It wasn't long ago that you'd have had to watch these on a laptop, at best hooked up to the TV for the duration of the show. Complete, probably, with AV, update and email pop-ups...

Now we just watch it on our $200 XBMC boxes, our XBOX 360, Wii or whatever device it is we normally hook up to the TV. We also get it in every room (Wii in the Playroom with Netflix + netflix kids, Xbox 360 in the main room, old xbox running xbmc in the kitchen, tablet everywhere else).

And that's even with a very limited selection of shows - just wait until the rest of the world catches up with content, Cable and Satellite will be converting all their resources to suing their customers MPAA stylee!

Opera on WM 6.5 was truly legendary. Though generally Safari on iOS equalled it, but on far far better hardware.

The Nokia N9 and the Nokia N900 had this integration feature for years. It's nice to have, but it was not and will never be a killer app.

There are no killer apps anymore

I know next to nothing about the N900 but killer apps need an ecosystem in which to exist. You can't just have one thing right and miss out on the other important stuff. Metro is an innovative UI that works really well. The marketplace has 50,000 apps. Who cares how many cores it has, the UI is responsive, properly written apps are fast to load and use.

Really, tell me how will the hardware manufacturers differentiate themselves when they ALL have to have the exact same OS and hardware specs, and they ALL have access to the same apps, etc.

This was pretty much my point. It's a problem MS have to get over. There's plenty they can do to achieve it. Manufacturers can use higher res, lower res screens (e.g. smaller, bigger). They can add keyboards. They can have better speakers, worse speakers, stereo speakers. They can have cool multi-colour polycarbonate shells. Or, they could do what Nokia is doing and write a few genuinely useful apps and parcel them with the device. I am of the opinion, as a developer, that if they can succeed with this, they've gone one over on Android (which is a royal pain to work with) and could easily get more market penetration than Apple.

Define properly conceived and integrated.

Yes, that was a rider to my main point so I didn't delve. I consider my WP7 device to be well conceived and properly integrated. It's a communications device and it covers most of the big communication services available to it and present them to me as one. I've not used the N900 but iPhone and Android certainly don't have it nailed as well as MS do.

Most consumers don't do "any amount of serious work". They read reddit, and update their status. They play games and compare scores. I'm not saying the tablet is right for everyone. I think some people will want a netbook (preferably with capactive touch screen, everything should have a capacitive touchscreen) and a cellphone. Some people might have a smartphone and a laptop, some might have every conceivable format of device (me for instance, that's likely me).

The killer app of the iPhone was capacitive touchscreen. You know, one that actually responded when you touched it, and for that matter, didn't when you didn't...?

To go with it, an OS that prioritised user input. That was novel.

iPhone is not, and has never been about all about being a "fashion icon". Sure, it's pretty, but that's just one of it's features.

Nokia have also released the Lumia 710 which is in (or close to) that price range I believe.

It's killer app is fully integrated contacts and social media. It's a hard one to understand though it's great when you've set it up and use it.

First.

The iPhone revolutionised the mobile phone market, essentially turning smartphones that had limited use and poor experience into things that are quick and reliable. Now we're tweaking and improving, it's hard for anyone to carve a niche. WP7's niche is that it totally integrates your contacts. If you know the same person in twitter, linkedin, your email db, facebook and more, WP7 seamlessly integrates them into the one person they are. That's it's killer app. The problem is that it takes more than a one-day test to really see this benefit so reviews are never going to "get it".

Second.

MS are keen not to make the mistake Android is making (or that they made in the PCmarket). They want to standardise the platform. This is easy for Apple/iPhone, they're the only ones making one. Not so easy keeping HTC, Samsung, Nokia and others to stick to one design. There's nothing for them to distinguish themselves in the market.

Roll on Windows 8 and tablets - then iPhone will be under serious threat. For most consumers, the tablet - if properly conceived and integrated - is a far better computer experience than the PC/Laptop.

(disclosure: I'm a devoted Lumia 800 and previously Samsung Omnia 7 owner)

My kids' school has something called "Wiz Kids" which is essentially a low grade social networking and collaboration/sharing tool. It allows them to post to boards, communicate with teachers and other students in their group (the teacher decides how wide groups are) and access resources provided by the teacher and other students.

The school uses "Parentmail" to communicate with the parents and other external groups (governors, PTA etc). This sends out emails with updates and notices, or SMS text messages for time critical information. It also has facilities for groups (PTA, board etc again) to share documents and communicate internally though we don't currently use that.

This is a primary school (kindergarten?) and I know many of the other primaries in the area use the same services. I guess they're quite widely used throughout the UK.

For the poorer kids, below a certain threshold there's money available to buy a netbook or similar. To the best of my knowledge no-one has claimed one though I could be wrong on that. Everyone has some sort of device that allows Internet access.

This is when I'd like to just be able to add points to a post, but instead I'll tag along. If a doctor isn't quite sure if I'm technically dead or not, please, rip out all my organs and bury what's left - I want to check out at that point.

I hate to think some anti-donor faction is rolling out this argument and dread to think it reducing the percentage of people donating. It's crap enough as it is in some places without applying FUD.

... Apple would probably sue them for a patent infringement. Better everyone stays well away from them and everything they produce.

It's a pity, this is a great example and great use of technology but deep down, it's just not able to deliver any real benefits over any other sedan.

The energy costs of the car in an entire lifespan are probably equal or worse than petrol. This technology requires more energy to make and involves expensive mid-term disposable battery packs. Energy used for it has probably had 50% of it's already non-optimal conversion efficiency wasted in down-the-wire transmission.

When that's taken into account, what's the point really? Lets just get over to being a renewable power produced hydrogen economy already. There are no other options that really help.

I still want one though. Shove an apple logo on it and it'd sell by the shipload.

M-x psychoanalyse-pinhead

This happened early in the days of the Irish national lottery, though it wasn't simply due to a roll-over and the people who purchased all of the tickets they could had to win the jackpot to turn a profit. I believe they succeeded though I can't remember the details!

Not to take away from it, as I think it's a nice way of raising the profile of Bletchley Park among young mathematicians, but it's decoding as you're given the code-book.

Without this software on your iDevice, you can't get adult material on the iPhone if parental locks are on. With it on, you can. What's to see here?