Amazing…after just listening to this week’s MacBreak Weekly – and reading all I have read on the iPhone 4G Gizmodo story, and none of the legalese making sense…Rush Limbaugh makes perfect sense and explains the journalist “Shield Law” that Gizmodo is hiding behind. I won’t go into politics, but let’s just say I’m not a fan of Rush.

Are they actual journalists? That question may never be answered, but what will is their lame defense and throwing up the journalist shield law to protect Jason Chen. Here’s how Limbuagh explains it (bold emphasis to highlight the important bit):

So journalist shield laws are about journalists being able to protect sources who may have committed crimes, but it’s not a license for journalists to commit crimes. So it’s all going to come down to whether or not the DA and the cops out there think Jason Chen committed a crime, not whether Apple thinks so, but whether the DA thinks so.

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From Andrew Devigal (multimedia editor at the New York Times): He happened on one of the best and less costly Apple iPad stands: a $0.69 business card holder from Office Depot. In his post about it he goes into how one should try out things before buying:

Bought a wireless keyboard today to eventually replace the iPad Keyboard Dock I ordered online with my iPad. One really should try out a product before buying peripherals. But what I was really looking for was a stand that kept my iPad upright in either landscape or portrait. Neither the Keyboard Dock nor the iDock does this… granted, those do charge the iPad while docked. And I saw Griffin’s A-Frame: Tabletop Stand for iPad in stock at the Apple Store. But at $49… it’s ridiculously expensive.

Then I went to Office Depot and found this: Business Card Holder for $0.69.

I’m getting one next time I’m there – How about you?

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Well, what do we have here? A police investigation with ties to Gizmodo’s iPhone 4G incident. Electronista has reported that the Santa Clara County DA has spoken with Apple about the iPhone 4G event and the DA is doing a preliminary look into whether or not recovering and selling the iPhone Gizmodo amounts to theft.

Really wouldn’t want to be the finder now. One can assume too that Gizmodo will have to cough up this person’s identity further into the process.

Electronista reported, “The CNET source was careful to note that this doesn’t equate to actual criminal charges and that a case might not go ahead otherwise.” They go on to say that Apple’s legal claims hang on section 485 of California Penal Code, “which declares theft to include any incident in which a finder has an idea as to the actual owner but doesn’t take “reasonable and just” steps to return the goods. The anonymous source of the lost iPhone is known to have identified the Apple engineer through the Facebook app but, oddly, claimed to have only called Apple’s phone support rather than leave the phone with the bar, visit a retail store or even the Apple headquarters itself.”

Finally this is getting to a point where you have to wonder why anyone did what they did, the finder, Gizmodo…anyone involved really. Gizmodo is easy, they were too greedy to get the limelight pointed at them, steal Engadget’s thunder, and generate millions of hits. At what price does dignity and ethics come these days though? Certainly Gizmodo has lost quite a bit of luster and weight when it comes to being believed anymore, No? Fortunately the big winner here is Engadget

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This is hilarious, but oddly eerie…it pretty much sums up what happened last week with Gizmodo:

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Technology moves at such rapid pace, and seems to be the pace of people’s buying habits; at least in Japan. Way back in February 2009, Wired Magazine published an article titled, “Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone” reporting that the iPhone was a dud in the Japanese market. Several months later (see what I mean?) in July of the same year, Mashable reported, “World Domination: The iPhone is #1 in Japan” – wow. Today, BusinessWeek reports that the iPhone now garners 72% of the Japan smartphone market.

So what happened?

From BusinessWeek:

“Last year was just the beginning of the smartphone competition, which is why Apple did so well,” said Calvin Huang, who rates iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. “buy” at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. in Taipei. “This year will be much more competitive.”

That’s the thing with Apple though…they show up early to the game, and get a strong foothold in the market, and boom! The initial sales in some markets lag at the beginning, but eventually Apple gains and wins, this time winning big. I am beginning to think that history is going to repeat itself with the iPad. HP’s slate is getting “meh…” reviews so far and runs Microsoft Windows. Have they not learned anything? That was Microsoft’s mistake when it tried to conquer the tablet market: shoving an entire OS on a tablet device. Google has a better chance, but I still don’t understand how a web browser-based tablet will compete with the iPad and the iTunes app ecosystem.

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And she just happens to live in our city! Virginia (of lake Oswego, Oregon) has long suffered from glaucoma and has not been able to read or write her limericks, both a passion of hers. Now, with the iPad she can write and read to her heart’s delight. The first video is the one that went viral and her family member shot – the second is a segment on one of our local stations, the rest of the story as they say. Brilliant PR…just brilliant…

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Mike Chambers, Adobe’s principal product manager for the Flash platform:

“I think that the closed system that Apple is trying to create is bad for the industry, developers, and ultimately consumers, and that is not something that I want to actively promote. We are at the beginning of a significant change in the industry, and I believe that ultimately open platforms will win out over the type of closed, locked-down platform that Apple is trying to create.”

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller:

“Someone has it backwards–it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.”

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When we saw the letter from Apple to Gizmodo asking for the iPhone 4G back, most saw it as proof that the product Gizmodo had was legit. However, we here at the Church thought differently. We were suspicious at the beginning of this whole fiasco, partially due to the fact that Apple has been so amazing at its security measures.

The letter looked and read odd to us, and as others (few actually) have stated, we wondered if the letter was real. The wording sounded a tad bizarre. Then someone pointed out the logo in the top right corner and asked, “why purple Gizmodo?” Not only that, but why the old outdated logo? After doing some Google searches ourselves, we found one other person questioning the authenticity of the letter: David Dicillo. Below is the letter that Gizmodo put up, and below that is the one from 2009. Notice that the 2009 version of stationary not only has a different logo, but also uses a san-serif font in the lower right with the company’s information. As Dicillo points out, Gizmodo’s copy has the old circa 2005 logo and font in the lower right. Apple stopped using the serif font a long time ago (we remember it from ‘97-’98 actually.)

What do you think? Larger versions are on Dicillo’s site here for more detailed look.

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I was all set to go and camp out for my first “early adopter” product launch with the iPad…until it really sunk in: 3G is a must for me. Today alone with my iPhone, I posted on Facebook and Twitter about 6 times and only because I had a 3G connection, no WiFi around. I was letting Steve Jobs‘ “Reality Distortion Field” cloud my judgement.

though I’ve never had issues with AT&T and my iPhone, I do know that in my neighborhood – their Starbucks Wifi really bites. I can count on having to turn WiFi off and use the 3G connection if want to do anything online. One would hope that they fix this, along with all their other issues. I won’t hold my breathe for a while, for now, a 3G connection is a must-have in my book. Plus, why not have the additional GPS and compass function (although am I kidding myself, is the compass only for iPhone?)

Today I went to my local Apple store to have my first test-drive with the iPad. All I can say is…Wow! I was immediately immersed in the iPad, swiping, flicking and driving (with a racing game.) I played Labyrinth 2 HD, first time I played the Labyrinth game at all and picked it up quickly. Tried Zombies and Monsters, but I think I need a tutorial, especially when it cautioned me, “Are you sure you want to play without any flower pots?” Then I tried the racing game, Real Racing HD…Hot!

It would’ve been a real shame if I had this beautiful device, so rich, so functional and then one day (throughout an entire year for the 2nd Gen,) I need a 3G connection and I don’t have it. In the future, depending on the reviews I read, I may get Sprint’s Overdrive MiFi gadget – then I’d have wifi for all my devices for one flat fee.

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On a special edition of MacBreak weekly, Andy Ihnatko demonstrated some unique things about the iPad no one has mentioned. (in his reveal of the iPad he’s had for a week!) Or at least I haven’t seen or heard about: Ad-Hoc networking through bluetooth.

He showed that Scrabble could have up to four players, 1 with the iPad, 3 with iPod Touch/iPhones. The iPhone/touch people have on their screens their Scrabble rack, with their letters. In order to place their letters on the board (iPad) they just flick their finger across the screen towards the iPad, and the game pieces fly onto the iPad.

Now – this is just one game, imagine what app developers will do with this! I am so stoked about what awaits us in the next year or so…I hate to break it to the iPad-haters, but history is going to repeat itself. There are games and apps, and books and magazines, and…whatever you can imagine that will come along and blow our minds with their ingenuity and utter brilliance. Remember Enigmo? Enigmo on iPad is going to just plain rock!

As Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing said in their review of the iPad: Maybe the most exciting thing about iPad is the apps that aren’t here yet. The book-film-game hybrid someone will bust out in a year, redefining the experience of each, and suggesting some new nouns and verbs in the process. Or an augmented reality lens from NASA that lets you hold the thing up to the sky and pinpoint where the ISS is, next to what constellation, read the names and see the faces of the crew members, check how those fuel cells are holding up.

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