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You obviously haven’t seen the average iPhone user’s home screen with a bunch of clashing icons sprawled over a background of their baby, making it a confusing mess of colors with nigh unreadable text.

1 day ago on Jony Ive's iOS 7 redesign reportedly eliminates 'heavy textures' for a flat, 'black and white' design 3 replies 10 recommends

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Google is acting in an anti-consumer way. Why are you defending them? They are actively preventing an official Youtube app being developed on WP, which hurts consumers. They complain Microsoft’s app doesn’t show ads, but they won’t give Microsoft access to the API that allows them to show ads. The only thing Microsoft is left to do is not develop an official Youtube app.

The thing is, Google doesn’t normally behave this way. They don’t actively block AdBlock despite it allowing users to violate the ToS on all of its sites. They didn’t send C&D’s to the dozens of third-party Youtube apps on iOS, Android and WP that don’t show ads. Nope, it’s just Microsoft.

Attacking Microsoft instead of Google in this case pretty much proves your anti-Microsoft bias.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 1 reply 6 recommends

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Doesn’t stop Google for developing for minority platforms like OS X and Linux.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 1 recommend

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The problem is that there are no rules they can follow. Microsoft does not have access to any API that allows advertisements to be shown. So to follow the rules means to not have a Youtube app. And that hurts consumers.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads

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It’s anti-consumer plain and simple. I’m more used to Apple fans defending anti-consumer actions, but I guess zealotry knows no bounds. Google won’t let Microsoft use the official API that allows for ads. Google sends C&D to Microsoft when they try to make an unofficial app using the public API, ignoring the dozens of third-party apps on all the platforms that also use the public API which does not show advertisements.

Sure, Microsoft has no right to the official API. But it harms consumers, and directly harms Youtube for the indirect benefit of making a competitor worse. This is anti-consumer competition, and should not be defended.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 3 recommends

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There is no API available to Microsoft that will display ads. Google doesn’t care one shit about revenue in this case, otherwise they’d let Microsoft use it.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 2 recommends

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That’s all well and good, but Google doesn’t even have a public API that allows viewing advertisements.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 2 recommends

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“don’t be evil” was a moniker to distinguish itself from Microsoft, who was chasing the bottom line when it engaged in anti-competitive practices by bundling IE. The motto suggests that a company should behave ethically even if it’s not the most optimal profit-seeking path. Yet blocking a competitor from what is essentially a monopoly platform (Youtube) is far worse than merely bundling IE (at least you could always install an alternative browser), and is precisely the sort of anti-competitive, anti-consumer practice that most would consider unethical.

We all know why Google is doing it. That doesn’t mean they can’t be criticized for it. For some reason, Google fans are quick to say “they need the profit” when it comes to Google, but cry foul whenever Apple does something antii-consumer for the sake of profits.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 2 replies 5 recommends

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It’s not a principled stand, unless the principle is “screw Microsoft.” Google doesn’t care about all the other WP youtube apps that don’t show ads. Google doesn’t prevent AdBlock from running on Chrome.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 1 reply 6 recommends

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Wow that is some historical revisionism. The whole reason Google bought youtube because its own Google video sites was getting trounced by it.

10 days ago on Google demands Microsoft remove YouTube Windows Phone app, cites lack of ads 15 recommends

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This is a lame excuse. Google has plenty of capacity to develop WP apps, and it certainly never stopped them from developing apps for the Mac back when Google was smaller and Mac market share was tiny.

10 days ago on Google unveils Hangouts: a unified messaging system for Android, iOS, and Chrome 1 reply 1 recommend

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Nope, to Google it’s an ideological thing. It begins with Eric Schmidt, formerly of Sun and Novell who were both significantly involved in antitrust proceedings against Microsoft, and he brought to Google the mindset of Microsoft needing to be taken down a notch. Brin and Page were also strong supporters of the open source movement during the ‘90s, and Microsoft was generally considered enemy #1 (probably for justified reasons). It’s all a little anachronistic these days, but old habits die hard. It’s not surprising Google so quickly dropped Windows as a development platform for their engineers even though Google’s development stack is platform agnostic (you only need Chrome); they simply needed a good excuse, and when the Windows machines were used as an attack vector, that was enough. Never mind that Linux is perfectly capable as an attack vector.

12 days ago on Lumia 928: first impressions of Verizon's Nokia flagship (hands-on)

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I doubt Microsoft would lift a finger, either. They certainly wouldn’t give them the APIs.

Why do you doubt that? Microsoft made plenty of applications for Mac OS despite having less than 5% market share.

18 days ago on Windows Phone finally gets a full YouTube app with playlists and sign-in support 2 replies 1 recommend

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Probably licensing. A big company like Microsoft has to go through the legal hoops of using some “official” API sanctioned by Google. Small, independent developers don’t have to worry about dealing with Google, but do have to worry about the prospect of Google pulling the plug on their app at any moment’s notice.

18 days ago on Windows Phone finally gets a full YouTube app with playlists and sign-in support 1 recommend

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How about a review of a laptop running something even more limited than Android: Chrome Pixel. That got a 7.5 despite its insane price tag basically because it has an amazing screen. Because it’s pretty clear that the verge reviewers care more about nice screens than actual functionality.

23 days ago on Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 review: a netbook by another name 3 replies 8 recommends

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If it’s taking 10 seconds, it’s either: 1) the shitty e-mail app, or 2) slow internet connectivity. In any case, because RT does actual multitasking, once it’s loaded, there’s no delay in switching.

The idea behind RT really is terrific. Office + Flash support makes it fit my needs more than any other tablet on the market. What other tablet allows me to do work AND stream sports? Use NBA League Pass or SlingPlayer for free? The problem is that the Verge staff doesn’t use Office, and apparently they have little need for video streaming outside of free apps.

23 days ago on Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 review: a netbook by another name 3 recommends

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A great example was the Samsung Series 9 getting pilloried for having “low travel” in the keyboard. Ok, so it’s slightly less than the Mac Book Air, but it’s perfectly fine as a keyboard. The problem is that these reviewers all use the MBA as the optimal baseline because that is simply what they’re used to. Travel that’s less is considered inferior, but travel that’s more is not considered superior. It’s the same with weight and thinness. If it’s heavier than the MBA, it’ll get noticed, if it’s lighter, it won’t.

23 days ago on Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 review: a netbook by another name 7 recommends

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They did the former because if you really expect them to create a video for every single app that has an Android equivalent then you are out of your mind bonkers.

25 days ago on Microsoft targets Android users with Switch to Windows Phone app 1 recommend