Good ol' rickets-preventing vitamin D turns out to be much more significant than once thought.  In fact, it influences over 200 genes and directly highlights links to major diseases:

The researchers found 2,776 binding sites for the vitamin D receptor along the length of the genome. These were unusually concentrated near a number of genes associated with susceptibility to autoimmune conditions such as MS, Crohn's disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (or 'lupus') and rheumatoid arthritis, and to cancers such as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and colorectal cancer.

They also showed that vitamin D had a significant effect on the activity of 229 genes including IRF8, previously associated with MS, and PTPN2, associated with Crohn's disease and type 1 diabetes.

I take a quality vitamin D supplement every day.  I recommend Designs for Health's Vitamin D Supreme.  It's a top quality brand led and managed by some of the brightest folks in the field.

The Droid 2 and X have already been pegged for March 2011 EOL (end-of-life) status.

Here in MI, you can't find a Droid X. Everywhere is sold out.

If this report is true, that's the frustrating thing about Android: you get a scarce phone one month, and a few months later it's completely phased out.  Pace of innovation, or another symptom of Android fragmentation?  How much longer can carriers keep you locked into a two-year contract when the landscape is advancing so quickly?

Makes used phones, sans contract, much more appealing.

This morning, I went to the Novi Apple Store and spoke to a technician, bypassing AT&T completely (from whom I ordered the phone on launch day).  I explained my problems, how I more or less hated the iPhone 4 and its unreliability made the phone unusable for anything other than novelty.

Karl, my tech, seemed to understand my story completely.  He ran a few diagnostics on my iPhone 4, saw my problem, and quickly offered to swap out my phone for another.  I agreed.  Truthfully, it was the only solution I was willing to accept, as I have tried a ton of other quasi-solutions that are posted all over the web.

Curiously, the phone he gave me was something he called an 'engineering' phone, one he claims has been tested very thoroughly to ensure it's a error-free device.  It came out of a hard-shelled black plastic/composite box, and Karl said each of them ship in two other padded boxes to ensure safe travels.  In his words, it's a 'known-quantity' unit.  If I have problems with this, they'll likely be a result of the AT&T network, software or a drop on the other end of the call, but ostensibly not because of this particular iPhone 4 unit.  These phones, he told me, more or less eliminate hardware issues from a diagnostic equation.  At the very least, they represent a clean hardware slate.

(The new phone also is likely a product of a later manufacturing build; i.e. it's not a day-one launch unit.  Could Apple have been tweaked in manufacturing since pre-launch?  Possible, but who knows?)

I've no idea yet if this phone will wind up being an improvement, but I'll say this: Apple has always taken care of me as a customer.  Would Motorola do the same thing?  Could they?  One might argue that a Motorola Droid X wouldn't be dropping the calls like an iPhone, so support wouldn't be necessary.  Perhaps.  But that's missing the point.  When I've needed support from Apple, I've gotten it.  Every time.

So, we'll see how this goes.  If the problem persists, I'm afraid it'll be time to move away from the iPhone and AT&T.

On any given day, I drop 2-4 calls on my iPhone 4 with AT&T service.  Today, on the way into the office, I dropped 5.  The phone was resting in my car's center console, so I can't even blame the Death Grip/Antennagate fiasco.

I can just say there's something inherently wrong with the iPhone 4 -- at least the very early production units I and a few friends received on launch day.

My mobile phone is my only phone.  It needs to work.  And I have reached my breaking point.  The iPhone 4 is the worst 'phone' I've ever used, and AT&T won't do a thing about it.  'Get a case,' they say, completely ignoring the fact that I don't touch my handset when I'm in the car.  (I use Bluetooth.)  Regardless, they'll do nothing -- not even a clean exchange of my iPhone 4 for another.  Apple just tells me to deal with AT&T, because I ordered it through them.

This past weekend, I spent some quality time at a Verizon dealer with the Droid X.  What shocked me was my immediate impression: for the first time ever, Android has become a true competitor to the iPhone.  This is a watershed moment: all previous Android versions were clunky and slow and felt built with baling wire and duct tape.  Android 2.1, running on the Droid X, was nice.  Very nice.  Not as polished as iOS, and the hardware wasn't up to Jobs/Ive snuff, but it was quite nice unto itself.  Put another way: it wasn't shit as some would have you believe.  And Android 2.2 (Froyo), announced at the 2010 Google I/O, is right around the corner.

I'm very seriously thinking of moving off AT&T/iPhone to Verizon/Droid X.  I'm an ardent Google user anyway -- cue up the lock-in drums and Skynet fears -- and the integration with Gmail, Google Calendar, Gtalk, Maps and other Google-based services is compelling.

I'm looking for real-world stories of those who have made a similar move.  Are you happy with the Android OS?  Do you have a Droid X specifically?

Any and all comments welcome.  Do share.

VentureBeat:

The app in question came from Jackeey Wallpaper, and it was uploaded to the Android Market, where users can download it and use it to decorate their phones that run the Google Android operating system. It includes branded wallpapers from My Little Pony and Star Wars, to name just a couple.

It collects your browsing history, text messages, your phone’s SIM card number, subscriber identification, and even your voicemail password. It sends the data to a web site, www.imnet.us. That site is evidently owned by someone in Shenzhen, China. The app has been downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times.

Interesting parallel piece of data: 47% of Android apps access some variety of third-party data, while only 23% of iOS apps do.  I'd see this as correlational, not causal.

Nonetheless, looks like Apple is doing a better job policing its app store, but it's not fair to indict the Android Marketplace for this when 'wallpaper' apps are barely apps at all.

If anything, this is a harbinger of the app explosion mobile platforms are seeing and a call for attention to the security problems that will be in tow.

Let’s be honest: we all get way too much email. So much so that checking email has become a dirty chore, something many productivity experts say you should do 2-3 times a day tops, simply because it's a tremendous timesuck.  In professional communication, it’s all too common to send an email only to find that days later, the recipient didn’t take the time to read it or – worse – deleted it.

Before you blame them, ask yourself: did I make it easy for them to delete my email?  Was I too wordy?  Too many pleasantries?  The decision about what to do with your message may happen much quicker than you think.

Most email systems preview message content for the first 50-100 characters of the email.  So, as Steve Rubel suggests, try writing the first sentence of your email like a tweet.  Skip the introductory small talk and get right to the point.  Set your hook within 75 characters and you’ll have a far better chance of the reader giving your email the attention it deserves.

75 characters isn’t a lot, so this takes some practice.  I suggest heading over to a site like this that will give you a character count as you write your  hook.  Once you’ve got it pared down to a reasonable size, tab back to your email client and paste in what you’ve written.  (If you use Twitter regularly, you're probably familiar with what 75 characters looks like.)

It’s the attention economy these days. Instead of trying to fight it, learn to play better within its rules.

It's Friday. Treat yourself to some recreational reading.  Such as:

Word nerd alert: go write your best love letter to whatever punctuation mark you like.

It’s OEM Windows all over again: mobile carriers are loading up new Android smartphones with all sorts of crapware.

Zero marginal product workers: economist Tyler Cowen looks for a sane reason why economic output is up while jobs are down.

There are two ATMs in Antarctica, both owned and operated by Wells Fargo.  Who knew?

The Science of Sport looks at power output (wattage) from Tour de France riders.  If you’ve ever watched your own wattage on a stationary bike or Concept 2 rower, then you know how utterly mind-blowing these numbers are.

Khoi Vinh, former design director for the NYTimes, explains why he chose to leave his job. I applaud his honesty and acknowledgement that he’d be showing his daughter a horrible example if he were to stay in a job just for the sake of stability at the expense of his dreams and ambition.  There are parallels to why one wouldn't stay in bad marriage for fear of showing an equally poor example.

Janet Fitch (author of ‘White Oleander’ and ‘Paint It Black’) has 10 writing rules that can help just about anyone.  This mostly pertains to fiction, but many are useful nonetheless.

Amazon’s quarterly results.  Good numbers (revenue and net income up, but a miss on EPS), but pay attention to how they seem to be positioning the Kindle – as a software platform rather than one of hardware.

A German nursing home uses a fake bus stop to foil wayward Alzheimer’s patients.

Finally, an excellent essay by Paul Graham about the act of thinking, entitled The Top Idea in Your Mind.  An ode to shower thinking.

I'm not much on raving about new places to eat, but I just had arguably the best lunch I've had in years.

The Plymouth Coffee Bean (aka The Bean), a humble coffee shop in downtown Plymouth, just started offering crépes of all sorts.  To my knowledge, they are the best crépes in Michigan, and they're better than the fancy, foofy gourmet crépes I had while skiing in Colorado a few years back.  Come to think of it, they're the best I've ever had.

Simply put: they are awesome, full-stop.  If you live in Michigan and are anywhere near (and by near I mean anywhere within a 30 minute drive) Plymouth, you need to make the drive to The Bean.  It's more than worth your time.

So what are my recommendations?

For lunch, try the bean burger, pepperjack, hummus, tomato, onion and spinach crépe.  For dessert -- and you have to get dessert -- get the chocolate chip, peanut butter and banana.  Trust me on these.  Each crépe is big enough to be a meal unto itself, but you'd be cheating yourself if you went there and didn't at least try one of the dessert crépes.

If my recommendations don't sound like your thing, no worries: you can choose whatever ingredients you want from their picklist, and they cook it right in front of you.  As simple or foody as you like -- you create it, they make it.

I can't recommend them enough.  It's hard to find crépes period, but it's nigh impossible to find truly excellent ones.  I just had one for lunch, and already I'm wishing I got one to go for a box dinner.  Serious.

(If you're on Facebook, you can find The Bean's page here.)

Some pics snapped before they called security on me:

               

Click here to download:

found-the-best-crepes-in-michigan-phciyifnFiHmyDuJyhra.zip (13780 KB)

I've never understood public suicide.  Suicide in itself is immensely selfish, but to involve others in the taking of your own life seems to be the ultimate act of terminal nihlism. 

Yes, you took your own life, but you also permanently scarred innocent people who were just out enjoying the day, in this particular case at a national monument. [Warning: disturbing video.  Not graphic, but not pleasant.]

This sort of thing makes me equal parts sad and angry.