By that measurement, smartphones, themselves, would not be regarded as innovative because they all used existing technology.

If you root your phone and install an ad blocker (I use AdAway by Dominik Schürmann), then most of those "free apps w/ ads" become "free apps".

If it's an app I like, I'll usually pay the $1 (or more) to buy it - I've purchased over 50 apps through the Google Play Store - usually ones that were part of a $0.99 sale, but a few others that I use all the time, like Titanium Backup and CoPilot GPS because they were definitely worth more than the few dollars they cost.

Then root the damn thing and un-install all that crap!

My first Android phone was the HTC Desire from US Cellular - it was actually a pretty decent phone, but they partitioned the memory and only allowed you access to a small partition - the rest contained the OS plus all of the bloatware that USC wanted on the phone - Myspace? Seriously? In 2011 you're still putting Myspace in the system partition where it can't be uninstalled?

Long story short - rooted it, repartitioned the storage area and installed a "stock without all the bloat + Apps2SD" ROM and after that it truly was a good phone.

I'm on a Samsung Galaxy S III now - rooted it right away and uninstalled (after backing up) any crappy bloatware I didn't want.

Without knowing which app, we can't know for sure if it was pulled. The App Store filters (by default) apps based on whether they are compatible with your device(s) -- if you de-registered your old device and only have the new device registered,then incompatible apps will not be shown.

I was outraged by the fact that it was a penny (1 cent) slot machine, but the lowest possible dollar amount you could play was something like 200x, so even though it's a $0.01 machine, it ends up costing you $2.00 every time you push the Play button... Admittedly, not a lot of money, but you don't sit at the $0.01 machines because you want the pay $2.00 per pull...

Agreed...Apple has absolutely nothing to fear from Microsoft. Microsoft is destroying themselves from the inside. For Apple to buy Nokia, that might cause Microsoft to wake the fuck up and start building their own phones, like Apple does.

If Apple really wants to see Microsoft fail, the best option is to let them continue down the path they are currently on.

I would have watched that!

I'm just waiting for Apple to claim that they invented the concept of a ~7" tablet and that all of the ones that have been on the market for years are actually copying their design...

Those of us who live in small towns in the Midwest where Walmart K-mart or Target are your only real options for modern day electronics, unless you feel up to a 75 minute drive to a "big city" that has an electronic appliance store. If I'm going to waste that much gas and time, I'll just have it shipped Next Day Air - or go to Wal-Mart and get it right now.

IMO, the controller should have been launched first as a standalone console.

Just about any multiplayer strategy game. Each user having a tablet would allow them to interact with the game in secret. For example, a football game would allow each player to draw their own detailed plays.

More like a cycle of life... the oil spill is eaten by the bacteria, and then the bacteria get eaten by something else, which then gets eaten by something else.

I'm wondering what the fishing boats in the Gulf are seeing, if there was a corresponding explosion of growth in populations of shrimp or such.

You push the power button on the Kindle Fire and the screen turns off. You push it again and the screen comes on and you're looking at the lock screen with adds - swipe the screen and the lock screen and ads go away. They are not displayed on the screen when the device is off. On the e-ink displays the ads are displayed when the Kindle is turned off, but it requires no power to maintain the screen in that state - every once in a while the device wakes up, updates the ad and goes back to sleep - it uses very tiny amounts of power and has almost on impact on expected battery life.

That's why the insurance lobby is going to get HEAVILY behind automated cars, and pushing legislation to make them required. Everyone will still be required to purchase insurance, but the incidence of traffic accidents will drop dramatically.

There's also the issue of cost.

Everyone will want an automated car. Hell, who wouldn't want to take a nap during their work commute, or watch TV or read a book?

New technology is always expensive at first. To reduce cost, I can see car manufacturers offering a budget car that has *no* manual controls. I think that first world countries will adopt automated driving very quickly, and that by the turn of the century, manually operated cars won't exist on public roads.