Well, then obviously your employer has not done it to you (or you would have quit), so where is the problem?

If they have done it to you and you didn't quit...then it sounds like you are part of the problem.

Its better than that. There is a check box to completely disable the facebook home screen and it leaves you with a bone stock android install.

I was considering buying one (it compares to the nexus 4 favorably in specs) since I don't want a huge phone and samsung is taking their time with the S4 Mini (ditto for the HTC M4). Turning off home leaves you with what is actually quite a nice device--well designed and good build quality--that easily fits in my pants pocket.

Of course I think the facebook home thing scared everybody away--even the facebook addicts I see on the train don't want to admit it by buying the facebook phone. This phone is way better than any other midrange devices and was a steal at $99 on contract (and should have gone like hotcakes when they dropped it to 99 cents)...so the only explanation I can come up with is that people actively disliked the idea of facebook home and purchased lower-quality midrange phones that didn't include it. Unfortunately this means that I can't buy one...with so few units sold, there won't be any updates coming from HTC and there won't be a modding community to release updated unofficial roms.

Zero Tolerance might explain the expulsion (just like a butter knife expulsion or a self-defense expulsion), but it doesn't explain the felony charge.

This is just a kid screwing around with a common noisemaker, its not a felony, and its a lot easier to clean up than some diet coke and mentos.

My US middle school had a rifle range.

Of course, in the late 90s, it was only used for archery...but that means that at some point since it was built (1950s?), the idea of kids using rifles in school wasn't that outrageous. That building is closed now...but if it was still open, I wonder if they would even give bows and arrows to a bunch of 7th graders or of they would be too scared that some kid would turn around and loose an arrow at someone.

He clearly was referring to the sms-replacement systems. Yes, people talk on facebook chat from phones, but its not the same as whatsapp, bbm, imessage, etc.

Honestly, I think imessage is something apple has mostly done right. You go to compose an SMS and it detects if the recipient has a compatible device. If so, it sends it as a data packet through imessage; if not, it sends an SMS. The thing that they have done stupidly wrong is that all mutli-recipient messages coming from an iphone are sent as an MMS (picture message, even if it is only text) rather than a standard SMS text message. If you have any friends who don't use smart phones, have a carrier that charges 2-5x as much for MMS as SMS (50c vs 10c), or use google voice, this is fucking terrible.

Old phones are quite slow to open these messages. Android phones don't even show a preview of the text (since MMS mesages can carry a subject line which is displayed with the notification). Google Voice users on any platform can't receive MMS messages so they just completely miss your text. Anyone who pays per message could end up wasting a lot of money to read your text since not all carriers include picture messages in their standard texting plans. All of this so people can see a list of recipients and reply-all? Reply-all sucks most of the time and if you really want to do this, why not just email everyone...if they are receiving it and responding, they probably have a smartphone with email anyways.

Yeah, the locked down set-top boxes and the specially written android and iOS apps don't need silverlight because they just build whatever they need into the app.

You need silverlight if you want to watch netflix from the browser (especially with a fully featured video player that can dynamically shift bitrates and resolutions, show all sorts of overlays, etc).

What I don't get is why they don't just write some netflix viewer software. It wouldn't even have to be a fully featured browser, it could just accept something like a netfix:// URI from the browser and then open up and start playing (like spotify does with spotify:// URIs). If they had a secure viewer, they could probably make a working linux version as well as osx and windows (especially given the similarities between osx, android, and linux). If you are on a supported system, you can still watch with silverlight, but if you are unsupported or want higher quality audio or more precise settings for your HTPC, you can use the standalone viewer application.

It seems ok to me.

I have Docs to Go as well on my phone (got both docs to go and quickoffice free from amazon as apps of the day). Each one has pros and cons. IIRC quickoffice is faster but there are things that it doesn't do a good job with that Docs to Go can do better.

Have always had to hesitate when I open a doc and cant decide which tool to use (especially now that my phone also has "Document Viewer" from google...but maybe that is just read-only quickoffice).

Well, you could always go work in the produce department at the local Walmart. They won't make you join the union.

For bonus points, do this on your HTPC.

Not that my computer is ever used by people I wouldn't trust...but the most common device I let someone use when they have a quick "can I borrow a computer do do something/print something" is my HTPC. It has a wireless mouse and keyboard (so its not like they are interacting from the lenovo mini-keyboard/remote) and it is connected to my network printer. They are unlikely to partake in any funny business because everything they are doing is happening on a TV-sized screen (with some UI elements magnified for couch-readability) in the middle of the living room.

And even if they did mess something up outside of the VM, its just an HTPC. Few programs installed besides XBMC and a browser, and the only local media are video files that have been downloaded for one-time viewing that I haven't gotten around to deleting...everything important is accessed from a backed up location on the network.

Umm..Do you realize that most of the iOS phones are being used for facebook ~25% of the time*? I don't see how an android only facebook launch-screen would raise iOS market share.

*based on observations on the bus during my morning commute...android phones are being used for Facebook at a roughly equal percentage (but maybe it is just easier to tell when some guy at the front of the bus is on facebook when he's got a galaxy note).

How about a smaller screen version for someone who could afford the big brother but would like something that can slip invisibly into a pocket (without wearing dad jeans or double pleated baggy trousers).

Laptop manufacturers do this all the time (and it seems like the tablets are this way too). It might cost less because you can use a cheaper display and you might have to lower the specs a little bit to fit the small size which might drop the cost, but asking for a mini is just asking for a smaller form factor. It has nothing to do with how much you want to pay for the phone.

Bezels are nice in this application. They keep you from hitting the screen with the part of your palm at the base of your thumb when you use the phone one handed (especially with giant screens where you really have to reach to make it to the other side).

There's probably a good solution to be had with OS-level edge-touch detection...then we can trash the bezel

No, the problem with the mini models (is it really models? I thought the S3 mini was the only one) is that they aren't widely available. I *prefer* to buy my phone on contract. Yes, there is some stupid crap associated with it, but I've been with the same carrier forever and I don't foresee changing soon. If I did change, the ETF would probably be similar to the cost of the unlocked phone, so it wouldn't really matter (and its not like my gsm phone would still work if I switched to verizon). I can get a galaxy S3 for $199 (or probably $100 if I went to target and waited for a good price to come around) with a contract renewal. The same phone costs $500 unlocked on amazon. There is currently a random third party selling the S3 mini on amazon for a bit over $300. So I end up paying triple (assuming I can get a $100 S3) for a phone with a smaller screen and slightly lower specs. I see rumors that AT&T might start offering the S3 mini around the same time as the S4...but then the specs are starting to look pretty stale.

Maybe now that the screen size is only .3 inches away from the galaxy note (which just looks like a comical joke whenever I see someone using one on the train), they will actually have more incentive to combine the "big phone" lines and leave the rest of us a decent "pocket-sized" phone option. I don't even need the specs to be as good (the S3 to S3 mini performance dip is fine by me), but don't make it so hard/expensive to get a decent android phone in the same form factor that apple has managed to stick with for 5+ years.

For what its worth, I thought it was pretty cool. I don't have an iphone so I can't do it...but do you know how much automatic panning cameras can cost?

being able to have your iphone do a perfectly level 360* panorama without any extra equipment is pretty cool. Especially since it is doing a bunch of image processing to decide where to stop (it's not just running the motor until the compass has told it that it has turned around)

Because they made it hard to get to. It used to have a link up on the top bar and they used promote it.

Now you have to wade through a dropdown menu to get there but can instead get to youtube and the play store with one click. Hell...I go to youtube all of the time and have never clicked that link.