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My guess is that they have already developed their web channel, but not their mobile... so having spent money developing mobile they need to advertise it. Seems odd when smartphones have web browsers anyway... but like many apps, they're probably just the website rendered for the small screen.

The student bookstore one is likely more about students leaving things to the last minute and waiting for an ordered book takes too long compared to the QR scanner in store.

Problem is the PCs are much cheaper than Macs. Which matters in the real world. Linux is also non-PC and is cheaper still, but tends to hover about at the enterprise level rather than on staff machines.

The death of RIM may be a bit premature... after all they will come back again with a new offering, and iPhones are starting to look a bit dated by this point - especially with all the new Android devices and even Windows 8 ones around the corner.

You're right - it's the environment of the operating systems that is critical. Both are very similar under the hood, as both are UNIX operating systems (Linux for Android and BSD for iOS).

The critical thing for the malware writers is that the barriers to the app markets are very high for Apple, but non-existant for Android (although you could bypass either via persuading the victim to download your app from a separate location entirely).

You missed the news - in Andy Brown's blog today, that states, according to the Boston Consulting Group, UK is top of the internet tree in the G20. Ahead of all the others.

SWIFT did have a choice... what would have happened if SWIFT refused, or challenged the decision? This is essentially political interference in a global infrastructure. It raises the use of SWIFT as a weapon in ongoing political disputes around the world - who is next after Iran? North Korea, Congo, Syria, Israel... there are any number of political disputes out there.

It will certainly make institutions in these politically sensitive countries think about alternatives.

I don't think that you can blithely disregard scientific progress and indeed the science of statistics without some evidence. "Big data" is simply - as you point out - trendy at the moment, but I get the feeling that the emperor has no clothing.

Ultimately, there is no point in analysing all the data, unless the volume is lower than the statistical level of probability that you are willing to accept. Which in the business world is, in my experience, much much fuzzier than what a scientist would accept.

I don't understand the fuss about "big data". Why not just take a sample of it, rather than tackle the whole lot? Scientists have been doing this for centuries.

The point is that you can get a facebook identity with no requirements for any proof of ID at all. Using that to prove or log into anything is akin to writing on a piece of paper "my name is John Fraud at xxx address" and expecting the bank to accept it. With utility bills, you have actually to pay something to set them up, and this will be checked by the utility company who will know if an address is already using the utility - a disincentive for fraud - especially if you have to set up two of them.

Seriously? A quick round robin here (UK) produced about a third had had their facebook hacked, but not one their online bank accounts - and most people had more than one bank's account.

This is great! Now Finland can afford to pay for Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, etc.