Similar ethical uncertainty exists with digital priacy. Like the primitive apes of the digital world that we are, most have simply and straightforwardly adopted the moral conventions of the physical world: STEALING IS WRONG. But this sort of simple transfer of code only highlights our penchant for continuity and traditions over logical analysis for establishing appropriate rules in a new arena.

Consider the following case scenario: Alex bought a CD (whether it be music or software is irrelevant, for now). Then, Alex loses the CD. Is it ok for Alex to download an “illegal” pirated copy from the internet (say, from thepiratebay.com), without paying for it again?

Asking this question on most internet forums would yield a broad consensus among typical internet users: “NO, it is not ok. It is stealing.” They would draw the following analogy: Since Alex lost the CD, would it be ok for Alex to walk into a store and walk out with a second copy of the CD without paying for it? NO! Then why should it be ok for Alex to do the same on the internet?

But here in lies the rub. Let’s compare the apparent “analogy” between the physical world and the digital world. In both cases (Alex downloading a priated copy and Alex pick-pocketing a CD from a store), Alex has already paid for the contents of the CD itself. But in the physical case, by stealing a copy from the store, the store loses the CD. There is a victim. In contrast, there is no victim in the digital scenario. Alex has already paid for it, so the company creating the content on the CD does not lose sales. And because digital piracy involves making a bit-by-bit copy of the material, no one is deprived of anything when Alex downloads the pirated copy.

So, if no body loses, why should it be unethical? I hope you see that Alex is perfectly acting within his/her moral boundaries. Piracy seems blacketly wrong only when compared with stealing physical objects. Analyzed within its own terms, piracy is not always unethical.

The conlusion is this: we cannot simply apply the familiar ethics of the phyisical world to a new arena such as the digital world. This only confuses the issue, as demonstrated above. I call for a new system of e-morality, one that is logically constructed through careful analysis of the new domain.

I recently dropped my iPhone and the glass screen broke. I brought it to my local Apple Store (King of Prussia, PA) to get it fixed, and it cost me $299 (the same price I paid for the new phone back in September)!

I am a poor college student, and this price is too much for me. I do not mind paying lots of money for quality products and service. (In fact, I love it!) But $299 to replace a glass screen on a phone that works perfectly well otherwise? This is too much!

I do not understand why it would cost any more than $150 to replace a glass screen. And why does it cost more to replace the glass screen on a 16GB iPhone as opposed to the 8GB model? ($299 vs. $199). Does the 16GB iPhone have better glass?

I realize that I am receiving a refurbished different iPhone in place of by broken iPhone. But if I don’t get to keep my broken iPhone anyway, why should it cost more for 16GB iphone users?

I love my iPhone, and I spend money on the iPhone app store almost every week. I am a loyal and passionate Apple fan, but today my faith in this little-big great company has been greatly diminished.

-Maxx H Cho
www.maxxworld.co.cc

I recently purchased The Hit List, a to-do list management app for the Mac, through the MacHeist bundle. I have been using Things, another to-do list app, for a while now. I was drawn to Things by its visual appeal. The first time I used it, I ran into some user interface issues, but decided to live with them given its apparent simplicity.

After trying out Hit List, I am convinced that it is far superior. I did not know how much Things sucked until I started using The Hit List. The Hit List seems to have been modeled after people’s actual working habits, as opposed to arbitrary and fangled user interface decisions. Some of these problems I was fully aware of and annoyed by, others I did not even realize them until I used The Hit List.

Here are some of the reasons why I prefer The Hit List over Things:
1. In real life, the difference between a single task and a multi-step “project” is very tenuous. Having to manually “promote” a task into a project every time you want to specify more granular steps (like in Things) can get very annoying. Not to mention that one can have a long list of projects, cluttering up the side bar. In The Hit List, every task automatically has the ability to have sublists.

2. Despite tags and areas, tasks in Things tend to get cluttered up in the “Next” list, with no satisfying or effective way of organizing or sorting them. It turns into a jumbled and unorganized list. One can sort by tags, but it still feels messy. The Hit List provides folders and lists, which is a natural way to organize tasks.

3. “Areas of Responsibility” in The Hit List is treated like tags, as opposed to like folders in Things, which seems more intuitive to me.

4. One can “Cancel” tasks in The Hit List, one can only delete or complete tasks in Things.

5. Things archives completed tasks automatically, and pushes them all into a giant bucket (the logbook), which means you loose information about how they were sorted/organized. The Hit List only archives when you hit “Archive”, and keeps the archived task in the same place (you can hide or show archived tasks in lists).

6. Ability to set “Start” dates, which allows one to automatically have tasks move into “Today” when desired. In Things, you have to manually move tasks into Things.

7. Priority rating is treated separately from tags, which means your tags are not cluttered and messy like in Things.

8. When I first tried to create recurring tasks in Things, it literally took me hours to figure out how the settings work. This is very typical of Things – its visual simplicity is deceptive. I was able to schedule recurring tasks immediately in The Hit List.

9. The Hit List can sort tasks by all sorts of attributes. I don’t understand why Things doesn’t have this – another reason why the Next list in Things is so cluttered and messy.

The ONLY thing that will keep me using Things is the lack of iPhone sync for The Hit List. I know the developer said this is coming soon, but I can’t realistically use The Hit List unless I can have it on-the-go.

Sheepshaver is an open-source solution that emulates a PowerPC to run Mac OS 9 on an intel Mac, but like many open-source apps, they don’t make it easy. I had to track down various Macintosh ROM files of old PowerPCs, and also fiddle with a preference file in Terminal. o_O yikes! Nevertheless, I was successful, and I feel smarter for having done it. Here are some screenshots:

The legendary Mac OS 9 booting inside Leopard!

Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X side-by-side.

I even got Internet to work inside this thing.

1. Multiple User Log-ins and fast user switching
2. Internet browser-style file browsing with forward/back buttons
3. Window minimizing
4. Keyboard Shortcut to Application quitting (Ctrl+Alt+Del vs. Apple+Option+Esc)
5. Right mouse click
6. Running applications shown at the bottom of the screen
7. “Desktop” folder in a “home” directory to reflect files placed on the desktop

The more Microsoft and Apple copy from each other, the better it is for consumers.

This grim outlook on broadband internet access may become reality if congress does not pass net neutrality legislation soon. All bits are created equal!

When was the last time an electronics product became obsolete or cheaper right after you bought it? It happens all the time! Why is this such a big deal? If anything, we should all be thankful that the device is now more accessible to more people. If you bought the iPhone during the first 2 months, you KNEW that the price was going to eventually drop. And you also KNEW that you are potentially taking a risk by buying any electronics product upon initial release.

What’s even more mind-boggling is that Steve Jobs actually caved into the uncalled-for outcries and offered a $100 gift certificate to all who bought the iPhone at the higher price. Why? I know Steve Jobs likes to look like the “nice guy” of the tech industry, but I think he has gone too far this time. Seriously, the vocal minority who are complaining about the price drop, they need to get a life. Because of this incident, Apple will NEVER drop prices on their products like this ever again.

All you complainers who bought the iPhone early: don’t you see? It’s all YOUR fault. Because of you, Apple and other companies will be less willing to drop prices like this anymore. And we ALL lose. The higher price you paid for your iPhone got you the title of being the “cool” guy who had the iPhone first. You had your time in the spotlight. And you paid for it with $200. Now stop complaining.

And Mr. Steve Jobs, please don’t cave into the iFanboys so much. Your $200 price drop was perfectly okay. You don’t need to offer reparations. If anything, the iFanboys deserve a $200 fine for buying a first-generation so soon.

Reports from Taiwan suggest that Apple may launch next month a new iPod that looks, feels and works like an iPhone, but without the phone part.

DigiTimes, a Taiwan-based publication that often leaks details about local companies that make electronic components for companies worldwide, says Taiwan-based Wintek has won a large touchscreen display contract for Apple’s next media player.

If Apple does ship an iPhone-like iPod, it would likely prove popular. Millions want the advanced, multitouch interface of the iPhone, but balk at moving to AT&T, dumping their 80GB iPods for 8GB iPhones, or moving from a 3G phone to EDGE data speeds.

From http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9026900

When all those silly iFanBoys lined up for days to buy a 600 dollar phone with clumsy typing and only 1/10th the capacity of a regular iPod, I shall be basking in the glory of a REAL iPod that can actually store all of my music at once, AND also have the killer touch-screen multimedia capabilities of the iPhone. And, I won’t have to dish out close to thousand dollars a year to AT&T to use it. I shall have the last laughter.

I wonder if this iPhone-without-the-phone iPod will still have WiFi and a web browser?