Still didn't answer the question. How should an independent developer get paid and who decides?

Or should people just buy an entry-level Android phone and use it without a SIM?

Why not?

The Moto E is $120 without a contract and I'm sure it runs better than an iPod Touch that has the same internals as the 2011 iPhone 4s.

And his 2011 iPad 2 runs the latest version of iOS....

http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/02/...

Wipe it, then go along re installing apps. DO NOT restore it, just let things come back from the holy google cloud.

Since when did Android do automatic backups of all your app data? Not just the apps -- the actual data.

So when should a software developer get paid for software that he wrote on his own time and self publishes?

When should an author of a book get paid?

A builder and a car manufacturer gets paid for each house they sell or each car they make respectively. Why shouldn't a developer get paid for each piece of software they write or a book publisher get paid for each copy of a book they sell?

Words Mean Things:

"So if a developer writes a new program on their own and publishes it".

So to clarify the question, if a developer writes a program on their own time and self publishes it, should they not reap the rewards of the program and only get paid for writing it?

So if a developer writes a new program on their own and publishes it. Should they not get paid every time someone uses it and only get paid for the time they spent writing it? Would you tell a developer if they want to get paid they should continuously write new stuff instead of expecting to get paid for what they already wrote? Should an author only get paid while they are writing a book and not expect to get paid when a copy of the book is sold?

So as long as you don't care about stuff like (mostly) guaranteed OS updates you can get a ad card slot -- which you still can't always use to store apps....

But most non-Apple smartphones use micro-SD these days,

Really? You mean like the Nexus? The Galaxy S6?

And then since my wife wants it for her mp3 player, not for an apple device, I need to run it through SoundConversion.

What modern device doesn't support AAC?

And no, AAC is not an Apple proprietary standard any more than MP3 is and is supported by every imaginable device.

If only it were solely Google. My 3 year old Apple tablet is not only obsolete, but has been for more than a year. No upgrades, no fixes, no revisions.

The only Apple tablet that doesn't get any updates is the original iPad introduced in March of 2010 and discontinued in March 2011 -- over four years old.

I don't think they're getting that much for the ads. After all, netflix manages to offer ad-free stuff for $8/month, same as Hulu+. It's probably closer to the difference between $8/month and $12.

Netflix doesn't offer next day viewing of content, Hulu does. I can't find a link now, but IIRC, a viewer is worth at least $0.60 per hour for broadcast TV.

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/n...

" itâ(TM)s also completely free for music streaming providers. No backroom deals. No paid prioritization. Just you and your music â' unleashed. "

I can only assume that T-mobile demanded that the FM radio be disabled, in order to get people to use up all their data listening to streaming music.

That must be it! Especially considering T-mobile doesn't count music streaming services as part of your data allotment.

http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/...

On a second thought, that reasoning makes no sense at all.....

Google allows you to unbundle all of the google-centric services from your phone and use whatever cloud APIs or App stores you want.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/0...