You know your days are numbered when you've reached patent troll level.

there, fixed.

The problem is that with Apple, function follows form. So in order to build super thin phones, Apple deliberately goes with low capacity batteries to begin with (they also went with too thin anodes, but that would be nitpicking). Since the laws of physics also apple to Apple, these batteries have to be operated at peak most of the time, leading to premature loss of capacity. In contrast, most Android phones come with 3xxx mAh of capacity, leaving lots more room for underutilizing them for longevity. This is also what car manufacturers are doing, they're bascially using only 70% of what the battery could actually do in terms of capacity, exactly because they want their customers to be able to rely on the batteries for a number of years.

When all is said and done, this incident made it clear that Apple's sole focus is on selling their users an iphone per year, no matter what. And slowing down people's phones without telling them what's going on will certainly go a long way to nudge people into buying a new iphone, just to get rid of all the lag on their old phone. This is planned obsolescence at its best, I must say.

The design flaw is that Apple insists on putting batteries in their iphones which are of too little capacity to begin with. In turn, they have to operate them at levels that degrade them much faster than they would have to had they only gone with bigger capacity batteries. And when the inevitable happens (the batteries lost all their capacity due to overutilization) Apple decides to slow down the user's phone in order to pretend everything is fine. Pretend? Yes, because it is totally non-obvious to the user that the battery is the problem. Some choice in the matter would be nice indeed.

As for Apple the matter now that they were caught redhanded, a discount on the battery replacement really is not cutting it. It was Apple's fault to begin with (and no, not all batteries degrade like that - just design in bigger capacity ones and underutilize them for longevity), so they should be fixing this mess entirely at their cost. Instead, they lure addicts^H isheep^H users into their stores to either sell them a battery (still at profit even with discount) or a new iphone...

Really, how many Android phones' batteries have you seen with this kind of problem? Right, zero! Why is that? It's because batteries found in Android phones typically are of the 3xxx mAh range, so there is lots more room to deal with lost capacity. In any event, Android users can avail themselves of a plethora of tools to diagnose the problem, whereas Apple denies their user base any such ability.

"It just works" really did die with Steve Jobs.

If all you need is Facebook and Twitter, then maybe yes, you can be up and running within the hour. If, however, you have lots of apps with their own data that doesn't backup to anywhere in the cloud, it's much harder.

Trying to get away from network solutions (lack of good service and not offering 2fa), I came across namesilo.com. The prices are good and everything works as expected. So far they have my recommendation.

Indeed, ever since they were bought by Web.com service has been going downhill. I recently contacted them about a mail routing issue they had (my mail stopped working due to it) and service (though trying to be helpful) was unable to grasp the basic concepts of what was the issue at hand.

Minus the physical keyboard, you could just get a current Samsung Galaxy Note. I think the included stylus might well serve to replace the missing keyboard.

I've been using a Brother MFC-9120CN for a few years now and have yet to encounter any problem with it. It was reasonably priced when I bought it and does everything I could ever want from a laser printer. Needless to say, I appreciate Brother for making full-featured Linux drivers available as well.

It sure does.

The problem here is that there is no written constitution in the UK. Whatever the parliament passes as laws (along with interpretations by the courts et al) in fact is the constitution.

Just get one of these: http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Everybody can afford them and they're programmable to your heart's content.

That's exactly why products like a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or and Asus Padfone exist. They cater to the all in one approach many customers actually like.

I think the all "all maximized all the time window management" is becoming less of a problem. Just look at the multi-window feature on Samsung's Galaxy Note series, it's absolutely wonderful.

Say what?