No...

... it's about ten years too late.

So...

... it *is* the iPhone 5, then?

Naughty Samsung, you've been copying in advance again.

%%%%%%

The cash is being allocated to create a network where everyone in the country can have at least 2Mbps - which means significant investment in RURAL broadband. In case you hadn't noticed, Scotland has a hell of a lot more rural areas than anywhere south of the border.

Because they didn't?

BP had five years of exclusive rights to prospect those waters for oil and gas, and they didn't bother trying. Amoco and Shell then went looking and hit paydirt, and within another five years Aberdeen was richer than Glasgow. Even now, though, the major work is done abroad because it's easier, with Aberdeen serving only as the administrative centre.

On the other foot...

... you'd have collateral damage as a lot of games apps would be completely shafted. Not the primary use of a smartphone, I admit, but it's a selling point and taking it away only from Android would cause developers to leave for iOS.

What, Apple lie?

Here's the Apple design strategy:

1) Make a generic product that is very dear.

2) Slap an "i" on the front of the name.

3) Claim it's original.

Samsung are being accused of reverse engineering this strategy, hence producing the original i dear.

"Can Wiki tell if an editor is female from their writing?"

If they're writing about friendship bracelets and/or Sex in the City, then the answer is an unequivocal "yes".

(Paris, because more people have looked her up than have looked her up on Wiki.)

Huh?

I thought it was Frederick Jones who was putting rags on his favourite Jobs toys?

Riots in Manchester...

... that were also reported on Sky News a few hours after you posted, because they actually did happen. Here's a link to a story with a picture of Miss Selfridge on Market Street in flames:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/871882-manchester-riots-see-arndale-centre-targeted-as-uk-chaos-spreads

Care to reappraise your assessment of the BBC's fail?

Only in video

Around 0030 the BBC had live audio reporting from a Guardian reporter who was not only on the ground but undercover among the rioters and looters, calling in what he was seeing from his mobile. When it comes to big swinging balls of steel, that guy made the robot in Transformers 2 look like two peas at the foot of Nelson's Column. If he'd been caught out, I wouldn't give a tuppenny damn for his chances.

Similar specs?

Why would you need specs at all with the non-3D version?

(Paris, because she's used to objects springing out and almost poking her in the eye.)

It'd have to be Goods Inwards

... because if it was Goods Outwards, they still wouldn't have noticed the hack.

Blue Sky thinking

"The majority of licence fee payers do not watch F1"

True. This is something F1 coverage has in common with literally every other program on the air. By your logic, therefore, the BBC should not make or purchase the rights to any programming at all.

Yes, we need those people

There's no fat to cut from the commentary team. The three-man pundit squad is set up ideally: as an outsider to the sport Jake Humphries asks the questions we would be thinking of, and he's teamed with an ex-driver and a former team boss who between them can answer anything he might ask.

During the race we have two commentators, Brundle and Coulthard, extremely experienced drivers with over 400 Grand Prix starts and 28 years of F1 experience; between them, they don't miss much. Ted Kravitz covers pitstops and pit lane information, which is a full time job as that info is crucial to determining race strategies, while Lee Mackenzie is there to relay knowledge of on-track incidents and interview any drivers who retire. It's all important for completing the package.

Jokes are funnier without spelling mistakes

For instance, in yours you consistently spell "Apple" I-N-T-E-L. Better fix that next time.

Some houses on Shetland have a postcode all to themselves

He's going to be out of luck if he tries claiming it was his neighbour using his connection/

Nochex

Game over, BitCoin seller.

I want to live in your universe

You know, the one where iPhones cost less than $250.

Yes...

... but by the 13th century, people in the West believed it was flat again. Until a theory is definitively proven or disproven, it will go in and out of vogue.

You missed one

Well, two actually - Chaos and its sequel, Lords of Chaos. LoC was if anything even better than Laser Squad: you were able to choose the units for your side on the fly and also use a variety of powerful direct attacks and board changing effects, but the more units you had, the less power you had left to use combat spells.

FOIA request

Is it Vladimir Poutine?

Unrelated part of the business?

Since when was Samsung's department that designs mobile phones unrelated to the department that designs mobile phone components?

"The science of dianetics"

I can only presume you meant to type "the bullshit fabricated to sucker in morons and people with severe self-esteem issues of dianetics"? Easy mistake to make, the keys are right next to each other.

Well, no, Hardcastle, it couldn't

Because "educationally subnormal" is two words, not three. Anyone who isn't educationally subnormal knows that, and so would never use "ESN" as an acronym to describe people who are.

What obsession?

I picked up my first Android phone a couple of months ago. It's neat, I like it - but as a novice smartphone user it's not easy for me to get the most out of the OS. An iPhone may in fact have been the better choice for me in that respect. Also, if I pick up a tablet it's likely to be an iPad as I would be using it for magazine subscriptions and boardgaming, and some of the things I want just aren't available for Android devices. So I'm far from an Android fanboy as you suggest.

However, I am not going to pay over the odds simply because a given device is a fashion accessory. Nor, given a choice, would I buy a product from a company whose public face has said that "iPod users would rather be mugged than have people not know they have an iPod" - yes, that is a genuine quote - and that when their handheld device didn't work properly when held naturally, blamed the design of the human hand. All big companies are arrogant, but Apple's arrogance is consummate.

The co-conspirators of Guy Fawkes?

That would be Robert Catesby, Thomas and Robert Wintour, Robert Keyes, John Grant, Francis Tresham, Robert and Thomas Winter, John and Christopher Wright, Thomas Percy, Sir Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Thomas Bates. I can also spell "conspirators" and "Fawkes".

Anonymous protesters don't wear the Guy Fawkes mask because the Gunpowder Plotters were anonymous. They wear it because the character V in "V For Vendetta" wore it, and the most important thing about V is that it didn't matter who he was.

Apple fans don't read Android threads for a reason

Ask a fundamentalist Christian if he's ever read a given book on philosophy, theology, ethics or morality, and nine times out of ten he will reply "I don't need to read that, the Bible tells me everything I need to know". Ask an Apple fanboi if he's ever looked at the specs, software, style or cost of a non-Apple phone, and nine times out of ten he will reply "I don't need to read that, I have my iPhone and I'm happy".

The blind faithful rarely have interest in anything but the object of their faith.

"the iphone 4 is the best smartphone ive used to date."

Fanboi to English translation: "The iPhone 4 is the most recent Apple smartphone."

Discworld is not on the list...

... because Discworld novels actually have resale value - second hand bookshops know they can pass them through as fast as they come in, so offer more than the usual tuppence-ha'penny a book.

On the other hand, I see almost as many Harry Potter novels in charity shops as I do Twilight. People tend to lose their love of Harry Potter when they discover there are books not written by JK Rowling.

Navratilova

Moron.

Yes? And? So?

Hey, you know what else? BR27 GRD is probably on the road too, like many other inoffensive combinations of letters and numbers.

BA57 ARD almost certainly is *not* on the road, though.

I'm afraid not

Many years ago, my mother saw a car with registration PEN 48S and asked who had PEN 1S. She was informed that this plate was not available. A humourless bunch, the DVLA.

Bilge, indeed

Bilgepipe, many fanbois routinely buy out their contracts when a new iTeration is released and sell on their old handset to cover the cost. This does happen with other handsets too, but more commonly with iPhones because the Apple sticker (Applestika?) on the back represents about 40% of the handset's price and it doesn't depreciate.

Who replaces their phone every year?

That would be Apple fanbois, I believe.

However, I have not downvoted your post because your point about comparative advancement speeds is fair and valid, if not 100% accurate - some advances are available in two generations of smartphones before the iPhone catches up.

Credits, huh? That means a lot

Elvis also got a writing credit on a lot of his songs, but he never wrote a song in his life. It was done to get him (well, Colonel Tom) a bigger share of the money.

Also, whether she was involved in the writing or not, I'd be loath to describe her repetitive garbage as "songs".

The IT angle? That would be the auto-tuning software.

I don't think so

If they have your telephone number then they can get your home address easily, of course, and I'm sure there's a way to query a telephone number to get the active IP on that line.

Can anyone provide an exemplar of someone being called by these scammers who does not have any kind of internet connection?

Time is money

If you take a scammer all the way through his spiel before you let him know you're wise to him, then you have reduced the number of people who can be scammed by one. For the expense of 10 or 15 minutes of your time, you have caused the scammer to lose anywhere from the £50 "premium service" scam fee up to the thousands that can be pillaged from someone's bank account. If all of us reading did it just three or four times, they would lose millions.

So yes, I do consider wasting their time to be a profitable use of mine.

The voltage toggle switch...

... is recessed because it would only be operated BY a tool.