Ars Technica reports that Apple is internally acknowledging that the 27″ iMac still has…issues. Flickering video and cracked glass have been reported by users, and Apple has never publicly commented on those problems. As the piece says, “Obviously it’s not something you want to see when you’ve just spent $1,700 or more on a new computer.”  That would be a true statement.

That’s the word here. In a statement on the Kindle Community site, they laid it out.

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

That’s the question posed by Joe Wilcox. He was about to pay $155 to renew an online subscription to WSJ. Excuse me? I can’t imagine why you would need that. Between Google Reader and the many RSS feeds I have on my iGoogle “Tech” tab, I know I wouldn’t have need for such a thing. This is a very slippery slope Rupert and friends are walking. The genie is long out of the bottle.  If you close off one news source behind a pay wall (Newsday, ahem) there are a ton of other news sites out there for free.

If you have the “Google Search” Labs feature enabled in Gmail, you will now see a small G icon in the compose window.  That pops out a search box you can use simultaneously.

Why is a naked Obama ogling an iPad? I have absolutely no idea. The Washington Post doesn’t understand it, either. The cartoonist is Romanian, that must be it.

In an Apple town hall meeting this week following the iPad reveal, El Jobso allowed his underlings to collectively enter his presence. He covered a variety of topics, and one of them happened to be…Google. From Wired:

We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s BS.” Audience roars.

BRITISH SUMMER CLUB by Sundae Club

A splendid mix of psychedelic sounds, electronic beats, pop hooks, detached ambient soliloquies, references to Pink Floyd, Small Faces and Electric Light Orchestra, something to beat the winter blues. Download here, don’t be afraid to cough up a donation, even it is free.

Perhaps. Apple isn’t being specific about what features have got the FCC’s

Sigh ... did the iPhone have to jump through these hoops, lemme tell you ...

knickers in a twist. Perhaps neither is the FCC.

High on a hill somewhere on the skirts of Cupertino

Time to dip into Uncle Scrooge’s money bin, I guess … sigh. I’m sure the accountants can write this off as part of the costs of doing business.

The big, big, big surprise is that no one didn’t fucking riot when Steve Jobs announced it was doubling down and sticking with AT&T for both the WiFi and 3G for its beloved iPad.  I would have expected everyone to have rushed the stage and burn him at the stake.

This didn't happen, amazing, huh?

Was everyone in a coma? Did Moshe pump nitrous oxide into the auditorium? Was the Reality Distortion Field hyped up to infinity plus one, so the crowd didn’t personally tear Jobs  into 2700 little pieces that no bar of Lever soap would ever wash again? Hello, wake up, people! This is AT&T we’re talking about. The iPad prototype I had worked exclusively on Verizon’s experimental 4G network.

MONEY IS HONEY, BLOOM!

So, what gives? Money, honey. Despite the lousy service, people still bought iPhones and still bought AT&T’s lousy service, which Apple gets quite a kickback. It was one of AT&T’s best damn financial quarters, as well as Apple’s, remember? Despite the publicity and futility of Operation:Chokehold, it did force the evil munchkins to do something for publicity’s sake, so as to not lose momentum.

Those checks sure came in handy, thanks AT&T! BTW, don't mention my sainted mother in your blog-posts again, Lastangel-tard, we're finished, can you hear me, now? ... cocksucker ... !

I'M TRYING TO GET THAT IMAGE OUT OF MY HEAD STEVE ... AND I'M FAILING ... OH, GOD, I'M FAILING ... DAMN YOU TO HELL!! BENSON!!! GET THE HELL IN HERE, I NEED YOU NOW, PRONTO!!! MMMMMMM!!

So, they admitted their service is lousy in some areas and paid Luke Wilson a lotta cash, but he needed the work, to bash Verizon in some goofy aw shucks TV ads and continue putting out the message they have the best 3G network in the nation. Is it true or not? Who cares? An interesting thing did happen, I noticed. Yes, I’m an AT&T customer. Shut up! It’s a long story, but shut up! Their customer service in some areas started improving a thousand percent. What problems they could take of, they took care of, quickly. They offered credits. They were nice to customers. They actually started putting up more towers. They’re throwing $2 billyuuuuunnn of them Xmas profits into expanding the mobile network. So, for now, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I HOLD THE FUCKING CARDS,STEPHENSON, NOT FUCKING YOU, SHOVE THAT THROUGH YOUR SHITTER WITH A LUBRICATED HORSE COCK! SIOMA!!

But until then, I’m sure Apple is going to make future generations of iPads (and possibly iPhones and iTouches) compatible with Verizon’s technology or at least hold that over AT&T’s head when the five year agreement is up.