ls The Microsoft Surface Priced To Fail?

The rumors continue to flow about the Microsoft Surface.  Where will it be sold, how can it connect, and how much will it cost.  So the news that a WIFI only version will be the first released and priced at a whopping $599.  Certainly not a price point that will excite too many possible consumers.  "Throw in the fact that one new estimate shows the battery life on the two tablets will fall short of the competition, and Microsoft's new tablets start to seem like a much tougher sell."  It starts to make the  tablets from Amazon and B&N far more attractive.

And what should Apple due to beat Surface to the punch; how about add apps that bring Microsoft Office to the iPad.  Already, Business Insider has an article on a free app called CloudOn that brings all those features of Office to the iPad and Android tablets.  For Apple to highlight and market that app on iPads prior to the release of Surface could just be its nail in the coffin and make the Surface DOA.

Forget The 7 Second Delay, Cursing Is OK

What is indecency?  A curse word, a little nudity; to some, it is acceptable, but to others it is not.  And while we as a society seem to become more at ease with public profanity and nudity on HBO, we still have the FCC trying to police the broadcast airwaves against their version of what is indecent.  Well, at least for the  moment, it seems that they have been overruled.  "The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to address whether the government still has the authority to regulate indecency on broadcast television, but it ruled in favor of two broadcasters who had faced potential fines for programs featuring cursing and nudity on narrow grounds."

Based on these indecency cases, some of which look to be a decade old, the fleeting use of cursing, some of which occurred  during live broadcasts are not subject to any FCC fines.  I guess that now means that there is no need to institute a 7 second delay on live sports or award shows.  So now that football star or celebrity can drop an F-bomb at will.  And Janet Jackson should have no trouble exposing her other breast at halftime; here that Madonna.

With technological innovation enabling video across multiple platforms, not just broadcast, but cable and the internet, the rise of language and nudity is everywhere.  So why should these cases even be heard.  The gate has been wide open for years.  “'In my view, ” Justice Ginsburg wrote, the Pacifica decision 'was wrong when it issued. Time, technological advances, and the commission’s untenable rulings in the cases now before the court show why Pacifica bears reconsideration.'”  In light of changing technologies and society morals, the FCC has lost its focus.  We may wish for moral decency, but free speech ultimately endures.  Perhaps the focus should instead be in campaigning for the return of civility.  Not in wasting taxpayer money on regulating cursing.  You missed that boat a long time ago.