You already do. It's part of the spectrum rent that ultimately goes into the government's general fund, theoretically toward easing your tax burden by a few pennies.

If Verizon is the only carrier with reliable data coverage in one's area, how can one vote with his wallet?

Back when I still played Tetris, the Super NES supported playing Tetris and Dr. Mario at the same time.

Better yet, let an entire city go in on a group library. It's worked well for books.

The alleged difference is that a randomly chosen multiplayer console game is more likely to support Street Fighter-style local multiplayer than a randomly chosen multiplayer Steam game.

First connect a PC to an HDTV or other large monitor. Then plug in USB gamepads, such as Xbox 360 controllers you bought at a pawn shop. Then install something like Blur, Dungeon Defenders, Lego $MOVIE, Street Fighter IV, or Trine, or any of several games on this list. What's stopping that?

That or Sony owns the name "Lemmings" (and other names that are similar enough) for software.

On my tablet I can long press to see the target URL.

Even if it turns out that this tablet can't run Windows 7 well due to driver issues, you can still install a reasonable facsimile of Windows 7's UI inside Windows 8. Google classic shell and your Start menu will be back to how you remember it.

While traveling, I'm more likely to use my laptop.

Yes. Here's how it typically goes in my experience: "Are you sick of the Start Screen covering everything up when you want to start a program? I am too. That's why I installed Classic Shell on my aunt's PC and my PC at work. It makes Windows 8 look like Windows again. Want it? OK, put in the admin password and I'll install it for you. If you want to get back to Metro, you can always Shift-click the Start button."

That depends on how big of an SD card you have plugged into your EverDrive plugged into your Nomad. As for the other Nomad, it started out with only 64 MB of flash memory.

That depends on how long Hollywood and the game industry insist on a proprietary software business model, and how long ARM remains correlated with cryptographically locked bootloaders that the user either can't unlock or can't unlock without wiping the device.

Because tablets have become cheaper than unlocked phones. Phones tend to be priced for carrier subsidy through a 24-month contract. A phone would require another smartphone line for hundreds of USD per year. A tablet runs off the Wi-Fi that most businesses and homes already pay for. That's why I still carry a $7/mo dumbphone and an Archos 43 Internet Tablet.

There's still demand for a device that quickly switches between tablet and not-a-tablet.

To a greater extent than PCs, whose specs and preloaded software likewise differs between manufacturers?

This might have two causes. First, well-written Windows Store apps run not only on Surface but also on traditional Windows 8 PCs in the environment formerly known as Metro. Second, developers who jump on Windows Store earlier find themselves to be larger fish in a smaller pond. But let me know when Windows on tablets has something like AIDE on Android for developing tablet applications on a tablet.