[MyAppleMenu] Jul 22, 2009

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Skype 2.8 Adds Screen Sharing, More <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=2e85c908deee47505f5adcf2e5bf197b>
by Dan Moren, Macworld

Possibly the most notable addition is the inclusion of screen-sharing which, like iChat, allows you to view your contact’s desktop. But Skype takes it a step further: because of the program’s cross-platform nature, you can easily share you screen with your friends on Windows, as long as they’re running Skype 4.1.

**** Apple Confirms Death Of iPhone Worker In China <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10291701-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
by Jim Dalrymple, CNET News.com

Apple confirmed on Tuesday the death of a man who worked at an iPhone plant in China.

According to various Chinese media reports, the worker at Chinese manufacturer Foxconn committed suicide last week after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype for which he was responsible went missing.

**** WhatsOpen Helps You Eject Stubborn Volumes <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=e4d44c4f835dde1083de75fca26133b5>
by Dan Frakes, Macworld

As someone who regularly mounts and unmounts disk images and external hard drives, I’m regularly faced with the annoying “could not be ejected” message. WhatsOpen has become a frequently used tool.

**** Increment Numbers In Filenames In 10.5's Finder <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=da9580e59d4b757764d55dbb4bf1d1ad>
by Rob Griffiths, Macworld

**** Death Is Too High A Price To Protect Apple’s Secrets <http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=2b3d41d7a486bc8361edc4c0b18025a8>
by The Mac Observer

In balance, Apple doesn't appear to have a lot of offsetting behavior that can be used in its defense. Rather, Apple's extreme obsession with secrecy put so much pressure on Foxconn that a young man lost his life as a result of subsequent events. In a sober assessment of a chain of causality, Apple's business practices must take responsibility for that pressure.

**** Apple Earnings Up 12 Percent For The Third Quarter <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10292154-37.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple>
by Erica Ogg, CNET News.com

Revenue came in at $8.34 billion, resulting in earnings of $1.35 per share. That's a 12 percent increase from a year ago, when Apple reported earnings of $7.46 billion and earnings per share of $1.19.

**** Apple: 50% Of Our Traditional MP3 Buyers New To iPod <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/21/apple_retains_70_of_mp3_player_share_50_of_ipod_buyers_new.html>
by Prince McLean, AppleInsider

Apple announced a year over year decline in its sales of 10.2 million iPods, but noted that the company continues to maintain a greater than 70% share of the MP3 player market. It also stated that 50% of its traditional MP3 player buyers are new to the iPod.

**** Apple COO Says Laptop Strategy Is On Track, Even Without Netbook <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=ff0689e898775018783d55ff27ab6b78>
by Peter Cohen, Macworld

Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook stood by his previous assertion that Apple’s not in the market to make a netbook when pressed repeatedly by analysts during Tuesday’s conference call to discuss Apple’s third-quarter results. At the same time, he noted that Apple’s recent laptop price cuts have helped move inventory.

**** Top Ten Apple T-Shirts <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tidbits_main/~3/Rk6cUYw3VV0/10413>
by Doug McLean, TidBITS

The days of great Apple tees are not gone, and there are still great Apple shirts out there today! Here's a top ten list of my favorite Apple t-shirts you can still add to your wardrobe.

**** Trying (And Failing) To Give Up My iPod <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/146573&usg=AFQjCNFfDMvyRx1HR2A1Rr6zukN5nD57GQ>
by Yahoo! Tech

After working with both non-Apple hardware and software for a week, the things that started as little annoyances began to become truly aggravating.

**** Apple iMac Review <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/168584/apple_imac_24_inches_aluminum_allinone_desktop_pc.html&usg=AFQjCNFH2V8vsymHiSbD0Qg9v3UdXrgvHg>
by Roman Loyola, and Danny Allen, PC World

The iMac continues to be a desktop Mac that's powerful enough to please both general consumers and demanding users.

**** Apple: iPhone Adoption In The Enterprise To Climb <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zdnet/Apple/~3/YjH-CSKe_zQ/>
by David Morgenstern, ZDNet

According to Oppenheimer, some 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies had placed orders of 10,000 units or more. And some governmental agencies had made orders up to 25,000 units.

**** Apple: iPod Touch Sales Up 150% <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=84a3898b2586ab7ff6ce3a969903d9ff>
by Jason Snell, Macworld

Apple’s record-setting quarterly financial results, released Tuesday, point out that the economic and marketing powerhouse that was the iPod has been eclipsed. The traditional iPod isn’t dead, not by a long shot, but its days of explosive growth are over — replaced by the growth of the iPod touch and the iPhone.

**** Is Buying An iPod Un-American? <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/07/21/is-buying-an-ipod-un-american/&usg=AFQjCNEScUqVqjb9fmL2jfPUFTQHEmckiw>
by Daniel Griswold, Cato @ Liberty

The smiley curve is a way of thinking about global supply chains where Americans reap the most value at the beginning and the end of the production process while China and other low-wage countries perform the low-value assembly in the middle.

**** The iPod, As We Know It, Is Dying <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/9C0Xl2SlJUw/>
by MG Siegler, TechCrunch

**** Apple Needs To Fix The iPhone App Store's Race To The Bottom <http://mashable.com/2009/07/21/iphone-app-race-bottom/>
by Ben Parr, Mashable

We’re glad Mr. Cook acknowledged that Apple can do better, which is hopefully an indication of improvements in the near future.

**** China Suicide Puts Spotlight On Secretive Apple Culture <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56L29120090722&usg=AFQjCNHsktAboziMeLubxz0KftjaFeGyXg>
by Doug Young, Joanne Chiu and Gabriel Madway, Reuters

Apple Inc said it was awaiting results from an investigation into the death of a worker in China, after media reports said the man killed himself on learning he was suspected of leaking company secrets. The case puts the spotlight on Apple, whose public face as maker of the wildly successful iPhone contrasts with its reputation for a highly secretive corporate culture.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Betting On Health Care Start-Ups That Cut Costs <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/betting-on-health-care-start-ups-that-cut-costs/?ref=technology>
by Claire Cain Miller, New York Times



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Death Of A Nihilist Or Obituary For A Nobody <http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/death-of-a-nihilist-or-obituary-for-a-nobody/>
by Ewan Morrison, 

It was once the case that to have your death celebrated by the media you had to have been a person who lived and died for their beliefs, or at least perished with those beliefs intact: a shining example to us all on the importance of steadfast convictions. One thinks of Ghandi, Jean-Paul Sartre, JFK, Martin Luther King or even Ayatollah Khomieni. In the last few years — due to the media’s requirement for such spectacles even when the substance is lacking — the death of lesser figures who stumbled blindly through life lacking all conviction has created comparable hysteria. In fact, it may even be that these figures-of-no-qualities have eclipsed the great believers in terms of attention. All of this was predicted a decade before by my old friend, the bedsit philosopher, it was a process he termed ‘the levelling of society to the lowest order.’ He saw in it ‘the ironic revenge of the plebs, the rise of the nobodies.’

**** Clambakes Move To The Back Yard <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072100651.html?hpid=features1&hpv=national>
by David Hagedorn, The Washington Post 

Take the lid off the Weber, throw some briquettes in the chimney starter and light them up. It's time for a . . . clambake?

**** Evolutionary Origins Of Your Right And Left Brain <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=evolutionary-origins-of-your-right-and-left-brain>
by Peter F. MacNeilage, Lesley J. Rogers and Giorgio Vallortigara, Scientific American

The division of labor by the two cerebral hemispheres—once thought to be uniquely human—predates us by half a billion years. Speech, right-handedness, facial recognition and the processing of spatial relations can be traced to brain asymmetries in early vertebrates.



SingaporeSurf
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**** National Gay Parades <http://groundnotes.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/national-gay-parades/>
by Groundnotes

NDPs make me sick. They remind me of everything that is orchestrated, superficial, rehearsed, practiced, and devised from top-down in Singapore. They are artificial cauldrons of whipped up frenzy and heightened emotions where quick spasms of ecstasy are mistaken for patriotism.

**** The Free Market Does Not Protect Consumers <http://siewkumhong.blogspot.com/2009/07/free-market-does-not-protect-consumers.html>
by Siew Kum Hong

If one firmly and sincerely believes in protecting consumers, then one would surely adopt a proactive stance in doing the right thing, and not wait for multiple cases to occur before taking action.

**** Stop The Wayang, Just Return Us Our CPF! <http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=3433>
by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net

Without any transparency as to how to Lifelong Income Fund is managed, Mr Gan’s tepid reassurances fail to cut any ice.

**** Temasek Has Much To Explain Over Goodyear: SDP <http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/2578-temasek-has-much-to-explain-over-goodyear-sdp>
by Singapore Democrats

Given the stakes that we are dealing with and the fact that every cent that Temasek has belongs to Singaporeans, the public has every right to demand the answers from Ms Ho and Mr Dhanabalan.

**** Temasek Should Relook Process <http://www.todayonline.com/Comment/EDC090722-0000065/Temasek-should-relook-process>
by Conrad Raj, Today

Perhaps it's time for Temasek to relook its annual succession planning process.

**** Goodyear Did Not Even Last 1 Year.... <http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/07/goodyear-did-not-even-last-1-year.html>
by Diary of A Singaporean Mind

**** Temasek And Transparency—II <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574301790816464968.html?FORM=ZZNR8>
by Wall Street Journal

Given that Temasek manages about $84 billion in taxpayer monies, Singaporeans deserve to know what happened.

**** Goodyear's Exit Questioned <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_406394.html>
by Gabriel Chen & Alvin Foo, Straits Times

Industry watchers are wondering what could have gone wrong with the chief executive (CEO) selection process and what transpired to cause Mr Goodyear, 51, to depart less than six months after accepting the top post. Temasek would only cite strategic differences for Mr Goodyear's departure without elaborating.

**** Don't Compel If You Can't Guarantee <http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/2009/07/dont-compel-if-you-cant-guarantee.html>
by My Singapore News

**** Tax Property Gains On A Preferential Basis <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC090722-0000149/Online-Only---Tax-property-gains-on-a-preferential-basis>
by Today

**** The President, The Cabinet, Ho Ching, Temasek’s Board Of Directors – All Got It Wrong? <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/07/the-president-the-cabinet-ho-ching-temasek%e2%80%99s-board-of-directors-%e2%80%93-all-got-it-wrong/>
by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen

While Mr Goodyear’s credentials may indeed be impeccable, perhaps the more important question lies with the selection process itself. Clearly, despite having been intensely interviewed by the president, the cabinet, the BOA of Temasek and Ms Ho Ching herself, the exit of Mr Goodyear has shown that the selection process has flaws.

And the flaw seem to be a fundamental one – the selection process failed to determine Mr Goodyear’s stand on “strategic issues” which Temasek now says is the reason why he will no longer be chief.

**** Temasek To Stick With Ho After It Abandons Goodyear CEO Hire <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ae96H1Zx8M1k>
by Netty Ismail, Bloomberg

**** Private Unlimited <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_406547.html>
by Straits Times

The Mint Museum of Toys at Seah Street has the feel of a world class museum.

**** Boy, 13, Dies In Second H1N1-related Death In Singapore <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/444055/1/.html>
by Channel NewsAsia

Channel NewsAsia understands that there has been another H1N1-related death in Singapore. A 13-year-old boy, who was in critical condition at the National University Hospital after contracting H1N1, died Wednesday morning.

**** Woman Fined $30 For Eating Sweet On MRT To Relieve Motion Sickness <http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=3437>
by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net

Have we lost all sense of compassion in a bid to follow the letter of the law, never mind the spirit of the law?

**** HK, Singapore, Malaysia Say To Exit Deposit Guarantees <http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSHKX00324020090722?FORM=ZZNR>
by Kevin Plumberg, Reuters

Monetary authorities from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia said on Wednesday they will coordinate a scheduled exit from full guarantees offered on bank deposits during the financial crisis by the end of 2010.