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Technically there are no laws blocking GV, it’s the structure of the law which makes the regulatory hurdles kind of ridiculous/not worth it, along with the undue influence of the industry upon the various agencies responsible for overseeing the market.

2 days ago on Google's business practices to be investigated by Canadian Competition Bureau

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The CCB has historically been a pretty toothless organization. They’ve allowed most media in Canada to be gobbled up into two vertically integrated companies, and didn’t think twice when those two companies bought the country’s most lucrative sports franchise. They’ve also been much less guarded than the US about mergers, particularly in the food industry (Dr Pepper Snapple/7Up, for instance). So I’m not getting my hopes up that they’ll take any action, even if action might be required.

2 days ago on Google's business practices to be investigated by Canadian Competition Bureau 1 recommend

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Total tangent from your actual point, but if MS is still looking for a proper alternative to the “Metro” moniker, why not call the design language “Zune?” Just a thought.

5 days ago on Metro 2.0

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Aside from my significant bias towards the One, I think this is a brilliant move. Worst case they move a few units and everyone’s happy. Best case, the demand is high enough for Sammy and other OEMs to take notie and start offering stock or near-stock experiences on non-Nexus experience devices. It certainly won’t hurt that Google has a unique avenue to customers via the Play store (which will probably be getting even more traffic due to the new music service), as well as the other services that a ton of people use, so the potential for a lot traffic exists. I won’t hold my breath, but hopefully we’ll look back at this move as a turning point for Android.

6 days ago on Google turns the Samsung Galaxy S4 into a Nexus phone, coming June 26th for $649 1 reply 3 recommends

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BBM actually might have enough brand power to pull this off, which is a little bit sad. If they throw in the hardware towel, though, services are probably what will underpin whatever value the company has in the future, so it’s a smart move.

7 days ago on BlackBerry bringing BBM to Android and iOS this summer 3 recommends

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Vlad, is there any word on whether the 925’s design language is a temporary detour for the Lumia line, or is that where we should be expecting future products to b going as well?

Also, has there been any reason given as to why the phone needed an aluminum frame? Why were they unable to simply make a thinner polycarbonate phone?

For what it’s worth, I think the 928 (which seems to follow on the 720’s look and feel) is the best-looking of the three, and I’d love to see them push in that direction.

7 days ago on Lumia 920 vs. 925 vs. 928: Nokia's flagship trifecta in pictures 1 recommend

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Okay, I don’t know what’s going on internally, but from an ID standpoint, why would they opt to leave the bottom edge clean and fill the top edge with ports? I get that a top-mounted usb port is more functional, but the top edge (and back) is the part of the phone that people besides the user see most often, and Nokia really needs these phones to make a splash when in use. Plus a bottom-mounted headphone jack really is a better config for most users (something that HTC used to get, and Apple has recently gotten as well). I know these are comparatively minor gripes, but Nokia’s in the fight of it’s life and I’d hate to see it go on account of it failing in one area that it’s always excelled in: design.

7 days ago on Nokia's aluminum Lumia 925 is the best Windows Phone yet, but that's not enough (hands-on)

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I don’t see this becoming a big thing for students due to the cost – the versatility of tablets makes those devices a better fit for people on a budget. However, there is a huge need for such devices in work environments. In my field, having a Kindle can be immensely helpful (carrying statutes around is otherwise an enormous hassle), and having a larger screen would be even more so. The dream isn’t a paperless office, really, but a world in which paper is the exception rather than the rule would be great.

8 days ago on Sony goes back in time to announce a 13.3-inch e-reader

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The problem may have been that we had a stonehenge monument onstage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.

9 days ago on 'This is Spinal Tap' album reissued on vinyl for the first time in 30 years 1 recommend

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Johnny, do you play baseball?

11 days ago on Body Message: GI Joe and the invention of the viral video

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“Let’s launch over it”

12 days ago on Body Message: GI Joe and the invention of the viral video 2 recommends

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‘Does your mother still hang out at dockside bars?’

12 days ago on Body Message: GI Joe and the invention of the viral video 1 reply 3 recommends

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This is awful.

25 days ago on Samsung switches to Ativ brand for all its Windows hardware

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In my view Metro has a lot of relatively untapped potential (someone above posted a screen of the Zune player, which, while not perfect, shows that Metro can be info-dense when it needs to be). Having said that, I think a lot of people (in the dev community and, perhaps to a greater extent, at MSFT) have lost sight of the fact that Metro was not intended to be shoved down everyone’s throat at all costs – there are many statements to this effect from early WP7 marketing materials. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but if Metro seriously interferes with the functionality of that app, then devs need to be more willing to break with those guidelines.

One thing I will say, and this applies to W8 and WP8, is that there are certain design paradigms that other platforms are starting to cluster around that should be adopted, both because they work well and because familiarity is an important consideration. I desperately wish that the “app bar” gesture in W8 was a swipe in from the left, which would mirror the way that a lot of iOS and Android menus are accessed. And as WP becomes more gesture-based, which I’m certain it will, having that kind of cross-over would be doubly helpful (I understand that Metro’s horizontal pivots make this potentially problematic, but Android apps often do the same thing and still make it work).

I should point out that I don’t personally have a problem with switching between paradigms, I do it all the time, and I’m sure most people on this site do as well. But for the average consumer, this would probably be a big win. And for developers, it would reduce the costs of having to entirely rethink their app UI when porting to W8/WP8, which is a serious consideration, particularly for smaller companies, and especially if the ecosystem is to get the high-quality apps that everyone is clamoring for.

28 days ago on Microsoft painted itself into a corner with the Metro UI paradigm

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I want Apple to reinvent the dumb phone. “It’s a social network…for CDMA.”

All joking aside, and as an admitted non-Apple guy, it’s going to be a fascinating to watch the company over the next year or two. They seem a little on the ropes right now (though only relative to their own ridiculously high watermark), but I don’t think I’d bet against them.

28 days ago on Tim Cook teases 'exciting new product category' and 'more surprises' from Apple in the fall 1 recommend

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At least it still comes with a keyboard.

29 days ago on Acer laptop turns into a desktop, 'Star Trek' tie-in turns into frowns 1 reply

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Yeah I’m pretty pumped for Blue, I think it’ll enhance the flow that I’ve already developed with W8. Although, unfortunately, for work purposes I expect to be married to the desktop for a long time to come.

One thing I actually found was that de-pinning almost everything from the taskbar was extremely helpful in adjusting to the start screen – I now essentially treat it purely as an app switcher for the desktop mode. The elimination of that functionality overlap went a long way in increasing my overall efficiency, in spite of eliminating my ability to launch programs with one click (only exceptions are a couple Office programs, file manager and Chrome, which remain pinned).

30 days ago on Start Menu is more important than Start Button -- A better DeskTop experience for Win8

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I’ve gotta say, even though my workflow is entirely desktop based, and will probably remain so for some time, I don’t find the “fullscreen-ness” of the Start screen to be detrimental, though it certainly took some adjusting. I think that there’s a psychological factor at work here – when I started using W8, I was a little resistant to the start screen because I felt that by pulling me away from the desktop entirely it was detrimental to multitasking. However, once I identified this as the main source of discomfort, I thought about it and realized that launching programs is not really part of a multi-tasking scenario anyway – there’s no reason I need to see my documents while I open a new program. AFter that, it was just a matter of getting used to it, which took maybe a couple of weeks.

I won’t pretend that everyone thinks like I do and that this will work across the board, but I think my experience shows that it’s possible to make the transition from Start menu to screen without too much fuss. That said, more options for users is almost always better.

30 days ago on Start Menu is more important than Start Button -- A better DeskTop experience for Win8 1 reply 1 recommend

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http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/

Not quite what you’re looking for, but not far off either, I don’t think. I confess that I haven’t used this yet, but I’ve heard relatively good feedback thus far. Obviously not a native solution, but it looks like it does the trick.

30 days ago on Start Menu is more important than Start Button -- A better DeskTop experience for Win8 2 replies 1 recommend

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The biology of senescence is an area that’s always fascinated me – obviously quite closely related to evolutionary biology and genetics. Also anything to do with neurobiology, especially memory-related stuff.

Also, I’m glad you’re gonna be touching on the DSM – I find psychology/psychiatry to be equal parts fascinating and frustrating, and I think there’s tons of potential for some great stories and comment pieces.

Lastly, and this is totally tangential, but the extent to which the judiciary relies on science is increasing rapidly, and yet I’m not convinced that courts really understand it, or have the means to understand it. For example, human rights law relies heavily on the DSM, treating it as a purely scientific document instead of one whose focus is arguably diagnostic/therapeutic in nature. Anyway, like I said, tangential, but I think this trend has some long-term societal implications that’d be interesting to look at.

about 1 month ago on The topic in science you desperately want to read more about