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From a tumultuous evening in Yosemite a couple nights ago:

You can still run with it, you just need to hire a phone bearer.

Steve Jobs ghost would kill anyone at T-mobile if they added bloatware. No provider is allowed.

Sure, I'll admit that the way a product makes me "feel" has a lot to do with why I spend my money on things. I've only really become aware of the strength of this aspect of consumerism recently (including if I "feel" like I paid too much for something than feel like a dumbass later) Take any given modern day smartphone. Sure there are differences, and some different features, but its not like it used to be a few years ago. Some things that were true in the past but not so much anymore: -Apple's app store is far superior to the google play store/market/whatever. Now mostly any app is available in either store. -Android has a much sloppier/laggier user experience. This was true until Android got its shit together. -Phone X has better hardware than Phone Y. Still true but we've generally reached a point where most "premium" phones all have kick ass hardware sufficient enough to make the phone do what it do. -Android is too fragmented. The google suite of apps and cloud has pretty much eliminated this for me. So in most of the big departments the phones are equal for most average users (like me), aside from screen size and physical build. And then there is brand loyalty, which I think deals with one's past concerning a product's reliability/after market service, but also an emotional element, the aforementioned "feeling". Anyway, this is just all my analysis of myself, I can't necessary extrapolate this to everyone else.

FWIW, I went from 4" phone and iPad to a 5.5" phone two years ago. I almost completely quit using my iPad after that because the phone did so much of what I used my tablet for. **BRENT**

I'm waiting for my 2 years to finish up in January, but I'm going for the 128GB 5.5". Go big or go home.

Basically more than resistant enough if you're a model splashing water on your face while standing on an oil rig.

my problem isn't my hands, it's my pockets and my face

And done

Various selections from Die Antwoord albums. Ever since Stretch mentioned meeting them on an airplane, I've had them as one of my guilty pleasures.....

A mass customized, data mined, big data driven world. "People who thought this news was important, also liked the following news" A world where the greatest minds are not solving "important" problems, but are working out how to make you click on an ad.

Friends of Dean Martinez -- I this band so hard >_<

What about a scarf ensemble? #scarfguy.

I will explain. Using only the ten hundred most commonly used words in the English language. The computer guy who makes the eye phone saw that someone else made a watch 2 years ago. He decided that since this guy did it with crowd money he could do better by not adding anything except a color picture face. After this he used his name to say that his was better. What is funny is that a third guy makes a watch with more things right now!

i dont get it

Crock pot boston butt

Deep fried rabbit confit from a food truck.

Interesting quote re: ApplePay Apple DOES NOT benefit the mobile payments space To the contrary, Apple Pay basically destroys the business model of everyone playing in the mobile payments space before today! This is great for consumers, but everyone else is busy throwing out their business plan and figuring out how to survive this. I always figured NFC payments would be really hard to make work in the US because everyone wants to take a cut of the transaction. Everyone involved from phone OEMs, carriers, app developers and various others who figured they could insert themselves in the process - all had dreams of making billions off a small cut of the action. Those dreams are now gone. Apple doesn't need a cut (or profit down the road via using/selling customer data) since they make their money selling phones/watches. Payment processors and banks didn't want to give anyone a cut of their action. Merchants didn't want to give a bigger cut than they give now to enable more pigs at the trough. So the banks, payment processors, and merchants all became logical partners of Apple, and the massive support they've lined up guarantees Apple Pay will gain traction where others have failed. Anyone who wants to play the mobile payments game after today will have to play by the profit-free information-free rules Apple has now set in stone. Brilliant move by Apple, this deals Google's aspirations a crippling blow by taking away their ability to collect data on user purchases and add it to their massive trove of customer data. Had Google been able to link purchase behavior all the way back to user searches, the value of that search data and AdWords would have grown immeasurably.

So yeah, just finished it. Not bad. I liked it quite a bit better than their last two albums. I think longtime fans will be pleasantly surprised. It is solid. I usually like stuff that Danger Mouse is attached to, this one is no different. I had to go hunt around the "purchased" section of iTunes to get it to download.

there aren't any details about that. I fully expect it to work without a phone in range, just many features won't work, like the phone and gps stuff.

Excited to see Apple finally embrace the bigger screen. If they would've done it a few years ago they would've kept my business. The pic above about comparing the features to the Nexus 4 did make me laugh, but really a phone isn't about features to me anymore, its about "is this phone awesome to use and kick ass". My new Sony Z Ultra is awesome to use and kick ass. I'm sure the big iPhone is too, I'm just an android guy now. Looking forward to headcaser's impressions, if anyone gets the big 'un.

Got the Beatles mono box set today. "Rubber Soul" spinning as I type. So far, so very good.

FTFY

Apple Watch: Much ado about nothing

My family can keep their ecosystem, never again an iPhone.

I forget, in the past could you preorder via att and get the new contract price, and/or directly with Apple? I forget whose website I should be watching. Agree with Al. Back to Apple now that they have admitted that bigger is better.

Just realized my favorite pen - Pilot Precise V5 - comes in retractable/refillable version. Much to my annoyance, each refill cost at least as much as the disposable version of the pen.

I'm surprised that anyone likes the 5S size/aspect ratio. It seems so odd to me. I guess I will be getting the Plus size model to keep integration with the family ecosystem. Same size screen as the Note 2 I have carried at times and I never had trouble with it seeming too big.

Shit, where are our manners? To OP: A good music box is made when the TV Bottle takes the song from the music player and makes it bigger. With this bigger song a group of TV bottles can make a small song very strong. This strong song can be given to your music making boxes which will fill the room with good sound. If you do not use the TV bottles right or you use any three legged pieces of shit your sound may not be good. How we will all laugh at your problems then. If you do good and make a good music box people will pay you for this. If you do bad and make bad things people will pay you more. Some people will pay lots of money for the song moving sticks even though it is the same as any other. Some people think that something (I don't know what) makes some song moving sticks very good even though they don't know either. For metal... Grado or get the fuck out...

Nah! Some stupidity is just too epic to delete.

Sennheiser 600's on Massdrop for $275 free shipping

Froome is one of the less visually appealing cyclists I've seen. Ever. The whole side to side head wobble is so distracting. .....

I pretty much think it's harmless fun on a fair game thing. It's been an onging thing since the tour where he was helping Brad Wiggins. YMMV

Raffy, having spent some time in a peloton (a lot slower peloton) it's a spoken rule that you keep your eyes forward as much as possible, as in if you stare at it too much someone usually says something line "keep your eyes on the fucking road". It avoids crashes and when you crash in a peloton you usually take out other people. Froome looks down a lot but he also doesn't crash much, but that may be his protected rider status. I will say though that if everyone in the pro peloton rode like him we'd have a lot more crashes. I think it's totally fair game.

Fortunately, I have no human torso, therefore headphone listening sounds identical to speaker listening for me. Except for the fact that I have to speak out of my ass, it works out quite well.

From the Floyd's: pan seared duck breast with confit potatoes, chocolate balsamic reduction, shaved carrots, pickled cherries and watercress.

http://www.expansys-usa.com/sony-z-ultra-google-play-edition-unlocked-lte-16gb-black-263504/ Just bought the Sony Z Ultra Google Play Edition from expansys for $335. Definitely a niche device, here is a quick list of pros/cons after owning the device for <24 hours: PROS: 6.4" screen, wonderful display, easy on the eyes. Top notch fit and finish, the phone is all glass and metal. Very clear call volume, even with people who I previous thought just had shitty phones. This is relative to the Nexus 5 call volume, my previous phone. Everything is super fast, as really all phones should be these days. Micro SD slot can hold a 64gb card. Phone is water resistant, if you are in to that Power input is at the top left corner of the phone, instead of the bottom. I like this for some reason. Standby/power switch is on the middle right of the phone, and is a round, silver metal button. Much better to put the switch here instead of the top right on a phone this size. Volume rocker is right below the power switch. Remarkably thin for a phone of this size GPE so you will always get the latest android update (running 4.4.4 right now) CONS: The phone is enormous. Fits fine in dress slacks and shorts pockets, but I imagine it won't work with jeans. All glass/metal design and the phones thinness could make it very easy to drop. Little flaps over all the inputs due to the water resistant nature of the phone, except the headphone jack which is somehow still water resistant A bit hefty weight wise, but this also adds to the solid feel of the phone. Your significant other and friends will make fun of you and your enormous phone. But they are just jealous. Camera doesn't have flash, but flash always ruins pictures for me anyway. Haven't had the opportunity to test the camera so I can't comment on overall quality.