So there’s motivation for these blogs and second-rate news sources to violate NDAs. It’s a short-term gain that adds readership and applies eyes to page views, with a remote chance of suffering any negative consequences.
But it’s also really dirty pool, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a lousy way of doing business.
We hear a lot from bloggers whining that they’re not taken seriously as journalists. My recommendation: If you want to be taken seriously as a journalist, then take your head out of your ass and start acting the part.
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Mutatoes
Jay Parkinson has posted a link to the Mutatoes project, a charming collection of oddball fruits and vegetables.
Creation really is wonderful, isn’t it?
On Curating
Kyle Baxter, on what curating means:
The web means there is always more supply than we can handle, so what we need is groups that can sift through the muck and find the people worth reading. Instead of publishers being merely the people who provide printing and distribution, completely irrelevant to the end-user, they should become someone whose taste we trust.
The Spoken Word
Podcasting has taken off. While its been around for years, in the last 8 months or so, it seems to have really grown in popularity, at least in our corner of the Internet.
Here’s a list of the podcasts I currently subscribe to:
- The B&B Podcast
- The Bro Show
- Engadget
- The Engadget Show
- Enough - The Minimal Mac Podcast
- The Macgasm Podcast
- NPR: Car Talk
- NPR: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
- The Operation Broken Silence Podcast
- Put This On
- Shawn Today
- The Talk Show
Only two of those are video podcasts — the rest are just audio.
Lion and the NDA
Ben gets it. John does, too.
Shawn Today
If you haven’t signed up to be a member of Shawn’s site, you really are missing out.
On Actions
I’ve recently performed an audit of my next actions list and found that several entries weren’t actionable. For example, “interview questions” and “FaceTime poll” are poor action steps.
Why? No verbs. In fact, “interview questions” and “FaceTime poll” are both projects, not actions.
I’m terrible at this. My action lists are full of nouns.
(In other news, go buy Dave’s book!)
The Future of the 13-inch MacBook Pro
So if you take the current 13” MacBook Pro, remove the superdrive, grab an SSD, jam more battery in, and make the entire package smaller — you basically end up with a faster version of the 13” Air.
Or look at it this way: once the Pro line ditches optical drives, what will be the difference between the 13” Air and the 13” Pro? Not much. I wouldn’t think Apple would keep two different notebooks that are essentially the same (price, and performance being the main differences). I just don’t see Apple trying to sell the Air line and the Pro line with the differences being computing speed. One will have to die, so will it be the 13” Air or 13” Pro? Doesn’t matter, they will be the same at that point.
The B&B Podcast
Be sure to check out Ben and Shawn’s new podcast. It’s great.
ForkBombr EXCLUSIVE: Leaked PR Release for iPad 2 Launch
Editor’s Note: A little birdie from Cupertino sent this to me. They stressed that this is the real deal.
A Magical & Revolutionary Device for the Bathroom Lover in Everyone
SAN FRANCISCO—March 2, 2011—Apple® today introduced iPad 2, a magical update to the revolutionary device that changed the course of computing history forever. iPad 2’s responsive Multi-Touch™ display lets users interact with applications and content, just like before, but with great new features like the FaceTime HD™ camera, better stereo speakers and the other new things announced today, users will once again be blown away by just how awesome Apple’s mediocre hardware revisions can be.
With an even-stronger glass display, more robust buttons and moisture-resistant ports, the iPad 2 is designed for users looking to take the magical experience of iOS on a 9.7-inch display into the bathroom stall with them.
“Without any doubt, iPad 2 is the best bathroom computer ever created,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Users will be able to enjoy their apps and media in more ways — and in more places — than ever before.”
“We don’t judge our users,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing. “In fact, I do most of my work from the private bathroom in my office. Before iPad 2, I often found myself annoyed at having to lug my MacBook Pro into the john. Those days have passed.”
“With the new vibrator built into every iPad 2, users will be able to get feedback from their favorite games without compromising their dignity or privacy,” said Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President Industrial Design. “We’ve re-thought everything for use in a stall. We are so proud of this product.”
‘Mind the Gap’
I can’t believe that Consumer Reports is still fired up about this:
The Verizon iPhone 4 has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions, Consumer Reports engineers have found in lab tests.
[…]
Here’s a rundown of what we did and what we found in our tests: We subjected the Verizon iPhone 4 to a full complement of regular tests in order to add it to our smart-phone Ratings, available to subscribers. We also put it through the special tests we carried out last year on the AT&T iPhone 4 after a rash of consumer complaints about signal reception with that model. There has been no such outpouring of complaints about the Verizon version of the phone.
OS X Lion Adds Recovery Partition
David W. Martin at Cult of Mac:
Apple’s new Mac OS X Lion adds support for a recovery partition as part of the OS installation and while this may not seem important to most users — it is. Apple is making the tools and resources available to you that will allow you to perform disk repair and recoveries on your mobile Mac while on the road or on your desktop Mac at home. The utilities will be readily available and therefore you won’t have to go hunting for that always elusive DVD or USB stick.