You wouldn’t think we’d have to write articles defending “proper” spelling, but after a recent Wired article arguing against standardized spelling, Lee Simmons, a copy editor at Wired, has penned a lovely rebuttal. Simmons points out that while textisms may be acceptable in texts and tweets, they have no place in professional writing where standardized spelling aids communication and enhances clarity. Well said!

The New York Times looks behind the doors at Foxconn, the massive Chinese firm that manufactures Apple products such as the iPad, as well as products for most major electronics companies worldwide.

Final Cut Pro expert Larry Jordan walked out of Macworld | iWorld with a sense of what the future holds for video editors. While there will still be a need to cater to the high end of video production, several products at the conference demonstrate that regular people shooting with consumer gear is the model we’re likely to see dominate the vast amount of video shooting and editing.

Tips from successful people tend toward the inscrutable (“Be the marketing message”) or the impossible (what Steve Jobs would have done is irrelevant unless you’re Steve Jobs and leading Apple, which you’re not). So this 12-question interview with Guy Kawasaki is thoroughly refreshing because he thinks (and is willing to say) that strategy is overrated, succeeding in social media and SEO comes down to good content, and the secret to overall success is having the willingness to sit down and do the necessary work.

The New York Times has a clever feature article explaining why Apple (and other firms) manufacture in China for a host of reasons, of which low wages may be a relatively small part. The ability to hire a massive number of trained people nearly instantly is one factor, regardless of how well those people are treated by the contractors Apple employs. For instance, Americans typically won’t live in dormitories and work six 12-hour days in a row, which is commonplace in China and other developing nations.

Glenn Fleishman writes in an editorial at Macworld about how Apple’s “new” digital textbook plan reminds him of countless efforts to push multimedia pedagogy without evidence that it improves achievement in any measure. The iPad is remarkable, but interactive textbooks aren’t.