Apple Unveils iCloud

At today's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs gave up the details of the company's much-discussed cloud-based music service.

The new iCloud service replaces Apple's MobileMe document-sharing offering, which cost $99 a year. The new iCloud service is free and available now with an iOS 4.3 update, Jobs said. With iCloud, content such as music and documents is stored on large servers instead of on personal hard drives—and is accessible from anywhere through the Internet. Apple will provide 5 gigabytes of free storage for mail, documents and backup. The new iCloud service is Apple's seal of approval of what many experts believe is the next major iteration of the digital world.

CHINA: Teen Sells Kidney For iPad

A teenager in China reportedly sold one of his kidneys on the black market in order to buy himself an iPad.

The 17-year-old, identified only as Little Zheng, told a local TV station he had arranged the sale of the kidney over the internet.The story only came to light after the teenager's mother became suspicious. The case highlights China's black market in organ trafficking. A scarcity of organ donors has led to a flourishing trade. It all started when the high school student saw an online advert offering money to organ donors. Illegal agents organised a trip to the hospital and paid him $3,392 (£2,077) after the operation. With the cash the student bought an iPad 2, as well as a laptop. When his mother noticed the computers and the deep red scar on his body, which was caused by the surgery, Little Zheng confessed.

Seems About Right

(Source)

Apple To Launch iCloud

Apple is set to launch a cloud-based music player that will scan a user's home iTunes library and then make those tracks available from any web device.

Apple has signed deals with Warner Music Group Corp., Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Group Ltd. and expects to sign a fourth with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group this week. The agreements will let Apple offer an easy way for consumers to create and listen online to their entire music collections, without the time-consuming work of manually transferring or uploading songs. Many in the music industry see such offerings as a key next step in the evolution of digital media, in which music, and eventually video, is convenient and ubiquitous. Apple wouldn't be the first company to offer such a service, but its standing as the world's largest music retailer and more than 200 million iTunes accounts would give it clout that others have lacked.

The cost of the service has not yet been disclosed.

Apple Passes 500,000 Apps

(Source)

Press Release Of The Day

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Seriously?

The popular Cult Of Mac tech blog is polling its readers as to whether Apple should have allowed its employees to make an It Gets Better video. This is too asinine to even call for a freeping, but hit the link if you want to bother.

(Tipped by JMG reader JM)

Apple Employees: It Gets Better

Microsoft To Kill The Zune

I'm just surprised that it lasted five years.

Truth Wins Out Launches Petition To Remove "Ex-Gay" App From iPhone

Truth Wins Out, the organization that fights the "ex-gay" movement, has launched a petition calling on Apple to remove Exodus International's new iPhone app.

This new iPhone app is the latest move in Exodus’ dangerous new strategy of targeting youth. In light of the recent wave of LGBT youth suicides, this tactic is particularly galling as it creates, legitimizes, and fuels the ostracism of LGBT youth by their families. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, LGBT teens who experienced negative feedback from their family were 8 times more likely to have attempted suicide, 6 times as vulnerable to severe depression, and 3 times more likely to use drugs (Caitlin Ryan, San Francisco State University, June 2009). Apple doesn’t allow racist or anti-Semitic apps in its app store, yet it gives the green light to an app targeting vulnerable LGBT youth with the message that their sexual orientation is a “sin that will make your heart sick” and a “counterfeit.” This is a double standard that has the potential for devastating consequences. Apple needs to be told, loud and clear, that this is unacceptable. Stand with Truth Wins Out — demand that the iTunes store stop supporting homophobia and remove the Exodus app.

Sign the petition here.

It's A Tablet World

"Just another 'solution' in search of a need."

(Via - Andrew Sullivan)

Steve Jobs Unveils iPad 2

An Update Is Available

(Source)

Chuck Colson: We Won't Stop Until Apple Ends Its Censorship Of Christians

Even though the iPhone app store boasts literally hundreds of Christianity-related items, Manhattan Declaration co-author and convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson says his group will continue to battle Steve Jobs for "censoring Christians."

Unicorns Are Real

The release of long-believed to be mythical Verizon iPhone was announced today.

Apple Rejects Anti-Gay Manhattan Declaration iPhone App For Second Time

The second attempt to get Apple to accept a retweaked version of the anti-gay Manhattan Declaration iPhone app has failed. And the Christianists are so not happy.

"Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple's statement amounts to the charge that our faith is 'potentially harmful to others,'" a statement at ManhattanDeclaration.org reads. "It is difficult to see how this is anything other than a statement of animus by a major American corporation against the beliefs of millions of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox citizens. The statement adds, "It is our sincere hope that Apple will draw back from this divisive and deeply offensive position. The corporation's leaders must be made to understand that they do the country no good service in capitulating to efforts to stigmatize, marginalize or defame people on one side or the other in important moral debates."

The Manhattan Declaration asks its signees to vow to civilly disobey any law that grants LGBT rights. Its authors say they will make a third run at Apple in the new year. Oh, and they'll need you to send them LOTS OF MONEY for that.

iPhone App Of The Year

OK, this one kinda blows my mind.

(Via - The Daily What)

GLAAD Action Alert: Tell Apple To Stay Strong On The Manhattan Declaration

Two weeks ago, I asked to you to use the Family Research Council's own link to thank Apple for keeping the Manhattan Declaration app off the iPhone. (And thousands of you did.) Responding to yesterday's video from NOM, today GLAAD echoes that request.

The 'Manhattan Declaration' calls gay and lesbian couples "immoral," it calls the recognition of their relationships "false and destructive," and claims that allowing them to be married will lead to "genuine social harms." The original application also contained a quiz in which the "right" answers were those that oppose equality for gay and lesbian people. This application fuels a climate in which gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are put in harm's way. Apple did the right thing in recognizing that this application violates the company's guidelines. Join GLAAD in thanking Apple for their action to remove the app and urging them to stay strong in the face of anti-gay activism.

Sign GLAAD's petition to Apple.

New NOM Ad Slams Apple's Steve Jobs Over Banned Manhattan Declaration App

Hate groups are being relentless in their campaign to see the anti-gay Manhattan Declaration app restored to the iPhone. Signers of the Declaration vow to disobey any laws that protect LGBT Americans from discrimination.

(Tipped by JMG reader Christopher)

Manhattan Declaration Authors Beg For Money To Continue Their Battle With Apple

Saying that gay activists have forced them to redesign their iPhone app, the backers of the Manhattan Declaration today asked for more donations.

This controversy has caused us a lot of unanticipated expenses: The servers of the Manhattan Declaration website couldn't handle the crush of visitors to the site, so we had to upgrade the servers; we engaged in a public relations battle-a battle we had to win. By the way, we placed an op-ed with the San Francisco Chronicle-right in Apple's back yard. We have also had to pay to re-design the app. The questionnaire that we included in the app was a lightning rod for gay activists, so we deleted the questionnaire. All of this has put us behind budget by $30,000.

As you know, we operate on a shoestring, depending on ministries and organizations to donate their employees' time. But we must meet these unexpected expenses we just mentioned. We don't have any choice but to carry on this fight and win it. If Apple can arbitrarily block the Manhattan Declaration from its app store, then it can do so with any organization that bases its work on the Bible. I truly believe that the Manhattan Declaration was targeted by activists as a test case. If they succeed this time, they will be emboldened to target others.

RELATED: From Manhattan Declaration co-author Chuck Colson's op-ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle:

If the Manhattan Declaration's positions are offensive, then so are those of mainstream Christianity for the past 2,000 years. There is no doubt that the half a million signers of the Manhattan Declaration - along with the 50-plus Catholic bishops, numerous evangelical leaders and the metropolitan of the American Orthodox Church - would disagree strongly with those who support same-sex marriage. But disagreement is not hate. If the Manhattan Declaration's positions alone are enough to have its app removed, then I have to wonder whether Apple is considering removing other Bible-based - or even Jewish or Islamic - apps from its store.

Signers of the document vow to "civilly disobey" any law granting discrimination protections to LGBT Americans.