[MyAppleMenu] Aug 20, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Is Your Mac's Dock Too Crowded? Add A New Dock. Or, 2 <http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/is-your-macs-dock-too-crowded-add-a-new-dock-or-2-or-3/>
Jeffrey Mincey, Mac 360

When you get a Dock crowded with apps and folders and documents, all the Dock icons squish down real small. That makes it tough to see what’s what on a smaller Mac notebook’s screen. Solution? Add a few more Docks, or more features.

**** The iPad As Consumption Device <http://www.tcgeeks.com/the-ipad-as-consumption-device/>
TCGeeks

**** Apple To Shut Down Quattro Wireless Ad Network <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439983908711508.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>
Yukari Iwatani Kane, Wall Street Journal

Apple Inc. will shut down the Quattro Wireless advertising network it acquired earlier this year and will support its new iAd network exclusively as of Sept. 30, according to a letter Apple sent to Quattro clients Thursday.

**** Textbooks Up Their Game <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791804575439522126865254.html>
Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal

Although electronic book sales have exploded, digital college textbooks have been slow to get off the ground, in part because of high prices and hardware concerns. Now, a former Apple Inc. employee, Matt Mac Innis, is trying to shake up the market with a new approach that taps into the iPad's strengths.

**** Apple's App Tsar Sells Own Fart, Urine Apps <http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/apples-app-tsar-sells-own-fart-urine-apps-20100819-12je5.html?from=brisbanetimes_ft>
Sydney Morning Herald

Phillip Shoemaker, the director of Apple's app store, sells his own iPhone apps under the company name Gray Noodle, including Animal Farts and the urination simulator iWiz.

Apple employees are forbidden from selling their own apps on the app store.

**** Chairman Of Apple Supplier Steps Down <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439243812469502.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>
Gaurav Raghuvanshi, Wall Street Journal

Singapore's JLJ Holdings Ltd., the parent of a supplier of components to Apple Inc., said Thursday its executive chairman Chua Kim Guan has voluntarily stepped down.

"In order to facilitate the impartial review of all activities relating to the Apple claim that may involve the company and its subsidiaries, the company's executive chairman has voluntarily relinquished all executive duties ... for the time being," JLJ said in a statement.

**** Preservationists Throw In Towel In Fight Over Steve Jobs' House  <http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=7180>
The Almanac

**** Choose Your Own Adventure Available For iPhone As U-Ventures <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/19/choose-your-own-adventure-available-for-iphone-as-u-ventures/>
Mike Schramm, TUAW

If you, like me, were a big scifi/fantasy reader at a young age, you probably remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. It was a series of books in which, every chapter or so, you could make a choice that affected the story, and you were then prompted to turn to a certain page to continue the story after that choice. Edward Packard was the original author of that series, and he's now teamed up with an iPhone app company to create U-Ventures, a throwback iPhone application that works as an interactive, e-book style Choose You Own Adventure.

**** Recording TV To iTunes With Elgato's EyeTV Tuners <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11529?rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tidbits_main+%28TidBITS%3A+Mac+News+for+the+Rest+of+Us%29>
Julio Ojeda-Zapata, TidBITS

As I've worked on this article, I have become increasingly amazed at how Elgato products (I must have used a dozen or more different EyeTV tuners over the years) have permeated my digital existence. It's one of the reasons I feel so lucky to be a Mac user. TiVo does have its fanatics, but given a choice, I'll go with a Mac and EyeTV tuner every time.

**** Mac Gems: Powerful, Ubiquitous, Simple Sharing With Droplr <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=e8cc26abec98e8079606261b8385a10f>
David Chartier, Macworld

For all the break-neck technological advancements over the last decade, it can still often be surprisingly difficult to share a file, picture, or just some text on the Internet. E-mail services sometimes eat links and code or bounce messages with the smallest of photo attachments. Heck, even Twitter doesn’t natively support sharing anything but 140 characters of plain text. Enter Culturezoo’s Droplr, a dead-simple app and Web service for sharing just about anything.

**** Go SSD <http://onethingwell.org/post/977670277/go-ssd>
One Thing Well

**** Time Inc. Breaks The iPad Logjam <http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/19/time-inc-breaks-the-ipad-logjam/>
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune

This week's People app is free to subscribers. Time, SI and Fortune are expected to follow.

**** Australian Ratings Board Looks Ahead To App Store Crackdown <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/19/australian-ratings-board-looks-ahead-to-app-store-crackdown/>
Michael Rose, TUAW

It's not a done deal by any means, but the Australian government's Classification Board is taking a hard look at games for mobile devices, which up until now have skated by the country's regulatory requirements that mandate a pass for content and age-appropriateness -- at a cost to developers of hundreds or thousands of A$.

**** Apple Now Shipping Mac Pro Desktop Preorders <http://feeds.appleinsider.com/click.phdo?i=496a90785ba31c700327f13be246fb81>
AppleInsider

**** For Digital Artists, Apps Provide New Palette <http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b7cce5f354e2ede2cad99c4179861dbd>
Reyhan Harmanci, New York Times

Publishers were not the only ones drooling when Apple unveiled its iPad to great fanfare in the spring. Digital artists also marveled at the device’s potential.

**** Relocate Your iMovie Projects <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=519635a22795c469415016082fb06629>
Jeff Carlson, Macworld



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** My Father Didn't "Take" Pictures <http://www.salon.com/mwt/made/2010/08/19/father_making_photographs_open2010/index.html>
Stephanie Tames, Salon

My father was a news photographer. When he talked about his work he would say he didn't take photographs, he made them. There's a difference, he'd say.

**** Sex For Beginners <http://www.tnr.com/book/review/sex-beginners>
Ellen Handler Spitz, The New Republic

Robie Harris’s fine book on sexuality has been updated and reworked for the fifteenth anniversary of its publication. It actually lives up to its promise and delivers “honest, reliable, accurate, and accessible information” about human sexuality and reproduction. Harris’s scientific bent prompts her to provide thoroughgoing up-to-date research on every topic from reproduction and contraception to HIV/AIDS and abortion law. But this book is far from a heavy-handed textbook.

**** Our Ever-changing English | Alison Flood <http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/jyjvJOq9DZ8/english-language-british-library-books>
Alison Flood, The Guardian

I get grumpy about crimes against language. But we Brits have been lamenting declining standards of English for centuries.

**** Premature Maturity <http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=9fd9288d6eff812f3ea46c60e66f12fd>
Darshak Sanghavi, Slate Magazine

Are children today really going through puberty earlier?



SingaporeSurf
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**** Shop Tenants At 3 MRT Stations Hoping For Rental Rebates <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1076062/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia

Some shop tenants at the Jurong East, Clementi and Bukit Batok train stations are hoping for rental rebates from SMRT, which manages the stations. This follows the announcement that those stations will not have train services on a few days in September due to upgrading works.

**** Jurong West Residents Cite Design Flaw For Recent Break-ins <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1076075/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia

Channel NewsAsia found out that at least 30 units under the first batch of Design, Build and Sell Scheme come with similar designs.  The ledge makes it easy to jump onto the air-conditioning platform and into the flat.

**** Refunds Made On 80 Claims Of Distance Errors <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100820-0000061/Refunds-made-on-80-claims-of-distance-errors>
Eugene Tan, Public Transport Council, Helen Lim, Land Transport Authority, Today

The number of commuters affected is likely to be small as only journeys that cross over to the next fare band as a result of the discrepancy are affected.

**** Why A Commuter's Fare Varied <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100820-0000067/Why-a-commuters-fare-varied>
Eugene Tan, Public Transport Council, Helen Lim, Land Transport Authority, Helen Lim, Land Transport Authority, Today

Under distance fares, fares are calculated based on the total cumulated distance travelled in a journey. The distance fare bands are 1 km after the first fare stage. Hence, for an MRT-bus journey, the fare charged for the bus leg can vary depending on the distance already travelled on the preceding MRT leg. 

It can be zero if the additional bus trip does not result in the journey distance crossing over to the next fare band. If it does, then the card fare for the air-conditioned bus leg could range from 1 cent to 10 cents for a 0.4 km trip, as in Mr Yusoff's case.

**** One Entry Fee Should Do For Both Casinos <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_568588.html>
Harry Koh, Straits Times

Regular casino-goers like variety. But if you make them pay an extra levy, they will baulk at that, and go to nearby countries to gamble for a change - which defeats the aim of keeping the gaming monies of Singaporeans from flowing abroad.

**** Fee Guidelines Not Allowed <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_568652.html>
Melissa Kok, Straits Times

Medical fee guidelines for doctors are out because they are anti-competitive, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) has ruled.

**** Don't Blame Us For Empty Seats <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_568713.html>
Straits Times

Empty seats? Don't blame us, the Ministry of Education said in a statement yesterday. 'Since the start of the Games, more than 95 per cent of students who were allocated tickets have turned up to cheer on the athletes,' it said.

**** Temasek Hires Ex-BofA Banker Greg Curl <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE67J00120100820>
Saeed Azhar and Joe Rauch, Reuters

Singapore state investor Temasek beefed up its top management team by hiring Greg Curl, who was once seen as a CEO candidate for Bank of America.

**** The Innocent Man Who Was Nearly Hanged <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/the-innocent-man-who-was-nearly-hanged>
Yawning Bread

How many other people have been convicted of murder in a similar way, without corroborating physical evidence?  But also without the fantastic luck that Zainal Kuning had?

**** 16 Mrt Stations For Downtown Line 3 <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1076174/1/.html>
Hetty Musfirah, Channel NewsAsia

Announcing the rail alignment and locations for Downtown Line 3 stations on Friday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the line will enhance rail connectivity in the eastern corridors to the Central Business District and developments in the Marina Bay area.

The target completion of the Downtown Line has also been pushed back by a year to 2017.

**** Singapore Considers Using Facebook To Allow Lawyers To Exchange Documents <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-20/singapore-considers-using-facebook-to-allow-lawyers-to-exchange-documents.html>
Andrea Tan, Bloomberg

The Singapore High Court may allow lawyers to exchange documents on social media sites like Facebook Inc.’s or use them to inform litigants of civil judgments and filings.

The proposals are part of a consultation paper the court is circulating for public comment.

**** Roller-coaster Mystery Out <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_568864.html>
Chua Hian Hou, Straits Times

Weakened by the repeated stress of the high-speed motion, a metal bar holding a seat to the chassis of Resort World's star attraction gave way, sending the seat clattering down to the ground.

Luckily for the ride operator, which on Friday ended months of speculation over the cause of the shut down, the seat on the red-coloured 'Human' car in question was unoccupied, so nobody was injured.