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External audio for everyone

GM adds line-in jack to their cars via Engadget

GM line-in with the iPod
…See guys, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

I hope the rest of the automobile industry would follow suit so we can finally phase out those tape-adaptors, FM-transmitters, or spending quite a penny on modifying our audio setup just to accomodate external audio devices (iPods, etc.).

A line-in jack is pretty much standard to all audio devices, and now that I’ve read that bit of news, I’m wondering why people (including myself) never noticed that glaring flaw in automobile audio. You pay premiums to modify your car setup, or buy a BMW with iPOD support when a simple audio line-in could’ve solved that problem… and would not be limited to special audio gadgets such as the iPODs.

As the article said: it’s about friggin’ time!

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Evil empire?

3 tales of how a bit of success has made Apple evil–you be the judge

via MacMerc

Actually, in all honesty, Apple has never blindsided people when it comes to their technology. They release stuff with people fully aware what the limitations are (save for the iTunes part). The real issue for me is how Apple is losing its dedication to the people – which is one of the major reasons why they are still afloat despite a measly overall market-share.

As one article pointed out before – Apple supporters are loyal supporters. They may be a cultish lot, but hey, it works! This entails that [Apple] gaining market share is probably close to minimal (over time), but they sure aren’t losing any customers once they’ve gained them.

So the people aren’t going anywhere… despite what Apple has been doing. While true that Apple is “honest” with its customers most of the time, they tend to take advantage of the customers’ ignorance. They don’t read the fine print anyways, so might as well do this and that… charge em a hefty bill, and still come out looking good, and remaining honest”

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NOW’s the time to try this

iScroll2 0.18

iScroll2 has just been updated.

via Joel’s blog

I posted a review comparing this little hack to SideTrack a while back, where the former failed dismally to oust the latter. But as I said in the past: it had a lot of potential. That potential already became a reality in its past releases, but the biggest hassle was it never saved your preferences… until now.

There’s only one problem remaining: making sure it doesn’t break on a OS system update. Other than that, for people interested in trying the hack out, I can honestly say that now’s the best time to do so. I’ve personally un-installed SideTrack for good in favor of this hack.

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Apple wins

Apple

It seems that Apple has been granted the right to search and destroy the sources of ThinkSecret’s information… and correct me if I’m wrong, but the case against ThinkSecret itself is different – Apple filed a separate suit against ThinkSecret alleging that they induced Apple employees to steal trade secrets. Dunno about you, but to me, thats just a convenient, valid legal excuse to sue the publisher.

Two of my favorite “read lines” with regards to the whole Apple charade.

There’s another old saying in my profession: The mission of journalists is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

A letter to Steve Jobs by Mike Langberg of San Jose Mercury News.

and…

Saying that no one has the right to publish information that could have been provided only by someone breaking the law, judge James Kleinberg ruled that online reporters for Apple Insider and PowerPage must reveal their sources.

via Linuxwrangler Read More

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If The New York Times Jumped Off a Bridge

If The New York Times Jumped Off a Bridge

On the fallacious argument that Apple wouldn’t be suing The New York Times if they had published what ThinkSecret did.

via Daring Fireball

A excellent read, but still not convincing enough – though I must admit, he makes a lot of sense. I especially agree about the New York Times analogy being moot, as there was no actual experience to base anything on.

But on the contrary, how is he so sure that Apple will sue said NY Times if it should publish? I mean since he already went hypothetical in the first place that Apple would have more reason to sue. Notice that even that hypothetical situation should also be moot – since, as he himself said, the NY Times isn’t that sort of publication. I guess my point is never try to disprove anything hypothetical with anything similarly hypothetical.

Anyways, that’s all I have to say about that article… end train of thought… period.

But since I’ve gone this far… might as well speak my mind about the issue.

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