[MyAppleMenu] Jul 23, 2010

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Fri Jul 23 18:59:00 EDT 2010

MyAppleMenu
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**** How Often Does Your Phone Drop Calls? <http://www.slate.com/id/2261251/?from=rss>
Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine

As far as I can tell, none of the leading phone makers publishes information about the number of calls its devices drop during actual use. This is not for lack of data, either.

**** Apple Releases Update For Snow Leopard Server <http://www.macworld.com/article/152889/2010/07/snowleopardserver_1064_11update.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Philip Michaels, Macworld

According to Apple’s release notes, Thursday’s update improves the performance and reliability of looking up invitees in LDAP directory as well as the reliability of vacation notices. Several fixes target the Software Update Service to make updates appear more reliably in Server Admin and improve syncing with the Apple Software Update server. The update also contains improvements for OS X Server’s Wiki Service and improves the reliability of VPN connections. Apple also touts security improvements with the latest Snow Leopard Server update.

**** New Apple VP To Address Product Quality <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/22/new-apple-vp-to-address-product-quality/>
Victor Agreda, Jr., TUAW

**** Apple Seeks Growth Beyond Consumers <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704684604575381432625378108.html?ru=yahoo>
Ian Sherr, Wall Street Journal

The consumer electronics giant responsible for the iPhone is seeking to hire engineers in as many as a dozen U.S. retail stores to put together Apple-based computer systems for small businesses, according to recent job postings on Apple's website. The employees would implement computer systems for clients and are expected to be proficient in networking hardware and server platforms.

The new positions mark the latest development in Apple's evolving strategy, which has historically focused on the consumer market and niche businesses, like design and media firms. Now, Apple wants to leverage its popular iPhone and iPad devices, using their appeal as a selling point for more expensive products, including its line of Macintosh computers and servers.

**** Error-free Burning In OS X 10.6 <http://www.macworld.com/article/152862/2010/07/burndiscerror.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Whitson Gordon, Macworld

**** Apple Warns Of Short-term iMac Shortages Ahead Of New Models - Sources <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/22/apple_warns_of_short_term_imac_shortages_ahead_of_new_models_sources.html>
AppleInsider

Apple late this month began advising its direct and indirect sales channels of near-term shortages of its popular all-in-one desktops, as the company prepares draw down inventories ahead of introducing new models in the coming weeks.

In particular, a person familiar with the matter says the Mac maker is informing some of its distributors not to expect any further stock of the entry level 21.5-inch, 3.06GHz iMac, implying that production of that model has ceased.

**** Users Report Bluetooth Connectivity, Quality Issues With IOS 4 <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/22/users_report_bluetooth_connectivity_quality_issues_with_ios_4.html>
AppleInsider

**** Apple Now Refunding Bumpers Purchased Online <http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/07/apple-begins-refunding-bumpers-purchased-online/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AppAdvice+%28AppAdvice%29>
Alexander Vaughn, App Advice

**** Frustration As iPad Global Rollout Takes In New Zealand <http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gXHIDzrubO8rqgsSN9oTDcvr8dew>
AFP

The third phase of Apple's global rollout of the much-hyped iPad was launched in New Zealand Friday with fans of the brand expressing frustration at the extreme secrecy surrounding the release.

Apple's refusal to announce in advance where its multimedia tablet would be sold in New Zealand meant only the most fanatical of buyers was prepared to queue.

**** The 25 Best Tech Companies To Work For <http://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-best-tech-companies-to-work-for-2010-7>
Adam Fusfeld, Business Insider

**** LG Display Unable To Fill All iPad Orders <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383941257969742.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>
Jung-Ah Lee, Wall Street Journal

The chief executive of LG Display Co. said the company isn't currently able to supply all of the flat-panel orders it receives from Apple Inc. for its iPad tablet computer.

"Apple is ordering more and more displays but it isn't something we can be able to respond quickly," chief executive Kwon Young-soo said Thursday. "I am not sure whether we can be able to meet orders from other companies for similar products, but we will be able to supply the displays without fail...by the second quarter of next year."

**** iPad's Hong Kong Release: Stores Sell Out In Minutes <http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/shop/ipad-comes-hong-kong-finally-301804>
Hiufu Wong, CNNGo

**** Review: Inspiration 9 <http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/577774/review/inspiration_9.html?expand=true&lsrc=rss_main>
Stuart Gripman, Macworld

Visual thinkers, particularly from age 10 through 18, will want Inspiration in their academic toolbox. Even if you’re not a student, should Inspiration 9 pique your interest, download the 30-day demo and give it a try. You’ll know within a few hours if it’s right for you.

**** Cheers And Jeers For Apple At Ipad's Second Asia Launch <http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100723/technology/asia_it_company_technology_lifestyle_apple_ipad>
AFP

Eager iPad fans in Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand braved long queues and discomfort to get their hands on the coveted Apple device as its second wave of Asia-Pacific launches began Friday.

**** Apple Delays White iPhone 4 Again, Won't Arrive Until Later This Year <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/23/apple_says_white_iphone_4_wont_arrive_until_later_this_year.html>
AppleInsider

Apple on Friday announced that it still has had difficulty in manufacturing the white version of its iPhone 4, and the product will not be available until "later this year."

**** Apple Officially Launches iPhone 4 Case Program Via App Store <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/23/apple_officially_launches_iphone_4_case_program_via_app_store.html>
AppleInsider

As promised, Apple on Friday launched its iPhone 4 Case Program, granting free cases to customers who buy a phone through Sept. 30, and refunding those who already bought a protective "bumper" through an iPhone application.

**** The Varieties Of Religious Experience: How Apple Stays Divine <http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2010/07/the-varieties-of-religious-experience-how-apple-stays-divine/60271/>
Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic

After last week's press conference quelled questions about the company's practices and this week's iPhone sales report, Jobs not only seems like a hero again, but he reinforced the resurrection myth too.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** The Beats: Pictures Of A Legend <http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/jul/22/beats-pictures-legend/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Edmund White, The New York Review of Books

Both Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs discovered late in life that making works of art is the way to get money. Literature just doesn’t do it. Speaking engagements pay, but eventually they become tiring—or one exhausts the market. Neither of the two had ever been money-mad, but old age requires a bit of a cushion. Burroughs turned to painting. He would set up paint cans in front of blank canvases and then shoot at them; the splatter was the art. Although these paintings are his best-known artworks, they make up only a small part of his output.

**** Cantonese, Please <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/opinion/23iht-edyu.html?_r=2>
Verna Yu, New York Times

More and more, ambitious parents in Hong Kong are giving their children a head-start in English by putting them into English-speaking play groups, kindergartens and international schools. At these elite institutions, Mandarin Chinese is sometimes taught as a second language.

As for the local Cantonese dialect, who cares?



SingaporeSurf
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**** Freak Events And A Prayer <http://mollymeek.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/freak-events-and-a-prayer/>
Molitics

Part of stability, Singaporean style, has to do with appeasing or even convincing the naive. Another part of it has to with telling people to shut up and move on.

**** Rethink 'liveability' In S'pore <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_556670.html>
Vasanthan Kanmani, Straits Times

It would be good to consider Dr Lennard's views and not confuse "standard of living" with "liveability". Our priorities in life need to be reassessed.

**** Singapore Emigration And Immigration Compared With Other Countries <http://www.pressrun.net/weblog/2010/07/singapore-emigration-and-immigration-compared-with-other-countries.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rana+%28Blowin%27+In+The+Wind%29>
Blowin' In The Wind

**** Now It's God's Fault? <http://feedmetothefish.blogspot.com/2010/07/now-its-gods-fault.html>
Feed Me To The Fish

Are they so omnipotent that being honest, transparent and taking responsibility for screw-ups is considered a human weakness?

**** Hey Minister, Ever Tried Being A Beggar? <http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/hey-minister-ever-tried-being-a-beggar/>
Food fuels me to talk...

**** Shadrake Faces Heavy Silencing Hand, Part 2 <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/shadrake-faces-heavy-silencing-hand-part-2/>
Yawning Bread

Such a sweeping formulation of contempt of court makes it akin to lese majeste laws, which begin with the presumption that the king can do no wrong: He is perfect and any criticism of the king is necessarily false simply because it treats him as fallible. Our Attorney-General is taking a similar approach with contempt of court: Our judiciary and justice system is perfect and infallible and must be held beyond reproach; any criticism must by definition be wrong and criminally liable.

**** ASEAN Unlikely To Condemn NKorea For Ship Sinking: George Yeo <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1070964/1/.html>
Danny Lee, Channel NewsAsia

Speaking to the media in Hanoi on Thursday, Mr Yeo said the final statement from the ASEAN Ministers Meeting is unlikely to go beyond the tone of the UN statement.

**** Oh What A Tangled Web <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/07/oh-what-a-tangled-web/>
The Online Citizen

Each move to remove ‘offending’ literature from the official canon would be met by an opposite, although not equal, force.

**** Catch The Lie Here <http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/2010/07/catch-lie-here.html>
Singapore Notes

**** This Will Blow Your Mind <http://insanity-epitomized.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-will-blow-your-mind.html>
Kidnap My Heart

Just to let you know, Singapore has this law that whenever the government thinks that someone has the power to win the people over and overthrow the government, the government has the right to detain him/her without trial.

**** Your Problem, Small Problem <http://www.newagedentists.com/heartbreaking-news/your-problem-small-problem/>
Chan Joon Yee, Yours Toothfully

If the relevant authorities are not doing anything about the flooding problem even when Orchard Road (not Pulau Ubin) is affected, what does it mean for the average, powerless Singaporean?

**** 处处可见 沙包阵挡水 <http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp100723_008.shtml>
胡洁梅, 联合早报

在沟渠雨水泛滥时刻，沙包通常只能减缓水流量，可是在长远的防水设施落实之前，短期内沙包似乎成了最即时的“挡水”工具。现在，不论曾是“重灾区”的烈大厦，或是低洼地区公寓，处处可见沙包挡水阵。

**** Plus Ça Change <http://blog.toomanythoughts.org/2010/07/plus-ca-change.html>
Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, Too Many Thoughts

Can I just say again that censorship is not the way forward, that all we are seeing is the state arresting or censuring people without being beholden to give any clear, cogent and logical explanations why they are doing so? Which is ridiculous for a developed country with developed-world aspirations, and a population of people who are not clueless or uninformed.

**** British Author Arrested For Book On Death Penalty; Film On Political Prisoners Banned <http://www.ifex.org/singapore/2010/07/21/book_film_repression/>
International Freedom of Expression eXchange

The Singapore government's pattern of repressing free expression continues with the recent arrest of a British journalist for writing a book critical of the city-state's death penalty, and the ban of a film about ex-political prisoners by a Singaporean filmmaker, report the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International.

**** Is There Racial Harmony In Singapore? <http://ourunspokenconfessions.blogspot.com/2010/07/is-there-racial-harmony-in-spore-if-yes.html>
Our Unspoken Confessions

**** Does Asia Have The Answer? <http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2010/07/22/does-asia-have-the-answer/>
Barbara Kiviat, Time

While the cultural differences at play make it hard to adapt any lessons without flexibility—one could not lump the Thai and Singaporean economies into the same category—there is something to be said for taking the wisdom of age-old economics and applying it with prudence. It might be time to re-learn the lessons we lent to Asia.

**** S'pore Consumer Price Index Up By 2.7% In June <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1071079/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia

Data released by the Department of Statistics shows that CPI increased by 2.7 per cent on-year. The higher expenses were due to more expensive costs of transport, housing and food.

**** S'pore Q2 Private Home Sales Climb Up To Record 184.2 Points: URA <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1071078/1/.html>
Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia

Data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed that overall prices rose by 5.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2010, compared to 5.6 per cent in the first three months of the year.

The increase pushed the residential property price index to an all-time high, surpassing the market peak of 181.4 points in Q2 of 1996.

**** Singapore CPI Rise Slows, But Increase Seen Ahead <http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100723-702016.html>
Gaurav Raghuvanshi, Dow Jones

The rise in Singapore consumer prices took a breather in June, to analysts' surprise, but it's likely to prove an aberration as the island nation grows at its fastest clip ever.

**** Singapore's Consumer Prices Rise A Sixth Month On Transport, Housing Costs <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-23/singapore-s-consumer-prices-rise-a-sixth-month-on-transport-housing-costs.html>
Shamim Adam, Bloomberg

Singapore’s consumer prices rose for a sixth month in June as an increase in car and electricity prices pushed transportation and housing costs higher.

Housing prices, the biggest component of the consumer price index, climbed 2.3 percent from a year earlier, and transport costs increased 10.3 percent. Food prices rose 1.2 percent.

**** Central Banks Of China, Singapore Agree To 150 Billion Yuan Currency Swap <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-23/central-banks-of-china-singapore-agree-to-150-billion-yuan-currency-swap.html>
Nipa Piboontanasawat, Bloomberg

China agreed to a three-year currency swap with Singapore valued at 150 billion yuan ($22 billion), or S$30 billion, the People’s Bank of China announced on its website today. The swap, which may be extended, aims to facilitate trade and investment between the two nations, the statement said.

**** Singapore Flood Risk Alarms Insurers: Report <http://www.mysinchew.com/node/42260>
AFP

Insurers may hike premiums for flood-prone properties in Singapore after a deluge caused millions of dollars in damage and led to luxury stores being barricaded with sandbags, a report said Friday.

**** Desperate Times? <http://hardhitting-nobs.blogspot.com/2010/07/desperate-times.html>
Musings From the Lion City

**** Indonesia May Seek To Reduce Natural Gas Exports To Singapore -Minister <http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/indonesia-seek-reduce-natural-gas-exports-singapore--minister/>
Joko Hariyanto, Dow Jones

Indonesia will seek to reduce natural gas exports to Singapore to meet rising domestic demand, a minister said.




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