[MyAppleMenu] Apr 20, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Mistakes And Chains Of Events <http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/2010/04/19/mistakes-and-chains-of-events/>
Mike Ash, Under The Microscope

Apple has built a successful yet flawed system. The App Store has been around for nearly two years, and yet Apple has done very little to fix the flaws. There is a regular series of high-profile mistakes coming out of the system, yet Apple’s response to each one is to patch over the mistake and hope that it doesn’t happen again. The community’s response is largely to say that mistakes happen, and that it’s a small price to pay for such an excellent platform.

This attitude won’t fix the problems. Apple’s system is inherently flawed. The continuing mistaken rejections by Apple are not unavoidable, and we shouldn’t just shrug our shoulders at them. There is a lot that Apple can do to fix these problems, and we’ll all benefit if they do.

**** The (Increasingly Plausible) Miraculous Engadget (and Gizmodo) iPhone 4G <http://ihnatko.com/2010/04/19/the-increasingly-plausible-miraculous-engadget-and-gizmodo-iphone-4g/>
Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA)

So. I say once again that Gizmodo has a lot of explaining to do. Even if they’re completely innocent of any wrongdoing, they need to resolve this part of the story.

**** DragThing 5.9.5 <http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/463979/review/dragthing_595.html?expand=true>
Christopher Breen, Macworld

Whether DragThing is a good fit for you depends a lot on how you like to interact with your Mac. If you’re the kind of person who routinely calls up Spotlight to launch applications and locate items on your Mac using your keyboard, DragThing’s mouse-focused interface may not be for you. If, on the other hand, you appreciate having the items you use most often available as clickable icons in nicely defined, customizable docks, you owe yourself a test drive.

**** Quickly Create .tar Files In Finder <http://www.macworld.com/article/150688/2010/04/tarfilesservice.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Dan Miller, Macworld

**** Apple Countersues Kodak, Seeks ITC Ban <http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/04/19/apple.fights.kodak.suit.with.one.of.its.own/>
Electronista

Apple today countersued Kodak over alleged patent violations. The complaint accuses Kodak of copying technology relating to image processing as well as energy management and memory design. Many of Kodak's C, M and Z series EasyShares are supposedly infringing on the patents, as are pocket camcorders like the Zi8.

**** Apple To Replace Problematic Headphones With Inline Remote <http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/apple-to-replace-problematic-headphones-with-inline-remote.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica

The problem mainly affects the Apple Headphones with Remote than came with iPod shuffles made between February 2009 and February 2010, which have serial numbers in the range of xx909xxxxxx to xx952xxxxxx or xx001xxxxxx to xx004xxxxxx. If you have headphones that came with an iPod shuffle in the affected range that have stopped working, Apple will simply replace them free of charge for two years from the date of purchase.

**** Firefox, Bolt And NetFront Don't Plan To Follow Opera To iPhone <http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/firefox-bolt-and-netfront-dont-plan-follow-opera-iphone/2010-04-16>
Mike Dano, Fierce Mobile

Although browser vendor Opera made a big splash on the iPhone, and Skyfire is poised for a similar effort, other mobile browser companies don't seem too keen to get onto Apple's platform. Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox browser, said it does not plan to build an iPhone version of its Firefox Mobile product, and Bolt browser maker Bitstream and NetFront browser maker Access have similar positions. "Our understanding of browsers in the iPhone App Store is that a ‘full' Web browser like Firefox that incorporates its own Web rendering and JavaScript engines would be prohibited," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's vice president of product.

**** Apple's Conundrum: Topping Itself <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575194540854624692.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_RIGHTTopCarousel>
Yukari Iwatani Kane, Wall Street Journal

That's the trouble with making revolutionary products. Investors keep wanting more of them.

**** Twenty Years of Memories From Friends Of TidBITS <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11207>
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS

**** TidBITS Staffers Recall How They Got Their Starts <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11205>
TidBITS

**** TidBITS Celebrates 20 Years Of Internet Publication <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11206>
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS

This is it - TidBITS has turned 20 years old! In what is a bit of happy coincidence, the email issue containing this article is #1,024. That's right, we've officially published 2^10 issues of TidBITS, or, roughly speaking, 1 kiloTidBITS. Geeky, eh?

**** Should Gizmodo Have Outed The Guy Who Lost Apple's iPhone? <http://blog.seattlepi.com/hottopics/archives/202620.asp?source=mypi>
Monica Guzman, Seattle Post Intelligencer

**** For Apple, Lost iPhone Is A Big Deal <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/companies/20apple.html?src=busln>
Miguel Helft and Nick Bilton, New York Times

The company is known as the most secretive in Silicon Valley, and leaks are rare. But after the phone prototype was left in a bar in the Silicon Valley town of Redwood City, photos of the device began appearing over the weekend in technology blogs, sparking a frenzy of hype among the Apple-obsessed.

**** Mac & The iPad, History Repeats Itself <http://www.asktog.com/columns/082iPad&Mac.html#>
Bruce Tognazzini, Ask Tog

For those of us around Apple for the launch of the 1984 Mac, things are awfully familiar.

In bringing that original Mac to market, Steve hit on a formula that worked for him. He keeps repeating it, and it seems to get better every time. It worked for the iPhone, and it worked for the iPad, too. Here are the necessary elements.

**** A Letter: Apple Wants Its Secret iPhone Back <http://gizmodo.com/5520479/a-letter-apple-wants-its-secret-iphone-back>
Brian Lam, Gizmodo

**** Praise For Apple's MobileMe <http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6966191.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Ftechdrmac+%28HoustonChronicle.com+--+Dr.+Mac%29>
Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle

Apple's MobileMe is a unique collection of integrated Internet-based services that makes using Macs, iPhones, iPod touches, iPads and even Windows PCs even better.

**** The Keyboardless Office: A Review Of IWork For iPad <http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2010/04/iwork-for-ipad-clever-subtitle-goes-here.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica

In the end, using iWork for the iPad is a lot like going to the moon. It might be a nice place to visit, and it may even be fun to bounce around for a bit, play a little golf, or buzz around in that sweet little moon buggy, but in the end, it’s not a place I’d like to live, or even stay for any extended amount of time. iWork is decent, but there is only so much you can do for an office suite without a full keyboard and a mouse.  

So while iWork is usable on Apple’s new "magical" device, it probably won't cut it for serious users. If you need to make an on-the-fly change to a document or presentation, you might lose some formatting or suffer some other unexpected quirks. What Apple calls file sharing, I call a pain, and the inability to print just magnifies things.

**** How Gizmodo Got The Biggest iPhone Scoop Of All <http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/2178822,ihnatko-apple-iphone-engadget-gizmodo.article>
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times

Gizmodo has a legitimate and spectacular scoop on their hands. They’ve done something that’s unprecedented in the Steve Jobs era: they have published substantive, first-person, hands-on information about an unannounced Apple product. The actual information they gleaned is pretty thin, but let’s not begrudge them their due. Denton says that the site did it for the benefit of their readers. That also happens to be the only motivation that ever matters to a journalist.

Let’s also not gloss over the means by which they got that scoop. Not through legwork and developing sources, but by buying something that was offered to them.

**** Apple Sets Sales, Profit Records For Non-holiday Quarter <http://www.macworld.com/article/150746/2010/04/apple_2q_earnings.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Philip Michaels, Macworld

Apple’s fiscal second quarter may have been a quiet one in terms of product releases, but the company still turned in a stellar financial performance over the last three months. On Tuesday, the company reported sales of $13.5 billion and a profit of $3.07 billion for the second quarter ended March 27.

Revenue rose 49 percent from last year’s adjusted second-quarter sales of $9.08 billion, while profits were up 90 percent, making the 2010 second quarter the best non-holiday quarter in Apple’s history, according to CEO Steve Jobs.

**** Apple Is Attracting New Mac And iPhone Users By The Millions <http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-is-attracting-new-mac-and-iphone-users-by-the-millions/39215?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cultofmac%2FbFow+%28Cult+of+Mac%29>
Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** It Slices, It Dices <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/it-slices-it-dices/?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Steven Strogatz, New York Times

The integral, perhaps mathematics' most graceful sign, is a foundation of calculus.

**** With AIDS, Time To Get Beyond Blame <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/health/20essa.html?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Abigail Zuger, New York Times

In most states, it’s still a crime to transmit H.I.V. But science has moved on.

**** Big Box Encounter <http://www.slate.com/id/2251210/?from=rss>
Erika Meitner, Slate Magazine



SingaporeSurf
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**** Mum's The Word <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_516513.html>
David Kwok, Straits Times

Both organisations have kept silent and appear oblivious to public feedback and complaints. They need to address this issue as it is a genuine problem.

**** Singapore - A Clash Of Worlds <http://ladychrisi.blogspot.com/2010/04/singapore-clash-of-worlds.html>
Thoughts...

In Singapore you can find a Chinatown, a place called „Little India“ as well as a street called „Arab Street“ proving that Singapore is not only a multicultural city but also permits its citizens to keep following their own traditions, food and especially their religion. This was one of the most striking things in Singapore.

**** Public Transport Fares To Go Down By 2.5% From Jul 3 <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1051320/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia

Bus and train fares will be reduced by 2.5 per cent from July 3 when the Public Transport Council (PTC) introduces a new distance-based fare system.

With the changes, the PTC said that two in three commuters will see a reduction or no change in their weekly public transport expenditure.  One third of them will see an increase. 

**** Don't Legitimise Government Intervention In Religion <http://callantham.org/blog/2010/4/20/dont-legitimise-government-intervention-in-religion.html>
Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp

The best way to challenge such hate speech is to reject it based on the secular principles of equality, inclusiveness, reason and human rights, and not using the law to intervene as a first resort.

**** Judge John Ng Fines Walkers $500 <http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3630-judge-john-ng-fines-walkers-500>
Singapore Democrat Party

District Judge John Ng imposed a $500 fine, or a 5-day imprisonment in default, for Ms Chee Siok Chin, Mr Chong Kai Xiong and Mr John Tan for taking part in the 1st WB-IMF anniversary walk in September 2007. Mr Gandhi Ambalam was fined $600 or 6 days jail in default.

The Judge had originally acquitted the activists for walking down Orchard Road because he could not see how such an activity fit the definition of a procession under the Miscellaneous Offences Act (MAO).

**** Singapore Distances Itself From Tehran Nuclear Conclusion <http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=491965>
Zakaria Abdul Wahab, Bernama

Singapore said today it had disassociated itself from the conclusion of the Tehran Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation which ended yesterday in the Iranian capital, as it was misleading. The foreign affairs ministry said Singapore attended the two-day Tehran Conference but had formally disassociated itself from the conclusion which the Iranian authorities claimed was adopted at the Tehran Conference.

**** Possible Consequences On Singapore-Romania Relations: Analysts <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1051418/1/.html>
Saifulbahri Ismail, Channel NewsAsia

Political analysts have floated measures like downgrading diplomatic representation as some steps Singapore could take against Romania if it doesn't bring former diplomat Dr Silviu Ionescu to justice.

**** Costs Continue To Mount For Asian Airlines <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704448304575195543416030242.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines>
Costas Paris, Joanne Chiu and Santanu Choudhury, Wall Street Journal

Among those most affected in Asia, Singapore Airlines Ltd. has been losing at least 4 million Singapore dollars (US$2.9 million) a day since flight bans were introduced Thursday, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

**** NSP’s Goh Meng Seng Pledges To Sell Flat To Fund Election Bid <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/04/nsps-goh-meng-seng-pledges-to-sell-flat-to-fund-election-bid/>
Ng E-Jay, The Online Citizen

The Secretary-General of the National Solidarity Party (NSP), Mr Goh Meng Seng, has revealed to close associates and supporters that he intends to sell his HDB flat in Serangoon North in order to fund his upcoming election campaign.

Mr Goh emphasized that he need not sell his flat if he merely intended to fund his own election battle. However, he feels that as a leader of the party, the onus is on him to personally tend to what he terms “the bigger strategic campaign” of NSP.

**** The God Has Spoken <http://singaporerecalcitrant.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-has-spoken.html>
Singapore Recalcitrant