AOSP sits on top of Linux. They are two separate things.

that isn't why Linux usage is low

Thanks to Android, Linux is the most popular operating system on the planet now.

You drink one regular soda per month and it's the reason you developed liver disease? How big is that soda?

That's not true for satellite radio.

Radio stations pay BMI and ASCAP.

I wish articles like this would provide some context. How much do the rights holders get per play on terrestrial radio? Satellite radio? Is internet radio higher or lower?

> Broadcast radio pays nothing

In the US, they pay BMI and ASCAP.

entertainment as a service

I'm okay with that if the price is reasonable. Netflix is a good example of an entertainment service that I think is very fairly priced.

The back-against-the-wall statement baffles me. Whose back is against the wall?

I don't think social programs like basic income and universal health will happen in the US until the unemployment rate gets much higher than it is now. Once enough voters are unemployed, the political power of that group will be formidable. It's going to be a rough transition, but we'll get there.

Why would view a program intended to help girls as a put-down on men?

I'm all for programs like this. Give it a try, see what the outcome is. If it fails, end it and start the next experiment. If there are successes, tweak the program and continue.

If Microsoft can do something to better integrate Cyanogen based devices into the corporate workflow they might have some leverage. Plus an operating system that gets bug fixes and security updates might warrant some attention.

What leverage? For what purpose?

The enterprise market doesn't really matter. Back in the IBM vs Microsoft days, the consumer market was tiny compared to the corporate market. Today, the enterprise market is a fraction of the consumer market. As long as the C-level executives want to use iPhones, that's what corporate IT will have to support.

Still, it makes sense for Microsoft. They have absolutely nothing to lose. Their new focus on going where the customers are (even on other platforms) is refreshing and smart. Cyanogen, on the other hand, is less interesting all the time. They seem to be trying to make a corporate version of FireOS. I guess you can't support a business selling themes.

Is anybody other than Google and Samsung making money from the Android ecosystem?

So they make something no better, double the price and sell it to twats with more money than sense. That is the apple marketing plan alright.

If that's all there is to it, then why don't other companies follow the same playbook? Despite having a relatively small chunk of the total smartphone market, they make almost all the money. I believe Samsung is the only other smartphone maker that is profitable and their profit is much, much smaller than Apple's. All the rest of the handset makers are either losing money or just breaking even.

Do you really think you know more about the phone business than the executives at Blackberry, Nokia, HTC, LG, and Sony?

$400 is NOT "impulse buy" territory.

It certainly is in tech-rich areas like Northern California and NYC. They didn't sell a million of these things to cautious consumers that planned carefully. People wanted it and bought it after knowing very little about it.

In fact, there are many cheaper Android Wear devices out there.

What's your point? Apple rarely competes on price. The bottom of the market is fiercely competitive and thus has razor thin margins. It's a terrible place to try to make money.

There's a big difference - the Apple watch starts around $400 which is impulse buy territory for lots and lots of people. I think it's pretty neat, especially the ResearchKit stuff.

They saw Google, Netflix, and others making money online and thought "people are using our connections to buy stuff so why doesn't some of that money go to us?!!!" (Completely ignoring that some does in the form of ISP service bills.) They tried to charge companies extra to reach customers via "fast lanes" lest their data be regulated to an unusable slow lane.

The proposed Title II regulations shut down fast lanes, but does nothing about other forms of preferential treatment. Data cap exclusions are one example. ISPs offer big bandwidth services (like Netflix and Spotify) deals that would make their data not count against bandwidth caps. If you are a Comcast customer and rent a movie from their video service, it won't count against your bandwidth cap, but watch the same movie through Hulu and it will.