Dear Aunt, let’s set so double the killer delete select all.

No, I really meant 50MB. Yes, I know it's VERY little data, almost nothing, but I have specified that for data there are other options (plans). This is for talking only, with VERY occasional wireless access. But still... This is 7$. I don't really use mobile data, since I can find wifi pretty much anywhere in the city (stores, malls, coffee shops, restaurants, etc), so approx 7$ covers a month of phone usage. I would say it's reasonable. Now calculate the profits made at the American tariffs. On the other hand, yes, I know, the up-front investment on the infrastructure was huge at the scale of both Canada and US (Romania is only the size of Colorado) - but that investment should have been amortized by now, I assume.

In Romania (which is in Europe), 5 euro (almost 7 US$) brings you about 2500 in-the-network national SMS/minutes + 200 out-of-network or international SMS/minutes + 50MB of data. For other usages, like higher data consumption, there are other plans/promotions. There are occasional bonuses as well, like unlimited minutes during a certain time-frame (say, 21 days). Of course, they still make lots of money, let's not pity them. So the North-American prices (especially the Canadian ones) are pure theft. Been there, done that. I was paying about 40$/month for an extremely light usage.

The correct expression is "Sieg Heil !", you uneducated turd.

This "No, fuck you" is the most intelligent post I have seen in a while. AC, pray tell: have you gotten rid of teenager's acne already ?

These are hidden/masked expenses. How do you think they budget secret initiatives ? They surely don't have their own lines in the budget details. That's why at the Pentagon you have 500$ hammers and maybe 50$ green leds. 95% of these costs go somewhere else, let's not be naive !

Meanwhile, in Romania, of all places, a provider (RDS) announced deployment of a new "pipe" (fiber-optic) that would allow (they say) up to 1 GB/sec down, all that for around 10..12 euro/mo, which is the cost of a one-person lunch in a mid-scale restaurant in town. I currently have about 40Mb/sec and pay 23 euro/mo for the whole package (internet, 70 channnels IPTV, and landline phone). In other words, if the situation is this bad in Australia, as per previous posts... it clearly is a huge money grab.

Not at all. It's more like someone using parts of google's code and charging for it !

This must be the year of Linux...

• So many people have such a blinding hate for everything Microsoft that they lose all semblance of moral and logical integrity. Therefore the argument becomes puerile, unfortunately, like many of the replies above.
• Anyway, back to the subject: in my opinion Bing is quite good, and has some interesting qualities. Are they enough to make people leave their "google" comfort-zone ? No, not yet. There's nothing revolutionary enough. Anyway, I really wish them well - competition is always welcome.
• Note. In my experience one area where Bing really fails badly at this time is searching for references to people. Search for instance for "bruce springsteen" (with quotes). How many hits you get ? In Google you get almost 11 mils. In Bing you get around 4.5 mils. In this case, of course, there's no difference (comparing two almost infinite numbers doesn't make sense - nobody will go past page 10 anyway), but searching for less well-known people will be something else - you'll get, say, 334 hits in Google, and 2 in Bing. Now that's a huge difference ! Some of the 334 hits in google were real hits. Search for instance for your own name, or for the names of your friends, not for "celebs". That's Bing's biggest downside right now, imho.

...since the new "Go" will always be "Go beta". There will be an older "Go" and a newer "Go beta"... Who's confused now ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
Enjoy ! :-) It's actually even moving and endearing !

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children. :-))

I have forgotten one such reader in the car, in the Canadian winter (about -15..-20 celsius). The next morning the screen was all black. And, of course, it was about two months out of warranty !

Besides, what about books with (colour) illustrations ?

I would simply like a phone which works EVERYWHERE, like the satellite phones - but I hear that those companies are not with us anymore. I would like to be able to turn left or right on the street, to enter a building, or to go outside the city and still have reception. Is this too much to ask ? Whenever I'm at home, if I receive a call on the cell, I need to go on the balcony to be able to talk (but it could be inconvenient, rain, snow, and all, don't you think ?) and the house is not even made of reinforced concrete to form some kind of cage. So then if I receive a call late in the evening, in winter, I don't dress up to be able to go outside and take the call - I just take the number and call back from my landline. And I still have one year of my contract. A phone that simply works well and everywhere on this continent would be the greatest telecomm revolution.