People who have their cell phones stolen were just asking for it. They shouldn't be flashing their bling around like some technoslut. It's not the thieves fault. They can't help themselves.

Sony has no business making computers. Or at least, they have no business doing anything beyond designing hardware. The one time I got to play with a Vaio was when a manager asked me to 'set up' their brand new machine for them.

Long story short: The Vaio isn't a laptop. It's a marketing machine for selling other Sony products. Everywhere you turn, Sony was trying to sell you additional products, movies, music. There was so much crapware on that machine that it ran embarrassingly poorly, and the only option was to use the recovery disks to reinstall *just* the OS and the drivers. The only saving grace was that the 'additional applications' was a separate disk, so I was able to skip that part.

The machine ran very nicely after that. But an average person isn't going to know to do all this. I was personally offended that a supposedly reputable company would inflict this kind of trash on people. Turned me right off of the brand, despite the hardware being very nice.

Of course, my outrage then was nothing compared to when I learned Sony was putting rootkits on their music CDs, removing features from their PS2s, etc.

Hopefully this new company can repair the crater that Sony made of their PC business.

'Would you object to getting permission from consumers, those people who you work for, before you collect and monitor their information?' Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., asked Cordray. 'That would make it impossible to get the data,' Cordray replied."

He could have quoted Emo Philips...

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me."

So... what you're saying is that I have to root my device and install a third party tool in order to get something I expect to have gotten out of the box.

Thank you for pointing this out as an option, but it doesn't change the core issue. Especially for people who are unable or unwilling to root their devices.

That's just it... There IS NO alternative. It's Android, iOS, with WinPhone bringing up the rear.

FirefoxOS and UbuntuPhone still amount to little more than a curiosity for developers. Until a mature, FOSS platform becomes available, all you can do is make the best out of a bad situation.

I used to believe the same thing as you. When I had an iPhone, I was chomping at the bit because of my lack of control. But then I got a Samsung Galaxy S3. You know what my priority is now? Something that *works*. I'm still incredulous that the flagship phone from a major company can be such a steaming pile of crap. I had to root my phone just to remove the crapware Samsung put on. It's one thing to root and hack up a device because you want more control. It's another thing entirely when you HAVE to root and hack up a device, because out of the box the thing isn't even fit for purpose.

Google is doing everything they can to make it abundantly clear that they are giving you cheap devices solely so that they can mine the crap out of you. Microsoft's history of viciously destructive behaviour makes me write them off without even evaluating their device. Apple are a bunch of control freaks, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially when you consider the fact that you can't trust all programmers out there to write apps that behave properly.

The fact is, a phone isn't a random gadget that one plays around with. It's a lifeline to the world, especially for many who give up their land lines. If there's one personal device one can own that HAS to work, it's your phone. Period. (Well, I suppose someone with a CPAP machine would argue differently...) But you get my point.

I will be delighted in giving UbuntuPhone or FirefoxOS (or Meego, or whatever) a try once they've proven themselves to be functional and reliable. Until then, I'm just going to have to stick with iOS.

When I was deciding on a tablet, I was waffling on what to get but the issue of privacy ended up being the thing that decided me.

With Android, you have no choice but to accept the permissions that an app insists on. Either that, or don't use the app. Combine that with Google stating outright that they plan on *reducing* privacy protections, I wasn't happy.

Then I researched the privacy protections in iOS. You have the ability to selectively deny or allow what an application is allowed to see, and can change your choice later on if you change your mind. Say what you will about Apple, but at least they're making a decent effort in this regard.

Now Mr Robot, this is what I want you to do. When the boss comes by, I want you to lift up both arms like this, now extend your middle actuators and shout, "Blow it out your tailpipe!"

Riiiiiiight. And it has nothing at all to do with big businesses doing everything they can to hoard profits, and idiot apologists like you that think that there is nothing wrong with that fact.

Electricity was deregulated in California. What happened? Prices shot up, service deteriorated. Do I need to mention Enron?

How many times have you opened up the paper to see stories about companies laying off thousands of workers, not because the business is losing money, but because they arn't making *enough profit*. There is no such things as an honest public company as long as they are required by law to put their investors above all others. The sheer number of examples is virtually limitless.

If Washington Gas (for example) was such a benevolent little angel, why did they have to be *ordered* by the commission to upgrade pipes? How many times has there been a massive ecological disaster because an oil company was too cheap to implement basic precautions?

So spare me your bullshit. Libertarian is synonymous with "I've got mine, fuck you!", for good reason, whether you like it or not.

I find it hilarious and sad that a libertarian can't understand that gas companies are doing everything they can to ignore and deflect problems that will cost them large sums of money to fix.

If he wants the problems fix, maybe he should fix it himself.

I thought that if you don't assert your patent from day one, then you can't cry foul later on. How long have they been sitting on this thing, only to turn around and start suing everyone after the process became wide spread.

While BU may be on better ground, and may put the money to better use than some scum sucking patent troll, it still strikes me as trollish behaviour.

Looks like I've been modded by a Zimmerman supporter.

How does it compare to other players?
The most obvious one is VLC, which can play any format known to man, and is also cross platform. The only issue is that the UI isn't as clean because it is so powerful.
As I primarily using a Mac, I personally like to use Vox for audio, and Movist for video, for a variety of reasons (most of which boil down to 'I happen to like the way it does X or Y')

As a computer geek I'm happy that there's another option out there, especially an open source one.

But from an end user perspective, I have to ask things like, "What's special about it?" and "What does it give me that I can't do already?"

It is if the texter was black, in florida. :P

Maybe you should have stuck to using just one hand? :)

I've purchased two barrel-bottom-scraping androids so far (not this model), with the expectation that that should be able to satisfy very basic needs like ebook reading.

I was wrong.

These 'landfill android' devices garbage in every possible way. Battery life is so poor that you can't even even expect it to last a day on stand by. Yet performance is so poor that you have to wait a good several minutes just for the damn thing to boot up, so forget about quickly pulling it out while on the bus to read a few pages.
And the wifi is so bad that it can't pick up a signal unless you have a router in the very same room, and even then you somehow don't get full bars.

The only use I can see for this class of devices, is in BDSM scenarios:

Master - Check my email, slave!
Slave - Yes Master, thank you master! Oh, I can't connect to the server!
Master - Are you telling me that you're failing me, you miserable wretch?
Slave - Nuh Matha! Ih I puf mah tong oh he corneh, wifi worgs!
Master - Good slave! Now play Words With Friends!
Slave - *whimper*