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.

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.

From The New York Times:

John Tierney in The New York Times:

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.

The future of newspapers in the age of online content is not an abstract notion, but a real issue for the floundering industry. That future could mean that regular readers will need to pay for The New York Times online.

According to a Sunday report in New York Magazine online, the Times' Chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., is on the verge of announcing that the venerable publication will charge for access to its web site. The magazine cited unnamed sources, both inside and outside the Times.

Financial Times Approach

"Come see our latest creation." Thus reads the Apple invitation appearing in reporter's inboxes on Monday. The e-mail -- with the text displayed against a splashed-paint background -- invites reporters to a Jan. 27 event at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

The Financial Times reported some weeks ago that Apple would announce on Jan. 26 a long-rumored tablet computer. Monday's invitation -- one day later than the Times reported but in the same location -- indicates the newspaper had the story right and Apple may announce the tablet next week.

Apple has plans to launch the iPhone 4G this spring, according to published reports. The next generation of the popular smartphone will have an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen, video chat, a removable battery, and an ARM-based Coretex-A9 processor and be released in the April-May time frame, an Apple representative has told The Korea Times. The iPhone 4G is also expected to have powerful graphics chips that will provide higher video resolution and better still images when taking pictures.