Jay Haynes

iPhone 1.1.1 allows surfing while calling

Apple.

I am pretty sure I couldn't surf on a Wi-Fi network while on an Edge call with v1.0, but I can now.

Very nice.

Sept. 27, 1941: First Liberty Ship

Wired.

Liberty Ship Way still exists in Sausalito, where the Pacific ships were built.

Originally referred to as "emergency vessels," these cargo ships were among the first to be mass-produced. Numbers were critical as the Allies hustled to recover from the staggering losses wrought by German submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic. These vessels became known as Liberty ships after President Roosevelt, christening the Patrick Henry, quoted the ship's namesake: "Give me liberty, or give me death."

New music economics

Wired.

"Never before in the history of content has the hardware been more valuable than the software," Bronfman said. "You think about the VCR or the video cassette -- the video cassette always had more value than the VCR that you shoved it into. Apple has been able to turn that model on its head."

Vista: the worst product launch ever

Wow. CNET News.com.

While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.

The program applies only to Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions, and it is up to PC makers to decide how, if at all, they want to make XP available.

What we already knew

WSJ.

But Mr. Greenspan discovered that in the Bush White House, the "political operation was far more dominant" than in Mr. Ford's. "Little value was placed on rigorous economic policy debate or the weighing of long-term consequences," he writes.

Heaven: the Mac at sea

The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Running MacENC navigation software, this Mac mini is hooked up to a GPS reciever, waterproof display and waterproof touchpad to give real-time marine navigational charts to Bob Etter, the enterprising sailor who built it. I think this nice piece of nautical Mac kit is clearly worth a TUAW Rig of the Week nod.

1 million iPhones

Cult of Mac.

How long did it take to sell 1 million iPods? According to official sales data, Apple didn’t pass the psychological barrier until July 2003, almost 21 months after the company first put 1,000 songs in our pockets. It took eight times as long, and for a device that was cheaper, didn’t require a subscription and was going after a completely unclaimed market, whereas the iPhone is aiming for the strengths of the mobile handset market.

Now, the first iPod was only available for Macs, but even the first quarter of the 3G iPod that finally got Apple over the one million hump only included 304,000 iPods sold, despite being designed for Windows. No matter how you slice it, the iPhone has been a break-out hit from day one. And with the price finally in line with the competition, the future’s only looking better.

Daring Economics

Daring Fireball.

Economics professors have a standard game they use to demonstrate how apparently rational decisions can create a disastrous result. They call it a “dollar auction.” The rules are simple. The professor offers a dollar for sale to the highest bidder, with only one wrinkle: the second-highest bidder has to pay up on their losing bid as well. Several students almost always get sucked in.

A beautiful tribute to Anita

From my friend Andy Sack.

Anita was awesome. An inspiration to listen to and a true visionary. Fun to be around. She also was a bit kooky and crazy -- but I've always had a soft spot for kooky, crazy and passionate women. I will miss her. I think the world would be a better place if there more people like Anita :-). Goodbye Anita.

My friend Mark making a difference

New York Times.

Mark Tribe, an artist and assistant professor of modern culture and media studies at Brown University, has organized a series of such re-enactments at sites where important speeches of the New Left originally took place, and he says his intention was precisely to create such a strange cultural and political straddle. The goal was to use the speeches not just as historical ready-mades or conceptual-art explorations of context, he said, but also maybe as a genuine form of protest, to point out with the help of art how much has changed, yet how much remains the same.