Android 2.2, Froyo is slowly being rolled out, but ‘Gingerbread’, scheduled for a Q4 launch, will OBLITERATE Apple and iOS, according to half the tech industry. This is because, in their heads, Steve Jobs has decided to jack in his role as a visionary and become a gardener. Consequently, while he will remain as Apple CEO, the company will not move forward from this point on, allowing even Nokia to eventually speed past.

Alternatively, tech industry hacks, bear in mind that Apple develops stuff too. I’m sure Gingerbread will better Froyo, but I’m equally sure iOS 4.3 or 5.x will better iOS 4.2 (coming in November) and iOS 4.1. Making comparisons about something that doesn’t even exist in the wild versus something released this month—especially in such a fast-moving industry—is stupid, so stop doing it.

Stop the presses!

Qluso is an online app that allows news editors to screw over freelance journalists, paying them as little as possible, and making them BEG for ‘work’, while laughing like a fucking nutcase.

(The above isn’t entirely accurate regarding what it says on the website, but it’s pretty on the ball when it comes to what’s going to happen.)

Hat tip: Adam Banks

Update: Qluso’s Lyra McKee responds:

As a former freelance journalist myself, I worked with my team to devise a product that could help freelance journalists get paid the best price and get paid on the same day. We love newspapers and journalists: Qluso was built to help them, not screw them over. I have seen firsthand the problems freelance journalists face in their day-to-day work and I can understand why you would be sceptical given current industry conditions, but Qluso was designed to eradicate these problems and to improve the working experience of freelance journalists.

Politics in the UK remains broken, with a voting system that is dated and rubbish, and an electorate that whinges no matter the outcome. We also have people making promises that they never keep, and everyone but the upper classes is getting routinely shafted.

But at least we’re not the USA.

The Nation, among other publications, reported on the Republican Party using the filibuster to stop legislation to end the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the country’s military. Said policy essentially means no-one’s allowed to ask if you’re gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but you’ll be kicked out of the forces if you are and reveal that’s the case.

Given the size of the US and its military, this is a big problem. The Nation reports that 14,000 Americans have been booted out for having the shocking audacity to be gay. The bastards. Still, Republicans to the rescue! To safeguard the country (by excluding lots of people for no good reason), they derailed legislation and offered some choice quotes. John McCain, who’s seemingly decided to become an extremist since losing to Obama, accused the Obama administration and Senate Democrats of “pandering” to the gay and lesbian community with their effort to end discrimination.

That’s quite a statement to make in any kind of civilised country. It’s no wonder many people, including his daughter, reckon the fight for equal rights is this generation’s civil rights movement. After all, imagine if McCain had instead declared one of the following:

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to blacks with their effort to end discrimination.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to Hispanic people with their effort to end discrimination.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to women with their effort to end discrimination.

It’s not like the UK is devoid of discrimination, and there are plenty of (mostly Tory) MPs who aim to derail equal rights legislation (especially when it comes to gay rights), but the brazen level of disrespect, decency and common sense from the Republican Party just beggars belief. Anyone would think it’s 1810, not 2010.

We live in exciting times! McAfee has just launched McAf.ee (beta, obv.), which will revolutionise the internet by… adding another URL-shortening service to all the existing URL-shortening services that shorten URLs. Wow, McAf(ee), how exciting! It’s almost as if some dolt in PR figured you could get down with the kids, without stopping to think whether or not the world needs another URL-shortening service (hint: it doesn’t).

McAfee’s effort does stand out in two ways, though. First, the site is one of the ugliest it’s possible to imagine. It’s about 80 per cent likely to make your eyes explode, so be warned. Secondly, it enables you to create a ‘safe’ short URL, unlike all those deadly ones we’ve all been using previously. I don’t know about you, but every time I’ve used bit.ly my iMac has rocketed off the desk and banged on the ceiling, so McAfee is the Best Thing Ever on the internet. Unless, of course, I’m being hugely sarcastic and wish McAfee’s service would McAf.uckoff.

*thinks*

Oh.

So The Guadian’s waded in with its size-tens, running an op-ed by Charles Arthur about Jobs being all grumpy with a trainee journo. She complains that Apple PR hasn’t responded to her questions (welcome to my world, baby journo!), and there’s a brief to-and-fro before Jobs says “Please leave us alone”.

I write for a bunch of Mac magazines, and am regularly frustrated with Apple PR. Those I deal with are friendly, courteous people, and they help when it benefits Apple very directly (they’re quick to supply review software, for example), but that’s basically it. The thing is, everyone in this industry knows the score with Apple, apart, apparently, from this trainee.

She says:

Unfortunately, for a journalist in the professional world, lacking the answers they need on deadline day won’t just cost them a grade; it could cost them their job.

That’s pretty unlikely when it comes to Apple, unless you’re working for an editor that’s gone mental and actually expects you to get a comment from the company. Even if that’s the case, whining to the CEO won’t help matters, and, frankly, if you’re going to be a journo, you’ll need to figure out some other course of action when things don’t go your way. In her case, an article on “implementation of an iPad program” at her school, was Apple PR really the only source she could use? Did she really expect the PR arm of a huge multinational to be at her beck and call?

Arhoolie sums it up nicely in the Guardian article’s comments:

[…] the whine of “don’t you realise you are threatening my grade” is quite common. Perhaps if the students made sure the work they have chosen to pursue is practical first much of this grief could be avoided.

Commercial firms, charities, and Govt Departements [sic] are not in existence to be a training resource for student journalists.