I wonder...
when the "bullet-stopping phone" ads. will start appearing? Cynical? Moi?
A Florida gas station clerk escaped serious injury during an attempted robbery when his HTC smartphone took a bullet from a fleeing perp's pistol. The unnamed worker, at a Hess station in Winter Garden, west of Orlando, found himself on the wrong end of a round early on Monday morning, local news outfit WESH-TV reports. …
Note that despite Apple's pride in the aluminium back, the article does not say that an iPhone has ever stopped a bullet. For a variety of reasons one would think there would be more incidents of iPhone users being shot at, too. Obviously it's the smaller screen size - less chance of it getting in the way.
(Cue quote from the spectre of Jobs: "iPhone users would rather be shot than use a device with a larger screen.")
Great news on this occasion, but there are similar cases where fleeing criminals have killed shop clerks with an unwarranted parting shot. I hope they find the person responsible for this, and I hope the sentence is as severe as if the clerk had been murdered. There has to be something wrong with the culture in a supposedly civilised society for criminals stealing money to mindlessly take another's life. Perhaps the huge resources of agencies like the NSA should be targeted at real criminals like illegal drug smugglers that produce addicts who behave this way, instead of making thought criminals of the general public.
I've read a couple of articles referencing the Wozniak piece where he calls for patience in the face of unrealistic expectations of a continuous stream of revolutionary products from Apple. Now that phones and pads have cameras back and front, flashes, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, 3G, 4G, etc. it seems that the best we can hope for are incremental improvements in the OS, battery life, and camera and screen resolution.
But why should phones be limited to defense? The best defense is a strong offence!
Here's my idea for the next revolutionary product: the iPistol!
Specs: a 14 round, 10mm pistol, with a white plastic inlay in the polished aluminium grip. Integrated MP3 player, phone, camera with integrated targeting sensor, and fingerprint sensor on the trigger. Can be configured to playback your favourite clips, like "Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?" Automatically posts your best shots to Facebook.
You just have to be careful not to press the wrong button when you're having a conversation.