Second Adrian Peterson Case Involves Alleged Head Wound, Scar →

This is not a good pattern at all. 

In related news, the Vikings say Peterson will play this week. Really?

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Adrian Peterson: "I Caused An Injury That I Never Intended" →

Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings released a statement today regarding his recent indictment on child injury charges:

My attorney has asked me not to discuss the facts of my pending case. I hope you can respect that request and help me honor it. I very much want the public to hear from me but I understand that it is not appropriate to talk about the facts in detail at this time. Nevertheless, I want everyone to understand how sorry I feel about the hurt I have brought to my child.
I never wanted to be a distraction to the Vikings organization, the Minnesota community or to my teammates. I never imagined being in a position where the world is judging my parenting skills or calling me a child abuser because of the discipline I administered to my son.
I voluntarily appeared before the grand jury several weeks ago to answer any and all questions they had. Before my grand jury appearance, I was interviewed by two different police agencies without an attorney. In each of these interviews I have said the same thing, and that is that I never ever intended to harm my son. I will say the same thing once I have my day in court.
I have to live with the fact that when I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child, I caused an injury that I never intended or thought would happen. I know that many people disagree with the way I disciplined my child. I also understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate.
I have learned a lot and have had to reevaluate how I discipline my son going forward. But deep in my heart I have always believed I could have been one of those kids that was lost in the streets without the discipline instilled in me by my parents and other relatives. I have always believed that the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man. I love my son and I will continue to become a better parent and learn from any mistakes I ever make.
I am not a perfect son. I am not a perfect husband. I am not a perfect parent, but I am, without a doubt, not a child abuser. I am someone that disciplined his child and did not intend to cause him any injury. No one can understand the hurt that I feel for my son and for the harm I caused him. My goal is always to teach my son right from wrong and that's what I tried to do that day.
I accept the fact that people feel very strongly about this issue and what they think about my conduct. Regardless of what others think, however, I love my son very much and I will continue to try to become a better father and person.

He's not sorry about the harm he's caused his son. He still thinks that's a valid parenting technique, and credits it with making him the "success" that he is. The only thing he's sorry about is getting caught. He's mildly trying to say what he thinks people want to hear, but he can't be sorry until he actually believes he's done something wrong. 

I really liked Cris Carter's take on the Adrian Peterson situation yesterday. I watched it live and he nailed it. "My Mom Was Wrong", he said. Just because that's the way you were raised, doesn't make it right. 

 

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All of Roger Goodell's Lies And Half-Truths About Ray Rice (So Far) →

I don't see how Roger Goodell can keep his job, but somehow I still wouldn't be surprised if he does. 

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Tim Draper: Bitcoin's Price Still Headed to $10k →

Venture capitalist Tim Draper, to CoinDesk:

I guess the markets aren’t seeing what I am seeing. An entire economy is being rebuilt. I have a price target of $10,000 in three years. Even that may be pessimistic.
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Sir Richard Branson: Bitcoin is Working →

Branson, to Bloomberg News, on whether Bitcoin will work:

I think it is working. There will be other currencies like it that may be even better, but in the meantime there’s a big industry around bitcoin. You know, people have made fortunes out of bitcoin, some people have lost money out of bitcoin.
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Overstock.com Becomes First Major Retailer to Accept Bitcoin Worldwide →

Wired:

Overstock.com was the first major online retailer to embrace bitcoin, accepting payments in the digital currency here in the U.S. beginning in early January. And now, it’s the first to accommodate bitcoin across the globe.
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NFL Hires Independent Investigator in Ray Rice Case →

Yep. Roger Goodell has stepped in some shit. First, a U.S. Senator got involved, and now, the NFL has the former director of the FBI running an independent investigation. There's a lot of smoke here, and I'm thinking maybe there's a fire, and Goodell is right in the middle of it.

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Keith Olbermann: Roger Goodell Needs to be Fired →

Roger Goodell seems to have made a few serious missteps in the past several months. It really doesn't look good for him, his integrity or the league. The NFL as a whole (ratings, attendance) won't feel the hit on this one, but I think Goodell has stepped into some serious shit. Keith Olbermann lets him have it again.

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SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS 8 Will Launch With Support for Canadian English and French →

One of my favourite features of iOS 8 is customizable keyboards. I've used SwiftKey on Android in the past, and it's great. 

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Coinbase Expands Bitcoin Buying Service to Europe →

Re/code:

Coinbase, a U.S.-based bitcoin company, has expanded its bitcoin buying and selling services to overseas customers for the first time. People who live in one of 13 European countries, including Italy, France and Spain, will now be able to buy or sell bitcoin through Coinbase. Previously, people in those countries could only store or transfer bitcoin using Coinbase.

More and more positive news for Bitcoin recently. Hasn't impacted the price, yet. 

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Quick Thoughts on What Apple Unveiled Today

Today's event was almost exactly two hours long and there was a ton of stuff unveiled. I'll give you a quick recap and some of my thoughts.

What was unveiled:

iPhone 6's

  • iPhone 6 - 4.7" iPhone with 1334 x 750 pixels @ 326ppi
  • iPhone 6 Plus - 5.5" iPhone with 1920 x 1080 pixels @ 401ppi
  • A8 processor - 25% faster CPU, 50% faster GPU, 13% smaller, 50% more energy efficient
  • M8 motion coprocessor - now estimates distance, elevation and distinguishes between activities like running and cycling
  • Improved LTE speeds and VoLTE (voice over LTE)
  • 802.11AC Wi-Fi (up to 3x faster) and Wi-Fi calling
  • Camera - new sensor with phase detection auto-focus (2x faster), 1080p video @ 60 fps, Slow-mo @ 240 fps (super Slo-mo!), cinematic video stabilization, better front facing camera with burst and HDR selfies
  • What's the difference between the two besides the screen?
    • Battery life - Both phones feature improved battery life, but the iPhone 6 Plus has a much bigger battery that will last longer doing most tasks
    • Camera - Specifically, the iPhone 6 Plus has optical image stabilization and the iPhone 6 does not
    • Price - iPhone 6 Plus costs $100 USD more
  • Apple also doubled the storage in the mid and top tier configurations
    • Now 16GB, 64GB and 128GB
  • Pre-order this Friday, September 12th and shipping Friday, September 19th in 9 countries, including the U.S. and Canada

Apple Pay

  • Uses NFC radio, Touch ID and Secure Element chip
  • Integrated into Passbook
  • Credit card numbers are not stored or transmitted, but instead they use dynamic security codes
    • If your phone is stolen, you wouldn't need to cancel your cards
  • U.S. only for now, but over 200,000 physical locations and working on new countries
  • One-touch online checkout

Apple Watch

  • The watch and wearable device for which everyone has been not-so-patiently waiting
  • Beautiful design, with many options
    • 2 sizes, 3 collections, 18 different bands, for over a million different possible configurations
  • Very much focused on being a watch
  • New user interface — not just an iPhone on your wrist
  • Communication, fitness and health tracking (steps, heart rate, calories, etc.), notifications, Siri, third-party apps
  • $349 USD and available in "early 2015"

Music

  • U2 performed on stage at the end of the event
  • Apple and U2 gave away U2's newest album for free to anyone who has an iTunes account (over 500 million users)
    • If you're not already an iTunes user, just set up an account before Oct. 13th and you'll get the album for free (I'm sure Apple is paying!)
    • Looks like an effort to further increase the number of iTunes account holders and credit cards on file for the launch of Apple Pay, which is launching in October

Thoughts:

Presentation

  • Overall, it was one of Apple's smoothest ever product announcements, particularly through the iPhone portion. 
    • I didn't count the live stream, which was absolutely horrific.
  • The cheesy infomercial-style video to depict the current painful process of making purchases using credit cards was a little much for me. They may as well have had Vince up there showing how tough life was before the ShamWow! or the Slap Chop.
  • Tim using "One more thing..." for the first time since Steve Jobs' passing was pretty great. That was a more symbolic final passing of the torch to Tim Cook, and you could tell he was pretty pumped to use the line. 
  • The schtick at the end between Tim Cook and Bono when they gave away U2's new album was a little sloppy, but still charming and fun.
  • Overall, Tim Cook and Apple brought down the house.

Products

  • Both iPhone 6's look amazing and I'm extremely excited. The only thing I don't like about the devices is the protruding camera lens on the back of the phone. I don't think that will be an issue for 90%+ of iPhone owners, because most use a case (I don't). 
    • I'm going to have a hard time deciding which one to get. I was 95% sure I'd end up with the 4.7" variant, but now that I see the better camera and battery life in the 5.5" variant, I'm not so sure. I've got some research to do in the next couple of days before pre-orders go live. I'm thinking of going to the local carrier store and checking out the Android phones that most closely match the dimensions of the iPhone 6's and seeing how the feel in the hand and pocket. If I can live with the enormous size of the iPhone 6 Plus, that's the one I'll get.
  • Apple Pay is intriguing, even if it's not available in Canada yet. I definitely think Apple will gain more traction than anyone else's attempt at mobile wallets before now. It looks very elegant and simple, and although it will take years before it replaces wallets, it will make purchases much more painless while we wait for that.
  • Apple Watch is beautiful. I want one, and bad. I'm not sure that I'm going to love or use every feature the watch offers, but it addresses my two biggest wishes — a good looking watch, and fitness tracker. Without having ever used a smartwatch, I'm still not sold on the whole notifications thing, but I guess I will find out in early 2015 if they can be useful for me. Some of the communications stuff looks a little gimmicky (drawing pictures to other Apple Watch-owning friends, or sending them your heartbeat), but I don't have to use those. I'll be curious to wait and see if they catch on or just get ignored with the next iteration. Really, it's just battery life that's still the big question mark. Apple didn't address it specifically, but it seems that the Apple Watch will only get about a day of battery and need highly charging.

What a huge, exciting event. 

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Apple Watch Overview →

Fantastic, and extremely thorough overview of the Apple Watch by Federico Viticci over at MacStories.

I'm pretty excited to hear more about this new device over the coming months.

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Apple Ads: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Jony Ive introducing the new iPhones:

Ad - Seamless

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake Ad - Duo

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake Ad - Health

U2 Ad - Echos

Apple Video - Perspective

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PayPal's Support is the Best Thing That Could Happen to Bitcoin →

Great news:

Fairly or not, bitcoin still has an image problem. For every VC who extols the innovative power of the digital currency, pop culture still sees it as a way for the paranoid cyber-libertarian to shop for black-tar heroin on the Silk Road. All the more reason, then, that bitcoin fans should rejoice that, in a move announced Monday at Techcrunch’s Disrupt conference, PayPal is supporting the crypto-currency on its Braintree payments platform. When the internet’s most mainstream brand for moving money embraces a technology, it’s hard to see that system as a fringe operation.

[Update] PayPal's newest ad mentions Bitcoin.

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Keith Olbermann Destroys Roger Goodell: "An Enabler of Men Who Beat Women" →

Keith Olbermann is great. This whole débâcle is absolutely unbelievable. That it took this long for the NFL and the Ravens organization to wake up and cut Ray Rice is joke.

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