I assume the number of people clicking and waiting are probably pretty few. Normal users probably don't realize a big update is coming until the day the notice pops on their phone. For the rest of the people, you can sideload the update easily. I don't think it is perfect, but it isn't the end of the world. The benefits of a staged roll out shouldn't be over looked either. Look at the issues Apple had with their first update to iOS 8 and having to pull it after so many already installed it. A staged roll out would have prevented that.

The OTA started yesterday. They do a staged roll out for all these updates. So you should get it within a few days.

It will only help if people use that S3 region. It won't magically make things from US East faster for you.

T-mobile's site says that phone is $324 full retail price. You can get a Moto G for $199 or a Moto X for $299. If you bought that phone you simply didn't do any research.

I assume the parent is actually meaning applications that use Google Play Services (http://developer.android.com/google/play-services/index.html). These will never work on any Fire product.

I am also and Android developer and this problem is already solved. Android Studio + ADB (included with Android Studio) + Genymotion. You get native speed, lots of sensors to emulate and can even install the gapps packages if you need to test against those libraries (I use them for Chromecast support).

If only Apple has been using an IDE that looked for unreachable code...

I didn't spend much time on it, but this doesn't seem to be the case on Android. First of all, they never store things outside of /data/data/com.starbucks.mobilecard. So only a root application would be able to read things. Secondly, the main sqlite database they seem to be storing things in is encrypted.

CyanogenMod comes with a full file manager by default. It is simply called "File Manager" in your app drawer.

I am running CyanogenMod 7 (latest RC from Slayher) in a non-LTE area and have my LTE radio disabled. The battery life on the thing is still sad.

They are awesome! I hope you also like extended battery companies ;)

* Sent from a current HTC Thunderbolt owner.

Most people believe that Google purchased Motorola Mobility for their patent portfolio to protect against the likes of Oracle and Apple since they are currently so sue happy. That has nothing to do with locked or unlocked bootloaders.

"Google, which has been trying to lock Android down more, probably doesn't see it that way."

The only phones that Google "produces" are the Nexus line. These have unlockable bootloaders already. Don't get me wrong, I am happy HTC is doing this, but that statement about Google is just silly and wrong.

How many Zero Dollar per month accounts do they need to equal $170,000,000 again?

It is to kill all the humans for when the aliens come back!