[MyAppleMenu] May 21, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Why iPhone Hasn't Sold Well In China <http://voices.allthingsd.com/20100520/why-iphone-hasnt-sold-well-in-china/?mod=ATD_rss>
Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal

A recent survey of 2,000 mobile users in China between the ages of 22 and 32 by China Market Research Group, or CMR, suggests that the cause of the iPhone’s performance in China may stem from the relative unpopularity of Apple’s (AAPL) partner, China Unicom, among its target users, as well as a lack of desire among those users to sign up for two-year contracts and subscribe to 3G services.

**** Apple iPad: The Five Biggest Annoyances <http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=4492>
Jason Hiner, Tech Republic

There’s plenty to like about the Apple iPad (see my business review of the iPad), but there are also some serious annoyances that hinder the overall product experience.

**** Google And Adobe Build Alliance On The Back Of Apple's Snubbing <http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/05/20/google-and-adobe-build-alliance-on-the-back-of-apples-snubbing/>
Seth Weintraub, Fortune

Throughout the last two days of Google I/O, just about every product and service that Google has announced is a partnership with Adobe and another shot over the bow of Apple.

**** The iPad Revolution <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/ipad-revolution/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Sue Halpern, The New York Review of Books

You don’t have to be a technophobe or a Luddite to dismiss out of hand the idea of reading on a machine. Maybe it is muscle memory, but there is something deeply satisfying about a “real” book, a book made of pages bound between hard or soft covers, into which you can slip a bookmark, whose pages you can fan, whose binding you can crack and fold as you move from beginning to end. E-books, by contrast, whatever platform delivers them, are ephemeral. Yes, you can carry thousands of them in your pocket, but what will you have to show for it? What will fill your bookshelves? Then, one day, you find yourself housebound, and Wolf Hall has just won the Booker Prize, and you download a sample onto your iPhone, and just like with a book printed on paper you are pulled into the story and are grateful to be able to keep reading, and your resistance disappears, and you press the “buy” button—it’s so easy!—and that is how it starts.

**** Rivalry Escalates As Google Takes Aim At Apple <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/05/rivalry-escalates-as-google-takes-aim-at-apple-.html>
Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times

During a keynote address at the company's developers conference in San Francisco, Google's Vic Gundotra repeatedly took issue with Apple for trying to monopolize the mobile phone market, for walling off its products and platforms and for having hardware and software limitations.

Will customers benefit? I sure hope so.

**** Will Steve Jobs Ever Let iPad Owners Have Flash? <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/will-steve-jobs-ever-let-ipad-owners-have-flash/8365>
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet

Apple obviously has a dislike for Flash, and unless Adobe come out with a far superior platform, I see the iPad and iPhone remaining Flash-free.

Apple, I don't think, have a dislike only for Flash. It just so happen that Flash is the poster-boy of all things Apple dislike.

**** Google Challenges Apple's Music Dominance <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/google-apple-music/>
Ryan Singel, Wired

Google is taking aim at Apple’s dominance of online music, offering Android users the opportunity to buy music on the web and have it automatically sync to their mobile devices — as well as stream all the music on their home computers to their phones.

**** Why Apple Must Battle Google For The Den <http://www.pcworld.com/article/196695/why_apple_must_battle_google_for_the_den.html>
Jonny Evans, Computerworld

Ceding the front room entertainment market would take a chunk from iTunes dominance of the digital entertainment sector.

**** Carrara 8 Pro Adds Better Physics Tools <http://www.macworld.com/article/151388/2010/05/carrara8.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Digital Arts

DAZ 3D-Gizmoz has released Carrara 8 and Carrara 8 Pro, new versions of its 3D modeling, animation and rendering suites that promise improved animation tools, enhanced lighting, new vegetation tools and optimized rendering.

**** Essential Mac Utilities: Launchers <http://www.macworld.com/article/151385/2010/05/essentialutilitieslaunchers.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Dan Miller, Macworld

**** Benchmarks: New Built-To-Order MacBook Pros <http://www.macworld.com/article/150307/2010/05/bto_macbookpros_spring2010.html?lsrc=rss_main>
James Galbraith, Macworld

We put them though their paces and found that these optional upgrades, not surprisingly, improved overall performance. Whether they’re worth the additional cost is debatable.

**** Steve Jobs Says No To Google's VP8 WebM Codec <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/05/20/steve_jobs_says_no_to_googles_vp8_webm_codec.html>
AppleInsider

**** Apple Wins Ground In Fight Over Flash <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575252662401694670.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEFifthNews>
Ben Worthen, Wall Street Journal

The punches that Apple Inc. is throwing in its fight against Adobe Systems Inc. are beginning to land, prompting some companies to shift away from Adobe's video and animation technology and forcing Web designers to work with competing standards.

Programmers and Web designers say clients increasingly are asking that their websites or applications be compatible with Apple's iPhone and iPad. Those sites can't be built with Adobe's Flash technology, which is used widely for online video and animation but which Apple has banned from its devices.

**** Numpads Gone Wild <http://blackpixel.com/blog/897/numpads-gone-wild/>
Chris Clark, Black Pixel

To this day we’re stuck with two numpad layouts that are incredibly similar, but just different enough to slow you down when you switch between them.

**** Happy Birthday Apple Store! <http://iblog.aol.com/2010/05/19/happy-birthday-apple-store/>
Lee Givens, AOL

This was months before the iPod was released and many people still had Mac OS 9 running on their multi-colored iMacs.

**** Ex-employee Says Apple Ruined His Life <http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/ex-employee_says_apple_ruined_his_life>
Dennis Sellers, Macsimum News

An ex-Apple employee, Kenyon Zahner, who filed a class action lawsuit against the company in August 2009, says Apple “ruined his life.” The lawsuit complained that Apple forces its staffers to work long hours without overtime pay.

**** ARM Founder Loses No Sleep Over Apple <http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64J4NW20100520>
Georgina Prodhan and Paul Sandle, Reuters

The co-founder and president of British chip designer ARM Holdings sees no sense in iPhone maker Apple, one of the original investors in ARM, buying the company today.

**** iPad 3G Remains Completely Sold Out At US Apple Retail Stores <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/05/21/ipad_3g_remains_completely_sold_out_at_us_apple_retail_stores.html>
AppleInsider

Checks with 50 Apple retail stores found that the iPad 3G remains completely sold out in the U.S. weeks after its release and 7 days ahead of the device's international launch.

**** Apple Kicks Off “Why You’ll Love A Mac” Campaign <http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/05/21/apple-kicks-off-why-youll-love-a-mac-campaign/>
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop

The Mac may not be a big part of this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, but Apple certainly hasn’t forgot about it. It launched “Why you’ll love a Mac” campaign on Friday to educate potential switchers.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Death To The Spoiler Police <http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2010/05/20/spoiler_alert_manifesto/index.html>
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon

Rosebud is a sled. Bruce Willis' Malcolm Crowe in "Sixth Sense" is actually dead, but Michel Delasalle from "Diabolique" is not. Soylent Green is people, and Sandra won the latest "Survivor." Spoiler police, up yours.

**** The Afterlife Of Stieg Larsson <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Larsson-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Charles McGrath, New York Times

Who will get to control the disputed legacy and vast estate generated by the Swedish writer’s three posthumous thrillers?

**** The Food Movement, Rising <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/food-movement-rising/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Michael Pollan, The New York Review of Books

It might sound odd to say this about something people deal with at least three times a day, but food in America has been more or less invisible, politically speaking, until very recently. At least until the early 1970s, when a bout of food price inflation and the appearance of books critical of industrial agriculture (by Wendell Berry, Francis Moore Lappé, and Barry Commoner, among others) threatened to propel the subject to the top of the national agenda, Americans have not had to think very hard about where their food comes from, or what it is doing to the planet, their bodies, and their society.

**** Who Was Charles Dickens? <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/who-was-charles-dickens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Robert Gottlieb, The New York Review of Books

There are a few writers whose lives and personalities are so large, so fascinating, that there’s no such thing as a boring biography of them—you can read every new one that comes along, good or bad, and be caught up in the story all over again. I’ve never encountered a life of the Brontës, of Dr. Johnson, of Byron that didn’t grip me.

Another such character is Charles Dickens.

**** From Venice To Vegas: The Back Stories Of Buildings <http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/may/21/venice-vegas-back-stories-buildings/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Martin Filler, The New York Review of Books

Hollis, who teaches at the Edinburgh College of Art, stands apart from other popular writers on the building art in his acknowledgement that architecture is anything but the immutable medium most people suppose it to be.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Travel & Tourism: Eating One’s Way Through Singapore <http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=11288>
Ira P. Pedrasa, Business World

Our itinerary consisted of visiting what he considers to be some of Singapore’s best eateries: the hawker centers.

**** Is Mother Earth Round? Not On TV <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_529315.html>
Eric Chua, Straits Times

How can Singapore's media broadcasters resolve this problem to relieve us of the visual misery of having to watch images which are stretched silly.

Many people actually prefer pan-and-scan over letterbox. This is a lost cause, man.

**** Singapore Bling <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703691804575255551995870746.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines>
Cris Prystay, Wall Street Journal

When Swiss authorities lifted the veil of banking secrecy—under pressure from the European Union to expose tax dodgers—Singapore stepped in, promoting itself to the world's ultrarich as a discreet place to park cash. Now, the Southeast Asian city-state hopes to persuade them to store their high-priced collectibles here, too.

This week, doors opened to the Singapore FreePort, a super-secure, state-of-the-art facility that operates in its own duty-free zone next to Singapore's Changi Airport. The largest such facility in the world, it provides wealthy collectors with tax-free storage, as well as a place to display and sell their art.

**** The Gateway To The Roads That Lay To The South Of Singapore <http://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/the-gateway-to-the-roads-that-lay-to-the-south-of-singapore/>
The Long and Winding Road

**** 中国国民勤学英语通世界 æŽèµ„æ”¿ï¼šå•æ˜¯æ–°åŠ å¡å°±æœ‰5万中国学生 <http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp100521_016.shtml>
符祝慧, 联合早报

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**** 4th Site In Mandai Identified For Nature-based Attraction <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1058154/1/.html>
Mustafa Shafawi, Channel NewsAsia

The government has identified a fourth site in Mandai for potential development into a nature-based attraction. This was revealed by senior minister of state for trade and industry, S Iswaran, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the River Safari, Asia's first river-themed park.

**** Rock Star-worthy Resting Place: Nirvana Memorial Garden In Singapore Livens Up The Afterlife <http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/05/21/2010-05-21_rock_starworthy_resting_place_nirvana_memorial_garden_in_singapore_livens_up_the.html>
Rosemary Black, New York Daily News

It's billed as a "six-star" columbarium, and the luxurious final resting place at Singapore's Nirvana Memorial Garden lives up to its name.

**** RI, S'pore Extradition Deal Unclear After Leaders Meet <http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/05/21/ri-s039pore-extradition-deal-unclear-after-leaders-meet.html>
Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post

Leaders of Indonesia and Singapore, the two leading economies in Southeast Asia, have focused on increasing economic cooperation and boosting growth, but seemingly sidelined crucial talks about an agreement on extradition when they met recently.

Although the plan had been for the agenda to discuss all pressing bilateral issues, an anticipated agreement on extradition sought by Jakarta to bring home corrupt fugitives seeking asylum in Singapore was left out of the talks, Antara news agency reported.

**** Not All Long Bus Routes Will Be Phased Out Or Split: Transport Minister <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1058244/1/.html>
Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia

Transport minister Raymond Lim has said that not all long bus routes will be phased out or split. Mr Lim reiterated that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is not singling out long bus routes.