[MyAppleMenu] Monday, Jan 5, 2004

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Monday, Jan 5, 2004

MyAppleMenu : Top Stories
-------------------------
Ads For iPods Offer Big Music Gift In Small Package (Theresa Howard, USA Today)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-05-ipod_x.htm>
The first holiday season for iTunes helped drive sales even more for popular iPods.

MyAppleMenu : News
------------------
MWSF Keynote To Be Broadcast At Apple Stores (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/05/applestorekeynote>
Several Apple retail stores will be presenting a live satellite feed of Steve Jobs' keynote from this year's Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

FileMaker Showcases Real-World Database Solutions (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/05/filemaker>
Apple database software subsidiary FileMaker will kick off Macworld Expo by demonstrating a variety of real-world database solutions, all running on Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, for small business and education.

Apple Climbs More Than 5 Percent (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/05/aapl>
Shares of Apple are up to $22.37 in trading currently.

iTunes DRM Cracked Wide Open For GNU/Linux. Seriously. (Andrew Orlowski, The Register)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34712.html>
Norwegian programmer Jon Lech Johansen, who broke the DVD encryption scheme, has opened iTunes locked music a tad further, by allowing people to play songs they've purchased on iTunes Music Store on their GNU/Linux computers.

Governor Presents First Laptops To Students (Associated Press)
<http://www.thewmurchannel.com/education/2741644/detail.html>
The white Apple iBooks -- handed out by Gov. Craig Benson in Armand R. Dupont School gymnasium -- were even preferable to a snow day, some students said.

Roxio Unveils Toast With Jam 6 (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/05/toastwithjam>
Roxio on Monday unveiled Toast with Jam 6, a new version of its popular CD and DVD burning software, enhanced with studio quality audio tools.

Freeverse Offers Free Backgammon Deluxe 1.0 (Peter Cohen, MacCentral)
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/01/05/backgammon/index.php?redirect=1073286347000>
Hankering to play other Backgammon enthusiasts on the Internet? Freeverse Software is offering its new game Backgammon Deluxe v1.0 as a free download.

Twenty Years Of The Mac (Ian Betteridge, PC Pro)
<http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=51450>
As long as there are creative people, there will be a Mac to be productive with.

Will Apple's innovations And Influence Ever Translate Into Market Share? (Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe)
<http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/01/05/will_apples_innovations_and_influence_ever_translate_into_market_share/>
Market share is one thing, mindshare quite another.

General Mills Exec Joins Apple's Board Of Directors (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/05/lawrence>

Microsoft Has Plans To Take On... Apple? (Todd Bishop, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/155236_msftnotebook05.html>
Microsoft would like to chip away at [Apple's] lead on both fronts -- as the market leader in music downloads and portable music players.

Macromedia Updates Multimedia Tools (David Becker, CNET News.com)
<http://rss.com.com/2100-1012_3-5134696.html>
The new Director MX 2004 adds support for the JavaScript language, intended to make the applications more accessible to developers unfamiliar with Macromedia's Lingo format.

InDesign Adopts Orphaned PageMaker Users (David Becker, CNET News.com)
<http://rss.com.com/2100-1012_3-5134708.html>
Adobe Systems is set to unveil a conversion strategy Monday for customers still using its orphaned PageMaker page design and layout application.

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
----------------------
Reporter's Notebook: MWSF Musings And Predictions (Dennis Sellers, MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/05/notebook>
The level of excitement is, as always when the reality distortion field begins to coalesce, very high.

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
---------------------
Die Hard (John Gruber)
<http://daringfireball.net/2004/01/die_hard>
A list of changes [in Mac OS X] that have resulted in hard-to-break habits for long-time users.

MyAppleMenu : Wintel News
-------------------------
Windows XP Service Pack 2 Beta First Look (Kurt Hutchinson, Ars Technica)
<http://www.arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/04q1/sp2-beta-1.html>
At first thought, one might think "big deal -- Service Packs from Microsoft are generally bug squashers." Things are different this time.

More Wintel news at <http://www.myapplemenu.com/wintel/>

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: News & Opinions
-------------------------------------
Wireless Web Reaches Out In 2004 (Jo Twist, BBC News)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3341257.stm>

In Survey, Fewer Are Sharing Files (Or Admitting It) (John Schwartz, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/technology/05neco.html>
How easily do online file swappers scare? Pretty darned easily, a new survey suggests.

MyAppleMenu Reader: World
-------------------------
The Year Ahead, 20 Years Ago (Kiron K. Skinner, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/opinion/05SKIN.html>
A look back at the international scene in 1983 and 1984 might give us hope for a better New Year.

If The Bomb Is So Easy To Make, Why Don't More Nations Have It? (Gregg Easterbrook, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/weekinreview/04east.html?position=&en=d19dbdf1fad7763f&ex=1068267600&?ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=>
Claims that bomb plans can be downloaded from the Internet, or that fissile material is easily obtained on the black market and slapped together into an ultimate weapon, seem little more than talk-radio jabber.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Expressions
-------------------------------
Daisy (Chang-Rae Lee, New Yorker)
<http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/content/?040112fi_fiction>

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : Top Stories
---------------------------------------
'No Reason For Singapore To Replace Its Half Of Causeway' (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/storyprintfriendly/0,1887,228553,00.html?>
Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar on Monday said it did not make sense for Singapore to replace its half of the Causeway with a new bridge, laying out the Republic's stand for the first time since the issue was re-opened by Johor politicians and the Malaysian media recently.

Pension Fund Option For CPF Money (Tan Tarn How, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,228461,00.html?>
Central Provident Fund members will be able to put their money into low-cost, privately-run pension funds as early as next year, to help grow their retirement nest-eggs.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
-------------------------------------------
Singapore Will Lead MMS Use In Asia-Pac: IDC (Raju Chellam, Business Times)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/sub/premiumstory/0,4574,104263,00.html?>
11.7% of mobile subscribers in S'pore will use MMS in 2004, more than S Korea, Taiwan.

Singapore Office Workers Get Less Elbow Room Than Even HK's (Andrea Tan, Business Times)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/sub/premiumstory/0,4574,104259,00.html?>

Don't Repeat PTP Mistake, Says SM (Today)
<http://www.todayonline.com/articles/12595.asp>
Underestimating the PTP competition led to the Port of Singapore Authority having to cut wages and port charges and retrench workers. A similar fate must not be allowed to befall Singapore's air hub status and the Government wants to make sure that this doesn't happen, said Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

New Foreign Maids To Be Told Their Rights (Tan Tarn How and Theresa Tan, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,228450,00.html?>
New foreign maids will soon be required to attend a course informing them of their rights and what to do if their employers make demands that compromise their safety.

---
Modify your subscription at <http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/applesurf-list>

MyAppleMenu is edited by Heng-Cheong Leong. This site is not affiliated with Apple Computer, Inc., or any other companies in any manner. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, iPod, and eMac are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other brands or product names are trademarks of their registered holders. Copyright (C) 1996-2004 Heng-Cheong Leong. All rights reserved.