What if, globally speaking, the iPad is not the next big thing? What if the next big thing is small, cheap and not American? … . even as hundreds of thousands here unwrap their iPads, another future entirely may be unfolding overseas on the cellphone.
Ars Technica and others review the iPad
Ars Technica review: the best review of the iPad I’ve seen to date; long, detailed and comprehensive.
Gizmodo review.
Engadget review.
Slate’s Explainer on the legality of Apple restricting the software that runs on the iPad.
FontFeed on how the iPad is missing good typography.
I played with an iPad for half an hour in the store today. Initial impressions: Much heavier than I expected, and probably too heavy for extended holding and reading. Would be nice as an ebook reader, but for $600, wildly too expensive. Actual work – typing, editing – seems like it would be a pain in the ass. Safari browser = ok, but not great; lack of flash support annoyed me in just my ten minutes of web browsing. Plus I would miss synching my bookmarks through Xmarks on firefox (and I’d also miss the Echofon firefox add-on). Speed: I had heard the iPad was quite fast, but it suffered in comparison to my MacBook Pro. Sound: very poor. iPhoto: very nice, as was video. Think I’ll wait for a cheaper, hopefully lighter, android/chrome/windows tablet.
Most educated people are aware that we are the outcome of nearly 4 billion years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans who watch the sun’s demise, 6 billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.
Techcrunch: How “Dirty” MP3 Files Are A Back Door Into Cloud DRM
According to Techcrunch, a number of online mp3 sellers (Apple, LaLa (owned by Apple) and Walmart) watermark the mp3’s they are selling by embedding personal information of the buyer (e.g., name). Techcrunch’s source says music labels, which are negotiating cloud music services with certain parties, “are demanding that a user can only stream music that is watermarked to their username. Change the username, or try to stream music that you’ve ripped from a CD, and those songs won’t play.”
http://www.lala.com/external/flash/SingleSongWidget.swf
We have lost the experience of watching a nuclear explosion—perhaps the most powerful lesson about nuclear bombs there is
Comments to the White House IP Czar on the USA’s Strategic IP Plan
Techdirt article, “Must Read: CCIA Sets US IP Czar Straight On Intellectual Property,” on the comments submitted to the White House IP Czar regarding the USA’s strategic IP plan. Techdirt post includes as embedded documents, the full MPAA/RIAA/et.al. filing, as well as the filing of the Net Coalition/CCIA.
According to Techdirt: “It was a bit troubling that the questions asked in the [request for comment] focused solely on increased enforcement and the amount of harm done by infringement — as if it never even occurred to folks that increased enforcement might not be best for culture or the economy, and that there may also be mitigating benefits to infringement.”
The Music Alliance Pact: March 2010
Every month, each member of a group of international music bloggers publishes a song from an artist in his or her country as part of MAP – the Music Alliance Pact. Here’s the March 2010 list from UK music blogger The Daily Growl
Guardian UK: 20th Anniversary of Twin Peaks – Reflections from its Cast
More Twin Peaks:
Pop Candy’s ten unforgettable Twin Peaks moments, complete with youtube video
IFC: Twin Peaks – less influential than desired
Blog: The Twin Peaks Archive
If you’re not viewing your job to be a curator, clarifier, interpreter, and amplifier of the Database of Intentions, you’re soon going to be out of business. The Database of Intentions is the fuel that drives media platforms, and as I’ve argued elsewhere, every business is now a media business
Anxiety is nothing …but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/63890987001?isVid=1&isUI=1&publisherID=1079084864
Techcrunch interviews Harvard professor and internet law expert Jonathan Zittrain on Google and China
More on Google and China:
The New York Times interviews Sergey Brin
The Wall Street Journal speaks with Sergey Brin
Chilling Effects: Careful What You Download – What You Don’t Know Can Cost You
Chilling Effects describes how the federal courts have increasingly eviscerated the “innocent infringer” defense to copyright infringement. For example, at least with respect to music downloads, the chance of prevailing on the argument that one did not know they were downloading copyrighted material or that one thought they had permission to download the copyrighted material appears to be increasingly slim.
YACHT: The Afterlife
Top Ten Art Heists of All Time
For fans of The Thomas Crown Affair and motion picture producers trolling for ideas for a heist caper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLo9k3cse_o
music go music: Local Los Angeles band grabbing for the “new abba” crown in this video.
Drowned in Sound’s rave review: “What is long gone is exuberant, sugary sing alongs by squeaky clean acts so pure that if you cut them they’d bleed rainbows … Music Go Music could change all that … Cynics will be forced to suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy ‘Expressions’ to its full potential and the album certainly veers towards places that, if they’re not quite cheesy, then are certainly beyond camp. There are moments of Expressions … that sound like Judy Garland in The Sound Of Music if said music was Spector produced Sixties girl groups”