The quality and parts in the build don't merit almost double the price. You're paying a high premium for the Apple brand. It happens on business all the time. Simply look to clothing for numerous examples of it. You're buying a designer computer and paying designer prices for it.

Try the XPS 15z. Metal case. Same weight and thickness as a Macbook Pro. Still much less. $1299 vs. $2249. Twice the RAM, 1080p screen, USB 3.0 and e-Sata ports on the Dell. Better graphics card, Firewire and Thunderbolt on the MBP.

It has potential. I'd rather have a Windows 8 tablet that offers more flexibility in function and software than an Android tablet. I find with an Android tab that I'm planning my use around the tablet's limitations rather than simply treating it like another computing device.

For other users, having access to all the software you're familiar with has merit. Having a Windows tab means you could potentially have your notebook and tablet in one device, particularly for those that have very simple needs.

Actually, Android devices sold quite well when priced well. Best Buy had Acer A100 7" tabs for $189 and 10" Acer A500 tabs selling for $229. They had the Asus Transformer up for $250 for Black Friday and currently have it for $299. Newegg sold out on the Toshiba Thrive instantly as did Amazon when they put it up, both at $199. Kmart sold out on their mis-price of the Acer A500 as well at $212 or so.

Android devices can sell. It's just that makers are going to need to realize that people aren't willing to pay the $500 for an Android tablet that they are for an Apple tablet.

That said, I think Google needs to work on it if they want a decent shot at the tablet market. One thing I've been hearing more and more are comments regarding Windows 8 tablets. Even with the atrocious metro UI, the ability to switch to a full-blown OS with plenty of app selection is enticing for many.

Trained? I priced out a Macbook Pro 15 similar to the XPS 15 I purchased. Same i7 CPU. 4gb RAM instead of 6gb on my Dell. Slightly larger-but-slower HDD and better graphics card. No bluray on either. Final cost? $2199 for the Apple. $899 for the Dell. That's over double the cost with the Mac lacking USB 3.0 and e-Sata ports.

The reason why iPads aren't more expensive than Android tablets is that Android tablet makers thought they could price the same as Apple and do well. Apple set the tablet pricing and others followed rather than realizing they should be setting lower rather than even with Apple.

Actually, experience shows that the opposite is true - Google humblebundle and Linux for an example. I think what happens is that many in the FOSS community are deeply concerned about attempts to undermine the freedom part of the deal. If demonstrate that you are willing to play fair and respect the commons though, they're more generous than Mac or Windows users.

Linux is still of the "make money through support" mentality touted by OSS proponents. Humblebundle isn't setting a price but asking you to contribute some money. The problem arises, as Basilbrush suggested, when you want to actually set a price for your software and charge for it. Once you do that, problems can arise.

As opposed to Intel killing it off like they seem to want to do? I would guess those vendors might be happier having the Itaniums around rather than not. Maybe not, maybe they just want an excuse to dump Itaniums. Not being produced would certainly do it.

SGI split Cray off quite a while ago.

You can use MapDroyd or RMap on Android.

RMap can do directions as well (MapDroyd doesn't do directions or have any lookup capabilities last I tried). It's not the best though. You have to download Mobile Atlas Creator, then create your own map chunks to save which you upload to your device. From there you can load them into RMap. The map sizes that Mobile Atlas Creator allows are a bit restricted so a 6-hour road trip would have you switching maps multiple times. Though the last I looked at it was July.

Which is why the goal should be user-unfriendly. If they can't figure out how to use it, you won't have to worry about security issues.

Wasn't there also an AT&T lawsuit which took *BSD out of the picture temporarily, allowing Linux to jump into a niche that was left open?