Well, the 2011 model seems to get Apple haters in an uproar a lot faster than the 2010 when it's being compared to anything. Plus, thunderbolt, bt 4.0...but, yes, it absolutely was just an upgrade...but the voting was for "important" not "innovative" and as for importance, the Air set the bar for the next generation…

Heh, the only way Android tablets can compete with the iPad on price and specs is to have the price subsidized. Apple has a pretty good handle on the supply chain of high quality components.

Your wife is just too nice to say otherwise, but if someone wants an iPad for a year, why do you go out and buy something that's not an iPad? You might think it's better, but the iPad is so much more than hardware that Android has yet to even touch yet (e.g. app ecosystem that isn't a minefield of "not compatible with…

An argument could easily be made that the Fire is just the logical upgrade to the Kindle.

Dude, seriously? You're starting to sound not only like a fanboy, but one with their fingers in their ears going "LALALALALALA"

How can you consider the iPad meh and incremental and the nexus as somehow 'near perfect'? They arent that different at all.

Well, they've, arguably, never had any real competition in the smartphone market. Android as a platform may have more smartphone marketshare, but the iPhone is still the best selling smartphone.

Appple won't come down in price, except by offering last years model cheaper, like they do with the iPhone. They have no reason to. They aren't after the impulse/budget buyer. They never have been. The "free on contract" Android phones didn't push the iPhone price down. The netbook market didn't push the Air/Macbook…

And the Nexus is somehow groundbreaking?

Lytro, yes, Nexus and Vita? Not so much.

Yes, it's an inconvenience for you, which is exactly what Verizon is counting on. The point, as the OP suggested, is to send a bit of a message by costing Verizon money in processing a huge influx of offline payments, in hopes that they would change their policy.

oh, I'm definitely not defending them. It's a pathetic move by Verizon, which is why I'd suggest the checks and stamps. It's a lot cheaper for you, and less "convenient" for them.

You don't have to...but if you are a Verizon customer, your laziness will cost you. Not much, really, but it's huge for Verizon. They found a way to make a quick few millions bucks, because they are counting on you to be too lazy to bother.

It's a "convenience" charge because it's more convenient for them.

Checks are pretty cheap. If you buy one pack of checks for like 10ish bucks, you get like 150 checks...in just 5 months you'd pay that much by paying online.

Except that you don't get the benefit of reviewing your bill prior to paying. It's not blown out of proportion, this is absolutely absurd on Verizon's part. It's even more baffling why you're defending them...They aren't "incentivizing" customers into automatic bill pay, they are strong-arming them into it.

the complaint is that it requires jumping through hoops to just get a UI that doesn't look like it was put together by border collies.

First of all, I'm pretty sure Schmidt is off his rocker nowadays.

Left behind? Behind what? The curve when the next best Android phone is released in 4 weeks?

Bothered? Not hardly. Sarcastically stirring the pot so that fanboys go crazy trying to rationalize their decision? Absolutely. You're right, it is good for them. What's not good for them though, is going crazy trying to defend that preference as if it will make the world a better place by using that phone.