you could get companies to build peripherals for them... Google doesn't make the addons, someone else does...

A set of Carl Zeiss lenses for your smart phone?

I do remember upgrading CPUs from 486sx to dx to adding in a 66mhz overclocking chip etc...

However, it wasn't very long before upgrading a cpu meant buying a new motherboard.

A phone on the other hand... if you want it to be small and lightweight with no bulky connectors... it won't be field upgradable. Look at ultrabooks with their soldered on ram and SSD modules vs a W series Lenovo with dual expansion bays...

I also seem to recall at the S5 launch that the audience applauded the phone being dust and waterproof. Not sure how you can do this with all sorts of connectors.

Though I do applaud them for trying and maybe something good will come out of it.

I work in an area that has a high number of large companies with big parking lots. Nearby there's plenty of places to eat, and all employers warn their employees never to leave laptops in their car, in sight, when they go to lunch. As it's a common occurrence for people to walk the restaurant parking lots and "smash n grab" a laptop bag.

So now you're providing the opportunity for someone to sit in a parking lot, wait for a UPS/FedEx truck to drive around, identify a vehicle, deliver a package and drive away. Then the thief would go up to the car, and pry open the trunk and in 2minutes drive off with the package.

I'm also surprised that Volvo would suggest this since they sell quite a few cars that do not have sealed trunks but are open in the back like a station wagon/SUV/crossover.

If it's OTA and my car gets bricked, is the manufacturer going to send a tow truck to my house and take it to be repaired? This would be a major unplanned inconvenience for me.

If i have to take it into the dealership anyhow, and it gets bricked, it's already there and in capable hands of being fixed. If I time the update with other maintenance like oil changes, then it's all done at the same time.

The Tesla model could work perfectly well, just like i've never had my home router brick when doing upgrades, but if my router did brick, I'm not stuck somewhere.

UPS/FedEx/USPS have efficient routing because your house doesn't move. They can plan the best way to get from the warehouse/depot to a set of locations throughout the day. I think this is akin to the traveling salesman problem...

Now, if you have it delivered to your car, which is mobile, how are they supposed to coordinate this? If the truck leaves the depot at 7am, and my car is detected at my house, the truck has a route optimized for delivery to my house. If I go to the grocery store at 9am, does the truck re-reroute to the grocery store and then if I go to the bank 30min later re-route again?

Doubt it.

This might work if you tell them that your car will be in a fixed location throughout the day. But I'm not sure that civilian GPS is sensitive enough to tell the driver where your car is when it's in a parking lot with 500 other cars.

Look cord cutters don't get many things including many live sporting events (College Football, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB), the local news channels etc..

They wanted to cut their cords knew fully well that not everything they wanted was available online.

I pay for cable tv so I get the olympics, I don't pay for netflix, so I don't get every episode of Friends on demand. Oh well. It's not like I can force netflix to stream to me every episode of Friends on demand because it's not fair, or I didn't realize that I could get them to provide me with free services even when I don't pay for them.

Currently with POTS the phone company provides power to the line entering your home.

Is there a way that you can provide VOIP or other digital means without having to power a home device locally?

A few years ago we had a massive ice storm in MA and we had no power for 3 days. My "emergency" $10 phone from walmart worked like a champ.

I supported ISDN back in the 90s... while I know that ATT/Verizon aren't considering ISDN, the thought of troubleshooting premises equipment again gives me chills.

I seem to recall a few friends of mine that purchased Wii Fit and that balance board. The balance board was used the day they unwrapped it and now while the wii fit sits in the closet the balance board continues to sit under the TV where it has sat since the day it was unwrapped.

So now Nintendo's strategy is to push Wii Fit again? Is their market the elderly in retirement homes?

Well.. i guess their next move is to release yet another version of Mario...

If you're just working in your basement or making basic recordings/mixings, go with Garageband. Need more features and aren't afraid of paying a bit more look at Logic Pro-X. I like LogicPro for composing music while ProTools is better for editing and mixing.

All of the above have a rich support for plugins.

Conversely you could select Audacity. Runs on windows/linux/mac and is pretty much free. It's a step up from Garageband, depending on exactly what you need to do. Definitely take a look at it.

One could pick their applications based on platform or based upon your requirements/needs of your work.

I chose the latter and went with a mac and LogicPro.

Btw, don't forget to to get good input hardware (mics, converters etc..). Believe it or not, that $30 cable that comes with the game Rocksmith does provide an ok USB interface, not quite as good as the equipment from Line6, but if you're just hacking in the basement for minimal cost, it'll work. With recordings crappy input = crappy output.

I would also spend some time on Homerecording.com browsing/searching their forums. This topic is covered quite a bit there.

Good luck.

Since I'm in San Francisco, I'd like to lease the seat heater function. I'll pay for it from November through end of January and then I want to stop paying for it for the next 9 months.

Likewise, people in New England would probably only want A/C for a few weeks in July/August.

No chance on earth I want to pay $1k to enable seat heaters for something I'll only use a few times a year.

However, for someone in Florida, they should be able to pay a one time fee and get it forever.

I have a phone.
My wife has a phone.
Our son has a phone.

My family then has one computer with three accounts on it.

Sure there are families with multiple computers and one phone, but I doubt that one phone is passed around each day to a different family member. A mobile phone isn't consumed like it was a mobile version of a land line (one line per household).

So instead of selling one device per household with a computer, you sell one device per member of household. A much larger addressable market.

To me I wanted a solution that "just worked" for everyone in the family. That included me not wanting to have to compile anything or modify scripts, and the interface had to look polished hence running VLC isn't a solution for me.

I've got a 2010 mac mini with an external nas hooked up to my TV. I've got over a hundred movies ripped and thousands of mp3s and a few dozen tv shows. I put them into to root folders "Movies", "music" and "TV Shows". I pick the right scanner for each (30 seconds worth of effort). If I wanted I could store the music in iTunes and plex can retrieve it from there.

As long as you've got the files named something useful (I use the movie's name and year of release in the filename rather than "ROTJ.mov"). Only issues are with titles that are a bit out there like concert DVDs, and for those very few I just manually correct it. (5 min of work).

The GUI for plex is optimized for a remote control If you've got the silver apple remote this is perfect (the old white plastic one didn't have enough buttons). Or just use the iphone/android app instead. I do have an IR keyboard if I need to do something on the mac.

I would guess that moving 30-40 passengers via bus uses far less fuel than taking them by boat.

Way to go SF! Save your bus-stops...

We should expect pro-environment Berkley folks to be protesting the pro-bus-stop SF residents...

Citation required on the aspect of treason which requires it to be legal and constitutional.

Article 3 of the US Constitution defines treason as: "levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

I would say leaking how the US gov't is spying or collecting information does give aid and comfort to our enemies.

Ok so a set of replacement wipers costs me $20 at the local autoparts store. I replace my wipers once a year, and if something happens that I need to replace one, in an hour (including driving to the autoparts store) I'm all set. No special training, tools, diagnostic computers, calibrating equipment etc etc.. required.

Now I'm going to install something that when (not if) it breaks will cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars to fix.

Let McLaren install these in their $1m cars aimed at the rich and famous. It's not like you see Ferraris and Lamborghini's driving in the rain anyhow.