Amazon and Hachette have finally resolved their bitter dispute:

Specific terms of their new deal aren't being disclosed, but Hachette claims it's now gained full control over ebook pricing.

...

Amazon says the new pact contains "financial incentives" that will encourage Hachette to keep ebooks affordable for its many Kindle customers.

AT&T To "Pause" Gigabit Internet Rollout Until Net Neutrality Is Settled:

"We can't go out and just invest that kind of money, deploying fiber to 100 cities other than these two million [covered by the DirecTV deal], not knowing under what rules that investment will be governed," AT&T Chief Randall Stephenson said during an appearance at a Wells Fargo conference.

CoreData: error: (522) I/O error for database at /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/012CEF58-D497-451E-9256-CDD266930AF4/Library/Application Support/APPNAME/APPNAME. SQLite error code:522, 'not an error'

My favorite kind of errors are errors that aren't errors but fail like errors because they're really errors that don't know they're errors.

rdar://18907215: Resetting Network Settings on iOS removes networks in OS X:

While troubleshooting an iOS issue I hit Reset Network Settings. This apparently removes all the wireless networks from the keychain as a part of its magic. Unfortunately, the Keychain was synced to iCloud and my computers to that so ALL my wireless networks across ALL my computers were deleted as well.

Microsoft Surface product placement in CNN election coverage fails as iPads revealed behind them:

Microsoft must have thought it had pulled off a nice piece of product placement when it gave CNN election commentators a bunch of Surface Pro tablets to help with their coverage. CNN dutifully covered its desks with the devices, resulting in a series of proud tweets from Microsoft fans.

There was just one small problem, noted by GeekWire: a closer look revealed that hidden behind the Surface tablets were the iPads that commentators were actually using. In one case, the commentator was actually using her Surface tablet as a stand for her iPad.

You can't even pay someone to use it.

Law Firm Investigating Potential for Class Action Suit Against Rite Aid and CVS for Blocking Apple Pay:

Law firm Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe, specializing in class action lawsuits, has announced that it has launched an antitrust investigation into CVS and Rite Aid over their decision to stop accepting Apple Pay in their retail stores.

It's really the textbook definition when you think about it.

I really just have no words for that.

Coding in Swift would be much easier if the damned IDE (the only one that you can use for it today) would actually work when editing Swift code.

As it stands, however, Xcode regularly tries to compile while you're halfway through writing a symbol and then leaves the error up there for minutes at a time until you manually tell it to re-build the file. Then if you do something unexpected like actually delete something and then type something new then the syntax highlighting (and general language-based parsing) get boned all to hell and give you nonsense like this:

Even worse is that SourceKit is perma-boned somehow after this so things like option-delete to kill a word wind up removing either half a symbol or the current one and part of the one previous. To get it back you have to close the file and re-open it.

This is Xcode 6.1. Release. Not beta.

This shipped.

Perhaps escaped is a better verb.

Tim Cook: "I'm Proud to be Gay" - Businessweek:

I believe deeply in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ” I often challenge myself with that question, and I’ve come to realize that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That’s what has led me to today.

Meijer is first MCX member to break ranks, continuing to support Apple Pay:

When Re/code asked MCX for a comment, COO Scott Rankin said:

I think if they want to go forward and continue to accept Apple Pay, down the road at some point if they want to be a customer of MCX and roll out CurrentC and offer it to customers that’s great.

No, we don’t know what that means, either.

Apparently MCX wasn't expecting to have to issue that kind of statement. It looks like an attempt to be positive, yet still ambiguous about their position.

History is not on their side. MCX has created a solution that protects and benefits the merchants. NFC has created a solution that protects and benefits the consumer. Money comes from the consumer. It's only a matter of time before this one settles down, I think.

I'm sure Walmart et al will find another place to scrape 2-3% off their margins, as usual -- probably by pushing more employees on public assistance, as usual. I provide zero sympathy for their plight (as usual).