the "disable" feature that's available on any firmware-based app completely stops the app from running. i use it on my nexus 6 to disable the exchange crap from running in the background. works fine.

if samsung did something to mess with how that works (i'd be surprised if they did, but if you say so), then well, why the heck did you buy a samsung device? that's called just deserts. don't blame android for some terrible crap done by samsung. by the way, you paid 50% for samsung, right?

if people don't support the delivery model they want, how do you expect anything to change? carrier bloated, manufacturer bloated malware infested devices. why? stop falling prey to samsung, et. al's marketing barrage. you're a nerd, you know nexus exists, what's your excuse?

no, but if thieves understand that modern smartphones, including android 5.1 devices, are worthless if stolen, they aren't going to bother stealing them in the first place. sure, until a sufficient % of the devices out there support this it's not as useful but you have to start somewhere right?

also, don't you feel a little better knowing that the thief didn't get compensated $300 for stealing your phone?

you can disable any app, including apps packaged in the firmware. it won't even show up in the launcher after that. that's been in place since 4.0 (or so).

except they aren't paying for the electricity, so it's all profit. even if they are only making $100, that's still pretty great. considering they probably spent a week hacking together existing software ... and after that it's zero expenditure and all profit (except what they are paying bittorrent).

what are those reasons?

it's 6-month high is ~484. it's currently ~269. as far as fluctuations go that is massive. using bitcoin for anything other than quick sales (cash -> bitcoin -> transfer) is really not smart.

not to mention, the entire market is in a constant state of algorithmic manipulation (yes, i know, so is the stock market).

that's funny. because with bitcoin, you sure don't have to worry about someone stealing the knowledge that you bought a six pack at the local grocery, but you have to worry about them stealing THE ACTUAL CURRENCY.

credit cards get a bad rap, but for the consumer, it's pretty low risk. it's in the companies' interest for it to be low risk, because they want you to keep spending money with it.

the terminal doesn't know if it's debit or credit, regardless of whether you are using google wallet, apple pay or smart card.

no, you're just visiting their site, consuming the content that they worked hard to produce, and circumventing the only mechanism they have to be compensated for their work.

i know how you can block ads very effectively: don't visit the site.

did you seriously think that the decline of flash would equate to fewer ads? at least with flash you had a "click to run plugin" option.

there's actually no way to tell if the card is credit or debit through any information in the swipe data.

and then what happens? seriously.

oh, you mean they aren't just spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build out this technology out of the goodness of their hearts? shocking, just shocking.

a signature is not necessarily required. it will depend on the amount, and the merchant, as it is today.

that's not true. EMV terminals support can support offline approval (most will). up to the merchant if it's enabled.