Blog / Apple

In an opinion piece to the Wall Street Journal, New York Senator Charles Schumer argues that the suit against Apple and book publishers is misguided and will restore an Amazon.com monopoly in e-books. This isn’t a great lawsuit, but Mr. Schumer’s argument is worse.

Recently the Department of Justice filed suit against Apple and major publishers, alleging that they colluded to raise prices in the digital books market. While the claim sounds plausible on its face, the suit could wipe out the publishing industry as we know it, making it much harder for young authors to get published.

(Emphasis mine) I don’t think Mr. Schumer knows what the word “published” means in 2012, and how much easier things are when you ditch the traditional publishers. Here’s how e-book publishing works today:

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Want to annoy an Apple pundit? Claim “the iPad is for creation, not consumption.” Drives them crazy. Drives me even crazier, because I have to read an argument where no one will define the terms.

We all know what an iPad is. Consumption is also easy: the act of reading, watching, or playing a piece of content (text, audio, video, interactive game) created by another person (or yourself in the past).

But what does “creation” mean in the context of a computer? I like to think of it as a scale:

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If you are tired of the same old box with sloppy features, we’ve got you covered with the TAKTIK iPhone Case by LUNATIK.

You actually screw your iPhone into this case. Outstanding.

In the vein of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, this is Organizational Schemes of the Middle Class and Nerdy.

Desktop

My objectives:

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Update: This guide should work on Mountain Lion with one exception: the Web Sharing box no longer appears in System Preferences > Sharing.

Want to get started with PHP, MySQL, and Ruby development using Apache? You can use a tool like XAMPP, but it’s possible to run these services natively on your Mac, just like a real web server.

This guide for OS X Lion assumes some familiarity with the command line. I recommend using iTerm2.

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The biggest shock in the technology world will be when Apple snaps and turns evil. The next one will be when Sony becomes good.

You remember Sony, right? The company that installed a rootkit when you played their audio CDs. Then lied about why the Sixaxis controllers didn’t rumble. Removed PS2 compatibility from the PS3, then Linux support. Took over a month to get the PSN back up after it was hacked. Hiked the price of Whitney Houston’s music 30 minutes after her death.

Yeah, that Sony. And now they’re back with a new toy that… hey, where are you going?

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I wonder how many Mac purchasers feel compelled to write an essay justifying their decision. Probably not many. But as someone who’s identified as a PC user for decades, I haven’t made this choice lightly. Nor consistently: I’ve bought and returned two Macs since Snow Leopard, but this time I’m determined to make it stick. Here are some of my reasons and reservations.

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