Comparing Temperatures:

If you really want to do a percentage based comparison, you need to convert to an absolute temperature scale like Kelvin, which shows you that it’s actually a 1.8 percent increase in temperature. This is middle school science.

(Via Daring Fireball)

Nice snark from Gruber. The Verge absolutely deserves it on this one. They like to present themselves as the high standard for tech journalism, but at the end of the day, they write link-bait headlines just like everyone else. And they can’t resist a good dig on Apple (even if it means being inaccurate), because that helps promote the notion that they aren’t “fanboys.”

The iPad heat “issue” is a non-story. My new iPad gets about 1.8 percent warmer than my old iPad, which never got warm at all. It doesn’t get hot. It doesn’t burn my hand. It doesn’t even come close to getting as hot as any laptop, or my iPhone, for that matter. If yours does get hot to the point of being uncomfortable, take it back to Apple. That’s obviously a defect on your particular iPad, and they’ll be happy to replace it.

Does anyone think that a company can produce millions and millions of a product and not get the occasional defect?

Apple hosting conference call on March 19 to discuss cash balance:

The call should be of particular interest to shareholders, who could possibly hear of a dividend payment. The press release also notes that “Apple will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash.”

(Via TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Dividend sounds like the most likely path here. But it almost seems too easy for Apple. How about starting a multi-billion dollar charity to end poverty? That would go a long way to answer recent criticisms of the working conditions in China.

Or maybe they’re buying an American cable company? Or maybe HBO? Seriously, if Apple bought HBO and gave exclusive rights to all HBO content to the Apple TV, they wouldn’t need anything else to own the entertainment industry.

I’m just trying to picture something more creative and interesting than a dividend. Not that a dividend would be bad for me; I do have a tiny bit of Apple stock. But that stock has already made me money. I feel like there are better ways to use 100 billion in cash than handing out small portions of it to people who already have enough to buy the stock in the first place.

This American Life retracts hugely popular episode on Apple and China:

“I’m not going to say that I didn’t take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard,” Daisey says on the upcoming “Retraction” episode, according to TAL. “My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism, and it’s not journalism. It’s theater.”

(Via arstechnica.com)

Translation: I made my entire name on the back of a massive exaggeration, thus exploiting the people of China at the cost of Apple to build a reputation for myself as a hero. But you should still take me seriously and hate Apple, because while most of what I say about them is a load of crap, they do make products in China, so, you know, they must be guilty of SOMETHING.

Kudos for This American Life for taking responsibility for putting this charlatan on the air without proper fact checking.

If you have to make stuff up to make your argument, then you don’t really have a strong argument. If you care more about being the center of attention than you do about your cause, then you’re serving yourself, not the cause.

The truth about Chinese labor is far from simple. Trying to reduce it to black hat/white hat, one evil massive corporation vs. the poor, exploited workers of a distant land is great for getting liberal-minded folks to jump on your bandwagon without thinking too hard, but once you get exposed for oversimplification, you lose their trust, and the entire cause gets lost in murky emotion. They feel duped, and thus are far less likely to trust others who make an honest case about what can realistically be done.

Nice going, loser.

Here we go again. Pardon me while I get even more nerdy than usual. This is the eve of the closest thing I have to a religious holiday, so bear with me. I’m not suggesting that anything I’m about to say is for the normal, average, reasonable folk who have lives to lead and better things to do. This one is for the ultra-geeks. Everyone else can stop reading now.

I’m about to go to bed, so that I can wake up super early and get into the iPad line tomorrow. Is this crazy? It’s 2012. I’ve had two iPads before. And I could have pre-ordered my iPad online for a guaranteed delivery tomorrow. Why get in line?

Okay, the fact of the matter is, if you want an iPad as early as possible, if you want to maximize the amount of time you’ll have with your iPad on day 1, and minimize the amount of time you spend waiting around for your iPad, there’s only one low-risk way to go about it. And that’s to get in line at an Apple Retail Store.

First, if you’re lucky enough to live in an area like I do with multiple Apple Stores, pick one that’s close by, yet not the most popular store in the area. Here in San Francisco, that means Chestnut Street. Why? Because you can get there later and be closer to the head of the line than at Stockton Street. At Stockton Street, people are usually lining up before rush hour the night before. At Chestnut Street, there’s only a few nuts at the front of the line most of the night.

Why not choose an even more obscure store, like the Stonestown mall, or further out into the Bay Area? Because the longer it takes to drive there, the earlier you have to get up to make it before the line gets too long. You have to find a decent compromise. And anyway, I don’t like malls, so Stonestown is out for me.

I find that about 4 hours before opening is plenty of time to be within the first 20 or so customers at Chestnut Street. Often, I’ve been among the first ten by getting there just four hours before opening. That’s what you want. Being near the front of the line means that from the time the store opens until you’re back in the car is minimal. Usually I’m out within 15-20 minutes or so of opening.

Now, tomorrow they’re opening at 8 am, so that means I’ll get in line around 4 and have my iPad in hand by 8:15, and I’ll be back at my house before 9 am, loading up my new toy.

There’s NO WAY the FedEx guy is getting here that early.

So if I had preordered, I’d be waiting until at least 10am, and probably more like 3-5pm for my new iPad to get delivered. Maybe as late as 7pm, considering it’s going to be a busy day for them. And I’d be cursing the delivery guy all day while I was waiting. I can’t handle that sort of stress.

So why do so many preorder instead? They are always hoping against reason that their iPad will arrive a day EARLY, like that one fluke that happened to a few people when the first iPad was released. That’s never happening again, but it won’t stop them from dreaming. Which is fine by me; just means shorter lines tomorrow morning.

Others suggest that you can get to the store sometime just after opening, and even though you’ll be a couple hundred people back, you’ll still get out in less total time, because the line will move faster than the four hour wait before the store opened. True, but you won’t be home until long after I’ve been playing for several hours. I’m not interested in total time spent; if that’s your goal, then pre-order for delivery. What I want is to get the iPad as early as possible. And for that, the good old-fashioned line yields the highest probability of success.

Besides, the Stores are fun. Waiting in line is always a good time. People walk by and think you’re out of your mind, and you are. But you get a sense of community there. You have conversations with a few like-minded strangers. And it only happens a couple of times a year. This is San Francisco, for crying out loud. People wait almost as long every Sunday for eggs at a trendy restaurant. Is it really THAT nuts to wait a few hours for an iPad?

Samsung official claims Apple plans to release 7.85-inch iPad this year:

Adding to rumors of a smaller iPad from Apple, an unnamed Samsung official allegedly told an Korean publication that the company plans to release a 7.85-inch tablet later this year.

(Via www.appleinsider.com)

Hmmm. Can’t imagine why someone from Samsung would want to start a rumor that Apple will release yet another iPad later this year. Can’t see why you’d want to start such a rumor, hoping that some less-informed people would hold off on buying a new iPad now to wait for the next one that’s just around the corner.

Of course, we saw this same sort of rumor before. Last year, in fact. Right around the launch of the iPad 2. Wasn’t true then. Isn’t true now.

Sad, first that Samsung is desperate enough to try this. Sadder, still, that some people will fall for it.

Apple has no reason to release a smaller tablet. Smaller tablets aren’t tablets. They’re oversized iPods. And no one is buying them.

The Amazon Kindle Fire  is the one 7-inch device that at least saw some success in its initial launch. How the numbers have been since, we have no idea. And the Kindle Fire is not really a tablet computer. It’s a color eReader and movie device, but not much else.

If Apple has some sort of device that’s bigger than an iPhone but smaller than an iPad in the works, it’s not going to be a variant of the iPad. It would be an entirely new device, created to serve some other purpose.

To paraphrase the late Mr. Jobs, a 7-inch iPad wouldn’t be better at anything.