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The iPods are not iOS devices?? Apple says they are iOS devices: http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/

Figuring 'something' out from WiFi works only in dense urban environments, and even then isn't good enough for turn by turn navigation, which Apple claims is supported by the iPod Touch and iPad,

The iPod Touch is an iOS device. http://www.apple.com/ipod-touch/ios/

What, was the bottom of this page unclear?

that's it.

Other than the 3GS that is.

No, we would complain they were strangling third party developers if they did not allow anyone to compete with their own Apple branded app as they usually do.

Like what? Browsers? Email clients? Camera apps? What exactly?

No, we would complain they were strangling third party developers if they did not allow anyone to compete with their own Apple branded app as they usually do.

Like what? Browsers? Email clients? Camera apps? What exactly?

No, we would complain they were strangling third party developers if they did not allow anyone to compete with their own Apple branded app as they usually do.

Like what? Browsers? Email clients? Camera apps? What exactly?

post-PC world you can't code on ios...

Sure you can:

Codea
Diet Coda
Gusto
Koder
Python for iOS
Textastic

post-PC world you can't code on ios...

Sure you can:

Codea
Diet Coda
Gusto
Koder
Python for iOS
Textastic

post-PC world you can't code on ios...

Sure you can:

Codea
Diet Coda
Gusto
Koder
Python for iOS
Textastic

post-PC world you can't code on ios...

Sure you can:

Codea
Diet Coda
Gusto
Koder
Python for iOS
Textastic

post-PC world you can't code on ios...

Sure you can:

Codea
Diet Coda
Gusto
Koder
Python for iOS
Textastic

Here is the link. http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIView_Class/UIView/UIView.html%23//apple_ref/occ/instp/UIView/autoresizingMask

It's an option. They cost a helluva lot more (The $S is currently $549, I presume the 5 would be $100 more), and I don't know if the carriers give much of a discount for no-contract BYOP plans. (T-Mobile does, but you're not going to get 3G, no less LTE with an iPhone on T-Mobile).

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4s

Pick a color, then "Unlocked" is an option instead of carrier.

Well they can't. The API doesn't give developers that capability. Other programming environments (ie, Android, Java, Windows... pretty much all of them) work with a layout system that doesn't guarantee exact positioning very well, but does work on different aspect ratios and densities automatically. iOS uses absolute positioning, so developers have to code specifically to each new screen (save for some special cases where they can get away with it, ie doubling of linear density).

iOS has supported dynamic positioning since iOS 2. Bad developers use absolute positioning, not iOS.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIView_Class/UIView/UIView.html%23//apple_ref/occ/instp/UIView/autoresizingMask

There have always been at least two screen sizes in iOS. Portrait and landscape. iPad adds two more.

The "iOS doesn't support dynamic layout" thing is something I see thrown out by Android developers/supporters all the time, and it's just not true at all.

I know it's a joke, but Current gen iOS devices already do this with AppleTV or AirPlay enabled devices.

Obligatory pedantism: he said HDTV, which means neither an AppleTV or an AirPlay enabled device. This is actually another thing that Apple does the proprietary way, no way they could just support DLNA like the rest of the electronics world. You have to buy yet another iDevice in order to stream content to your TV, which probably already has streaming support that you've payed for but can't use with Apple.

http://arkmc.com/ - Available on the App Store

If Apple would include the functionality into iOS, people here would complain that they were strangling third party developers.

And the corners on the Nano look a lot like Lumia, the non-infringing phone (or N9).
http://images.apple.com/ipod-nano/images/overview_fitness.png
http://www.gadget.pdamu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Nokia-N9-Hands-Black-Color.jpg

3G worldphone, LTE, and decent battery life. This is actually impressive, though we've been waiting 2 years for it.

If it let you out of the Apple sandbox if you wanted, then it would be the best smartphone by far. But that sandbox is a major detractor.

Note just the 3G is worldphone. There will be separate iPhone 5 models for international LTE. From http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html there are 3 models:

* GSM model A1428*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 4 and 17)
* CDMA model A1429*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25)
* GSM model A1429*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5)

I agree, laptop is way better than an iPad for this use case. But a couple things bugged me. #1 using an AppleTV to send output to a TV is really obvious and nice, it uses a feature called AirPlay that mirrors the iPad or sends video via WiFi to the AppleTV. And #2, USB sticks to move files? Really, in 2012? Who still does this? I use filebrowser for local fileservers and Dropbox for everything else. Filebrowser is actually fantastic for quickly pulling up files.

Again, I absolutely think they made a poor choice and should stick with laptops, but some of these "problems" are not iPad problems. They are competency problems.

Like this thing and a keyboard?

Without iPhone/iPad, Apple would still makes lots of money. Apple would make an estimated $30B in revenue instead of $140B (based on Q3 estimates). Profit margin might be in the 30% range instead of the 40% though.

Apple's wife has been piling that cash up in a rented foreign storage locker. She can't figure out how to launder it all back to the US to dividend to stock holders without paying taxes on it.

Maybe apple will realize it has enough money and see the danger of trading patents with Tuco Samsung-manca.

Indeed. Apple has even decreased the amount of marketing in the last version or two that's focused on the .x portion of the name, instead choosing to replace references to it in a lot of their literature with the codename for the version. In fact, if you go to the OS X page, you won't see a single mention of "10.8" anywhere, except for a footnote in one of the subsections where they specify what version of the OS they ran the SunSpider benchmark on.

Microsoft figured that out even earlier, with their shift to using years and then eventually distinct marketing names for the actual names of their products. But the important thing to remember is that there is a distinction between a marketing name and an internal version number.

I don't see what's absurd in the least of using codenames or marketing names to help reach consumers better. Looks at how well educated people are about the differences between versions of Google Chrome for how absurd using version numbers can get. Switching to marketing names alone wouldn't fix that problem, but grouping several versions under a common name might help somewhat.

Without iPhone/iPad, Apple would still makes lots of money. Apple would make an estimated $30B in revenue instead of $140B (based on Q3 estimates). Profit margin might be in the 30% range instead of the 40% though.

No reason this should be restricted to apple products as an android tablet would work just as well to view pdf files, but still, very reasonable savings estimate.

For basic documentatoin, yes, it's just PDFs (there are people selling subscriptoins to PDF plates).

Though, it appears that Apple actually got approval on the battery for iPad use in the cockpit (AC 120-76, which applies to airliner operations), which is why it's the iPad and not some random Android tablet.

Non-airliner operations often have better capabilities - like geo-referenced plates (where it'll display your location in relation to where you should be).

But the iPad has appeared to capture the most fascination with pilots (and the number of aviation-related apps for it doesn't hurt, though the prices do...).

Cost to charge an iPad every other day for 1 year: $2

Cost to carry 1 pound of payload 1000 miles on a 777 is : $0.04

Average number of miles a 777 flys in a year : 150,000
In 1 year it takes the 150000/1000*0.04 $60 bucks to fly 1 pound of play load.

The weight of the iPad is 2 pounds
In 1 year it takes $120 to fly an iPad.

30 pounds of flight manuals takes 30*60=$1800

Replacing 30 pounds of flights manuals with an iPad saves $1680 every year. Of course this is just a rough back of the envelope calculation.

https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/

Name one computer that comes from the factory with the necessary software to intercept and record unencrypted traffic from an open Wi-Fi? Anybody who wishes to intercept and record such Information from an open wireless network, must obtain special software for the purpose. This is easy enough to do, but such software does not come standard with any computer that I know of.

How about Mac OSX laptops which ship with tcpdump by default? I don't think you should argue from a point of ignorance. Just because you don't know something to be true doesn't mean it isn't.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3994

Only a person with a nefarious desire to eavesdrop would go to such effort.

Well, I must be pretty nefarious for having diagnostic tools like that on all of the machines I own then. I should preemptively turn myself into the authorities before I accidentally capture innocent packets.

- Toast

Lol, the problem with dumb people is, that they *by definition* don't know how *dumb* they are. Hence they are projecting it to others. Also known as that Dunning-Kruger effect. Its extreme case is, when the intelligence is so far above that person's head, that it is indistinguishable from nonsense to them.

You're is such a case.

And immediately jumping to “you’re a Mensa member" and specifically highlighting "I'm no retard" only makes that all the more clearer.

You do realize, of course, that having a serious grammatical error in your tirade utterly undermines your argument, right?

It is supposed to be "YOURS is such a case." I don't even know where "You're is" falls in the "grammatical errors" category; but it's a pretty bad one. (My sincere apologies, however, if English is not your first language).

The problem is that you mistake being a memorizing drone for actual intelligence.

Where did you get that impression? As I said before, I am an embedded (hardware/software) designer with over 30 years of (paid) experience. I also do application (ERP) programming, and a bit of web development (although I don't think I do web dev. well enough to get paid for it). I'm pretty sure that most of that calls for much more than rote memorization.

If you had any intelligence, you would very simply *not* be able to work with an Apple environment.

That's your opinion, and a pretty indefensible one, at that. Not to mention nauseatingly self-aggrandizing and elitist. (And everybody thinks that Apple fans are the elitist ones! Sheesh!)

Because it makes the very things one then needs, impossible. Instead it *forces* one to dumb down and use that retard mindset, to even be able to use its interfaces.

What is it that the "Apple Environment" (whatever that is!) makes "impossible"? Or is it simply the fact that, in your (not-so-humble) opinion, one must demonstrate their superior intellect at all times, by using, what? A CLI exclusively? Guess what? You can do that all day long on OS X, if you really think that makes you "superior". I'm really confused about what you think you can't do on OS X that you can do on another platform, if you possess the necessary skillset.

As they say: A poor craftsman blames his tools...

Make no mistake. I have extensively tested their products and services, before coming to this conclusion. They just don't support having a brain.

If all you want to do is launch Safari and cruise Facebook, sure. But what about those who spend their days in XCode? Are they "brainless" as well?

No file manager,

Funny. I seem to be able to manage terabytes worth of files with Finder. And if you must have a Windows Explorer-type multicolumn "source-target" view in a single window, there are third-party apps for that. Same with batch file-renaming. Other than that, Finder has some pretty sweet capabilities that no other "File Manager" has.

And then there's Spotlight...

no scripting possibilities at all

Boy, did you ever just step in it...

Nevermind the fact that, as a UNIX, it has the same "shell scripting" capabilities, like in this example, that come as part of the Bourne-Again SHell it runs as a CLI. In addition to that, there is also "Automator" and its bigger (and older) brother, AppleScript, which are quite unique, and (especially in the case of AppleScript) very powerful. And even cooler,

I'm pretty certain that RMS didn't tell you that you aren't into OSS enough. He probably told you that you aren't enough into Free Software, or at the very least F(L)OSS.

You're probably quite correct -- I spoke somewhat off the cuff, and not willing to dig through 5+ year old e-mails to find what exactly he said. I appreciate the correction.

I know a lot of really neat people who are very smart hackers who continue to throw money at Apple. They'll laugh and make akward apologies about Apple's take-no-prisoners corporate behavior, and some of them even "really hate" (their words) Apple's aggressive patent suits and are really frustrated about Apple's locked-down computing platforms, but I haven't seen one of them put their money and their hardware choices where their mouth is. A lot of them talk about how much they like OSS, but none of them talks about how much they like Free Software.

And that's because there is often a big difference between theory and reality.

I truly appreciate the goals of Free Software, and contribute to them when I can. However, I do have things that need to work today, and F(L)OSS doesn't always cover those needs. And there are several areas, particularly those pertaining to design, usability, and HCI, where commercial solutions are better than existing FOSS solutions.

Personally, I don't care about whatever Apple is doing in terms of patent suits and their corporate behaviour. They are operating within the law. Boycotting Apple won't help, as most of their competitors either a) do the same things, b) do worse things, or c) would do the same if they were big enough to get away with it. Personally, I'm more interested in changing the laws that allow them to get away with such behaviour (although as a non-US citizen, there isn't a whole lot I can do to influence that in the US. It also means that I'm not particularly affected if, say, Apple gets their ban on the importation of various Samsung products into the US. I live in Canada, and we don't have the same problems with our patent system that exists in the US).

And the door swings both ways. FOSS people like to compare Apple to Microsoft as if they were equal, however Apple itself is a big supporter and contributor of FOSS. While parts of OS X/iOS are closed source, a great deal of it is open, including the OS kernel (http://opensource.apple.com). The CUPS printing system in use by every Linux and BSD distro out there is an Apple product. Much of the FOSS ZeroConf implementations out there are either from Apple, or are strongly based on Apple's code. They maintain Webkit (upon which nearly a dozen different browsers are now based). Indeed, I'd say they do more in terms of supporting FOSS than any comparable company out there -- and while not perfect, we should encourage such a level of engagement with the community. Yes, it needs tweaking and improving in areas -- but they're doing much more than the vast bulk of other large corporate hardware/software development organizations.

Supporting FOSS or OSS projects is great -- and developing/leading those projects is even better, but I've come to realize that I can't just sit back and pat people on the back and tell them what a good job they're doing when they're still supporting (and evangelizing -- if only by walking around and showing off their hardware) a company like Apple.

And yet by rejecting those companies that are not 100% FOSS but which do more than any other similar company to contribute to and support FOSS, you're telling other similar companies that there is no point in contributing to FOSS, because unless they're all-in, you'll ignore them. I don't find that helpful to FOSS.

I'm not telling you that you can't buy Apple hardware

Good, because I'd ignore you anyway :).

I'm just asking that you take

"the problem is that Apple does stock Soldier of Fortune, but does not stock the Human Rights Watch publication that publishes nothing but the places where violence occurs."

just a second now.. it's not like apple hand picks from a large pool of apps and decides which to sell. DId HRW submit one too and get denied?

woah. hey. nope. they didn't

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/human-rights-watch-for-ipad/id414155415?mt=8 /i get your point, but I'm a stickler for detail ;)
(and there is no SoF app)

I guess all quality control goes out the window with this type of labor. I'm surprised they don't have problems like too much thermal paste on a heat sink, stripped screws or something similar. Oh wait..

Here is Apples own "mission statement" relating to suppliers:
http://www.apple.com/procurement/

Suppliers at Apple
Apple requires each of its suppliers to meet the highest standards for all goods and services. Our requirements include a commitment to rigorous quality assurance. In addition, suppliers must be committed, as we are, to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility.

The ideal suppliers are those who understand our culture and expectations. We value suppliers who take the time to learn about and understand our business and who look for ways to add value. These suppliers know the importance of making and meeting commitments and delivering the highest quality goods and services.

Our business environment is competitive and fast-paced. Our suppliers must understand this dynamic and be agile and flexible in responding to changing business conditions. Above all, Apple values innovation. We appreciate suppliers who truly understand and share in our challenges, and who help us find the best possible solutions.

The first paragraph talks about quality control and standards. The rest is about meeting commitments to get the job done and finding the best possible solutions while being agile and flexible. I guess importing college kids under an "internship" to meet demand is exactly what Apple wants and looks for with their suppliers. I guess the rigorous quality assurance part and socially responsible part are optional and does not always apply.
Don't worry Apple apologists, Apple is doing nothing wrong because I'm sure Wal-Mart probably does this too.

...is that CVE-2012-4681 uses a vulnerability during Applet execution.

Apple's Java for OS X 2012-005 disables all browser Applet support, and if re-enabled by the user, will automatically disable it again if it goes unused for 35 days. The Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 10 release appears to go a step further, and disables applets in browsers until they are clicked on explicitly by users, along with disabling the applet plug-in if unused for 35 days.

So while I'm presuming the vulnerability does still exist in the Java classes themselves, Apple certainly has lessened the overall attack surface. You can't take advantage of the vulnerability if you can't run any applets. This negates the possibility of drive-by attacks for the majority of users (although it doesn't lessen the possibility of socially engineered attacks -- I'm willing to bet that if you provide directions on how to re-enable the plug-in and ask users to do so and reload the page to see a dancing monkey, some percentage of users are going to be dumb enough to follow them and have their systems violated).

FWIW, AFAIK Apple doesn't fix bugs in the Java classes themselves. They have to get upstream fixes for these from Oracle.

Yaz

...is that CVE-2012-4681 uses a vulnerability during Applet execution.

Apple's Java for OS X 2012-005 disables all browser Applet support, and if re-enabled by the user, will automatically disable it again if it goes unused for 35 days. The Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 10 release appears to go a step further, and disables applets in browsers until they are clicked on explicitly by users, along with disabling the applet plug-in if unused for 35 days.

So while I'm presuming the vulnerability does still exist in the Java classes themselves, Apple certainly has lessened the overall attack surface. You can't take advantage of the vulnerability if you can't run any applets. This negates the possibility of drive-by attacks for the majority of users (although it doesn't lessen the possibility of socially engineered attacks -- I'm willing to bet that if you provide directions on how to re-enable the plug-in and ask users to do so and reload the page to see a dancing monkey, some percentage of users are going to be dumb enough to follow them and have their systems violated).

FWIW, AFAIK Apple doesn't fix bugs in the Java classes themselves. They have to get upstream fixes for these from Oracle.

Yaz

So when do you think apple will give it to 3rd parties? It's coming out next week, so they are seriously running out of time to get production up and running.

They may have done it already. They may do it at the same time as the launch of the first device to use it. You won't know unless you are an Apple MFi partner. And if you are an MFi partner you'll be under NDA.
https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/

There is no story here, just speculation from people that don't know.

That would be very...un-Apple-like. They currently make money on every device legitimately sold by 3rd party OEMs (iHome, JBL) by requiring an NDA and licensing agreement through their MFi program. I found and interesting read here about the reasoning behind the Square CC reader using the audio port. They cite several valid reasons but one that sticks out in a big way is basically it costs Square US $1 to manufacture the device but it would have cost them $4-$8 per device in licensing if they had gone with the 30 pin dock connector.

The EU are fine with this. http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MD099ZM/A/apple-iphone-micro-usb-adapter?mco=MjU5MjAwODM The directive is there to stop people throwing away chargers, this fixes that problem and the EU is fine with it. Apple is complying, and a quick google search brings up 100s of citations.

Access to the UDID is deprecated. iOS developers now have to generate and maintain their own UUID, which can of course be wiped by the phone owner. The reason for this, at least partly, is so phones aren't permanently tied to service X or Y when the device changes ownership. --- http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UIKit/Reference/UIDevice_Class/DeprecationAppendix/AppendixADeprecatedAPI.html

what do you expect? Its a factory assembly job with very low entry requirements

Should we not expect regular inspections paid for by Samsung?

Should we not expect wage increases for the workers working on Samsung products, subsidized by Samsung?

Should we not expect Samsung demand reduced working hours of workers assembling Samsung gear?

Should we not expect Samsung issue a supplier responsibility statement with regular reports on progress - even if not believed at least something to hold them to?

All of these are things Apple has done with FoxConn. So it seems pretty obvious that since so many have carefully poured over Apple's actions in this regard, that it is the new standard for what we should expect for companies assembling things in China. We owe the Chinese workers at least that level of effort to make things better.

It's obvious the BBC crapped their pants over this but that is what they get for using a proprietary solution. They need to focus on not being cheap and rewriting it in something else.

Funny thing, I saw this over at the App Store... BBC iPlayer. So the platform that never had Flash can play iPlayer videos.

What was the problem again? I would assume the BBC is smart enough to be able to do an Android version of the app as well. Maybe the only problem I can see is DRM issues with Android, but I'm sure it can be resolved easily enough like Netflix.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3466

iMovie has supported AVCHD import since at least 2009. Been using it just fine with a AVCHD-only 1080i 60p camera. It's actually really good at it. Sorry you didn't know about how to get your camera to work right two years ago.

The license says that your music is "non-transferable".

Where does it say that? I can't find it:

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html

but if you've ever used ssh + passphrases + rsync, you'll know that it's not a patch on that

I use that every day. If you are concerned about encryption, you can use Wuala instead of Dropbox.

why would I shift several GB up into the cloud and back again, when it should be possible to just copy directly?

Convenience. Dropbox is just a folder on my iMac, I don't need to copy anything, I just keep stuff I want available on all my devices in that folder. Being able to just save and not worry about syncing is really great. Again, depending on context. For my live web-apps I prefer the above mentioned explicit sync because that way I can control when exactly changes go live. But for some documents, not having to worry about it is really cool.

many X applications wouldn't work well with a touch screen, but many of them would work.

Sorry, no. I've been writing some iPad and iPhone software, including ports of a few small games I originally made for the desktop. Nothing that is not designed with touch in mind will work really well on a touchscreen. You need to enlarge buttons, shift stuff around to make missed less consequential, move controls around so fingers don't cover up stuff you want to read, etc. etc. There's a lot more to it than just gesture controls.
Want a quick check on the difference? Pick up an iPad and visit any moderately complex website. Forums are great examples - they work horribly on the iPad because most of the links are too close together and you constantly click on stuff you didn't mean.

Besides which, an iPad with optional bluetooth mouse and keyboard might be a genuine replacement for a laptop.

Another thing I don't get. Why would you want to pimp up your iPad to become a laptop when you could just as easily buy, you know, a laptop? Isn't that like buying a Porsche and then replacing half the parts because you need a family car for in-town driving? And I thought Unix people above all would understand using the right tool for the right job.

There isn't even a good text editor or shell on there.

Plaintext works for me, but there are tons of others. Many of the good ones are paid apps, which you might object to on principle, but there are quite a few text editors that get great reviews.

For "shell" it depends on what you mean. There's no local shell because there's no point to it. For remote shells, there are quite a few SSH programs, several of which get good reviews. I personally have zaTelnet installed, but it's so-so. It's probably one of the better free choices and since I use it once a quarter or so, I don't feel like paying for something.

True, not everything is available. I'd still love for Scrivener to be ported to the iPad because I use it on my iMac and I would love to be able to edit my Scrivener documents while on the road. But those are specific programs and you can say the same for any other platform (Scrivener was Mac-only for many years, so you could've complained the same as a windows user!).

Apple is doing it wrong. On their homepage, at http://www.apple.com/itunes/ there's a link "Buy Music Now." It doesn't say "buy a personal license" or "license music", It says "buy"

We have laws that define what a sale is, and incidentally the Norwegian word for "buy" is clearly defined in that law. It definitely doesn't coincide with what Apple thinks it means.

I'll consult a lawyer friend of mine to ensure that I'm not on thin ice (he's an insurance lawyer, but he can probably point me in the right direction), and alert the proper authorities. Nothing will happen, but I will have made an effort :)

And if your collection of CDs or vinyl LPs burns, you can't restore your music either. But sensible people back up their hard drives. Or you can pay Apple for iTunes Match, and Apple will back it up for you. If you don't like Apple, Amazon offers a similar service.

(and nevermind that they are not just refusing to allow malware, but also any political cartoons,

Presumably you mean "have refused in the past to allow political cartoons" (the app in question was the one the controversy about political cartoon apps was about).

That doesn't mean other apps that might be considered politically controversial aren't banned from the App Store, but they clearly are allowing the political cartoon app in question, along with other political cartoon apps, such as the msnbc.com Conservative Cartoons and msnbc.com Liberal Cartoons apps.

and that developers are at Apple's mercy).

Yes, if you're developing for iOS, you either have to have Apple find your app acceptable according to their standards or limit yourself to jailbroken machines.

(and nevermind that they are not just refusing to allow malware, but also any political cartoons,

Presumably you mean "have refused in the past to allow political cartoons" (the app in question was the one the controversy about political cartoon apps was about).

That doesn't mean other apps that might be considered politically controversial aren't banned from the App Store, but they clearly are allowing the political cartoon app in question, along with other political cartoon apps, such as the msnbc.com Conservative Cartoons and msnbc.com Liberal Cartoons apps.

and that developers are at Apple's mercy).

Yes, if you're developing for iOS, you either have to have Apple find your app acceptable according to their standards or limit yourself to jailbroken machines.

(and nevermind that they are not just refusing to allow malware, but also any political cartoons,

Presumably you mean "have refused in the past to allow political cartoons" (the app in question was the one the controversy about political cartoon apps was about).

That doesn't mean other apps that might be considered politically controversial aren't banned from the App Store, but they clearly are allowing the political cartoon app in question, along with other political cartoon apps, such as the msnbc.com Conservative Cartoons and msnbc.com Liberal Cartoons apps.

and that developers are at Apple's mercy).

Yes, if you're developing for iOS, you either have to have Apple find your app acceptable according to their standards or limit yourself to jailbroken machines.

Unfortunately, that is not how it works. You don't own the copies of the music on your iPod. You own a personal use license that lets you download copies of purchased music to your iPod. You can have up to 10 devices concurrently associated with your iTunes account and download copies of your purchased content to those devices. That's why if your iPod gets smashed you can download your music again. http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html#SALE

That is not at all like owning a copy, like a CD. When you own a CD you do not have the explicit right to copy the music to your computer or iPod, but the right to make copies for personal use is implied under fair use. If your CD gets destroyed and you loose your backup copies, you do not have the right to call up the music label and get a replacement. On the other hand, because owning a CD is OWNING a CD, you have the right to transfer ownership to anyone at any time, provided that you do not retain any copies. This is the right that Bruce Willis and others are fighting for.

http://www.apple.com/fr/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

-- Steve Jobs

http://www.apple.com/fr/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

Also, iTunes has been DRM-free since 2009.