The iPhone 4G scandal has been pretty hard to avoid. First, the actual uncovering of the device broke some serious headlines, then the outing of the poor employee who lost it, then it’s formal return request from Apple… the whole saga has been rolling out in front of the blogosphere in full view, including the latest happenings, which saw a turn of the tables as Gizmodo editor Jason Chen had his computer equipment confiscated by the police last Friday.

Naturally, Gizmodo is crying fowl, issuing a statement to the authorities that the search and seizure was invalid.  However, the reasons behind their perceived “invalidity” of the warrant are bogus, and here’s why.

First, we have to look at the crime in hand. The crime for which the warrant was set to attain evidence for. Grand Theft.

Under California Law, it’s illegal to knowingly acquire stolen merchandise (CA Penal Code 485). What constitutes stolen? Under California Law, anything which is lost is considered “stolen”, if the acquirer of the object knows of the owner and fails to make a reasonable effort to return the device to said owner. Clearly Gizmodo was aware of this fact, since they famously outed the fellow who lost it.

So, the actual crime is indeed theft, hopefully we can all agree on this. Also a fun fact: In California, stolen possessions worth over $400 are considered “grand theft”, and filed under the felony category of crimes. Since Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the device, and also since all but the lowest of the current production iPhones fall above that price (not counting the AT&T subsidization here), it’s pretty clear that the crime involved is not just normal theft, but grand theft.

At the very least, Gizmodo is guilty of grand theft. Journalist laws do not apply here, no matter what argument might be thrown, there’s no press blanket for buying stolen merchandise. And yes, it was stolen. According to CA law.

Now that we know the crime, lets take a look at the two rebuttals to the warrant that Gawker threw out:

The first had to deal with section 1524g of the CA Penal Code (and, relatedly, section 1070 of the Evidence Code), which protects journalists from having evidence taken to out their sources. This would be a valid claim if the CA law enforcement were only interested in finding out the source who sold the phone. However, considering the previous mention about the actual crime involved, apparently it’s not the source the police are going after. It’s Gizmodo. This fact makes the 1070 argument completely invalid.

The second claim is ridiculous, with Gizmodo stating the search warrant wasn’t valid because they think the warrant, which was executed sometime around 9pm, was executed during night time hours. A warrant only counts as a night time warrant if the search begins after 10pm. If it starts before 10 and extends after 10, it’s still valid. Their claims invalidate their own statement on that front.

This search and seizure has nothing to do with the rights of journalists. This has everything to do with California anti-theft law. By all counts, the police took Chen’s computers to prove that a crime (aka the theft / purchase) was committed. It’s as simple as that.

So please, don’t think Jason Chen is some hero of journalism. It’s not nearly that complicated.

Afterthought: I want to say, on the record, it was just about the douchiest thing in the world for Gizmodo to out the kid who lost the phone, while keeping the person who found it (and illegally sold it) anonymous. Gizmodo’s claim that they were trying to protect the kid’s job is disingenuous at best. He lost the phone over a month ago. If Apple was going to fire him, they would have done that when he lost it, well before the story broke to the press. Don’t be liars, too, Gizmodo – you outed him for nobody but yourself.

This is exactly what’s been happening to me recently, and being sick of my weak responses, one night I got to thinking, why am I a Mac?

Well, I know why I’m not a ‘Windows’. As someone who’s grown up online, and turned professional web developer during the birth of web 2.0, I’ve been pretty spoiled by innovation in software. I demand it, and any company who can’t provide me with such a service is not worth my time. I don’t have time to wait 3 years for a buggy web browser, and I definitely don’t have time to wait 8 years for a crummy OS. Add to that viruses, trojans, adware, malware, and spyware… you know, I think I’ll pass, kthxbai.

I also know why I’m not on Linux. Several times during my childhood I would have Linux phases, where I was just too annoyed / bored by Windows, and wanted to experience the ‘nix way of life. I had heard such good things about it, after all, and it really is the best line of OSes. The problem with this, was at the age of 15 I was no computer science expert. I was just a kid who liked to play around with websites, so compiling my own drivers so I could play a DVD was not my idea of a fun time. I wanted to like Linux as my OS, I really did, but at the end of the day I ended up missing the application support of Windows.

Then came along OS X. In early ‘04 I was in the market for a laptop, so I took the jump on the advice of a friend and got my first Mac, a PowerBook G4. It had OS X v10.3. I immediately liked it because of it’s ‘nix background. It had the security and stability of a super-solid OS in it’s FreeBSD backbone, yet there rarely is a need to get ‘down and dirty’ with the OS unless you wanted to. Even things like web services can be handled Terminal-free with programs such as MAMP and Locomotive. Mac had everything I needed, nothing I didn’t, and unlike my Linux phases, I didn’t miss Windows one bit.

In fact, as time went on, I became more and more immersed in the Mac world. The innovation is brilliant, with a new OS coming out roughly every 1.5 years. And if the OS innovation wasn’t enough, Mac boasts some of the most creative and useful apps on the planet. Case in point, they have the only decent svn gui in Versions, and there’s a wide array of homebrew companies like Omni and Panic, who release amazing software for really affordable prices. Mac is the incredible marriage of ‘nix and a commercialized support community, who not only pumps creativity and innovation in, but they do it on a really personal level. It all adds up to one big win.

A lot of the attacks against Mac tend to be in their business practices. Some of the top arguments I’ve heard:

• “They stop supporting older technologies too quick”
• “They’re not open-source”
• “They dictate what you can build on it” (this is a huge argument against the iPhone)
• and the all too famous, “They’re too expensive”

Granted, they’re pretty decent reasons, but with good comes bad and Apple needs these in place to be the innovators that they are. Yes, they do need to control the hardware a bit more, because that’s how the OS can be so streamlined. Yes, they have strict standards as far as development goes, but that’s how they keep the crap out, and provide a unified theme to the OS experience.

As far as costs go, I seem to be the only person who doesn’t think Mac’s are overpriced. Sure, you can get a flimsy Dell for $499, but you can also get a Kia, or you can get a Porsche. There’s clearly a difference in the manufacturing.

I’m not saying Apple’s the perfect company, but for this web professional at least, it’s clearly the best pick of the bunch.

I figured I’d document the apps, libraries, and utilities that I install, partly for self-reference, and hopefully for informing others of some of the essentials for professional web development (on a mac). I aim to be very specific about what I install, and oddly minimalistic considering all the space I’ve gained.

So, lets start with the main apps. There are a few must-haves, including the super powerful text-editor TextMate, s/ftp dream Transmit, hacker must-have Quicksilver, and who could forget the only svn gui worth mentioning, Versions. Last but not least, the essential web browser, Firefox and it’s various plugins (such as Firebug and the web developer toolbar). On the big expensive software side, it’s never a bad idea to have Adobe CS3 at your side.

Essential programs taken care of, there’s a few other things to install for a dev system to be complete. MacPorts is the key to most of these, including ruby / rails and it’s various gems, svn, php, and other processes you might need. Git is the only missing piece, but it can be installed fairly easily from source.

Now that I have these installed, I really feel like I have everything at my fingertips to start working. There’s a handful of other apps I will probably end up installing as time goes on, but these are the only ones absolutely necessary for efficient, happy programming.

That was, of course, until I found myself waking up at 5am to go wait in a 3 hour long iPhone line.

I’m not sure if people know how big of a deal that is for me. First, I love sleep. Second, I am so horrible at waking up early that you couldn’t pay me to usually. However, I was so excited about the thought of getting an iPhone that not only did I have no problem waking up, but I had problems falling asleep the night before (even though I was deathly tired).

So why is this? What is it about the iPhone that motivates people enough to stand in line for hours on end in the hot summer sun? Just what kind of magic has Steve Jobs and co released?

It’s a little something I like to call fluid integration. Apple has taken something that I, and I’m sure others, previously hated (the phone – oh how I’ve hated the phone) and turned it into an effective, beautiful thing – a device that helps you be more effective, without piling up process and other crap that hinders such things.

My favorite case in point is with the voicemail. With Sprint (or any other carrier I suspect) Voicemail is something you call into – listen to some annoying voice spew out stats on your message (“received from two-one-two five-five-five zero-one-two-six at three-thirty-three pm”) and then the message, going linerally with annoying breaks in between to press numeric keys representing save/delete/repeat options.

How fucking annoying is that.

Now, with the iPhone, it provides you with a beautiful interface, individualizing every voicemail into clickable standalone opions. You don’t have to listen to your voicemails in order. You don’t have to wait through minutes and minutes of computer generated voices telling you the stats on your message – it’s all there visually, instantly, beautifully.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with the iPhone, but an important part nonetheless. We’re at a point now in time where we’ve figured out a lot of the things in life – but now, now’s the time to make them kick ass. The phone is not a new concept, but the iPhone is nonetheless revolutionizing the industry.

And it’s just the start of it.

This totally beats the pants off what I was expecting – which was a long, tedious traverse through artist and album folders. Beats the pants off it, I tell ya! And it’s not just for music – all of the media types that Apple supports (such as photos and movies) have special interfaces as wel.

Well done, Apple. You’re the master of the ‘wow’ in the details.

(EDIT: My Muxtape is now mostly complete and can be listened to at zahnster.muxtape.com. Still to be uploaded – Radiohead (Jigsaw Falling Into Place), Elefant (Brasil), and Office (Possibilities)).