[MyAppleMenu] Apr 24, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Lost iPhone Prototype Spurs Police Probe <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20003308-37.html?tag=nl.e498>
Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh, CNET News

Silicon Valley police are investigating what appears to be a lost Apple iPhone prototype purchased by a gadget blog, a transaction that may have violated criminal laws, a law enforcement official told CNET on Friday.

Apple has spoken to local police about the incident and the investigation is believed to be headed by a computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, the source said. Apple's Cupertino headquarters is in Santa Clara County, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.

**** MoofMenu Puts Your Files In The Menu Bar <http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/499328/review/moofmenu_183.html?expand=true>
Dan Frakes, Macworld

MoofMenu is a simple but useful (and quick) utility that lets you create a custom, hierarchical menu of files and folders in the menu bar.

**** A Novel Concept: Roll Your Own iBooks With EPub <http://www.macworld.com/article/150817/2010/04/epub_ipad.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Dan Moren, Macworld

Adding ePub support into writing tools themselves is great for writers. While ePub is an open format, the tools that were previously available for conversion suffered from a severe case of open-sourceitis, boasting clunky, inscrutable interfaces often written in cross-platform technologies like Java. Writers shouldn’t have to be techies to get their work onto the iPad, any more than they have to be to load up their music and photos.

**** How The Mac Survived The Recession <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/23/how-the-mac-survived-the-recession/>
Dave Caolo, TUAW

**** iPad USB Camera Adapter Supports Audio Headsets, Too <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11221?rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tidbits_main+%28TidBITS%3A+Mac+News+for+the+Rest+of+Us%29>
Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS

I tested a Skype call with a USB headset, and the quality was just terrific. This make the iPad even more viable for phone calls, eliminating a requirement for a Bluetooth headset which requires separate charging and pairing.

**** The New 15" MacBook Pro: Elegant Combo Of Power, Thriftiness <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175847/The_new_15_in._MacBook_Pro_An_elegant_combo_of_power_thriftiness>
Ken Mingis, Computerworld

All in all, Apple has delivered a laptop that's more than just an evolutionary upgrade with unseen updates under the hood. It has moved its higher-end MacBook Pros closer to true quadcore speeds, while improving battery life and adding serious GPU performance.

**** Arguing Against A Doctrine Of Apple Infallibility <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/04/arguing_against_a_doctrine_of.html>
Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post

I've been covering the computer industry for a long time, so I'm used to people thinking very highly of Apple and resenting criticism of it. I've seen the same thing among fans of other companies and products: Linux, Microsoft, Google, you name it. But it's something different to see people twisting themselves into logical contortions to defend things that Apple itself then recognizes as errors.

**** Is News Subject To Apple's Developers' Agreement? <http://www.betanews.com/article/Is-news-subject-to-Apples-developers-agreement/1272056974>
Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

While bitterness continues over the implications of Sections 3.3.1 through 3.3.3 of Apple's recently modified Developers' Agreement (PDF available here, through the Electronic Frontier Foundation), there's lingering suspicion about the indeterminate boundaries pointed to by the long-standing Section 3.3.14, which now applies to iPad content as well as iPhone.

**** Fortress Apple <http://www.newsweek.com/id/236890?from=rss>
Daniel Lyons, Newsweek

Apple's new iPad is more than just a gorgeous consumer electronics device. It's also a kind of challenge to the Internet itself—or at least to the conventional wisdom of what the Internet is supposed to be all about.

**** Apple’s “Switch” Campaign Is Finally Working After All These Years <http://www.beatweek.com/blog/4803-apples-switch-campaign-is-finally-working-after-all-these-years/>
Beatweek

But one way or another, I believe that the effects of Apple’s Switch campaign are only now surfacing, as it has breathed legitimacy into Apple’s subsequent ad campaigns, and it has given Mac users everywhere the go-ahead to become active Mac advocates within their own circles. Although “Switch” will never get the credit it deserves, it helped to get the party started in various ways.

**** Apple TV Will Remain A Hobby Until Someone Shows Apple The Money (Or Apps) <http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/23/apple-tv-app-store/>
MG Siegler, TechCrunch

Apple isn’t taking it too seriously because they haven’t yet figured out a way to make a lot of money off of the device. And as we all should know by now, Apple loves to make money. It doesn’t make products just to make them. That’s why the Apple TV’s position remains a weird one. For now.

**** Drive Genius 3 Monitors And Repairs Your Hard Disk <http://www.macworld.com/article/150830/2010/04/drivegenius3.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Marco Tabini, Macworld

A new version of the popular disk repair utility for Mac adds real-time health monitoring and 64-bit support to help keep your data safe.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** A Time To Mourn, And A Time To Cook <http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/04/a-time-to-mourn-and-a-time-to-cook/39381/>
Regina Charboneau, The Atlantic

My mother was way too joyful for me to dwell on the sadness, so I will share the lighter side of the past few days and some of the tender moments and thoughts on comfort food. Knowing there is not anyone reading this article that has not experienced a broken heart, I ask you what is the food that gives comfort and relief?

**** Death And The Master <http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/classic/features/death-and-the-master-199904>
James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

The 100th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s birth brings a fresh onslaught of retrospectives and books about a man who has already been mythologized more than any other director. But his genius is so richly varied and suffused with cryptic clues (and MacGuffins) that the hunt for the real Hitchcock may last another century.

**** The Improbability Pump <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100510/coyne>
Jerry A. Coyne, The Nation

While biologists agree that natural selection is not the only cause of genetic change in populations, the evidence is strong that it's the only one that can produce the remarkable adaptations of animals and plants to their environment--the elephant's trunk, the cactus's spines, the tiger's fangs and so on--the designlike quality of organisms that, as Darwin put it, "most justly excites our admiration."



SingaporeSurf
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**** S'pore, M'sia Make Progress In Efforts To Improve Links And Connectivity <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1052195/1/.html>
Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia

Singapore and Malaysia have made progress in several areas to promote links and improve connectivity.

**** Retraction Of Invitation To Hearing-impaired Teacher “A Mistake”, Says MOE <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/04/retraction-of-invitation-to-hearing-impaired-teacher-a-mistake-says-moe/>
Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen

In reply to a query by The Online Citizen over the incident, the MOE said “the withdrawal of our invitation to Ms Susan Elliot was a mistake on our part” which resulted from “our misunderstanding about the need for interpreters and her professional experience.”

The MOE says the chairman of the Organising Committee for the September conference has since spoken to Ms Elliot personally to convey the ministry’s apologies. “We should have clarified these matters before making the decision,” it said in its reply to TOC.

See Also: MOE Sorry About Mix-Up [http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_518627.html], by Jennani Durai, Straits Times: It is understood the organising committee had mistakenly thought that Ms Elliott, the Colorado state Teacher of the Year 2009, was a teacher of only deaf students, while the conference would focus on mainstream education.

**** Train Service At Bukit Panjang LRT Disrupted Due To Power Trip <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1052215/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia

Train service at the Bukit Panjang LRT was disrupted at about 5.30pm on Friday due to a power trip caused by lightning.

Due to lightning risk and the heavy rain, a rescue train was sent to push out the train. Service was resumed at 6.30pm.

**** I Was Just Kidding, Says Walter Woon <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100424-0000063/I-was-just-kidding,-says-Walter-Woon>
Today

Professor Walter Woon, who stepped down as Attorney-General recently, said he "was kidding" when he told The Straits Times last week that he had "outstayed" his welcome. "I was kidding. I was being facetious," Prof Woon told The New Paper in an interview published on Friday.

**** New Migrants Are Hungrier <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/24/focus/6114369&sec=focus>
Seah Chiang Nee, The Star

Lee Kuan Yew’s assertion that today’s Singaporean has turned soft has not gone down well with some quarters, but the reality is successive generations of migrants lose some of their forefathers’ pioneering spirit.

**** Try RTM1 For World Cup <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_518677.html>
Leonard Lim, Chan U-Gene & Jeff Ang, Straits Times

Almost all the live telecasts will be for matches that kick off at 10pm Malaysia and Singapore time - and they involve top teams like Brazil, Portugal and England. These are matches that will be broadcast on Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) 1. Four other live matches are being screened on RTM2, which is not available in Singapore.

My understanding is that the matches will not be available on the RTM1 channel through SCV cables; the satellite feed will be encrypted. To watch the World Cup over RTM, you will need to get yourself a pair of the old rabbit ears.

**** Big Jump In Subletting <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_518684.html>
Esther Teo, Straits Times

Even as Housing Board (HDB) flat prices show signs of moderating after frenetic rises last year, the HDB rental market seems to be bucking the trend with a sharp upswing in subletting deals.

**** Singapore Officials Show Some Spine....... <http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2422&Itemid=181>
Asian Correspondent

The Singapore government has declined to reappoint Attorney General Walter Woon after his two years on the job expired earlier this month. Woon was earlier criticized by Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of Singaporean patriarch Lee Kuan Yew. Wei Ling is the head of the National Neuroscience Institute.

**** MPs Views Ahead Of Parliamentary Debate Full Of Hot Air <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/04/mps-views-ahead-of-parliamentary-debate-full-of-hot-air/>
Ravi Philemon, The Online Citizen

Whether one is for or against the NCMP and/or NMP schemes, one can easily deduce that the comments by Mr Mohamad, Mdm Ho and Mr Cheng come across not as constructive criticisms but as ‘a lot of noise’ and as self-contradicting viewpoints.