This first part of this article series seemed to raise some strong feelings from you all, and I must ask that you please continue to respect other people’s cultures and beliefs when commenting. In part two I want to examine the west’s current approach to the Internet.

There have been several major Internet events in the last year that have raised all sorts of questions about the Internet freedoms we all enjoy, and what the future of the Internet should look like. The first of these was the WikiLeaks scandal where hundreds of thousands of secure military documents were ‘stolen’ by a soldier and later exposed.

Now one thing I’m not going to do here is get into a discussion about the leaks themselves, or how the Pentagon’s internal security allowed the documents to be appropriated in the first instance. It is interesting to note the US government’s initial response to the leaks however.

People were reported inside the Pentagon saying that it should not be possible to publish these types of documents on the Internet, and that governments should have greater control over what can and can’t be published online.

It’s very interesting this as, while this was probably a reaction resulting more from initial anger than reasoned judgement, we know that major western powers are thinking about this and that there are diametrically opposing viewpoints.

The French for instance recently passed a file sharing law that many countries in the European Union strongly disagree with, and the UK government has publicly stated that the Internet should not be constrained.

The UK is another interesting case. Here recently a premier league footballer had obtained what’s known as a “super-injunction” against a former reality television personality that he’d had an affair with. The reasons for the injunction are still not clear though blackmail has been suggested. Despite the British press doing their bit to maintain the injunction and not naming the footballer, hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter publicly outed him.

This has started a debate in the UK about our own laws but not in the context of constraining the Internet, quite the opposite in fact. The debate here has been about bringing UK law up to date so that it can accommodate the Internet.

This doesn’t mean that any new laws, if and when passed, won’t give greater powers to the authorities over finding the identities of people who break the law online so that they can be prosecuted. Indeed every Internet service provider in the UK, after 9/11 was required to fit a “black box” so that email traffic in the country can be monitored for crime and terrorism detection purposes. Many people opposed this at the time but the Labour government in power in the early 00′s got it through parliament.

Now I’m not going to speculate what freedoms we should all have online, you will decide that for yourself, but it’s becoming clear that there is a very strong debate going on in the west about the Internet and if it should be constrained. It’s still possible that some constraints will be put in place, all in the name of terrorism, crime and national security, and this will be a major battle-ground for people’s who have so far enjoyed unfettered access to what they want to see and do online.

In part 3 of this article series I’ll look at how the Internet is being used by criminals and terrorists, and also how major world powers are already using it in warfare.

This time around, the iPhone gets awarded the ‘Worst Phone Ever Award’, gets a new 3GS rumor, gets completely unlocked and a lot of other things. Not to mention some great new apps, which is business as usual for the App Store.

If you want more Apple news, tune into the weekly Apple round up on Otaku Gadgets tomorrow.

News:

iPhone Devs Farm Phone Numbers

Seems like iPhone Devs have been farming app users’ telephone numbers again. This time it is Storm 8. Storm 8 makes games, the ones that you see above. And all of them have been accused of carrying a special code that collects the user’s phone number without permission. This has been revealed in a lawsuit and Storm 8 has (sort of) acknowledged that the apps do this. [read]

$99 8GB iPhone 3GS For Christmas [?]

Boy Genius Report claims that they have insider news about a new iPhone offer that will hit AT&T before Christmas. They claim that the iPhone 3GS 8GB model will start selling for $99 only. Before you get into a tizzy, remember that there is no proof of this right now. Not even a suspicious looking flyer. [read]

RFID On The iPhone [?]

So there is this rumor that says Apple is testing out next-generation iPhones that have an RFID chip. What Apple intends to do with it is unknown at this point though. They might enable using the iPhone as a credit card. It might become the new way to shop at (Apple) stores. It might also enhance the Find My iPhone feature. Whatever it does, it will probably be an industry-first. Do we know another RFID-enabled consumer phone? [read]

iPhone China Sales Disappoint

The iPhone Sales In China have disappointing, really so. The first week after the launch saw only 5000 phones sold. The high price and the other factors are being blamed for this. [read]

Quirky’s Beamer Flashes The iPhone

Quirky is a company that has been coming up with really interesting accessories for the iPhone. They now have a new case on sale that adds a much-wanted feature on the iPhone – a flash. Not Flash as in Adobe, but an LED flash that can be switched for a 10-second period (single button press) or can be kept on as a flashlight (double button press). The case itself comes in two parts and hardly adds bulk to the device. Handy for shooting in low light. [read]

Aussies Love The iPhone

A survey by Millward Brown suggests that the iPhone is perceived as the biggest phone brand in Australia. [read]

CNET UK Hates iPhone

CNET UK has all of a sudden award the Worst Phone Ever editorial award to the iPhone. According to the editor, the iPhone is a great computing great device but it fails at being a great phone. [read]

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Apps:

App Store Has More Than 100,000 Apps Now [Official]

Apple has confirmed officially that the App Store has reached over 100,000 apps. Woot! So now you have that many more reasons to love/hate the iPhone. If you just hate having that much competition as a dev or having to trawl through all that as a user, you know you are not alone. [read]

Louvre App Coincided With Louvre Apple Store

The new Apple Store at the Louvre Carousel, the first French Apple Store ever, will open on the 7^th of this month. Coinciding with this is the introduction of the Muée Du Louvre’s very own iPhone app. Through it, visitors can soak in the beauty of the artwork and take a virtual tour through the museum. Best of all, it’s free! [read]

App To Cure Fear Of Flying

Are you afraid of flying? Don’t worry, there are a lot of other people out there who suffer from the same fear. Thankfully, now there are people who help others overcome their fear of flying. Virgin Atlantic has been helping those who are too afraid to fly through various seminars called Flying Without Fear. Now they have an app that will help do the same for iPhone users. It provides helpful tips and is modeled on the successful strategies that are used at the seminars. [read]

iPhone App Acts Like TiVo for Radio

We already have a lot of radio apps for the iPhone but this one does something new. Called the Public Radio, it allows iPhone users to record their favorite NPR programs and then listen to them in their own time. [read]

Stacks For The iPhone, Springload Your Apps

For those who have an unlocked iPhone, here’s a way to better utilize the four app slots on the iPhone’s home screen. Much like Stacks in the OS X Dock, the Stacks app for iPhone allows you to pin multiple apps one slot. This can be done for any or all slots. The is currently in alpha. [read]

Unlock iPhone OS 3.1.2 With Blacksn0w

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this and it is finally here. Available on Cydia, the Blacksn0w app lets you unlock the new iPhone OS 3.1.2 and the new baseband. [read]

Please note that the screenshot above is only a small part of the panoramic picture which has the huge dimensions of almost 15000 pixels in width. Could not find a way to capture the complete picture (other than downloading and resizing. Enjoy the picture.

Do you remember the I spend a nice in Paris shirts ? Getting a new meaning now, eh ?