Disgusting – ideology over truth

Photoshopping women out of history
[Via Butterflies and Wheels]

A Hasidic newspaper slices the Secretary of State out of that photo in the Situation Room. Nobody here but us guys.

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Not only  Clinton but every other woman in the photo was removed. Some groups have ideologies so fragile that they simply can not allow truth to be seen. This paper believes that the presence of ANY woman in a photo would be sexually suggestive.

And, of course, their photoshopping of the photo violates the legal terms of the photo which states “This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.”

I wonder how this paper and its readers deal with the fact that Golda Meir was a Prime Minister?

Any good lawyers out there that could make a nice case out of this? It would be interesting to see if First Amendment rights absolutely override not only copyright but truth.

A rock band continues its descent into irrelevance

by wonker

AC/DC Says Their Songs Will Never Be Available For Download; Rest Of Internet Laughs
[Via Techdirt]

Capitalist Lion Tamer points us to the news that the band members of AC/DC are standing firm in saying that they will never allow authorized versions of their music to be sold online for download. The logic here seems to be entirely lacking. The band claims that it’s because they want people to listen to the whole albums, not just tracks, but if that’s the case then they should just release the whole album as a single track. The fact is that anyone who has their albums can choose to listen however they want. And any time one of their songs is played on the radio, only one song is heard — yet you don’t hear them talk about boycotting radio. But, of course, the bigger issue is that it’s silly to not offer an authorized way for people to pay you for your music, when the alternative that plenty of people will choose, instead, is to simply download unauthorized versions where the band has no say at all.

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“We will never allow our music to ever be digitized. Cassettes are good enough and should be the only way to listen to our music.” We would laugh if this was being said. Yet, here is AC/DC.

AC/DC has written some great rock anthems but saying they will never be individually available for download? I know several albums on iTunes that require you to purchase the whole album – if that is really what they want.

But they apparently only want people to access their music through CD players.

However, the presence of a CD player is becoming less universal. No CD player on a iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, Macbook Air, etc. Apple is driving things towards a CD player-less world.

And with the continuing decline of CDs, what do they propose people use to get their music in a few years? All they do is drive people to get this music in ways they have no control over.

I always wonder about the use of copyright to prevent people from being able to access works that are not available in a legal fashion. An out of print book can not be copied because of copyright but is not accessible to anyone else because the copyright holder refuses to allow it.

It seems to go against the purpose of copyright to prevent the dissemination of works but then I guess the holder has absolute control. If AC/DC only allowed wax cylinders to be the way to access their music, they seem to have that right.

Since the purpose of copyright is a contract for the betterment of both authors and society, this approach has no benefit to either. So why is it  allowed?

Now this would make a great SNL routine

Queen Elizabeth gets Apple iPad; The Princes love it, think she’s really cool
[Via MacDailyNews]

“The Queen has ordered staff to buy her an iPad – after being wowed by her grandsons’ gadgets,” Alex Peake reports for The Sun.

 

“Princes Wills and Harry gave her a crash course in how the touchscreen tabletswork when they took theirs along to Buckingham Palace,” Peake reports. “The 85-year-old monarch will be able to browse the internet, watch music, play games and download apps.”

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She already owns two iPods. I wonder if she has any Apple stock.

One more reason I’m moving to Facetime

RUMOR: Microsoft to acquire or invest in Skype
[Via MacDailyNews]

“For the past week or so, rumors have been swirling around Skype, the Internet telephony company. Reuters has reported that the company has been in talks with both Facebook and Google, either for a partnership or for an outright acquisition,” Om Malik reports for GigaOM. “And if my sources are right, we will find out more details very soon.”

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So first Skype ruins the Mac client. Then they sell out to Microsoft. What a sad trajectory!

Irony – Apple could save Intel?

by quapan

Should Apple Save Intel by Adopting the Atom?

[Via Cult of Mac]

Should Apple bailout Intel? That’s the thinking of one analyst who suggests the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant help the chip giant leap from aging PCs to the future of smartphones and tablets. Apple, which already uses Intel Core 2 Duo, i5 and i7 cores in laptops and desktops, could adopt Intel’s Atom core.

“In our view, Intel would pick up Apple’s volume, driving revenue growth at good (not great) gross margin,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard tells investors Monday morning. Meanwhile, “Intel would also benefit from becoming a key supplier in smartphones and tablets and drive growth,” he adds. But what’s in it for Apple, which reportedly is looking for an alternative to the Intel chips in its laptop and desktops?

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I’m sure this is just filling space. But who would have thought that anyone would discuss Apple as being a savior for Intel?

It used to be Wintel against Apple. Now both Microsoft and Intel are having trouble in the post-PC universe, where speed and low battery usage excel.

Revenge really is a dish best served cold.

Interesting – Apple in the New Yorker

by thenails

How Apple made the mouse
[Via Brainstorm Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine » Apple 2.0]

Malcom Gladwell deconstructs the Mac’s creation myth in the current New Yorker

The myth — repeated ad nauseam by Apple (AAPL) naysayers — is that Steve Jobs stole the ideas behind the Macintosh from Xerox’s (XRX) Palo Alto Research Center.

The truth is that he paid for them — with 100,000 shares of his company a year before its initial public offering.

The deeper truth, which Malcom (“The Tipping Point”) Gladwell explores at length in the current issue of the New Yorker, is that Jobs had no interest in reproducing the work the team at Xerox PARC had done.

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So, just after Conde Nast announces that  you can purchase subscriptions on the iPad for the New Yorker, amongst others, there is an article about the Mac.

What for fortuitous timing. Fortune did a similar thing. Apple news always brings hits. I like reading Malcolm Gladwell and he is talking about Apple. I am seriously thinking of getting a subscription, not only because of the great writing but because this bundling shows some real creativity on behalf of Conde.

Lots of people want an older iPhone than a newer Android

Previous-gen Apple iPad, iPhone 3GS often outsell new Android devices
[Via AppleInsider]

Older Apple iOS products sold at a discounted price, like the iPhone 3GS and first-generation iPad, are often more popular than newer devices running the Google Android operating system, a new report claims.

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This is smart deal – sell older technology at an entry price to get people hooked. I’m not sure anyone else could sell almost 2 year old devices at the levels that Apple does. But, because of their ecosystem, these devices are still incredibly useful. Would a 2 year old Samsung phone still be driving sales?

Apple should consider always having a low tier piece of hardware that is based on previous generation specs. They can still make money and introduce more people to the iOS ecosystem.