[MyAppleMenu] Apr 9, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Wi-LAN Sues Everybody Over Bluetooth <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20002015-94.html?part=rss&amp;subj=news&amp;tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
Lance Whitney, CNET News

Ottawa-based Wi-LAN, which patents wireless products, is suing around 18 of the tech industry's largest players over what it claims are patent violations of Bluetooth technology. More specifically, Wi-LAN is alleging that these companies--which include Acer, Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Motorola, Sony, and Toshiba--have all infringed on one of its U.S. patents for selling PCs and mobile phones equipped with Bluetooth.

**** Apple's Free Pass With The iPad <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-20002038-16.html?part=rss&amp;subj=news&amp;tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
Matt Asay, CNET News

In recent years Apple has created its own reality distortion field, similar to the one created by Microsoft, by virtue of a steady stream of winning, innovative products.

Sure, people still say "But it's not like Windows," but now they mean that as a reason to use Apple products, rather than to avoid them. This reasoning leads to a free pass on just about all Apple design decisions, some of which may not actually make sense.

**** Apple's Plans For iPhone Location Privacy <http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/apples-plans-for-iphone-location-privacy/?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Riva Richmond, New York Times

Today, when Apple gave a preview of the next version of the iPhone operating system, it was great to hear about the new features that could help consumers cope with the privacy and security issues involving location-based services.

**** IBooks Comes To iPhone With Kindle-Like Syncing <http://www.cultofmac.com/ibooks-comes-to-iphone-with-kindle-like-syncing/37149?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cultofmac%2FbFow+%28Cult+of+Mac%29>
John Brownlee, Cult of Mac

The real improvement here, actually, is the way that iBooks will now automatically sync your page and bookmarks across devices, just like the Kindle. What that means is if you leave your iPad at home, you can read your iBook on the iPhone from the page you left off.

**** Steve Jobs Shares iPad Sales Numbers <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11175?rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tidbits_main+%28TidBITS%3A+Mac+News+for+the+Rest+of+Us%29>
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS

After Apple announced that 300,000 iPads had been sold on the first day (meaning, via pre-order and on the first day), many people wondered if the iPad would maintain its sales velocity. The answer would seem to be yes, with Jobs stating that as of today Apple has sold 450,000 iPads, meaning that another 150,000 have left shelves in the subsequent four days (one of which was Easter Sunday, when few Apple Stores were open).

**** Whoa — Apple Takes On The Mighty Telcoms <http://www.cultofmac.com/whoa-—-apple-takes-on-the-mighty-telcoms/37197?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cultofmac%2FbFow+%28Cult+of+Mac%29>
Eli Milchman, Cult of Mac

Boy, Steve Jobs doesn’t mess around, does he. Not content with his Google throwdown, he’s challenging the entire telecommunications industry with the iPhone’s new Background VoIP.

**** With Select Apps, iPad Is More Than A Pretty Face <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/technology/personaltech/08smart.html>
Bob Tedeschi, New York Times

If you budget around $100 for a few new and upgraded apps, you can easily make the iPad into much more of a constant companion than something you just trot out when the neighbors are watching.

**** Diary Of An iPad Man <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_16/b4174072726117.htm>
Rich Jaroslovsky, BusinessWeek

He read, he worked, he played games, he made a lady gasp. His weekend with the Super Tablet.

**** The iPad In The Eyes Of The Digerati <http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/the-ipad-in-the-eyes-of-the-digerati/>
New York Times

Does the iPad offer designers and users a new medium, or is it merely an iPod Touch on steroids? How much does the form factor of a device drive the creation of new kinds of content and how that content is read, heard and watched?

**** What The iPad Is Missing (No, It’s Not A Camera) <http://fontfeed.com/archives/ipad-typography/>
Stephen Coles, The Font Feed

A device designed for media consumption could validate Apple’s dedication to design by emphasizing design’s most basic element: typography. But so far, it flops.

**** Why Apple Changed Section 3.3.1 <http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331>
John Gruber, Daring Fireball

So from Apple’s perspective, changing the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement to prohibit the use of things like Flash CS5 and MonoTouch to create iPhone apps makes complete sense. I’m not saying you have to like this. I’m not arguing that it’s anything other than ruthless competitiveness. I’m not arguing (up to this point) that it benefits anyone other than Apple itself. I’m just arguing that it makes sense from Apple’s perspective — and it was Apple’s decision to make.

**** Inside WebKit2: Less Waiting, Less Crashing <http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/webkit2-a-split-process-model-non-blocking-web-renderer.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Clint Ecker, Ars Technica

Anders Carlsson, an Apple employee, announced today on the WebKit mailing list an evolution of the WebKit project called WebKit2.

WebKit2's major aims are to bake both a "split process model" and a non-blocking API into the WebKit product—and by extension into Safari and any other client which takes advantage of the WebKit2 framework.

**** Apple And The Leadership Pause <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/harvardbusiness?sid=Hf2b5a31badf1a451920a2ba19b481069>
Scott Kirsner, HarvardBusiness.org

**** With iPad Out, MacBook Faithful Getting Peevish <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20002099-64.html?part=rss&amp;subj=news&amp;tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
Brooke Crothers, CNET News

In the wake of the iPad rollout frenzy, new MacBook rumors are touching a raw nerve among the Apple laptop faithful.

**** Apple Rejecting Apps With "Pad" In Title <http://www.9to5mac.com/Apple-rejecting-apps-with-Pad-in-title-2345234?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29>
Luke Bornheimer, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple has started to reject apps with the word "Pad" in their title that do not explicitly use wording such as, "runs on," "for," "for use with," and/or "compatible with."

**** Complicating Relationships In Media: Apple, NY Times Dealings Raise Questions <http://mediactive.com/2010/04/08/complicating-relationships-in-media-apple-ny-times-dealings-raise-questions/>
Dan Gillmor, Mediactive

Jumping into an ecosystem like this violates fundamental journalistic principles, I believe. And the more popular the iPad gets the more potentially dangerous this could become to the information ecosystem.

Again, Apple has every right to push around its customers and media “partners” in pursuit of its business goals. What bothers me is the media companies’ willingness to cede so much of their authority to a company that has demonstrated its willingness to abuse it.

**** Why Pay For Final Cut Express When IMovie Is Free? <http://www.macworld.com/article/146782/2010/04/fcevsimovie.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Rob Griffiths, Macworld

iMovie’s user interface is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in any other video editing package. Whenever I try to use iMovie, I find its interface constantly interferes with my ability to actually get anything done. Sometimes different is good, but sometimes, different is just different.

**** Masters Tournament <http://www.cringely.com/2010/04/masters-tournament>
I, Cringely

“What I can’t figure out is why he (Steve Jobs) is even trying (to be the CEO of Apple)? ” wondered Bill. “He knows he can’t win.”

It is easy to see what Gates meant if you look at a comparison of the two companies in June, 1998. But look at the two companies today.

**** Adobe Highlights Risk Of Apple's Flash Exclusion <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessweek.com%2Fnews%2F2010-04-09%2Fadobe-highlights-risk-of-apple-s-flash-exclusion-update1-.html&usg=AFQjCNGnIuDz46hnqphvqXRmVGd6iw_FAw>
Peter Elstrom, Bloomberg

“To the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed,” Adobe said today in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under a “risk factors” heading.

The filing signals that tensions between Adobe and Apple are escalating as Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs snubs the Flash standard, used on almost all computers in the U.S. Yesterday, Apple released new rules that force application developers to write programs directly for the iPhone operating system, not intermediary software such as Adobe’s products.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Intel Demos Software That Reads Your Mind <http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-20002107-76.html?part=rss&amp;subj=news&amp;tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
Lance Whitney, CNET News

The software uses MRI brain scans to decipher which words you're mostly likely thinking about. In highly controlled situations, it achieves perfect scores.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** In The Attic <http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/30057/in-the-attic/>
Shalom Auslander, Tablet

The population of the town in which I live is roughly 2,400 people. Of those people, I know approximately 50 or so by name, and of those 50, there are only 17 who I think will let me hide with my wife and children in their attic during the next genocide. This is assuming those 17 people haven’t already promised their attics to other Jews, blacks, homosexuals, Asians, Europeans, immigrants, etc., which I’m fairly sure at least six of them already have.

First come, first saved.

**** A Dressing-Down <http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article04081001.aspx>
Paula Marantz Cohen, The Smart Set

Sure, people wear shorts to the opera. But that just means I can wear a cocktail dress to the supermarket.

**** He Conquered The Conjecture <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23863?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
John Allen Paulos, The New York Review of Books

Masha Gessen's Perfect Rigor is a fascinating biography of Grigory (Grisha) Perelman, the fearsomely brilliant and notoriously antisocial Russian mathematician. Perelman proved the Poincaré Conjecture, one of mathematics' most important and intractable problems, in 2002—almost a century after it was first posed, and just two years after the Clay Mathematics Institute offered a one-million-dollar prize for its solution.

**** A Bad Morning At The New York Times <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23843?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Russell Baker, The New York Review of Books

Gerald Boyd was a classic specimen of the self-made man. Born poor, he worked and studied his way up out of poverty under the guidance of his widowed grandmother. Childhood was work and study, study and work, and though they do not always guarantee success, for Gerald Boyd they did just what movies, books, and professional moralizers said they would do, probably because his widowed grandmother contributed a lot of wisdom, love, and iron to the self-making; and in his early fifties Gerald Boyd became managing editor of The New York Times. This was the second most important job in the newsroom of one of the world's better newspapers. He was the first black ever to reach such a dazzling position in the Times hierarchy, and the gaudiest job of all—the executive editorship—seemed within his reach almost until the very moment he was fired.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Getting Tough On Illegal Sub-lets <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100409-0000130/Getting-tough-on-illegal-sub-lets>
Joanne Chan, Today

Since the beginning of the year, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has started taking action to repossess three flats - their owners had rented out their entire units without fulfilling a minimum occupation period and gaining prior approval from the HDB.

**** A 'Kopitiam' Model For Wet Markets? <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100409-0000093/A-Kopitiam-model-for-wet-markets?>
Conrad Raj, Today

Perhaps NEA ought to take over the running of all wet markets?

Sheng Siong, with its own supermarkets competing with the wet markets it owns in the same town, has an inherent conflict-of-interest. On hindsight, HDB should have blocked the sale of wet markets to major supermarket owners.

**** Mah Bow Tan : We Don't Fudge The Numbers Part 2 <http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2010/04/mah-bow-tan-we-dont-fudge-numbers-part.html>
Diary of A Singaporean Mind

**** Singaporeans Get Easily Alarmed. <http://singaporeanskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/04/singaporeans-get-easily-alarmed.html>
Singaporean Skeptic

**** Asean Needs To Act: PM Lee <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_512364.html>
Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times

Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday urged fellow Asean leaders to redouble their efforts in cooperation projects and implement key programmes to retain the region's centrality and strategic influence.

**** Better Transport Link-ups In Bukit Panjang <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_512291.html>
Bernadette Low, SMRT Corporation, Straits Times

Together, the feeder buses and LRT take residents across the town or to transfer hubs, depending on their travel needs and preferences.

**** Why It Won't Help <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_512276.html>
Kunwar Bir Singh, Straits Times

A better solution may be to make a clear distinction between feeder services and buses on long routes. This way, buses on long routes will go on only major roads and not wind around HDB townships.

**** Rail Link To Spice Talks <http://www.nst.com.my/articles/4njj/Article/index_html>
New Straits Times

Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the other Asean leaders at the 16th Asean Summit here are hoping for the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL) to be completed in the next five years. The project, proposed in 1995, has been hindered by a lack of funds and other technical issues in connecting the rail to major towns across the region.

**** 配合裕廊商业区发展 裕廊东镇中心一些建筑物将换地址 <http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp100409_003.shtml>
陆彩霞, 联合早报

受到裕廊东13街部分路段并入一条新路并改名为Jurong Gateway Road（尚未有中文名称），裕廊东镇中心一些建筑物自8月1日起相应更改地址。配合裕廊商业区（Jurong Gatewayï¼‰å‘å±•ï¼Œè£•å»Šä¸œåœ°é“ç«™å‘¨å›´ç›®å‰æ­£åœ¨è¾Ÿå»ºæ–°çš„å…¬è·¯ç½‘ï¼Œæ‰©å»ºå¤šæ¡ä¸»è¦é“è·¯ï¼Œä»¥åº”ä»˜æ—¥ç›Šå¢žåŠ çš„äº¤é€šéœ€æ±‚ã€‚

**** HDB Responds To SDP Warning, SDP Calls For Meeting With Teo <http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3594-sdp-calls-for-meeting-with-teo-ho-pin-on-sheng-siong-rent-hike>
Singapore Democrat Party

While we welcome HDB's we note that the statement is too little too late. It is cold comfort for the stallholders, some of whom have had no choice but to quit their stalls as a result of the exhorbitant rent hikes. Others have to put in longer hours and lay off of workers. 

All will struggle to cope with increased cost of operating their stalls which will ultimately be passed on to shoppers who are already feeling the burden of the high cost of living. And all this for Sheng Siong to make itself richer at the expense of the common folk.

**** Arrest Warrant For Ionescu <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_512514.html>
Straits Times

Singapore government has issued an arrest warrant against former Romanian charge d'affaires Silviu Ionescu over a hit-and-run accident that left a man dead last December.

At the same time, Interpol has also issued a 'Red Notice' against Dr Ionescu, said a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, following a meeting it had with Tokyo-based Romanian Ambassador to Singapore Aurelian Neagu, who was summoned here.

**** Singapore’s Lesson From Harvard Model <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/edccd72a-432e-11df-9046-00144feab49a.html>
Gillian Tett, Financial Times

The doughty Government Investment Corporation of Singapore is not often a hotbed of heretical thought. Recently, however, a debate has been bubbling at the GIC that has fascinating implications for investors round the world.

**** Wary Of A Bubble At Home, Chinese Diversify By Buying In Singapore Mass Market Property <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/greathomesanddestinations/09iht-repore.html>
Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, New York Times

For some time now, China’s property market has looked like a bubble about to pop. As a result, many Chinese have been putting their wealth into real estate markets further afield, notably in Singapore.

**** Life Before Lee: When Singapore Had A <http://globalasia.org/V5N1_Spring_2010/Ben_Bland.html?PHPSESSID=37bc51aac92ba3c814fe5d5ca1eef931>
Ben Bland, Global Asia

It is almost as if Frost and Balasingamchow are paying the necessary dues to ensure their book is published and marketed in Singapore, their biggest potential market. Closing the book, they rue the PAP’s determination to set the historical clock “back to zero,” warning that “if we fail to comprehend what happened in the ‘old’ Singapore — fail to understand its passions, dream, failures and accomplishments — then we can never fully appreciate the extraordinary change that followed.” What they don’t say is that Singaporeans need to develop a better understanding of their own history not so much to “fully appreciate” what the PAP has done for them but to understand the limitations of their rigid political system and how they can improve it.

**** Tripartite Panel Contradicts Government On Employment Practices? <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/04/tripartite-panel-contradicts-government-on-employment-practices/>
Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen

If Tafep’s conclusion is indeed “true”, why do we consistently refuse to break down the labour statistics into Singaporeans and PRs?

**** Random Rant: Our Lovely Transport System <http://tattooedbanker.blogspot.com/2010/04/random-rant-our-lovely-transport-system.html>
Tattooed Banker

**** Reform Party Led By Kenneth Jeyaretnam Makes House Visits In Hong Kah GRC <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1049051/1/.html>
Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia