A common complaint against professionals like doctors and lawyers, rightly or not, is that being self-regulated, review and discipline is opaque and biased…. Strangest assertion in the piece: “But doctors say patients need to confront their physicians or even file a complaint with their local College of Physicians and Surgeons should they have concerns.”… This is of course exactly the point – those who use the ratings site likely do so because they know that these avenues won’t serve their needs. Surely the smarter approach is for the profession to embrace the technology as a tool for educating doctors about patient attitudes and problem MDs?

Michael Geist has been a regular chronicler of developments in Canadian copyright law, and lately he’s been spotting signs that the new media-industry friendly Act that has been expected for months might be just ’round the corner. Today brings another sign – a piece in the Globe (about in-theatre camcording) that bears all of the hallmarks of planted film industry PR.Theatres won’t be getting much of my money in the future, but not because I’ll be watching camcorded pirate copies…. Add a large widescreen TV to the family room with surround sound, a little bit of patience and a rented DVD, and you have a recipe for immolation of the theatre business.This is surprising, because the theatre business has always been pretty good about using product differentiation to stay ahead of the competition from home viewing – by making the theatrical experience special…. Theatres with state-of-the-art high definition digital projection, reserved seating and a film that starts on time with no advertising (come early for the ads and previews, if you wish) and media-related shopping on premises – that would be a reason to leave the family room.

Steve Stecklow and Nick Wingfield of the Journal report that Wendy Howell, the former Apple in-house lawyer who documented the Jobs option and the now notorious un-meeting [Ed: iMeeting, surely?], “contends that Apple’s general counsel at the time, Nancy Heinen, instructed her to create the false documentation”.Howell, Heinen and the Apple CFO at the time, Fred Anderson, are all no longer with Apple, and according to the WSJ, none are talking to investigators – yet. Howell and Heinen’s people are issuing statements that portray their clients’ actions as squeaky clean – by pointing their fingers at their respective superiors. One would have to guess that they’re all waiting for the immunity offers that should come as investigators get closer to Jobs. (Which the investigators will presumably do, unless they’re deterred by the prospect of the immolation of Apple’s value that would result.)

Yesterday’s iPhone announcement, which set off a media frenzy unparalleled even in the superlative-rich zone that is the Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field, was not the biggest news of the day…. And so as the news emerged, I was persistently berry’d with details, photos and stock quotes for Apple, RIM and Palm; the quietest corner of Toronto’s largest park held no refuge yesterday during my daily dog walk.And so I was swept up in the news as well, and my first impression was wildly positive – not to detract from the many charms of the iPhone, but this is of course the first effect of the Jobs reality distortion field when product news is announced: immediate and unreasonably profound feelings of giddiness, near-elation and an almost insatiable desire to put one’s credit card to work…. Push IMAP has been available to those willing to work for it, of course, but it’s always mystified me that no mobile email device provider had made more of an effort to make this a no-brainer for its customers – what better way to bring enterprise-level email cross-platform availability and backup and to the average joe, and such some of the air out of the traction that the Pearl is getting with the next tier of Blackberry customers? (why, after all, is IMAP never really fully functional on Blackberries?)Thank goodness that this is a pre-announcement only, and that the iPhone, as Mathew says, will likely not make an appearance in Canada for a very long time – until well after the polar caps have melted, perhaps.