The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a single handset among many that they offer. My Wife as the Samsung Galaxy Core LTE, which is much newer than the S4 (November 2014) and still doesn't have an update to Lollipop. So, while some handsets from some manufacturers get updates, I haven't seen an Android handset manufacturer that updates all their devices in a timely manner for 2 years.

The nice thing about PCs is that you can update the software yourself. I like the selection that you get with Android, but 99.9% of the handsets are a terrible choice. When I get a laptop or desktop, I can put Windows, Linux, or even BSD on it if I want to, and nobody tries to stop me. I can update the software whenever I want. I've been running the same desktop for 9 years, and it still works fine because I control the software that runs on it.

Similarly here. Except I switched to Windows Phone. Apple phones, while well supported and good quality, are just a little too pricey for me. Samsung and LG are not without their faults either. Maybe on a few select flagship phones they have updates but the majority of their handsets have just as few updates as all the other manufacturers. My previous LG phone was released 6 months before Android 4 came out, and I never saw a single software update to that phone, so I was stuck with Android 2.3

On a side note, I'm loving my Windows Phone. The interface is great. And the battery life was amazing. Been off the charger since I woke up 5 hours ago and the battery still reads 97%. granted, it's a low use day for my phone, but I'm often left with 70% of my battery by the end of the day. Even recording bike rides using the GPS seems to have little-to-no effect on battery usage. There's not quite as many apps as Android and iOS, but it does everything I want a phone to do, and more.

If this paper shows anything to me, it is not so much about Android, it is more about how we have to force carriers to stop requiring this goddamn nonsense useless "carrier certification" so that Google can push device manufacturers to allow more direct and timely software updates.

This is basically the reason the new phone I got it not Android. They have a long track record of not being able to get updates onto phones. It is simply unacceptable to not receive any updates on a phone that I paid good money for.

Chrome is known to be a hog. There are numerous complaints about it even for those using the Surface Pro tablets with i3/i5/i7 processors. It doesn't get jittery, because the processor can handle it, but the battery life is severely reduced when using Chrome. You should probably switch to Firefox or IE for your browsing needs. Look into Metro IE. It's actually really nice when you're using the device as a tablet. Best touch browser I've ever used.

Exactly. I see no point in spending large amounts of money on the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S phones. In 2 years you will have to get a new one, either because it's obsolete, or they stop sending software updates, or the battery has stopped holding a full charge, or something has broken like the screen or one of the buttons (power, volume, etc). It's not really any fault of the device, it's just the reality of something you carry around with you all the time. Something is going to happen to the phone no matter how careful you are with it. I just got a new phone, and it was $200 US. I think that's a pretty decent price for a phone. I really can't justify spending much more than that on a device that has a lifespan of 2 years. The experience you get from a $200 phone isn't much different than a $700 phone in the current market. The only thing the $700 phone gets you is bragging rights.

At 2 GB of RAM, and a 2.3 GHz Atom Processor it has similar specs to the HP Stream 7. No idea how much storage is on it, but I don't really see any reason you couldn't run the full version of Windows if you wanted to. I think the only reason you couldn't is that Windows doesn't actually have software connecting to the GSM radio and making phone calls. Also, Android and Windows Phone OS have much better handling of low power modes. I don't think the battery would last very long running full Windows or Linux as the phone would probably be using a lot more battery. Perhaps Windows could work using something like its connected standby functionality.

Even 480 Euros ($533 US) is an insane price to ask for a phone. Especially one that currently has zero apps. I just got a Windows Phone (Blu Win HD LTE) which is currently priced at $200 US and I find it to be an amazing phone. Windows Phone is quite a good OS, and it's due for an update to Windows 10 when it comes out. Open source may be a nice idea, but I don't think a lot of people are going to want to pay that kind of premuim just to get it. I think the days of $500+ phones are numbered. I still don't know how people justify the $650+ price tag of the iPhone.

we all use the roads. even if we don't use them directly

Sure, we all use the roads, but we don't all use them equally. Somebody who never or very rarely use the roads directly get a whole lot less out of them than people who drive hundreds of kilometers every day.

I get what you're saying. It's just like schools. We all benefit from having a well educated society, so we should all pay for schools. But I think that things like roads, or water systems should have some kind of pay-per-use factor built in to prevent people from over using the resource. If you tax those who do use the roads the same as those who don't use the roads, there's very little reason to limit how much you use them.

The minimum wage for students in Ontario is $10.30. The minimum wage for non-students is $11.00. That $0.70 difference doesn't make a huge difference in what type of jobs exist. They generally don't care whether you're a youth or not when they are looking at hiring you, because the wage difference is so small.

Even waiters are still required to be paid $10.00 an hour, and then still expect that 18% tip that is common in the USA. The waiters are able to make a ton of money this way because they get a decent wage to start out with, and still get huge tips

Maybe at places like Starbucks. They can make up the difference selling premium goods like coffee milkshakes and fancy coffee mugs. But at Tim Horton's in Canada, every time they raise the minimum wage, the price of coffee and doughnuts increases.

People say it doesn't do that, but there's a whole lot less service jobs than we used to have. There used to be kids who would wheel your groceries out to your car for you. This service basically doesn't exist any more. Most grocery stores don't even have a second person bagging the groceries like they used to. It's actually quite difficult finding a full service gas station unless you live in one of those states where you aren't allowed to pump your own gas. That's just two easy examples. There's a lot more jobs that aren't getting done, or people are expected to do for themselves. If the minimum wage keeps rising, it won't be long before I have to enter my own order at every McDonald's. They are already testing it out at certain locations. When you don't have any of your own expenses to pay for, then $7 an hour can be plenty of money. The problem is that people think that every job should earn a living wage. I tend very much to disagree. People shouldn't expect to be able to support themselves off a menial job. They should be setting their sights higher. Increase their skills and get a better job instead of complaining that a job that could be done by a 14 year old isn't enough to support your family.

I blame Apple and the iPad at least in part for stuff like this. In the iPad world, if you remove an app, then your files associated with that app will indeed disappear and cease to exist. They've done a lot of work to try to make it appear like there is no file system. This creates huge problems when you want to share a file between 2 apps..

I think a lot of the productivity gains came from the lack of WYSIWYG support. When you can't actually see what the output is going to look like on paper, you spend a lot less time futzing around with the layout and a lot more time just typing up the document. The fact that it's so simple is what allows you to just get to work and get your job done. Also, there was no other programs running in the background. Which meant that there wasn't emails, chat messages, and other distractions constantly drawing your attention away from what you're really supposed to be doing.

I guess I'm advantaged over today's kids because I grew up using WordPerfect 5.1, and we learned that using shortcut keys was basically the only way to get things done. The WordPerfect Keyboard Map sat at the top of every keyboard in my highschool. Sure you could do stuff with menus, but we learned on the first day of class that you should do as much as possible using hotkeys.