Because not all emergency services support text messages. The SOS feature uses text only; not enough bandwidth for voice. The Apple/GlobalStar employee relays text messages to voice for those operators.

You seem to be assuming the satellite antenna in the phone is isotropic, with no directional gain. What makes you so sure that's the case?

In my experience, the main reason is that tabs are interpreted inconsistently across different tools. What looks good to me will look terrible to someone else.

Smaller size also means more chips yielded per wafer, which means lower cost.

That's silly. Photography has always involved manipulating the captured scene to fit the limitations of the medium, such as tonal range, color gamut, field of view, depth of focus, motion blur, etc. "Good" photography does so in a way that is aesthetically pleasing. Do you claim all black-and-white photography ala Ansel Adams is not good, because it's not realistic?

They laud the "free and open source" RISC-V ISA and software, as well as freedom from patents.... but how much of their design is going to be open source? And will it be free of patents?

They aren't necessarily purposefully crippling, though that sometimes happens. This allows them to sell chips that have some manufacturing defects; they turn off the bad shaders. The more chips from each wafer they can sell, the lower the price of each chip.

I do find music - especially music I like - to be distracting. Which is why I often listen to white (or brown) noise on my headphones in the office. Blocks out office noise without being distracting.

The standards bodies' names should answer your question. ANSI: A = American. ISO: I =International. An American standard isn't good enough for many people, no matter how open; they want an "International" standard with the associated level of bureaucracy.

Because, when using a color filter array, you throw away 2/3 of your light. Plus it's inflexible.

False. The four pairs of New Balance shoes currently in my house were all made in China.

I don't have any toys. But my kids do: video games, Legos, etc. Of course, I have to spend a lot of time with the toys and games so I can teach my kids...

I've worked at several top chip companies in Silicon Valley, in graphics and telecom industries, and they're 100% Verilog. I also suggest learning System Verilog as well, especially for testbench development.

I recommend the SF novel "Blood Music" by Greg Bear which considers the idea that humans and other animals exist to host bacteria and viruses, which are the true masters.