Jeff Richardson did a nice job summarizing the latest from US Customs and Border Protection concerning what it can and can’t do with your digital devices upon entering the country. Even if you are a US citizen, If you refuse to unlock your device you’ll be delayed and your device gets confiscated. If you’re not a US citizen, they send you back. I keep trying to put this into the context of my parents’ generation. If my dad was entering the US after a trip abroad in 1960 and customs wanted to make a copy of his diary, what would he have said? Most likely he’d have a few choice words about getting shot in Korea so this sort of thing didn’t happen.

Privacy continues to erode.

I don’t write much about Apple rumors because generally, I don’t see the point. We’re going to get to see the new iPhone in September, and there is no reason to get all bent out of shape about rumors about the new phone when we’ll get to see the actual phone in just a few months. Also, I don’t necessarily want all the spoilers. Apple products (at least the good Apple products) tell a story and need a proper introduction, not some shady back-alley blurry photos.

This year’s crop of “Apple/iPhone is doomed” rumors seem to have a lot of oxygen. While I don’t have any idea whether or not there will be a fingerprint sensor or some new-fangled authentication technology, I do know – for certain – that all the hardware decisions that the Internet thinks Apple is struggling to solve right now were locked down at Apple months ago. They ship millions of those phones on Day 1. There’s no way they’d still trying to figure out what to put in the phone at this point. I was all set to post on this issue at length, and then John Gruber went and did it for us.

This week we posted a great episode of Free Agents where we interviewed Stephen Hackett about his origin story and his winding path to independence.

Occasionally, Apple geek and scientist Dr. Drang has some bit of household paraphernalia fail on him. While most folks might just throw the broken pieces in the trash, Dr. Drang photographs, documents, and explains the finer points of what exactly went wrong.

Most recently, his toothbrush broke and we get a lesson in tensile stresses and fatigue. Some days, I love the Internet.