- For $250, ColorWare will prettify your iPhone 4, and might fix that “death grip” problem (which, in turn, might not be such a problem after all. Even if it is, it also might be (but probably not) getting fixed on the DL).
- The “Son of Sam” killer’s image gets burnished while he’s in jail. I’ve always loved the phrasing of the “Hello from the gutters of New York” Breslin letter, regardless of authenticity.
- Who do you write like? Based on this post, I write like Stephen King. My mom is apparently a H.P. Lovecraft fan.
- The FCC’s “indecency rules” are bullshit, says the Court of Appeals. Crappy-drawers whiners including the Parents Television Council and Concerned Women for America are appealing.
- Fuck what you heard, gang nicknames are awesome. I would love it if people called me “Bloody Batman.” (Via @Maryvale)
Tag: apple apple apple
Linkwad.
Linkwad (updated).
- Make your own Android apps (Via Engadget).
- Lawsuit over Apple’s AT&T lock-in, App Store moves forward.
- Harry Reid and Sharron Angle’s fair-use fight.
- Radley Balko interviewed about police-recording arrests.
- Update: YouTube now supports 4096p video.
Linkwad.
- The iPhone 4 loses reception if you touch two of the antennas at once. It was apparently a known issue; Giz speculates that the reception problem is the reason for Apple’s “bumper” cases.
- Sergey Brin has a genetic mutation that is linked to Parkinson’s, so he’s minimizing his risk factors.
- Tragedy of the commons, exhibit c: Bluefin tuna is being fished to extinction.
- Baltimore provides another example of how statistics can be misused.
- YouTube wins the Viacom lawsuit. More on the ruling’s privacy implications here. If you recall, Viacom had been surreptitiously posting videos to YouTube through front accounts while publicly demanding that the content be removed.
- Because the last go-around went so well, Xe, née Blackwater, just got a $100 million contract from the CIA.
To buy or not to buy.
That is the Apple fanboy question.
I’ve stated that I probably won’t buy an iPhone 4, so this is the official, inevitable post where I backtrack and reconsider buying the damn thing. The phone sounds awesome, and battery life is tremendously improved, which was one of my biggest issues.
Still, all my previous objections hold, it’s unfortunate that iOS4 doesn’t have unobtrusive notifications, and Apple is doing their best to be bigger creepos than Google. From Consumerist:
Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.
/. points out that anonymous data is not anonymous.
Update: Via Katy O’D-P and Lifehacker, here’s how to opt out of targeted iAds (but not tracking).