Cody Taylor

net_shaman writes in with word of a Seattle man who was arrested for taking a photo of an ATM being serviced. “Today I was shopping at the downtown Seattle REI. I was about to buy a Thule hitch mount bike rack. They were out of the piece that locks the bike rack into the hitch. So I was in the customer service line to special order one. It was a long line and while I was waiting, I saw two of guys (employees of Loomis, as I later learned) refilling the ATM. I walked over and took a picture with my iPhone of them and more interestingly of the open ATM. I took the picture because I’m fascinated by the insides of things that we don’t normally get to see. … That was when Officer GE Abed (#6270) spun me around and put handcuffs on me.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Maximum Prophet recommends a NY Times piece on the growing phenomenon of unauthorized digital versions of copyrighted books showing up online. The problem has been growing exponentially, fed in part by the popularity of reading devices such as the Kindle and the iPhone. The article features the odd photographic juxtaposition of Cory Doctorow and Ursula K. Le Guin, who take opposite views on electronic editions, authorized or not. Ms. Le Guin: “I thought, who do these people think they are? Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?” Mr. Doctorow: “I really feel like my problem isn’t piracy. It’s obscurity.” “Doctorow, a novelist whose young adult novel ‘Little Brother’ spent seven weeks on the New York Times children’s chapter books best-seller list last year, offers free electronic versions of his books on the same day they are published in hardcover. He believes free versions, even unauthorized ones, entice new readers.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From their automated phone-support systems to their missed service appointments to their penchant for nickeling and diming us to death, service providers seem have an inexhaustable supply of habits that get our blood pressure up.

One year ago this week, I wrote a column arguing for the requirement of iPods and other gadgets in the nations schools (“Are iPod-banning schools cheating our kids?: Why iPods and other electronic gadgets should be required, not banned”). Now, the University of Missouri is “requiring” journalism students to buy an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Citrix made a number of announcements last week related to Mac and iPhone. While most of these announcements were targeted specifically towards IT/enterprise customers, one announcement has more potential mainstream significance.

The WSJ simply had to release an app for the iPhone if it was going to remain relevant. Unfortunately for the Journal, Apple hasn’t yet figured out a safe or easy way to charge iPhone users for the things they do within apps. So anything from the Journal that you can read on an iPhone (or an iPod Touch) is not charged.

The number of phones shipped using Google’s Android platform is set to grow much faster than the iPhone this year, estimates from Strategy Analytics maintain today. Devices like the T-Mobile G1 have just a small fraction of shipments today but are expected to grow 900 percent in 2009; iPhones will grow only by 79 percent.

An in-depth look at the latest Android phone to give you the run-down on what you can expect from Samsung’s first effort at a Google phone, the Samsung i7500.

The complicated tango between the iPhone and AT&T’s network isn’t a new story, but the latest stats—web browsing eats 69 percent of phone bandwidth—highlight the fragility of networks, allowing fresh portents of doom.

The precise specifications for many iPhone chips are murky. Should Apple be more open about its secret ingredients?