By the way things are going, the "EU legal system" part may be unavailable some time in the future....

The insistence on exceptionalism with regard to rules that apply to all the remaining member states is starting tho chaffe, and the constant "euro-ceptic" noises are starting to get a different reponse from people I know (It has change from "Why ?" to "Leave already").

The UK public should be aware that some day their government will insist on another exception (threatening to leave if they don't get their way) and they will be told "Then leave".
Europe as a political and economic entity will be weaker, the UK will be much much weaker (and it's citizens will loose access to a different legal safety net). The winners will be : China, Russia, etc ...

Brazil ?!?!
I believe Brazil hasn't any claim over the Falklands/Malvinas (although they support Argentina's claim)

-20 , Title is moronic.

Why should any product (commercial or otherwise) be the future of education ?
The future of education isn't on buzzwords/marketing items/products with a limited shelf life.
It's on philosophies, methods and concepts.

I Keep seeing this argument "X also does it" , but the proponents seem to forget that other Electronics intelligence agencies don't have the capacity to do data collection on the same scale as the NSA (Not even close).
They don't have:
- The manpower.
- The bilateral agreements with the same number of inteligence agencies
- The scale of technical infra-structure
- The number of locations where to implement listening posts (military bases, diplomatic posts, comercial entreprises).

This means that they won't have the capability to get the same volume of information as the NSA, and as a consequence, have less access to information they shouldn't have.

For Brazil (which isn't next door to Sweden), this means they will be less intruded on by the FRA than by the NSA.

As a PR professional she MUST take a really good look at what she says and writes.

If there is even the slightest possibility that it might be mis-interpreted it WILL, and should be stated differently.

Still a fail.

Yes it is a freedom of speech issue (well , depending on jurisdiction...),
which means that people who disagree or feel ofended also have a right to voice their offense and disagreement.

No only that, but she is a professional that deals with Image and relates with the Public.
By public, i mean everyone that _may_ have any relation with the company she represents:
- Customers
- Advertisers
- Share holders
- Etc....

Some of these will NOT wan't to be associated with that kind of remarks (irrespective of aggreeing with them or not).
This reflects directly on that person's professional ability, and also on that person's image, as well as the companies represented.

This makes it a major and very public PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIAL FAIL.

I'm running KDE on Ubuntu 13.04 (installed from the standard dvd download).
All i had to do is apt-get the relevant (meta?)package .
No need to download the Kubuntu dvd.

Everyone knows ?

I don't.

Using cables has an enormous advantage:
It doesn't foul up the RF spectrum (or not as much as with Radio emitters).

Wireless may be a lot more convenient (in terms of equipment connectivity and installation), but has some serious capacity limitations:
- RF spectrum occupancy. (In which they will be in competition with : TV, radio, satellite, baby cams, wifi, Air traffic control, police, the list goes on and on and on...)
- Limited number of possible clients for each location and frequency. (if you need to enable access to more endpoints in the same location, you need another set of frequencies. In some cases you will also need both more antennas and more Radio equipment)
- Very expensive base station equipment.
Energy usage is also a lot lot higher.

Whatever advances you may get in RF that enable more bandwidth, you will almost certainly have the same with cable technologies.
It will be a long time (if ever) until we are fully wireless.

Western Europe did have authoritarian governments, right leaning ones, on both Portugal and Spain up to the mid 1970s.

The Portuguese dictatorship, although not as violent and repressive as the Spanish or the East European comunisms (at least on the european portion, the colonies where a whole different thing) was still pretty awfull. Political Police, Imprisonments, internal and external exile, the odd assassination, complete absence of any freedoms of speech, and also a very regimented economic regime. To all this add the behaviour on the colonies (pretty much all of what you have heard from apartheid South Africa).

I certainly do not want a return to those times.
"Free speech" is already regulated (of note: slander).
Restricting access to the public and civic arenas to those who which to restrict ALL of free speech (and willing to cause serious physical harm to those who opose them) is a necessary evil.
Doesn't mean we don't have to be vigilant on how that impacts political and civic life.

Comparing this directly with "constitutional rights" in the US, which has a very different sociological make-up and a VERY different recent history (to both Germany and Portugal) is a non-starter.

The French/Germans/etc do not have:
- ELINT / SIGINT capabilities on par with the US (at least in terms of volume capability)
- Fully staffed military base(s) nearby.
- Readiness to go to war (politically and psychologically)

The South Koreans ARE on the front-line of a cold war that could become extremely hot, and I guess they feel the need to:
- Not antagonize the only ally with real capability to help them if the North starts shooting.
- Have access to some intelligence regarding NK and the PRC.

As for Singapore, it's not much different. They are dwarfed by neighbors that have immense populations hand would be able to over-power them easily.
Compound that with the imbalance of wealth between citizens of Singapore and it's neighbors, and you have a situation which can easily be exploited by politicians that may want to "extend their reach" and provoke a war.
This means that Singapore needs allies to balance this situation (US and Australia). That means:
- Keeping on good terms with prospective allies
- Have access to some intelligence regarding their neighbors.

The amount of information obtained in the "french affair" isn't attainable via "tapping cables".
It entails access to switching equipment, call detail records, etc.

This access is via either of two ways:
- Backdoors
- Agents in place that have access to those systems.
It also entails some very fat "pipes" connecting to those systems.

These aren't new issues regarding security (and I don't mean "cyber security").

Maybe the powers that be need to start mandating more security to that part of the infra-structure.

That, and :
- Auditing of software and hardware (and not just rubber-stamping)
- Increased security for physical assets (data-centers, overland cables, etc...)
- And active enforcment of anti-espionage laws
will mitigate the problem.

What won't solve it, and will certeanly lead to more abuse and friction between states, is just shrugging
it of or brushing it under the carpet.

The NSA is chartered to do that by a specific nation. The USA.

Why should independent nations not react to the (very real and ilegal) actions ot the NSA against those nations' interests and citizens?

For anyone that is minimaly informed about history and politics, the desire of the NSA (or any other inteligence agency) to have access to EVERYTHING is obvious.
My surprise is limited to the extent to which the NSA as been allowed to gain that information.
The level and volume of information that it is said that the NSA acquires regarding communications inside european countries would'nt be possible without:
- A faily big operational capability (which isn't neither new nor chocking in itself)
- Cooperation from local entities , government and private (which is very unsettling)
- The belief by those that make the decisions, in Europe, allowing access by the NSA to local resources, that that access wouldn't be abused. (which was unbelievable as it is mind-bogllingly STUPID).

Putting it bluntly, these actions by the NSA are illegal in most (if not all) of the european countries.
- It's agents and enablers are breaking laws. Those should be punished legaly when caught (yes, prison).

Also, "good will" with regards to access to some information sources should be re-evaluated.
Those include the aforementioned finantial data and should also include the passenger information now routinely shoveled out by the EU to the US, even regarding flights that don't touch the USAs airspace.

You are looking at the wrong market.

The features you talk about (local applications, copying files to the phone) are , mostly for "power users".
This is a basic phone, with capabilities to interact with the web/cloud/etc..

The people who will be looking to this phone are those that aren't able (or willing) to spend the 300 to 600 USD that a Nexus 4 costs in Brazil, and still need to check their e-mail or interact with services (banking, government, etc...).

Also, keep in mind that income in Brazil is much lower that what you may be used to, and for some this phone could be the first real interface to the web that a lot of people would be able to afford. I would guess, that for a lot of people, even the 60 USD that this phone costs on contract will be steep.

If you change Brazil for any number of nations that are developing their infra-structure but still need a cheaper mode of access to (the growing number of) services that are available online, you have a huge market ( India, Indonesia, Philipines, all of Africa, etc...).

I don't know the specifics about the Brazilian Customs, but most countries' postal systems (and courier/distribution companies) go through customs, and you end-up paying the relevant local taxes.

If on top of that you have to deal with the red-tape it generates, and paying the processing fees (which when you import in bulk are diluted across the final price of the goods imported), some times it is just not worth it to go that route, or just marginaly so.

Phones in Brazil are more expensive than in the US.

In Brazil the price for the nexus 4 would be between 300 and 600 USD , according to this:
http://www.tudocelular.com/LG/precos/n2361/LG-Google-Nexus-4.html

According to this http://tecnologia.ig.com.br/2013-10-22/sem-alarde-lg-traz-primeiro-smartphone-com-firefox-os-para-o-brasil-por-r-129.html
The Fireweb phone costs about 205 USD. If acquired via contract , it goes down to 60 USD.

Apples to apples, oranges to oranges, on the right market....