I meet a lot of people who don’t seem to be very knowledgeable about exactly what is contained in the U.S. Constitution, or the Declaration of Independence.  About a year ago, I found these two apps on Apple’s App Store.  One contains the complete text of the Constitution, and the other, the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.  They’re very good reference tools to have available when you get into political arguments, as I often do.

Click the application icons below to download them from the App Store.  Both are free downloads.  iPad versions are also available.

Constitution for iPhone and iPod Touch

Declaration for iPhone and iPod Touch

I think this story may serve as more proof that the iPhone is coming to Verizon soon.  Because of their lousy network coverage, and foot dragging on tethering,  AT&T knows that there are a lot of customers who may leave for Verizon.  It’s something that I’m contemplating myself.  AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph De La Vega recently was reported to have stated that he’s not worried about customers leaving.  His reason was that these customers are currently shackled to AT&T by contracts.  Wow!  What a great reason for customers to stay!  They can’t possibly want to stay because of the “great” network coverage right?  Oh, and tethering.  That’s a great feature.  What’s that you say?  The network isn’t that great?  We STILL don’t have tethering yet?

Because of AT&T’s total failure to live up to the iPhone’s full potential, I am forced instead to use another service for my wireless data needs.  In March, I signed up with Clear for 4G coverage when I don’t have a WiFi network available for my laptop.  So far, it’s been really good service.  There are a few areas in Dallas/Fort Worth where I can’t get online, but the service is still relatively new to DFW.  I’m content to allow Clear to continue rolling out new towers.  I just wish that I could have been using my iPhone for data service.  Thanks to AT&T, I have another bill to pay.  Of course, I’m sure that if AT&T did roll out tethering service, they would charge an abusively large fee for it.  Right now, I can get a 3G card from AT&T to use with my laptop, but they want $70 a month for unlimited data, whereas, I’m only paying $40 for Clear for unlimited 4G service.  Oh, and Clear gave me $15 off the first two months.  AT&T doesn’t do that.  What’s more, the early termination fee from Clear is only $120, and it drops over the course of the two year contract.  AT&T’s $325 fee for early termination does not.

Cult Of Mac reports on statements made by AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph De La Vega that he’s not worried about iPhone customers moving over to Verizon.  His reason for not worrying?  It’s the difficulty of switching carriers because of the family plan contracts.

Instead of worrying about customer service, and fixing his lousy 3G service, and giving us the ability to tether our iPhones, and use them for internet service, Mr. De La Vega instead focuses on his customers being chained to AT&T by a contract.  Mr. De La Vega doesn’t seem to understand that providing great service should be his primary concern.  This is the man who called all iPhone users “data hogs” several months ago. I guess I should have expected this kind of idiotic statement from him.

Link to the Cult Of Mac story is below:

AT&T: Difficultly Switching iPhone Carriers Will Protect Us from Verizon | Cult of Mac.

So, you haven’t been able to afford an iPad yet?  Well, now you can pretend to surf the web on an iPad.  Just go to ipadpeek.com.  There, you’ll be able to see how websites look on the iPad.  Be warned though…   The site does allow Flash to work on the simulated iPad, so it’s not a true simulation.  To switch between portrait and landscape, simply click the top left corner of the simulated iPad.

I’m wondering why so many people are pouncing on Apple as the villain in this case.  An Apple engineer lost the phone.  It was found by someone who made a half-hearted attempt at finding the owner, and then Gizmodo paid $5000 to obtain it.  Gizmodo proceeded to dissect the phone, and show it off to the millions of people who visit their website.  Apple had a right to demand the return of the iPhone, and they had a right to report this incident to the police.  Jason Chen was well aware that he was in possession of property that did not belong to him.  He deserved what he got.

In case you disagree with me, let’s look at this in a slightly different way…

Let’s say that you developed, and built your own car.  It’s a revolutionary design, and it has numerous improvements over other car designs on the market.  You let your 18 year old son take the car out for a spin.  He ends up leaving it in a mall parking lot where someone finds it, and then sells the car without bothering to make much of an effort to find the owner.  The buyer of the car knows that it’s your car, doesn’t bother to tell you that he has it, and then dismantles the car.  He displays the parts on the internet, and shows off all of your design secrets to your competitors.

Although, it’s stupid to let some kid take a car like this out for a joy ride, it does not in any way mitigate the fact that the person who found the car, and the person who bought it deserve to be punished.  It doesn’t take an Apple fan boy like myself to understand that Apple had a right to get the phone back, and to hold responsible the people who should have done the right thing to start with.

Warrant shows Jobs’ involvement in iPhone prototype case | MacNN.