[MyAppleMenu] Dec 7, 2011

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Apple Updates Cards App With Minor Improvements <http://www.macworld.com/article/164086/2011/12/apple_updates_cards_app_with_minor_improvements.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Lex Friedman, Macworld

Version 1.0.1 of the app includes improvements spanning three areas: text entry, postal address verification, and the checkout process.

**** Camtasia For Mac 2 Screen Recorder Is Out <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/06/camtasia-for-mac-2-screen-recorder-is-out/>
Mel Martin, TUAW

**** Apple Updates iBooks App With New Fonts And A Night Reading Theme <http://www.macworld.com/article/164094/2011/12/apple_updates_ibooks_app_with_new_fonts_and_a_night_reading_theme.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Jonathan Seff, Macworld

**** Whimsical Texting Icons Get A Shot At Success <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/technology/emoji-in-iphones-signals-a-shot-at-mainstream-success.html?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Jenna Wortham, New York Times

Apple declined to comment on its decision to add emoji, but it was most likely driven by a global standardization of the format last year that was meant to ensure that a picture of a cute cat will still look like a cute cat on a different phone in a different country. The move has put emoji on the radar of many more iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

**** LogLeech Helps You Decipher Your Logs <http://www.macnews.com/2011/12/06/logleech-helps-you-decipher-your-logs>
MacNews

Once installed the program will take all the log entries and sort them attractively by program (and associated icon) as well as by date. You can then use the icon to hone in on the specific information you want.

**** Flipboard For iPhone Released <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/07/flipboard-for-iphone-released/>
Chris Rawson, TUAW

Flipboard, the popular personal magazine app that's been tremendously successful on the iPad, has been updated to a universal version that now also works on the iPhone and iPod touch.

**** 10.7: Expand An Application's Windows In Mission Control <http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110721110956399>
Macworld

**** How Autodesk Disrupted Itself With An App <http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39208/?ref=rss>
Brian Bergstein, Technology Review

When Chris Cheung and Thomas Heermann, two middle managers at the software company Autodesk, first showed off their new iPhone drawing app, they got some skeptical looks. Why would anyone want to doodle on that tiny screen? And what could a $2.99 app matter to a company with around $2 billion in annual revenue?

Two years later, Autodesk's SketchBook apps for phones and the iPad are best-sellers that have been downloaded seven million times. It doesn't add up to a huge amount of revenue: perhaps $15 million. But there's more than money to this innovation story. With its first consumer hit, Autodesk now has more customers than it did in all its previous 29 years combined.

**** The Game That Saved Halfbrick <http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/12/the-game-that-saved-halfbrick/>
Tracey Lien, Kotaku

It’s easy to think of them as an overnight success: a studio that burst forth fully-formed with the single goal of dominating the iOS market with a series of fruit-slicing, jetpack joyriding, monster dashing games they’d prepared earlier. It’s also easy to be wrong. While many believe Halfbrick only came to exist after the release of the critical and commercial iOS hit Fruit Ninja, the Brisbane studio has been quietly working on games for almost ten years. This is a story about how everyone now knows who they are.

**** Dragon Express 1.0: An Inexpensive Way To Discover Speech Recognition <http://www.macworld.com/article/163905/2011/12/dragon_express_1_0_an_inexpensive_way_to_discover_speech_recognition.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

Dragon Express does exactly what it claims to do, and does so very well, at an affordable price. Never before has this quality of speech recognition been available to Mac users at such a low cost. While the limitations of Dragon Express will certainly dissuade anyone who wants to perform a lot of dictation—those users are better off with Dragon Dictate—it provides a handy, easy-to-use way to dictate occasional texts and transfer them to your applications.

**** Adobe Carousel 1.0 Advances Cloud-based Collaboration <http://www.macworld.com/article/163989/2011/12/adobe_carousel_1_0_advances_cloud_based_collaboration.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Jackie Dove, Macworld

In its 1.0 incarnation, Adobe Carousel, though promising, has a way to go to appeal to a broad base of photo-oriented consumers and professionals. While its current, basic set of functions work quite well, Carousel has more of an Adobe Labs look and feel to it than a polished product. And, it's too expensive for what it currently offers. You do get a 30-day free trial, so I encourage you to try it and see whether it suits your needs before committing to a paid subscription.

**** Five Unexpected Uses For Copy And Paste <http://www.macworld.com/article/143923/2011/11/copypaste.html>
Sharon Zardetto, Macworld

**** Wraps Come Down At Apple's Grand Central Terminal Store For Media Day <http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/07/wraps-come-down-at-apples-grand-central-terminal-store-for-media-day/>
Eric Slivka, MacRumors

**** Sparrow Gets Cloud Based Attachments, Image Blocking <http://www.macgasm.net/2011/12/07/sparrow-cloud-based-attachments-image-blocking/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macgasm%2Fmain+%28Macgasm%29>
Joshua Schnell, MacGasm

Sparrow has been updated to version 1.5 today, and amongst other tweaks, the update brings with it the ability to sync your attachments to the cloud with support for Dropbox and CloudApp.

**** Rogue Amoeba Launches Piezo, A Simple Audio Recorder <http://www.macworld.com/article/164100/2011/12/rogue_amoeba_launches_piezo_a_simple_audio_recorder.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Dan Moren, Macworld

Piezo is designed for users who want to quickly and simply record some audio, whether it be from a microphone or from one of your Mac’s apps.

**** Microsoft Releases My Xbox LIVE App For iOS <http://www.macgasm.net/2011/12/07/microsoft-releases-xbox-live-app-ios/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macgasm%2Fmain+%28Macgasm%29>
Joshua Schnell, MacGasm

Microsoft has just unleashed an Xbox LIVE application for the iOS. If you’re a hardcore gamer, and need to know how your achievements are holding up while on the go, you can now track and compare achievements from your iPhone or iPad (iPod touch too).



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Creating Artificial Intelligence Based On The Real Thing <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/creating-artificial-intelligence-based-on-the-real-thing.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Steve Lohr, New York Times

The physical limits of conventional computer designs are within sight — not today or tomorrow, but soon enough. Nanoscale circuits cannot shrink much further. Today’s chips are power hogs, running hot, which curbs how much of a chip’s circuitry can be used. These limits loom as demand is accelerating for computing capacity to make sense of a surge of new digital data from sensors, online commerce, social networks, video streams and corporate and government databases.

To meet the challenge, without gobbling the world’s energy supply, a different approach will be needed. And biology, scientists say, promises to contribute more than metaphors. “Every time we look at this, biology provides a clue as to how we should pursue the frontiers of computing,” said John E. Kelly, the director of research at I.B.M.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** How Doctors Die <http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/read/nexus/>
Ken Murray, Zócalo

It’s not like the rest of us, but it should be.

**** Japanese Foodies Add A Deadly Twist To 'Killer Curry’ <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8938500/Japanese-foodies-add-a-deadly-twist-to-killer-curry.html>
Xanthe Clay, The Telegraph

So why would anyone contemplate eating fugu at all? My father, who ate it several times on business trips to Japan, explained that the thrill was the faint tingle on the lips, the brush with death. For adrenalin junkies, it is a kind of gastronomic bungee jump.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Singapore Reinvests In Its Famed Food Hawker Centers <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2011/12/singapore-reinvests-its-famed-food-hawker-centers/645/>
Mimi Kirk, The Atlantic Cities

In a city of luxury shopping malls, pricey real estate, and more Ferraris than I’ve seen in my life, hawker centers provide an enduring public space of communalism—as well as a touch of socialism. They are places where people from all backgrounds and income brackets sit side by side and can stay as long as they like, unharassed by the ritual of rapid turnover at food courts.

**** Worst Commutes - Morning: Clementi, Evening: Tampines <http://www.straitstimes.com/The-Big-Story/The-Big-Story-3/Story/STIStory_742145.html>
Maria Almenoar, Straits Times

**** No Go For "Independent Counsel" Scheme <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1169881/1/.html>
Tanya Fong, Today

A proposed licensing scheme for "independent counsel" - Queen's Counsel (QC) or QC-equivalents such as Senior Counsel from Australia - to appear in courts alongside Singapore lawyers here has been dropped after consultations with the public and the legal fraternity.

The Ministry of Law is instead proposing to widen the scope for the ad hoc admission of QCs and equivalent to appear in Singapore courts under proposed changes to the Legal Profession Act (LPA).

**** ComfortDelGro Fare Revision: Cabbies Worry About Backlash <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111207-0000082/ComfortDelGro-fare-revision--Cabbies-worry-about-backlash>
Sumita Sreedharan, Today

All six ComfortDelGro taxi drivers this reporter interviewed said they were worried about a potential backlash from commuters. They made reference to the previous revision in December 2007 - also during the festive period - when the number of passengers dropped after the fare increases were announced. A reduction in taxi rental fees or concessions for diesel would be a better long-term solution to increase their earnings, they added. 

**** Taxi Fare Hikes And What Is Wrong With The System..... <http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2011/12/taxi-fare-hikes-and-what-is-wrong-with.html>
Diary Of A Singaporean Mind

**** Singapore Overtakes Hong Kong In Expat Cost Of Living Survey <http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/07/idUSL3E7N716H20111207>
Reuters

"While such increases are unlikely to deter companies from relocating staff to Singapore, it does mean that costs of sending staff to Singapore will rise," ECA regional director Lee Quane said in a statement.

"This may erode some of the cost advantages that Singapore previously had over other destinations in the region in terms of the cost of relocating an employee," he added.

**** Flag <http://piaroh.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/flag/>
Words Of The Cze

I think the National Taxi Association is being played for either a coward or a fool.

**** Scheme Helping Foreign Graduates Seek Jobs Discontinued: MOM <http://sg.news.yahoo.com/scheme-helping-foreign-graduates-seek-jobs-discontinued--mom.html>
Faris Mokhtar, Yahoo!

A scheme which allows foreign graduates up to one year to seek employment in Singapore has been discontinued with effect from 1 December, said the Ministry of Manpower.