In the Google Privacy Policy on my phone, in the Service section it says:

"Location information
When you use a location-enabled Google service,we may collect and process information about your actual location,like GPS signals sent by a mobile device. We may also use various technologies to determine location,such as sensor data from your device that may,for example,provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers."

That's one of the things I'm assuming they're using it for.

That's part of the EULA and the "anonymous statistics" I believe. When you use Google Maps it uploads your position periodically, from which it can deduce your average velocity. It correlates that with other reports from other users in geographically similar areas and creates congestion maps.

I don't think stand-alone GPS (like Garmin) upload any data, so they probably purchase it from Google. That's most likely why it's a subscription or ad-based service on those devices.

Apparently you don't need it. The article ridiculously claims that focusing on physical keyboards and long battery life was a "failure" on RIMs part. Somehow they manage to overlook several multi-day network outages as a factor...

-- Posted with love from my iPad

If FunnyJunk isn't suing anyone, why does Carreon's letter ask for $20,000 payable to FunnyJunk, LLC? At least the version posted on The Oatmeal does.

It's not the same permit. Not only are there multiple levels of permits (Class A - high capacity, Class B - low capacity, FID - ammo and pepper spray), it is up to the discretion of your local police chief to implement any restrictions he might see fit. You may end up with a Class A, which allows you to purchase any gun available in MA but your chief may add a restriction of "Target and Sporting" which means that you can not carry concealed and should only be using your guns while hunting or at a range. The only way you can carry concealed is with a Class A and Restrictions: None.

Also, there is an appeals process if your local chief is a problem. It can be elevated to the head of the state police (forget the exact office) but I have no idea of the success rate. Luckily I live in a "green" town in MA where my local chief was more than willing to give me a permit, the local cops and I chatted while I was fingerprinted, and overall it was a pleasant experience. I believe they have the correct attitude that anybody who is going through the trouble to do this legally is going to be one of the last people they have to worry about.

Why should it exclude DUI? Unless you're driving dangerously, it's just as safe as talking on the phone. Probably more so, since if you're a little drunk you're concentrating on driving and looking out for cops, rather than fucking around with your phone and being generally oblivious to your surroundings.

I've been using Emerge Desktop for more than a year now on Windows 7 and it's awesome. Takes a little bit to set up, but so much cleaner than Explorer. Plus, you can actually make the right and middle mouse buttons useful for something other than getting Display Properties. Right mouse is a fully customizable menu of shortcuts, program folders, whatever you want. If anybody remembers OpenWindows, it's kinda like that. It also has a system tray, quick launch, and can handle virtual desktops as well.

http://emergedesktop.org/

I'm not saying that it is, but it could be the beginning. Cutting funding is a way of stopping something when you have to save face for the people who support it. Then you can say "it was a good idea, but too expensive" and they can say "it was a good idea, but they were too cheap" and everybody walks away with their precious egos mostly intact.

I'm hoping you just mis-spoke here, or that you're not a suspension engineer. Caster and toe are completely different entities. Toe is whether your tires are pointed inward (toe-in) or outward (toe-out) when viewed from the top. Caster is a measurement of how far the center of the contact patch is behind the steering axis. Caster is what makes the wheel want to straighten out. Both toe and caster are much more important for straight line stability than camber is.

The reason it seemed expensive is because you weren't paying off a loan with the remainder of your wireless contract. Considering that all smartphones are really just small computers, their prices are pretty much where they should be.

The reasons behind the demise were probably a) some people can't do the math to figure out how much they're really paying for the phone, and b) others really like upgrading every 2 years to impress their friends.

I don't believe that since 26% of statistics are made-up on the spot.

They're awesome ways to keep kids entertained when you're on an 8-hour road trip to take them to visit family and stuff. It's not a matter of "not paying attention" to them since they only come out in preparation for a long trip (at least in our case). They're not necessary, but it makes a trip much more enjoyable for everybody and significantly cheaper than flying. Often it's my wife and the kids in the back watching a movie together, talking, and basically hanging out while I'm driving.

Alternatively, they could just write a hypervisor for each hardware platform and run the same OS and apps on everything.

Just plug a headset into your netbook and you're set, if you want to look at it that way. A netbook won't fit in your pocket, but it's not a burden to carry around for the most part.