The hyping model worked for the music industry as well for a while. They played a song up and down the radio for a few weeks or even months before the record could be bought so people were anxious to get it when it finally got out and it was an immediate smash hit simply because everyone rushed to the store to get it. It doesn't work anymore, you might have noticed.

The business model works still maybe, but the question is how long it will. Any business model that relies on the customer not doing what he wants with his product will eventually run into the resistance of the customer, either by a refusal to buy or a hack that results in the ability to do what they want.

I'm not sure at this point that a PS3 is significantly more powerful than a cheap computer, although the BluRay, and a few other special features would be expensive to replicate. For pure number crunching I don't think it has the massive price/performance advantage it did a few years ago... although as a media device, it probably still does.

Literally true, in that I would never use Photoshop because I'm not prepared to pay for it.

But GIMP has a markedly different user interface to Photoshop -- much more oriented towards context menus. So much so that Photoshop users trying it out would complain.

It's an image processing tool, so it's going to share a number of features - layers, masks, filters, brushes, etc. But it goes a lot further than cloning Photoshop.

I'm reasonably productive in GIMP. I'm totally lost in Photoshop.

"Compatible" arguably means different things by context.

As you say, "iPhone compatible headphones" does not imply "headphones that can run stuff from the app store". This is because headphones never run applications(pedants may argue that the DSP baked in to high end noise cancellation headphones counts; but not really) and nobody expects them to. By contrast "IBM compatible PC" is (when the vendor wasn't lying) precisely a statement about a device's ability to run a particular class of software; because the context, that of computers, implies that that is what "compatible" means.

Given that the use of phones to run applications enjoys a higher profile than the use of phones as remote controls(and, even in those cases where they are used as remotes, this is generally done through an application), it isn't wildly unreasonable to assume that "compatible" means "software compatible, at least in some sense".

Given history, I suspect that the headline could be more accurately rewritten to say "Sony-Ericcson releases high-end dumbphone defined by a couple of genuinely interesting features and a lot of mediocrity(just like all the other times they've done that), also functions as a bluetooth remote for one specific home theatre device".

21 Billion... 294,000 homes... is $71,428.58 per home

google Calc: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLC_enUS312US312&q=21+billion+%2F+294000

Now, $71,428.58 Per home / 20 years = $3,741.43 PER YEAR COST OF SPACE ENERGY!

YIKES! REALLY!! PASS...

20 Years life expectancy of solar cells guessed at because of various googles and the chance of an astroid taking the whole thing out... and then you'd have to reinvest the next $21Billion for the next batch..

If it went longer than 20 years, it would lower costs, but not it is really too much of an outlay for 294,000 homes. quick lookup gives me around $600-700/yr... So that is like 5 times what I pay for normal ohio electric (mostly coal...)

Don't know how much to build Nuclear and how many homes... Anyone? We could burn the waste in the next generation reactors if we get a bunch up and running now...

Cell phone usage while driving is not illegal in Utah.

You didn't read the footnote, which clearly states that using a cell phone while driving is classified as careless driving, and is thus illegal. From your link:

Utah's law defines careless driving as committing a moving violation (other than speeding) while distracted by use of a handheld cellphone or other activities not related to driving.

This law has been in effect since 2007 and included cell phone usage at that time, so yes, Utah does have a law against cell phone usage while driving.

Even though it was done, I was able to send and receive email via Thunderbird with IMAP.

Yeah! Sony's wasting their time with this stuff when they should instead allow the PSP to play PS1 games!

Oh wait, the PSP has been able to play PS1 games for years now, and can even move saved games between the PS3 and PSP... and if you put a PS1 disc into the PS3, you can use the same Remote Play program to play the PS1 game, or you can just buy it again as a digital download from the Playstation Store...

You'd think someone would look to see if their suggestion had already been taken care of years ago before making it...

Nice try but that would be fixin' not plannin'...

Does that mean there are people out there who think that iPhone compatible headphones can download and run apps from the app store?
You, and whoever modded you insightful, need to look up the definition of the word compatible.

What's a good Windows backup program that I can use to download all my Gmail messages to Thunderbird?

Had he done that, he would have been fired the instant the passwords hit the paper. The only reason he remained employed for so long is because no one else knew the passwords. He was, in essence, blackmailing the city. They tolerated him because he did actually keep the network running. I don't know what the last straw was that has brought us to today's farce.

I would certainly hope they have good WiFi

"free" credit reports?

Then in that case, why is he purposely hindering his typing speed? If 'qwerty' is the faster input method, using Dvorak seems pointless.

Unless he's a masochist with poor spelling typing on a Dvorak keyboard... in which case, everything is explained!