Iran-ternet

This is big. Iran, it seems, is going to build its own isolated intranet and all but cut its citizens off from access to the real, worldwide Internet:

Millions of Internet users in Iran will be permanently denied access to the World Wide Web and cut off from popular social networking sites and email services, as the government has announced its plans to establish a national Intranet within five months.

This is unprecedented for any nation with readily available Internet access. Here's hoping the plan falls apart.

Sanitizing Cell Phones

A cell phone, rather obviously, should be one of the germiest things we use. Between times we pull out our phones, we touch door handles, shake hands and so on. Now some inventive folks are trying to create a special UV sanitizer just for cell phones. The nifty thing is that this device avoids making UV sanitation an extra step by combining cleaning and charging into one process. Intriguing.

From the site:

Wired put it best when they said, “The irradiated warmth of a cellphone's interior is a vile, germ-infested bath loaded with more pathogens than any surface in your home.” The difference from your cell phone and everything else around you is that your cell phones is a safe-haven for bacteria. Their warmth allows bacteria to continue to live and to continue to reproduce!

The inventors have set their Kickstarter fundraising goal at $18,000 for production to begin.

Quest Mode

While you still can, you should visit Google Maps and try the “Quest” mode. It shows to how great an extent the company is willing to go to for a good April Fools Joke.

Lenovo Shows Apple How It's Done

People often get upset at Apple for suing companies that borrow design ideas from the Mac maker. That's why it is refreshing to see Lenovo has new laptops headed our way that are completely innovative in their appearance. No one would ever confuse this for a MacBook Pro. Note, for example, the location of the power button.

Mr. Bezos Goes Fishing

Alicia Chang reports for the AP:

An undersea expedition spearheaded by Bezos used sonar to find what he said were the F-1 engines located 14,000 feet deep. In an online announcement Wednesday, the Amazon.com CEO and founder said he is drawing up plans to recover the sunken engines, part of the mighty Saturn V rocket that launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their moon mission.

Intriguing.

iOS vs. Android Update Adoption

David Smith breaks it down:

Looking just at the OTA eligible users we again see a promising future for iOS developers. Nearly 80% of users are on the latest version within 15 days.

That compares to just 61.5% of users being on a version of Android released last year. This is in no small part because so many Android phones cannot be easily upgraded.

HT: Gruber

iPads: Get 'Em While They're Hot!

Marco Arment highlights some disturbing reporting maneuvers made by Consumer Reports in an article on the new iPad.

CS 6

Assuming that Adobe hasn't managed to make Photoshop even slower, CS 6 looks very promising.

Give it Back to the Shareholders

Interesting. Michael Dell famously said in 1997 that if he were Steve Jobs he would shut Apple down and give the money back to the shareholders. Dustin Curtis points out that Apple's newly announced quarterly dividend will pay out approximately equivalent of Apple's 1997 market cap every quarter.

On Apple's Cash

What could they be planning tomorrow? Perhaps a dividend would be appropriate, but I think it would be wise for them to keep most of their massive $100 billion cash pile in reserve for a rainy day or a helpful major acquisition.