CNN:
Google fielded 8,888 requests from the United States government last year asking for information on people using its services, the company wrote in a report on Monday. The total number is likely higher because the Google statistics only cover criminal investigations.
Mobile phones that run Google’s Android operating system come in various shapes, sizes and features, unlike Apple’s iPhones. And while iPhone buyers are limited to AT&T and Verizon service, Android phones are also available from Sprint, T-Mobile and Boost Mobile, where a data plan can cost as little as $35 a month.
But despite the variety of Android phones, and of carriers, there are a lot of useful features common to all.
I’m gonna ahead and call this one as bull.
But like I said, there can be only one right way to do it and more often than not, Apple is the one to get there first. They did it with the MacBook Pro, the iMac and even the iPhone. The iPhone 4 is perhaps the best looking phone ever manufactured. It’s not quite perfect, but there’s nothing better out there right now.
[…]
In the case of notifications in iOS 5, the reverse happened. Android had pretty much perfected the notification system. So if Apple had to create a perfect notifications system it was going to be difficult for them to not make it look like the one on Android. For their part, they actually went a step ahead and improved upon what was already an excellent notification system on Android. It’s not quite perfect yet, but if anyone does manage to do that, I believe it won’t look far too different from what Apple has done here.
Here is a quick checklist of features that were available in NOS Version 1.0 followed by the date that they were subsequently released on iOS for iPhone as well as the approximate length of time between the initial release of iOS and the release date of the feature.
Genius.
For some unknown reason, I’m jonsing to try Omnifocus, the online GTD system of choice for Mac users. That said, my own Moleskine-based GTD system works just fine already. There are certainly advantages to the digital system including easy refactoring of projects and actions and delaying actions until you actually want them to show up in your path. It was these advantages that got me to drop the $80 for it.
So, just as I chose twenty years ago to focus my attention on the tiny NeXT platform (which sold fewer systems in its entire history than Apple’s iPad sold in its first weekend), we’ve now chosen to focus our collective attention on what that platform has become — Apple’s Mac OS X, iPhone, and iPad platforms — platforms where we feel we can make our software the best it can be.
Apple has posted an in-depth page outlining the transition to iCloud.
This part resolves a concern raised by many, including me:
You cannot merge two accounts into one. However, you will be able to move your MobileMe account ([email protected]) to iCloud and, if you choose, you can continue to use a different iTunes account for store purchases and iTunes in the Cloud.
Additionally, family account members can migrate their accounts separately — good news for those of us with multiple AppleIDs in the household.
Jim Dalrymple’s advice for tech writers:
Don’t be afraid to take a stand on a topic; Be honest with yourself and your readers; if you are wrong, admit the mistake and move on; Don’t write link bait; write about things you enjoy; and put some personality in your writing.
When it comes right down to it, I write for my readers and so should you. Those people may enjoy my style of writing, the topics I choose to write about or the honesty and humor that comes through in my stories.
David Pogue, at the end of a long piece addressing numerous complaints about Final Cut Pro X:
Apple has followed the typical Apple sequence: (1) throw out something that’s popular and comfortable but increasingly ancient, (2) replace it with something that’s slick and modern and forward-looking and incomplete, (3) spend another year finishing it up, restoring missing pieces.
Professional editors should (1) learn to tell what’s really missing from what’s just been moved around, (2) recognize that there’s no obligation to switch from the old program yet, (3) monitor the progress of FCP X and its ecosystem, and especially (4) be willing to consider that a radical new design may be unfamiliar, but may, in the long term, actually be better.
I’ve been thinking about that little guy all day. Video game characters have changed so much these days — we admire them from a distance in the same way we admire celebrities. It was different with Sonic, he was as close as you wanted him to be. He was alive, part of your life on and off screen — and to some degree, he still is.
Sonic may be 20 years old, but he’ll never be old in my eyes. That is exactly why I still play the same port from 1991, and enjoy it just as much now as I did when I was a child.
Hello, Forecast mode.