The guy went to 16 stores, probably in one city and got some anecdotes from salespeople. Really? And we're supposed to conclude that lots of people who would not have otherwise bought a Samsung went out and bought one because of the trial? Okay, well I can play that game too. I had a lot of trouble finding a case in stock for my Galaxy S3, therefore I conclude that the S3 is a very popular phone that outsold what case makers predicted. It is a runaway hit! I don't need to bother with actual sales data because I have an anecdote. Facts are not needed when I have a good story.

If people find they can do everything they want to from their Android phone or pad and never buy another PC, it isn't meaningless to Microsoft.

It would be tremendously risky for MS to deliberately wreck the product line, PCs, that they still have the lion's share of, in order to push people towards tablets, where Apple currently dominates, and I predict Android will pass them in less than two years, just as they did on phones while MS phone ran a distant 4th behind Blackberry. Once things like a full-blown Quicken are on Android, the last bit of leverage MS will have will be Exchange and Office. So they can hold out and try to get business and consumers to buy MS pads so that they can have Exchange, or they can port Exchange and Office to Android and not rely on the O/S business so much any more. Since Office and Exchange are their real money makers, and their tablet business is non-existent yet, I think we can all guess which division will win that political battle inside MS. But of course they have to try to preserve their O/S.

Actually, putting lots of expensive inventory that loses it's value over time in a bunch of stores with a bunch of employees is much more expensive than the Amazon business model. A specialty store for commodity products just doesn't make sense. Best Buy IS a fairly bad business in a shrinking market and I think it is completely fair to compare it to Zynga and Chrysler.

I'm excited to see what this guy might do with the company if he doesn't have to answer to shareholders, but I disagree that his willingness to gamble $8.5 billion means anything as to the quality of the plan. Cerberus took Chrysler private and were still losing money when they sold it to Fiat. Smart people valued Zynga at $7.5 billion not too long ago and it is worth $2.23 billion today and I don't think it will stop falling soon. The fact that this guy thinks he can make it worth more than $8.5 billion just means he has a lot of confidence.

and yes, that is sarcasm. I love my Galaxy S3

Everyone should think the way I do, and if you don't you're overly influenced by marketing trends. If you would just listen to me, then all the manufacturers would give me exactly what I want. We don't need choice as long as everyone realizes I'm right.

So the gist of his argument is that no one else is creating new worlds like they did in Bioshock. It is all New York (GTA) and Military Shooters(CoD, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, etc.) No one is doing historical fiction (Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire) or SciFi (Halo, Killzone, Gears, Dead Space, Bulletstorm, Crysis, Homefront, Rage, Resistance) . He totally ignores the fantasy genre, which I can kind of understand since they all have similar worlds, but some are well designed and have strong storytelling. Basically, he is full of crap, and I think he knows it and knows that getting a lot of people to disagree with you is a good way to get some publicity for your new game.

If you had all your media on a Windows PC, which you probably don't but lets pretend you do because lots of people who don't read slashdot do, then an Xbox would be a pretty good way to get that media into the livingroom for $200. The big thing it is missing is that it isn't a DVR, but it is actually a pretty good solution for the rest of the problem.

That doesn't answer the question. I don't believe the shape of the tablet, or the look and feel, is something that can be copyrighted, patented or trademarked. So unless the UK has something else, I don't see how their similarity matters. I could decide that I like your style and copy you, getting the same haircut and wearing the same clothes. Everyone would agree that I copied you, but why should the law care? So I ask an honest question, does the UK have another kind of intellectual property where "registered design" means something?

So Apple has the rights to "cool." Is that patent, trademark, or copyright? Or does the UK has some other category where a "registered design" means something important?

That would be a factoid, rather than trivia, because it is false. The Pacific Ocean has both typhoons and hurricanes. The cyclones that hit Hawaii are usually hurricanes.

You can't give him a tax cut, he already doesn't pay taxes. He doesn't exercise his options, because that would be a taxable event, he just borrows money against them, which isn't taxable income. But if you claim that the rich aren't on a level playing field, then you're engaging class warfare.

If you're going to throw around some vague accusations of a plot to sell expensive equipment and raise ticket prices, then you ought to have at least a scrap of evidence that Peter Jackson, or the production company or the Move Studio in charge of distribution is tied to or is somehow making money from projection equipment bought by cinemas. Just saying "I wonder if..." isn't a good excuse to besmirch filmmakers.

Pffft. This is a Chinese tourist destination, not a way of life. It is one step away from a theme park. Saying they are discarding their own culture by making/visiting a fake Austrian town is like saying that I'm discarding my Anglo heritage if I go to a Greek restaurant to drink Ouzo, watch belly dancers and break plates. Playing like they are in Europe for the day doesn't degrade their Chinese-ness.