Does this mean they are extinct?

John Gruber talking about 8-inch iPad reported by WSJ:

This is not the iPad 3, which I believe will have a same-sized (9.7 inches) double resolution display. This is a different iPad, which, last I heard, Apple was only considering, not committed to bringing to market. I wouldn’t bet on it.

I agree with Gruber. We’ve known for a long time that Apple has been testing different screen sizes and there is no reason to believe that they have stopped. With advancements in display technology and other factors, it may make sense for a slightly smaller iPad at some point.

Yawn.

Josh Ong:

The U.S. Department of Justice approved on Monday several patent purchases and acquisitions, including a collection of Nortel’s intellectual property to be acquired by Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others and Novell patents that Apple has purchased.

Google also got the nod for its purchase of Motorola Mobility.

Michael Geist:

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is expected to introduce lawful access legislation tomorrow in the House of Commons. An Act to enact the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act and to amend the Criminal Code and others Acts…The push for new Internet surveillance capabilities goes back to 1999, when government officials began crafting proposals to institute new surveillance technologies within Canadian networks along with additional legal powers to access surveillance and subscriber information.

Dark Roasted Blend:

Matchbooks were at their peak in the 1940’s and 50’s, when they were popular souvenir items, but they have made something of a comeback recently due to the public interest in retro advertising.The collecting of matchboxes, matchbooks, match labels and other match-related items is called phillumeny.

Art is where you find it and sometimes, you find it in odd places.

Dan Lyons, on his own blog:

Yet now Arrington and Siegler have appointed themselves the watchdogs of tech journalism, eager to point out the irresponsible and inaccurate reporting that they see all around them. This might ring a little less hollow if they hadn’t been such egregious violators themselves, and if they weren’t writing this stuff to protect the people they’re in bed with financially.

Lyons goes into full frontal attack mode on MG Siegler and Michael Arrington following Siegler’s treatise (linked to this morning) about the state of tech journalism. Vituperative, nasty work, though I must admit to laughing a bit when Lyons dubbed Siegler “Matty the Angry Chihuahua,” “a nasty little ankle-biter who has developed some level of expertise in launching ad hominem attacks.”

Rene Ritchie:

According to sources who have been reliable in the past, Apple currently plans to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012.

Yep.

Apple:

Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak on February 14, 2012 at approximately 12:30 p.m. PT. Listen to the Audio Webcast here.

As far as I know, Apple has never webcast these kinds of speeches in the past.

Jennifer Hudson

Sunday night’s Grammy Awards was all about two women: Adele and Whitney Houston. The former was the night’s big winner, emerging victorious in all six of the categories she competed in, including the Big Three: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. And Houston’s death on Saturday permeated the event’s entire proceedings.Here are six of the performances from Grammy night that critics are buzzing about.

New York Times:

“This is not about the technology,” Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, would tell the visitors later over lunch. “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the culture of instruction — preparing students for their future, not our past.”As debate continues over whether schools invest wisely in technology — and whether it measurably improves student achievement — Mooresville, a modest community about 20 miles north of Charlotte best known as home to several Nascar teams and drivers, has quietly emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school.

PBS:

Premiering February 20th and 21st, a biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history, and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage.

PBS announced it was offering the first hour of the four hour documentary exclusively through its PBS iOS app – a full week before it airs on television.

Katie Marsal:

Apple has reportedly asked Pegatron, one of its overseas device assemblers, to “choose sides” and stop producing the MacBook Air-like Zenbook from Asus, or else lose Apple’s business.

Seems reasonable to me.

I’ve been watching this dog show on TV since I was a kid and it’s great to see a live stream of the event. It gives you a different view and impression of the show. Thanks to @HikerCA for the heads up!

RIM director Roger Martin speaking to the Globe and Mail:

I laugh at the vast majority of critics when they say ‘Oh, you should have made this CEO transition, like, four years ago.’ Yeah, right – like, to who?

I guess the co-CEOs aren’t the only ones that need to go.

The design obviously boasts a fairly sizable departure from previous iterations of VLC, most obviously with 2.0 consolidating much of the UI into one window.

An infographic showing the history of radio via Jim Coudal.

Gobbler transfers files extraordinarily fast from one account to another, and is geared towards musicians. If you decide that you can’t live without it, you want all your stuff backed up to your Gobbler account, and you need to send out even more projects at lightning speed, starting at $8 a month it’s still a steal! And, it also works really well with SoundCloud.

I’ve had a Gobbler account for some time now, but haven’t really used it a lot. However, the more I share files, the more I’ll be using it.

Mark Millan for CNN:

As Apple is reportedly readying a third-generation iPad to be unveiled in the next month or so, owners of previous versions of the tablet may be contemplating a way to unload them for cash. Fortunate for them, the iPad can be resold for about half its original price a year or more after it hit the market, according to data from two popular online researchers that was compiled for CNN.On the other hand, Amazon.com’s Kindle devices, which analysts say pose the greatest threat to Apple’s dominance in tablets, have not been as sought after in the secondary market.

Another illustration of why it’s an iPad market and everyone else, as opposed to a proper “tablet” market.

Mental Floss:

Forget putting QR codes on your business card in order to stand out from the competition. Check out these 12 very cool, creative approaches.

The Guardian:

Sony Music has come under fire after it increased the price of a Whitney Houston album on Apple’s iTunes Store hours after the singer was found dead.The music giant is understood to have lifted the wholesale price of Houston’s greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, at about 4am California time on Sunday. This meant that the iTunes retail price of the album automatically increased from £4.99 to £7.99.

A pretty lame, grotesque attempt to cash in on the late singer’s death.

MG Siegler, on his “Parislemon” blog:

Most of what is written about the tech world — both in blog form and old school media form — is bullshit. I won’t try to put some arbitrary label on it like 80%, but it’s a lot. There’s more bullshit than there is 100% pure, legitimate information.The problem is systemic. Print circulation is dying and pageviews are all that matter in keeping advertisers happy. This means, whether writers like it or not, there’s an underlying drive for both sensationalism and more — more — more.

Siegler’s comments are very, very cynical, but there’s more than a grain of truth to it. The tech news business has changed dramatically over the course of the past decade, as more and more emphasis has been put on page views.

I don’t share his harsh appraisal that the best are either going to fall away or “break towards the bullshit and thrive.” But an educated consumer is always going to come out on top, and that requires more critical thinking skills on the average news reader’s part.

Many thanks to Strange Flavour for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed with SlotZ Racer, its free iPhone and iPad racing game.

Strange Flavour are back with a new spin on their hit slot car racing game SlotZ Racer!SlotZ Racer Caterham Special is a free special version of the game for fans of Caterham’s legendary sports cars. Compete in single races or in four Caterham championships in one of five versions of the Caterham Seven car, varying from the Caterham 7 Roadsport to the Caterham 7 R500 Superlight.

Gizmodo:

Conveyor belt toasters help restaurants keep up with the breakfast demand, but the compact QuikServe from WestBend is instead designed for home use using a motorized system to pull your bread through, toasting it in a mere 90 seconds.

There’s not much “cool” about toasters but this idea is clever. Just don’t buy it for your significant other for Valentines Day. Gizmodo says the list price is $60 but you can get it on Amazon.com for only $40.

It’s the “story of a man who taught his cat to use instant messaging.” Funniest thing you’ll read today…..Thanks to Sian Meades and Jared Earle for the heads up.