Amazon's pricing isn't that sophisticated. They do yo-yo prices on a very regular basis, often-times in concert with changing which 3rd party vendor is sells no the item.
The original article mentions that the survey asked parents how old the kid was when they gave them the phone, but didn't ask if the phone had service or not.
It's really common for parents to hand-me-down their old, no longer activated phones to their kids. It's also really cheap and easy to buy pre-paid Android phones and not even activate them.
All launch customers desire "mission assurance", that is, effective management of the risk involved in getting their payload into space. Commercial customers achieve this mission assurance by buying insurance that pays out in the event a launch failure. In lieu of purchasing insurance, the US Government "carefully shepherds" taxpayers' money by incentivizing ULA, via cost-plus award fee, to design and build their launch vehicles with an extremely high attention to detail, achieving a level of mission success that is the envy of the launch industry.
As you said, the NSA is likely able to compromise the iPhone today. That said, the FBI's motive is to obtain convictions. To do requires the presentation of evidence in open court. The FBI can't collaborate with the NSA, even if the NSA would play ball, because the defense would have a field day with the NSA's blatant Executive Order 12333 violation. For those following along at home, EO 12333 specifically forbids action by the intelligence community against "US persons". Snowden's disclosures have made abundantly clear that the NSA could give two shits about Executive Order 12333, but they do care about their exploits. Not revealing sources and methods is sort of tradecraft 101.
The intelligence community (cough, NSA) has in all likelihood already compromised iOS (and Android, and BlackBerry, Windows, you name it.) Unfortunately for the FBI, the NSA (reasonably) doesn't want to burn its sources and methods by having them disclosed in open court. Their assistance, in a case against "US persons" would also constitute a rather obvious violation of Executive Order 12333. Sure, the NSA flouts EO 12333 everyday and twice on Sunday's, but it's not being discussed in an open court. Defense attorneys would have a field day with "fruit of a poisoned tree" arguments.
The FBI is looking for something that is disclosable in open court, and that will withstand defense scrutiny. Success in this case sets the precedent that Apple (or any other hardware/software vendor) can be compelled, via the All Writs Act, to circumvent any security features they've built into their devices. Every DA with a phone in their evidence locker is going to come out of the woodwork to get those phones unlocked. The FBI gets their evidence, and whatever juicy exploits NSA has stay safely out of public view.
Beyond that, though the original court order gave Apple the option (which they would almost certainly exercise) to have physical custody of the subject phone to install the GovtOS, it also specified that, if Apple exercised this option, they would host a computer, provided by the FBI, that would be connected to the subject phone. The FBI would then remotely operate said device, connected to the subject phone, for the purpose of carrying out the brute-force PIN attack.
Much ado has been made of how the GovtOS software image would circumvent the device wipe, cooldown and direct PIN entry features of the lock screen, to allow remote PIN entry from a connected, FBI computer. Though not specified in the order, logically, Apple would need to remove the "Trust this computer" protective feature, so the phone would give the FBI 'puter the time of day. Then they connect it to the phone. At which point the FBI will be in a position to pwn the phone, and download the software image from the phone.
This... More so than any of the other American major league sports, the NFL has inked sponsorship deals for product placement. As an example, Colin Kaepernick was famously fined $10k by the NFL last year for wearing a pair of pink Beats headphones during a post-game press conference. The only reason he's not blowing a gasket over this is that he's too busy deluding himself into believing he'll win the Deflategate appeal.
Fuel cells are the only way to get thermodynamic efficiency that is remotely competitive with battery electric vehicles. At the moment, fuel cells still have high initial cost, and short service life, relative to the batteries in battery electric vehicles. Sure, they'll ride down the price curve and up the performance curve as the technology matures. But then you get to the hydrogen. All sustainable, carbon-neutral methods of generating hydrogen involve using an energy source for electrolysis of water. Which takes as much energy as the hydrogen itself will release when it is "combusted" with atmospheric oxygen back into water. Adding insult to injury, hydrogen is a gas at standard temperature and pressure. In order to carry a quantity sufficient to provide useful driving range, more energy must be expended to pressurize the hydrogen to thousand's of PSI for storage on-board the vehicle.
In terms of comparing it to iOS devices, I'd characterize it as comparable to the processor and battery of an iPhone 4S, combined with the display and camera from an iPhone 3G, and skimping with just a 4GB ROM.
I have a pile of these ZTE Zingers in my house. The screen is, generally speaking, garbage. The 2MP, fixed-focus camera on the back is also a complete piece of crap. It at least runs KitKat, which is better optimized for devices with smaller installed memory. It's not a rocketship, but the UI is reasonably responsive. Of more serious concern is the fact that the 4GB ROM only yields about 1.25GB of free space, and the OS won't let you move apps onto the SD card. This limiation, ironically, serves to mitigate the multi-tasking issue, as it is simply not possible to install a large number of apps on the device..For my principal use case (kids playing Minecraft and watching Youtube) it is more than adequate, and represents phenomenal value, even at $30.
A year or so ago, Samsung put out an ad campaign for the Galaxy S5 that called out major features, present in the S5, that were absent from the iPhone. The Galaxy had a larger screen, SD card slot, removable battery and it was water-proof. All features absent from the iPhone. And also now absent from the Galaxy S6. Definite step back, especially since Samsung has been completely ineffective at communicating what counter-veiling new features and benefits the new model has over its predecessor and/or the iPhone.
The S6 looks classier and more expensive than the S5. That's the only thing going for it. With the iPhone 6/6 Plus it no longer has a size advantage either. This is a problem, since for many buyers of the Galaxy S3/4/5, the screen size was the major driver tipping the purchase away from iPhone. The Android OS was either incidental, or even a drawback. Those customers are all jumping over to iPhone now that it has a big screen.
I got a pile of ZTE Zingers last Christmas for my kids to play Minecraft on. $9.99/each at Target the weekend of Black Friday. Amazingly functional for such a cheap device, compared to the garbage that called itself pre-paid Android phones a couple of years ago.
True, Harbor Freight hand tools have a lifetime warranty, and they've stepped up their game at the same time Sears' contract manufacturers moved to China and Craftsman tools went to hell in a hand-basket. But, when they do break, someone who's on the clock has to run out to Sears or Harbor Freight and wait in line to get that replacement, and you're stuck explaining to the customer why their car isn't ready today. Meanwhile, Snap-On, Mac and Matco break less often to begin with. When they do break, the local distributor shows up the same day in their truck with a replacement and you still get the customer out the door by close of business.
Apple has an extensive network of retail stores that are set up to do all manner of software support, as well as virtually all hardware repairs *in house* allowing most warranty repairs to be done same-day. And this is their baseline level of support. Dell, HP, Samsung etc. don't have anything that comes close to this.
It's only a crime if you were indoctrinated and signed a non-disclosure agreement wherein you agreed to be held criminally liable. Note that, while Snowden has a rich bounty on his head, no wrong-doing has been alleged on the part of the NY Times, Washington Post, or any of the other news outlets that published his leaks.
Now the British, they have the Official Secrets Act.
Yeah, we used the Bomb, twice, against an enemy that fought tenaciously, and far beyond any reasonable chance of victory. The death toll, while still horrific, was a tiny fraction of the alternative.
Have you ever heard of Operation Downfall? It was the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland. The basic gist was to, ultimately, march into Tokyo and dictate surrender terms to Emperor Hirohito, personally. The planned amphibious landings were double the size of D-Day, and would have extended the war well into 1946, with casualty estimates into the millions. Additionally, the Japanese defensive plan (Operation Ketsugo) called for the all-out mobilization of the civilian population.
Straight Talk is owned by America Movil, along with Trac Fone and Net10. Unlike most other MVNO's, they have contracts with all four of the Big Four carriers, though any individual handset will ride on only one of the four networks. The specific assortment of handsets they'll offer (either online or at retail) in any given location is a function of the coverage available from the Big Four at that specific location. Hence their website asks you for your zip code before showing you phones.
The retail packages indicate whose network the phone runs on. "CDMA-V" is Verizon, "CDMA-S" is Sprint, "GSM-A" and "GSM-T" are AT&T and T-Mobile, respectively. Pick the right phone, and you will be riding full-time on Verizon's network while paying Straight Talk's cheap monthly fees (and putting up with their shitty customer service).
Republic Wireless is a MVNO that rides on Sprint's network. Hence why you can't use a GSM phone with their service. You have to buy the phone from them because no one sells "unlocked" CDMA phones. They don't sell them for the simple reason that the by far largest CDMA carriers (Verizon and Sprint) don't allow unlocked phones on their networks.
That statement is, dare I say it, true from a practical standpoint. It is certainly true if you want to get yourself directly into a circular orbit. However, you can get yourself into orbit if you thrust continuously for long enough on your orbit vector, once you're out of the atmosphere. You'll have a very highly elliptical orbit by the time you've raised your perigee out of the atmosphere, but it would work. Don't believe me? Install Kerbal Space Program, and try it out for yourself. Worked for my 10 year old kid.
There's the oil changes, but also factor in radiator and transmission fluid flushes, timing and accessory belt replacements, various radiator and vacuum hoses, and it starts to add up. A timing belt is easily a $600 job, by itself. With the 100k mile replacement interval typical on modern cars, and 15k miles/year average usage, that one service adds $100/year by itself, if you amortize over time. Hold on to that Honda Accord more than five or six years, and you'll also start to get into random wear-out failures after 100k miles, that will be costing you real money.
Carnegie certainly operated in the regulatory and business climate of his day. That said, the most egregious transgressions attributed to Carnegie were actually the work of his long-time associate and business partner, Henry Clay Frick.
Actually, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi all offer the 5/60 bumper/bumper and 10/100 powertrain warranties on all their new cars to this day. I dare say it hasn't translated to higher sales for Mitsubishi as effectively as it did for the Koreans.
Say what you will about Apple and their tendancy to buck the greater tech trends in the industry, but when Apple does buck the trend, their solution is technically superior and more user friendly than the incumbent alternative. The Lightning connector is but the latest example. Previous examples include Thunderbolt over USB 3, Firewire over USB 2, ADB over every pre-USB keyboard and mouse connection.
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Or you could, you know, tell the phone to install that iOS update.
Amazon's pricing isn't that sophisticated. They do yo-yo prices on a very regular basis, often-times in concert with changing which 3rd party vendor is sells no the item.
What are these items that can only be purchased if you have Prime?
The original article mentions that the survey asked parents how old the kid was when they gave them the phone, but didn't ask if the phone had service or not.
It's really common for parents to hand-me-down their old, no longer activated phones to their kids. It's also really cheap and easy to buy pre-paid Android phones and not even activate them.
All launch customers desire "mission assurance", that is, effective management of the risk involved in getting their payload into space. Commercial customers achieve this mission assurance by buying insurance that pays out in the event a launch failure. In lieu of purchasing insurance, the US Government "carefully shepherds" taxpayers' money by incentivizing ULA, via cost-plus award fee, to design and build their launch vehicles with an extremely high attention to detail, achieving a level of mission success that is the envy of the launch industry.
As you said, the NSA is likely able to compromise the iPhone today. That said, the FBI's motive is to obtain convictions. To do requires the presentation of evidence in open court. The FBI can't collaborate with the NSA, even if the NSA would play ball, because the defense would have a field day with the NSA's blatant Executive Order 12333 violation. For those following along at home, EO 12333 specifically forbids action by the intelligence community against "US persons". Snowden's disclosures have made abundantly clear that the NSA could give two shits about Executive Order 12333, but they do care about their exploits. Not revealing sources and methods is sort of tradecraft 101.
The intelligence community (cough, NSA) has in all likelihood already compromised iOS (and Android, and BlackBerry, Windows, you name it.) Unfortunately for the FBI, the NSA (reasonably) doesn't want to burn its sources and methods by having them disclosed in open court. Their assistance, in a case against "US persons" would also constitute a rather obvious violation of Executive Order 12333. Sure, the NSA flouts EO 12333 everyday and twice on Sunday's, but it's not being discussed in an open court. Defense attorneys would have a field day with "fruit of a poisoned tree" arguments.
The FBI is looking for something that is disclosable in open court, and that will withstand defense scrutiny. Success in this case sets the precedent that Apple (or any other hardware/software vendor) can be compelled, via the All Writs Act, to circumvent any security features they've built into their devices. Every DA with a phone in their evidence locker is going to come out of the woodwork to get those phones unlocked. The FBI gets their evidence, and whatever juicy exploits NSA has stay safely out of public view.
Beyond that, though the original court order gave Apple the option (which they would almost certainly exercise) to have physical custody of the subject phone to install the GovtOS, it also specified that, if Apple exercised this option, they would host a computer, provided by the FBI, that would be connected to the subject phone. The FBI would then remotely operate said device, connected to the subject phone, for the purpose of carrying out the brute-force PIN attack.
Much ado has been made of how the GovtOS software image would circumvent the device wipe, cooldown and direct PIN entry features of the lock screen, to allow remote PIN entry from a connected, FBI computer. Though not specified in the order, logically, Apple would need to remove the "Trust this computer" protective feature, so the phone would give the FBI 'puter the time of day. Then they connect it to the phone. At which point the FBI will be in a position to pwn the phone, and download the software image from the phone.
TL;DR: Totally NOT Orwellian fantasy!
This... More so than any of the other American major league sports, the NFL has inked sponsorship deals for product placement. As an example, Colin Kaepernick was famously fined $10k by the NFL last year for wearing a pair of pink Beats headphones during a post-game press conference. The only reason he's not blowing a gasket over this is that he's too busy deluding himself into believing he'll win the Deflategate appeal.
Fuel cells are the only way to get thermodynamic efficiency that is remotely competitive with battery electric vehicles. At the moment, fuel cells still have high initial cost, and short service life, relative to the batteries in battery electric vehicles. Sure, they'll ride down the price curve and up the performance curve as the technology matures. But then you get to the hydrogen. All sustainable, carbon-neutral methods of generating hydrogen involve using an energy source for electrolysis of water. Which takes as much energy as the hydrogen itself will release when it is "combusted" with atmospheric oxygen back into water. Adding insult to injury, hydrogen is a gas at standard temperature and pressure. In order to carry a quantity sufficient to provide useful driving range, more energy must be expended to pressurize the hydrogen to thousand's of PSI for storage on-board the vehicle.
In terms of comparing it to iOS devices, I'd characterize it as comparable to the processor and battery of an iPhone 4S, combined with the display and camera from an iPhone 3G, and skimping with just a 4GB ROM.
I have a pile of these ZTE Zingers in my house. The screen is, generally speaking, garbage. The 2MP, fixed-focus camera on the back is also a complete piece of crap. It at least runs KitKat, which is better optimized for devices with smaller installed memory. It's not a rocketship, but the UI is reasonably responsive. Of more serious concern is the fact that the 4GB ROM only yields about 1.25GB of free space, and the OS won't let you move apps onto the SD card. This limiation, ironically, serves to mitigate the multi-tasking issue, as it is simply not possible to install a large number of apps on the device..For my principal use case (kids playing Minecraft and watching Youtube) it is more than adequate, and represents phenomenal value, even at $30.
A year or so ago, Samsung put out an ad campaign for the Galaxy S5 that called out major features, present in the S5, that were absent from the iPhone. The Galaxy had a larger screen, SD card slot, removable battery and it was water-proof. All features absent from the iPhone. And also now absent from the Galaxy S6. Definite step back, especially since Samsung has been completely ineffective at communicating what counter-veiling new features and benefits the new model has over its predecessor and/or the iPhone.
The S6 looks classier and more expensive than the S5. That's the only thing going for it. With the iPhone 6/6 Plus it no longer has a size advantage either. This is a problem, since for many buyers of the Galaxy S3/4/5, the screen size was the major driver tipping the purchase away from iPhone. The Android OS was either incidental, or even a drawback. Those customers are all jumping over to iPhone now that it has a big screen.
I got a pile of ZTE Zingers last Christmas for my kids to play Minecraft on. $9.99/each at Target the weekend of Black Friday. Amazingly functional for such a cheap device, compared to the garbage that called itself pre-paid Android phones a couple of years ago.
True, Harbor Freight hand tools have a lifetime warranty, and they've stepped up their game at the same time Sears' contract manufacturers moved to China and Craftsman tools went to hell in a hand-basket. But, when they do break, someone who's on the clock has to run out to Sears or Harbor Freight and wait in line to get that replacement, and you're stuck explaining to the customer why their car isn't ready today. Meanwhile, Snap-On, Mac and Matco break less often to begin with. When they do break, the local distributor shows up the same day in their truck with a replacement and you still get the customer out the door by close of business.
Apple has an extensive network of retail stores that are set up to do all manner of software support, as well as virtually all hardware repairs *in house* allowing most warranty repairs to be done same-day. And this is their baseline level of support. Dell, HP, Samsung etc. don't have anything that comes close to this.
It's only a crime if you were indoctrinated and signed a non-disclosure agreement wherein you agreed to be held criminally liable. Note that, while Snowden has a rich bounty on his head, no wrong-doing has been alleged on the part of the NY Times, Washington Post, or any of the other news outlets that published his leaks.
Now the British, they have the Official Secrets Act.
Yeah, we used the Bomb, twice, against an enemy that fought tenaciously, and far beyond any reasonable chance of victory. The death toll, while still horrific, was a tiny fraction of the alternative.
Have you ever heard of Operation Downfall? It was the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland. The basic gist was to, ultimately, march into Tokyo and dictate surrender terms to Emperor Hirohito, personally. The planned amphibious landings were double the size of D-Day, and would have extended the war well into 1946, with casualty estimates into the millions. Additionally, the Japanese defensive plan (Operation Ketsugo) called for the all-out mobilization of the civilian population.
Straight Talk is owned by America Movil, along with Trac Fone and Net10. Unlike most other MVNO's, they have contracts with all four of the Big Four carriers, though any individual handset will ride on only one of the four networks. The specific assortment of handsets they'll offer (either online or at retail) in any given location is a function of the coverage available from the Big Four at that specific location. Hence their website asks you for your zip code before showing you phones.
The retail packages indicate whose network the phone runs on. "CDMA-V" is Verizon, "CDMA-S" is Sprint, "GSM-A" and "GSM-T" are AT&T and T-Mobile, respectively. Pick the right phone, and you will be riding full-time on Verizon's network while paying Straight Talk's cheap monthly fees (and putting up with their shitty customer service).
Boost: All the crappiness of Sprint's network, without the ability to at least roam on Verizon's network when you need to.
Republic Wireless is a MVNO that rides on Sprint's network. Hence why you can't use a GSM phone with their service. You have to buy the phone from them because no one sells "unlocked" CDMA phones. They don't sell them for the simple reason that the by far largest CDMA carriers (Verizon and Sprint) don't allow unlocked phones on their networks.
Boost is one of Sprint's pre-paid brands. The network is laughably inferior to Verizon's.
That statement is, dare I say it, true from a practical standpoint. It is certainly true if you want to get yourself directly into a circular orbit. However, you can get yourself into orbit if you thrust continuously for long enough on your orbit vector, once you're out of the atmosphere. You'll have a very highly elliptical orbit by the time you've raised your perigee out of the atmosphere, but it would work. Don't believe me? Install Kerbal Space Program, and try it out for yourself. Worked for my 10 year old kid.
There's the oil changes, but also factor in radiator and transmission fluid flushes, timing and accessory belt replacements, various radiator and vacuum hoses, and it starts to add up. A timing belt is easily a $600 job, by itself. With the 100k mile replacement interval typical on modern cars, and 15k miles/year average usage, that one service adds $100/year by itself, if you amortize over time. Hold on to that Honda Accord more than five or six years, and you'll also start to get into random wear-out failures after 100k miles, that will be costing you real money.
Carnegie certainly operated in the regulatory and business climate of his day. That said, the most egregious transgressions attributed to Carnegie were actually the work of his long-time associate and business partner, Henry Clay Frick.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
Actually, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi all offer the 5/60 bumper/bumper and 10/100 powertrain warranties on all their new cars to this day. I dare say it hasn't translated to higher sales for Mitsubishi as effectively as it did for the Koreans.
https://www.hyundaiusa.com/ass...
http://www.kia.com/us/en/conte...
http://www.mitsubishicars.com/...
Say what you will about Apple and their tendancy to buck the greater tech trends in the industry, but when Apple does buck the trend, their solution is technically superior and more user friendly than the incumbent alternative. The Lightning connector is but the latest example. Previous examples include Thunderbolt over USB 3, Firewire over USB 2, ADB over every pre-USB keyboard and mouse connection.