Shill: I'm happy with the consumer bargain I've struck with GOOGLE!

Fine: go use your Google "services" from that bargain you've struck, whatever TF that means even, and leave the rest of the world alone. Bye.

Shills here, shills on reddit... Google must pay them well. At least msft and apple didn't hire paid shills to troll internet fora.

As much.

After what's happened with Google's other "upgrades" (for example, having android and not being able to warn people if an app is malware, unless I open a G+ identity service account), I prefer to call this "convenience", a sign of things to come.

And am bailing. I'd far prefer a winphone or iPhone to Google's poorly-implemented and, quite frankly embarrassing, attempt at monopolizing the internet.

Yes, I'm sure we ALL know about open-source protocols.

Bonjour, Quicktime (I have used VLC forever and detest Quicktime), updaters... UGH!

I use an old iTunes. The new one is ridiculous anyway, but Bonjour is a problem waiting to happen. I understand fine if you've got one of those Air printers and an Apple TV and all that, but probably about 3/4ths of Apple's user base does NOT have all that stuff, and therefore has no need for those services which just slow everything down. Bonjour, IIRC, actually interfered with people's INTERNET connectivity. What an ultimate fail.

(The worst is the knowledge that Apple's just TERRIFIED we actual purchasers might share music with an unauthorized device, RMDE.)

ITA with you that iTunes causes way more problems than it solves. I use it to buy music I've heard on Spotify (though I'm starting to use Amazon more often); some music seems available only on iTunes, too, so I keep the old iTunes minus the bloatware to get those songs. But I hate it. I'd buy WAY more from iTunes if they dropped the vulnerable bloatware.

My favorite devs take full advantage of the What's New and assume I can go to the market, look for updated apps, and decide if I need the update or not.

Devs I don't know, I wait and see how the update works. When the comments used to be useful, I'd wait to see if the "updates" took an app from 5 stars to 1 star. (The stars themselves weren't always useful: commenters would leave it at 5 stars but say the update bricked their phone.) That whole PlayStore system isn't as useful anymore since you have to be G+ to rate/comment, but people use Twitter enough that I can usually count on Twitter (or AppBrain) to hear about any problems before I update an app.

But I truly appreciate when a dev is transparent about the update and has a Twitter account to address issues, get ratings, suggestions, etc. I'll buy apps I'd never use just to support such developers. I want to support those who don't use ads or nag screens. ZOMG and if they make the code TIGHTER so it's actually smaller and faster?! I'll sing praises for weeks on Twitter.

I still have a copy of old PSP. I use Photoshop, but both have their uses for me. The more complicated stuff goes to photoshop, but I know how to do certain things in PSP like second nature.

What is that drawing program ...CorelDraw 13 or something, which added photoshop-like features, and animation I think? Probably a voice recorder and navigation app, too. (Of course the AVG virus). WTF? All that horseshit in what used to be an illustration program? So I kept my old copy of Corel Draw, too. Looks funky, but works.

the Market for updates?

I use (and paid for) a calendar app that updates often. NEVER nags me. When I have a moment, I'll look to see if there are any updates to my apps. I'll read what the changes are, see if people are having problems with the update, THEN decide for myself if I want to download/install the newer version.

Am I many versions behind? Hell yeah. But I'm a happy camper. And I LOOK for this dev's new apps when I've got the time. Because I know his apps won't bug me.

That fucking camera app, $5 and a huge user base, best one out there. Until it got to be every. time. I. opened. it. it wanted to know if I wanted some new ding-dong "buddy" (an Obama picture,or a swastika) and I missed SO MANY PHOTOS because of that. Cameras should be instant-on, no fucking "let's stop and show you our new BUDDY, go download it now since you're fully paid". / "Not today? Maybe you'd like to try some of our other apps?!" —I wrote the devs an email and uninstalled, and will NEVER use anything they code again. What a crackhead move! Now I'm back on freakin stock camera/camcorder, but at least I can get a picture.

Those "surveys" are wrong. The users can check for updates on their own. (Oh, and user reviews? I tweet them and link to the Market. Please don't pull a YouTube and nag people to sign up for G+ to rate.)

If Google buys it. I was a HUGE Waze user until Google bought it. I was a Waze user because of the damned ads Google put in its nav app, so I knew what was coming and uninstalled Waze. I tell you, that HURT, because as stupid as it sounds, I'd made little Waze friends and loved ratting out the cops. But no way I'm going to be nagged about "upgrading" to G+, or accidentally clicking on an ad while trying to navigate [again].

If Facebook buys it. (And I had been so happy to get Instagram on Android. Then they sold out.)

I'm so proud of Snapchat that I'm thinking of trying it because they DIDN'T sell out.

My problem is, he's a horrible person that needs to be shut down, but he's not why she suicided. At least, not the sole reason. Amanda Todd was 12 or 13 when Maxson snapped the photo, a year older when he shared the photos, so Maxson's crime is, at the very least, distributing child porn. They can prove that. Maybe they'll go after him for other things (she claimed she was blackmailed, pictures were distributed, QED).

But it doesn't escape me that her entire community FAILED her most. Primarily, the actual bullying kids who preyed on her are even more directly responsible for her suicide; the people who put up Facebook pages with her boobs — direct harassment, needs to be punished. I'd LOVE to see those brats (all of them, even the ones who merely witnessed it and didn't say anything) get sent to juvey and put to work cleaning toilets or building homes for the poor; they're a wretched sort who don't get an out, but whose "rehabilitation" could actually benefit themselves and deter other kids from piling on with bullying. Such a thing could make Amanda Todd's life seem worthwhile without being too cruel (the bullies are, after all, teens).

Her parents might have slipped a bit a few nights when she was 12, but they also turned around and put her in counseling, let her change schools numerous times, let her change cities, etc, so I'm finding it REALLY hard to blame her family at all. That one-second "boob flash" could happen to any one of our childen (well, except those of us who ban webcams, like I do, but that's pretty extreme heh). What more could her family have done to rectify her situation? (I really have no idea. Change identities and nationalities and move en masse, because of one boob shot when their daughter was 12?!)

Finally, all these "mourners" now, who went to school with her, taught her, etc, why didn't they sit with her at lunch? I mean, even a TINY BIT of support from her community at any time in these two years (which feels like forever when you're 12) might have given her the strength she needed to stand against Maxson; to prosecute him; to prosecute the bullies that ganged up and assaulted her. It's really sad, but for all the bad Maxson did, and for all the cruelty of the actual bullies, it was Vancouver as a whole who failed her.

It's an ad company that wants to be an identity service. Schmidt is on crack. Yes, there are lots of Android phones out there; I've got them. But how many people are going to stay enamored with Google as Google continually makes huge horrendous mistakes, like (most recently) putting large, blend-in ads ON the maps/navigation app, right after introducing tap to zoom (you tap, you have good chance of tapping ad, and the app switches to your dialer to call the ad). I uninstalled the shit out of Google Maps (including freezing when it wouldn't uninstall completely), and will never look back.

The good thing about Android is you can de-google-fy the phone, but I came close to upgrading to a Nokia to get Nokia's next maps app. (Maps is a HUGE sell-point for phones, and Nokia's are superior). Fortunately, a friendly AC pointed me to Bing maps and Waze for Android, both of which are more than adequate for my needs. Then I realized Bing's voice search is as good as (maybe better than) Google voice search. No ads; all free.

I hope they get someone smarter in at Google, and re-focus the company from being an "identity service" or ad company back into being a tech company. Until then, I'll stick with the Android phones, my own ROMs, and non-Google apps. (Haven't replaced YouTube quite yet, but I'm looking.)

I read this on emptyage, when he still thought he'd been brute-forced, and I still don't understand using the apple email (esp if you don't use the apple email) — that's tied to all your gadgets — as a backup for an insecure gmail account that you use publicly for everything (ie, it's posted on twitter).

Are people really this stupid?

Do they have absolutely zero sense of self-preservation?

This is such an extreme case, it reads like a hypothetical. "Suppose someone gave the keys of their house to Apple, then published everything on Craigslist that Apple needs to identity you..."

All this story needs to make it *really* extreme is if the hacker had stolen one of his gadgets so 2-step would fail. Ah yes, What. Then.

Eh, kudos to Wired for putting a fire under Amazon's and Apple's backsides, I suppose, but you can't fix stupid.

True that, but some sites let you define questions. "Street your best friend lived on when she was twelve plus last name of her then-crush." My sister can't guess these. (Ofc her memory's shot to shit from opiates but w/e).

> Google has deep pockets, and the company is reaching deep into them
> not to make their social network explode, but rather to make it creep up on you.

Yeah, I want shit creeping up on me because they have deep pockets. Only not.

Shill.