In that case, the problem with Android compared to Windows (x86 and x86-64 versions) is that it lacks a stable driver ABI that would let the user carry the handset manufacturer's driver modules forward from one version of Android to the next.

I thought AT&T and T-Mobile weren't allowed to ban devices per the GSM license, and Verizon was subject to open application and device requirements on its 700 MHz allocation. Sprint might but it's got a pile of MVNOs anyway.

"Lead" can be spelled either way, though "lede" was popular in the days of hot metal typesetting to distinguish it from the metal whose symbol is Pb. It derives from "lead paragraph", meaning the paragraph that leads an inverted-pyramid news story.

Ally Bank used to be GMAC, the financial services division of GM. It began in 1919 by offering loans on new GM cars. In 1985 it expanded into mortgages, and in 2000 it became an online retail bank.

So if you carry a Raspberry Pi, what device would you use while riding the bus? A single device that becomes a desktop-like computer when docked to a keyboard and monitor and a mobile device while a passenger in a vehicle has the advantage over a Raspberry Pi that the user isn't shut out for the duration of a transit ride to or from work or wherever.

I've read stories of Facebook putting up a "roadblock" screen where it won't let the user log in unless the user provides a phone number capable of receiving text messages and not shared with any other Facebook user. This excludes people on land lines and people who share a cell phone with someone else.

Are the people who create an empty shell of a Google+ profile the same kinds of people who created a Facebook account just for FarmVille, Spotify (when it required one), Answers.com (when it required one), or The Huffington Post's comments section (which still requires one)?

Before Keep I used ColorNote, which came on my Archos 43, an old iPod touch-like device running AOSP. And I still use ColorNote on my first-generation Nexus 7.

They can be removed if you have unlocked the bootloader and flashed an OS image that contains su. Then you can become root, remount the OS partition read-write, and remove the apps completely.

That's because any system app with updates exists as two copies on a device: the original version and the latest version. You need to get the latest version out of the way so you can disable the original version.

Among iOS, Windows Phone/RT, and Android, only Android really allows third-party stores, sideloading, app development without a recurring fee or other formality, and app development directly on a tablet with a keyboard (AIDE).

checks the list of apps on his first generation Nexus 7
It's probably referring to Hangouts, Google+, Keep, Play Books, Play Music, Play Movies, Play Newsstand, Chrome, Currents, Earth...

Just about any app on an Android device can be set to "Disabled" in Settings, including Google's own apps. Then you're out only the megabytes it takes up on the system partition.

The Linux-based smart TV is probably locked down to run only apps chosen by the TV manufacturer, not unlike a TiVo DVR. The advantage of an external Linux computer based on a Raspberry Pi is no tivoization.

Moving doesn't help if Comcast ends up acquiring the company that serves the area to which you move. It's also likely even more expensive than paying overages on satellite or cellular Internet.