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. :( :( :(

It doesn't matter what the 'perspective' is. All that matters is science. If you're against science, you lose, period. BTW I love the racism in your comment where you say Westerners can understand things but people of color lack the ability. I bet they love you down at the KKK hall on Saturday nights.

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.

Nice try, however it is the Left that has allied with the Islamists. The GOP is violently allergic to Islamism.

"Over the past year, multiple international conferences have featured leaders of the anti-global left and Islamist groups working together. Go to any anti-war or anti-globalization demonstration in the West and chances are you will see the flags of Hezbollah and Hamas waved by people wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. And at some of these meetings, members of such radical Islamist groups as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah have enjoyed starring roles."

Whooh...the injection of facts is surely inconvenient. Ouch!

Scripts are event driven? Wow had no clue

I think for most people this sort of thing doesn't make sense, but there are a few places where it does:

*) Security. If you're paranoid about break-ins, being able to monitor your home remotely can bring some peace of mind.

*) Stalking your family. The same security features will sell to anyone that wants to know what their family is doing when they're away. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; think of baby monitors and such.

*) Remote management. If you have a property like a vacation home or are just away from home a lot, being able to remotely manage the heat and air conditioning is a huge benefit. This also brings in the potential to do things like automatically disable the air conditioning if a door or window is open. I would love to have a thermostat that would display "close the sliding door to activate the air conditioning."

But yes, for most people, there is no need for any of this.

Then again, I would love to have automatic blinds that open and close based on such criteria as sunrise/sunset and weather. In the winter, I want the skylight blinds open during the day and closed at night. In the summer, I want the reverse. All the window blinds should close a half-hour after sunset by default (or maybe I would find something else makes sense).

If Kip Thorne can win a year's worth of Playboys for his bet that Cygnus X1 was a Black Hole, when current theory from Professor Hawking says Black Holes don't really exist, then can Professor Thorne please give me a year's subscription to the porno of my choice due to the non-existent bet that this wasn't such a star?

Memory transistors are about a thousand times larger than CPU transistors. Do try to keep up.

Then have both.

Unlike 16 bit to 32 bit it most simply is a recompile about 90% of the time unless you have assembly or something specific. My guess is the ugly Netscape API for the plugins which Chrome used to support until last year and of course Firefox is built upon this.

Newer atoms anyway are 64 bit. In the old days this would have been obsoleted in 3 years. I would have laughed at you in 2004 if you told me most things are still 32 bit 10 years from now. XP is still freaking alive too in a few places. I am just surprised what happened?

But the web unlike MS Word 2003 can't keep staying old and these things are slowed down by supporting obsolete platforms both hardware and software. Smooth scroll still does not work right in chrome because XP is so ancient and they still have to support it.