My "portable online life" has been an Ericsson T39 (that outlast it's intended time by decade)
combined with successive models of PDAs from Palm.
Add in foldable keyboard for the PDAs and you get a small laptop replacement.

Only started using smartphone when switched to WebOS powered smartphone by Palm.

The combo has a few advantages:
- better life battery
(phone is very efficient as it doesn't to much beyond being a phone. It's as simple as you can get, and can last a week on a charge.
PDA isn't constantly online and thus is also low energy requirement. specially the older one could last a long time between charges)
- separate PDA used to be more offline oriented (think google maps over 3G/4G vs. dedicated map application with locally stored maps. very useful when you travel abroad).
- redundancy (typically, one would sync contacts over bluetooth or irda between the 2 devices. If one dies or gets stolen, the other is till working).

Feature phones as old as the Ericsson T39 (note the absence of "Sony" this old piece predates the merger) were already able back then to work as GRPS modems over infrared, bluetooth, or USB (but the USB cable was expensive and rare, so bluetooth then).
And this antique only has a couple of text lines on screen.

Note that feature phone used to have cameras too. Feature phone introduced camera before even smartphone where started.
Same goes for a lot of other things you mention (email, games, alarm clock, calculator, etc.)
I think games and alarm are the two first features built into phones.

Partially solved by several techniques. For example, one available backthen on the a fore mentionned Ericsson (still available on all subsequent Sony-Ericsson feature phone) - volume rocker works as a kind of "shift" key. Using combination of volume + number gives you directly the letter you want instead of repeatedly pressing a letter. Gets a bit time to get used to it, then works as fast a typing on a keyboard.
Some provided external keypads (again Ericsson had a "chat board": full qwerty keyboard), if your finger arent's too fat, it's fast than a virtual keyboard.

The whole MP3 craze began much earlier before Apple re-invented it with their brand of players. As soon as MP3 player stared being popular, phone started offering the function, some phone even had a dedicated separate physical interface for that. Close the clam shell: you have buttons and a small monochrome screen to handle playing your music. Open the clam shell: feature phone with color screen.

Can you actually think of a phone that DOESN'T have a lit up screen? People have been using it as improvised sources of light for as long as I can remember.
The only thing brought by modern smartphones is *white* light (as they can abuse their flash for that, where as old monochrome phone screen tended to have blue, green, orange, etc. backlight color).

8k iMac: depending on the specs of the iMac, that might means that they have managed to increase the pixel density (high DPI).

8k in it self doesn't mean anything. You have to factor in display size, viewing distance, etc.

And there is ONE FIELD that is going to benefit immensely from higher densities: VR!

VR is typically a field of application where you are viewing a relatively small screen (Occulus tend to use typical smartphone displays. Older VR headsets like eMagine 3D visor had even smaller display, like a finger's nail per eye) from a very short distance. (Just next to the eye ball).

Even at the current ultra-high resolution/pixel densities, that are over kill for a normal smart phone screen (1080p FullHD in a smartphone is more than 300DPI), when looked that close still is very pixelated (this FullHD is blown up to cover your *entire* field of view. That end up being not that many pixels per angle of view, even if keeping into account the varying resolution due to the simple len's distortion). (= Unlike older VR headset that used simple rectangular screens to convey a simple rectangular picture and relied on complex and expansive optics to keep the rectangle distrosion free, Occulus rift use a very simple (and cheap len) that completely distrorts the picture and compensate using a shader that draw a "pre-distorted" picture on the display. They don't convey a rectangular picture, but a pin-chusion picture with more pixels spent at the center than the periphery - thus higher resolution in front of you. Still pixels are visible).

So even if it ends up being overkill for the iMac, increasing production of high density displays has nice side effects on the occulus rift.

Question: How do you jump start research into car robotics when you're not Google and thus don't have a huge mass of knowledge about all the roads gathered by your google cars and google maps program ?

Answer: You get a ton of hipster to drive for you, record their trajectories/behaviours (remember "god mode" ?) and use their knowledge as a starting point to populate your initial database.

Come to think of it, Palcohol shouldn't get attacked in the US in the name of protecting children from booze.
It should be attacked for false advertisment:

"Power alcohol" isn't powdered alcohol. It's a fuck ton of useless sugar powder with a tiny bit of ethanol sprinkled in.

It should be called "Powder+alcohol".
Or "Powder Sugar (may contain traces of ethanol)".

We're still years before selling actual robo-cars.

Still, lots of car makers are packing radars and cameras in the cars. To be used as lane tracking, collision avoiding, etc.
They are sold as extra feature, and work (legally and in terms of responsibility) as form of more complex adaptive auto-cruise (it self just an evolved auto-cruise) as the cars in generation before.
The driver is still the one who is theoretically in charge of the car. Except that now the driver get a big bunch of electronics to watch out and assist

There is a real reason to pack more of it: featuritis! Now auto-maker A can boast that their car does even that few things B & C that the other auto maker aren't doing yet.

One is producing over priced pocket computer, sold a trendy and hip way to get distracted by checking twitter, and posting annoying fb status updates about your health.

The other is an over priced piece of micro mechanics sold as a substitute of jewelry (the origin of the boom of switch watches).

Smal LED screen vs. small piece of gold.

Yeah, confusion is very likely.

Trust me, it's okay. Been there, done that. And basically any plastic bottle would to the job. If you're afraid that the space-age-plastic lining inside your collapsible sport-gear hitech bottle would react badly to ethanol, well just take a simple soda/soft drink/water/whatever bottle: any used 33cL or 50cL bottle will do the job, no problem.

As opposed to carrying a few kg of powdered sugar ?!? Do the math again: either you use a small plastic bottle filled with standard 40-60% booze (or 75%-95% aka 150 to 190 proof in your units - of everclear. If you live in a country where those things are easily sold).
Or you carry the equivalent of several packs of sugar powder, several kg ?!

Yup, you're not loosing volume and weight to a little bit of water that can't be used for drinking.
Instead you're losing volume and weight to a fuckton of sugar polymers cycles. Which basically are just as useless to rehydrate you as the water mixed in the alcool.

Or if you only want to take only a reasonnable amount of powder, well great for you, but that's basically equivalent of a very small plastic flask (the kind that are sold for transporting liquids in airplanes. or the kind in which you get test samples of think in drugstores). Which is really negligiable in size.

Go back to my quick math. For the equivalent of 1 AA battery worth of ethanol, you need to add a few times more volume (1 deck of card and a half) of powder.
Even if the ethanol is diluted 1:1 (because that the highest you can get, welcome in Europe), it still *way much more* space saving and weight saving than the powder. Not as in "we're a few mg better", but "it's a fraction of the place that the powder takes".

For me it's a no brainer.

That's basically a plastic bottle. It's as simple as it can get. Mass is negligible compared to the content. Comes in various size (big range of capacities. Small 100mL flask sold nearly every were as a mean to transport liquids on airplanes within allowed limits. Standard 33cL and 50cL bottle of water and soda, once empty recycle it to transport your booze). They tend to be rather solid.

Also, ethanol evaporates easily. In case you *DO* manage to damage the container (like falling with your back pack on a pointy rock) just let it dry.

(It's pratical experience transporting 60% grand-pa-distilled brandy in plain plastic bottle)

Power: you'll get either a big pack (think pack of flour or sugar) which might leak in a backpack. Or you'll get a carton with individually sealed small bags (think like individual teabags) which adds even more inefficiencies (as if the huge mass of powdered sugar isn't enough).

(Again, pratical experience with chocolate powder)

Just pointing out that the *whole point* is to transport a substance E (with as much ethanol as possible inside) and dilute it before consumption.
It's not a problem that 100% ethanol attract water: you'll be throwing water in it anyway.

(But indeed: 95%-98% is probably the easiest to get, and that few 2-5% of water won't change much the reasoning).

In switzerland, they do. And it's 10 year, at which point the owner can choose to extend it again for the next period of 10 year.

As this trademark was registered on 5 december 1985, the next such 10 year cycle finishes on 5 december 2015. At which point the owner - Leonard Timepieces - can choose to extend it yet again until 5 december 2025.

Trademarks are registered by domain. This "apple" and apple-logo trademark was registered for the domain "timepiece and components" by the whatch maker "Leonard Timepieces".
iPads aren't in the same category anyway.

The only thing remotely related was the wrist strap that could convert the small square iPad Nano into a touch screen watch. And even back then Leonard didn't care to sue.
In fact, in Switzerland, a patent violation is define as someone try to profit by abusing consumer confusion and trying to copycat another product to try to leverage its brand recognition.

For the record, the luxury watches industry was jump-started in switzerland when Calvin decided to outlaw jewelry as an excessive display of wealth, not inline with his protestant views of the world.

Rich people then turned to watches as a mean to display their wealth, luxury watches were born.
as in: "HEY, IT'S NOT A PIECE OF JEWELRY! IT'S A [rather very expensive] TOOL TO GIVE TIME!! IT'S JUST A [luxury] WATCH !!!"

Leonard Timepiece could complain if they think that Apple is trying to earn money by taking advantage of consumer confusion and is trying to copycat Leonard's deisgn of "Apple" watch (something Wilhelm Tell themed, perhaps ?!)

Otherwise nothing happens.
Given that they are not exactly in the same market, (Leonard Timepiece produce luxury timepieces, Apple produces electronics) the risk of confusion is low anyway and probably they won't give a fuck about it.

It's a different category of product. The trademark was registered for "timepieces and components of timepieces".

And they don't need to produce anything. Leonard already owns the trademark, and they are allowed to renew it for yet another 10 year in december 2015 (so keep owning the trademark until 2025).

Not in Switzerland.
In Switzerland, a trademark is granted for 10 years, and the can subsequently be extended, again for 10 year on each successive extension.

The trademark was registered on 5 december 1985.
The next periodic renewal is due on 5 december 2015.
If Leonard Timepiece (the original owner) chooses to do so, they can renew it, and it will get extended to 5 december 2025.