Absolutely not the case where I live in HK, and not perceived at all during my trips to Shanghai and Beijing.

I currently live in Hong Kong, and I do several business trips to Chinese cities. I am not surprised that China is catching up in the space race, based on the general impresson of ambitious, intelligent and thorough workers. Indeed, they have not caught up everywhere (both as in the geography where there is a divide - but closing, and as in product categories), but it is obvious that China will only get more dominant.
A lesson for western countries (I am European btw) may be to increase school quality. Schools in HK and China can be VERY high in quality (perhaps pushing the kids too far), andI learned twice already from chinese expats in the west that their kids found the supposedly excellent local western schools too simple. Eduation is investment in the future, and I notice that China does that well.
Meanwhile, when I go back to Europe every half a year, I am saddened by the general lack of ambition. People tend to wait for th e government to do something for them. Over here, people are much more ambitious and enterprising.

So much negativity and cynicism here.
Would there be a similar /. backlash if, say, Ubuntu would do a similar effort this week?

I detest that twisted logic that because a company is rich, it is acceptable to steal from them.

If this were an American probe, would the commentor also have dismissed this landing as easily?
I think that it is a fabulous achievement. And even if it will not be possible to drill: look at those awesome pictures. Wonderful.

Correction: Final Cut Pro costs $300 these days. For someone who is serious about their video, that is not too bad. It is good enough for the Coen Brothers after all. But for non professional use, something like Premiere Elements or iMovie may be more than good enough, except of course if you use Linux. Does Pitivi offer more features?

Their life cannot be complete without the opportunity to whine about the U2 album that appeared on their iphones.

I was looking at my mega compendiums of Invincible and Walking Dead, these have between 1024 and 1088 pages per big volume. Wouldn't Transmetropolitan fit in 2 such big collections?

Will Transmetropolitan ever be released as a big single collection? Or perhaps 2 books?

Even so, I wonder if the Samsung CEO toyed with the idea of coming out now that Tim did it.

Hypercard was incredible back then. If Apple had thought about integrating it with network features from the beginning, the internet might have looked a lot different.

Yes, it is true that the battery is currently still a pain point, and it will take a few more years to break the 1 week barrier. I don't think it will stop sales though, people are so used to charge their phone daily.
But I also think that the battery is just one of the many elements, and even an Apple hater has to admit that they were thorough and innovative in several areas, most notably in the straps and bracelets. These things have been in status quo since decades inthe traditional watch world, while Apple truly started from scratch. For example you can resize the bracelet without tools. No sales clerk hammering on it. Then you have the straps with the magnetic locks. And the sporty straps wher ethe leftover bit folds under the strap, which is very neat (I expect that this last one comes from designer Mark Newsom who is assisting Apple with the watch design, he had done similar straps for his ikepod brand). Also the lugs of the straps are integrated and can easily be replaced, meaning every strap can have the ideal lug instead of the generic one on traditional watches.
In general the material choice is also more akin quality watches than the Pebble etc, for example the ceramic back.
All in all, while the local Apple hate puts blinders on the eyes of many slashdotters, if you have an open mind you have to admit that they really thought things through.
Will I buy one? Maybe in v2 or v3 when they will have added more sensors. The health focus will be the killer app for commercial success.

Somehow, I wonder if the Samsung CEO will now suddenly come out.