Facebook copied this feature a while ago with "Lists". For example, I have a Gamers list that's self-explanatory. You can post to lists or everyone excluding certain lists, like Coworkers.

As I understand it, the old Maps app used Google's data but was still made by Apple. Google now needs to make their own app from scratch.

Some people might not like voiding their warranty the day they buy their phone.

That's an old, old policy. Now there are many alternative browsers, mail clients, calendars, etc.

Not that it helps you but they do support Macs.

http://www.timesweaver.com/mac-friendly-nokia-lumia-900-with-windows-phone-7-is-the-best-alternative-to-ios-and-android/

Sprint owns Virgin Mobile (in the U.S. at least) so it's a special case.

I was stunned when I watched the Hunger Games Blu-ray this weekend as what I thought was the lead up to the main menu in fact lead to a large message: "Previews for Your Mandatory Viewing". This was a purchased copy mind you, not a rental version. Of course now the Main Menu button was disabled, fortunately the chapter skip button was not (it must not be able to or it would have been).

This button disabling shit is unbelievable, even the Stop button. Yes, the Stop button.

To paraphrase John Siracusa, everything about Blu-ray sucks, except the AV quality, which you can't get anywhere else (legally).

I think it's a bigger deal for battery life. Faster processing, less power use.

No, he's right. GDI+ does not make effective use of the GPU.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/gdigdi_move_over_microsoft_introduces_direct2d

Quartz Extreme has supported GPU acceleration since OS X 10.2, released in 2002.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_Compositor

No, I mean HTML. Obviously the CSS has to be known and you'll see the class names but for me at least, it's the HTML structure that I "see" the page in.

I think of it like the falling green code in The Matrix. Once you really know what you're doing, you can look at HTML and see the page itself. I don't even see the DIVs, all I see is...blonde, brunette, red-head...

I may come off as an Apple apologist here but they aren't a patent troll. They have products that implement the patents in question as opposed to true trolls who produce nothing but lawsuits. At worst you could call them patent abusers, at best they're just playing the game.

Wikipedia:

On a local network, nothing will transcode with a PC/Mac client, nor anything a device supports (and everything does h264 these days, and most do XviD). It remuxes if it has to but leaves the streams alone. Also over a local network the transcoding can have a huge bitrate and look fine. Admittedly it requires a beefy server. Remote streaming obviously gets a lower bitrate but you're trading quality for quantity with the ability to browse terabytes of media.

Look, I'm aware it isn't for everyone. I'm not going to respond to everyone here, but I guess "I know it's the best solution for many people" wasn't a good enough disclaimer.

I have to think that while something like Plex would be better for a lot of people, XBMC still gets used on name recognition alone. If you have more than one device that you watch media on (TVs, Roku, tablets, phones, whatever) why wouldn't you want a central server managing the library, downloading metadata, saving watched flags, holding resume times, and serving up video to the devices? I turned a friend on to Plex from XBMC and he's amazed at how often he stops watching in one room and resumes in another. I love it too. I can't count the times that I've started watching something on the iPad in the kitchen while cleaning up and then going into the bedroom to finish on the TV. That's a way bigger feature to me than getting "the real deal" running everywhere I need it.

The people above wanting this for Google TV...check out Plex, it may be exactly what you're looking for.

Sorry to not gush for XBMC, I know it's the best solution for many people and I truly appreciate the heritage and the fact that it's the foundation for Plex, but until they have a centralized server (if ever), I can't even consider it for myself. And no I'm not going to jump through hoops to get it.

I think Microsoft is just sitting back waiting until Windows 8 comes out. Most people will learn about the new Windows and Metro no matter what, then they just have to be shown the phone that works like what they [now] already know (and, for Microsoft's sake, hopefully like).