I would love to be able to install my x86 desktop aps on my mobile devices, even on my phone! This is all I have ever really wanted from mobile devices.

Sure.. a lot of them will suck cramped into a small screen and a touch interface they were never designed for. But.. they would not be totally unusable when I really need them. If they weren't then nobody would bother with vnc or remote deskop on their phones!

  If such an environment was common then new versions of applications would be developed to scale well to both small and large screens and to work well with both keyboard/mouse and touch interfaces. Proving it is possible I have seen some Android devices that do this really well on a lapdock when they switch between their phone and tablet modes. In the tablet mode they don't just blow up the same view, they have different layouts with additional controls enabling more desktop-like features.

This is how mobile computing should have played out in the first place. Blackberry and Symbian plus the later iOS and Android have been only a poor imitation of what could have been and have slowed down mobile development as all the wheels have had to be re-invented.

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to play with a friend's Intel Windows 8 tablet. It was nice using real, full featured applications for once. An x86 Windows phone would definitely tempt me away from Android although I would much prefer a Linux (as in real Linux desktop) phone. That did almost exist once. There was an alternative desktop named GPE which ran on old Zaurus and HP PDAs back in the day. It used GTK on top of X. Qt was available as a separate package. So.. pretty much any Linux software, if you had the source it could be built! It even had a phone dialer although I don't know of any hardware that the dialer could be functional on. Unfortunately the cross-compiler was nearly required a PHD to get working and there weren't enough tools included to build packages on the device itself. It would have been a mini-desktop if it weren't for that.

Maybe someday....

Oh.. also on my wishlist.. these desktop-software running mobile devices should have HDMI out and USB host. When it does everything a desktop does there is no reason we shouldn't be able to plug it in and use it like one when we are not on the go.

Additionally... there is no reason it shouldn't work with something like the Motorola Lapdock. Except.. there should be some upgrades on that device which Motorola never offered. How about a touch screen? Better speakers? And.. why not make that keyboard removable. Then it becomes just a bigger screen for your phone.. your phone is a tablet.. is a laptop. Of course you could still have the HD docking station so it's a desktop too! Unless you want an always on-server then your phone is the only computer you need!

This is how it should be. What we have now sucks in comparison.

Sell
Confiscate
Sell again

Sounds pretty bright to me!

I would imagine that he can afford some pretty bad ass security. Maybe attacking him can help thin their ranks a bit.

It wasn't meant to. It was meant to contradict the falacy that Android users never pay. I never meant to claim that there aren't a whole lot of stupid people out there spending money on stupid shit! iOS is the best scam in town!

Of course not! This is Slashdot! The only relationships here are between player and videogame character... consumated in mother's basement!

I buy Android apps. Although, I admit I usually download the free version first. If I like it I usually buy it. Otherwise I just uninstall it. I rarely buy anything that I don't get to try this way first. I do have apps that have no free versions. Most of them I would buy just to get rid of the ads if I had a choice!

But... I wouldn't necessarily buy them at iOS prices. I do have an iPad too, on which I rarely install anything. My most used app on either platform is Anki, a flashcard program. It's free on Android, not even any ads. On iOS the same app is $50! iOS is such a ripoff!

If someone takes a picture of you in a public place they own the picture, not you. Then again, I suppose that applies to nude pictures too but most people aren't nude in public very often.

He is Leonart Poetering. He spends the rest of his time actually writing Systemd.

I thought that was more what we did in the 80s. Today we oust the dictators so that the people can over compensate and democratically elect what they perceive to be the dictator's polar opposites.

IE religious whack jobs replace secular dictators. In another 20 or 30 years we can shift back to our old ways and start replacing the religious whack jobs with cruel secular dictators again so the cycle continues.

Meanwhile.. cruel secular dictators or religious whack jobs.. either way we have plenty for the population over here to fear and hate thus keeping attention away from our own government's faults.

Yeah, sure... how's it working out for that ally?

I was all for the invasion of Iraq at first. The WMD story always did smell like BS but I was filled with all the stories of the horrible things that Sadam and his family and friends had done. Now all I hear about is the horrible things that ISIS is doing and the old dictator sounds pretty good.

Meanwhile half their neighbors have ousted their own dictators and voted in religious nutcases. Oh boy.. the world just keeps getting better doesn't it.

I strongly believe that increasing our knowlege of the universe and how it works is far more profitable in the long run than getting involved in the middle east could ever be.

A better analogy would be your are deep in debt, still buying a new car that you cannot afford every other day or so and some dipshit is complaining at you because you also invested a few dollars in a savings account for your kids college fund.

It's probably in apps that are either copies of or otherwise masquerading as good ones. Listing them would just serve to hurt the makers of the actual real apps while not acomplishing much as the malware pedler's would just quickly adapt by copying someone else's app. It's better just to inform the marketplaces to pull the offenders and publish articles like this to remind people to be careful of what they install in general.

It's pretty rare I go to my hackerspace and not see at least one girl. At times some of our most active members have been female!

What are you talking about? Yes, I know the common negative meaning of 'hacker' that you are refering to. I suspect that some uninformed people might still read 'hackerspace' and think that.

But... 'hackerspace' is a pretty well used term now. I'm sure your hypothetical FBI agents would have heard of it. Also... since when have that kind of 'hacker' had their own dedicated spaces? Where would you find such a thing? Would that be on the same block as the pick-pocketer's club, rapists inn and murderers cafe? Law enfocement must have it pretty easy in your world where the criminals gather together and label themselves. I suppose it's a tough place to market detective skills though.

If the only technology one possessed was an engine that could push something faster than light across the space between stars then all one would have to do is attach it to a big rock and they would have a weapon that could destroy us all.

But.. surely there are a nearly limitless number of unpopulated worlds such a people could travel to. Why would they need to take ours?