I'm not sure how this statement can be true. Apple is not a carrier and directly provides iOS updates and bugfixes to older handsets for several years. Their oldest supported device is the 4S which came out in 2011.

I am curious if you have a reference that shows that Google and their partners such as Samsung are legally prevented from doing the same. I can and do blame them for their disinterest in security patches.

Exactly. "Land of Oz" is the slang reference that I first heard when I was visiting. At the time I was traveling with backpackers (including locals, not just foreigners), so maybe it was just a humorous joke and in less common use than I thought. I'm sure no official document would spell it that way.

Thanks for the insight!

You've never heard it referred to as Oz?

I have heard those 2 letters used in conjunction as reference to Australia many, many times during my travels there.

Now the term "ozzies" is somewhat new that I haven't heard before. Could be a recent development.

Huh? I can immediately name two examples of a modern QWERTY phone here or here.

Your experience is due to the TV settings. Most TV's out of the box have the "soap opera effect" set to maximum and the sharpness set to maximum. Brightness adjusts the black level and contrast adjusts the white level. These are all set to make it look good in the bright store but are generally not desirable for home movie viewing to a discerning viewer. Perhaps your friend is open to adjusting his picture - however be aware that a lot of people believe they like the super sharp picture because they are used to it and might dislike the softer, more natural picture. Ask him to try it for a couple of weeks before making a decision to go back.

This is the first thing I did on my Panasonic plasma TV (after the burn-in) was to turn that shit off and calibrate the display. The picture is incredible.

Mexico and Canada are not part of the United States. They do not have the same treaties with each other as do the the EU or the Commonwealth countries.

As a Brit can you freely move and work in those countries outside of the European Union that are still in Europe or the surrounding area? I don't know why you'd want to move to, say Serbia or Albania however can you do so without permission? What about Ukraine, which is usually considered part of Europe?

No, just no. Android OS has very little overlap to a dedicated music player that requires a few physical buttons to play, pause and skip along with basic displays. The markets are only related because modern phones can also store and play music. That doesn't mean a smart phone is best at playing music.

I thought Kim Dotcom was broke and not even able to pay his lawyers? http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30209067

Or if you live in a state like I do that has no sales tax. I don't want a new federal tax imposed on my purchases, which is one of the ideas floating around. Having the feds collect a tax and redistribute it is a tempting angle to avoid certain sticky issues of state tax collection across state lines. People who already are used to paying sales taxes might be ok with this, but what about states like mine that are quite opposed to a sales tax? Would my state have an exemption along with due recourse to fight the collection on merchants who might falsely collect it?

Cost-Benefit.

Your stated advantage is loss of paper ballots.

Your stated negative is "to get electronic voting done securely and properly"

I think paper ballots win. More security staff is a much larger payout than developing a fully trusted and accountable complex computer system.

How does a blind person see the touchscreen? How is this an improvement over a paper ballot with fixed braille next to each option?

Ballots must be anonymous to guarantee an uncompromised election. Preventions against stuffing the ballot box is a local check and balance. It's hard to lose a paper ballot once they are in the lock box.

Darn, right link, wrong text. Wish I could recall my post for a few seconds to make a quick edit.

It should be Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode: or, How Not to Design Authentication

Verified by VISA didn't succeed because:
1) It looked like a scam site complete with redirection to a 3rd party asking for personal details like portion of social security number. Nowhere does it display security credentials.
2) Real phishing scams exist using the name and similar form layouts.
3) Yet Another Password. Hopefully not the same one used to log into the shopping site.
4) If you forget your password, all you need is the card information to reset it, plus a birthday. Not exactly a big secret.
5) It never worked for me because I disable third party cookies, run ABP, disable javascript, etc. I had to use IE the one time I tried to use it.

Here is a paper that describes the flaws in Verified by Visa. Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment

I am glad not everyone shares your viewpoint. This is an entire industry still in its infancy. Using a strategy like selling rich people seats so they can be the first ones up there is perfectly satisfactory to get the technology developed and bring costs down an open it up to a wider audience. It's not a zero sum game.