While I mostly agree with your post, it's worth pointing out that (at least with Verizon) Android phones cost more than iPhones.

Now I know that most of the cost of the phone is subsidized in the plan, but the plan cost is the same whether you have an iPhone or an Android.

It will be interesting to see if the trend continues, or is just a temporary tactic that Verizon is trying out.

And to make things worse, after you transition to android and re-buy/replace all of your apps, you're going to have to re-install everything from scratch every time you get a new phone.

And sadly, no one is surprised.

Pretty cool even for "normal" high speed photography

You forgot a pretty important fact...

In 2006 the company sold Apple the âoeglobal trademarkâ for IPADâ"but later the companies disputed whether the $55,000 deal included China.

from here

Not if the gardener does his job

It wouldn't matter if they did because the version in iOS is completely anonymized.

Anyone who wanted to know what is collected and sent only had to click the "About Diagnostics & Privacy" link in iOS directly under neath the switch you have to hit to turn it on:

Apple would like your help to improve the quality and performance of its products and services. Your device can automatically collect diagnostic and usage information and send it to Apple for analysis — but only with your explicit consent.

Diagnostic and usage information may include details about hardware and operating system specifications, performance statistics, and data about how you use your device and applications. None of the collected information identifies you personally. Personal data is either not logged at all or is removed from any reports before they’re sent to Apple. You can review the information by going to Settings, tapping General, tapping About and looking under Diagnostics & Usage.

If you have consented to provide Apple with this information, and you have Location Services turned on, the location of your device may also be sent to help Apple analyze wireless or cellular performance issues (for example, the strength or weakness of a cellular signal in a particular location). This diagnostic location data may include the location of your device once per day, or the location where a call ends. You may choose to turn off Location Services for Diagnostics at any time. To do so, open Settings, tap Location Services, tap System Services and turn off the Diagnostics switch.

You may also choose to turn off Diagnostics altogether. To do so, open Settings, tap General, tap About and choose “Don’t Send” under Diagnostics & Usage.

To help Apple’s partners and third-party developers improve their apps, products and services designed for use with Apple products, Apple may provide such partners or developers with a subset of diagnostic information that is relevant to that partner’s or developer’s app, product or service, as long as the diagnostic information is aggregated or in a form that does not personally identify you.

For more information, see Apple’s Privacy Policy at www.apple.com/privacy

What are you talking about? WebKit (aka, 95% of the mobile browsers + Desktop Chrome & Safari) does an extremely good job with HTML5.

The possessive use "Google's" implies that they didn't do it themselves.

Love the sensationalist attention whore of a headline. They way it's worded, it makes it sound like Apple pulled Google's app instead of Google taking it down because it didn't work right.

You seem to be forgetting that there is a "free*" iPhone now which, incidentally, is sold out.

*Free as in, no up front cost making it as free as any of the fee Android phones.

Same here. I'm really disappointed in the /. communities response to this issue. All of these +5 ratings for comments posted by Apple haters whilst ignoring that Samsung has blatantly ripped off Apple's design and marketing in every possible way instead of coming up with something original on their own.

+1 for not blinding bashing Apple or Microsoft which seems to be the norm around here.

+1 for stating the win-win scenario. Make sure the new job offer is firm and then explain to your co-workers / friends what the situation is, while offering yourself up on a consultant basis as a way out for them.