The Times

Andy Borowitz in The New Yorker:

The Taliban have embarked on a sophisticated information war, using modern media tools as well as some old-fashioned ones, to soften their image. . . . The dictates include bans on suicide bombings against civilians, burning down schools, or cutting off ears, lips and tongues. —The Times.

Mark Rowlands in the Times of London:

La cadena británica BBC va a cerrar la mitad de su página web, recortará gastos en la contratación de contenidos importados de EEUU y echará el cierre a dos emisoras de radio dentro de una amplia revisión estratégica de la corporación que se anunciará el mes que viene, según avanza el rotativo inglés The Times .

Days after it was revealed that Apple is barring some sexually explicit material from its App Store, the computer giant defended itself from charges that it is being a selective prude. In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, Philip Schiller, Apple's head of of worldwide product marketing, said it's all about complaints.

"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Schiller said.

The world's biggest retailer has long struggled to dominate the streaming video market against competitors like Netflix, Apple and Blockbuster. Now Wal-Mart is taking a new tack, The New York Times reports.

Sources told the Times that Wal-Mart has agreed to buy VUDU, a three-year-old company that embeds its streaming technology into high-definition TVs and Blu-Ray DVD players. Wal-Mart and VUDU began briefing movie studios and TV makers about the deal on Monday.

Control the User Experience

Evidence is accumulating that the Chinese government was in fact behind attacks on Google and other major U.S. companies, investigators say. The New York Times reported the attacks have been traced to two schools in China, one of which has close ties to the Chinese military. The attacks likely originated in April, months earlier than previously believed, the sources said.

John Tierney in The New York Times:

This is a major blow to anti-vaccine nutters. David Rose in the Times of London:

In this interview with Zizek in the Times of India, he says something that seems patently stupid (via Crooked Timber, which has an interesting conversation going on).

Apple's new iPad is pretty cool. After all, what's not to love about a giant iPod touch that will make watching movies, reading books and newspapers, and browsing the web a much more compelling experience?

But considering that the iPad must be considered first and foremost an entertainment device, there are a few holes. Like the iPhone, the iPad will not have support for Adobe Flash, the technology that drives YouTube and most other web videos. On top of that, Netflix has announced that its streaming video service, Watch Instantly, will not support the iPad in the foreseeable future.