"Lame Duck" in politics means they're on their way out. Either they've already lost an election or, in this case, in his final term and can't run again. It has nothing to do with what he's done or what his goals are/were. It basically means he can do as he pleases and doesn't need to worry about what the voters think anymore.

Maybe I'm not understanding this agreement, but to me it sounds like they just agreed not to actively recruit from each other. I've never seen anything indicating that, for example, an Apple employee couldn't apply for a position at Google (and vice versa).

Not entirely true.

If someone cuts in front of you and immediately slams on the brakes, there's not always enough space to avoid a collision. I've had that happen multiple times in the DC area (luckily no actual collisions, but many close calls).

There's also people who intentionally get themselves rear ended for insurance/lawsuit claims. Supposedly, the reason everyone seems to have a dashcam in Russia is because this is so prevalent there and I've seen vids of it being done in California, too.

That being said, in normal driving conditions, the person doing the rear-ending is generally at fault.

Perhaps they reversed the policy after 6 months, but they kept selling phones based on it for a while after. I know people who bought phones later that year (Oct-Dec time frame) that were still locked down and never got an update unlocking it.

For a long time, AT&T was blocking the option to sideload apps on their Android phones. No Amazon Appstore or Swype for you!

And I'm convinced that Samsung is trying to work their way to having their own Android-based environment, separate from Google, including their own app store.

Yes, but that doesn't make Facebook Home uninstallable. It will almost certainly be a system app that cannot be uninstalled unless you root the phone. And some of the apps in the suite may be set up to start automatically even if you don't actually use them.

Thankfully Android 4.1 (or was it 4.0?) added the ability to disable apps you don't like but can't uninstall.

The same could be said of Amazon's Android Appstore, the iTunes App Store, and the Windows Phone Store. Or how about Kindle vs Nook vs iTunes? Or OSX vs Windows? Or Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs Wii?

Your complaint is meaningless.

They probably meant the AV-8B Harrier II, which one variation of the F-35 was specifically designed to replace.

And when the GSM carriers have crap coverage where you live?

Believe me, I'd love to leave VZW, but I've got to go several miles away to pick up a signal from AT&T or T-mobile - and I'm not far outside Washington, DC.

So are they planning on using it to make enormous Swiss cheese?

And only a small piece of that $148B was from sales of smartphones. They do a hell of a lot of business elsewhere, be it TVs, Blu-Ray players, RAM/Flash chips, display panels, etc.

You shouldn't be comparing the total revenue but that related specifically to the products involved.

You did read the part about 2/3 of the deaths being in India and China, right? They've got very few of the emissions controls that we have in Europe, North America, and other parts of Asia (like Japan and South Korea).

It's not data mining the phone. All of that info (except the geolocation) is input by the user.

Given that you have to enter all of the information that was listed (except the location) yourself, you know exactly what information it's collecting.

You do realize that the cases you're referring to started before Google took over Motorola, right?