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  1. K

    Tale of the trench: what if your subdivision laid its own fiber?

    "A Comcast customer service agent I spoke with said that our neighborhood was considered a "high competition" area and this was why we were always offered the most aggressive promotions" I just couldn't help laughing when I read this line. On a more serious note, I find it hard to justify the...
  2. K

    Ask Ars: Of solid state drives and garbage collection

    Fabulous article! I'm really looking forward to reading this on a weekly basis. I think the entire read/write lifespan of SSDs is overblown. As other posters have pointed, it's roughly 10,000 read/writes per block. As a result, SSDs will probably last longer than hard drives. How many users...
  3. K

    Verizon iPhones to come with $30 unlimited data option

    AND the three big carriers (Bell, Telus, Rogers) make Canadians go for 3-year contracts, not 2-year contracts like in most of the States. When Moblicity gets the Nexus S later in February, I think I'll be switching. I don't care if I have to pay roaming fees on the VERY occasional trip outside...
  4. K

    Specs leak on HTC's upcoming tablet, the HTC Flyer

    The Xoom is released in February and gets Honeycomb, but a tablet released in March still gets Android 2.3? Sorry HTC, but I'm really getting tired of the fragmentation on the Android platform and the preference to include custom UIs. Google needs to maybe rethink the strategy of "openness."...
  5. K

    Should you buy a Verizon iPhone? Your questions answered

    Are you kidding me? The original Telus and Bell networks are CDMA. They still maintain them, but they are transition all of their phones to to their new HSPA+ network. Rogers has always used GSM/HSPA+, and all the iPhones in Canada are the AT&T versions. CDMA is old technology and Telus and Bell...
  6. K

    Hands-on: Motorola's Atrix Android phone leads secret double life as a netbook

    Good news for Canadians, the ATRIX is coming to Bell apparently on January 15th (I asked a Bell rep) -> bell.ca/atrix We might actually get it before AT&T does! My only concern is the battery life might not be that great with a dual-core processor. That, and it would be nice to have seen an 8MP...
  7. K

    Zooming in on the Motorola Xoom

    There is. It's called QNX, and although the company was recently bought by RIM, it's obvious that it's an entirely different development team designing the interface. It's hard to believe that the Playbook is going to be released by the same company that released the Torch and BB OS 6. I really...
  8. K

    Warrantless cell phone search gets a green light in California

    I'm concerned about the password rules here too. After some Googling, I could find only one relevant case where police had the right to force someone to give up a password. In this UK case, a British teen was jailed for refusing to give up his password: http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/1...
  9. K

    AMD makes massive Fusion push with new products, design wins

    I'm in a similar situation (although I don't mind running Mac/Windows 7 on my laptop). My current 17" Toshiba laptop eeks out 3.5 hours of battery life, so I definitely need a new, smaller ultraportable for on the road. I think Intel still wins for me - the new Linux kernel that is going to be...
  10. K

    Canada: We might be America's hat, but we don't like caps

    Internet prices have really come down in Canada; still too high IMO, but when you get broadband with TV, the price for the internet is usually around $25-$30 for 15Mb/s. Meanwhile internet caps in the Vancouver area have been (but obviously are no longer) as low as 60Gb/month. For most people...
  11. K

    [etc] Remember evercookie, the browser cookie that stores info in a thousand places a

    Noscript is not a solution to blocking evercookie - evercookie uses flash cookies, too, to store data.
  12. K

    Windows browsers benchmarked: October 2010 edition

    Google has had its own browser sync officially included in Chrome long for several months now. It syncs bookmarks, extensions, preferences, themes, autofill... you name it! Additionally, you can access all of the synced bookmarks on the web under a "Google Bookmarks" folder in Google Docs. +1...
  13. K

    US, Canada have priciest cell phone plans in the world

    Here's another way that Canadians are really taken advantage of - while U.S. carriers offer phones on two year plans, most smartphones in Canada are only available on three-year plans. Of course, most phones don't last that long, so the net result is that users are forced to pay for a new phone...
  14. K

    From Geek to Chic: a decade of smartphone evolution

    I would have mentioned at least one other series of the Blackberry. The Blackberry truly was the forefront of true smartphone capability, especially for email. For several years, RIM was the undisputed leader in smartphone innovation, especially in the US.
  15. K

    Hands-on: Firefox 4 beta 4 brings Tab Candy and Sync

    While Linux's multiple window managers are a pain to work with, Mozilla needs to ensure a uniform look across all platforms. I'm extremely impressed by the new interface of the Windows build, but the Linux build better follow suit in order me to switch back to FF from Chrome. Ironically enough...
  16. K

    64-bit Flash for Linux dropped as Adobe preps next version

    Worst news that I've heard in a long time. While most of my Youtube needs are (thankfully) covered by HTML5, I still frequently use Flash for watching sports. It's a terrible experience using the wrapper... does ANYONE have the original .deb or tar.gz package posted by Adobe on its website for...
  17. K

    Canada again tops "special" US piracy watchlist

    <quote> "In particular, border enforcement continues to be weak. The United States encourages Canada to provide its border officials with the authority to seize suspected infringing materials without the need for a court order." </quote> While I can appreciate that digital piracy is a major and...
  18. K

    Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love

    Just white-listed Ars. I greatly appreciate your upfront honesty, and definitely wish to support Ars in whatever small way I can.