[MyAppleMenu] Jul 5, 2005

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/>
Mac news for Mac people

[News]

*** Coming Soon: Music Player Bargains?
<http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121693,00.asp>
Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

Apple's decision to cut the iPod shuffle's price may prompt other companies to do the same.

*** iTunes Countdown To Half A Billion Songs Announced
<http://www.macminute.com/2005/07/05/itunes/>
MacMinute

As part of the countdown, Apple is giving away an iPod mini and an iTunes gift card for 50 songs to the iTunes customer who purchases the winning song at each 100,000 interval.

*** Apple Third Quarter Results Due July 13
<http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=12000>
Jonny Evans, Macworld UK

*** Car Makers Tune In To iPod Craze
<http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBC3T6JRAE.html>
Richard Mullins, Tampa Tribune

The sheer force of iPod's popularity seems to have shaken the auto industry into action and prompted car companies to open their dashboards to the device.

*** Podcasting Ads Face Challenges
<http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3517416>
Kevin Newcomb, ClickZ

Among those challenges are finding ways of measuring listening and of evfficiently buying ads on a medium that has so far been made up of small, fragmented audiences.

[Opinion]

*** 10.4 Tiger Is Less Robust Than 10.3?
<http://www.networkhk.com/weblog/2005/07/104-tiger-is-less-robust-than-103.html>
Computer And Me

*** Use Vision To Spur Growth
<http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/industryinsight/business/widdop050704.asp?S=Business&A=BUS&O=FRGN>
Ian Widdop, IT Web

What is behind the success of brands like British Airways or Apple? They live their vision.

*** How To Share The Light Of A Cult Product's Halo
<http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/index3.asp?cnd=7/5/2005&section_id=4&newsid=3946&spcl=no>
Simon London, Financial Express

The worry is that Apple's stratospheric valuation reflects the halo of its charismatic founder as much as the money-making potential of the enterprise.

[Review]

*** Album Art In iTunes For Mac OS X
<http://www.eddequincey.com/weblog/?p=1161>
Blogaholic

*** Backdrop Designer
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.backdrop.html>
Steven Parke, MacAddict

*** Burning Monkey Mahjong 2
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.mahjong.html>
Cathy Lu, MacAddict

Burning Monkey Mahjong is a cheerful game that will have you playing longer than you expect.

*** Chessmaster 9000
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.chessmaster.html>
Roman Loyola, MacAddict

For all you get with Chessmaster, the $40 is well worth it.

*** Eye Candy 5: Nature
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.eyecandy.html>
Steven Parke, MacAddict

Nature is a clear step forward in interface design, but it still needs some retooling to be fully impressive.

*** Photo To Movie 3.2
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.phototomovie.html>
Tom Lassiter, MacAddict

*** Visual Thesaurus 3
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.thesaurus.html>
Jenifer Morgan, MacAddict

Visual Thesaurus 3 is one of the most stylish, truly useful reference tools we've encountered.

*** WireTap Pro
<http://www.macaddict.com/issues/0507/rev.wiretap.html>
Jake Widman, MacAddict

*** Podcasting And The iPod
<http://recordcard.blogspot.com/2005/07/review-podcasting-and-ipod.html>
The Record Card

So well done Apple engineers.

[Sidetrack]

*** Bankrupt For Ideas?
Heng-Cheong Leong

Jonathan Watts <http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1521535,00.html>, The Guardian, reports that Disney is remaking Snow White -- with kung fu.

Big media companies keep exerting their control over old materials by extending the length of copyright period so that others cannot touch the materials, while the very same media companies keep recycling old materials, with each iteration worse than the previous.

[Wintel]

*** Microsofft's Personnel Puzzle
<http://news.com.com/Microsofts+personnel+puzzle/2100-1022_3-5770771.html?part=rss&tag=5770771&subj=news>
Ed Frauenheim, CNET News.com

Microsoft is working to change its long-standing reputation for haughtiness in hiring.

*** Don't Take The Tablets!
<http://www.techworld.com/mobility/features/index.cfm?featureid=1571>
Bill Bennett, New Zealand Reseller News

You'd think by now the message should have got through to Microsoft's top brass that consumers and businesses aren't exactly falling over themselves to buy overpriced handwriting recognition products.

The Tomorrow Weblog
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/tomorrow/>
Emerging Technologies. Innovative Applications. New Economy

[News]

*** EU Will Vote On Software Patents Rules On Wednesday
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/05/HNeupatentvote_1.html>
Simon Taylor, IDG News Service

Critics of the proposed legislation argue it would allow large IT firms to dominate the market.

*** Marketers See Opportunity As A Web Tool Gains Users
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/business/media/05adco.html?ex=1278216000&en=5d3d71fcee391732&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
Louise Story, New York Times

The fledgling RSS business is starting to attract some attention from those catering to internet advertisers.

MyAppleMenu Reader
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/reader/>
The other things in life

[Tech & Science]

*** Straight, Gay Or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05sex.html?8hpib>
Benedict Carey, New York Times

A new study casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men.

[Life]

*** When Theater Becomes Propaganda: The Problem Of Political Art
<http://www.incharacter.org/article.php?article=32>
Terry Teachout, In Character

This necessarily places a heavy burden on the political artist, who must ot only be a good artist but also a competent reporter and researcher.

*** A Mini-'Magic Flute'? Mozart Would Approve
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/04/arts/music/04magi.html?ex=1278129600&en=54b24524c932de6c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
Anthony Thommasini, New York Times

You can imagine no one being more excited by the idea of enticing children to opera house with an abridged version of "The Magic Flute" than Mozart.

SingaporeSurf
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/singapore/>
Life in the city

[News]

*** Preview: Singapore Econ Likely Grew Little Faster In 2Q
<http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050705/15/3tase.html>
Saeed Azhar, Dow Jones

Singapore's economy likely grew at a slightly faster pace in the second quarter but not strongly enough for forecasters to upgrade sluggish growth forecasts for 2005.

*** Bid Cities Pack Singapore With Heavyweights
<http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/summer/2005-07-04-2012-bids_x.htm>
Vicki Michaelis, USA Today

*** Novena Square To Go Sporty
<http://www.asia1.com.sg/st/st_20050705_326663.html>
Joyce Teo, Straits Times

Five-year-old Novena Square shopping mall in Thomson Road is the latest downtown mall to get a facelift.

[Opinion]

*** The Changing Face Of The Singapore Pasar Malam
<http://doubleyellow.blogspot.com/2005/07/changing-face-of-singapore-pasar-malam.html>
Double Yellow's Musings

I'm sorry but who said the Singapore pasar malam is dying?

*** That Lonely Old Man Could Be You
<http://www.todayonline.com/articles/59709.asp>
Jerry Siah Eng Kiat, Today

We are becoming islands as we grow older.

The Shuffle by MyAppleMenu
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/podcast/>
Life is random. More tunes, less talk.

[Tunes]

*** You Wouldn't Like Me
<http://teganandsara.org/>
Patty Chung
<http://teganandsara.org/downloads/audio/you%20wouldn't%20like%20me_patty_chung.mp3>