Science - Technology: August 2009 Archives

Microsoft: Next Mac Office due late 2010 with Outlook | Business Center | Macworld:

"However, Apple’s next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, will include native support for Exchange Server when it’s released next month, which means business users can connect to Exchange data via Apple's built-in Mail, iCal, and Address Book applications. With this move imminent, Microsoft’s inclusion of Outlook in Office for Mac at the end of next year might be too little, too late, he said."

(Via Macworld.)

Competition is magic.

Palm Pre debacle highlights location privacy issues | Security | iPhone Central | Macworld:

"On Wednesday mobile application developer Joey Hess wrote in his blog that the Pre periodically uploads location data to Palm. He was widely quoted, and the information left some readers upset."

(Via Macworld.)

Duh.

Daring Fireball:

"Apple censored an English dictionary.

A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms."

(Via Daring Fireball.)

This is completely shocking and disgusting from a company that I am a huge fan of.

The problem is there seems to be nothing that really can be done. Apple is in full control. Customers are oblivious to the problem. All they see is the censored dictionary. Developers have few levers on Apple. If they don't play along, they have no alternatives. Apple control the entire game from start to finish. This is what happens when one party has too much control. It's abused.

To be fair, this probably the product of a boneheaded approval process rather than some dystopian plot to control our minds, but still. I feel like it's Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, pun intended.