Does China make it illegal to sell or possess a device that will let the user "sideload" apps? Apple may have been told by China to take the app of the store (we can only speculate), but by making themselves the gate keepers of what apps a user can install, they give China a one stop shop to dictate the apps a large number of their citizens can use. Apple is not blameless, and while they might not censor so much on speech grounds, them making themselves the gatekeeper of apps is very China-like.

It is not so much that they ignore laws. It is more like they sidestep the laws they don't like by conducting certain business in countries with laws they do like.

Dial-up access... there is an app for that.

Does that unlimited plan include international calling? Voice over data can be much more cost effective for that, even without unlimited data. I have gotten good performance even with mobile networks on both ends.

Also, there are apps for that with better track records on user privacy than Facebook.

What stops you from turning off your phone at home?

Considering the penalty for possession of 500 grams weed carries the death penalty in Singapore, I would not be surprised if those black sheep really don't exist there.

ad supported != free

In general, operating systems are more becoming more walled gardens for the vendor's "store" and designed around "affiliated" experiences rather than actual pieces of software that make it easy for the user to install and use the software and services of their choosing. "Free" or not, Ubuntu going down this slope reflects this frustrating trend.

And the compression artifacts look amazing at that resolution!!!!

...and if they can can get a high quality image that fills their field of view with sound that is powerful and convincing, that is good enough for some people to feel like they have actually experienced something, as opposed to just "watching" it.

Of course, most of the people who can afford to create these artificial experiences in their home somewhat convincingly can also afford to actually go to places and have the real life experiences to which you are likely referring. But then, a convincing presentation of something is the closest ANY person can get to "experiencing" events and places that can't possibly be experienced in real life.

I'd never grant that movies can be a substitute for actually going places and interacting with the environment and the people, especially as someone who usually chooses to spend disposable income on travel instead of upgrading the home theater. However with the right presentation and material, movies the can be life experiences you'll never forget.

The stuff on cable is so compressed to hell and filtered that it was never really HD to begin with.

Downloading 31 songs, or ruining someone's life because they download 31 songs?

The difference in capabilities between consoles and top-of-the-line gaming PCs is significant. It is the fact that most PC games also have console versions and most PCs are not top-of-the-line, so games are targeted pretty close to the lowest common denominator.

I don't buy this "can't be done do to the nature of wireless communications" explanation. It's not because I completely understand the technical details (far from it), but because I have been to very densely populated places with high penetrations of "smart" devices", that have cheap mobile data, which their usage reflects, and got consistently great performance. I have video Skyped half way around the world on a GSM network (not even "4G"), with people doing other data heavy tasks all around me without performance issues.

Now, it may come down to politics and very real problems when managing our spectrum, getting permission to build and "wire" for mobile communcations, etc, but it being technically impossible for mobile networks to handle "high" data demands? I think not.

Obviously the kind of horseshit that enables a company like Verizon to maintain a 40 - 50 percent profit margin on their customers.

American corporations are not incompetent. Many are making record profits in one of the worst economic downturns in recent history. They know what they are doing, especially when it comes corrupting our government for their benefit and locking in customers. Deserving of eternal damnation, yes. Incompetent, no.

That depends. Verizon was recently fined for not adhering to open access provisions of their spectrum purchase. If he has a 4G LTE device ("C-Spectrum"), Verizon might be forced to allow free tethering regardless of his plan. The article to which you link reports Verizon "interpretation", which seems like they are still trying to dig their heels in, or continue to half-ass in their obligations with regard to the spectrum purchase. Whether that would survive if the FCC reviews Verizon's compliance again is a different story.

More likely, they will just find ways to force they unlimited customers into new contracts.