I expect it to be quite hard, so I guess I'll be passing on this one.

The problem is that even if Microsoft came out with some ultimate thing that everyone wanted, it wouldn't be a year before every other smartphone had it. I just don't see Microsoft gaining enough momentum to overtake anyone. If Microsoft is LUCKY, they will overtake Apple and Google at about the same rate as Apple is taking over the PC market.

Not true. The 8830 was a solid modern phone. The only main features it was lacking were WiFi, a camera, and GPS. I know WiFi and GPS eat up battery, but it shouldn't be such a significant drop. I would have stuck with it if it wasn't for the fact that I needed the quad band GSM radio for international travel. The 8830 only had a dual band, which didn't work in Mexico or Argentina (the two places I frequented the most). I guess the switch to the trackpad on the Tour was a nice change as well. I was really good at cleaning those trackballs. Mine always seemed to misbehave while I was at the airport.

I would give the answer No about 80% odds. It's very unlikely that RIM will be able to undo what they've already done. They took a monopoly and pissed it away. Every blackberry I used was worse than the one before it. My battery life went from 3 days with my first 8830, 1 day with my tour, and 16 hours with my bold. I enjoyed some features, (mail delivery and calendaring is much better on the BB than on Android), but the lack of apps was very disheartening. I really didn't mind the lack of a touch screen, and the keyboard was the perfect size for me. Even if the BB10 OS is soooo much better, the only way I would consider it is if the monthly fees were ridiculously cheap. Unfortunately, since RIM actually does something on the back end, they have the biggest price disadvantage of any manufacturer, and you are more likely to pay more than the competition, not less.

Most of the used wifi hotspots are operated in franchises. Good luck suing McDonalds or Starbucks. Their legal team should be big enough to scare away most.

There are hybrid approaches. A good hacked router can serve up multiple SSID networks. You could have an internal protected WPA2 network, and then a segmented open network. You should even be able to direct traffic to some website (hosted on the router) with some disclaimers. I don't know if a simple website with an "accept" button would get you off the hook for random people's actions, but common sense says it would. I know, I know, the RIAA and MPAA don't employ people with common sense, but hopefully the Judge has some.

I've been in the market for a pedometer for awhile now. I really like the Fitbit and Jawbone offerings, but the Fitbit Android app doesn't support Bluetooth synching (half the reason for the app), and the Jawbone doesn't support Android or PC at all. Both have Android support listed as "Coming soon", but they've had it listed too long to be comforting. I guess Fitbit just announced a tentative date, but they're only going to support the S3 at first. I've got a Razr M, which has the hardware to do the communication. At the rate things are going, I'll be surprised if support is released in the next 6 months. I'd gladly pay $100 for the device(s). I just want it to work with my phone.

Our BES server needed a kick twice in 4 years. We did feel the RIM outages, but the BES server was rock solid. Me thinks you were doing something wrong.

You're correct that most decent apps will be available, but there will always be exceptions. There will always be some #!$( developers who refuse to program for more than one platform. I'm still discussed by some of the apps that haven't come over from iPhone to Android. I guess the iPhone developers don't want to double their market.

For this to work, systems would have to be proxies to files they don't own. Therefore, the 40/60% thing wouldn't work. How could there be a 40% chance that I'd be a proxy for a file that isn't on my computer? If I only had one file hosted, I could easily summarize that all computers connecting to me were in fact downloading that single file, even if they didn't get it from me.

Maybe he has Photoshop under maintenance? If so, downgrade rights are typically included. I know that my company can install Windows 3.1 on any new computer we want, as long as we keep windows under maintenance.

Isn't there a Simcity 2000 for SNES? You could use an emulator for that.

For sure. That could have bankrupted Lego.

From TFA

I wouldn't go down that route. Saying that your toy can't be bad because it's based on a movie doesn't exactly eliminate blame, it just shifts it. Pretty soon, the entire Star Wars franchise will be an attack on the Muslim people.

So, you store your files on your own computers, but it makes them available from an online source? I don't see how this is better than the myriad of free services out there. If I'm talking about large quantities of data, there are better ways to do it. Small data = free with current BETTER methods. Waste of time.