I feel the same way about a secure, well-stocked App Store. Apple has had one since the beginning, while Google Play only just appeared and is still way behind in numbers of apps.

One difference is, you can update a two-year-old iPhone 4 to iOS 6, while most other phones that old will never be upgraded to Android 4.

Terry Gilliam nods and grimaces.

Why would you spend $30 to attach an adapter to an old cable, when you can probably spend that much or less on a new cable? A USB-to-Lightning cable costs only $20, and that's only because Apple is the only one making them right now.

I'm still of the opinion that headphones are ALWAYS a poor way to experience music. Complex layered harmonic sounds should be appreciated in three dimensional spaces by a decent pair of stereo speakers, not drilled directly into your ear canal to the exclusion of every other sound in the room.

Let's turn that around: what would have really impressed you? The commercials I see for other phones these days really just advertise new software — instant photo sharing with your friends! voice-controlled app launching! turn-by-turn directions! — which are completely hardware-independent.

What do you consider "standard" in a phone, anyway? Last I checked, a "standard" phone just needed a numeric keypad, an on/off button, a mic, and a speaker.

People steal city trash cans? Seriously?

You forgot a third possibility: throwing all their non-recyclable trash into the recycling bins.

Security, probably. If you want it that badly, though, buy a phone that supports it so Apple knows it's important to you.

"By the bagful"? How many dockable accessories do you actually own?

"I know kung fu."

Is "definitive" the new "objective"?

An intriguing argument. The real question is, what precedents are there in CHINESE law for this sort of thing?

No one's making you use it. You can keep using the more-expensive elite brands that all the other hipster urban cyclists use on their $1000 rides.

That's probably the first time I've ever seen "jailbreak or root" and "convenient" used in the same sentence.

I thought it hit the coast at around 6:30pm?

"Does anyone do x anymore? I never do x anymore" is an idiot's argument. You are not a representative sample of "everybody."

The problem isn't gun ownership — it's gun ownership without gun education.

And yet I have to pay EXTRA to get a Nike or Star Wars logo on a t-shirt.