David Smith offers a wrapper for developers to use when asking for Address Book permissions. Simple and easy.

The recent controversy regarding address book data in iOS got me thinking about how difficult it is for developers to take reasonable steps to protect user data. If it posed a significant developmental challenge then it would at least be understandable, though still inexcusable, for app makers to ignore best-practices.

Hopefully the recent flap about privacy concerns will reinforce the value of taking the extra step to follow best-practices.

Rene Ritchie offers a very cool mockup of how Apple could better handle app permissions in iOS 6. Perhaps surprisingly, the motivation is derived from Android. I like it. A lot.

They’ve used Privacy as a differentiator from the competition in the past, and Notifications and Location Services in iOS 5 are a huge leap forward when it comes to granularity and usability. Hopefully Apple brings it all together, and gathers up the loose ends like Contacts, in iOS 6.

Federico Viticci looks at the current debate surrounding exactly how to define the iPad in relation to the incumbent PC market.

The big problem with this entire controversy, I think, is that the iPad is inherently personal but some people want it to be more like a personal computer, as in the old definition of personal computer from the ’90s, thus the confusion among bloggers and analysts.

Viticci, through an exhaustive archive of articles since iPad’s launch, offers his theory on what a post-PC device means. The qualities of the device include focused use, speed, productivity, efficiency, and intimacy. Limitations must be considered in context and do not themselves necessarily preclude the iPad from being considered a personal computer.

In his conclusion, I think Viticci nails it:

When I asked them if they thought the iPad could be a personal computer, the common response was that such a device allowed them to do the same things as before, in a new way, without the constraints of a “real” PC. Ultimately, these people echoed the underlying sentiment of my research: it’s personal, but it goes beyond a PC.

Oklahoma State GOP Senator, Josh Brecheen, introduced SB 1742 - a bill that attacks climate change and evolution.

In other words, this bill is covertly requiring the state board of education to encourage schools to teach opposing views of climate change and evolution even though those opposing views have no scientific facts to stand on.

I’m thinking of drafting a bill that forces educators to teach the opposing views on smoking cessation, AIDS, and racism.

That would be absurd, right? Forcing equal coverage of one-sided topics means you waste half of your time.

I’m reminded of a quote from Isaac Asimov:

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’

That’s the headline ESPN.com used for a story involving Jeremy Lin last night. Keep it classy.

Matt Gemmell astutely describes¹ what is wrong with the music and movie industries.

Give us convenient content at a reasonable price, and we’ll buy it. Sell the stuff without DRM, for a few dollars. Make it available to everyone, worldwide, at the same time. Then take the massive, unending pile of money, forever.

Gemmell echoes what I said in response to RIAA’s whining that SOPA failed:

These jackasses still don’t get it. Do you know why Apple’s iTunes succeeded in the face of piracy? Because they made it easier to just buy the content. They treated customers like, well, paying customers.

Very cool design-process summary from Teehan+Lax. Their goal was to produce typographic portraits - something usually limited to client-side applications - within a web browser.

Their big takeaway:

Frame your UI’s in the browser – let the cloud do the work.

As in real life, I particularly like Helvetica.

In 1974, Andy Warhol interviewed Alfred Hitchcock. Fascinating.

Well it depends whether you’ve disposed of the first body. That is a slight problem. After you’ve committed your first murder.

Jim Dalrymple offers evidence that those protesting Apple’s supplier conditions in China are not acting on principle and are retroactively claiming credit for change that they did not influence.

So the protesters did nothing. They got some attention for a couple of days, but when it came right down to it, they went for the sexy headline instead of actually doing anything substantive.