Linked List: April 26, 2010

Monday, 26 April 2010

My favorite iPhone notes app is now a universal binary, with a native iPad UI. I’ve been beta testing it for a few weeks, and it’s just great. Not sure I’ll ever use Pages for iPad again.

Their web site isn’t updated with iPad specific screenshots yet, but it’s a free download, so get it.

John Cook’s First Day on the Job at Yahoo News ★

Today was the first day on the job at Yahoo News for John Cook, the “reporter/blogger” who filed the aforelinked piece “What is Apple Inc.’s role in task force investigating iPhone case?”.

His former employer, until earlier this month? Gawker Media.

Due to what I can only assume to be an editing error, this relationship was not mentioned in his piece.

Update: 24 hours later, a disclaimer was appended to the article.

The Police and San Mateo County District Attorney Take Orders From Apple? ★

The Macalope on this Yahoo News piece by John Cook questioning Apple’s role in the investigation, on the grounds that Apple is one of 25 companies that sit on the REACT task force steering committee.

What’s the counter-argument? That REACT should never investigate any crime against one of the companies on its steering committee? What company would sign up for that? My inbox is chockablock with messages from those who think Apple initiated this. That can’t happen. This is a criminal investigation, not a civil lawsuit. Apple gets to decide whether to file civil litigation. The San Mateo district attorney gets to decide whether to launch a criminal investigation. We don’t know yet whether Apple has been in contact with the DA, but, why wouldn’t they? They can tell the DA what happened. They can’t order the DA what to do.

Cook botches this, implying in his article that the police who raided Chen’s home take orders from Apple:

Which raises the question as to whether Apple, which was outraged enough about Gizmodo’s $5,000 purchase of the lost iPhone for CEO Steve Jobs to reportedly call Gawker Media owner Nick Denton to demand its return, sicked its high-tech cops on Chen.

EFF Lawyer: Seizure of Gizmodo Editor’s Computers Violates State and Federal Law ★

Avram Piltch:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet’s leading digital rights advocacy group, has also taken a public position on the search, telling us that California’s search warrant is illegal and should never have been issued. In a phone interview this afternoon, EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick told us: “There are both federal and state laws here in California that protect reporters and journalists from search and seizure for their news gathering activities. The federal law is the Privacy Protection Act and the state law is a provision of the penal code and evidence code. It appears that both of those laws may be being violated by this search and seizure.”

Granick said that, even if Jason Chen is under investigation for receipt of stolen property, the government has no right to issue a search warrant, because California law includes exceptions for journalists who are in receipt of information from sources.

Or, as summarized by The Macalope:

Shorter EFF: buying stolen merchandise is fine as long as you write a story about it.

God bless the EFF, they do good work, and I can see why they want to err on the side of the media. But this is uncharted territory. If you think paying $5,000 (or more — the $5,000 figure comes from Nick Denton) to purchase stolen property qualifies as “news gathering activities”, show me the case law.

‘These Are Jason Chen’s Computers’ ★

“They’re the real thing.”

Good Luck With the Shield Law Argument ★

Henry Blodget:

The search warrant is ambiguous about the specific reason the police gave for the search and seizure. Specifically, it’s possible — likely, even — that the police believe Gawker Media committed the felony by acquiring the iPhone (“buying stolen property”).

If that’s the “probable cause” the police used to obtain the warrant, the journalist shield law may not apply.

Journalist shield laws are about journalists being able to protect sources who may have committed crimes. They’re not a license for journalists to commit crimes themselves. Gawker is making an argument that is beside the point. They’re arguing, “Hey, bloggers are journalists.” The state of California is arguing “Hey, you committed a felony.”

Steve Jobs’s Advice to Nike: ‘Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff’ ★

Nike CEO Mark Parker on the advice he got from Steve Jobs.

Police Seize Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen’s Computers ★

Uh-oh, looks like someone may have committed a felony.

Update: From Gizmodo’s report:

Here is all the documentation (Jason Chen’s personal details are pixelated).

So, Gray Powell’s personal details get plastered all over Gizmodo. Jason Chen’s get pixelated.

jQuery Masonry ★

Fascinating web page layout toolkit by David DeSandro. (Via Cameron Moll.)

Gawker Media Posts the Legal Advice They Received Before Purchasing the Stolen iPhone Prototype ★

“Oh yeah.”

What If You Had Bought Apple Stock Instead of That Apple Product? ★

If you’d bought Apple stock instead of a $5,700 PowerBook G3 in November 1997, you’d be sitting on a cool $330,000 today. (Via Kottke.)

No Nexus One on Verizon ★

Google:

In the US, if you’ve been waiting for the Nexus One for Verizon Wireless’ network, head over to http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible to pre-order the Droid Incredible by HTC, a powerful new Android phone and a cousin of the Nexus One that is similarly feature-packed.

Makes sense — the Incredible is mostly the same hardware, but with a better camera. The Incredible uses HTC’s custom Sense UI, though, so it’s not the pure Google UI like the Nexus One.

NYT: ‘Criminal Charges Possible in the Case of the Lost iPhone’ ★

Nick Bilton:

The San Mateo district attorney could act by early next week, according to people involved in the investigation. The office has the option of filing felony charges. […]

[…] According to people familiar with the investigation, who would not speak on the record because of the potential legal case, charges would most likely be filed against the person or people who sold the prototype iPhone and possibly the buyer.

Israel Lifts Ban on Imports of Apple iPad ★

Reuters:

Israel will begin allowing people to bring Apple iPads into the country starting on Sunday, two weeks after customs began confiscating the tablet computers for fear they would interfere with other wireless devices.

‘Mick’s Rock. I’m Roll.’ ★

Sean O’Hagan on Exile on Main Street:

In places, Exile on Main Street does indeed sound, in the best possible way, like an album made by a bunch of drunks and junkies who were somehow firing on all engines.

Dilbert on the Lost Prototype iPhone ★

“It worked great until my fourth stein, then it started misspelling everything.”

Tom Wolfe on Mark Twain ★

The novelist’s novelist.

The Understated Elegance of Mariano Rivera ★

Harvey Araton:

Rivera, 40, has been so good for so long that Reggie Jackson ranks him not in the category of the bullpen specialist but in the transcendent grouping of sports icons.

“For what he does, he’s maybe the most dominant athlete other than Bill Russell that I know,” Jackson said. “But it’s also in the way he does it. Quiet. Humble. Mariano is regal, baseball royalty.”