The problem is that Ubuntu touch doesn't support the 1x1 screen resolution. We need the inventor to release the specs so a Mir graphics driver can be written. I've tried an alpha version and personally find the scroll bars tricky, but then that's always been a problem with Unity. This is the problem with Canonical trying to get one OS to work every device.

Phillip.

I have a Galaxy Note2, and rooting it was as simple as double clicking on a file. Took me 1 minute. Installing a new rom took me a good 5 minutes. There are plenty of sites for this like this one. I really enjoy my custom rom, it's called du@lNote, never had a random reboot ever. Or if you want something simple there is CleanROM. There is a good lists here.

Phillip.

I have had a range of phones, but my favourites were with keyboard. In some ways my old Nokia E71 was one of the best phones I owned: long battery life, thin and light, proper keyboard, good software including an on-board answer-phone (something my €700 Galaxy Note 2 doesn't even have). I use my phone as much for social as business, so I love the screen of the Note2, but having played with the new Blackberries they are superb. Even the touch-screen one is so intuitive to use. Unlike the rather tired and limited iPhone, I can see Blackberry selling well. Not for me but for anybody serious about business and productivity it's excellent.

Phillip.

Why bother doing actual technical innovation? You can just do like Apple and look through other people's old software and patent the stuff others thought were way too obvious to take out a patent on. Hey, a billion dollar settlement can't be wrong...

Phillip.

Gung'f jrveq, V pna ernq nyy gur cbfgf rkprcg gur cnerag gb guvf bar. V guvax gurer vf n oht va gur arj plcure flfgrz.

Cuvyyvc.

I'm not sure if you are talking about Bitcoin or dollars, but yes they both suck as a medium to store wealth for more than short periods of time. Especially currency. Every European country has had its currency made useless numerous times. Both France and Germany replaced their Francs and Deutchmarks, before yet again throwing out their currency and replacing it with Euros. The values of the old currency were set to crash to zero after a certain deadline, and if you missed it well tough your currency was useless.

Take a look at Cyprus. The government confiscated a third of all wealth over €100k. So over this limit your wealth crashed 30% in a day. This is why people prefer to invest wealth in tangible assets such as property. Putting wealth into Bitcoin is the same as putting it into the old version of Bitcoin which is gold. Supply increases slowly and its value vs anything that you could want to buy with it fluctuates wildly.

And stop with the pyramid scheme myth. That's been debunked so many times it's boring. Anything that can be bought and sold can fall victim to speculators including currency. Read up on what George Soros did to Sterling back in 1992.

Phillip.

Florian, that simply isn't true. There is no indication that VP8 is patent-encumbered. That is just FUD you are trying to spread. When you say "we", I presume you mean Microsoft, and of course you have rose-tinted glasses. How did Google lie? They didn't. Are you trying that old fallacy of trying to trick somebody into proving a negative?

This pathetic Microsoft shilling has become a joke.

Phillip.

Never liked Kmail, Thunderbird all the way (Claws was like my fav ever, The Bat!, but lacked the polish). The great thing about Thunderbird is that it works on every OS. KDE4 is very good on the desktop, solid for me since 4.2, but this bug locks up my netbook so I use XFCE4 on that. With the Unity spyware scandal, KDE has never had a better opportunity to win back market share.

Phillip.

So that is the US, Britain and France...

You could also mention that when you go into the naked scanner you need to put your hands on your head in the submission pose of somebody surrendering. Way more humiliating than having some guy touch your genitals in one respect. We win two world wars, then you see a stream of British people being marched like cattle with hands on their heads :-(.

Actually in all 3 countries all the customs officials were quite polite about doing the manual search, and I didn't feel at all they were penalising me for insisting. I only went through major hubs, though, where you might get a little bit more respect.

Phillip.

Despite only you thinking he is an idiot, and everybody else realising how smart he is...

Why not create a national free health service in the USA? Stop the political corruption through political lobbying? Create a police force that doesn't molest passengers at the airport and pepper spray random citizens? You get these things on track, and couple it with your freedom of speech and religious tolerance, and the moment he starts thinking about raising a family he will be back and a US tax payer before you can say "Do you want Sambal with that?"

Some misguided guilt-trip at somebody who doesn't care won't work. Get positive!!!

Phillip.

You are kidding!!! Now Google is censoring apps I have no reason to stay with the play store, but Amazon's policy of crippling your phone if you dare uninstall their app is completely unacceptable. Can somebody else back up this allegation?

Maybe Samsung will open their own store?

For free apps, if somebody was to set up a good repository then all the mod distros including by default would give it a (small) default user base.

Phillip.

Unity started to turn out quite nicely until they turned it into Amazon spyware. It was completely unnecessarily made unusable but the underpinnings were there. Coming up with a new display server, I am sure they have some hotshot OS programmer sell them on a demo of something that seems pretty spectacular. However, the fact X has hung around for a decade past its due by date shows it's not easy to replace. There is a horrible amount of legacy to be supported in terms of standards and hardware. I agree there is a good chance it will end badly, but I don't think Unity is related.

Phillip.

I boycotted going to the states for the past decade, but finally succumbed to peer pressure and flew a couple of times to Vegas. The first time I went via NY and didn't encounter the naked scanners. The second time I went they had them both in France and the USA! Each time I politely asked not to go through, and they were very nice about it. They pulled me aside and told me they would find somebody to examine me and my luggage separately. Each time it didn't take long. Each TSA agent I came across stated they would only be touching my penis and testacles with the back of their hand. Honestly I found them actually very polite and honest people doing a shitty job. Sure if I was an American and believed it was a free democratic country I would have been pretty mad, but being a European already warned it was pretty much a Nazi state I was mentally prepared. Not really too bothered about a guy "touching my junk" as I knew that was a prerequisite of visiting America. There was no pressure to push me through the naked scanners though.

I really feel for you guys :-(. If you can end this ritual humiliation, it will be both good for yourselves and your international image.

Bon chances mes amis,

Phillip.

Are you a fucking moron?

In your opinion, perhaps, because I hold a different viewpoint. Intellectually speaking I would venture I am more intelligent than you.

These aren't strange arguments they're ones that anybody with any knowledge of the subject or common sense would come to.

I have read extensively on ecommerce technology, I feel I am economically literate and have read numerous papers on the subject (though my degrees were in engineering), and have my own investment portfolios. My conclusions differ. The theory appears ok but I doubted at the beginning it would ever gain any traction. The extent of its success has taken me by surprise, not due to any theoritical flaws... quite the contrary. The money markets are quite illogical and 'belief' and 'confidence' play and undue part. Look at the effect the downgrading of the UK by the Moody credit rating agency. I am surprised it has had so much success solely through grass roots.

BTC, unlike USD, CAD, Euros or Pounds has no value to it.

It does. Like any commodity. The value is what somebody is prepared to pay for it. People pay $20k for a mobile phone. It's not worth that if you melt it down but the value has been set by supply and demand.

I can't pay my taxes or buy food with it

The first is true but the second isn't. There was a /. article only last week about being able to order pizza using Bitcoin. If a vendor insists on a particular form of payment then use it. If your government wants to be paid on dollars then use dollars. If somebody else wants to be paid in potatoes then give them potatoes. As long as you have some form of exchange then there is no problem.

And yes, I'm fully aware of what a Ponzi Scheme is

No you are not.

it's where you take new investors money to pay off the older investors and where the founders get automatic profits

That is not correct.

And yes, this is likely illegal, unlike other commodities markets, the SEC isn't regulating this one

That is not the definition of illegal.

which means there's likely all sorts of illegal activities going on

???

Phillip.

Hmm, seem to be replying to yet another hedwards post on how Bitcoin will fail. Using strange arguments. Nothing needs to be produced in a currency apart from some token that can be validated. Whether a euro coin, a dollar bill, or an EDI transfer over a wire.

You don't appear to know what a zero sum game is or a Ponzi scheme. Similar trolls have posted before so I won't point out the misuse of the former and ignorance about the latter. I'm not even sure where you come up with a concept of a bill. If I buy a Bitcoin then it's mine. Even if it becomes worthless. Nothing is owed to anybody. I lost a third of my savings by not moving it into Euros in time, a number of years ago, because I invested in the "Ponzi scheme" of the currency of the United Kingdom. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Then you randomly throw in digital tokens as being illegal with no basis what-so-ever. Wow, you are BITTER.

Personally I'm curious about the concept of Bitcoin, and am wary even though it appears to be working perfectly well. The wariness is due to your only valid point, which is that large changes in value can occur because of the low volume. There are people that buy Bitcoin as an investment rather than a currency, and speculators distort any market. I can't even buy any quantity of my favourite wines as speculators have already bought up next years production. Frankly speculators can be a pain in the arse. However if somebody working freelance wanted me to pay them in Bitcoin to avoid paying Visa/Paypal fees then I wouldn't have any objection to it. I'd buy a couple $100 worth and then 'top up' buying more as needed.

Phillip.