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Years and years ago, around 1976, I had a tube type TV that went fritz so I took it to an Austin, Tx TV repair shop. The guy took it in the back to work on and while he was doing it I looked around his shop and there were quite a few very nice amateur astronomy photos, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and such. I was taking some astronomy classes at UT. When he came out we got talking and he told me he was into astronomy. Now, this shop was a WRECK, much like most TV repair shops I have ever seen. pretty much a dump. He asked me to come in the back to 'See something'. The guy was about 6'6" tall and BIG, and rough looking, and I am NOT, so I declined, but he insisted so I finally went through a maze of old junk, narrow dark halls, and finally got to the back of the store. I was kinda scared. He pointed to something on the ground. It was a round plug of glass on a large wooden palate. My jaw dropped, I asked him if it was what I thought and he confirmed it was a slug for a 6 ft telescope. I believe he said he got it at auction when a Swiss observatory had two made and the first worked out, so he got it cheap. It was unfinished, just a blob of glass, but at the time I'd only seen telescopes in the 36" range and this was huge! He was grinning ear to ear, and I was astounded. I believe his name was Chuck Knesek but I may be wrong or only close. It's been 35+ years. I never saw him again. If anyone knows what happened to him or his slug I'd love to know.

I also have a Pebble, wear it a lot, like it enough, but hate having to charge it. Also, my phone doesn't do BT 4.0 so it uses a lot of power from the phone and the watch, and I have to charge the watch every 3-4 days (they say a week on 4.0). There is not enough room for more than 8 watch faces, and I wish it was color rather than B/W. I knew right from the start that Samsung's watch was going to be a dismal failure because it was way over priced, ugly as can be, and very little functionality.

Since the galactic bulge has a far higher denisity of stars the background radiation would be very high. I seriously doubt we are going to find any life in that neighborhood, let alone ever be able to travel 25,000 light years. ,

Having met http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_hopper briefly while I was at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_at_Austin back in the '70s I can say without a doubt she would be highly regarded in the current environment. She is known for COBOL but her accomplishments are many, including very early compilers and standards for FORTRAN. She was very influential to me. If she was 40 today I would easily imagine her leading a Silicon Valley company, as her tenure in the Navy was very similar, requiring leadership and technical capabilities, but she chose military service for her career, making what I consider very significant advances in computer science. She really was quite an imposing figure for a 90 lb grandmotherly woman. I wish I could have known her better. During many of her lectures, she illustrated a nanosecond using salvaged obsolete Bell System 25 pair telephone cable, cut it to 11.8 inch (30 cm) lengths, the distance that light travels in one nanosecond, and handed out the individual wires to her listeners. One of her great quips: "The most important thing I've accomplished, other than building the compiler, is training young people. They come to me, you know, and say, "Do you think we can do this?" I say, "Try it." And I back 'em up. They need that. I keep track of them as they get older and I stir 'em up at intervals so they don't forget to take chances."

Yoko Ono could be the surrogate!

The lower price is a great deal. It's much more powerful than phones currently on the market and is right in the same price range. I don't really understand why sales have stalled as this is going to be 2-3 years ahead of the market. Either that or it will drive the market to produce better phones. I for one bought 2. I'm surprised a bunch haven't been snapped up to sell on the secondary market, ie thEbay.

I don't know about the bootloader but since it's being sold worldwide with dual antenna for LTE US/World it's very likely it's carrier unlocked.

Outside assembly worked for Pebble. They are doing great, even with Apple breathing down their neck.

If they don't meet the published minimum specs and they do meet the funding goal there will be legal action. Dual boot Ubuntu mobile OS and Android Fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC when docked Fastest multi-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage Micro-SIM 4.5in 1,280 x 720 HD sapphire crystal display 8mp low-light rear camera, 2mp front camera Dual-LTE, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4, NFC GPS, accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor, compass, barometer Stereo speakers with HD audio, dual-mic recording, Active Noise Cancellation 11-pin connector providing simultaneous MHL and USB OTG 3.5mm jack Silicon-anode Li-Ion battery 64 x 9 x 124mm Specifications are subject to change. Yes, I do see the last line. My guess is we are going to get a far better product than what the specs show now.

The phone will dual boot Ubuntu or Android, so there will be a wealth of applications. After launch there will be an enhancement to run Android UNDER Ubuntu which would be even better. At launch there will be a way to run Ubuntu under Android. So you will have lots of opportunity to run just about any application.