Celebrity gadget notes from all over

Hard to imagine that Apple will be falling over themselves to celebrate this "celebrity" sighting, but a doozy in Al-Jazeera does have interesting implications for understanding how the Taliban has changed since the war started.

The Taliban is, of course, anti-everything worthwhile, and that includes technology. It's one thing for the wild-eyed leadership to have satellite phones and middling-quality videocameras, but overall, modern conveniences have been regarded as corrupting influences, and the general public is forbidden contact.

Maybe, then, the Taliban and its supproters simply figure that the people they're oppressing won't see things like the news story in which Hamish Macdonald chats with Mullah Zaif, a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, in which the terrorist diplomat won't stop babbling about his iPhone. (Love that speedy Internet access!) Between that and the revelation this week that President Obama's a PC guy, the week in celebrity technology is winding up mighty weird. (HT Gawker/Valleywag.)