I think the screen size is a reflection of the market. People are migrating towards phones with larger screens. For example, I'm guess that the Samsung S2 and S3 owe their success, at least in part to their large crisp screens. I'm not saying that 4.7" hasn't gone a little too far for the average user, but I bet that screen looks a lot prettier than the competition.

Personally, I have huge hands, so my next phone will be humongous. I avoid texting because I can't help but hit like 5 characters at once. I'm even considering the monstrously large Note 2.

It's not that someone is making a profit. It's that all of the major phone companies are working together to make phone prices ridiculous. Without contract, you're looking at: $649/16gb, $749/32gb, $849/64gb.

That is one hell of a mark up.

I guarantee that people would be rushing to stores a little slower if it weren't for the 2 year contract "discount". It seems a little fishy that all of the major phone releases have similar pricing and, generally speaking, the phones are locked to one provider. It reeks of collusion.

You mean, a whopping 1,029 people might not be an accurate poll of a country with 314 million people?

I've noticed more and more games are requiring a 1 time use only code to play. For example, EA NHL12 requires you to enter (which is a complete pain in the ass on an xbox) a 16 digit code to play any on-line modes. Essentially it makes the game worthless for re-sale.

So for those of you siting Steam's reasonable prices as "the system works" I disagree. EA dominates a VERY large portion of the gaming market, almost entirely the sports game genre. They have no intent on playing nicely. Yes I can boycott them (which I largely do), but that is LOT of games to boycott.

I had a Pre, and and loved the OS. It was a work of art, and I still think it's more intuitive than anything else available today. Unfortunately, Palm cheaped out on the hardware. The phone scratched at anything more than a gentle breeze, and the plastic began falling apart in a couple of weeks let alone 2 long years. Had Palm worked with HTC to put Web OS on some decent options, the company might be in an entirely different place today.

Its not just giant ships that are a problem. Planes, recreational boats, and even lawn mowers spew largely unfiltered exhaust into the air too. I never understood why the U.S. is so strict with car emissions, but so lax on other things that make significant contributions to air pollution.

Have you played the new Medal of Honor? If the fun is hiding in the multiplayer, I have yet to find it. The game's "difficulty" might have inspired this article, but really it should have been the game's "crappiness". $60 officially wasted.

Schools are out of control. Between this and "Zero Tolerance" policies, I'm scared for kids. Kids as young as 12 are getting fined for things as stupid as being tardy, and ARRESTED for doodling on desks. What posses someone to think its a good idea spy on children, or to arrest a 12 year old girl? Schools need to mind their own business, and realize that kids get into trouble. Mischief and stupid mistakes are part of growing up.

I've played in many rinks, and on more than one occasion, I've seen a rink temporarily evacuated because of fumes. I'm guessing its because the Zambonis weren't functioning right (some are kept in service a long long time). Its not common for fumes to be a problem, but it definitely happens.

As for electric ice resurfacers being such a problem to make, I don't agree. The weight issue doesn't seem to be a problem. I used to drive battery powered forklifts that easily lasted an 8 hour shift (moving around 1,500+ pounds). And I've seen many electric resurfacing machines, dating back at least 15 years. Some rinks don't even need a battery (or much of one). They just run a really long "extension chord" from the ceiling down to the machine. Since the ice resurfacer doesn't exactly need to go far, it seems to work fine.

I can't comment on overall cost savings, but I can tell you that here in Minnesota, many of our rinks operate year round and are used from ~5am-11:30pm every day. My local facility uses 2 Zambonis for 3 rinks. A modest estimate of 20 floods/day per machine is still over 7,000 floods in just one year. A savings of $2.75 per flood for many years definitely has potential.

This is a good reason to buy a stick instead of an automatic.

I couldn't agree more. I've always felt that manual has so much more control than automatic, especially for scenarios like snow and steep inclines. Every care I purchase only has 4 major requirements.

1. Quality
2. Good MPG
3. I need to fit in it (I'm 6'4")
4. Manual

Unfortunately, you'd be surprised just how difficult it is to find a car that meets these simple requirements. Many cars don't even have a manual option anymore (ex: Camry).