I curious as to what you define a "real" multi-tasking, such that it needs mentioning in this case

Yes it is nice, having the BBC that is.

State _funded_ TV with a charter for the betterment of the populous has set the standard for TV in this country that and (somewhat) mitigated the "race to the bottom" that is being run more rapidly in countries that don't have that stabilizing force.

The BBC should be compared with other media organisations when talking about openness not wings of government, apples and oranges.

It's a colloquialism. To receive live TV you must have a TV licence, buying a TV is orthogonal to this. If I own a computer and use BBC iplayer to watch live TV I also need a licence, the fact you have bought a physical TV or not is irreverent, the question is are you receiving live TV signals.

IMHO the BBC is a public funded body that functions as an independent news service by royal charter, it is not an organ of government and thus should not be subject for FOI requests just like any other news service

None, same way there are none for Android. including the malware included in the OP. If it doesn't propagate of it's own accord then it isn't a virus it's just a malicious app AKA malware.

The OP mentions that "website that is designed to push Loozfon on the user's device" this is currently impossible unless there is an explain that is currently un-discussed and if there was such a thing it would be _very_ important, if (as I suspect) this is just another download-this/manually-install-the-app/accept-all-the-permissions/become-screwed idiot-trap then it is hardly news. And BTW there are plenty of these types of app for a jailbroken iPhone

This is not like Win3.1 to Win95 this is like going from OSX to iOS
We have a new interface paradigm that MS is pushing _hard_ that is _only_ available to apps that are graced with the MS app store "magic"
To repeat, there are _system_ GUI API that you cannot write applications for nor link to without paying MS and getting their approval for an app.
This is also the _only_ way to get your app onto Win8RT

I don't care that it looks different, (It is half assed but you get used to that) I care that it's screwing both hobbyist and indy developers.

Actually it's forced secure boot _by default_. On x86 hardware MS requires the ability to add keys or switch off secure boot, true, but they also require any PC that is Win8 certified to refuse to boot anything else _unless_ the user disables secure boot in the BIOS. It's all about barrier to entry,

I can't help but think that the difference here is between academic knowledge and vocational experience. Working in an industry gives you the latter but only _maybe_ the former.

For example, WRT fracking I'd like to see more judges with a background in academic geoscience _not_ ex oil-industry workers

Digging in the _kernel_ I.E. in existing open-source code to figure out the interface, and using a shim to intercept system calls This is using the binary blob as a black box, in no way has the driver been decompiled nor abused in any way.

This is the correct way to implement an open-source driver. I think you have a broken understanding of what's going on here.

Actually it is not just a right it's a natural law. Anything that is broadcast with the potential to be heard and/or seen is automatically in the public domain. That is the default! Some governments specifically added the grant of a limited monopoly on distribution of a work (copyright) "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" because the default was thought to not encourage progress sufficiently, this would not be needed without the recognition that the default is the public domain.

Now your legal or moral obligation to obey that grant is a highly relative issue, and as should be discussed, but the right to transfer knowledge and experience you have received is almost as basic as it comes, even if that happens to be a reproduction a performance.

A push button dialler has _more_ functionality than the older rotary dialler (at least additional items "#" and "*")
The transition from rotary->push button is simply one of mechanical reimplementation, not of simplification.
Now we have address books, how would people feel if you _only_ had address books, you couldn't add any new numbers you could only choose from the numbers that were somehow "blessed" by your tellco or phone manufacturer. That is a more accurate comparison to the iPodification of tech.

I'm all for UI's that hide complexity as long at they always allow you to express the full power of the system in question, even if they hide much of it by default. However that is rarely what these UIs do, generally they simply remove needed features.

I'm not going to be using my phone data and tablet data at the same time (to any great degree) so I see no reason why I should pay an additional £15 a month for a tablet data plan. Android tethering all the way, and I don't need to pay for another radio in my tablet, win-win.

Odd, I use Google reader on my Vega, it's first release was pretty poor but it really nice now.
Additionally you don't check "pixel counts" on android you allocate assets depending on device categories

http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

No it doesn't. iOS literally doubles the phone app pixels, it's a terrible way of doing things due to the fact that iOS was not built for resolution independence. Android have been allowing for variable screen sizes and dpi since 1.6. Android apps don't "re-scale" they simply conform to the available space (assuming they are written well)

Nonsense, iOS is almost identical between the iPad and the iPhone, your artificial separation of "mini-app" and "full-size app" makes no sense. The only difference is the layout of the UI nothing about the core of the app needs to change (assuming the API is flexible enough)

Sure there may be apps that are fundamentally impossible to build using a small screen. But mostly the formula is "two panes, one for navigation the other for content" rather than "one screen leading to another" That is easy to do on Android even without honeycomb.

It does, and it provides resource management so you can provide separate assets for ldpi mdpi and hdpi. Most tablets are mdpi (~160 dpi) the nexus one is hdpi. The g1 was mdpi.

Developers can fail to handle this nicely but most of the "good" apps handle dpi just fine.