Category: Journalism

Richard Padilla at MacRumors:

Apple is gearing up to incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the iPhone 6, according to a report from BrightWire citing sources familiar with the matter. The report also notes that Apple has struck a deal with China UnionPay to integrate the banking company’s services into Passbook and elsewhere.

Here’s Eric Slivka in March 2013:

China Times reports [Google translation, via Mac Otakara] that Taiwanese chip firm Chipbond has been selected to provide a number of components for the iPhone 5S, including the touch display driver as well as chips to support fingerprint sensor and near field communications (NFC) capabilities. The report suggests that Apple will use the fingerprint sensor functionality to enhance the security of NFC features such as mobile payments.

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Federico Viticci:

For MacStories 4.0, we wanted to get back to basics. We deleted the old design and codebase and decided to focus on what, ultimately, readers come to MacStories for: reading articles.

We realized very early on that our readers don’t need to see dozens of boxes or widgets in a sidebar, nor do they want to deal with multiple toolbars, menus, or guessing RSS feeds on their own. Readers want a readable article, not an article hidden somewhere in a cluttered sea of stuff. We redesigned MacStories with the idea of prioritizing articles over everything else, using a responsive layout to let content take advantage of every screen size.

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We all hear people complaining that their right to free speech is being taken away, or that if some jerk on TV says something terrible and is fired, their First Amendment rights have been violated by a television network.

In reality, however, the right to free speech is a contract between the federal government and its citizens. It says nothing — and offers no protection — from real-world consequences for saying something others disagree with or find inflammatory.

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Merissa Marr at the WSJ:

CBS said in a news release that it had signed a five-year agreement with Mr. Colbert to take over its flagship show when Mr. Letterman retires next year.

Mr. Colbert, 49 years old, will retire the character he plays on his Comedy Central show—a sendup of Republican talk-show hosts—and will be himself as the host of the CBS show, the company said.

I truly enjoy The Colbert Report, and will miss the character, but Stephen Colbert is a genius nonetheless.

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When I saw someone tweet a link to this article, I thought:

Apple already has a “Chromecast killer.” It’s AirPlay, and it’s been around for years.

Then I clinked the link and noticed the URL:

/apple-tv-air-concept/

The headline it ran with is certainly more inflammatory than the slug is, and I certainly fell for the bait.

Here’s Adario Strange lede:

With rumors surfacing that Apple may be working on a streaming television service with Comcast, it’s only natural that some observers are beginning to wonder what form Apple’s smart TV will take in the future.

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The Verge’s Katie Drummond has published an excellent interview with everyone’s favorite space nerd, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

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Gregg Keizer at Computerworld:

Apple on Tuesday made it clear that it will no longer patch OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, when it again declined to offer a security update for the four-and-a-half-year-old operating system.

As Apple issued an update for Mavericks, or OS X 10.9, as well as for its two predecessors, Mountain Lion (10.8) and Lion (10.7), Apple had nothing for Snow Leopard or its owners yesterday.

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Peter Kafka at Re/Code:

It turns out that one result of Bezos’s purchase [of The Washington Post] is that Business Insider’s Henry Blodget is now providing advice to the paper’s senior managers.

Oh dear.

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MG Siegler points out that the more things change, they more they stay the same.

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Roman Loyola:

A few weeks after Steve Jobs posed for the cover of the first issue of Macworld, he changed his mind. He didn’t want to be on the cover anymore.

So David Bunnell, the founder of Macworld, used one of the oldest tricks in publishing: He lied about the magazine going to the presses.

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Dan Levine:

A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

While the case in question is Obsidian Finance Group, LLC v. Cox, this decision could have big implications for 21st century writers.

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It’s hard to believe Walt Mossberg has been a voice in the industry for 22 years. In his parting piece for the paper, he reflects on 12 products that helped shape the realm of personal technology.

As announced earlier this year, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher’s All Things D is leaving the Wall Street Journal. In turn, the WSJ is replacing the group with a “Personal Tech Reviewing Team.” While Geoffrey Fowler and Joanna Stern are certainly great technology journalists, they have big shoes to fill.

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