You are ignoring basic economics. Car insurance companies compete on price and coverage. If one company raises prices for no reason, they are going to lose customers.
Raising your rates because you got in an accident with a cell phone isn't considered an extra fee. You are paying higher premiums because you are considered higher risk.
Insurance companies will charge higher premiums if they can figure out a way to justify it, because you have to buy insurance. There's no downside.
The downside is the insurance company loses customers to a competitor who doesn't penalize for cell phone usage. You have to buy insurance, but there is no law stating that you should pay extra for using a cell phone.
All these negative reviews focus too much on the lack of polish of the UI is compared to the actual usefulness of the device. It's UI lags behind iOS, but it is about the same as a mid range Android device, which are widely successful.
I own the Kindle Fire, and its flaws are really just minor annoyances with device, but the overall experience is good enough. I can surf the Internet, watch videos and play graphic intense games no problem and the small form factor makes it comfortable to hold in one hand. Just because you occasionally have to double tap on a button or experience a 1/2 second lag every once in a while, doesn't mean that the $200 tablet is a failure.
Custom ROMs often contain bugs that would be unacceptable for OEMs to release. Power users can go to a forum to get support if they are having problems, but the average user will just blame the problems on the carriers and OEMs.
If that was true, then manufacturers would not push out any updates.
Maybe for cheaper models, they won't support at all, but buyers of the top of the line flagship phones expect updates for their phones. Most people own the phones for two year before upgrading so manufacturers support updates on phones for at least the first year. If one phone manufacturer fails to deliver timely updates, then competitors will take advantage.
That explains why manufacturers stop supporting older models, but it doesn't explain the delays in the phones that it currently supports.
It would advantageous for phone manufacturers to have timely updates to the phones. Delaying the process just pisses of the consumer who will want to go to another brand with faster and more reliable upgrades.
It would be 100x easier to just mess up one of the controls and cause the drone to crash than to develop a system sophisticated enough to remotely pilot the craft that works on the first time.
I don't see how it is any worst than relying on Gmail or sending an SMS on the phone. If the government really wanted to get my medical records, they can get it from the hospital. They can get phone records from the phone company. Financial records from the bank, credit rating agency or your IRS tax returns.
We trust things like the cloud everyday in our lives with little second thought. Being so afraid of the cloud is like using only cash because you are afraid of the government tracking your credit cards.
This is just a racket to force many companies to pay ICANN for protection.
Unlike the uselss.biz and.co TLDs that no one care about,.xxx can be used to be actively exploit and damage the names of respected businesses and organizations.
Legitimate porn companies will probably stay away from.xxx names because it is saying that we can't afford a real TLD. It will also open themselves up to be easily censored. There is nothing advantageous to it.
I tried Linux and it is a pain to configure,install programs, and get your hardware working effectively. I don't want to spend hours reading how to do it on the Internet and learning some obscure command lines just to get my machine working. Don't make me think.
Windows actually has effective GUI's where I can figure out how to do most things on my own. Installing applications is a breeze, you almost never have to worry about drivers. The interface is more polished and you never have to worry about vendors not supporting your OS. It just works.
Most of Linux's open source alternatives to Windows applications are inferior knockoffs. Even the open source software that is better, you can download an easy to install binary on Windows.
I tried going to Linux in the past, but I found out that I still needed to have a dual boot because some things are just not compatible with Linux. There was no real advantage of using Linux over Windows so why bother with dual booting to begin with.
It could be an accidental discovery, but keeping the shake in the beginning of the levels is a conscious design decision by Rovio. The game could have easily implemented the engine without the initial shake, but they decided that it added to the look and feel of the game.
Angry Birds isn't successful because of a big profound idea. It is the attention detail and little things that add up to make a highly polished and interactive experience.
It would be a smart move if it came with Windows 8 at a price point of $499. HP has an opportunity to create the flagship Windows 8 device if they play it right.
If they release the device more expensive than the iPad with an old OS, it will be a failure.
The most likely scenarios is that no one will figure out a use for the device and they will realize that there is more value selling it on the market. You need to teach the villagers the value of the device first and have a way to help them learn how to use it. Self learning is good, but you need to learn the basics before you can explore on their own.
There are also the problem of adults just using the device for themselves. Do they really know that it is a kids device?
Distributing it through the schools to be a much more effective way of making progress. You can teach others how to use the device, provide support and it will be associated with education so adults will be less likely to use it.
Siri is useful, but it is just one feature out of many and many can live without. I don't see how it is any different than Android offering free turn by turn voice navigation.
Apple had a two year advantage over Android because of its polished interface, large app library and ease of use. Everything else is just gimmicks.
Blood on the hands have never stop anonymous and wikileak one bit. Hell, it's what gave them street credential. Their own hands and heads bloodied after a long torture session is a different story.
Anonymous's actions never resulted to direct in loss of lives. When you outed people who are killed as a result, there is a direct consequences from your actions, instead of some theoretical debate if you indirectly put lives in danger.
I can see in some cases the patents can be used on software, like if you spent years developing an encryption algorithm. That could take years of research with results easily duplicated once known, but for the majority of software, there are enough barriers of entry to protect its creators.
Good software is more about the implementation of ideas than the idea themselves. Anyone can hack together an idea into a simple prototype. Implementing it in a solution that is robust and competitive in the market is a completely different thing.
It takes years to develop good software which gives the first creators a huge advantage in the fast moving market. It will be years before competitors will create a product that is on par or better than what you have. Copyrights protect people for stealing your software, but it allows people who can implement your ideas better an opportunity to provide innovation in the market.
What they've confirmed is that there was indeed a warming trend from about 1970 (or so) through about 2000. Before that, nothing significant. Since then, nothing significant. So we have a 30-year period of warming. That's an extremely short period when you're talking climate science. It also inconveniently doesn't match up with carbon dioxide emissions growth.
The data before the 1970s correlates with carbon dioxide emissions growth when you take into account sulfur dioxide emissions which cool the earth.
There is plenty of other evidence that carbon dioxide levels are a major influence on the earth's temperature. The question isn't if man made emissions affect the climate, but how much will man affect the climate. I would love to debate what to do about it, but It is pretty hard to do that when their is a significant portion of population who flat out denies basic science.
Remove you tinfoil. There are enough market forces to ensure that most computers systems will have the option to unlock.
The worst case is that manufacturers are going to try to charge extra for an unlockable dual boot computer. The greed will be with the manufacturers and not Microsoft. It will likely backfire because the PC industry is a commodity business and their will be plenty of competitors who will sell an unlockable computer of the same specs without the extra charge.
There used to be Linux netbooks. Then Microsoft started offering Windows for free or very low cost to netbook manufacturers. You really think Microsoft feared Linux with its miniscule mobile PC market share?
Microsoft was concerned about its product being too expensive to put on low costs netbooks and missing out on the market. They know that once they created the product, that 95% of the users will prefer it to Linux without the need to locking them out. There is no need to anti competitive practices.
Windows will lose money if they give $10 discounts for OEMs to lock out other OS's.
Windows is so successful that Microsoft doesn't need to lock out the competitors. You really think Microsoft fears Linux with its 2% of the desktop market share? Not worth the loss in revenue.
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Those that create new things like patents and those who copy don't.
The US leads the world in innovation and creative works(see Hollywood) thanks in part to strong IP laws.
You are ignoring basic economics. Car insurance companies compete on price and coverage. If one company raises prices for no reason, they are going to lose customers.
Raising your rates because you got in an accident with a cell phone isn't considered an extra fee. You are paying higher premiums because you are considered higher risk.
Insurance companies will charge higher premiums if they can figure out a way to justify it, because you have to buy insurance. There's no downside.
The downside is the insurance company loses customers to a competitor who doesn't penalize for cell phone usage. You have to buy insurance, but there is no law stating that you should pay extra for using a cell phone.
Studies show that talking on a hands free cell phone is about the same dangerous as holding one in your hand.
All these negative reviews focus too much on the lack of polish of the UI is compared to the actual usefulness of the device. It's UI lags behind iOS, but it is about the same as a mid range Android device, which are widely successful.
I own the Kindle Fire, and its flaws are really just minor annoyances with device, but the overall experience is good enough. I can surf the Internet, watch videos and play graphic intense games no problem and the small form factor makes it comfortable to hold in one hand. Just because you occasionally have to double tap on a button or experience a 1/2 second lag every once in a while, doesn't mean that the $200 tablet is a failure.
Custom ROMs often contain bugs that would be unacceptable for OEMs to release. Power users can go to a forum to get support if they are having problems, but the average user will just blame the problems on the carriers and OEMs.
If that was true, then manufacturers would not push out any updates.
Maybe for cheaper models, they won't support at all, but buyers of the top of the line flagship phones expect updates for their phones. Most people own the phones for two year before upgrading so manufacturers support updates on phones for at least the first year. If one phone manufacturer fails to deliver timely updates, then competitors will take advantage.
That explains why manufacturers stop supporting older models, but it doesn't explain the delays in the phones that it currently supports.
It would advantageous for phone manufacturers to have timely updates to the phones. Delaying the process just pisses of the consumer who will want to go to another brand with faster and more reliable upgrades.
It would be 100x easier to just mess up one of the controls and cause the drone to crash than to develop a system sophisticated enough to remotely pilot the craft that works on the first time.
It would be extremely unlikely that Iran was able to override the signal perfectly and have the training to bring down a drone safely.
If they were able to intercept or override the signal, they would have done something to cause the drone to crash.
I don't see how it is any worst than relying on Gmail or sending an SMS on the phone. If the government really wanted to get my medical records, they can get it from the hospital. They can get phone records from the phone company. Financial records from the bank, credit rating agency or your IRS tax returns.
We trust things like the cloud everyday in our lives with little second thought. Being so afraid of the cloud is like using only cash because you are afraid of the government tracking your credit cards.
This is just a racket to force many companies to pay ICANN for protection.
Unlike the uselss .biz and .co TLDs that no one care about, .xxx can be used to be actively exploit and damage the names of respected businesses and organizations.
Legitimate porn companies will probably stay away from .xxx names because it is saying that we can't afford a real TLD. It will also open themselves up to be easily censored. There is nothing advantageous to it.
Steve Jobs has his own share of failures.
Unless the Apple TV has some revolutionary wow features, it isn't going to be any different than a Sony.
I tried Linux and it is a pain to configure,install programs, and get your hardware working effectively. I don't want to spend hours reading how to do it on the Internet and learning some obscure command lines just to get my machine working. Don't make me think.
Windows actually has effective GUI's where I can figure out how to do most things on my own. Installing applications is a breeze, you almost never have to worry about drivers. The interface is more polished and you never have to worry about vendors not supporting your OS. It just works.
Most of Linux's open source alternatives to Windows applications are inferior knockoffs. Even the open source software that is better, you can download an easy to install binary on Windows.
I tried going to Linux in the past, but I found out that I still needed to have a dual boot because some things are just not compatible with Linux. There was no real advantage of using Linux over Windows so why bother with dual booting to begin with.
It could be an accidental discovery, but keeping the shake in the beginning of the levels is a conscious design decision by Rovio. The game could have easily implemented the engine without the initial shake, but they decided that it added to the look and feel of the game.
Angry Birds isn't successful because of a big profound idea. It is the attention detail and little things that add up to make a highly polished and interactive experience.
It would be a smart move if it came with Windows 8 at a price point of $499. HP has an opportunity to create the flagship Windows 8 device if they play it right.
If they release the device more expensive than the iPad with an old OS, it will be a failure.
The most likely scenarios is that no one will figure out a use for the device and they will realize that there is more value selling it on the market. You need to teach the villagers the value of the device first and have a way to help them learn how to use it. Self learning is good, but you need to learn the basics before you can explore on their own.
There are also the problem of adults just using the device for themselves. Do they really know that it is a kids device?
Distributing it through the schools to be a much more effective way of making progress. You can teach others how to use the device, provide support and it will be associated with education so adults will be less likely to use it.
Siri is useful, but it is just one feature out of many and many can live without. I don't see how it is any different than Android offering free turn by turn voice navigation.
Apple had a two year advantage over Android because of its polished interface, large app library and ease of use. Everything else is just gimmicks.
A quality app alone does not make it profitable. The biggest challenge is marketing your app so that people know about it.
Blood on the hands have never stop anonymous and wikileak one bit. Hell, it's what gave them street credential. Their own hands and heads bloodied after a long torture session is a different story.
Anonymous's actions never resulted to direct in loss of lives. When you outed people who are killed as a result, there is a direct consequences from your actions, instead of some theoretical debate if you indirectly put lives in danger.
I can see in some cases the patents can be used on software, like if you spent years developing an encryption algorithm. That could take years of research with results easily duplicated once known, but for the majority of software, there are enough barriers of entry to protect its creators.
Good software is more about the implementation of ideas than the idea themselves. Anyone can hack together an idea into a simple prototype. Implementing it in a solution that is robust and competitive in the market is a completely different thing.
It takes years to develop good software which gives the first creators a huge advantage in the fast moving market. It will be years before competitors will create a product that is on par or better than what you have. Copyrights protect people for stealing your software, but it allows people who can implement your ideas better an opportunity to provide innovation in the market.
What they've confirmed is that there was indeed a warming trend from about 1970 (or so) through about 2000. Before that, nothing significant. Since then, nothing significant. So we have a 30-year period of warming. That's an extremely short period when you're talking climate science. It also inconveniently doesn't match up with carbon dioxide emissions growth.
The data before the 1970s correlates with carbon dioxide emissions growth when you take into account sulfur dioxide emissions which cool the earth.
There is plenty of other evidence that carbon dioxide levels are a major influence on the earth's temperature. The question isn't if man made emissions affect the climate, but how much will man affect the climate. I would love to debate what to do about it, but It is pretty hard to do that when their is a significant portion of population who flat out denies basic science.
Remove you tinfoil. There are enough market forces to ensure that most computers systems will have the option to unlock.
The worst case is that manufacturers are going to try to charge extra for an unlockable dual boot computer. The greed will be with the manufacturers and not Microsoft. It will likely backfire because the PC industry is a commodity business and their will be plenty of competitors who will sell an unlockable computer of the same specs without the extra charge.
There used to be Linux netbooks. Then Microsoft started offering Windows for free or very low cost to netbook manufacturers. You really think Microsoft feared Linux with its miniscule mobile PC market share?
Microsoft was concerned about its product being too expensive to put on low costs netbooks and missing out on the market. They know that once they created the product, that 95% of the users will prefer it to Linux without the need to locking them out. There is no need to anti competitive practices.
Windows will lose money if they give $10 discounts for OEMs to lock out other OS's.
Windows is so successful that Microsoft doesn't need to lock out the competitors. You really think Microsoft fears Linux with its 2% of the desktop market share? Not worth the loss in revenue.