Dear Steve, so you've reached the big one million mark. There were a lot of doubters, but I knew you could do it all along. The iPhone exemplifies Apple's “think different” attitude, and that has helped it to fill a need that was really being ignored. This is Apple's chance to introduce many people to its philosophy of creativity and ease-of-use. But that leads us to an obvious question: why on earth are you making it so hard to do something as typical (and potentially creative) as creating custom ring tones — not to even mention adding applications?
In an age of digital photos and easy DVD burning, it is becoming common to take a set of photos and burn them into some form that can be played on a DVD player. A few weeks ago, for example, I was preparing a set of photos for a wedding DVD. There are a variety of ways to do this, but most of them give less than perfect results and control or they are too time intensive.
There are a number of areas where, if someone heard me speak about this or that topic out of context, they might think me to be a Luddite rather than the gadget-loving fellow that I am. One of those areas is the PowerPoint presentation, an infernal invention by my estimation – a view I will explain, if you will just follow my presentation points.
I have in my possession one of the most coveted items of the year, and certainly the most talked about of this day. Yes, that would be an iPhone. In Apple’s usual style of quiet elegance, the box sits there revealing little (as if there was much that has not already been revealed through months of slow leaks of rumors). It is nearly begging me to open it, much like its call beckoned me into the AT&T Mobility store earlier this evening despite my better judgment. I have it, but do I open it?
At first glance, one might think that the fight over whether to provide amnesty to “undocumenteds” is a fight between those who are selfish and greedy and those who care about people desperately wanting to improve their situations. In the aftermath of the failed Senate immigration bill, one might be tempted to ask why a nation that was built by immigrants seeking a better life should shut the door on people searching for the same thing? Unfortunately, this viewpoint makes the issue look deceptively simple: what if by granting amnesty we actually failed hopeful immigrants and present citizens alike?
Apple did what every Mac user wondering if the company had lost its focus on the Mac wanted the company to do: it had the ever charismatic Steve Jobs focus on Mac OS X Leopard for almost all of his keynote in San Francisco, one of two major product launch events for the Cupertino-based company each year. But, when he did move off of the Mac, he unveiled Apple’s real offensive: the Safari web browser for Windows.
With the number of uninsured Americans and the costs of providing medical care to an aging country increasing, the issue of medical reform is settling in as a long-term key issue in the country’s national political dialogue. What does not seem to arise, unfortunately, is a serious attempt to take the free market sentiment of many Americans and put that to good use to drive down health care costs. Creating a massive government regulation system to force costs down is not the only way – or even a good way – to insure a future that allows all people affordable access to medical services.
Archbishop Raymond Burke is not the type of man you would label as a conciliator. Since he came to St. Louis a few years ago, he has inflamed via his vocal opposition of politicians who support abortion, his suppression of a parish that ignored his orders and now his resignation from a charity board after it brought Sheryl Crow, a supporter of embryonic stem cell research, to play at a benefit concert. The common wisdom says he must be wrong, but is he really?
On Good Friday, it is traditional to look at the narrative of that day approximately two thousand years ago when Jesus was crucified by the order of Pontius Pilate and then try to make sense of it. Jesus Himself offered an interpretation of His future suffering that appears in both Matthew and Luke; in it, He chooses to interpret His death and resurrection as “the sign of Jonah.” What could this possibly mean?
By now, most people have heard about XM and Sirius's so-called “merger of equals” that would, if successful, eliminate competition in the satellite radio industry. Although satellite radio remains enough of a non-essential item that the post-merger company will still have to “compete” for subscribers, it is hard to imagine that this will be good for consumers. Even a cursory analysis of the good and bad will show that it is in the consumer’s interest for the FCC to stick to its guns and prohibit the merger.