Whoops, 6,500 direct factory jobs, 9,000 associated jobs.

http://www.rgj.com/story/money/reno-rebirth/2014/06/15/reno-rebirth-tesla-game-changer/10406441/

Local media has said they expect 6,500 new jobs to come from the factory and associated support services, so it's a significant employment boost no matter how many robots are in the factory.

Yep, there was an upgrade released a couple months after I purchased my truck. I applied it. It did improve things, but only to the point that I described above. It really seems like there are significant problems with the support for SD cards that impact the rest of the system. I should probably give up on the SD card and try limiting myself to the music that's on my phone.

But even doing that won't fix the crappy UI...

I have SYNC in my 2013 F-250 and it blows. It keeps trying to re-index my SD card, so I can rarely use the voice commands to play music from it, and sometimes it'll switch by itself from playing SiriusXM to playing the SD card. It's also slow to respond sometimes (probably an artifact of it trying to re-index the SD card), and the UI to select music from the SD card is cumbersome.

I guess most of my gripes are about the SD card functionality; the rest of the functionality seems to work OK when it isn't being screwed over by the SD card, but again I find the interface cumbersome to use. For example, scrolling through the SiriusXM stations takes way too many taps.

My hope is that QNX, given its history as an RTOS, will be more responsive and robust. It might even give the developers a chance to improve the UI.

You don't say what kind of work you do, but if you can get away with a smaller screen there are plenty of 12" notebooks with very good battery life. That's my favorite screen size since I can still use it in cramped coach airline seats, especially if I can hook it up to a larger display (ideally 20" or better, but even 17" helps) when I get to my destination or home. (Unfortunately there isn't a new Mac laptop w/ a 12" screen available any longer, but Lenovo has a decent one.) If you need the screen real estate all the time, or can't get a larger display at the office, then suck it up and go with a 15" laptop.

Get a good wireless mouse (the Logitech laser ones have worked well for me), too, as you just can't get the same level of speed or precision with trackpads or sticks.

As for phones, the BlackBerry 8800 is excellent (assuming your company runs BES or Good), although you will need to charge it every day if you get a fair amount of email. It also includes the built-in TeleNav software that works pretty well, so it meets your need for GPS assistance. You can also store some MP3s on it as well if you don't need a ton of music with you. Personally, I use an iPod Shuffle because I keep a bunch of aggro music on it to listen to while working out, and its solid-state flash memory doesn't mind getting bounced around while running. (The 8800 is just too big to run with.) The Shuffle works well and lasts a long time on the plane, too. The rest of the time I'll listen to slacker.com, last.fm, or similar streaming services when I have network and power connections.

You're right that a full-sized DSLR is too big, so go with the Canon G9--very good quality and RAW output make it the perfect every-day-carry camera. I'm wishing my Canon S500 would die so that I'd have an excuse to get a G9, but Canon's compact cameras are built quite tough. I've even taken mine scuba diving (with the Canon waterproof case, of course) about half a dozen times and it does very well for the price. I'm a Nikon fan when it comes to full-sized DSLRs, but Canon gets my money in the compact market.