Just use cash, its infinitely easier than all this nonsense.

Before heading out, you have to check whether you have enough cash on hand. If not, you have to stop by the ATM. To pay, you have to pull out your wallet and look through it for the required bill(s). If you pay with large bills, the cashier may opt to examine the bills carefully to ensure they have the necessary security measures signifying that they're genuine currency.

If you choose to pay the exact amount, you also have to pull out coins and pluck out the required ones. If you didn't use coins, then the cashier has to give you change back. You have to accept the change putting the coins in one place and the bills, if any, in another. You should also count the change to ensure the cashier gave you the correct amount.

Yeah, that's so much easier.

Apple pay isn't better or all that different from Google's NFC pay, the difference is that they've done the legwork to build a network of vendors.

The differences are that Apple Pay is easier to set up (just take a picture of your CC card -- no logging in to your bank's web site), easier to use (just put your finger in the sensor -- no turning on the phone, no launching the Wallet app, no PIN to enter), neither Apple nor the merchant has your real CC number (unlike Google), and the kicker is that Apple doesn't track your purchases (unlike Google that brokers every purchase through their Wallet debit card).

Isaac Newton knew that something existed to make the apple fall to the ground, or the planets orbit the sun, but until he spent time studying it, he didn't know what gravity actually was.

Newton never new what gravity actually was; only how to describe its behavior. It wasn't until Einstein that humanity knew what gravity actually was (a warping to space-time).

Short catchy phrases can not be copyrighted.

They can be trade- or service-marked, however.

I don't want to go with iOS, because ... the only way to load software on it is through the app store.

I get that, but how big of a deal is that for you really? (Or, in general, for most people?) Is it a matter of principle or are there apps that you really need that you just can't get from the App store?

The manufacturers are in agreement with the carriers...

Of course they are, but at whose behest? The carriers control the "last mile." If you don't play by their rules, they don't sell your phone.

There's an agreement with carriers because they have to include their special baked in junk ware.

And it was Steve that would never let that happen with iOS. I'm still amazed he got AT&T to agree to it when the iPhone was introduced.

Now if Verizon can get it's head out of it's ass and roll out 5.0 updates quickly after the mfrs release them, things might be looking up.

This is one of the things I hated most when I had my previous phone: software updates can only be had via your carrier. The problem is that there's virtually no incentive for carriers to do this: they want you to buy a new phone (and lock yourself into another 2-year contract).*

Even if you hate iPhones, you'll probably admit that it's much nicer to get software updates directly from Apple they day they make it available.

If only all other manufacturers forced carriers to allow end-users to get software updates directly, the mobile world would be better. The mobile market place, however, is fairly crowded and no single manufacturer (other than Apple) probably has enough power to bend the carriers to their will (when the carrier can simply opt not to carry their phone).

Of course it's not clear that other manufacturers want to be able to deliver software updates directly to end-users either. I suppose it would reinforce brand loyalty.

* This is starting to change since some carriers are now doing away with phone subsidies and instead moving to phone financing.

[I]t's incredibly stupid to ground a plane over a joke SSID.

It's incredibly sad is what it is. What if the SSID were "There is a bomb on this plane"?

Seriously, do you really think that Apple would allow one of its flagship technologies to be compromised by another company?

Like Google did with Maps? Like Motorola did with the PowerPC? Like Microsoft did with Internet Explorer? Nah, Apple would never let things like that happen.

Why would I wear a relatively uncomfortable piece of jewelry with no other purpose just so I can know to the second what time it is throughout the day?

I have no idea -- which is why I gave up wearing a watch on my wrist and now wear it on my belt-loop (as I originally mentioned). Even if I were to buy a new watch, I'd get one that either came on a belt-loop from the vendor or one that I could easily replace the band with one (as I did with my Casio).

The watch-on-a-belt-loop also allows me to stealthily check the time while I'm being compelled to do something (or talk to someone) boring.