Do I need to point out the irony of that statement or was it intentional?

Odd that everyone is complaining about their land-grab of photographs and very few are mentioning their permitted use of your username and likeness which seems a lot more objectionable to me. Facebook is full of invasive and misleading ads for dating sites that would just love a cache of readily available real names and profile photos to attach to their fake users. I'd much rather they nicked my spur-of-the-moment snaps than used me to defraud lonely and desperate people.

Microsoft have been in a very similar position when the BBC wanted to put their iPlayer video streaming app on the XBox 360. It took an awfully long time for Microsoft to agree not to put it behind the XBox Live Gold pay-wall (a sticking point because the BBC is expressly forbidden from charging a subscription to UK viewers) but in the end they allowed it.

You're not the only one with issues. Chrome crashes every 5-10 minutes on one of my laptops (a Windows 7 64-bit machine) which is down to a known compatibility problem with a DLL that's part of the Killer NIC drivers and some other software (bfllr.dll). This problem has been knocking around for a while but Google have done nothing to address it and Killer just try to blame it on browser extensions and ignore the problem.

I suspect the most popular use for hosts is actually to stop pirate software *cough*Photoshop*cough* from dialling home.

When the aliens finally discover Voyager 1 and want to see what's inside... will they have to slide something to unlock it?

I used the first version of Badaboom which was pretty good until I upgraded to an unsupported nVidia GPU and then had to wait several months for a new, almost abandonware version that would cost me again. The focus was definitely on speed rather than video quality. PavTube is a good replacement since it supports Blu-ray as well as DVD though there isn't much of a speed difference apparent between GPU transcoding on a GTX580 and CPU transcoding using a 3.2GHz i7.

Siri is considerably less intelligent outside the USA too. I've never had any problems searching for a local business using Google. After spending 10 minutes trying to over-pronounce the name of someone I was trying to call and being told that a pair of random words do not exist in my list of contacts I wouldn't rate its speech recognition particularly capable when there is road noise in the background compared with Android's equivalent.

Now Facebook will be able to mass produce drinks coasters with impunity.

They announced two Infinity models. Once of them has LTE/3G and the dual-core S4, the other is Wi-fi only and is still toting a 1.6GHz Tegra 3.

Does this mean that I owe Apple £0.10 every time I mutter to myself to help me remember something?

This report is hardly independent. If you ignore the CNET reporter looking for controversial pulp to post on a blog you'll find that this report comes from smobilesystems, a little-known mobile security company who conveniently have a new piece of Android security software to sell that will stop all these non-existent rogue spyware apps. You can argue all you want that users install these apps with full knowledge and consent. They know that it's BS; they just want to use FUD to convince the unwary and paranoid that their software (which if it actually does anything, probably just checks the installed apps against a package name blacklist) will keep them safe from an imaginary raging torrent of malware on the Android platform.

Ever notice how much bigotry is put into the mouths of other people by someone hiding behind satire? Happens all the time here in the UK when people are speaking about The Duke of Edinburgh. He's earned a reputation for making racist gaffes on his various public visits but for every one he's ever made there are 50 put into his mouth by comedians trying to score a cheap laugh, often much worse than anything he's ever said. I always have to wonder exactly how much is satire, and how much is a way of disguising their own prejudice with sarcasm. Which is more disparaging, naming companies using the words "aspire" and "specialist" or describing employed autistics as "short bus staff"?

It might well be specifically legislated against in the UK within a year or two. The OFT (Office of Fair Trading) is currently undergoing a market study into potentially misleading advertising and pricing practices including this specific area of artificially inflating reference prices to exaggerate the value of discounts: http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2009/126-09

"it's unclear which of the various types they'll be"
It has in fact been clear what type they'll be for several months, since this was announced mid-August in fact: ColorCode blue and amber anaglyph filters. Even clearer since you could pick them up from Sainsbury's yesterday (and possibly before). http://www.t3.com/feature/channel-4-to-begin-3d-broadcasts-this-autumn