AppleBighter

First, redefine evil.  Then do whatever you please.

I find it hard to believe that anyone finds the ATV remote acceptable. For me it's horrible, by far the worst thing about ATV. It alternates between the swipe action not working at all to being oversensitive (seems to depend on moisture level fingerprint). It's also nearly impossible to click without swiping first (it swiping happens to be working) so using it for FF is a frustrating joke. I generally just use my harmony and leave the ATV remote in a drawer.

I've been a CR online subscriber for years. I often don't agree with their assessments, but I think it's important that someone do this sort of independent testing and they are the only option. So, I support them with my subscription. That said, I wouldn't buy or not buy anything based exclusivity on a CR test report. It's a data point. One that I would rate much higher than a manufacturer's marketing blurb or your typical Amazon review, but still just one data point. To me it's worth the minimal cost of the CR subscription.

I worked at AOL when AIM started up. I knew the guy that wrote the server side. He was a absolutely brilliant programmer. Back in the day, AOL never kept any conversation logs of AIM, at all. This was so they wouldn't have to go search through them when subpoenaed. They were also really anal retentive about member privacy. There was all sorts of information available from the client software, had to be for the dialup connections and billing to work, and none of that info was available to marketing. It seems very quaint when you think about FB and Google.

How many abandoned mobile platforms does this make for MS?  Is it any wonder developers want nothing to do with them?  They have the money and smarts to do mobile right.  They apparently don't have the vision or patience to do though.  It's sort of sad.