Slate Has Cred-Gap Bashing Apple Reporting

To be honest, there are some item in this story that make sense. Apple does get an inordinate amount of press when it releases products that others have already released. I think the author of the piece fails a bit in understanding the elegance of the products that Apple makes -- watching Ms. D figure out the iPod, iTunes and Podcasting in the course of about 20 minutes on her birthday last week is proof of some of the power of Apple's interface design. And while Apple doesn't always make the perfect interface choices, the author has to understand that enormous odds _are_ against Apple because the world doesn't want to hear that there's a better way to do things than the Microsoft way.

But the funniest bit is Slate's little ad-copy blurb at the top of the piece, breathlessly touting the fact -- in bold lettering -- that the story is "iPod-ready" and part of Slate's line-up of daily podcasts. ...You know, right before the author bashes Apple's influence on the market as smoke-and-mirrors. Priceless.

Apple Mail Broken

Has anyone else noticed that every since Apple "upgraded" Mail in Tiger, it seems like the "Paste And Match Style" feature is broken? For years this has been something that I always thought was cool about Mail, and it's very useful for a writer, as I'm often correcting or editing small pieces in e-mail. It's handy to copy something that is an e-mail "quote" and then paste it as original text, without the quote levels. Anyway...if anyone knows how to get the original functionality back, I'd appreciate a heads-up.