It was a busy day in the world of Apple, and all stuff that was just too interesting for us to pass up commenting on all of it.  Perhaps we aren’t as positive as you might expect, but isn’t it more fun when we take the counter argument?

• iTunes 10 Gets A New Logo And Social Features
• The 2010 iPods Are Unleashed
• Apple TV Receives Major Update

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Working in the world of tech blogging, I have to write about pretty much all of the companies out there, but I have discovered that any time I say anything positive about Apple, I am immediately labeled an “Apple fanboy”, and anything I have to say is dismissed out of hand.

Huh … funny I’m writing this on one of my many Windows-based machines.  Oh, and my Android-based HTC Hero is laying in front of my keyboard.

I’m currently sitting in my office at work and thought I would list all of the computers this “Apple Fanboy” works with:

• I have two totally separate Windows-based towers, both running Windows XP SP 2, here at work.
• Behind me is computer running Windows Me which I only use on occasion as a file server.
• There are four other computers in this room, all running Windows XP SP 2.
• My main laptop is running Windows 7 Professional, which is my newest computer, and I have to say I am loving Windows 7.
• My backup laptop is running Windows XP SP 2.
• My parents, whom I equip their computers for them, have a Windows 7 Home-based laptop and a Netbook running Ubuntu.
• There are other laptops in various states of usability, all running Windows XP SP 2.

Now, as for my Apple products:

• I have a 160 GB iPod Classic
• A 1st generation iPod Touch, which I bought used off of a friend when he switched to a first gen iPhone.  Yes, I have the Touch since about 3 months after launch.
• A 32 GB Wi-Fi iPad … which I also bought used off a friend when he decided he wanted a 3G version.
• A 27″ 2010 iMac.  This is my first ever Mac … as in I bought it at the last refresh.

As I stated earlier, I carry an HTC Hero phone, and before those I carried various models of BlackBerry handsets.  I have never owned an iPhone.  I hate AT&T and I have this funny habit of liking to be able to make phone calls that don’t get dropped because I held the phone in the wrong way.

You know what I’m a “fanboy” of?  Technology.  Plain and simple, I love technology.  I use the tech that best suits my needs, and I don’t really care who makes it.  The only reason I bought an iMac is I’m getting into more media production, and Macs are hard to dispute for their ability to produce and edit audio & video.  I don’t even turn it on on the days I don’t have any editing to do, there’s no point as I’m still much more comfortable in a Microsoft environment.

People have tried to convince me for ages I should buy a MacBook Pro, but I think they are horrendously over-priced.  I always hear the argument, “but they last longer!”  So?  It is still a huge amount of money to lay out initially, and at the speed with which I break down laptop keyboards I can buy three Microsoft laptops for the same price.

If I am guilty of being a “fanboy” to anything related to Apple, it is that I’m a fanboy of Steve Jobs.  I think the man is a marketing genius, and I fully expect there to be courses taught someday in the future over his business decisions.  He pulled Apple from the brink of bankruptcy to become one of the biggest companies in the country with revenues in the billions each quarter.  How can you not respect that?

For whatever reason, this silly Microsoft/Apple war still rages, and humans, for whatever reason, feel the need to label everything in this world.  Nothing can be ambiguous.  What does it really matter what equipment I use?  What does it matter what I’m a fan of?

Oh, in case you think I am always positive about Apple?  Check out the MacBook Paper post I wrote after the introduction of the MacBook Air.  Yeah, I thought the Air was silly, and I still do.

I suppose there are worse things to be called then an “Apple fanboy” — and oh, I’ve been called most of them — but this one truly puzzles me every time someone says it.  My next computer?  A Windows 7 desktop.  I love it on my laptop, and can’t wait to get it on my desktop, but I’m sure that in spite of that, the next time I say something positive about Apple the “fanboy” term will be thrown in my face again.

Bring it on.  It amuses me.

Okay, the definition of “star” is getting stretched a bit thin on Dancing With the Stars this season …

The eleventh season of Dancing With the Stars kicks off on Sept. 20th and this latest round of “stars” leaves a lot to be desired.  The Spring 2010 season at least had a few more people I’ve heard of, or at least considered “stars” of some definition as opposed to “daughter of famous person.”  That isn’t to say I’m commenting on their family in any way, but seriously, how do you define her as “a star”?  I have to say I’m puzzled by that one.

Anyway, here is a list of all the stars and which professionals they are teamed up with.

Update 9/1/10: Updated the dancers to the official list.  Edyta Sliwinska has left the show.

Some quick facts on each:

• Michael Bolton is probably best known for being the butt of jokes about the music industry as opposed to being known as a musician.
• Margaret Cho is a well-known comedienne with an extremely dirty mouth.
• Rick Fox is a former basketball player and is currently dating Eliza Dushku of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse.
• Jennifer Gray was in Dirty Dancing.
• David Hasselhoff … come on … you know who he is.
• Florence Henderson was Mrs. Brady on The Brady Bunch.
• Kyle Massey … a rapper supposedly, never heard of him.
• Brandy Norwood had a big singing career in the 1990′s.
• Bristol Palin … I’m still trying to figure this one out.
• Audrina Patridge was on The Hills.
• The Situation is from The Jersey Shore on MTV.
• Kurt Warner was a football player.

This has to be the least interesting cast in ages.

Ah, Monday … the day Steven torments me to the point my brains pour out of my ears.

• Hair Dryer Made by Ferrari Engineers – Neatorama
• Cell Phones for Babies – Random Good Stuff
• Twournal: Turn your Twitter stream into a printed journal – The Next Web Apps
• Tapi, So You Don’t Have To Drink From The Faucet Like A Cat – CrunchGear
• Nose Flute – Random Good Stuff
• SnazzyNapper: Use It While Driving To Clear Out the Gene Pool! – CrunchGear
• Flamethrower Trombone – Neatorama
• Dog Yoga – Neatorama

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And the added bonus image …

The 2010 Emmys have come to an end and … I tried to watch live, couldn’t stand Jimmy Fallon and ended up waiting until the show was over and fast forwarded through any time he was on screen. It made for a more pleasant viewing experience.

So the network tallies for this year, including the Creative Arts Emmys from last week, are:

• HBO – 25
• ABC – 18
• Fox – 11
• CBS – 10
• NBC – 8
• PBS – 7
• Showtime – 7
• AMC – 6

The tallies for series/specials go as follows:

• The Pacific – 8
• Temple Grandin – 7
• Modern Family – 6
• Disney Prep and Landing – 4
• Glee – 4
• Mad Men – 4
• SNL – 3
• 24 – 2
• Breaking Bad – 2
• CSI – 2
• Dancing With the Stars – 2
• Dexter – 2

You can look back at the complete list of nominees here, as for the primetime winners, check them out at the “Continue Reading” link.

Continue Reading ->

This week brings you 48 posts from the desk of Sean P. Aune … it’s true, my desk writes all of my posts.

FiveMinutePhotographer.com

• Don’t Buy Too Much Camera

FunJug.com

• Drunk History vol. 4 – Featuring Paul Schneider
• 2 Fails Cancel Each Other Out
• Weather man gives everyone the finger
• SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE MATRIX
• Pee-wee Goes to Sturgis
• You Again Cast Fight
• True Blood in 60 Seconds

Mobile.BLORGE.com

• Top 40 best free iPhone 4 games

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Sony introduces A560 and A580 DSLRs with HD video shooting

RememberingChristmas.com

• Pandora Adds Free Christmas Music All Year Round

SeanPAune.com

• 2010 Emmy Winners List: Creative Arts
• Philadelphia Targets Bloggers For Licensing
• The Walking Dead Trailer
• New iPods Coming Sept. 1st
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 131: Yes we’re still alive
• James Cameron Is An Ass
• Braindead Techcast Ep 132: Smokin’ the double rainbow
• Scattercast #110: Sexycast
• Braindead Techcast Ep 133: Techmeme Friday stretching it for the funny
• Teacher That Pled Guilty To Inappropriate Touching Returns To Classroom

SpookieBits.com

• Why Isn’t There More Halloween Music?

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Kevin Rose spills possible details on Apple’s iTV
• Apple may be adding iOS to Macs
• Rumor: Apple striking deals for TV episode rentals
• What to expect from Apple’s Sept. 1st event
• Facebook wants to control the words “Face” and “Book”

TechnoBuffalo.com

• John Mellencamp Compares The Internet To An Atom Bomb
• Avatar Re-Release Is The Ultimate Argument For The Death Of Physical Media
• An Inforgraphic: Google Flops & Failures – The Failed Google Graveyard
• Rumor: Kevin Rose Lets Loose With iTV Details
• Report: Virgin Mobile Getting Unlimited Pre-Paid Broadband
• Report: Apple Files Patent In Europe For iMac Running iOS
• Blockbuster Is Delusional About Its Future
• Dish Network Launching Streaming Content
• Paid TV Subscriptions In The U.S. Drop
• Pandora Adds Genre Stations
• Report: Apple To Rent TV Shows For $.99
• Apple “Special Event” Coming Sept. 1st
• Gmail Gets Google Voice Integration; Is Skype Scared Yet?
• Toshiba Working On Glasses-Free 3D TV Sets
• Netflix Comes To The iPhone And iPod Touch
• Facebook Suing To Control The Word “Book”
• Google’s Android OS Is A Mess
• Flashback Friday: Apple Introduces The iPod Shuffle
• Blockbuster To File For Bankruptcy In December
• Rumors Of iPod Redesigns Circulate Before Sept. 1 Apple Event
• iTunes App Store Passes 250,000 App Milestone

Apparently these is absolutely no limit to what governments think they can tax, but when a state passes a tax that is so obviously directed at one city, it just becomes insulting.

State legislators in Albany, New York decided to classify a sliced bagel as a “prepared food”.  This means that if you go into a bakery and buy a bagel whole, there is no tax on it, but if you ask them to slice it for you it turns into a prepared food and that means it will receive roughly $.08 in tax.  If you choose to eat the bagel in the store, sliced or un-sliced, that is also an $.08 tax.  However, if you buy a loaf of bread from bakery and have it sliced … no tax.

Huh?

How is slicing a bagel different than slicing a loaf of bread?  Well, I’ll tell you how, and it is what really got my ire up even more so than just the tax.

When you think New York City, bagels almost immediately pop into mind.  It is one food that is almost synonymous with the city, just as is their pizza by the slice.  However, if you go into other parts of New York state, sure you can find bagels, but there is no where near the proliferation you will find in the city.  Now, loaves of bread?  Well, those are sold everywhere under the sun and … you get the idea.

Essentially New York state legislators just taxed New York City for its love of a food that it is known for.  Yes, there will be instances of it happening outside of the five Burroughs, but nowhere near the amount of tax that can be collected just off of the city proper.

Way to go New York, you almost rank up there with Philadelphia now with its blogger license.

Wouldn’t you think that a teacher that pled guilty to multiple counts of inappropriately touching his female students might lose his job? Well, you’d be wrong it seems if he’s a teacher at Morton Middle School in Morton, WA.

Michael Moulton, a History and Study Skills teacher, returned to the his classroom this week to get ready for the school year.  The problem is that Mr. Moulton was recently fired after he pled guilty to inappropriately touching four female students, and then served 20 days in county jail.  Court documents demonstrated that Mr. Moulton had had complaints filed against him as far back as 1997, with more complaints in 2005 and a disciplinary letter in 2008 with his final number of complaints against him for inappropriate touching coming to a dozen.

With his jail time served it would seem all was done, but then he decided to appeal his firing and it was ruled that the punishment did not fit the crime and the school was forced to rehire him.  Two families have moved out of the district over the situation and 23 other students have had their families pull them out of his class.

The Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is investigating this case, and they could dismiss the case against the teacher, discipline the teacher or permanently revoke his teaching credential.

Well, here’s an idea, when the teacher pleads guilty, and there is even documentation of a girl being sent to detention for screaming to “get his expletive hands off of me!” when he wanted stop rubbing her shoulders even after she asked, you fire the man.  And, I’m sorry, but he pled guilty, to me that is immediate grounds for dismissal.  He pleads guilty, and serves time, for one of the worst things a teacher can do to his students and he gets to come back because some panel decides his punishment was too harsh

I’m sorry, but you are flipping morons.  He pled guilty … how many different ways can I say this?  This man does not need to be anywhere near a classroom ever again.  This is one of those situations where you get one strike and you’re out.  Not two, not three, but just one as this man should never be allwed another chance to make a student uncomfortable.

He is scum, and he must be removed from the classroom immediately.

(Hat tip to Jo for pointing this out to me)

This had to be the most boring week of Techmeme Friday ever, but it isn’t our fault the headlines all sucked.  We made the most of it we could … and did a good job if I do say so myself.

• Paul Allen Sues Apple, Others Over Patents – Wall Street Journal
• Google buys Angstro and hires founder to help build social networking service – L.A. Times Tech Blog
• Find out what’s hot on search with the Google Beat – Official Google Blog
• Condé Nast, I’m publicly offering to buy Reddit. – Ben Huh
• In protest, Reddit rolls its own pot ads – CNET News
• Fennec Alpha Released for Android and Nokia N900 – Mozilla Blog
• Six Things Google’s Free Phone Service Can’t Do (and One It Does Very Well) – Gadgetwise
• Digg Responds to User Outrage: Upcoming Stories Will Return – ReadWriteWeb
• Einstein Would Have Used a Mac.  John Lennon, Too. – Digital Daily
• Patent Suit Day Continues: Microsoft Takes Fight With i4i Over XML To The Supreme Court – TechCrunch
• Clearwire Confirms New ‘Pay As You Go’ Service Is Coming – mocoNews
• Are Wikileaks Activists Finally Realizing Their Founder Is a Megalomaniac? – Gawker

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It’s episode #110 of Scattercast and I’m bringin’ … oh you know the rest.

AC is still broke, but I get back to a bed finally.

Tech, tech and more tech this week.

I know the sound is a little off this episode, but I just changed computers and I need to do some adjustments. Will hopefully have it sorted out by next week.

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subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

It’s a very double rainbow kind of night where we discuss pot, faces and books … and, oh yeah, pot.

• Social media for pot smokers – Jason Kottke
• Yahoo Sells Hotjobs To Monster, Protects Their Users – gHacks
• Guess Who Is Trying To Trademark The Word “Face”? (And Guess Who Is Trying To Stop It?) – TechCrunch

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You know, there comes a point where milking your audience for possible cent reaches a point of absurdity.

James Cameron’s Avatar broke every box office record, and when it came to DVD in April it followed suit selling record numbers.  If you just wanted a copy of the theatrical release, good for you, but if you wanted more features, here they come.

The extended edition of the film in theaters this weekend contain 8.5 minutes of extra footage.  One of the scenes is the much discussed sex scene, which is not at all graphic, but it does show show how the Na’vi share intimacy.  This scene alone may drive people to the theater.

So, of course there should be another DVD coming, right?  Yep, in November.  Oh, and it will have the 8.5 minutes of the special edition, and almost another eight beyond that for a total of 16 minutes.  So, if you see the new version in the theater, you still will want the DVD for an even more complete version.  Then a 3D disc is expected sometime in 2011 bringing the total of home video releases to three.

People say Star Wars creator George Lucas is bad?  I don’t think he’s ever released three different home video versions in about a year and a half.  Nope, that’s all a new James Cameron ploy.  Apparently he thinks his fans are made of money.

Oh well, still happy I haven’t seen this movie nor do I plan to.