i recently bought two things i thought i would NEVER buy

there was never a maybe in the equation. it was always a HELL NO, i'd NEVER buy one of THOSE things.

one is a kindle and the other is an itouch (yeah, i got that from amazon too. it was a few bucks cheaper. don't know why, but it was)

both items have been in the news of late, and NOT in a good way

(to paraphrase alice, the farther we get the behinder we are)

Amazon zaps purchased copies of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder
People who bought Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version, and Amazon caved into their demand to sneak into people's electronic libraries and take back the book at the publisher's request. ........


they DID apologize though (from july 23rd) :
Bezos apologizes for Kindle 1984 memory hole blunder
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder
Posted today on the Kindle Community page at Amazon.com:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Why The FCC Wants To Smash Open the IPhone

Erick Schonfeld

TechCrunch.com

Right about now, Apple probably wishes it had never rejected Google Voice and related apps from the iPhone. Or maybe it was AT&T who rejected the apps. Nobody really knows. But the FCC launched an investigation last night to find out, sending letters to all three companies (Apple, AT&T, and Google) asking them to explain exactly what happened.

On its face, it might seem odd to some people that the FCC is investigating the rejection of a single iPhone app. After all, iPhone apps are rejected every day. But the Google Voice rejection caused an unusual amount of uproar, and there is nothing like a high-profile case to make an example out of in pursuit of pushing a bigger policy agenda. The FCC investigation is not just about the arbitrary rejection of a single app. It is the FCC's way of putting a stake in the ground for making the wireless networks controlled by cell phone carriers as open as the Internet.........