F-Droid does not require root. It requires "Unknown sources", a checkbox that appears in the "Security" or "Apps" settings of virtually all Android-powered phones and tablets except about the first year of AT&T phones. And in what way is Amazon Appstore useless?

I have an ASUS Nexus 7 (2012) tablet computer with Wi-Fi. My aunt has an iPad 2, also with Wi-Fi. Both get updates straight from the manufacturer. What "carrier" are you talking about? Do you mean an ISP?

True, visibility of priced apps outside the United States was a significant problem in the Android 1.x and possibly early 2.x days. But I thought Google had expanded the set of countries in which priced apps are available over the past half decade.

You also have to take into account support costs. The cost of diversity of Android-powered devices (or "fragmentation" as detractors call it) is increased cost of supporting all configurations. Fewer configurations can mean lower costs, which in some cases may outweigh the increased revenue from Android.

Besides, writing app A for iOS and app B for iOS can reach more of these profitable "whales" than writing app A for both iOS and Android.

For one thing, rational numbers greater than one, such as 5/4, are still fractions. For another, app sales revenue doesn't tell the whole story. Due to Google's early failure to expand Google Checkout into all countries where carriers offered Android-powered devices, there is more of a culture of ad-supported software on Android rather than paywalls.

Lawful unlicensed transmissions on ISM bands are limited to a power that won't reach far out of a building, definitely not across a city. And even so, an entity that monopolizes the FM band monopolizes the user experience of people using FM receivers.

True technically. But the laws are written broadly enough to cover both monopolies and cartels.

At a substantial extra monthly fee that's not efficient for low-volume users.

I thought the whole birth canal thing was the cause of humans being one of the only animals to give birth to a baby that is completely helpless for several years.

Head gets too big for birth canal, must exit before gestation is complete.

Brains continue to grow after birth. Newborns are 350 - 400g. Adults are 1300 to 1400g

They wouldn't dare violate the intellectual property rights of Disney.

It should take about a minute. The drive is rated for 4MB/s and it's only 177MB

Apparently you've never lived in a city whose FM radio band was dominated by Clear Channel. Or when all four major U.S. cellular carriers raised their SMS pricing from 10 cents to send and 10 cents to receive to 20 cents to send and 20 cents to receive, in near lockstep.

The problem is not that "Right-of-way access is limited" as much as that it has been historically allocated very inefficiently. Bury conduit and let multiple providers lease conduit through which to blow their fiber or copper.

When access to that network resource is being monitored, you don't know there's a problem.

It's called know what you're doing and don't be stupid.

I tend to agree about the icons, but I do think flat design is particularly bad in this respect. By its nature, it removes tools that could otherwise be used for distinguishing different types of content, establishing hierarchy, and directing the user to important details.

The Microsoft style of flat as seen here isn't as bad as the more extreme "monochrome line art" version that is plaguing web sites at the moment. Even so, all those subtle lighting-based effects we used to see, and even the not-so-subtle styling of say Apple's older metallic or aqua looks, could serve practical purposes as well as creating a signature style for a platform.

So if you want to play one PlayStation 4-exclusive game, one Xbox One-exclusive game, and one Wii U-exclusive game, do you buy all three consoles rather than looking for a same-genre game on the PC you have?