Don't forget the limitations of data plans as well. If I only had a 2 GB data cap, I sure as hell do not want to waste that bandwidth on stupid freeware applications that install 50+ MB updates every few weeks.

I'd think quite the opposite. If these people actually go outside and try to meet people, they'll be buying new clothes to look nice and buying things like food, clothes, flowers, and gifts for their new boyfriends and girlfriends.

Think of the long term possibilities as well! Once they get someone preggers, now you're going to be spending even bigger money on baby food, clothes, and toys. They might even buy bigger houses and minivans as well.

It's almost like Putin and Co. just invented the "stop playing with yourself" economic stimulus plan! Low birthrate nations like Norway should be taking notes!

My wife's LG G2 had this issue. The touch screen was basically worthless by the time she finally got rid of it.

That's a good thing, because client side Java from the browser is basically dead. Google Chrome doesn't even support the Java plugin anymore, and neither does Microsoft Edge. Firefox and Internet Explorer still support it, but disable the plugin as a security risk if you're not updating it to the latest release on a monthly basis.

They've basically made supporting the operation of Java applets in a browser impossible to support, which is great unless you're still stuck supporting them.

I'm wondering if Google ever really planned to do more than a handful of city-wide Google Fiber rollouts. I think that they were more concerned about scaring the phone and cable companies into upgrading their broadband speeds than really becoming a serious competitor as an ISP. Now that many areas in the US have faster speeds, they are more likely use bandwidth intensive Google services like YouTube, and probably download more paid content from the Play stores. Even if they decide to purchase that content elsewhere, Google is still serving those users ads!

With the money that Google has in the bank, they could have installed broadband in 25 mid-size cities by now. At this point, they'll probably abandon their plans to expand soon be looking for a buyer for the few cities where they actually installed service.

Hey... it didn't stop AT&T from calling their old HSPA+ network "4G" before they finally upgraded their towers to LTE.

I guess that we can expect them to start promoting their "5G" "LTE+" network the next time they upgrade the backhaul on a few of their existing towers.

Desktop PC's haven't evolved much over the past decade, but graphics cards in gaming PC's have. Try playing modern DirectX 12 games with a graphics card that is just 5 years old, and you're going to have a lousy experience.

The gaming consoles are going to have the same issue. Even the "mighty" Project Scorpio is going to need another upgrade when their competition is offering photo realistic 8K graphics on their systems.

That plan would kinda suck for people on the outskirts of a town who still have septic systems. Sadly, there are a lot of out of us still out there.

Don't forget that Mossberg is a big Apple fan. He tends get cranky when he runs into UI experiences that aren't as slick or easy to use as Mac OS X or an iPhone.

Everyone I know who's tried this says that the Raspberry Pi's (at least the older model 1 and 2 devices) choke when you try to play 1080p video on them. That was the same experience that I got as well.

The XBox One doesn't really have the graphics horsepower to play games at 1080p. Most of them are rendered at 900p and upscaled.

I'm not sure if the XBox One S will be any faster, or they'll just be updating the upscaler to allow 4k display resolutions.

Yeah, this feels more like the decision to drop the Ethernet jack on the MacBook Pro just to make the device thinner. Not every place in the world has fast and reliable Wi-Fi, and I now I have to carry around a Thunderbolt to Ethernet dongle for configuring some network equipment.

In other words, it's a "solution" that just causes more problems.

BlueTooth might be standard on anything build in the last 3 or 4 years, but it doesn't help with backward compatibility with older devices.

Neither of my cars support BlueTooth audio, for example, so I'm using the 3.5 headphone jack on my iPhone daily to play podcasts in the car. If I get a new phone, now I'm going to need a pair of Lightning to 3.5 audio jack dongles. Knowing Apple, they'll charge $24.95 for them, and they'll incorporate some kind of DRM to slow down third party copies of the adapter.

I wonder how many people are actually using autopilot on their newer Model S and Model X cars right now. If it's only a few thousand cars and they're already had several accidents, it's not going to look good for Tesla.

I thought that the Wall Street Journal was the Wall Street propaganda rag.

If the New York Times was going to be considered as a propaganda rag, it would be for Liberal minded intellectuals and not businessmen.