[MyAppleMenu] Aug 15, 2009

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** China Unicom Denies Placing iPhone Order <http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=93f69f8bf4330e41184af82bdf43969b>
MacNN

**** Apple's Snow Leopard: A Flurry Of Changes <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10310131-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
Erica Ogg, CNET News.com

What's the difference between Snow Leopard and Leopard?

**** Underwater Puzzler Jewel Of Atlantis Comes To Macs <http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=982c4ec6b8d6928297ae0f74aaf33740>
MacNN

**** Outlook On The Mac: And They Lived Happily Ever After? <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=99e6c04584aa15720e7e967cb335c22a>
John C. Welch, Macworld

Outlook’s upcoming Mac version raises more questions than it answers.

**** New Office 2010 Is Proof Microsoft Sabotaged Macintosh <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcworld.com%2Fbusinesscenter%2Farticle%2F170211%2Fnew_office_2010_is_proof_microsoft_sabotaged_macintosh.html&usg=AFQjCNGb9ylMvmY2cujlaADn8mvgSSIzLA>
DavI'd Coursey, PC World

Microsoft finally releasing a new Outlook for Macintosh next year is about 10 years too late and only underscores the real malice Redmond has towards Mac.

**** Phil Schiller Is A Man On A Mission: To Save The App Store <http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/15/phil-schiller-is-a-man-on-a-mission-to-save-the-app-store/>
MG Siegler, TechCrunch

As Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, you’d have to imagine that Phil Schiller is a pretty busy guy. He’s also been moonlighting as Apple’s keynote speaker during Steve Jobs’ medical leave of absence. But now it’s really starting to look as if Schiller has taken on another task: App Store savior.

**** The Right And Wrong Way To Do Tech <http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/08/15/theRightAndWrongWayToDoTec.html>
Dave Winer, Scripting News

Apple would do well to throw in the towel on this system, they're in a no-win situation. They're spending money to lose money.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** It's Time To Hand Out Emergency Poetry Relief <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/aug/14/emergency-poetry-relief>
Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

University Challenge shows British literacy is in critical condition. But Hugo Chávez has an idea that could help us.

**** To Be Old And In Woodstock <http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=574559fefa286ba008eb5b845099ad80>
Gail Collins, New York Times

The lesson I took away from it is that whenever anybody asks you to do something off the wall, you should really try to do it — unless it involves being unethical or a two-plane connection. You might not enjoy it while it’s going on, but somewhere down the line the anecdotes will always come in handy.



SingaporeSurf
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**** SIA Offers Early Retirement <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_416817.html>
Straits Times

Singapore Airlines is offering older staff the option to retire early - the latest in a slew of measures to trim excess manpower and costs.

**** Change A Big Let-down <http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_416883.html>
Choo Zheng Xi, Straits Times

It is disappointing that after 21/2 years of poor readership, the P65 Members of Parliament have chosen to cut their losses and minimise their presence on the website they started to engage the public.

An integral part of any public engagement strategy is flexibility. I am surprised that such a large group of MPs was unable to commit more time and effort to generate meaningful online debate.

**** Record Bonus, Little Impact <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_417101.html>
Radha Basu, Straits Times

A record $230 million was given out by the Government in baby bonus payments last year, up from $55 million just five years earlier. But there was no corresponding increase in the number of Singaporean babies born.

**** Coping With A Sexual Revolution <http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?col=insightdownsouth&file=/2009/8/15/columnists/insightdownsouth/4522881&sec=Insight%20Down%20South>
Seah Chiang Nee, The Star

Conservative in upbringing and conditioned by strict laws, Singaporeans are moving into a sexual revolution that was unimaginable two decades ago.

**** 'Tanjong Rhu' And 'Threshold' Cut From Short Film <http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/2009/08/14/8780.tanjong-rhu-and-threshold-cut-from-short-film-festival-in-singapore>
Sylvia Tan, Fridae

Two short films, both of which are partially funded by Fridae and loosely based on true life incidents of police entrapment of a gay man in one film and 12 gay men in another, have been pulled from the 6th annual Singapore Short Cuts festival which begins tomorrow. 

**** Singapore Property Market Booms Despite Recession <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhostednews%2Fafp%2Farticle%2FALeqM5g9mgDJEaiyEPPnqEOaKuwlBaAX5A&usg=AFQjCNF7x-aXP0eqJZz0rVMPuKO07CUfjQ>
Roberto Coloma, AFP

Despite Singapore's worst economic slump since independence, the residential property sector is in the midst of a new boom reminiscent of 2007, when the city-state was known as the world's hottest real estate market.

Greed and its twin brother fear are back in play as punters stake out condo launches days before sales open, with some offering blank cheques to pre-book flats, prompting the government to hint it may have to cool things down.

**** Singapore Farmers See Green Shoots In New Food Policy <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhostednews%2Fafp%2Farticle%2FALeqM5jzXxKQPpB3JjvbLlsgT9N-XWPMTQ&usg=AFQjCNHSBHbnbrJ3oc9Q6h4n6hSznQnWkw>
Bernice Han, AFP

Wong Kok Fah, one of Singapore's last remaining farmers, can finally see a future for his vegetable business after 30 years of back-breaking work.

Plans by the industrialised city-state to set aside more land for farming to boost food security have given him hope that the fourth generation of the Wong family can continue the business started by his grandfather.

**** Word Of Caution: Don't Export Singapore Model Wholesale <http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/SME%2BCentral/Story/A1Story20090813-160908.html>
Business Times

In exporting urban solutions, Singapore companies must not make the mistake of transplanting wholesale the Singapore model.

That word of caution comes indirectly from Low Sin Leng, executive chairman of Sembcorp Industrial Parks. What she says of her company's experience in Vietnam applies to other Singapore companies in other markets.

**** My Personal Memories Of Rape <http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-memories-of-rape.html>
Mr Wang Says So

The tough part is to convince Parliament. As you might have noticed, Parliament can sometimes be both very slow to act, and also quite stupid.

**** Babies Are Wonderful, But... <http://aileen-chua.blogspot.com/2009/08/babies-are-wonderful-but.html>
Aileen Chua, Being a Working Mother

I am not surprised that our baby bonus has little impact so far.

**** I Bet The Trains Run On Time As Well... <http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/08/14/i-bet-the-trains-run-on-time-as-well/>
Ministry Of Truth

Even those who commend Singapore’s health care system as a model from which other governments could learn concede that it would be very difficult to replicate elsewhere in the world because its a system that has been developed concurrently with the development of the country over a significant period of years against a backdrop of political ’stability’ which is derived, in the main, from a culture of enforced political and social conformity to a degree that would be unthinkable in a Western liberal democracy such as the UK.

The price of an efficient healthcare system in Singapore is a corporatist state that would have fair warmed the cockles of Mussolini’s heart and level of political and social quietism that would have had the pre-Glasnost Kremlin swooning with envy.