BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

TidBITS, smartphones, music sales, newspapers, and Google+...

The only Mac publication I read is the Engsts' (not Angsts') TidBITS. If you use a Mac or iPhone, go ahead and subscribe now. It's free so just do it and you'll thank me. I've read TidBITS for maybe twenty years and it's the first place to go for accurate information on all things Apple.

The latest issue links to an interesting chart showing the relative obsolscence of Android and iPhone handsets by tracking their ability to take operating system updates. In other words the chart shows how long this or that phone is able to run the current version of its OS.

But once you look at that chart, keep clicking on Michael Degusta's other charts. Fascinating...

Apple's The Man...

(Tim) A couple weeks ago, our daughter, Michal, asked "When did Apple become The Man?"

Joe Sobran: preaching to the conscience and the Roman Catholic error of transubstantiation...

(Tim) Ten years ago, I read this column by Joe Sobran. Joe's declaration of faith gave me joy, but what struck me, particularly, was this statement:

Great as Shakespeare is, I never lose sleep over anything he said. He leaves my conscience alone.

Still today, I find myself wondering whether what's lacking in Shakespeare is not also lacking in my own preaching? Do God's sheep leave my proclamation of the Word of God each Lord's Day morning with easy consciences? Is their sleep always peaceful? If so, what an unfaithful minister of the Gospel I am.

Then we hit Sobran's promotion of the Roman Catholic error of transubstantiation. If you think it scandalous that I'd give any space to Sobran's defense of transubstantiation, never fear. Think about this.

Jesus didn't say, "this wine which is poured out for you," "this wine is the new covenant in my blood," or "for as often as you eat this bread and drink this wine...."

Rather, He said:

“This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:20b). And the Apostle Paul said, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:25-28).

Reformed Protestants have no need to fear the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation. If their claim to hold to the literal meaning of these texts were true, it wouldn't be the wine, but the cup that becomes our Lord's blood. Have you ever tried to drink a cup?

Nature, red in tooth and claw? Think different...

(Tim, w/thanks to Lucas) Friday, Apple will release its latest software update called Snow Leopard. Originally, the desktop pic installed by the software upgrade was a pic of a snow leopard with blood on his mouth.

No longer.

When "large crowds were going along with Him," He said...

(Tim) "iChristian" is an app offered to iPod Touch and iPhone users in Apple's iTunes store. Here's its description:

Now your iPhone / iPod Touch is a missionary, preacher and the evangelist!!! The iPhone / iPod Touch application "iChristian" ("Become a Christian") contains the minimum of required information to become a Christian. Alter the prayer of salvation. you may register as a Christian. If you would like, you may request a certificate of a Christian.

If Jesus warned those wanting to become His disciples that they must count the cost of following Him, then for us to offer salvation to unbelievers through such a come-on line as "contains the minimum of required information to become a Christian" is to mislead them. It's spiritual bait-and-switch...

A very light, well-priced, hardy laptop with a killer battery...

(Tim) Through the years, I've owned more Apple computers than I can keep track of, and at least fifteen of their laptops. Some months back I traded in a 15" MacBook Pro for the then-new 13" aluminum MacBook. It's been the best laptop I've ever owned, and I say that despite being about to receive a new 13" MacBook Pro from Apple because of the problems I've been having with it. The upgrade is, of course, at no cost and you can all learn the lesson that it's dangerous to buy the first iteration of a new computer body. But fear not, my problems are not documented on the web as being shared with many others.

It scared me to go to a smaller screen but my aged eyes have not experienced any additional challenges with the 13" screen. It was worth it for the smaller footprint and (especially) lighter weight. I take the computer everywhere and my elbow is quite happy having shed the weight of the 15" Macbook Pro. So weight, speed, screen quality, keyboard, great glass trackpad, long battery life, smaller and lighter AC adapter than the MacBook Pro, extreme ease of adding RAM or switching out the hard drive, low price, all topped out with the absolutely bulletproof aluminum unibody casing; all have made me a happy camper.

Still, there are two things I haven't liked...

From one Christian monarch to another: amusing ourselves to Hell...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) If you want to begin to understand our day--the switch of the central currency of cultural engagement from the Bible to moving pictures, the use of film clips in Gospel preaching, the building of congregations around virtual images of themselves on the movie screen each Lord's Day employed by men like Mark Driscoll and John Piper, and the gift our head of state and his wife gave the Queen, recently--only two things are necessary: first, read the Second Commandment; and second, read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

And while we're talking about the gifts the monarchs exchanged...

Good Apple parody...

(Tim) Not sure how long this link will work, but until they yank the video and it breaks, check this out...

Well, it's already down, so please use this link. Thanks.

TidBITS strikes it rich...

(Tim) Seriously, the latest addition to the editorial staff of Adam Engst's TidBITS is a certain "rich mogull."

And by the way, if you use a Mac and don't subscribe to TidBITS, you should. For many years, now, TidBITS has been far and away the best source of news for all things Apple. Here are a couple articles (one and two) typical of the fare provided by the Angsts--er, Engsts.

And by the way two, if you don't use a Mac, you might want to consider switching over---particularly if you're a pastor. My son, Joseph, uses both Macs and PCs doing about everything you can imagine, and he'll tell you why, when he needs to use a PC, it's virtualized on his MacBook Pro. Or my son-in-law, Ben, will tell you why he's always frustrated doing web and book design on a PC, rather than a Mac.

But yes, my dear brother David uses a PC and used to have a Mac. So there's a majority report on this that opposes what I'm suggesting.

While on the subject of Apple...

People argue endlessly about the actual price of Mac vs. PC computers. Here's a good article debunking the sleight-of-hand used by both sides when making their case. Very fair.

iPhone...

Well, the Jobster's done it. Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, has just announced the iPhone. For looks and size, check it out.

No price yet, but it runs on Cingular, has 8 gigs of memory, a 2MP camera, serves as an iPod playing music in iTunes (because it comes loaded with--get this--Mac OSX). It's a video player 3.5 inches in widescreen mode that automatically switches from portrait to landscape, and back. And it all operates by a new innovative touchscreen. Five hour battery life talking and playing videos, sixteen hours as an iPod playing music.

Other things: 3G, Bluetooth (2.0), WiFi (autodetect), EDGE, Google Maps (including satellite images), must have GPS since it knows where you are, Safari browsing, HTML E-mail...

Price: $499 for 4GB, $599 for 8GB. Doesn't ship until June.

Friends, this is likely to be a killer that equals the iPod. Apple stock currently up $6.11 (11%) since beginning of Jobster's keynote in San Francisco today, at 9 AM SF time.

Name change: It's no longer Apple Computer, Inc., but just-plain-ol Apple, Inc.

Prediction 1: lots of suits are going to be using Mac OSX...

Prediction 2: despite corporate and consumer America's love affair with Apple's products and the Jobster; and despite Al Invented-the-Internet Gore's reassurances that all Apple's execs, particularly Steve Jobs, are squeaky clean on this predating stock options scandal; the fat lady hasn't sung, yet. And I'm guessing she's filling her diaphragm with air and it won't be a happy note she lets loose. Everything I've read says, no matter how many of America's blue chip companies did it, the practice was fraud and stockholders suffered.