Alas. This is honestly something that I see very rarely, but it's worth noting that

a) other climate scientists disagreed with her claim, because at the time it was untrue; and
b) it *happened* to be true in the end (in the sense that climate change DOES seem to be responsible for the weird path of the jet stream). But that doesn't let her off the hook for saying it before there was actually peer reviewed research on the matter to back her up.

They also tend to forget that while it's cold where they are, it's hot where other people are. The winter may have seemed extra cold in North America last year, but they've had to add extra colours to the heat maps in Australia in the last couple of years to indicate just how blisteringly hot its getting now.

Climate is global, folks. Your local weather is not representative of what people around the world are experiencing.

Actually, I've yet to see that come from anyone that's actually in the field of climate science. Don't conflate internet commenters and assorted science writers with people that are actually studying the climate. Every time a big climate event happened, I saw a lot of hedging from climate scientists who were consistently pointing out that one event is impossible to extrapolate from.

If you'd care to provide an example of someone actually in research and not someone that you should probably be ignoring, I'd be interested to see it. (Really, I would--it would be a very unusual event.)

No.

My iPad 3 not only seems faster in most cases, the battery life is better. I got 11 hours of active use on 50% of the battery the other day. Even now, I'm looking at 98% battery after an hour of useâ"that used to be 6-10%.

But my iPhone 4 (which didn't get the update, obviously) was sluggish and was draining the battery much faster than usual for a week or two. I did a reboot and that fixed it. I know you just installed iOS 8 and have therefore rebooted recently, but I've had some problems with some applications not working properly after being restored or updated until the phone was rebooted. (Overcast, on my iPhone 6.)

There's no planned obsolescence in chargers. It was a better design and so that's what Apple went with. The Lightning port design is so good that the next revision of USB connectors is going to have a reversible connector as well. Are you going to whine about the upgraded port on your next android phone, too?

Sometimes old designs are outdated and need to be fixed. Try not to take it personally.

I'm not sure if anyone commenting on this story is actually Canadian, but the Canadian Content mandate has existed for years. It's not about favouring Canadian production companies so much as encouraging Canadian content for cultural reasons. Being so close to the USA leaves us vulnerable to sort of being swamped, culturally.

Radio stations are required to play a certain amount of Canadian music as well. It's not really anything new.

Personally, I like the idea of that. It encourages and funds a lot of Canadian artists that might otherwise get swamped out of the market by monied American interests.

You don't have to enter the passcode every time if you've got a TouchID device. When my new phone shows up, I have a 13-digit code memorized from when I was a kid (long story). I'll input that once a day, and use the scanner to unlock the device the rest of the time.

Really you only need a 6-digit passcode to be exceptionally safe, but it's honestly easier for me to remember this particular code than something shorter.

Your conclusion doesn't necessarily follow from your set up. They may have decided not to implement it because it's a pain in the ass (as I've talked about in my other comments). It probably wasn't worth their time and money in a bunch of different ways, not least of which is that it may not give the user experience that they wanted out of it.

Look, you and I actually agree on this. Some of the steps that I had to go through were insane. We were working with a Kinect, so you had to trigger a save, dive for your XBox and yank out the network cable and the memory card at exactly the right time. At that point, you're TRYING to corrupt the data. But developers aren't just allowed to let bad things happen, even if it seems like it's the user's fault. Weak passwords and bad answers to security questions are ALSO technically the user's fault, but we can see how far it gets a company to blame users for those sorts of things.

But pathologically worst case behaviour aside, even normal behaviour can be a pain to handle. What if your app had some data saved on the card, but you removed it in the interim and now it needs it? Okay, you prompt for the data, but the user doesn't have it--they left it at home. Now what? Do you create new data? Refuse to progress?

Okay, you create new data. Now the user gets the card and puts it in, and you've got DUPLICATE data. Great. Merge? Throw away?

One storage device is a lot easier for the mobile paradigm, I feel. It's not the same as a desktop system--manipulating data is a lot easier on a desktop. Mobile systems should be lightweight and streamlined. But that's just my opinion.

*sniff* An anon doesn't like my opinion but has no ability to hold a conversation and discuss anything on their own merits. I'm so sad. :( :( :(

SD Cards are a whole other world of complexity; it's no wonder Android has started to clamp down on how they work somewhat. I worked on an XBox 360 game and I had to deal with the TCR requirements regarding removable storage. They're the worst. If someone removes the device during a save, you have to deal with that. If they remove it right before or right after a save, that's something else too. Basically, if anyone does anything with the removable storage at any time, you have to handle a bunch of exceptions, and then you also have to handle the case where the data is corrupted. It's awful.

Anyway, yes, you're probably right. I don't know what that kind of storage costs and what the economies of scale are, but I'm sure Apple could soak them up if they wanted to. But to a certain extent, that choice exists merely so people can feel like they HAVE a choice, and people like that. Even if zero people bought the 16GB version, it's there to make the other two options look better. But that's what the market will bear, I guess. Capitalism. What're you gonna do?

I type one handed all the time while walking on my iPhone. Autocorrect guesses correctly more often than not.

The new shift key is 100% garbage, though. You have to wonder which exec at Apple has made that their pet feature. That's the only possible way that such a wholly unintuitive thing still exists. I've yet to meet a single Apple user, no matter how partisan, claim that the iOS 7 shift key makes even the slightest bit of sense.

Yes and no. I actually really think the (new) BB phones are pretty neat. I like that with BB10, they really swung for the fences with the interface design. To an extent, it's a crippled ecosystem and that's not really about the OS any more. They missed the boat. (That said, people will stick with very old BB phones because they can't give up the keyboard. By most measures, they're really not good phones any more.)

No, I'm talking about all sorts of other phones--Android ones, honestly. People will put up with a really garbage phone just because it has a physical keyboard.

I've got a lot more respect for Blackberry than, say, Samsung. Samsung capitalised on an opportunity and makes a lot of money, but they've never, ever had the focus or innovation of Apple and Blackberry.

I ordered the 16GB version because my on-board data needs aren't heavy. I'm near wifi 90% of my life, and so I'm willing to stream or re-download a lot of things on my phone. I've got a 32GB iPad because that needs to store magazines and bigger games and things, but I like my phone to be a bit leaner. Saving $100 for that was totally worth it for me. I wouldn't have objected to a 32GB entry-level, but 16 is fine too.

But some people really love to have EVERYTHING with them. They spend a lot of time travelling or out of wifi range and they've got a limited plan (so do I, actually, but that doesn't matter as much to me). It's the same sort of person that always bought the biggest iPod, so they could carry ALL their music with them at once. Me, I'm happy to have a few playlists and 8 hours of decent music with me at all times, even for long trips. Those people are going to love the 128GB version and be excited to pay the extra $100 over the 64GB version, no question.

I think you're overselling it somewhat. I've tried the swype systems, and I always devolve to just tapping. Same with my friends that have access to it. Out of 4 of us, all of us hate swype based systems. That's not data, obviously, it's just an anecdote. But I've yet to see anyone stop using the keyboard, let alone a phone, just because the keyboard isn't what they expect. (The lone exception being people that like hardware keyboards. They will stick with a sub-standard phone just for the better typing experience.)

I would also question whether Apple has ever lost anyone permanently that wasn't lost from the start. I've seen a lot of people in comment threads today consider Apple's phones again because it was *screen size* that was holding them back.

I've actually always really liked the Apple keyboard; I have a lot fewer problems with it than other people, though I couldn't tell you why. I borrowed a Nexus 4 and hated the keyboard (and didn't want to install a new one for the short time that I had it) but my hate of the keyboard wasn't actually a dealbreaker even if I'd had to use it forever. If I'd liked other things about the phone, I would've put up with the keyboard I didn't like, no question.

It's a fair opinion to have, but I really don't see any evidence for the grandiose claims you're making.