First, I'm not streaming *FROM* my phone. I'm streaming *TO* my phone and it only takes about 128k to stream good quality audio to a mobile device.

It may be a few more years before everyone is doing it, but it makes more sense to stream the data to mobile devices rather than having to carry around gigabytes of data.

I no longer *need* my iPod or any MP3 player. I use an application called Orb that streams all of the media on my Windows desktop to my Cell Phone or any web browser. I don't have to worry about syncing my iPod to download media or running out of space on my iPod. As long as it's on my PC, I can stream it to my phone. Orb is free, but it uses the bandwidth of your home PC to stream out the media...which is fine for music and live TV or video on the cell phone. But the lower video quality is noticeable when you stream it to a desktop. I expect this to change as residential upload speeds will eventually go up.

I'm not exactly a fan of AT&T/Cingular. I actually have service with Alltel (soon to be Verizon), but this is the same standard "deal" that everyone gives for buying a phone with a contract.

Looking at the new iPhone, the $200 price is actually cheaper than the 2 year contract price for the HTC Touch from Alltel/Verizon, which seems fair.

If you knew you would want a new phone in a year, then you should have paid the "1 year contract" price (or at least they used to offer that option).

At any rate, the price you paid for the phone was subsidized by your signing of the 2 year contract and you shouldn't expect another subsidized phone until your current contract runs out.

My guess would be that this would be an option that would default to "on", but could be turned off by the user.

All the companies that I know of offer an "evaluation" option even if they don't outright say that they do on their website. Most of them can even generate full license keys that are valid for something like 30 days. You just have to ask.

Actually, it's a known fact that Microsoft will commonly put up a BSD server and tweak Apache's response headers to report it as IIS. They have actually been caught doing it a few times. It would look kind of bad if Microsoft doesn't use their own product.

I don't know about NewEgg either. Their prices are not generally the best. Plus, I've received poor customer service from them recently. I'm guessing that they are simply beginning to enjoy their popularity and are starting to rely more on their reputation. My bad experience coupled with other stories has tarnished their image enough for me that I try to go elsewhere online if I can.

Read your contract. For the most part, the company that provides your service does so of their own will. The only thing is, you have money and normally they want to take it from you. If your cable company suddenly decided that they didn't want to offer cable tv to you, there's not much that you can do as long as they refund any service you have paid for that you won't be receiving.

All they will do is send you a letter saying that they are no longer offering the service to you...you will likely see one of two approaches:

- A full refund for your "last month of service"
- A pro-rated refund for the remainder of your paid service (monthly in most cases)

It is entirely up to the company to decide who they want to do business with.

The problem is going to come if a company offers more than one service to a customer. In the case of a cable company, how likely is a customer that has had their internet access cut off going to be to keep their cable tv service?

I personally pay ~$40 for cable internet service, but my monthly cable bill is ~$120. I can guarantee you that if the cable company cuts off my cable internet, they will lose the whole $120 from me.

I am pretty sure you're joking, but you know the shuttle has the flight characteristics of a "flying brick", right?

The wings on the thing are just on there to help control the descent and serve as fuel storage.

I hesitate to call the shuttle a "glider", but that's pretty much what it is.

So, what about all of the schools that migrated to Google Apps and don't pay anything? What do they get?