RELATED: Shark Tank Contestant Praised By Eric Bolling For Refusing To Outsource Jobs

“The question is this,” Velshi responded. “We all know that if you get much cheaper labor in China they don’t work in the same conditions we work in. The issue is how bad is it? There are some things called core violations: employing underaged students, unhealthy conditions. A couple of Foxconn factories within a number of months last year had two explosions caused by the aluminum dust when they brushed the iPads and iPhones. There are some violations that are worse than others and the question is how serious are the violations and in the interest of profitability, do the companies sort of turn a blind eye to it? There are people who say we told Apple what was going on.”

“We told Apple or we told someone at a low level?” Banfield questioned. “They didn’t get it?”

“No, there are allegations from human watchdog groups that said they told Apple,” Velshi explained. “One woman went to Apple headquarters and asked to speak to someone and no one would speak to her. We’re not expecting the Chinese workers would have the same conditions today that US factory workers have, but are they being caused to work six or seven days a week standing, without ventilation. Your iPod or your iPhone gets polished to a great degree. That glass has to be shined.”

Watch the segment below via CNN:

Shocked by the iPhone’s X-rated response, Charlie’s mother, Kim, asked the phone the same question and received the same obscene reply.

According to the Sun‘s Andrew Parker:

“I asked for the manager and after staff heard it they agreed to unplug it.”

Apologetic staff at Tesco in Coventry told Kim pranksters had tampered with the phone’s set-up instructions.

The Siri system refers to the phone’s user by name — using information stored in its contacts system. The jokers had entered the rude seven-word phrase as the user’s name — so the phone blurted it out when it answered a question.

But nursery worker Kim, 39, said: “I couldn’t see the funny side.”

Tesco said: “We have launched an investigation. The handset will be going back to Apple for diagnostic tests.”

(h/t The Sun via HuffPo)

To discuss the matter further, King invited Silicon Valley correspondent Dan Simon, technology journalist Robert Cringely, and the ACLU’s legislative director Laura Murphy onto the show.

RELATED: Apple Responds To Siri’s ‘Issues’ With Abortion Clinics

King had someone test things out in his DC-based studio, discovering that, as has been reported, Siri gave information about two centers several dozens of miles away, neither of which happened to be the closest to the studio. Then, someone in San Francisco asked if there were any abortion clinics in the state, only to be told that Siri could not find any.

Murphy, for her part, believes this is more than a mere “glitch,” adding that “we shouldn’t have women’s issues stigmatized by software and technology providers.”

Cringely, meanwhile, believes that the issue wouldn’t be the fault of Apple but, rather, of Yelp, the platform that provides data for Siri to mine.

Simon noted that, if you ask Siri for an escort service, the technology will provide you with information about just that. (We tried a similar experiment: When we asked Siri for a brothel, it gave us info about escort services.)

Murphy then suggested that Siri’s responses aren’t the result of attempting to promote socially conservative ideals across the board but, rather, have more to do with an issue with contraception and abortion specifically.

Have a look at the segment, via CNN:

Siri, as you’re likely aware, is the iPhone 4′s “personal assistant” function, which responds to users’ questions and requests. You may recall that Raw Story’s Megan Carpentier set off something of a media domino effect when she reported that, not only did Siri seem not to recommend abortion facilities in either DC or NYC, but it also had issues answering user queries about Plan B or emergency contraception.

RELATED: iPhone’s Siri Won’t Give You A Straight Answer About Abortion Clinics

Many outlets (Mediaite included) fired off questions for Apple, and the company’s CEO has finally issued a response to Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, telling her that Siri’s apparent “silence” on certain matters is in no way intentional.

Here is Cook’s response:

Nancy,

Thanks for your note.

Our customers use Siri to find out all types of information and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want. These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone, it simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks.

I appreciate you pointing this out.

Best Regards,
Tim

And while the discussion over Siri can be framed as a struggle against those who are pro-choice and a company that is being perceived (incorrectly, according to Cook’s response) as furthering an anti-abortion/pro-life agenda, it’s important to note that this is a matter of transparency and ensuring that companies are not discreetly or surreptitiously filtering information to consumers, regardless of ideology.

h/t Blog For Choice

For those who are unfamiliar, Siri is the voice recognition technology utilized by the iPhone 4 to help you, say, find the nearest gun shop, or diagnose the questionable patch of hair forming on your belly. What Siri will not do, apparently, is point you in the direction of the nearest abortion clinic.

The Raw Story’s Megan Carpentier discovered that not only will Siri neglect to let you know about nearby facilities that will performing an abortion, but it will instead suggest anti-abortion/pro-life alternatives:

Ask the Siri, the new iPhone 4 assistant, where to get an abortion, and, if you happen to be in Washington, D.C., she won’t direct you to the Planned Parenthood on 16th St, NW. Instead, she’ll suggest you pay a visit to the 1st Choice Women’s Health Center, an anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) in Landsdowne, Virginia, or Human Life Services, a CPC in York, Pennsylvania. Ask Google the same question, and you’ll get ads for no less than 7 metro-area abortion clinics, 2 CPCs and a nationwide abortion referral service.

Ask in New York City, and Siri will tell you “I didn’t find any abortion clinics.”

This is odd, because one can’t trip in New York City without falling into an abortion clinic.* (*Hyperbole)

Since I don’t own an iPhone and can’t think about Siri without hearing the dying strains of “Daisy Bell,” my colleague Jon Bershad tested this out for himself. Here’s what he found:

What’s really weird is, I said “abortion facility” first. It then asked me if i mean “clinic.” But, when I said yes, it didn’t find any.

Now, one could surmise that Siri can’t find such a place because such places don’t typically advertise themselves as “abortion clinics,” but, rather, with names that are more general, vague or discreet. Then again, Siri is a mighty resourceful and intuitive little thing, and happily pointed Bershad in the direction of an escort service when he did a search for “brothel.”

What’s more, Carpentier found that Siri also does not recognize what Plan B is and, when asked to perform a search on “emergency contraception,” merely brought up a definition rather than a list of resources.

Also: “But if you ask Siri about vaginoplasty, she’ll scold you about your language.” Vagina is not a bad word, Siri!

Carpentier also reports that, when asked by a reader why she is anti-abortion, Siri replied “I just am.” We tried that out, too, but Siri merely told us she didn’t understand. Then we tried rephrasing the question:

I asked if she was “against abortion” and she said, “No comment, Jon.” I asked why she was against abortion and she said, “Why, indeed.”

Classic Siri, you guys.

BetaBeat’s Foster Kamer approached the news with a “slightly conspiratorial bent” given late Apple founder Steve Jobs’ documented paternity issues, and New York Times’ technology reporter Jenna Wortham says Siri’s responses — if they are indeed the result of a deliberate choice on the part of her creators — matter because it is “important to understand that our access to news and INFORMATION may increasingly be funneled through large companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon, who may have hidden agendas, policies or biases we don’t know about.”

I’ve written to Apple in an attempt to gain some insight into Siri’s responses, and will update when and if the company responds.

h/t Raw Story

Samsung is hitting back, however, by poking fun of Apple-obsessed zombies with its new ad.

RELATED: Malcolm Gladwell On Steve Jobs’ Perfectionism: The Genius Is In The ‘Tweak’

In the commercial, Apple fans in big cities full of obnoxious people are lining up for, presumably, the very latest iPhone. They are prepared to wait for hours and hours if that’s what it takes; it don’t matter what state their Uniqlo jeans are in after. Then, they spot a couple of nice-looking people using… Gasp! Samsung phones!

And then there is, of course, a barista joke. Poor fancy coffee baristas, man. Forever the butt of jokes for 99 and 1 percenters alike.

Have a look at the ad and let us know what you think:

h/t BuzzFeed

As evidence of Jobs’ sometimes difficult nature, Gladwell offers the following revelations from Walter Isaacson‘s well-timed biography on the driving force behind Apple:

Jobs, we learn, was a bully. “He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe,” a friend of his tells Isaacson. Jobs gets his girlfriend pregnant, and then denies that the child is his. He parks in handicapped spaces. He screams at subordinates. He cries like a small child when he does not get his way. He gets stopped for driving a hundred miles an hour, honks angrily at the officer for taking too long to write up the ticket, and then resumes his journey at a hundred miles an hour. He sits in a restaurant and sends his food back three times. He arrives at his hotel suite in New York for press interviews and decides, at 10 P.M., that the piano needs to be repositioned, the strawberries are inadequate, and the flowers are all wrong: he wanted calla lilies. (When his public-relations assistant returns, at midnight, with the right flowers, he tells her that her suit is “disgusting.”)

Gladwell also notes that, despite what many would expect from a inspirational narrative suitable for a feel-good summer biopic, Jobs remained firmly set in his ways to the very end, going through various nurses and complaining about the design of medical equipment.

RELATED: Steve Jobs’ Sister Reveals Her Brother’s Last Words In New York Times Eulogy

This, Gladwell’s article suggests, could all be used to make the argument that Jobs, despite the myth forming around him both in life and, now, after his passing, was a “tweaker,” (Arrested Development fans, stop your laughing.) rather than an individual who devoted himself to large-scale visions. Gladwell explains the term by noting that Britain “dominated the industrial revolution because it had a far larger population of skilled engineers and artisans than its competitors: resourceful and creative men who took the signature inventions of the industrial age and tweaked them—refined and perfected them, and made them work.”

Gladwell’s look at Jobs may not be the most flattering — included are allegations that he took credit for others’ work and ideas — but it doesn’t diminish or undermine the fairly widely-held idea of Jobs as a man whose work and vision are testament to something like genius. He was a genius not because he was a modern-day equivalent to the kindly if reclusive inventors of yore, holed away in some laboratory, spinning history-making creations out of nothing more than blood, sweat and tears, but because he was able to look at an existing product or idea, identify where it was lacking, and perfect it.

h/t The New Yorker

Jobs worked with Murdoch on the design of The Daily, the mogul’s iPad-only newspaper, and the two men hit it off. In fact, Jobs even invited Murdoch to dinner at his home, joking that he’d have to hide the knives lest his liberal wife “eviscerate” their guest.

RELATED: From The Grave: 60 Minutes Airs Steve Jobs Audio From Biographer Walter Isaacson

But Jobs was not especially fond of Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, and told him as such one evening while at a 2010 News Corp. management retreat. The biography’s author, former CNN chairman Walter Isaacson, offers readers a glimpse into that conversation:

You’re blowing it with Fox News. The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you’ve cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you’re not careful.

Moreover, Jobs felt that “Rupert’s a builder, not a tearer-downer. I’ve had some meetings with James, and I think he agrees with me. I can just tell.”

Murdoch’s reported reaction? Jobs simply had “sort of a left-wing view on this.”

h/t Poynter

“They need the product,” surmised Martin. “I have been down to a lot of these protests and they are using Apple products to communicate! Which, believe me they have the right to do but it is against the foundation of what they are talking about! So, look, a lot of the kids, if you will, “bogart” — which means to borrow or use even wireless signals of the Starbucks or the Paneras that are around the corners which is, I guess, at best, hypocritical and maybe, at worst, criminal!”

With this baseless insinuation, Martin completely lost whatever argument he was making by not doing his research. First of all, there are no Panera Breads on the island of Manhattan and Martin’s completely unfounded allegation that the Occupy Wall Street protestors were stealing wi-fi is a borderline slanderous accusation. A quick Google search on his part would’ve shown that there is, in fact, free wireless internet on site provided by Isaac Wilder, a former Grinnell student who runs The Free Network Foundation, an organization “devoted to providing free wireless service,” according to a report by New York Magazine‘s Tim Murphy.

Cavuto also asked Martin about why the protestors didn’t care about Apple making such a huge profit.

“I think it’s misplaced aggression on the part of these protestors…They should be in Washington. It’s not the trader’s fault! They’re in the wrong spot,” Martin exclaimed.

The Fox News host followed up with asking Martin whether the movement was running out of steam and the Accent Asset Management CEO agreed.

“I think as it goes on and on, you learn more about the message not being clear, you’re against Capitalism? Then why are you using products that are helping you organize?!” Martin argued. “And I think over time, people are seeing this less as a movement and more of a hobby…If you guys want to talk about jobs and issues with the economy – go to Washington, get somebody in Washington who will fix it. Don’t blame mainstream America!”

This shoddily researched segment was underscored by the fact that Your World producers actually displayed a chyron with placeholder text! Maybe they should hire one of those tech-savvy protestors to help with their graphics department.

The news first broke on Deadline and later reported by Reuters and hinted at before confirmation by Variety. According to Mike Fleming at Deadline:

I’ve just learned that Sony Pictures is making a hefty deal to acquire feature rights to Steve Jobs, the upcoming authorized biography by former CNN chairman and Time Magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson. I’m hearing the deal is $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be the biopic’s producer. But this will be an MG360 project, which is the movie production partnership between Gordon and Management 360. ICM reps both Isaacson and Gordon. Sony Pictures would not comment.

RELATED: Stephen Colbert Fondly Recalls Getting Free Apple Products In Tribute To Steve Jobs

Fleming notes that it seems like a natural fit for the story, as Sony produced the Academy Award-winning The Social Network. As the rights appear to have been acquired merely hours ago, there are no further developments, but Deadline also notes this interesting factoid: Jobs has been profiled in film before, played by ER actor Noah Wyle:

At the time of Jobs’ death, only one movie had ever chronicled his rise to tech titan: Pirates Of Silicon Valley, a semi-humorous docudrama about the two visionaries behind Microsoft and Apple based on the book Fire In The Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger & Michael Swaine. Shown on TNT in 1999, the telefilm starred Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates and Noah Wyle as Jobs.

RELATED: Rush Limbaugh Gives A Surprisingly Touching And Heartfelt Remembrance Of Steve Jobs

Comedy bits and tributes for someone that has recently passed are usually mutually exclusive goals in any sort of media. And no one will confuse Colbert’s segment as a memorial to a man he barely knew. But the following segment is worth a look if only to see how Colbert ends the segment with an email reply to the man who has just departed. Watch for yourself, courtesy of Comedy Central:

That’s why it’s refreshing to hear Limbaugh drop all pretense and deliver a truly touching tribute to Steve Jobs, a man he clearly respected an enormous deal.

Limbaugh spoke at length about his feeling that we lose much in life after losing the ability to feel true child-like wonder with the world around us. And he explained that, even at 60, he was still able to feel that wonder again thanks to the products Jobs and his team at Apple created. He called Jobs a perfect symbol of “American exceptionalism.”

Limbaugh went so far as to say that he didn’t even care what the man’s personal politics were:

“Over these 23 years, each time I would discuss Apple products, a new one I couldn’t wait to get or one that I was having problems with or was frustrated with, I would always get emails from people. ‘Would you stop talking about Apple? Nothing but a bunch of Liberals! I don’t want to hear about Apple! Why do you talk about Jobs? He’s nothing but a Liberal!’ And I talk about Apple and Jobs because I love greatness. I just love greatness. I am fascinated by it. I am intrigued by how it happens. I am intrigued by every aspect of greatness and excellence because it’s so genuinely rare. It is genuinely rare and exciting. I am mesmerized by it and I am inspired by it.”

Steve Jobs made such an impact on this planet that he was able to get Rush Limbaugh to forget about politics. If that isn’t a testament to the man, I don’t know what is.

Listen to the clip below:

Last night, a Redditor posted a picture under the headline “The TMZ photo of Steve jobs is fake here is proof…” In the picture, he or she attempts to prove that the picture has been photoshopped.

While the Reddit post shot up through the popular site, the growing consensus in the comments seems to be, while the picture may be fake, the “proof” given here isn’t persuasive.

While this could just be a silly online debate, these are accusations with some serious implications. One of the reasons for the secrecy surrounding Jobs’ health has always been that it affects Apples’ stocks. In fact, just after Jobs resigned, Apple shares dropped 5%. If the picture, which is credited to Pacific Coast News, could have affected a lot of money. And that’s not even counting the money TMZ paid for it.

All of this could, of course, be moot. Whether or not the picture is fake, Jobs is, unfortunately, very sick. As he said in his resignation letter, the day “when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO” had come.

Hopefully though this man who is such a hero to so many will be able to stay with us for a long time to come.

(h/t Gawker)

In his resignation letter, Jobs merely noted that the day “when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO” had come, and recommended strongly that Cook succeed him. He also requested the chairmanship of the board, which he will be given. He thanked his employees and friends at the company, but in such a short message said little about his reasons why. The Wall Street Journal, however, explains that it may have to do with his health:

The timing of the announcement, however, was a surprise and raised questions about the health of Mr. Jobs, who was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant two years ago. Mr. Jobs has not commented on his health since he said in a letter in January that he was taking another leave of absence to “focus on my health”. He made an appearance at the launch of the iPad 2 in March and Apple’s annual developers’ conference in June but appeared thin both times.

The resignation is effective immediately. Cook has been running the company since Jobs had been on medical leave early this year, so the daily operations will not be immediately. The market, however, has already responded to the news.

Watch the report from Fox News below:

Too bad America’s never invented any amazing new operating systems that make scrolling work backwards (yeah, I haven’t really figured out OS X Lion yet).

From BBC News:

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn).

Apple’s most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn (£46.9bn).

Perhaps this is just a further sign that we’re heading towards a future where companies are the new countries, where people don’t declare allegiance to any flag but to a brand name, and where borders hold less importance than quarterly reports. Or it’s just further proof that the iPhone is the bomb diggety.

Seriously, though, America should look to Apple and see what they’re doing that we can emulate.

Let’s think…

Apple is run by a man who constantly seems to be on the verge of death and who introduced us to a shiny product which quickly became ubiquitous, looks unlikely to ever go away, and hasn’t been updated in like forever.

Hmmm…I guess we should have voted McCain/Palin after all.

This morning, the British account @TweetBox360 sent out this message:

Soon after, tons of Twitter users were registering their outrage, calling the tweet “callous” and “thoughtless.” It was quite a big reaction considering the Microsoft account has less than 2,000 followers in the first place. Shortly after, Microsoft was forced to apologize (although, as of this writing, they have not deleted the initial tweet):

Really though, was what they did that over the line?

In fact, the Tweet was an example of a fairly common practice. Presumably since the days of the Victrola, record stores have always made the works of recently departed artists readily accessible. Would anyone have thought it that odd if they walked in to see a special Nirvana section in a store circa April ’94? Sure this may seem callous, but it also represents an undeniable fact of life; when someone talented dies, fans both new and old want to commemorate their life by listening to (and therefore purchasing) their work. It’s always been the case and, judging by album sales the past few days, it’s the case now. Microsoft is just giving the people what they want. And they’re not even the only ones doing it.

As Mashable’s Sarah Kessler points out, Microsoft’s competitor Apple is greeting fans with this image on the front page of their iTunes Store:

It shouldn’t take you too many guesses to figure out what happens when you click that lovely picture of Ms. Winehouse. No, it does not take you to a memorial page where fans can share their fondest memories.

Both Apple and Microsoft seem to think that the best way to “remember” the gifted singer would be to give them money. So why hasn’t there been an uproar over that image? Personally, I think the problem lies at the feet of Twitter itself. Both companies were looking to make a profit (no matter what those apology Tweets say), but Microsoft went about it in a venue that allows easy comment. iTunes users may have found the image tasteless, but they couldn’t register their complaint with the click of a Retweet button. And then Microsoft only made it worse with the apology Tweets by tacitly admitting what they did was wrong.

Yeah, it might have been a little bit wrong. But it’s a wrong that’s existed since the beginning of commerce. Sadly, if they had just put a little more effort into hiding their intentions, no one would have noticed.

(h/t Drudge)

Ever the cool kids in class, the gang at Conan have found the funny in a subject You’ll Just Never See On Leno. In case you haven’t been swept up in the uproar over Apple’s latest version of its massively popular video editing software Final Cut Pro, Conan O’Brien set it up for you: “Apple just released a new version of their famous editing software Final Cut Pro, but apparently it’s so different from the last version of Final Cut, video and film editors all over Hollywood are having a hard time adjusting to it.” Ah, but not the whizbang editors at Conan! They love Final Cut Pro X!

The Conan editors went so far as to use the new software to produce a “video statement” supporting Apple–a video riddled with mistakes, screwups and problems that anyone who’s ever tried to use Final Cut will immediately find painfully funny.

Watch it here, from TBS:

The new patent, which was filed 18 months ago, but only became public recently and was reported in an article from The Times of London (article behind paywall) shows the technology as using infra-red sensors to discover when a user is recording certain live events. This will shut down the camera although the rest of the phone will still work fine.

So…why?

From Fox News:

“The software is seen as an attempt to protect the interests of event organizers and television broadcasters who have exclusive rights to film an event. These companies often sell their own recordings but are frustrated when cell phone videos appear online via websites such as YouTube, allowing people to watch the concert free.

The concept may also allow Apple to reach more favorable terms with record labels when negotiating deals to sell content though its iTunes online store.”

I’m torn. On one hand, this seems like an incredibly controlling and and unnecessary measure and a frightening portent of things to come, not to mention the fact that there have been so many legitimate news stories that have used cell phone videos of live events as their primary source. What happens when all the cell phones have this? And then the Flip Cameras? And then the concept of shutting down filming capabilities becomes common place for things beyond mere entertainment events?

On the other hand, cell phone videos of concerts almost always suck.

(h/t Reddit)

From the Telegraph:

“‘I wanted to buy an iPad 2, but I didn’t have the money,’ the boy told Shenzhen TV in the southern province of Guangdong, ‘When I surfed the internet I found an advert posted online by agent saying they were able to pay RMB20,000 to buy a kidney.’ After negotiations, the boy travelled north to the city of Chenzhou in Hunan Province where the kidney was removed at a local hospital which discharged him after three days, paying a total of RMB22,000 for the organ.

Trading organs online is a common practice in China, despite repeated attempts by China’s government to stamp out the practice. Last year Japanese television reported that a group of ‘transplant tourists’ had paid £50,000 to receive new kidneys in China.”

Apparently, the black market organ trade is a huge problem in China. The Telegraph goes into more depth but one disturbing detail is that the hospital where the operation took place fully admits that they leased out their urology department to “private businessmen.” I suppose that’s one way to pay for shiny, new bed pans.

But what about the boy? We can make fun of him all we want, but this story reminds me of what I learned about cognitive dissonance back in school. When a person goes through a rough experience to obtain something, the mind will then work extra hard to rationalize it. For example, if someone endures extreme hazing to join an organization, the mind will then “protect” them by creating feelings of extreme loyalty afterwards. This is because, if they didn’t feel that way, then why did they agree to go through what they did?

I guess what I’m trying to say is, while we may like playing Angry Birds on our iPads, this kid is going to f**king love it.

Below, watch what I believe is the news story about the boy. Shanghaiist embedded it in their post on the story so I’m assuming it’s related but, as I only speak Amurrican, I have to take their word on it.

(h/t Reddit)

Exodus International’s application, which the organization described in a blog entry, is designed to provide “access to current news, information, and resources from Exodus International.” The group noted that its app had received a “4+ Rating” from Apple, meaning that the company determined that it contained no objectionable material.

The app was nonetheless met with disapproval, inspiring a Change.org petition calling for its removal:

No objectionable content? We beg to differ. Exodus’ message is hateful and bigoted. They claim to offer “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ” and use scare tactics, misinformation, stereotypes and distortions of LGBT life to recruit clients. They endorse the use of so-called “reparative therapy” to “change” the sexual orientation of their clients, despite the fact that this form of “therapy” has been rejected by every major professional medical organization including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Counseling Association. But reparative therapy isn’t just bad medicine — it’s also very damaging to the self-esteem and mental health of its victims.

The petition accuses Apple of enforcing a double-standard for allowing Exodus International’s app, yet not allowing “racist or anti-Semitic” apps to be sold via the iTunes store.

Apple does have several specific rules for those submitting apps for sale. For example, the company will reject apps that encourage excessive drinking or drug use, or that encourages minors to consume alcohol. Furthermore, “‘enemies’ within the context of a game cannot simply target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity.”

While Exodus International – and, thus, its app – performs under the belief that homosexuality is wrong, the language of the app does not necessarily target LGBT individuals, not does it use hate speech.

Would attempting to ban or remove such an app, then, also be an attempt to stifle free speech?

A commenter on Mashable’s post about the petition raises an interesting point about the very nature of bans:

I don’t get these requests to ban products or services. Boycotts I can understand but bans? Its like requesting the SCOTUS to limit the speech of those we disagree with e.g. Westboro Baptist Church. Do you like it when conservatives ban television shows because they are too “obscene”?

If you don’t like it or agree with it don’t buy it.

The question, then, is this: Should Apple, and other companies, give in to pressure to remove a contentious product? At what point does an outcry from the public mandate some sort of change, if ever? Would this petition hold more water if, say, 1,000,000 signed it rather than 100,000?

h/t Mashable

In Colbert’s esteem, The Daily offers “all of the convenience of using your iPad to read the news online, but without the Internet’s annoying habit of being completely free.” Colbert continued “it is being praised by everyone in the media that is owned by Rupert Murdoch.” Zing.

Watch the clip below below courtesy of Comedy Central:

• Google may have already begun to claim its stake in the TV industry with the creation of GoogleTV (much to the chagrin of several networks, it turned out), but Apple will likely try and succeed where Google is losing steam with its very own iTunes-powered Apple TV.

We can totally see this happening. With American audiences now watching more than TV than ever before, it’d be foolish of Apple not to get its own piece of the pie. Plus, it seems like a natural extension for the brand – and a chance for it to offer new and innovative ways of consuming, interacting with and customizing television content. We can only hope that, in a nod to the Cult of Apple, the company chooses to call its creation the iV.

• American Idol will see its ratings fall when it replaces acerbic Brit Simon Cowell with Jennifer Lopez‘s hair extensions and whatever’s left of Steven Tyler. Meanwhile, Cowell’s new program, The X Factor, will bring in huge numbers in its bid to replicate the success it enjoyed in Britain over on our side of the pond.

Our take? A trend can only last so long, and with so many copycat talent shows sprouting up to utterly saturate the market, viewers will initially tune in to both shows out of curiosity, then grow bored as they find themselves watching a very staid, predictable formula play itself out – especially since the contestants, with few exceptions, seem consistently, well. Bland. But, given the fact that recycling Star Search turned out so well, maybe Cowell & Co. can work the same magic for a new, revamped version of American Bandstand. Hosted by Willows Smith and Palin, of course.

• Company Blog sources predict that Katie Couric will stick with her CBS Evening News gig after mulling over other, more lucrative opportunities.

Stick with us here: We think that, with her outspoken commitment to promoting colon health, Couric would be a perfect fit to host a talk show heavy on health and wellness issues on Oprah Winfrey‘s OWN network. True, that would make Couric one of the few (if not the only) talent on the network not “discovered” by Oprah, but her approachability and the trust she inspires in American viewers would make her a good fit for Oprah’s inspirational, motivational venture. Is it likely to happen? Of course not. But if it does, you’ll have to give us credit for totally calling it first.

• Experts believe that ABC News will not merge with Bloomberg, nor will CBS News enter into a relationship with CNN, both because of issues with union contracts and the kind of management struggles that nearly derailed the recent NewsBeast union.

We think Fox News Channel and MSNBC will merge to form a media giant offering opinion news, headline stories, a reality series that pits former U.S. Senators against enemy insurgents… on the ice rink, an inspirational series about rescued bunnies, “recipes Jesus might have made,” and American Gladiators reruns. Its slogan will be “Lean, But Keep Your Balance.”

You heard it here first.

For iPhone users who had jobs or important places to go over the weekend, this is old news (one poor couple even had months of fertility treatment and thousands of dollars wasted because of it). The bug first appeared on the First and was confirmed by Apple to Endgadget. However, Apple promised that things would be normal by today when those of us who spent the weekend sleeping in and getting over our New Years’ hangovers would first be affected by it. For most people, that seems to be the case. But, judging by Twitter and, ahem, the phone belonging to the writer of the post you’re currently reading, not everyone’s alarm was fixed.

So, what do you do now? Well, AppAdvice is suggesting you reset all of your alarms or create a recurring one while Mashable is offering a list of free alarm apps that should all work fine.

Other than that, maybe now is just a time to learn the valuable lesson that we shouldn’t base our entire lives around one, little device.

Perhaps you cool kids have noticed that ABC’s World News anchor Diane Sawyer now keeps her iPad on the anchor desk during the evening news. And maybe you saw her using her iPad during that news bonanza interview she did with Janet Napolitano (“24/7, 364″) and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (Um, London, you say?)

Well, the iPad obsession at ABC News can now be confirmed. Last night on World News, David Muir intro’d a year in review story in perfect Year of the iPad style: standing amid an endless sea of video-playing iPads, each one displaying one of the “stories that shaped 2010.” A very nifty effect, to be sure, even if those of us who are also Apple fanboys and girls may have worried about the devices becoming in any way damaged, scratched or smudged in the shooting of the standup.

Thankfully, an ABC spokesman says no iPads were harmed in the production of the Stories That Shaped 2010 segment, and that the envy-inducing collection of iPads were loaned to ABC by Apple, which presumably took them back, profoundly disappointing ABC News staffers who may have lurked outside the studio in the hopes of a “gently used” iPad giveaway.

The sea-of-iPads concept, by the way, came from ABC News producers working on the year-end segment who thought it would be effective, visual, and–of course–cool. It also, they thought, would cleverly use the gizmo of the year in a funky way. ABC brought the idea to Apple, who clearly agreed. Take that, Kindle!

Watch the effect here, from ABC News:

According to CNET,

The $1.99 WikiLeaks App offered access to the whistleblower site and the @wikileaks Twitter stream and was described as providing “‘instant access to the world’s most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents,” according to a Google cached version of the site provided by TechCrunch. The app was created by a third-party development firm called Hint Solutions, which lists Igor Barinov as its general manager.

After less than five days, Apple yoinked it out of the market. “We removed the WikiLeaks app from the App Store because it violated our developer guidelines,” an Apple spokesperson told CNET. “Apps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or targeted group in harm’s way.”

Oh well, at least we’ve still got our Angry Birds.

Like the toys Jobs sells, the Jobs toy sells expensively: $80, though the exorbitant price tag seems less when you come to realize how alarmingly detailed and realistic the handmade doll is. The miniaturized Apple CEO wears a black turtleneck, blue jeans, New Balance sneakers, and a smug smile, all of which should be familiar to anyone without a Zune. But, as Business Insider’s Jay Yarow sadly notes, the product has already sold out after having been for sale for only two days—just as Steve Jobs himself would have it.

For those who want what they can’t have, BI has a slideshow of the turtlenecked stocking stuffer.

Bloomberg:

A security scan at Kansai International Airport, near Osaka, detected the weapons inside the executive’s carry-on luggage in July as he was returning home to the U.S. from a family vacation in Kyoto, the Japanese magazine reported, citing unidentified officials at the airport and the transportation ministry.

Jobs said it wouldn’t make sense for a person to try to hijack his own plane, according to the report. He then told officials he would never visit Japan again, the magazine reported. Apple declined to comment.

When Bloomberg got in touch with a spokesman for said airport, he confirmed that they had indeed detained a passenger with a private jet for carrying ninja stars, although the spokesman wouldn’t confirm that it was Jobs.

For insightful and comedic commentary, please visit the original post at Geekosystem.

The three women being interviewed – Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Susanna White – suggested that “Nanny McPhee Returns” (the sequel to the 2005 children’s film) offers more than just a playful depiction of a family with some CGI thrown in. They argued that the film offers insights into the day-to-day frustrations of an overworked mother trying to keep it all together. Gyllenhaal, a new mom who plays the protagonist, Mrs. Green, said that when she got the chance to play a struggling mom, she leapt at the opportunity. White, the director, told a similar story about her first exposure to the script and the project. Although this message came across loud and clear, the panelists focused a bit too much on describing the difficulties of the working woman, and could have said more about the film – and moviemaking – itself.

Gyllenhaal argued that this film couldn’t have been made five years ago. Its honesty about the hardships of motherhood, she said, isn’t something people were ready yet to see on the big screen. However, Thompson, who also wrote the screenplay, contended that “McPhee” has a distinct story to tell. The trio shared their observations about parenting and were amused to find out that the others had also initially balked at the idea of hiring a nanny for assistance at home. They bonded so well on the set that when Gyllenhaal had a momentary breakdown when dealing with the stresses of being a new mother, Thompson was there to console her.

Gyllenhaal credited Thompson with making a comfortable environment for everyone while shooting, learning the names of all members of the support staff. The women were so close that Gyllenhaal said she modeled her British accent off of White’s. White, who was a rookie filmmaker after working primarily in television, said that her job was made easier by the fact that the movie mixes CGI “tricks” with natural feats to create a world where anything is possible, including, as was screened, flying pigs and a magical solution to child mischief.

Sadly, these highlights were not enough to carry the panel. They barely scratched the surface about other subjects. Interviewer Donna Freydkin would have been wise to broaden the scope of the discussion, even if the panel did keep coming back to the subject of motherhood. This crowd was full of moms who could relate, but there were also child fans and Apple techies among us who left feeling unsatisfied. It’s a shame, too, since there was so much talent to work with.

What They Said
“I thought I could do a Clint Eastwood. I thought I could do a James Bond. how many movies do you know about where a woman could come back and do the same role?”
- Emma Thompson says that, with this sequel, she’s atop a franchise

“It’s always a challenge to make a sequel because you want it to be the same, but different.”
- Susanna White drew from the old and the new while putting together “Nanny McPhee Returns”

“It will work as a movie if it’s done in the most excellent way.”
– Maggie Gyllenhaal hopes to make a film version of Norman Rush’s Mating

“I want to leave the cinema feeling different. I don’t want to leave feeling the same way.”
- Emma Thompson thinks movies should have an impact on you

What We Thought

• Freydkin, as mentioned above, could have steered a better ship. In the name of not cutting off the famous star beside her, Freydkin allowed Thompson to talk tangentially and at great length. With just 45 minutes at your disposal, a moderator in such a situation must interject when necessary.
• We were delighted to discover that Thompson is a writer and Gyllenhaal is a producer for other films. Gyllenhaal revealed that she was the most surprised to find her other talents. We believe that actors who understand other aspects of their industry wind up becoming better at their crafts because they get the fuller picture.

PANEL RULES!
Some audience behavior seems to repeat itself panel after panel. We’ll be updating a running list of “PANEL RULES!” that will help ensure that you are not the dweeb of the Panel Nerds.

Panel Nerds don’t like…Three-Prongers
Take advantage of the chance to speak to famous people by asking a succinct question. If you want to hear from all of the panelists, ask an open-ended question that each one may choose to address. However, when you ask three separate questions, one to each of them, it leads to a long, drawn-out saga that drastically cuts down on time for others to raise their questions. Moreover, when one of your questions has already been addressed, it makes it clear to everyone that not only did you wish to monopolize the time, you hadn’t been listening up to that point. We don’t have much patience for those who prefer to be self-important interviewers instead of courteous spectators.

Asked about his opinion of Jobs’ support of the print industry– which he phrased as a wish that America won’t become a “nation of bloggers,” Murdoch explained Jobs view as being more of a quality control issue than a distaste for all blogs as such:

“From the point of view of our democracy, it’s very important to have good newspapers, good edited, responsible information disseminated, and views, everywhere. And if we just descend to blogs, which a lot of people can’t distinguish between the good and the bad– and most of them are bad and crazy… you know, so, he was saying this is really important.”

With that in mind, Murdoch praised the iPad, which Jobs also said was an attempt to help newspapers and magazines enter the internet era. “It may diminish [newspapers],” he admitted, “and take [their] place slowly over a number of years. It’s an extraordinary device, and it will get better.” What this means for the Wall Street Journal, he later added, was that yes, it will have an iPad app, the paper is working to improve its app and looking at the competitors’ for ideas, and he intends to make customers pay for the services. How do you do it? “Simple, you turn them off. They’ve got to sign on, give the credit card number. That’s it. There will be developments. It’s very early days here.”

He also expanded on the state of the global economy, which he saw as much more positive outside of Europe, and expected the spread of democracy elsewhere to help. As for our own economy, “there is a lot more hardship,” he noted, “a lot more unemployed than what you see in the figures. It’s really worrying,” but ultimately, he expects a recovery in the future.

Update: when this post was written, I mistook Murdoch’s comments that the WSJ’s app has to look “as good as” the competition out there to mean they were still working on it– which they are, but there is an app out there already. The error has been corrected.

Video of the two-part interview below:

The comment came during a Q&A after he spoke at the All Things Digital technology conference yesterday, where his responses to technological competitors were much tamer than those to the new media. Regarding Google’s efforts to “compete with us,” Jobs asserted that his company had no interest in competing with Google in the realm of search engines, and as for Adobe, he stated that he had more faith in the future HTML 5 technology than in Flash. His comments on AT&T, which has exclusive rights to iPhone service, were also positive despite some complaints that the network’s service was not up to par.

When asked about the iPad, however, and the possibility that the new technology would help the increasingly frail print media business, his tone changed, giving his full support to newspapers and magazines and coming out against the less regulated new media. From the Wall Street Journal:

Asked about whether the iPad will be a savior for content creators, Mr. Jobs said: “I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers…I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.”

It seems a bit strange to see the head of one of the most innovative technology corporations turn against a fair number of the people that make the internet worth following– after all, some may argue (and they’d make a good point) that the entire point of the Internet is to create a world where journalism is not the art of an elite class, but the work of anyone with the foresight to record events as they happen around them. Without bloggers (and tweeters, at this point in history), accurately reporting news would be more difficult based on the lower number of facts to sift through alone.

Others will argue– and there is a good point to make here, too– that Jobs’ nightmare scenario of internet personalities running amok reporting things without the mainstream media’s blessing is already here, and his attempts to revive companies that Apple’s technology had a part in taking down may be futile. Either way, one increasingly gets the sense that human consumption on the internet did not turn out the way Jobs seems to have intended it.