Palm Pre debacle highlights location privacy issues | Security | iPhone Central | Macworld:
“On Wednesday mobile application developer Joey Hess wrote in his blog that the Pre periodically uploads location data to Palm. He was widely quoted, and the information left some readers upset.”
(Via Macworld.)
Duh.
“Apple censored an English dictionary.
A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.”
(Via Daring Fireball.)
This is completely shocking and disgusting from a company that I am a huge fan of.
The problem is there seems to be nothing that really can be done. Apple is in full control. Customers are oblivious to the problem. All they see is the censored dictionary. Developers have few levers on Apple. If they don’t play along, they have no alternatives. Apple control the entire game from start to finish. This is what happens when one party has too much control. It’s abused.
To be fair, this probably the product of a boneheaded approval process rather than some dystopian plot to control our minds, but still. I feel like it’s Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, pun intended.
AppleInsider | Steve Ballmer calls Apple’s Mac growth a “rounding error”:
“‘And are the ads working?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘In an independent survey, we asked 18- to 24-year-olds—or they were asked, ‘Who offers the best value, Apple or Microsoft?’ You can kind of see Apple was comfortably ahead despite the fact they — well, despite whatever the facts are. Our ads started in April of ’09. You can see kind of what the perception changes have been so far.'”
(Via AppleInsider.)
And that’s when you know Microsoft is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. Apple is beating them despite the ads. In other words, people don’t believe the hype.
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AT&T iPhone customers: tethering is coming, for a price:
“It won’t be coming cheaply, however; appmodo’s source says a tethering option will cost AT&T customers a whopping $55 a month.”
(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)
This is what happens when you hand monopoly power to a company. Sooner or later this bad will spill over to Apple. Can’t wait until 2010 when their exclusive deal expires.
Daring Fireball: Palm Saturday:
“So while the comparisons between the Pre and iPhone are obvious and inevitable, I think the Pre stands a much stronger chance of stealing customers away from RIM than from Apple. For as good as the Pre is, and I’m convinced it is excellent, it just doesn’t have much to offer that would sway someone considering an iPhone. But for someone considering a BlackBerry, the Pre might look very sweet: a big bright screen, a beautiful modern user interface design, a kick-ass mobile web browser, and, yes, a hardware keyboard. The Pre is the BlackBerry Bold done right.”
(Via Daring Fireball.)
True.
A Real Whopper: Black Hole Is Most Massive Known – Yahoo! News:
“PASADENA, CALIF. — The most massive black hole yet weighed lurks at the heart of the relatively nearby giant galaxy M87.
The supermassive black hole is two to three times heftier than previously thought, a new model showed, weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun. The new measure suggests that other black holes in nearby large galaxies could also be much heftier than current measurements suggest, and it could help astronomers solve a longstanding puzzle about galaxy development.”
(Via Yahoo! News.)
Neato.
Q&A: Microsoft’s Windows marketing chief says Apple’s ‘scared’ | Business Center | Macworld:
“I think [the way] they’re responding to our advertising is a reflection of what’s happening out in the market (both IDC and the NPD Group show Mac sales dropping in the U.S. in recent months).
They’re scared. The Ad Age survey shows how our brand is coming alive through three things: the ads, hitting our commitment to build a fantastic product with Windows 7, and around delivering the truth about the ‘Apple tax’ and the value you get when you go with Windows.”
(Via Macworld.)
It’s hard not to laugh at such delusions. Apple isn’t sleeping on Microsoft, but scared? Jokes. I love the misdirection on the sales figures. Every manufacturer saw their sales slump, except Apple saw it’s sales slump the least. Notice no mention in the interview of the Zune or Windows Mobile versus the iPod and iPhone respectively. Methinks somebody is projecting some fear.
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Words fail.
The Macalope » Blog Archive » Deep thought:
“The Zune must really suck goat balls if it can’t compete against a device that costs $10,000.”
(Via The Macalope.)
Godlike efficiency.
