BTW I am European. "Sad" is perhaps a strong word, but yes, in general my satisfaction is pretty high (App Store and all!) so while they do a lot of things right in my experience, it is irritating that they do this so obviously wrong.

I have several Apple products and in general I like them. Still it is sad for such premium products that the maker has to be strongarmed into agreeing to local law. The same happened in Europe where (and I think it is reasonable) products such as laptops should have a 2 year guarantee. Perhaps not on Applecare level (which is really good, I had to use it once and was happy with the service quality - a technician came to my home to replace my 27" imac screen panel), but at least a normal guarantee should be expected.
Of course Applecare becomes less attractive if it is just a one year extension and a higher service level. But frankly the products while well made are expensive enough to have the above mandatory local guarantee applied without hassle.

Did I write or imply "bad"?
Simply context providing.

Yes, that could be since there are so many low end android devices worldwide.
However it seems that in the US (copied this from Macrumors):
According to data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel posted earlier this month, the iPhone's market share in the U.S. hit 52.8% in October following the launch of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. In the previous year, Apple's market share was at 53.3% following the launch of the iPhone 5, and was at 36% and 25% in the two years prior with the launch of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, respectively.
Over here in Hong Kong where I currently live I see more people with Android than with iphone but the ratio is rather 1.5 : 1. From my discussions with friends and colleagues, I think that a number of them may switch back once Apple offers a bigger phone (most people outside Slashdot still give the brand quite some goodwill).
Also in statistics once again it seems that the iphones are used more for internet activities than the bigger number of android phones - leading me to suspect that the cheaper android devices are first and foremost used as a pure phone with some games etc thrown in.

Saab was so very cool up to the 1980s. The writer Roald Dahl. Affordable furniture.

Clearly you have very little imagination. Read the article and marvel on how much functionality that they can pack into one gram. This kind of fundamental experimentation will eventually lead to intelligent small flying machines.

You sure have a good point.
In my case, living in a different continent from my family and old friends I find FB nice to keep in touch and exchange pictures.

Occasionally I notice in my Facebook feed that an acquaintance has unlocked a level in some inane IOS game. I wonder if anyone cares to read or even deliver such updates? It seems that MS and Sony think that it would be good, but it sure doesn't make my life better.

I would definitely have a certain perception about someone who insists on keeping an accidently misdelivered item. That person would likely do the same with a found wallet.

You can assess the moral fiber of a person when (s)he is in a situation that they can get away with something. Helping or not to rectify an honest mistake is such a situation.

I fully agree. It is normal decency. If you make such a mistake you'd also want your stuff back.
Hate to quote by memory from the bible, but that old saying "don't do upon others what you don't want them to do upon you" is still a good approach to life.
I also don't quite get the argument that because it's a big retailer, there is no guilt over keeping the stuff. The size of the originator is irrelevant in my opinion.
Also, it was clearly not a scam trying to sell the console, simply a dumb mistake.

So far in his prolific career, Stross has never been short of ideas. Writer's Block is highly unlikely. As he posts in the blog, likely he will write a book with the recent NSA revelations as the baseline, and extrapolate from there.

I agree about its general slowness on windows. It must be said that on osx it works smoothly, from my direct experience, i like to buy music and apps through it, and it plays music through an apple tv and an airport express in the house, without any configuration.

While scientifically interesting, I can imagine a dystopian future where employers mandate their works to wear special "brain helmets" so that they are fully focused on the task at hand...

Please explain how capitalism can thrive on piracy. Clearly it becomes less interesting to invest in big budget movies.