The rationale is that the bar being at the top of the screen provides an infinite targeting area. You just have to push your mouse up until the pointer will no longer move then go left or right until you've gotten to the right menu. I find myself spending a lot of time and concentration trying to target menus in Windows because they're so slight compared to the rest of the interface. I imagine that's one of the things the ribbon is trying to solve in light of high-resolution displays, a rather garish way to increase the targeting area.

At least someone is going to have to start taking responsibility for what's going on over there. QNX is going to be interesting to see on their devices next year. I think the big thing driving smartphone sales right now is price, and RIM hasn't been able to release an appealing device with a price point low enough to drive people away from the alternatives.

You fail to recognize that there's nothing stopping Joe Developer from putting a web view inside some other application and doing the exact same thing. Trying to attribute this potential attack vector exclusively to PhoneGap or cross platform mobile apps using HTML is intellectually dishonest. It's a non-starter for anyone familiar with the product.

Android: This is a potential problem with pretty much any Android application, regardless of how it's built.
iOS: Any app caught trying to update itself without going through the approval process will be pulled, again regardless of how it's built.

There is nothing substantially different about the security model of a PhoneGap application than that which can be imposed upon a traditional app. I say this as a developer who has spent some time with PhoneGap producing applications for both platforms.

HTML5 supports offline caching of files as well as the SQLlite datastore, so you can provide a fully offline experience for users and even sync back with the server when a connection is available.

PhoneGap still imposes the security model that other applications support. For instance, you can inform users that it collects GPS data and Address book or forgo support for that plug-in entirely. They support this both with manually building it via the Android tool chain as well as through PhoneGap Build service. Reason being is that the API for PhoneGap is just communicating with native code underneath to access things like GPS and address book, requiring the permissions model all other Android apps use.

Yes. It worked out so well for net neutrality when Google got involved.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35599242/Verizon-Google-Legislative-Framework-Proposal

It's a good thing Google doesn't have any entangling business relations with media companies, like they did with carriers.

Oh wait.

Go ahead, sign the petition on the Google homepage. Just remember: It will be used to show populist support of the more "Google-friendly" verbiage of the exact same legislation.

It's a good thing Diaspora is totally secure and will prevent this sort of spying. Alternatives FTW!!!

In the wake of SOPA et al, I recommend Sweden Dedicated http://swedendedicated.com/ .
It's great because you can brag about the servers being in a Bond Villain style HQ. I've had great uptime and their administrators are competent enough to be helpful when necessary, but don't expect them to do a lot of hand-holding or CPANEL type nonsense.

http://internet.bs/ has great deals on domains and it's located in the Bahamas.

Did I mention they have an API?