I think you mean Amazon Video, the division that sells content for download and purchase, not Amazon Prime which actually is a streaming service similar to Netflix. However, by this definition, you are buying movies from Amazon Video; not just streaming. Any video content that you purchase from Amazon can be downloaded to your Android or iOS device (including an external microSD Card in the case of the former) with the Amazon Video app for later playback offline; no data connection required. We do this regularly to watch movies from Amazon while on a flight, in a car with no wifi, etc. You can even download Amazon Prime video (which you do not own) and play it offline for a certain period of time, which I believe is 30-45 days from the time of download; quite reasonable for content that you do not own, IMO.

What you cannot do is play it back on any device with a player of your choice. Amazon Video, just like Apple's iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, UltraViolet partners, etc., places DRM on all content that they sell, and it will only play on authorized devices and software.

- Stealth Dave

Not sure why this hasn't been mentioned yet, but depending on what version you want to run, Photoshop runs quite well on Linux under WINE depending on what version you need to use, including CS6 and Creative Cloud versions. If you require support, Code Weavers packages a popular and easy-to-use version of WINE with varying levels of technical support available for purchase. (No affiliation with Code Weavers, just a happy customer.)

If you want to get fancy (i.e. complicated), you can probably set up some sort of application server that will allow you to limit the number of Photoshop licenses you need to purchase, but that's a bit out of scope for a simple Slashdot comment. :)

- Dave

You had me at "never buy a Seagate."

Without reading the article (this is Slashdot, after all!), this sounds more like QoS management than creating a "fast lane". My cynical side tells me that they're calling it a "fast lane" just so that they can use it as an argument against the FCC in court.

"Gee, your honor. We were going to make our network faster and more efficient, but the mean old FCC said we couldn't put in any fast lanes! Government regulation is SO burdensome!"

While I fully blame Microsoft for creating this mess, I'm somewhat dismayed that as a customer I'm finding out that my service is down from a news outlet rather than from noip themselves! I've been using their sub domain wildcard service for 7-8 years now and have just now found out that it's down. I'm none too happy about being thrown out with the bathwater!

I've been doing this on my Galaxy S3 for over 9 months now using an NFC tag glued to my watch band. All you need is a rooted phone running Android 4.0.3 and above and a willingness to install an XPosed plugin or two. This link has all the details:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/mod-nfc-unlocking-based-t2478163

TL;DR Steps:

• ROOT YOUR PHONE (You'll have to Google this one yourself)
• Install XPosed Framework
• Install NFC Lock Screen Off Enabler module (you can find it in the Modules section of the XPosed Installer app)
• Turn on NFC in lockscreen or screen off modes as desired
• Register your NFC Tags to unlock your phone

Much easier (and safer, IMO) than installing a modified system apk, and this method can also survive system upgrades provided that you maintain root. It will launch whatever action is set for that NFC tag (link, text, app, whatever), but you can use another XPosed module to supress the "Empty Tag" message on empty tags, if you so desire.

The Adafruit link from TFA has some interesting ideas on how to squeeze your NFC tag into some interesting places, and you can also buy some pretty small NFC tags on your own. I bought 20 Midas nTag NFC tags on Amazon for $13 with Prime shipping, and they measure 19mm x 12mm. You can shave another 2mm off of either dimension if you're very careful with the trimming. That was more than small enough to fit on the clasp of my watch, or on the back of a plastic watch band.

Since Facebook seems to think that "usability" is a four-letter word, I found that http://www.manageyourlikes.com is an excellent way to trim your likes.

"Confirmation" from a Verizon spokesperson that Verizon isn't throttling access is more than a little like the fox guarding the hen house and asking the fox to "confirm" that the hens are all present and accounted for. That's not to say that Mr. Raphael's assertion is necessarily correct either, but he does provide additional evidence to support his claim, whereas Verizon is merely providing "assurances", as far as I can tell since the BGR article provides no details beyond the brief spokesperson statement.

If cost is your major concern, you should check out Splashtop. They have servers for Windows, Mac and Linux (all x86 based) and clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and probably a few more. The service is free over LAN, and remote access is only $1.99/month or $16.99/year. And the service is fast! I'm able to do rough edits on Final Cut Pro over my LAN and sometimes over the internet, depending on my connection, and remote gaming is one of their advertised selling points. If you're clever with VPN setups, you can use it remotely as if you were on the LAN.

I agree, it is a good idea, and I did.

I've looked into something similar to use as a controller/receiver for a whole house audio system, and you may want to look at a cheap Android-based device, some of which can be had for less than $50. For that price you get a resistive touch screen at around 320x240, 8G storage, stereo output, 256M RAM, WiFi, USB and a Java-based OS with plenty of apps pre-built and a well established development community.

For a small 4" device, Google "benss android". I was able to find half a dozen listings for this under $50. (Haven't tried it, though.) Also, Big Lots in the US regularly sells 7" refurb tablets for $70.

- Stealth Dave

That ninth parsec is a bitch to navigate!

Wow, TFA is a giant mound of flame-bait! I haven't fed a troll in quite some time, but seeing as he's going after my turf (web developer for 13 years, Mac user for 8), I think I'll bite. Four bullet points with flawed arguments about why Mac OS X is "bad" and one bullet point of nerd-baiting.

Horrific Package Management
This is perhaps the only valid argument of the bunch. Although I've personally used Fink with excellent results in the past, I don't think that it's being maintained as actively as it once was, but from what I can tell Macports is. I've never tried Homebrew, but I'm sure the author has sufficiently explored it's deficiencies to his own satisfaction. The author mentions his preference for Debian based tools, which is what Fink uses, so I'm not sure why he wasn't able to find some common ground there, but obviously he wasn't.

You don't deploy to BSD
Conversely, this is perhaps his weakest argument. It shouldn't matter if your development environment is BSD (Mac) and your target environment is Linux, or any other environment for that matter. In all my years as a web developer, I have NEVER had a local development environment that exactly matched my production environment. Even when I was using Linux on the desktop, it was not the same "flavor" as the servers, so I still didn't have mirrored environments. This is why you have multiple testing environments for your project, just as you have multiple browsers for testing. My local environment is a Macbook Pro. It used to be a Windows 7 machine, which used to be running Windows XP, to run a Java-based platform. We also have Development and QA environments that mirrored Production in order to test these types of compatibility issues. I'm also willing to bet that the Lenovo didn't come preinstalled with whatever variant of Linux you're using on your production server, or that the hardware specs on the server even remotely match either laptop.

Textmate sucks
So don't use it. Try Eclipse (my personal choice) or whatever brand of IDE or text editor you prefer. If all else fails, man up and install emacs.

The hardware is overpriced
I think the same thing about BMWs and Mercedes Benz. However, some people still prefer to drive them.

Some crap about 'LOST' that is completely irrelevant to the conversation
Okay, somewhere in your relationship with your Mac, you were hurt very badly. That's okay, not everyone is a Mac person. Not everyone is a Windows or Linux person either. But at some point you need to just "man up" and deal with the choice you've made or start over and just install Linux on your MacBook Pro.

- Stealth Dave

Lossy image with a lossless alpha channel is probably more what's needed, and would be great to have in this format. That said, I'm pretty impressed with the image quality displayed and would love to begin to see wider adoption.

Everyone's experience is different, I suppose. I have a GeForce 5200 that's been in operation for over 7 years now, and it's still going strong.