[MyAppleMenu] Sep 20, 2007

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Apple Blacklisting Hacked iPhones? <http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=882>
by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet
The lesson here is to do a restore of your iPhone and re-install the factory AT&amp;T SIM before bringing into an Apple Store for service.

**** France Telecom's Orange To Distribute Apple iPhone In France <http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200709200810DOWJONESDJONLINE000547_FORTUNE5.htm>
by Laetitia Fontaine, Dow Jones
French phone operator France Telecom (FTE) Thursday said its wireless arm Orange has signed an agreement with Apple Inc to distribute the Apple iPhone in France.

**** Apple Admits Screen Fault In Some iPod Touch Units <http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=19160>
by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK
Apple has confirmed widespread reports complaining at the manner in which the iPod touch displays video with deep black areas, warning that some early units have "defective screens".

**** Apple's Job Subpoenaed For Deposition, People Say <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=amTlqdkPVi0U&refer=technology>
by Karen Gullo and David Scheer, Bloomberg
Apple Inc. chief executive officer Steve Jobs was subponenaed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to give a deposition in a backdating lawsuit against the company's former general counsel, two people familiar with the matter said.

**** The Album: Obsolete To Whom? <http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-freeman20sep20,0,509425.story?track=rss>
by Philip Freeman, Los Angeles Times
The album remains vital because musicians make it so.

**** The Perils Of Taking The iPhone Mainstream <http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2007/09/cultofmac_0919>
by Leander Kahney, Wired

**** The Elegant iPod Touch <http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2007/tc20070919_706225.htm?sub=techmaven>
by Stephen H. Wildstrom, BusinessWeek
It's a shame Apple has delivered such a beautiful and well-conceived piece of hardware with locked-down software that makes it far less useful than it could be.

**** Will iPhone Dail Up Europe Mac's Sales? <http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2007/tc20070919_331039.htm>
by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek

**** Apple Defends Itself Against Pricing Accusations In Europe <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070919-apple-itunes-pricing-should-be-the-same-across-europe.html>
by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
Apple would love to charge the same price for music across all of its European iTunes Stores, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He made the comments at a press conference in Berlin this morning.
The comments appear to fly in the face of Apple's current pricing practices on the continent, which have been the focus of a recent European Commission investigation.

**** I Touch No More <http://www.randyrants.com/2007/09/i_touch_no_more.html>
by RandyRants
I'm prepared to call the iPod touch the loser of the current iPod line up.

**** Apple's iPod Touch Is A Beauty Of A Player Short On Battery Life <http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070920/apples-ipod-touch-is-a-beauty-of-a-player-short-on-battery-life/>
by Walter S. Mossberg, AllThingsD
For all its beauty and functionality, the Touch has some quirks and downsides. It's the first iPod model I've ever tested that fell significantly short, in my tests, of Apple's battery-life claims. It's also the first iPod that lacks any physical buttons for controlling music playback.

**** Is Steve Jobs Really Smarter Than Anyone Else? <http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9781282-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
by Don Reisinger, CNET News.com
With this new deal, Great Britain may become the best profit center Apple has ever seen.

**** Apple's Fight Against iPhone Unlocks May Result In Expensive Bricks <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070919-apples-fight-against-iphone-unlocks-may-result-in-expensive-bricks.html>
by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
We have reason to believe that Apple may go much further than just "breaking" the SIM unlocks that have been released so far. One move that the cat (or is Apple the mouse?) could make in this game would be to permanetly and irreplarably brick unlocked iPhones when they run this month's pending software update.

**** iThinking About iPods <http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2007/id20070919_820841.htm>
by John Maeda, BusinessWeek
Within a short time, the iPod has become the equivalent of a Swiss Army knife for managing music, contacts, calendars, photos, and more. Add to this the graphical processing power of a desktop, and you literally have a personal computer squeezed into your pocket. And if you think your desktop system is confusing to manage, shrinking it to the size of a bar of soap isn't going to make it any easier.

**** Time For Apple To Face The Music? <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7002612.stm>
by Bill Thompson, BBC News
The recent launch of the new range of iPods, including the video Nano and the iPod touch, has just shown just how far Apple is willing to go to make life difficult for its users in order to shore up its dominant position in the market for music players and downloads.
<Apple's> business practices do not stand up to scrutiny, and when it comes to music downloads it is just as bad as Microsoft on servers, putting its time and energy into creating barriers to competition instead of letting its developers and designers concentrate on doing great stuff.

**** Always Wait For Something Better. Always. <http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13509_1-9781314-20.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheMacalope:AnAppleblog>
by The Macalope, CNET News.com
The idea that something in the future might be better should always kill any desire to own something now. If you time it just right, you can buy that one killer device five minutes before you die and achieve optimal purchasing!

**** iPhone Review: This Apple Is The Pick Of The Crop <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/19/nphone219.xml>
by Claudine Beaumont, Telegraph
O2's tariff options are surprisingly good, starting at only &pound;35. The inclusion of unlimited data use int he call plans, as well as a partnership with the Cloud network for free use of its wireless hotspots, goes a long way towards compensating for the lack of 3G capability.

**** iPhone &amp; iPod: Contain Or Disengage? <http://wilshipley.com/blog/2007/09/iphone-ipod-contain-or-disengage.html>
by Wil Shipley, Call Me Fishmeal
The generous view would be that Apple's screwing up, and the non-generous view would be that they are just plain getting greedy.
Consumers suffer from this. We suffer from increased prices and decreased competition and innovation. We suffer so Apple can make a few more bucks, when Apple is clearly not hurting for money. The core of Apple users has supported Apple for years &mdash; we were there when Apple was hurting, we stuck with it, we nursed her back to health. It's our money she has now, and she's turning on us now that she's rich off it.

**** No, The Nano Is Fine
by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu
Yesterday <http://www.myapplemenu.com/2007/09/19/id0030/> I quoted a reader from MacInTouch that had a problem with the new nano, where "it works different, playing just one entry in the playlist <of podcasts> ten stopping."
I've tested it out with the third-generation nano with the firmware upgrade, and it worked just like before.
And, oh, by the way, I've upgraded my iPod mini to the new iPod nano. Happy today.
<p class="permlink">Permanent Link to This Post <http://www.myapplemenu.com/2007/09/20/id0010/>

**** Apple, Danish Board Disagree Over iBook Flaw <http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/19/Apple-and-Danish-board-disagree-over-iBook-flaw_1.html>
by Peter Sayer, IDG News Service
Apple does not agree that a manufacturing defect caused power failures in an iBook G4 laptop sold in Denmark, but it refunded the customer's money, said the country's COnsumer Complaints Board.

**** Apple Makes New iPod Owners Repay For Games <http://www.macuser.com/games/apple_makes_new_ipod_owners_re_1.php?lsrc=murss>
by Dan Moren, MacUser
Boo, Apple. /Boooooo/. It's not /our/ fault that you didn't plan ahead well enough.

The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Cities Turning Off Plans For Wi-Fi <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/2007-09-19-wifi_N.htm>
by Judy Keen, USA Today
Plans to blanket cities across the nation with low-cost or free wireless internet access are being delayed or abandoned because they are proving to be too costly and complicated.

MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Doha And Dalian <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19friedman.html?em&ex=1190433600&en=da8d5eaeba9161b8&ei=5087%0A>
by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
There is no green revolution, or, if there is, the counter-revolution is trumping it at every turn. Without a transformational technological breakthrough in the energy space, all of the incremental gains we're making will be devoured by the exponential growth of all the new and old "Americans."

SingaporeSurf
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**** Singapore Denies Submitting DCA To Parliament For Ratification <http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070920152905&irec=6>
by Antara
Singapore denied on Wednesday that it had submitted the Indonesia-Singapore Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) to parliament for ratification.

**** Parliament Approves Land Titles (Strata) Bill Governing En-Bloc Sales <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/300995/1/.html>
by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia
Parliament has approved changes to the Land Titles (Strata) Bill, which clearly stipulates the proper conduct of en-bloc sales.

**** Why Homosexuality Should Be Decriminalised In Singapore <http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-homosexuality-should-be.html>
by Mr Wang Says So
Suppose you conducted a survey among Singaporeans and asked them if they disapproved of murder. You would certainly get 10 out of 10 Singaporeans saying that they disapproved of murder.

**** Singapore Counts On '881' For Oscar <http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972354.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2562>
by Patrick Frater, Variety
Royston tan helmed "881" has been selected to represent Singapore as the country's contender in the foreign-language Oscar category.

**** Las Vegas Sands Seeks Record Singapore Loan To Build Its Casino <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8jFRSPFQVys&refer=home>
by Denise Kee, Bloomberg
Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world's largest casino operator by market value, is seeking a record loan in Singapore currency to fund construction of the nation's first gambling house, three people familiar with the deal said.

**** Walhi Continues To Demand Apology <http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070920.H04&irec=3>
by Jakarta Post
Local environment group Walhi is continuing its fight with /The Straits Times/ newspaper in Singapore to demand an apology for a misleading report that alleged the group was affiliated with terrorist groups.
The repotage by John Mcbeth was published by the /Straits Times/ in April last year and the paper has since published "a clarification" &mdash; but it has not re-interviewed Walhi.

**** Banned Film To Screen In Johor Bahru <http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/2007/09/banned-film-to-screen-in-johor-bahru.html>
by Martyn See, No Political Film Please, We're Singaporeans
Freedom Film Festival, Malaysia's only human rights film festival, will make its debut in Johor Bahru from 28 - 30 September.

**** Giuliani Says Nato Should Admit Singapore <http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/World/STIStory_159687.html>
by Reuters
Republican presidental candidate Rudy Giuliani urged Nato to admit Australia, India, Israel, Japan and Singapore on Wednesday as part of proposals to combat Islamic extremism.
See Also:
Rudy Giuliani Flunks Geography <http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/09/19/rudy-giuliani-flunks-geography/>, by The Liberty Papers. I'm not saying that American doesn't have international interests with these nations worth protecting, but I wonder why an organization created to counter a threat that no longer exists insists on expanding itself.

**** What's His Link With Foreign Activists? <http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,142405,00.html>
by Kor Kian Beng, New Paper

**** Seven In 10 People In Singapore Frown On Homosexuality: Study <http://nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/read.php?newsid=30049628>
by DPA
Seven in 10 people in Singapore frown on homosexuality, with the highly religious and those conforming to social norms most likely to be anti-gay, a study said on Thursday.
/The follow-up question &mdash; which is a different question: how many want to jail up all the gays?/
/What other groups of people do Singaporeans "frown" on? Chinese nationals? Indian nationals? People on MRT trains who are smelly? People who have no fashion taste? How big a percentage of "frowning" do we tolerate before we start jailing people we "frown" on?/

**** Bowling Alone And The Freedom From Assembly <http://www.singaporeangle.com/2007/09/bowling_alone_and_the_freedom.html>
by Singapore Angle

**** Singapore To Tighten Anti-Money Laundering Law <http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-9-19/59939.html>
by Reuters
Singapore is proposing to raise the maximum fine against money laundering and terrorism financing by 10 times to S$1 million, a government minister said on Wednesday.

**** Sorry, Liak Boh Kiew (Catch No Ball) <http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,142381,00.html?>
by Ng Tze Yong, New Paper
As the debate continues in parliament over the CPF changes, the consensus in kopitiams seems to be: "Huh, kong simi?"

**** Live Webcams Not The Way To Speed Up Queues At Clinics <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/212229.asp>
by Lim Boon Hee, Today
Showing real-time waiting times online is simply skirting the issue and not going after the causes of the problem.
/Showing videos, of course, is an easy "solution", and it makes technocrats happy. :-)/

**** In Singapore, Just Follow Law And You're Fine! <http://felixker.com/news/in-singapore-just-follow-law-and-youre-fine/>
by Felix Ker's Blog
Just pay the /fine/ and you'll be /fine/.

**** Choosing An Opposition Party To Join? <http://www.nowhere.per.sg/?p=431>
by Darth Grievous' Dark Domain
With the exception of the James Gomez incident, my opinion of the Workers' Party has generally been positive ever since the days of Joshua Jeyaretnam.

**** Why National Stadium Continues To Be Used <http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_159582.html>
by Lim Eng Khoon, Singapore Sports Council, and Eric Ong, Football Association Of Singapore, Straits Times
/Note that the question, "Is the FAS taking people for a ride" by charging good money for a closing cermony that advertised itself as the 'last match', was not answered at all./
See Also:
When Will National Stadium Really Close? <http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_157456.html>, by Tan Shao Ken, Straits Times.

**** Ministry To Review Concession-Fare Hours <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/212258.asp>
by Leong Wee Keat, Today

**** Annuities Scheme: 'Options Are Possible' <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/212277.asp>
by Loh Chee Kong, Today