The best part is hearing the lamentations of software patent attorneys and rejoicing in the sounds of their despair.

I can imagine plenty of uses for this in automated systems such as video system or other data gatherer. And even if it's to be used to record manually-triggered output, there's much to be said for the concept of "so much freaking storage that I can pay for this once and never have to think about it again over the lifetime of the equipment I'm using it with".

Were you dropped on your head as a child? Quoth the wiki:

In 1848 Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), wrote in his paper, On an Absolute Thermometric Scale, of the need for a scale whereby "infinite cold" (absolute zero) was the scale's null point, and which used the degree Celsius for its unit increment.

Celsius degrees came before Kelvin units.

Those are not real worlds and I'll be damned if I'll ever utter them with anyone over the age of 3 in the room.

Pfft - I came up with seven mind-blowingly awesome ideas before breakfast. The problem is that each would take several programmer-years to implement, so there's an enormously high risk:reward ratio for each.

People don't copy other ideas because it's too hard to come up with their own good ones. They copy ideas because those ideas have already been vetted and proven viable in the marketplace (whether of ideas or of cash revenue).

Microsoft's hardware is nice (although you'd be crazy to compare Surface to MacBook Pro), but their user experience is terrible in comparison.

Microsoft decides that it's in their best interest for all customers to use identical UIs, so they make Metro the standard interface on phones, video game systems, tablets, desktops, and servers. Apple decides that it's in their customers' best interest for products to have similar but individualized UIs, so they create tailored interfaces for tiny, small, and large displays.

That, in a nutshell, is the difference between the two companies (and why Apple is eating Microsoft's lunch in every category where they directly compete).

The New England Patriots make about $428M a year across 16 games, each of which takes an average of 192 minutes. That works out to about $139K per minute. If Bill Belichick thinks he can work more efficiently with papyrus and a scribe, there'd be a tiny replica of the Nile in the basement of Gillette Stadium by the end of the day.

They already have one.

So you wouldn't use a device that helps you avoid unhealthy behavior, just out of spite against the insurance companies?

I nominate: 3a) discreetly getting notifications during meetings. Did no one else catch the part about its buzzer being inaudible?

For a worldthinker, you seem to be ignorant of the existence of Australia and its residents' lingo.

That's a ludicrous conclusion. If they're to be reduced to something other than a technology company, then let them be an industrial design firm. While everyone else is concentrating on specs and feature bullet lists, Apple seems to this day to be the only company focusing on UI and usability. Their goal is to make things that people enjoy using - ignoring the specs and feature bullet lists - and sell bazillions of them.

There are already smartwatches on the market. Check out Samsung's product page: Powered by Google Android Wear! 1.63" Super AMOLED® display!. Now check out Apple's product page, which focuses on its design. Even the technology page describes how each feature should make you want to have one.

Non-geek people I know couldn't care less about a 1.63" Super AMOLED® display. They understand why they'd like to "glimpse the weather forecast, check out what’s next on your calendar, or find your current location on a map". You can probably do the same things with a Samsung, but know knows? They'd rather tell you about which OS is installed on the thing.

Their partner ship, the Event Horizon, came back. Changed.

Well played, Grey Father.