[MyAppleMenu] Nov 29, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** On An Innovative Device, Apps Lacking Imagination <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/arts/29iht-design29.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Alice Rawsthorn, New York Times

Imagine that you’re a designer and a dazzling new digital device comes along giving you the opportunity to reinvent some familiar products that the rest of us use every day. What could be more exciting?

Not much, you’d think, especially if that device is a soaring commercial success, and rich, powerful companies are eager to invest in your efforts to design new versions of their products to be used on it.

**** BusyCal 1.5 <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11781?rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tidbits_main+%28TidBITS%3A+Mac+News+for+the+Rest+of+Us%29>
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS

**** Is China The iPhone's Next Growth Engine? <http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/11/28/is-china-the-iphones-next-growth-engine.aspx>
Eric Bleeker, Motley Fool

**** Apple Beefs Up Legal Team For Patent Showdowns With Nokia, Motorola, HTC <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-29/apple-beefs-up-legal-team-for-patent-showdowns-with-nokia-motorola-htc.html>
Adam Satariano And Susan Decker, Bloomberg

t stake is leadership in the U.S. smartphone market. Cupertino, California-based Apple is trying to protect its right to import the iPhone, while shutting out rivals, particularly those whose phones are powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system, the world’s most popular smartphone software. Android-based phones also are made abroad.

“These are very well-known, deep-pocketed, high-end manufacturers,” said Lyle Vander Schaaf, an attorney at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Washington, who handles cases before the commission. “Usually you have one 800-pound gorilla going after a new entrant. Here you’ve got 800-pound gorillas fighting each other.”

**** iPhone Woe For The Old-time Mac Faithful <http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2010/11/29/iphone-woe-for-the-old-time-mac-faithful/>
John Chan, CNET Asia

Though not unreasonable for Apple to stop supporting an old version of its OS (Tiger was released in 2004), what makes this issue hard to swallow is that Windows users running XP have access to iTunes 10.1, and thus iOS 4.2.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Microsoft Develops Shape-shifting Touchscreen <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19776-microsoft-develops-shapeshifting-touchscreen.html>
Paul Marks, New Scientist

Whereas previous screens produced only an illusion of texture, Microsoft proposes producing a real texture, using pixel-sized shape-memory plastic cells that can be ordered to protrude from the surface on command.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** A New York Tale Of Art, Money And Ambition <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/books/29book.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Janet Maslin, New York Times

“An Object of Beauty” follows the New York art world climb of Lacey Yeager. She is a charismatic character yet a very odd one to have emerged from the imagination of Steve Martin. Although Lacey is treated as this book’s main source of fascination, it’s less interesting to look at her point-blank than to look at her while wondering what Mr. Martin sees.

**** Why Do We Hate Modern Classical Music? <http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/nov/28/alex-ross-modern-classical-music?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29>
Alex Ross, Guardian

Avant garde art and architecture are loved, but in music we cling to the past. We're missing out.

**** On The Death Sentence <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/dec/23/death-sentence/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
John Paul Stevens, New York Review Of Books

David Garland is a well-respected sociologist and legal scholar who taught courses on crime and punishment at the University of Edinburgh before relocating to the United States over a decade ago. His recent Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition is the product of his attempt to learn “why the United States is such an outlier in the severity of its criminal sentencing.” Thus, while the book primarily concerns the death penalty, it also illuminates the broader, dramatic differences between American and Western European prison sentences.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Singapore Talking <http://abdillahzamzuri.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/singapore-talking/>
Abdillah Zamzuri

It’s just unfortunate that everytime a good programme which invites controversy gets aired and receives substantially good reviews and ratings, MDA has to censor it because it needs to protect the interest of the government at the expense of the intellect of the people whom the government are asking to be creative.

**** Tai-Chi <http://hardhitting-nobs.blogspot.com/2010/11/tai-chi.html>
Musings From The Lion City

**** Unions Working With Firms On Avoiding Wage Cuts At 60 <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_608368.html>
Heng Chee How, National Trades Union Congress, Ong Ye Kung, The Singapore Manual And Mercantile Workers' Union, Straits Times

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) agrees that any wage cut at age 60 should not be automatic but be justified by 'reasonable factors' as laid out in the Retirement Age Act.

**** PM Lee Hints Of Singapore Election Date <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1095989/1/.html>
S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia

Mr Lee added that when the elections are called, the party should focus on key issues, and these are sustaining Singapore's prosperity, improving the lives of all Singaporeans, nurturing a new leadership team, and keeping Singaporeans united and cohesive.

**** Next Singapore Budget Will Bring Good News <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1095984/1/.html>
S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia

Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said government revenues have been better than projected. Hence, the next budget which usually takes place in February will bring good news.

**** æ–°åŠ å¡ä¸ºä»€ä¹ˆèƒ½ï¼Ÿ <http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2010_11/28/3253395_0.shtml>
吕元礼, 凤凰网

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**** S$230,000 You Never Knew You Had <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/s230000-you-never-knew-you-had/>
Au-Chen ToShan, Yawning Bread

Could we have missed out one key reason why compensation within our sovereign funds remains mysterious? When the CEO of Temasek is the wife of the prime minister and the daughter in law of the minister mentor (who is also the chairman of GIC), the issue of pay in Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds can be a politically loaded one. Few would be keen to discuss or even enquire into it. In addition to Ho Ching’s package, there is Lee Kuan Yew’s compensation for his role as chairman of GIC and Lee Hsien Loong’s as vice-chairman of GIC . One would dearly wish to be reassured that those roles are ex-officio or in any way uncompensated – which we haven’t been yet. Otherwise, we are looking at millions more in compensation. Throw in the S$7 million political salaries the two Lees already draw, and this family trio could conceivably draw a public pay-check that looks uncomfortably large next to the S$42 million that is the entire 2009 government budget for social assistance to the elderly and disabled.

**** æ­£è§†è¿‘å¹´æ–°ä¼ åª’ç”µè§†å‰§ä½Žè¿·çš„é—®é¢˜ <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/yl/yl101129_005.shtml>
å¼ æ™¯å°§, 联合早报

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**** æ–°åŠ å¡å˜äº† <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/fk/fk101129_010.shtml>
å¶å­å¿ , 联合早报

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**** 李总理：采最低工资制会使雇主不愿增聘工人 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp101129_014.shtml>
周殊钦 林慧慧, 联合早报

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**** Political Odds Stacked Against ASX Merger <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/political-odds-stacked-against-asx-merger/story-e6frg906-1225956799892>
Jennifer Hewett, The Australian

Doubts within both major parties about the risks and rewards of the deal won't be easily resolved. Against the background of political populism and financial jitters -- just look at the debate over interest rates -- any suggestion of loss of national control creates problems.

**** Foxconn's Singapore Unit Sues Creative Technology Over $500,576 Payment <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-29/foxconn-s-singapore-unit-sues-creative-technology-over-500-576-payment.html>
Andrea Tan, Bloomberg

Foxconn Singapore Pte said Creative, the maker of the Zen music player and Ziio tablet computer, repeatedly failed to make payment and didn’t give any “substantive” reason for its refusal, according to a Sept. 8 lawsuit filed with the Singapore High Court. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 3.

**** IRs Not Competing With Us: Esplanade Chief <http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/11/29/irs-not-competing-with-us-esplanade-chief/>
Alicia Wong, Yahoo!

The integrated resorts may be bringing in Broadways musicals and creating their own productions, but Esplanade chief executive Benson Puah says he’s not threatened by Resort World Sentosa (RWS) or Marina Bay Sands (MBS) .

As he explained, the role of the Esplanade, as a non-profit organisation,  is “to create” and not compete.

**** æ–°åŠ å¡ä¸ºä»€ä¹ˆèƒ½åšåˆ°å»‰æ´é«˜æ•ˆ <http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/13345490.html>
朱明国, å­¦ä¹ æ—¶æŠ¥