Even Palm, who used this feature as a symbol of their underdog status, repeatedly defied a notoriously litigious behemoth and just wanted to give their users an easy way to sync music? Yes. It's a clear stunt to garner sympathy as a scruffy up-and-comer, it's in defiance of published USB standards, and Apple is clearly never, ever going to stop patching this "bug." You've got bigger things to worry about.

And even Apple, who's just trying to maintain control over a proprietary media player, and who has every right to do so? Yes. To users, the updates look weirdly protective, and make the company seem dickish, which here, they kind of are.

It's like watching children locked in a yes/no argument over whether or not licorice tastes good, and both parties should just leave it. I don't say this because I prefer Palm users to be locked out of iTunes or something—it's just that that's where things stand right now, it's the status quo and devoting any more energy to this protracted fight would be a waste. Apple can ignore this, because it shouldn't matter to them, and Palm should tell Prefolk to sync with doubleTwist, because that works—now even with the Pixi—just fine. Thanks in advance! [PreCentral]

I just saw a selection of 30 dumb inventions in Life, and I couldn't resist picking my favorite ten. These things are so damn stupid they became obsolete before even becoming real products. It was hard to choose. After all, how could I leave out scientology nutcase L. Ron Hubbard and his Hubbard Electrometer, which in 1968 made him reach the conclusion that tomatoes "scream when sliced"?

See? Really hard.

Then I thought that these all looked weirdly familiar. I searched in Gizmodo, and instantly found their modern counterparts. Some of them make sense now, with current technology. Others, as you will see in the gallery, seem equally goofy. All of them, however, we can live without. Enjoy:

Clearly, humans are the only animals that trip twice over the same stone.

The issue Google takes with CyanogenMod isn't that it fundamentally changes Android—they're generally open to that, seeing as it's an open source project and all—but that the custom ROMs contain binaries of Google proprietary applications, like Maps, Talk and Gmail. Of course, this is a technicality, because the devices Cyanogen writes his customs ROMs for all ship with these apps in the first place. That's why Google's cease and desist spree seemed so silly, but also why it'll be so easy to legally circumvent. From Cyanogen:

Since I don't work with any of these closed source applications directly, what I intend to do is simply ship the next version of CyanogenMod as a "bare bones" ROM. You'll be able to make calls, MMS, take photos, etc. In order to get our beloved Google sync and applications back, you'll need to make a backup first. I'm working on an application that will do this for you.

I mean, I'm glad this won't amount to more than a small bump in the road for Cyanogen, but what exactly did Google accomplish here, aside from some hilariously bad PR?

UPDATE: A lot of folks in the comments are emphasizing that Google has good reason to uphold their copyright, if not just for precedent. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense, though, is why, given that they're so willing to communicate and cooperate with Cyanogen now, Google didn't just open a discussion in the first place, instead of sending him Cease and Desist letters. That was the bad PR. Discuss! [Cyanogen via Lifehacker]

This is totally uncorrelated a huge deal, according to the NYT, who managed to report nearly 400 words on this story without making a single joke. They even pestered Fox and AT&T for statements on the issue, getting the cold shoulder from the network and this response from the carrier:

In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.

Oh god. This goes all the way to the top, people. [NYT]

[Digg]

THIS IS NO JOKE...DO NOT BUY THIS APP AND APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THIS FROM THE APP STORE....APPLE MUST MUST MUST START TO SCREEN THESE FAKE APPS AND RIDICULOUS SCAMS.

Dear Lee5279xx,

No, Lee, this is not a scam. The application clearly said what it did and—if you are telling the truth—you went ahead and clicked on "BUY." That's not a scam. That's you being a moron.

Still, you've got a point. After all the fuss about only allowing good quality developers into the iPhone application store, the whole thing is loaded with crap. Crap with no real functionality, crap with bad design, crap with horrible icons. Except a few quality applications, the screening process is obviously useless. The I'm Rich application is just an extreme example that highlights what's wrong with the store, no matter how good it is in other aspects.

Still, dear Lee5279xx, we hope you can cancel that charge. Dummy.

Lots of love,
j.

[Digg, Thanks Marius]

Mounties corporal Scott Wilson defended his colleague's grandad-bashing actions. "Whether the person is 80 or 20, we are dealing with a person who had a deadly weapon in their hand. We could not deploy our ... pepper spray, because we could potentially contaminate the entire hospital."

Lasser, a former prison guard, reckons they overdid it, claiming that, with three Mounties in the room, they could have overpowered him without using a Taser. Lasser said there were three RCMP officers in his hospital room and believes they could have easily handled him without the use of a Taser. "I was laying on the bed by then and the corporal came in, or the sergeant, and said to the guys, 'OK, get him because we got more important work to do on the street tonight,'" he said.

"And then, bang, bang, bang, three times with the laser, and I tell you, I never want that again." That'll teach him to bring a knife to hospital, then. [CBC News via Dvorak]

Lukas Aider and Christoph Kurtz had fished out the 13-pound deadly "Frisbee" while they were splashing around in the Danube. Unaware of the danger they were in, the two students started messing around with the weapon, and it was only when a policeman appeared, alerted by a lifeguard, that they stopped their game of death.

Bomb disposal experts were later called to make the Frisbee safe. [Ananova via With Leather]

During a dinner with a very old friend, who happens to be an anonymous designer at Apple...when my dad mentioned his plans to get two large flat screen monitors side by side for his macpro, the designer said wait just 2 years, then...proceeded to demonstrate the multi-touch screen of the iPhone.

a) the inverse relationship of proper ergonomics and proper viewing distance on such a setup b) unnecessary exercise c) being punished in grade school for flying paper airplanes by having to clean the chalkboards after school. It sucked.

I like my trackpad. I never have to take my hands off the keyboard to move my pointer. It is the virtual fulcrum of the stone-heaving work that is bloggistry. Don't make me compute the way they're done in meatspace, please. Well, beyond the iPhone's finger flick, and Wiimote that is.

I don't know if Steve would launch something like this without doing a gut check on how useful the tech would be, first. Maybe, it will be left as another secret in the catacombs of the Apple Design Labs.–Brian Lam

If you hate your laptop and it's completely insured, get yourself one of these. Unless you're planning some computing sessions at the North Pole, this is definitely one of the dumbest ways to spend $25 we've seen in a long, long time. This is a joke, right? – Charlie White

Product Page [Lapstyle]