Bad writing by iFixit.com blog spurs even worse posts on TUAW.com and TiPb.com about iPhone 4S proximity sensor and Siri

On November 9, iFixit.com posted a blog entry about the proximity sensor on the iPhone 4S. They begin by saying:

During our iPhone 4S teardown, iFixit buddy Markus noted that the new iPhone had a rather unusual-looking black component next to the ambient light sensor. We didn’t make much of a fuss about it since we were knee-deep in disassembly pictures, but the little black box certainly piqued our curiosity.

They later explain that the "unusual-looking black component" was the infrared LED proximity sensor—a sensor that's on every iPhone, not just the 4S. The post goes on to explain that the proximity sensor on an iPhone 4S comes on whenever the screen is on, if you have Siri set to activate whenever you hold the phone to your face. The proximity sensors in all other iPhones only come on during an active call (or a Skype, Viber, Tango, etc. call).

My question is: Why were the people at iFixit so mystified by the iPhone 4S proximity sensor? These people are iPhone hardware experts, it's not a new feature, and it's in the same general (if not exact) location as on all other iPhones. During iFixit's teardown report, they only mention a singular "infra-red LED proximity sensor" in Step 14 of page 2.

Then for some reason (my guess is lazy reporting and a desire for page views), both TUAW.com and TiPb.com write posts claiming that iFixit has revealed that the iPhone 4S has a secondary proximity sensor for Siri (TUAW link, TiPb link). No, iFixit feigned confusion (in my opinion) about the proximity sensor hardware to add dramatic effect to their post about how Siri uses the proximity sensor.

Laziness all around.

Photovine shutting down

As of March 6, 2012, Photovine will be shutting down. They say the app won't be supported after that, but whether it will remain functional is not clear.

Mail.app in Mac OS X Lion STILL does not show sent messages in the threaded view

I'm still digging into the details and new features of Mac OS X Lion, but so far I've come across one complete disappointment: Mail.app STILL does not include your sent messages in the threaded view. I don't understand why all email programs, both web apps and native apps, haven't incorporated this feature that GMail has had for years.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

The fourth Mission Impossible movie comes out this December. It looks much better than the last two.

Nokia N9 and MeeGo look great

Engadget has a hands-on with the N9 which runs MeeGo 1.2—and the OS looks amazing. If it really is as responsive as it looks in the videos, I wonder why Nokia decided to kill it and use Windows Phone 7 instead.

The hardware, too, looks great. They've done something I wish Apple would do, which is to favor function over form. The iPhone 4's glass back and hard edges look good, but make the phone less durable and less comfortable to hold and press against your ear. Contrast that with the N9's unibody polycarbonate shell, which looks to be lighter, more durable, and more comfortable to use.