[MyAppleMenu] Aug 22, 2007

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Many iPods Are Under-Used <http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=18889>
by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK
Most owners of iPods and MP3 players don't fully expoit their players, survey claims.

**** How Far Can Web Apps Take The iPhone? <http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136262-c,iphone/article.html>
by Ryan Naraine, PC World
Early apps let you webcast baseball games, check gas prices, and network with friends, but true business software may require more than just Safari.

**** iTunes' Rivals May Lift Apple <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-music22aug22,0,5677430.story?track=mostviewed-splashpage>
by Joseph Menn and Michelle Quinn, Los Angeles Times
As competitors challenge Apple Inc. in digital music, the biggest beneficiary may be Apple. That's because the Cupertino, Calif., company makes a slim profit on selling songs but cleans up on every iPod music player.

**** Inside Apple's iLife '08 <http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=operating_systems&articleId=9031739&taxonomyId=89&intsrc=kc_feat>
by Ryan Faas, Computerworld
Despite the long wait, the new version's innovations are definitely worth the time and the $79 price tag.

**** Is Everyone Buying A Mac? <http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2007/08/is-everyone-buy.html>
by Steve Borsch, Connecting The Dots
Why is this happening? The platform works.

**** Apple MacBook Sales Soar At The Expense Of Dell <http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2007/08/apple_macbook_s.html>
by Ephraim Schwartz, InfoWorld
While the story on our site attributes the huge increase in Mac notebook sales to the so-called "halo" effect coming from the iPhone press coverage as well as the groundbreaking design, I believe that had only a limited impact.
I think the increased sales of the MacBook can be accounted for by the decision to switch to Intel processors.

**** Apple &amp; The DRM Free Market Madness <http://gigaom.com/2007/08/21/apple-the-drm-free-market-madness/>
by Om Malik, GigaOM
As long as iPod keeps selling well (no reason why it won't), Apple doesn't have to worry about its music sales as long as it starts offering more DRM-free music at a price that is similar to its DRM-protected tracks.

**** Apple Shortage Cuts Renaissance Profits <http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4173084a6034.html>
by Gareth Vaughan, New Zealand Dominion Post
The country's only distributor of Apple computers and iPods says interim profit halved because it does not have enough products to sell and warns the shortages will continue.

**** Predicting Apple's New iPods: Evolutionary, But Borrowing From The iPhone Too <http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2007/08/apple-soon-to-come-new-ipods>
by Blackfriars' Marketing
My view is that Apple's updated iPod product line largely matches that of today, just with slightly better feature sets and better user experiences.

**** Apple's Notebook Market Share Climbs To 17.6 Percent <http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/08/21/appleshare/index.php?lsrc=mwtoprss>
by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld
The good news continues for Apple &mdash; with increased notebook sales pushing it forward, the company now has an overall market share of 5.9 percent, up 1.1 percent from the 4.8 percent it posted this time last year.

**** Apple iPhone Update 1.0.2 Released: Bug Fixes, Will Erase Hacks; Troubleshooting The Update <http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2007/08/21/apple-iphone-update-102-released/>
by iPhone Atlas

**** When They Changed It - 13 Days <http://macenstein.com/default/archives/767>
by Macenstein
Apple has changed the ultra-slim computer's potentially UN-"PC" tagline.

**** Bad Thurrott == Good Design <http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/08/to_invent_a_fallacious_argumen.html>
by Joshua Scott Emmons, O'Reilly Mac DeveCenter Blog
In this case I think Real Paul has a point. Well, not really. But I think that looking at the ways in which he is wrong will illuminate some interesting principals of design.

**** Microsoft Messenger For Mac 6.0.3 <http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/21/microsoft-messenger-for-mac-6-0-3/>
by Scott McNulty, The Unofficial Apple Weblog

**** HandBrake 0.9.0 <http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2007/08/handbrake/index.php?lsrc=mwrss>
by Dan Frakes, Macworld

**** Hardware Unlock Of iPhone Successful, Instructions Imminent <http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/08/21/hardware-unlock-of-iphone-successful-instructions-imminent>
by Justin Berka, Ars Technica

**** Apple Secures Europe iPhone Revenue Deals <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17aa89d0-500b-11dc-a6b0-0000779fd2ac.html>
by Astrid Maiser and Volker Muller, Financial Times
The contract requires that the operators hand over Apple 10 per cent of hte revenues made from calls and data transfers by customers over iPHones.
The contract was signed by T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK, people familiar with the situation told FT Deutschland, the Financial Times' sister paper.

The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Closed iPhone Opens Road For Linux Phones <http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archives/2007/08/apple_gives_lin.html?source=rss>
by Tom Yager, InfoWorld
With iPhone a closed platform, Linux gets an wide-open road for phones and other smart devices.

**** Mobile Workers Still Struggling With Security <http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/21/Mobile-workers-still-struggling-with-security_1.html>
by Matt Hines, InfoWorld

MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** In Beijing, Orwell Goes To The Olympics <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/opinion/22terril.html?ex=1345435200&en=a769d35eb4311ac7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
by Ross Terrill, New York Times
Behind the attack n Chinglish lies an Orwellian impulse to remake the truth.

**** Seizing American Supremacy <http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/22/american_decline/index_np.html?source=rss>
by Dilip Hiro, Salon
Throughout history, rising powers have overtaken superpowers. The United States will not prove an exception.

SingaporeSurf
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**** Former Malaysian DPM Anwar Believes In Close Ties With Singapore <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/295419/1/.html>
by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia
Former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said he strongly believes Malaysia should encourage close relations with its neighbour, Singapore.
Mr Anwar said Singapore is an important neighbour and any sentiments against the republic will not be to Malaysia's advantage.

**** Consider Big Picture When Looking At CPF Changes: Dr Yaacob <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/295427/1/.html>
by Daud Yusof, Channel NewsAsia

**** WP Youth Wing Elections Set New Tone For Youths In Politics <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2007/08/22/wp-youth-wing-elections-sets-new-tone-for-youths-in-politics/>
by Choo Zheng Xi, theonlinecitizen
It was not so long ago that the single most familiar refrain of opposition politicians was a constant complaint about a 'climate of fear' surrounding politics.
If the Workers' Party Youth Wing elections were any guage, this cloud of fear seems to have largely been dispelled.

**** Little Molly And Her Pocket Money <http://mollymeek.livejournal.com/162900.html>
by Mollymeek

**** Singapore To Make Tangerang Bird Flu Control Pilot Project <http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=280538>
by Bernama
The Singapore government intends to make Tangerang city, just outside Jakarta's western outskirts, a pilot project for bird flu control, a local husbandry official said.

**** Temasek Raises Standard Chartered Stake To 15 Pct <http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSSIN15924120070822>
by Reuters

**** Government Annuity: Taxing The Poor To Give To The Rich?
by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu
The details are still sketchy, but what I understand about the compulsory annuity plan proposed by the government works something like this:
Everyone will contribute towards the "annuity pool". Folks over the age of 85 will be able to draw a small monthly sum from this pool of money. If  you die before 85, too bad, the money you contributed will not be returned to your family, but will be used to pay out to people who did not die before 85. This, I believe, will allow the monthly contribution, or preimums, to be kept lower than otherwise.
Now, I'm going to make an assumption that, in my opinion, will most likely be accurate: People who are richer will tend to be able to live longer than people who are poorer. This means that people who can enjoy the benefits of this annuity plan &mdash; just on the virtue of living beyond the age of 85 &mdash; will tend to be richer, more well-to-do people. In essense, and in general, poorer people are being forced to pay a tax to the government to support benefits that they are more likely not able to enjoy.
Furthermore, richer folks have a further out: they can pay a higher preimum in the first place, so that if they do die before 85, the money will be returned to their families. Of course, for individuals, whether this is a good idea or not depends on the extra premium they'd have to pay. But the overall effect is that this "out" reduces the contribution to the common pool by richer people. Whether this can be offseted by the extra preimums paid for those who do live longer than 85 remains to be seen; the details, as I said, are still sketchy at this point.
But the end result: richer people pay less tax than poorer people, but richer people reap more benefits than poorer people.
Definitely, I am no economist or financial analysis, so if you do find flaws in my reasoning, please feel free to e-mal <mailto:webmaster at myapplemenu.com> me. I would very much like to be proven wrong. (Plus, details can still be changed, or as the government likes to put it, fine-tuned.) But if what I've reasoned has any ounce of accuracy or correctness to it, we should really spend more time working towards a better and fairer solution to the aging problem.
(My assumption that richer people is more likely to outlive poorer people is based on the idea that richer people tend to have access to better health care. Of course, any individual &mdash; rich or poor &mdash; can be knocked down by a bus anytime, but that is not the big picture.)
<p class="permlink">Permanent Link to This Post <http://www.myapplemenu.com/singapore/2007/08/22/id0018/>

**** "Coerced" Annuity And Possibly Lesser Returns On CPF <http://aaron-ng.info/blog/coerced-annuity-and-possibly-lesser-returns-on-cpf.html>
by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
A government is not a private company, so stop comparing to profit seeking financial institutions. The whole Singapore Inc bullshit is being taken a little too far for my liking.

**** On CPF, Life, Work And Retirement <http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2007/08/on-cpf-life-work-and-retirement.html>
by Mr Wang Says So
The government is not forcing you to work. If you have enough money, you could choose to stop work at 60, or 58, or 55. As a matter of fact, if you have enough money, you could jolly well retire at 35.

**** Exclusive Bookings Minimal <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/206829.asp>
by Lim Eng Khoon, Singapore Sports Council, Today
Exclusive stadium bookings where the public is not allowed access into the stadium are minimal, especially during peak hours.
/Of course, the letter does not define what is meant by "minimal"./
See Also:
Are These 'Public' Venues? <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/204512.asp>, by Teo Kian Lam Christopher. Does the Singapore Sports Council needs funds so badly that it must resort to renting out entire sports facilities, especially on weekends?

**** History With Sensitivity, Please <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/206838.asp>
by M Kobayashi, Today
Racial harmony is not just for Singaporean children.

**** Tunnel Work Stops At Circle Line Site After Road Sinks <http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_150531.html>
by T. Rajan, Straits Times
Stop-work order at Telok Blangah site is fourth this year on $6.7b MRT project.

**** CPF Special, Medisave &amp; Retirement Accounts Interest Pegged To Long-Term Bonds <http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_150591.html>
by Aaron Low, Straits Times
"The general yield here is about 3.5 per cent or so, which, if is an indicator, means the interest rate is effectively cut for the CPF accounts."

**** Street Map Producer Wins Stay Order <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/206849.asp>
by Ansley Ng, Today
Embatted street map producer Virtual Map has won its application for a stay of execution of a copyright judgment until its appeal is heard.
The firm has lost a court battle on Aug 6 after the Singapore Land Authority sued it for copyright infringement of SLA's maps.

**** OPQ 16 July 2007: Compensation For Dead Or Injured NSmen <http://siewkumhong.blogspot.com/2007/08/opq-16-july-2007-compensation-for-dead.html>
by Siew Kum Hong