Sometimes this is just too easy. Galen Gruman in InfoWorld:

The iPad makes the iPhone—Apple’s game-changing technology of 2007, whose impact still reverberates through the wireless, mobile, and computing industries—obsolete. And as the iPhone fades away as a short-lived marvel, so too will disappear the mobile Web.

So, instead of a smart phone which fits neatly into pocket or purse, we’ll saddle our mobility ambitions with a 1.5 pound device that isn’t a phone?

The iPhone is a bad phone and a brilliant but now-old-school media device. The iPad doesn’t make or receive calls. So what? Face it: As cool as it is to use an iPhone to surf the Web, check e-mail, play games, and run apps, it’ll be cooler and more productive on an iPad.

Except for not being as mobile, of course. Oh, and not being a phone. Hang on. It gets worse:

I suspect most iPhone users won’t renew their current data service plans with AT&T when they expire. They will instead get a cheap, reliable regular phone—and won’t miss the iPhone.

But consider how quickly the iPhone changed the paradigm for the Web and for smartphones. I believe the iPad will have just as dramatic and short-term effects. Only this time, it’s the iPhone that will look out of date. And forget about the wannabes like the Palm Pre and the various Android devices. They’re walking dead now.

They didn’t get very far. Let me recap. Galen is saying that the iPad is so cool that we’ll give up our iPhones (which fit in the pocket) and jump on board Apple’s newer gravy train because, well, the iPad is cool. Oh, and the iPad with 3G is less expensive than the iPhone. Is that it?

You may think I’m nuts to expect such a dramatic change in the iPhone’s position. But I’m serious. It was only three years ago that the iPhone up-ended the mobile market, making once-vaunted devices like the BlackBerry suddenly look like creaky old DOS systems.

You’re right. I think you’re nuts.

As usual, the Comments section of Galen’s ridiculous premise is where the real thinking is:

• I’ll ditch my iPhone for an iPad just as soon as my grandmother finishes sewing 12 inch pockets on all my shirts.
• Either sales of “manbags” are going to skyrocket, or Apple has missed. Invest accordingly.
• I will never ever (ever) use any device that requires me to carry a man-purse.
• Has anyone dropped this thing yet? This thing may be a little too large for everyday/mobile use.

The whole idea is laughable. Galen’s an idiot. Shame on InfoWorld for publishing the nonsense. It must be a slow news day. More of Galen’s idiocy here.

From my friend Alexis Kayhill on Mac360:

Here’s a little known and less understood fact of using a Mac (or a Windows PC). Emptying the trash (or the stupid recycle bin) doesn’t really delete files.

What about Secure Empty Trash in the Finder menu?

Secure Empty Trash merely overwrites the data seven times, according to some U.S. Department of Defense standard. And we all know how good those guys are at protecting data.

Here, here! Is there a better way, oh great Value Vixen™ of Southern California?

If you’re really paranoid about deleting the data on your Mac, and your whole world would collapse and you’d have to go into a Witness Protection Program of some sort if anyone ever found those secret files, then you need Permanent Eraser. First, it really, really scrambles the data you’re trying to erase. Not seven times. Not 20 times. But 35 times.

Permanent Eraser is free and also erases CD-RWs and DVD-RWs. Typically superb Mac utility. One click or drag and drop and you’re done.

ZDNet chart reveals what Snow Leopard can do on Macs from 2006 through 2008. Ed Bott:

This release of OS X looks a lot like a service pack. It makes some interesting architectural changes that will no doubt be useful in Macs designed in 2009 or later, but it’s not likely to make a noticeable difference for anyone with a 2008 model or earlier.

Check the chart to see what Snow Leopard features apply to your Mac.

File this one in the Why Morons Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone Department. Former eWeek writer Joe Wilcox lashes out at Steve Jobs with a moronic challenge designed only to get hits to his web site which is full of blather and drivel.

Prove me wrong. Yesterday, you officially returned to work after a six-month medical leave of absence. Twice this month, on June 5 and 10 days ago, I said that you wouldn’t return as full-time CEO. Call me a liar. Make me the idiot. By instead returning in your full capacity.

Apple’s CEO needs to do nothing to ensure Joe’s posture as an idiot. His own site is a ‘Chronicle of Technology, Culture, and Stupidity.’ I had difficulty finding anything that resembled culture, but stupidity was overstocked.

What has Apple done truly innovative in your absence? Not much (and there’s perhaps good reason I’ll explain later). Across product lines I see a consistent trend: More of the same, only better. Of course, you don’t want to admit it. But, c`mon, Steve. Let’s be men discussing it.

Why? A true man avoids being an idiot on purpose, right? Wilcox complains that Apple, in Jobs’ absence, was merely “more of the same.” Seriously, I’m appalled that someone has the chutzpah to do in public what guys usually do in private (or, in circles with other guys). How’s Tim Cook doing, Joe?

Your team remained loyal, and Tim and upper managers helped by actions that arighted Apple’s sagging stock price. In that sense, “more of the same, only better” had a calming affect on investors—and perhaps Apple’s board. You’re back on the job. The calming must come for you. Now is the time for “one more thing.”

Bad so far? It gets worse. This is pure butt licking and spitting of a totally new calibre. Apple and Steve Jobs are chastised by Wilcox for simply providing customers with “more of the same, only better.” As if that’s a bad thing. Are you beginning to wonder why Wilcox isn’t writing for eWeek?

I hope that someday we’ll meet at some event or tradeshow and you look me in the eye and say, “You stupid son of a bitch.” And walk away. From you, that would be praise.

That works for me except that I trust, and hope, Apple’s honcho has better things to do with his time than respond to a loose sperm sack. Is it not obvious that the recession didn’t cause Joe Wilcox to become a casualty at eWeek. They just didn’t carry the termination far enough.

From Dave Barry:

People always ask me: How come the newspaper prints so much bad news? How come the front page always has negative headlines such as: “Freak Espresso Machine Explosion Destroys Crowded Starbucks”? Why don’t we print stories with a positive slant, like: “Destroyed Starbucks Was Popular Gathering Place for Lawyers”?