The worst part about the implementation is that the browser icons often appear unsorted initially, and then the sort kicks in 0-5 seconds later, and they all shuffle.
This has caught me out at least twice by clicking on a browser icon to choose it, then the order changes after I clicked and the wrong browser installer is launched.
The solution is to get a decent external keyboard. A laptop keyboard is never going to be good. Stop dancing around the issue - get a decent keyboard.
I started to get wrist pain about 10 years ago, which worried me. This was right around the time MS first released their ergonomic keyboard. It was 100ukp, but I figured that was a small price to pay if it fixed my problem. It did - the pains went away in about 2 weeks. They've never come back (I've used various models of the MS ergo keyboard since then).
"The Android reference implementation does not (yet) contain such a JIT compiler, though other implementations may choose to provide one."
I thought that was one of the complaints about Android/Java - the VM runs the code; there's no JIT. That's why the prototype Dalvik JIT that was announced very recently was big news. It certainly wasn't announced in the 90s, anyway.
Fair enough, you don't have to push updates. My wording should have been more precise. Apple can pull or disable apps. Not sure about direct OS pushes. But they can at least soft force you get an update by bundling desired features with undesired features.
You don't have to jailbreak to avoid updates - neither Apple nor app developers have the ability to force updates upon your phone. Both iTunes and the App Store ask for permission before updating your device and apps.
There is the remote app killswitch functionality, but Android has that as well.
I don't believe iPhone or Android devices have a user-facing toggle... there might be some way to hack it out, but I'm not sure.
I don't think it's ever been used on either device, so it hasn't exactly been a burning issue yet; the stated purpose is only in the event of a highly malicious application.
This reminds me of a point I heard someone make about (I think) a Heinlein novel. Heinlein (or whoever :)) had predicted the widespread use of telephone answering machines. Their point is that this was kind of easy to do - but what Heinlein also did was predict that people would use them to screen phone calls (in the book, the character hears his Dad call in, and picks up the phone and says something like "I'm in for you, Dad.")
The point is that predicting how people will use stuff is the hard part (as you say).
Odd. I have two 1920x1280 monitors (arranged as yours). With my mouse acceleration I can go from extreme left to extreme right without much effort (don't have to lift my palm off the desk). Yet I can easily hit small targets a few pixels across. Buttons are easy.
This is on Windows - haven't switch to Mac to test it - maybe the OS X acceleration is linear and hence a bit sucky?
Mac OS has even more acceleration than Windows by default. That's a common complaint among new Mac users, who often incorrectly and adamantly insist both that Windows has a linear mapping where 1 inch on the mouse pad equals N inches on the screen, and that that is the right way to do it.
Not really an issue on my mac with two 1280x1024 displays. I can span both monitors in about 2-3 inches of mouse movement. Some people really like text-based input though, which explains the popularity of Apps like Quicksilver.
This has caught me out at least twice by clicking on a browser icon to choose it, then the order changes after I clicked and the wrong browser installer is launched.