Look into music apps that pros and Semipros use. It's one of those niches that I think apple has always nurtured, and for good reason.

There more than one reason behind this:

1) everything that is online only has a potential to earn a rent at some point.
2) cloud providers are better at keeping data backed up than the typical home user
3) advertising revenue for provider.
4) some features like the aforementioned teamwork do work well if applications and shared data are centrally hosted
5) new features can be added and tested with minimal effort.
6) customer retention. Even if there are no ugly tricks to prevent paying users from leaving, having to migrate 500GB of storage bundled with the word processor is a barrier to leaving.

Could it be your bullshit alarm is really sensitive? If you take the user-friendly UI and familiarity of Facebook, Twitter, etc and apply it to internal web applications like a document library, would you not get an easier adoption, and through network effect have more benefits for everyone? Would you not be steering users away from using email for everything?

The way I see it, home computing and enterprise computing influence each other and that's not something that just happened when Facebook became big. There's terrible enterprise application UIs out there which would definitely benefit from copying good things from the properly design websites. In comparison, Yammer, Podio and Jive look like tools that people would actually use rather than accumulating local copies of every email and Office doc they've ever received, missing out on a good search function. "Enterprise social media" can work, let's not dismiss it just because it looks like something hipsters would approve.

I tend to agree with this. Until now, I have not seen any good reason to think of the islamic state of Iraq and Syria to be better or worse that the islamic state of Pakistan, or IS of Saudi Arabia or any other I'm not even aware of... It looks like there are important conflicts between being a devout muslim and a law-abiding citizen in a western Europe secular country. Following the Charlie Hebdo attack, this Amjed Choudary cleric chap explained things with little room for error - he is defined by media as "radical", but who's got a way of benchmarking a moderate religious guy?

Where I'm getting is that it might not be that worse to treat the IS of Iraq and Syria as a country rather than a ... place where there are terrorists? ISIL seems to have strong appeal to some of the most undesirable Europe-based muslims, to the extent they actually pack up and go live there. Recognizing ISIL as a country would certainly have many effects I can't predict, but with optimism I'd say it would give some clarity about muslim's world view, while giving those unhappy to live in secular Europe a place to live according to the rules of their sect of Islam. Maybe the great power of having a new country would also give them the feeling of responsibility not to live in permanent war with Shia/Sunni/infidel neighbours.

These last few of years I was signed up for Lovefilm (DVD Delivery) and then Netflix. After a while the convenience was beat by the limited offering and the annoyance of Netflix UK trying quite hard to hide away what's available and what films will be on in the future. Last month, for the first time in years I watched 3 movies at the cinema and this year I'll sign up for a Cineworld £16/month subscription. There's a couple of months in 2015 that won't have very appealing releases but from the list I saw so far, there will be 2 worthwhile films every month, plus those that I will watch now and wouldn't if I had to pay extra. Yes, there will be road traffic to get there and noise from others eating popcorn but I'll be watching current films.

Bringing new products to market is key, but don't underestimate the importance of being seen as innovative by the overall market. Whenever Google announces something about the driverless car, the wearables, the AI-assisted emailbox, etc., they are reinforcing that image of a company that is there for the long run, that is innovating, that will eventually bring revolutionary tech to the market. Owning a major brand with good reputation is worth a lot, and keeping up a stream of good news takes effort and investment.

Look at other competitors and their efforts in keeping that brand value up, it's not easy. Apple is great at making their customers feel special and "niche" while selling millions of units of standardised products. When I look at Xiaomi knock-off phones on eBay I find it quite amusing that the iPhone knock-off sells at a premium compared to the Lumia and Galaxy knock-offs :)

So at what age did you expect the babies in question to display symptoms of autism? Before they learned to speak?

5 vaccines in Europe? Lies, dear AC. Here's the schedule of vaccination for the United Kingdom:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/v...

Same for Portugal:
http://www.vacinas.com.pt/cale...

Same for Spain (click on each part of the map for regional rules)
http://vacunasaep.org/profesio...

Hare's a handy comparison/search tool for vaccines for all of Europe:
http://vaccine-schedule.ecdc.e...

That sounds fair if accompanied by some serious analysis. What were the quantities that you found would be acceptable and what was the basis for that decision? Were there quantities you decided to be adequate based on analysis or was it a matter of opinion?

I'm having important discussions with my wife about this matter and I feel there is significant FUD being applied by the proponents of no-vaccination. It would be good to settle on what are the objective criteria or to admit that "keep an open mind" is something that "alternative medicine" proponents only demand from those who disagree with them.

Hey... can we have some sources and explanations for all that please? Looks like serious accusations. Got to keep an open mind, you know?

I for one need to keep an open mind to the possibility that the companies selling vaccines are the same that would sell the treatment. I have an open mind to the possibility that "chemicals" and "toxins" are dangerous in the wrong doses rather than as absolutely dangerous in all circumstances.I have an open mind to the possibility of herd immunity and immunisation from vaccines being false would mean that doctors and nurses would need constant treatment.

It would be easy to dismiss antivaccination proponents as being dumb, and fear that giving attention offers credibility when none is deserved, but I'm giving AC a chance. Offer some proper evidence instead of FUD and we can have a useful discussion. Then you can show if you have an open mind or if that's something that only applies to people who disagree with you!

The user interface looks strangely similar to Galaxians.

no, actually I did not.

I drive in the UK and I understand where you're getting. I would go a step further and say the law is not right and needs changing.

After many comparisons, I find that in the UK the premium depends mostly of the home address of the person buying insurance. Rather than accepting the current state of affairs as being "normal" and trying to fit the Uber business case into the current laws, what we should be doing is challenging why current legislation forces people to have insurance and then lets private companies justify wild changes in prices with "market factors".

For example, a Ferrari 458 with a paying passenger or a Kia Ceed with no paying passengers should not have different insurance premium for insurance covering damage to 3rd parties. Fully comprehensive insurance prices I can understand, but the current state of affairs is at least extortionate, and when it forces young people to walk or use 2 wheeled vehicles that aren't as safe as cars - much worse than extortion.

If the growth of Uber and similar services forces law makers to open their eyes, it's a good thing that they are forced to act on the scandal of motor insurance.

that's a good heads-up. I think this kind of test is something to consider the next time that Microsoft releases a OS version that prevents users from getting applications outside of the Windows Store. Last time they tried, the rage against RT was loud on Slashdot and elsewhere.

well, no if Uber and Lyft have the right size to be early adopters of that technology as well and keep the commission that would be paid to drivers!