bhups

There can be if Uber's systems can proactively position the supply to meet the predicted demand.

Sure, but the company is filled with ex-Apple/Google/etc folks that have worked on successfully creating motor vehicles, physical products, and applied artificial intelligence devices.

Remember, a company is merely comprised of the people within it. If Uber has people that have joined from the kinds of companies that you mentioned, it becomes more and more indistinguishable from them.

> Even more relevant, there's literally nothing in the historical record to suggest that the real breakthroughs when they come will come from a company like Uber.

Why not? The team at Uber that is working on this is largely comprised of researchers from Carnegie Mellon and former members of Google's driverless car team. Historical record suggests otherwise...

I see striking similarities between Zuckerberg and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which managed to entirely rid India of polio (!!). I'm not sure that it's totally disconnected from reality.

That's fine, but providing internet access doesn't preclude others from solving other important (or perceivably more important) problems.

This isn't about you, though. It's about the millions of people who can't afford to pay.

What do they aim to gain from this? All I see is that Windows Phone and BlackBerry users now have no way of accessing Taco Bell's online presence.

You already can.

For those that have Glass, if you wake the screen, it gets you to "ok glass", tap again, scroll through the options until you get to "Translate".

Edit: More generally, any "Ok Glass..." action can be triggered this way.

English is widely used throughout India, as it's the "national link language" according to the constitution. Most advertisements, street signs and stores contain lots of English.

This is a hilariously stupid article. It makes sweeping generalizations of a country of a _billion_ people using nothing but anecdotal evidence. Really, if anyone is going to make a claim as bold as this, and as potentially insulting to a race of people as this, they better back it up with some numbers.

This is very clearly a case of "you get what you pay for". If you want cheap labor, you're going to get cheap quality. Just like everywhere else, there exists good programmers and bad programmers, passionate people that strive to learn and get better and those that work just to get by.

I see this as a pretty viable alternative to cash. I don't like carrying any cash, and pretty much rely on my credit and debit cards alone. With this, I can simply Square Cash via e-mail the few establishments/recipients that don't accept credit card. And from what it looks like, it seems to be independent of the sender's e-mail service (unlike sending money via Gmail). Neat.

Wait, that's not how app development works. Writing a well made app does not somehow allow one to circumvent ToS, which Microsoft very clearly violated.

I'm sure if Microsoft merely removed the ability to download videos and restored ads, Google would not have any problems with it.

The fact that MetroTube is so successful disproves the conspiracy theory that Google is trying to prevent Windows Phone users from being able to use YouTube.

This isn't a "We don't like WP" issue, this is a "your app blatantly violates our ToS and we're not okay with that" issue.

Doesn't that apply to ordinary pens too, though?

Well, not only are you not using their service, you're using somebody else's service when theirs is available.

As per your binding contract, you agree to only use their service in return for getting the phone at a subsidized price. Their incentive to charge you less for the handset (incurring a loss on the sale) is that you agree to guarantee doing business with them.

And if that's a problem, unlocked phones are still always an option.

>The real issue is what happens after you've completed the 18 or 24 month contract. The carrier recouped their subsidy on the phone and has profited from your contract. But you can't use your phone (which you have more than paid for) on any other network.

I'm not so sure this is true. Carriers will allow you to unlock your phone once your contract is up, and according to this DMCA law, it is legal to unlock your phone if your carrier allows you to do so.

Yes, but if you foresee that you would need to travel, couldn't you just buy an unlocked phone? (I normally just buy an entirely different phone, a cheap Nokia brick handset, for travel use). This law doesn't prevent people from using unlocked phones, it prevents people from taking advantage of the carrier subsidy.

Carriers agreed to give you a shiny new smartphone for a massively subsidized prize in return for you being locked to their network.

It seems rather exploitative to take advantage of this quid pro quo by breaking free from that agreement. All this law seems to do is to prevent people from taking without giving.

I currently own an Android phone (Galaxy Nexus). I've always been fascinated by the WP UI. It's a refreshingly new style that allows enough customization while maintaining a consistent look for the OS across devices. I've been telling myself that I want to make the jump when I'm eligible for my next upgrade, using Launcher7 and Launcher8 in the meanwhile to satisfy my Metro craving.

With that being said, the one thing that's been keeping me from making the jump is the Google integration that Android gives me. For people like me that are so dependent on Google services, Android's native support for Google Talk, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar (and Tasks), and Google Chrome (since 4.2) has become essential.

If there's a way to be able to use these services on Windows Phone, I will almost immediately switch over, as I am very impressed with Redmond's offering, and look forward to seeing how they continue to tell the Windows Phone story.

As far as I know, they still do this in India. The ethanol that we used in my 12th grade Chemistry lab (back in 2008) was denatured with ~3% methanol.