The rest of the industry has had years to come back with an IPad competitor. Yet even with Apple sourcing all its hardware from the same parties, these OEMs haven't been unable to compete.

Yes, they didn't have Win8 but they had Android and potentially WebOS.

Right now MS realizes that the only way to take on Apple right now is to match ( or copy if you prefer ) their best moves.

They didn't give up. Microsoft is still trying with HealthVault. It's a Personal Health Record platform so they're hoping others build these types of solutions on top their offering. PHR usage has been growing, with some of the largest companies in the country ( Walmart, ATT, etc. ) using Dossia.

You don't have to "only use one pharmacy" ever. You'd have to use a PHR like Open Source IndivoHealth or HealthVault or Dossia.

Personally, I believe it's a great idea that hopefully will one day catch on.

I just backed this project after reading this article. It would help if Slashdot editors can regularly promote crowdfunded Open-source projects as a feature, or type of article.

Personally, I'd love to hear about other open-source projects when they make it to Kickstarter.

Another part of the issue is how you define "least of all evils".

That's the point exactly though. No one but the consumer defines that. That's a moral ( personal ), as opposed to ethical or legal decision. It's not about telling consumers what to do with their money. But rather letting them know what they're voting for with their money.

If you'd like to only buy products which were assembled in the US using 80% or more parts not sourced from Japan, you can do so. If you'd like to source from factories from any where in the world but doesn't have that "work camp" setup, you can do that as well. As a consumer you'd be able to quickly get that information.

The moral choices the consumer makes is theirs and theirs alone. But there needs to be a convenient way to gather and compare the facts that may be pertinent to them making their decisions. Think "Standardized nutritional facts labels" but for manufacturing.

Part of the issue is that consumers may want to do the right thing but have no information as to which is the least of all evils. A device/company/plant database that can be checked before buying an electronic device would help solve that particular issue.

The idea is not to tell the consumer which way to go. But instead to simply present all the facts and opinions.

Personally, I would spend a $50 premium over other phones if I knew I were rewarding fair manufacturing practices.

Because it's a loan. You pay it back within 6-12 months on most Post-Paid plans. The cure for this is no-contract Pre-Paid.

Exactly. It's a high-interest loan that not many people really stop to think about. They just see "$99 IPhone" and they're sold.

It's a high-interest loan. You pay it back within 6-12 months. Check it yourself by attributing the monthly Post-Paid Plan cost premium over equivalent pre-paid plans on the same provider.

All major cell phone providers offer no-contract, Pre-Paid plans. Buy your phone outright and use one of those.

I'm curious, what MPM are you using? Event MPM?

Instead of just saying one company does better than the other, I think Mr. Li Qiang would be much more helpful to his cause if he actually published his findings and methodology.

Or are we suppose to simply believe him on his word?

It was the year you had Christmas on December 26th

You can find a real PHP compiler at http://phpcompiler.org/. It would be nice if the official PHP engine had built in support for loading and running bytecode ( like JVMs ) instead of strictly text code.

The point I'm making is that whatever they paid for the tablet could be applied to a laptop purchase. A purchase that's compulsory anyway.

I don't believe anyone's getting $199 IPads. I went with the retail price. An IPad 2 Wifi on Amazon is $540+tax. If I'm far off it's an honest mistake.

But even if the tablets are $400 in bulk somehow. Don't you believe the students would be better served by free $400 Laptops instead ( also purchased in bulk )?

...and they could have just have easily been using Netbooks or Laptops for this. And the advantage of a laptop is that these starving students would save themselves even that $600 the tablet costs as they need a laptop for real work anyway.