technocracy & the matrix

Apple Traced iPhone to Track Journalist’s Address

It is hard to say what is worse, the fact that an iPhone can trace you or the fact that, at Apple's request, San Mateo cops raided a journalist's home and seized his property for having possession of a glorified toy.

Steve Jobs and his fellow technocrats at Facebook and Google are going too far. They are toymakers, yes, they are cyber Hasbro's. Their products should be a fun way to pass the time. These constant instances of Constitution-stomping are ruining the point of what they are selling us - frivolous fun. That's it.

There is entirely too much "stuff" worship in our society. But worse, we all get trapped in the cult of personality of these tech moguls. We find it hard to admit when they've gone too far because their images are so nice n' fluffy, and we equate their toys with our identities. A hipster crimestop, if you will.

No doubt about it, Apple's latest display of tyranny is a PR nightmare. The era of being an Apple early adopter should take a breather. Full Story

RELATED: Gizmodo considers suing police after iPhone raid

The Daily P.P. Awards
Predictive programming - when TV tells you how it's gonna be

Today's award goes to G4TV's X-Play. Or, as it should be called, Comcast's Continuing Push To Get You in The Cloud or CCPTGYC. Okay, not a very marketable title. X-Play is more than just a very entertaining video game review program, it is the industry's biggest cheerleader for multi-player gaming over strong single-player campaigns. Their reviews often punish games that have no online components but do not penalize those games with short or weak single-player. They also heavily advocate the buying of games online and have a weekly segment dedicated solely to MMORPG's.

Publishers, like most media owners, would love nothing more than to eliminate "hard" copies of product as to end your ability to "own" what you buy (hold it in your hand, play it on any Xbox you want to, trade in, etc). They also like pushing online multi-player because, in theory, it extends the life of a game instead of them having to put much effort in developing a cerebral I.P. Just add maps once in a while. And Microsoft loves it because it sells loads of XBox Live subscriptions. X-Play's advertisers approve!

But G4TV's parent company is Comcast, an avowed net neutrality foe, loves it because they are an internet provider. Their goal is to get everything that they can into "The Cloud" where all of your computer's data is stored to "save you the trouble of using hardware." Everything from your photos to your porn will be under the stewardship of Comcast and when you want it back, just ask nicely.


also:
*Palm saved? HP buys for $1 billion

*Glenn Beck's ratings on the decline

*Patents may force Android to charge