I read Slashdot daily on my iPhone using Avantslash.

I think it works great and it's far better than m.slashdot.org - but then I'm biased as I wrote it. Yes, screen-scraping and reformatting is a little hacky, but this script has been required to read Slashdot on your phone for the past 10+ years. At the rate we're going, it'll probably be needed for at least another 5 years.

If you don't believe me then try the demo on your own mobile phone first.

I don't get the hurt. Why is it sad but true? Apple puts the time and resources into doing it right, and it is a sad thing?

A not-so-small subset of the Slashdot crowd don't like the direction that Apple, driven by actually understanding the needs of the average customer, are moving general computing.

They seem to dislike it even more when Apple can charge a premium and millions will more than happily pay it to escape (what they perceive as) the mundane and bizarre decisions fostered on them by decades of techies who never really understood or listened to what the largest segment of the customer base actually wanted - or didn't want to think about.

Their flashlight app was requesting network and GPS privs? There's obviously a fundamental problem with the Android security model, and I'm just going to go ahead and point my finger at people. First off, people assume that just because it's on the Play store, it's safe to install. Obviously not the case. Second, people obviously don't review the privs their apps request and say something like "Why the fuck does a flashlight app need access to my GPS and network?" And third, lazy developers have no incentive not to request every priv in the model.

Not to mention that although for a very basic app (like a flashlight one) it is possible to spot a nefarious permission, once you start looking a much more feature-rich app then it gets very difficult for users to work out the validity of the permission requested.

For example, a mobile banking app wants your location. Is this because:

1. It's sending location data to a server to track you?
2. It's sending it to third party companies for location based advertising?
3. It wants that information so it can tell you where the nearest ATM or bank branch is?

... or would have it been much more beneficial for everyone if Mozilla spent the $45,000 on a developer who could trawl through Bugzilla and fix some of the highly rated Firefox defects?

Every year we hear about how the desktop is dying and every year it doesn't. When will these idiots realize that desktop PCs are a niche that's not going to go away? It might shrink, especially compared to other forms of computing. But reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Even Apple, when announcing the iPad, accepted that there would always be a need for a desktop PC:

When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that's what you needed on the farms. Cars became more popular as cities rose, and things like power steering and automatic transmission became popular. PCs are going to be like trucks. They are still going to be around ... they are going to be one out of x people.

The Verge has posted a hands on with Jolla. It's not good news:

Yes, it sounds very reminiscent of the Nokia N9, but in practice it's highly unintuitive and unwieldy to the point where the entire UI paradigm can be considered broken. Screen transitions and in-app animations go from left to right, inviting the user to swipe from right to left to go back, but thatâ(TM)s not how youâ(TM)re supposed to do it. A notification pops down from the top of the screen, but if you try to swipe down to view it, you're liable to unintentionally close your current app, or more annoyingly, lock the entire phone. Then there's the fact that a swipe from the middle of the screen produces a different result than a swipe from the edge. It all adds up to a frustrating learning experience. The user is forced to adapt around the operating system rather than the other way around.

All the effort of adapting to Jolla might be worth it if the device offered some unique advantage over others on the smartphone market, but it doesn't. The only standout quality it has is the goodwill of old Nokia loyalists and those who like to support grassroots projects. Unfortunately, there just isn't a very good smartphone here, and that's what you need if you intend to compete with behemoths like Google, whose Nexus 5 is a startlingly good value at 70 euros less.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5156446/jolla-smartphone-hands-on-preview

I personally dislike Google's all-or-nothing approach to permissions. It gives the user a complete list of things (some of which may be valid and some not) with absolutely no context as to why they need this and then basically tell you that if you want the app then you have to accept the lot.

Coupled with a barely managed market place, you're just asking for someone to slip something malicious into the store and for anyone downloading it to blindly hit "accept".

A better method would be to rationalise some of the permissions (for example, do you really need to spook everyone with "read call state" given that it's used to suspend an app when a call comes in?) and then pop up a request to access the other permissions at the time when they are needed - a la iPhone.

That way I know why my app wants to access my contacts (because I've just pushed the button that says "invite a friend to a game") and also means that if I'm not comfortable with it having access to my call history then I can decline and still have the opportunity to continue using it.

You'd think something like Silverlight would automatically upgrade itself.

It will, assuming that it's given a critical priority within Windows Update and the user has their machine set up to automatically download and install updates.

Come on, this is basic Windows stuff. Can we get someone on the Slashdot staff that has actually some experience of the operating system in use by 96% of the population please?

the black market on the other hand offered to pay handsomly a years salary for my exploit that breaks microsoft embedded security in appliances like ATM's and nuclear reactors, thereby recognizing and acknowledging my important work in the field of security.

So what? It's well known that crime always pays significantly better than being honest - unless, of course, you get caught.

A smash and grab robber in a Rolex store is going to make more $ per hour than your server in McDonalds or even a white collar worker.

However for the vast majority of people, this is a complete non-issue because their moral compass is firmly intact.

Well, since iTunes Radio only works on Apple Devices, and Pandora works everywhere, I would not be too worried.

Given that the "everywhere" support that Pandora has is actually restricted to only three countries - if iTunes Radio works on all Apple devices worldwide, I would be worried.

Whilst it's common (and often justified) to have a pop at the carriers for delaying or preventing updates to devices, it's worth pointing out that I've got access to a whole range of Android devices direct from a number of different OEMs and not a single one of them has yet received an OTA update to fix this vulnerability.

The carriers may still slow down this process, but it's already going slow enough with just the OEMs involved.

I never really understood the point of Chrome Frame.

Surely the very people who needed to use it (those in a locked down corporate environment) are the very same people who can't install it because they're in a locked down corporate environment?

I've tried most of them and, to be honest, they are all pretty rubbish. I don't want any fancy new bells and whistles - but what Google Reader had today (minus the sharing bit) would be just fine.

Unfortunately none of the alternatives I looked at could manage that. From non-working sites, to ghastly user interface design, to one which requires a browser plug-in just to work (seriously wtf?).

On that basis, I'm really hoping that Digg Reader (whenever it arrives) doesn't suck. If it does, then I don't think there are any viable alternatives.

The font is pretty hard to read, it would be nice if you used a different one.

It's annoying that I cannot hide subscriptions in the left hand column. Especially when they have no new stories.

Clicking on a thread causes an eternal spinning "Loading".

At that point I'm afraid I gave up. It's a good start though.

Why on earth would you need a website for what ought to be a simple RSS reader?

Off the top of my head, for locked down corporate computers and the ability to read and sync (the read/unread status of posts) across lots of different desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices.