never reports it:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Tu5RB6YHf10C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=51Ya4U8XFt&dq=lynch+in+the+name+of+justice (Go to page 43 of this Google Books preview).

Probably a 1st year study where hardware is replaced and upgraded and proprietary hardware is discarded + training costs. Read the Ernie Ball story. Switching has a cost... at first. Ernie Ball had an unexpected cost of sticking with windows, A BSA Audit. With an audit, the savings is more immediate and a serious liability is removed.
http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html

Pity there wasn't a follow up to when Ernie Ball switched to Linux back in 2003.

http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html

"Microsoft's CU-RTC-Web proposal looked to some like it was more in keeping with sabotage than constructive criticism.
"I see that Microsoft decided to wait until the W3C and IETF [standards groups] were close to done before putting together a proposal that, if accepted, would explode most of the current works and create maximal delay on this work," said Cullen Jennings, a Cisco representative on the W3C's Web Real-Time Communications Working Group."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57494622-93/how-corporate-bickering-hobbled-better-web-audio/

WebRTC is the (proposed) standard from W3C.

CU-RTC-Web is Microsoft's incompatible set of protocols.

At one stage, Skype was part of the working group developing aspects of the real standard, now Microsoft is actively fighting to block it.

For more than three years, Skype has worked to improve online audio through involvement in a project now called Opus [the audio codec for WebRTC). But perversely, Skype's new owner, Microsoft, is undermining Opus just as a Web standards effort is poised to carry it into the mainstream.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57494622-93/how-corporate-bickering-hobbled-better-web-audio/

amazon DRM free first? impossible. they didn't even have a music store yet.

http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2007/06/emi-says-drm-free-music-is-selling-well/
Although the iTunes Store was the first online store through which EMI sold its DRM-free tracks, Amazon recently said that it will also be selling DRM-free EMI songs through its newly-announced music store later this year

"apple had the nerve to charge"
no. "price increases by the record labels, which were made possible by Apple's capitulation."
http://news.cnet.com/amazon-follows-apple-to-$1.29/ ...so apple made DRM go away in exchange for higher prices. you think amazon raised prices because apple did? or you think amazon raised prices because the lables told them to? makes no sense to RAISE your prices to match the competition unless the IP owners set the terms (for DRM free). makse more sense to me to keep the price LOWER (you know, to attract more customers) - than to raise them

Is Oracle really this inept at making stuff secure?

Ask David Litchfield. You might also want to read up on their Unbreakable campaign a few years prior to purchasing Sun.

That is not true. You merely have to accept the contract to be bound by it. What you are thinking at the time you accepted it is immaterial. The so called "meeting of the minds" is no longer used as a test for contract acceptance because it was too hard - impossible - for the courts to know what the parties were really thinking. Instead the courts determine whether a contract is formed by how the parties act. For example if you are sending me work and I am doing it the courts will hold we have a contract, even if there was never any written or even oral agreement. http://e-lawresources.co.uk/Offer-and-acceptance.php

Once you accept the contract you are bound by it even if at the time of accepting it you do not intend to adhere to it or were not acting in good faith. For example, if you are selling me a Picasso for $5 because you don't know what it is, and I do know and intend to screw you over big time, the courts will uphold that contract in my favor. US Courts do take consider good faith, but not like that. Other Common Law countries don't place any weight on good faith at all.

If you use an alias on a contract, you're still bound by it. You can even have a contract without either party knowing who the other party is. You can still legally use an alias - suppose you want to get away from bad people - though thanks to new laws against identity theft it now means you can accidentally end up on the wrong side of the law - even when no identity was stolen and even when there was no criminal intent. This is a big change in the US that people need to be aware of:
http://news.cnet.com/police-blotter-is-it-legal-to-use-an-alias-anymore/2100-7348_3-6213284.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/nov/17/silverglate-three-felonies-book

> If they furnished false information, eg a fake name, when a real name was required, then they have committed a criminal act that goes far beyond simple breach of contract.

"Fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual." Aaron didn't do what he did for personal gain, or with the intention of damaging JSTOR.

> In most cases a ToS will not be a contract, because nothing prevents you from accessing the site without verifiably agreeing to it. The ToS is something else.

For a contract to be formed it has to be offered to you and you have to accept. If you are presented with the ToS beforehand as a condition of accessing a site, yes, it is a contract and you are bound by it.

> A ToS is more like a "No trespassing" sign; or more like a "No trespassing; No admittance, except if you follow these rules ...." In the event, you don't follow the rules, then you committed the crime of trespass.

If it was never offered to you, then there never was any contract. Also as @Mitreya points out: If they are changing the contract and not telling you let alone getting your agreement, then that's no contract. Civil Law puts a very big emphasis on "reasonable". It's not reasonable to expect consumers to go and check the TOS of every company they buy from every day and sift through thousand work legalese agreements trying to spot changes.

BTW any good lawyer will come up with half a dozen ways to get out of a contract. An easy one with TOS and shrinkwrap agreements is the companies that offer them know most people don't read them and most people wouldn't understand them even if they read them. A lawyer could argue a client didn't know what they were agreeing too and so claim the contract never existed. http://busines

The petition to fire her assistant, Steve Heymann, who "wanted a high-profile computer crime conviction," [1] needs help as well.

Google and others have bug hunts were people gather together to help find and fix bugs. If Oracle wasn't pissing so many people off they could do the same. I guess it couldn't hurt to try something like what Google is doing with Chrome. chrome bug hunt

I'd be more interested in finding out how many of those are even legit.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57562905-94/blackberry-app-world-said-to-hawk-pirated-android-apps/

That's not a platform issue, it's an asshattery issue. You can also find tens of thousands of apps that are repackaged iOS/Android apps on iOS/Android - with few or no changes.

Like any other platform, they can't reasonably go to check each app submission against every known platform and verify the credentials of the developer match up - it's not realistic which is why none of the others do it.

RIM has made it very easy for any legitimate app developer to file a claim and have an app taken down - and responds to such complaints much more quickly than its rivals based on actual results.

I'd be more interested in finding out how many of those are even legit.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57562905-94/blackberry-app-world-said-to-hawk-pirated-android-apps/

Everyone will have some of THESE Just when you thought they had already invented every phone accessory possible, the come up with special pants.

Kneejerk reaction: That's got to be the dumbest, first-world-problem product I've ever seen!

Secondary reaction: Hey, those would be damn handy for secret games of Angry Birds on those "Death By Meeting" days...

Everyone will have some of THESE

Just when you thought they had already invented every phone accessory possible, the come up with special pants.

Why can't the larger companies, e.g. Microsoft and Oracle, respond to and fix the sucrity issues more quickly than on a timeline expressed in months?

It's because big companies like Oracle are too busy pursuing lawsuits against Google for IP infringement:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57526509-93/oracle-appeals-ruling-in-lawsuit-over-googles-use-of-java/

Protection of "IP" takes precedence over fixing security holes in the same "IP" every time.

1/10th the sales of iPhone, and 1/30th the sales of Android phone is now considered "GOOD"? MS has lowered its standards, it would seem. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57549482-94/smartphone-sales-up-47-percent-as-android-increases-its-lead/

Here, why don't you read this: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57563189-92/chinese-authorities-probe-foxconn-bribery-charges/ Foxconn is cooperating with Chinese authorities investigating allegations that executives at the electronics manufacturer received illegal bribes from supply chain partners. The company, which produces consumer electronics for companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Sony, said in a statement that it brought in law enforcement officials to work with an internal audit team investigating the charges "against a number of Foxconn employees." The statement comes after Taiwan-based Next Magazine reported that a Foxconn executive had been arrested in September as part of the allegations. When queried by CNET, a Foxconn representative declined to address whether an executive had been arrested. "Since the matter is under investigation, we are not able to comment further," Foxconn said in a statement. "However, we can say that the integrity of our employees is something we take very seriously and any employees found guilty of any illegal actions or violations of our company's Code of Conduct will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." "We are also carrying out a full review of our policies and practices to identify steps we can take to strengthen such measures to further mitigate against such actions," the company added.

Most significant browsers have a setting to enable click to load plugins:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57536917-285/enable-click-to-play-for-chrome-plug-ins/
http://www.howtogeek.com/123986/how-to-enable-click-to-play-plugins-in-firefox/

What, because large companies aren't fickle about paid products too?

Remains to be seen if this chipset is ok for intense gaming at 1080p, however I'd assume it won't be terrible at casual 1080p gaming if it's already fluid at 2560x1600.

Exciting times.

Last night I ordered one of these 'Android stick' devices, it was about $60. Pretty sure I can afford to replace that every year and keep increasing capability of that casual mini console.

You mean they were great products. Take a look at a T530. That they are very obviously trying to emulate Apple, to the detriment of the product, is a past tense event already.

Except that Thinkpads have a chiclet keyboard now. That's kind of the point here; they've changed to where they're homogenous and unrecognizable as classic Thinkpads from a quality perspective. There is no reason left to pay extra for a Thinkpad over $GENERIC_CRAP now. (They're still better than, say, HP, but I can assemble a computer out of cardboard that is more rugged than a HP laptop)

And what makes you think that? Got any citations? This could well be THE SteamBox touted by Newell and co. It's probably just that the company which made the HW decided to have it previewed at CES before having Valve make the big announcement at GDC. Note the lack of detailed specs which definitely hints at the commitment to ensure that the components remain in secret before the big announcement; this is quite typical of consumer electronics releases.

The interwebs are overflowing of reports that this could be the device.

It's even on bbc:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20949071

There's a longer article on CNET about this that says that the new system will be backwards compatible with existing NXT robots.

It hurts like hell to use a touch screen for hours.

It sure does! But this whole idea of gorilla arm is a complete strawman. Yes, of course if you hold your arms out in front of you for hours it's going to be painful. Just like if you type for hours it will hurt your wrist, or if you use a game controller for hours your fingers hurt, or if you write with a pencil for hours your hand gets stiff. There's nothing surprising or unique about this "gorilla arm" term, except for the fact that it's being used to categorically disqualify touch on desktops.

It seems to me, this theory is being perpetuated by people who both a) never used touch on a desktop or laptop and b) lack the imagination necessary to recognize the usefulness of touch on a desktop or laptop. I've owned a variety of touch screen notebooks since 2008. Personally, I never held my arm our for hours because there is no need; I have a keyboard and a mouse for when they make sense, and touch for when it make sense. Sometimes it's more convenient to pinch-zoom. Sometimes it's more convenient to flick scroll. Sometimes targeting small buttons and controls is difficult with a track pad, and faster with touch. Dragging objects like windows is easier with touch than track pad. Rotating pictures is a simple gesture with touch.

The funny part is, after I let people use my various touch notebooks, they confess to me they end up touching their own notebook screens instinctively. It's just a natural input method. Now you have various sources backing up my own experience. The Verge recently covered this with their article Surprisingly, touchscreen laptops don't suck: How Windows 8 challenged the 'gorilla arm' — and won. Analysts are claiming touch screen PC demand is strong.

Gorilla arm is a myth. It's a complete misrepresentation of how touch screens are designed to be used, and how they fit into the overall landscape of UI inputs. Touch is supposed to be used when touch makes more sense. You're not supposed to type on your touchscreen when you have a keyboard right in front of you. That is stupid. Just like you won't use a mouse for multitouch input operations, you will use a touch screen when it is more convenient and makes sense, not for hours on end resulting in "Gorilla Arm."

HTC is priming it's legal team as we speak

Here's the keynote. Skip to about 6:35 sec for the new bits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpWHJDLsqTU

Direct link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpWHJDLsqTU&feature=player_detailpage#t=401s

First thoughts:

2014 is a long way away and a whole year is an eternity in mobile space.

It kind of looks like Unity in portrait mode but without the dock.

What does it bring new to developers that isn't there in Android? Firefox OS's USP is web apps with native bindings(same as WebOS').

It says it uses the Android kernel and drivers to be compatible with the hardware, so will OEM(s) shipping devices with this OSes fall foul of Google's anti-fork rules[1] for Android? Or does that apply only to the Android SDK/Dalvik VM?

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57512418-94/alibaba-google-forced-acer-to-drop-our-new-mobile-os/

About as hard to resist as all the other Windows tablets that have gone before it in the last 15 years.

Don't know how this got to +5 insightful...

Because I'm right. For example, current US market share is 53.3% for iPhone. Android share is only 41.9%

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57560421-37/iphone-snags-its-highest-u.s-market-share-ever-says-report/

here's hoping he's living happily in a nice $1.5 million home somewhere, with a few nice high-end cars and 60" TVs scattered around

Way too small a screen:
http://news.cnet.com/Sharp-unveils-108-inch-LCD-television/2100-1041_3-6147881.html

Oh, and there's also the fact that he was found guilty of first-degree murder, so yes, it's certainly "instead of". The jury also had the option of finding for a lesser charge, involuntary manslaughter, but they felt that not only was the evidence was strong enough to convict, but to also go with the higher charge.

I think you may be confused by the fact that he was allowed to plead down to second-degree murder after he was found guilty. This was most likely done in order to nip any appeals in the bud, and also because the evidence, although convincing, was not something that would remain convincing when the entire trial was compressed into a two-sentence soundbite, which is all most people care to educate themselves with before deciding guilt in their own minds. I think the case for that being a correct assumption has been made pretty well in this thread.

Later, he was sued for killing his children's mother (unsure if they sued or someone sued on their behalf), and repeatedly stated that he killed their mother in order to protect them from her. He lost that too, and was ordered to pay them $60m. If you still have doubt, it's most likely due to being uninformed.

Except that was a hoax:

"Updated 3:40 p.m ET.

Reports that veteran Hollywood actor Bruce Willis is reportedly looking to take on Apple in a bid to pass on his vast music collection to his children after his death have been disputed. The claims, which were originally reported by The Daily Mail have been debunked by Willis' wife via Twitter."
-- cnet

We need free and open source software now more than ever. The laws against installing any think you like on a tablet goes to show how backwards some people have this issue. We need free software to prove that there are a lot of alternative OSes out there, and that doing anything you like with the hardware you'd bought should be the law, as opposed to what is currently the case.

So, let's throw out the "pack of four", and build and use our own alternatives, whatever that might be. You bought the hardware; you own it.

Microsoft is not the Monoply to fear any more.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57487883-75/acer-begs-microsoft-to-think-twice-about-surface-tablet/

Acer CEO JT Wang to tell the Financial Times that Microsoft's plans to launch its own tablet in October would be a "negative for the worldwide ecosystem" in computing and beg the software giant to rethink the move.

"We have said think it over. Think twice," Wang is quoted as saying. "It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice."

Wang went on to suggest that if Microsoft moves ahead with its tablet plans, the Taiwan-based Acer might replace the software giant as a partner.

"If Microsoft is going to do hardware business, what should we do? Should we still rely on Microsoft, or should we find other alternatives?" he is quoted as saying.

Who is afraid of Microsoft when everybody wants Microsoft [Apart from Dell hmmm]

Go fuck yourself clueless bitch: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57491406-37/2010-apple-license-offer-to-samsung-$30-per-smartphone-$40-per-tablet/

RIM designed their platform end to end with security in mind. Every phone they make has security baked in at the hardware level. Then they provide enterprise/government customers with their own BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) which when properly configured encrypts all traffic going over the network. The security is so good the Indian government almost banned BlackBerries entirely because they were unable to eavesdrop on them. But even if RIM gave them full access to their network it wouldn't help them since the encryption keys are held by the BES admin of the enterprise or government that runs them.

I don't think so

According to Google, about 1/3 of their servers experience memory errors.

There are no choices, nowhere for users to run to

Don't be so dramatic. A Windows user has two choices:

(1) Downgrade to Windows 7 or just don't move to Windows 8 in the first place. I have 32 and 64-bit ISOs of Windows 7 Ultimate with a Windows Loader activation tool which guarantees I'll be able to stick with Win 7 for as long as I like. I guarantee there's no chance you'll find yourself unable to use a program because it's Windows 8-only any time soon. Metro apps pale in comparison to full-blown Win32/.NET applications.

(2) http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33642_7-57496506-292/how-to-get-the-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/
The above link lists several Start menu applications that, depending on the options you select, either complement the Start screen or replace it entirely with a Start menu (either classic or Vista/7 style). They can even be set to boot straight to the desktop, bypassing the Start screen entirely.

Did Jeff Han's 2006 TED talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKh1Rv0PlOQ inspire the patents? http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20073461-264/apples-new-multitouch-patent-faq/ implies the TED talk was shown in court, but then ignored.