Steve and pr0n (updated twice)

Article.
Jobs sez:
"... we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone."
Also: “You know, there’s a porn store for Android,” Jobs said. “You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go, so we’re not going to go there.”

I wonder why. Just for one thing, the iPhone and pad both have a web browser. And I've heard rumors that there are whole web sites specializing in porn on the web!
I don't think it's about protecting the kids, for the kids can get porn a million places. I think it's firstly an emotional thing, and secondly (like Disney), about protecting a squeaky-clean image for Apple. I think it's a little silly. Nobody will blame Apple if somebody goes to a porn site on an iPad, and nobody would blame them if somebody sold a porn app which works on the pad.

Steve said:

The difference is that Apple approves all the apps available in the App Store, and approving a pr0n app might damage their "squeaky clean" image.

Eolake said:
They don't have to do that, they could just allow third-party apps and app stores.
I hear that on the Android there's a setting you can dig up and tick, which will allow you to install apps which are not approved officially. Not many people do it, and they know what they do. So the brand is clearly not to blame if you get porn or the performance of the device is impacted. Perfect solution.

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By the way, my interest in this is more intellectual than personal. OK, it might be fun to have a Domai app on the pad, but I really don't have any great ideas for what it might be, and it's quite unlikely to by all that successful, so I don't care all that much.

Rather, I'm always interested where there are very strong societal rules without logic. For example, in some companies (more so in the past) you must wear a suit and tie. And if you consider it, a tie does nothing, it does not even hold the shirt collar shut, there are buttons for that. But to some people, it's hugely important, it's non-negotiably important. And I find that interesting: how do such arbitrary beliefs become so strong?

OS4 and keyboards (and a writing app)

I'm just watching the Jobs "keynote" about iPhone OS4 et al. I always enjoy his talks.

I noted that in the padform OS4, coming for the small devices in summer, and for iPad in fall, will include support for bluetooth keyboards. That's great. I can just see an idyllic road-side cafe in the countryside outside of Paris, a writer type arrives with a backpack, you know him, fifty-ish, grying hair and mustache, a denim jacket and fisherman's hat. From his backpack he picks out the beutiful tiny one-pound Apple wireless keyboard, and then his iPhone, and orders a café au lait and sits down, continuing to write on his novel on the iPhone...

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... And so far, the most promising app I've found for it so far (there's bound to come many more) is My Writing Nook. Pages is good, but it's being sold as a word processor, and it's really not, it's a Desktop Publishing App, isn't it? It's more concerned with placing things on pages and presentation, than in the process of writing. We need a real writer's tool, like Nisus lite or Mellel.

My Writing Nook syncs with a web site, which is quick and off-site backup. And from the site you can download the document with one click. (Pure text document.) Also, both the web site and iPad (or iPhone) app lets you email instantly what you have written, also a nice backup.

Update: in correspondence with the author, I've found out that MWN does not yet have Undo capability. I have urged him to add this soon; to me being able to undo things is perhaps the most vital of advantages of digital media.

Pre-driven bikes

BMW Germany 's campaign for their factory approved "pre-owned" cars.


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What's funny is that the ad actually has an "opposite" effect on me. Normally I don't give a tiny rat's ass about being the first, with women or cars, but this makes me think about it and get a little bit of an urgh reaction. Perhaps it's because she is so beautiful and innocent-looking.

Bikes (updated)

I really like this. Pic by Laurie Jeffery.
The other pictures in that five-picture set are also really lovely.

I hope to see more "creative" (non-commercial) work from Laurie.


Another lovely Laurie photo:

This Modern World

(Click for big pic.)

Comment from little me: The Internet shows people more like they are really like, without the fear of being smacked or shouted at.

TidBITS is twenty!

TidBITS is twenty!
Congratulations to the oldest and best tech newsletter on the Net.

signs

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Warning sign generator.

Happy

(Note, this was found on the net, anonymous.)

John Mill

"The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time."
~John Stuart Mill~

Modern Maturity: Create More, Consume Less

TTL points to an interesting article.
The problem is, in the absence of these old markers of maturity, guys don’t know how to transition from boys to men. They may not find the marriage/kids/corporate job gig appealing, but they also aren’t keen on remaining a perpetual adolescent. They feel stuck between these two guideposts-no longer boys but not yet “settled down”-and don’t see any models on how to proceed. The gap has become a life stage wasteland for men, where guys are drifting along like amoebas.

I'm not sure the definition he comes up with is the ultimate, but it's a good stab at it, and certainly good advice. And the question itself deserves a lot more attention than it has gotten yet.

Early Gaga

[Thanks to Leviathud.]

It seems she had lots of substance before she added all the flash.
Or to put it another way, all the sizzle now is almost hiding the steak.
Or a third way, maybe her hat was too small, but now it's so big it's hiding the cattle which was actually there. (Texan expression: "all hat and no cattle".)

Lauren and tee designs

If you think I am vague about specs (the contest), try watching Lauren O'Connell ask for tee-shirt designs. I really like her, she's cute and straight-forward.

... And her songs are even being covered: