Those methods don't quite accomplish it. You can unregister your number from Apple's central directory, not from the persistent iMessage cache of individual phones.

After unregistering, new contacts won't send iMessages to your number, but existing contacts will continue to send iMessages for weeks or months, as your number lingers in their phone's iMessage cache.

I unregistered a number back in November. Most of my iPhone contacts see that number as green by now, but a few persistent devices -still- show it as a blue iMessage number.

Signing out doesn't solve the problem, because individual phones cache iMessage numbers for months.

Signing out will prevent new contacts from iMessaging you. But it won't remove your number from the persistent cache in your existing contacts' phones. They will continue to iMessage you, no matter that you've signed out.

Try a group conversation between 2 or more iMessage users, and one former-iMessage user.

No. There is no effective way to "sign your number out," because individual phones cache iMessage numbers for months. If you sign out today, your friends will continue to send "blue bubbles" to your number for months, because your number is in their iMessage cache. It doesn't matter that you've signed out.

Signing out prevents new contacts from iMessaging you, but it has no effect on your existing contacts. They will keep sending "blue bubbles" to your number for months to come. The only effective way to sign out is to get a new phone number.

That's what you would -expect- to happen. But when you port your number to samsung, your friends will actually continue to send blue bubbles to your number. Therein lies the problem: there's no way to unregister a number from iMessage.

Some of your friends may enable the SMS-fallback option, which will forward some of their messages as green bubbles. But group messages will never be forwarded. Your iPhone-using friends will just think you're ignoring them.

You can just switch iMessages off in phone C's settings. Or transfer the SIM from phone C into non-Apple phone.

Basically, the problem is that SMS-fallback doesn't work for group messages. So iPhone users can't send group messages to former iPhone-users.

It's not an SMS-delivery problem. Phone A never sends an SMS. Phone A sends only a "blue" message to the entire group, and never notices that phone C didn't receive it.

I switched away from IOS months ago, but my iPhone-using friends still see my number as "blue," and try to iMessage me. Individual messages fallback to SMS, but group messages just fail silently. There is no way to "sign out" of iMessage.

If you tell Apple that you want to receive iMessage messages on your phone but them disable it on the phone, then iMessage still works for groups, but you won't get them. It's like redirecting you email to /dev/null and then bitching when nobody emails you anymore.

That's exactly what its like. But if you ever want to switch to a non-Apple phone, you have no other option. There is no way to "sign out" from iMessage.

I switched to a Samsung months ago, and some of my iPhone-using friends STILL see my number as "blue," and try to send me iMessages.

The only reliable way to sign out from iMessage is to get a new phone number.

Alas, the SMS fallback doesn't work properly. Group messages always fail silently, regardless of the setting.

This is easily repeatable, if you have three iPhones. Try it yourself!

1. Disable iMessage on phone C, but leave it enabled on phones A and B.
2. Send a group message from phone A to phones B and C. It will fail silently. The message will never be received by phone C.

If dell's speakers are damaged by playing clipped audio, couldn't the same damage be caused by playing a poorly-mastered CD?

eg: http://mastering-media.blogspo...

I suppose I don't know how sanitary it is, but they really do perform the slaughter right there in the cove.

eg:
          http://digitaljournal.com/image/102641

          http://unleashed.org.au/images/blogs/The-cove.jpg

I don't see evidence of bias in the word choice. "Slaughter" is the normal English word to describe the killing of animals for food. Pigs and cows are "slaughtered" routinely, in buildings clearly labelled as "slaughterhouses."

What other word would you have them use?

That would be an advantage, except nobody has Windows RT tablets.

The real advantage of Metro is that Microsoft gets to pocket 30% of every third-party developer's revenue. That's why they keep pushing it so hard. They fantasize about someday collecting that royalty on all windows software.

That's true in America. But in much of the world (including most of Europe), a CV is expected to include one's age, marital status, and number of children.

A European employer may also expect to receive a photograph, from which the applicant's race, weight, and physical attractiveness can be judged.

More information here: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/cvadvice/qt/cveurope.htm

Aside from novelty, the point of a curved display is to squeeze more screen area into the same footprint.

I've never understood curved TVs, but I can see the appeal of curved phones which need to fit comfortably into palms and pockets.

How do you figure?

On average, full siblings share 50% their chromosomes.

25% is the average for half-siblings, not full siblings.