[MyAppleMenu] Jan 7, 2011

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Lack Of Receipt Checking Could Enable Mac App Store Piracy <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/06/lack-of-receipt-checking-could-enable-mac-app-store-piracy/>
Megan Lavey, TUAW

Receipt checking is the process that lets developers verify that the app is installed as a valid purchase by checking the embedded purchase receipt, which is included (in encrypted form) by Apple and contains the UUID of the Mac authorized to run the app. Apple did not force developers to implement a particular way of handing these receipts and as a result, some paid apps are not properly protected against piracy.

**** Mac App Store By The Numbers -- Almost 1,000 Apps On Day One <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/06/mac-app-store-by-the-numbers-almost-1-000-apps-on-day-one/>
Richard Gaywood, TUAW

**** Transferring Angry Birds Saved Game Data To Mac App <http://www.macworld.com/article/156802/2011/01/angry_birds_saved.html>
Christopher Breen, Macworld

**** It's Clippy! Back As A Mac App Store Utility <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/06/its-clippy/>
Erica Sadun, TUAW

The new Clippy, the better Clippy, the Macintosh Clippy allows your Mac to remember previous pasteboard entries for those always awkward times when you have to copy not one but two or more separate items after another. You can pull items as you need them directly from the menu bar at the top of Finder.

**** Apple Denies It's Searching For New CFO <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20027649-37.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple>
Jim Dalrymple, CNET

**** Hands On With Apple's Mac App Store <http://www.macworld.com/article/156919/2011/01/firstlook_macappstore.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Roman Loyola, Macworld

So does the Mac App Store deliver? You can fire up the Mac App Store and see for yourself. But if you’re the type who likes to read travel guides before going on vacation, read on. I spent Thursday morning wandering up and down the Mac App Store’s virtual aisles, and I’ve come away with a few first impressions of the experience.

**** Twitter For Mac Demonstrates iOS-ificiation Of Mac Software <http://www.macworld.com/article/156942/2011/01/twitter_mac.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Lex Friedman, Macworld

Twitter for Mac has the advantage of your (comparatively) enormous monitor, and yet it too employs a drilldown-style interface. That interface, coupled with smooth and subtle animations, helps you keep track of where you are in the app—precisely the way the app works on your iOS device. It doesn't need to do that, but I believe Twitter correctly concluded that the approach offers mental navigation benefits, in addition to space-saving ones.

**** Mac App Store Gives Gamers Plenty Of Options <http://www.macworld.com/article/156959/2011/01/appstoregames.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Chris Holt, Macworld

The day-one releases on the Mac App Store mainly target the casual games market. The first-person shooter, action-adventure, and strategy genres are all fairly absent at this stage. Similarly, high-end titles—save for Harry Potter—haven’t arrived yet, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see other marquee games on the store at a later day.

**** Uniformity Vs. Individuality In Mac UI Design <http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/uniformity_vs_individuality_in_mac_ui_design>
John Gruber, Daring Fireball

iOS uses these sliding animations to give you a sense of place.

Twitter for iPhone follows this model to a tee: accounts, tweets, tweet details — arranged left to right, with animation as you move between them. In today’s new Twitter for Mac, though, the sliding animations when you switch between tabs add nothing contextually. They’re not merely harmless eye candy, either. As Morgan notes, these animations create a false sense of stacking where no stack exists. They’re technically excellent, but conceptually misleading.

**** Finder Now Offers To Search Mac App Store For Unknown File Types <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/07/finder-now-offers-to-search-app-store-for-unknown-file-types/>
TJ Luoma, TUAW

If you try to open a file in the Finder and it doesn't recognize the extension, it will now offer to search the Mac App Store for applications that can open that filetype.

**** Hands On: Twitter For Mac Brings Big UI, Functionality Updates <http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/01/hands-on-tweetie-2-for-mac-lives-in-the-form-of-twitter.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica

Whether you love it or hate it, the new app certainly reflects Brichter's urge to go outside the box and try new things.

**** How To Fix Mac App Store “Error 100″ <http://www.macstories.net/mac/how-to-fix-mac-app-store-error-100/>
Federico Viticci, MacStories

**** Time Machine Holds A Place In My Heart, And It Should In Yours Too <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/07/time-machine-holds-a-place-in-my-heart-and-it-should-in-yours-t/>
Erica Sadun, TUAW

Time Machine is like version control for your life. It lets you restore files that you've lost or changed along the way, and does so in such a simple and elegant fashion that you never have to wonder "Did I back this up?" Time Machine just works.

**** Mac App Store Stumbles Over Pre-owned Apps <http://www.macworld.com/article/156961/2011/01/macappstore_preownedapps.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Ted Landau, Macworld

What these glitches have in common is that they all involved apps that I already owned and was trying to reacquire via the Mac App Store. It may take time, and a few App Store updates, before Apple gets this all sorted out. In any case, as people begin to acquire most of their apps from the Mac App Store, it will become less of an issue.

**** Mac App Store Downloads Surpass 1 Million In First Day <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/07/mac-app-store-downloads-surpass-1-million-in-first-day/>
Dave Caolo, TUAW

Let's say it's off to a good start. Apple has announced that users downloaded over 1 million apps from the Mac App Store since its launch just over 24 hours ago. That's a truly incredible number. The fact that millions of iOS users instantly knew how to use the Mac App Store certainly helped.

**** QuickCursor 2.0 <http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/770514/review/quickcursor_20.html?expand=true&lsrc=rss_main>
Dan Frakes, Macworld

These days, between Twitter, Facebook, Internet forums, and Web forms, most people spend a good amount of time typing in text boxes and fields. In fact, if you use Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or another Web-based e-mail system, or if your work requires you to use Web-based tools, you may even do most of your text typing and editing outside of your favorite text editor—or at least frequently copying and pasting between your favorite editor and your browser.

Hog Bay Software’s QuickCursor aims to make this back-and-forth easier—easy enough that you’ll start using your favorite text editor any time you have to type or edit text.

**** The Widescreen Laptop Conspiracy <http://www.singlefounder.com/2007/04/04/widescreenlaptopconspiracy/>
Mike Taber, Single Founder

I blame Apple for part of this transition. For years, widescreen has been the only format available for their computers. They’ve morphed their company into something of a media mogul with the iPod and iTunes. With the recent release of AppleTV, they’re poised to enter the video market after dominating the audio market. Somehow, that translates into hundreds of lemming companies yanking standard format laptops from the shelves and replacing them with widescreen. Is there a good reason? I don’t think so.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** The War Against Cliché Has Failed <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jan/07/michael-holroyd-language-cliche?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29>
Michael Holroyd, Guardian

Language can't remain in aspic, but cliché has defeated Martin Amis. Are there any linguistic developments we should be celebrating?

**** Lost Rituals, Found Poems <http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jan/07/lost-rituals-found-poems/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Christopher Benfey, New York Review Of Books

**** The Best Present Money Can Buy <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/opinion/07zelizer.html?_r=1&ref=opinion>
Viviana A. Zelizer, New York Times

Now that the holidays are over, many disappointed gift-recipients are heading to the mall to return their useless, unattractive or thoughtless presents. Next year, why not spare them the trouble, and give cash instead?



SingaporeSurf
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**** Youths And Politics <http://geraldgiam.sg/2011/01/youths-and-politics/>
Gerald Giam

I think what Mr Siew was really concerned about–which of course he couldn’t explicitly say if he wanted his letter published–was the MOE supporting the PAP’s political outreach activities on campus. I share this concern too.

Now that the MOE has given official sanction to BLYC, I wonder if they would give their approval if a club in a junior college were to be set up in support of an opposition party MP.

**** CPF Will Consider Reviewing Minimum Age For Scheme <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_621368.html>
Jennifer Toh, Central Provident Fund Board, Straits Times

**** What The Transport Minister Actually Said <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC110107-0000244/What-the-Transport-Minister-actually-said>
Soffy Hariyanti Abdul Rahim, Ministry Of Transport, Singapore Government

What minister Lim said, in response to an interview question in June last year on whether parking charges can be a possible solution to manage congestion, was that the Land Transport MasterPlan acknowledges that the supply of parking spaces would have an impact on car usage but it is not one of the principal instruments used. 

He added that in the case of Singapore, there are certain rules on the amount of parking space we should have but the rates are left to the market to decide.

**** Band-aid Measures Will Not Close This Gap <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110107-0000193/Band-aid-measures-will-not-close-this-gap>
Eugene KB Tan, Today

More pertinently, are Singaporeans prepared to pay more in taxes (direct and indirect), or accumulate budget deficits, or even advocate drawing down current reserves? So while it is desirable to wish for more welfare support, the question of who pays and how to pay must be carefully thought through as well.

Ultimately, the question is whether the system that we have or that we aspire to sustains our social cohesion well enough. Does it enjoy the support of the population, and is it seen as a legitimate expression of the social compact not just between citizens and the State, but among citizens as well?

**** Singapore Scored Low In Open Government: Survey <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/01/singapore-scored-low-in-open-government-survey/>
The Online Citizen

**** Two Animation Firms Close In Singapore <http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/two-animation-firms-close-in-singapore>
Patrick Frater, Film Business Asia

Two Singapore-based animation companies have closed down in recent days.

With financial incentives from the Media Development Authority, Singapore has seen the establishment of some 40 animation and effects companies including Lucasfilm and the UK’s Double Negative. However, two others have closed in the past year.

**** BLYC Debate: Excavating The Political <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/01/blyc-debate-excavating-the-political/>
Khairulanwar Zaini, The Online Citizen

Instead of trying to expunge all hints of the political from schools, we should valorise and nurture it – but in a manner that is fair and accessible to other political orientations other than the ruling party’s. It is the parity of political opportunity that should inform our concern, not the eradication of politics. The move by MOE to approve the BYLC is laudable, but this is merely a baby step that holds the promise for other cause-based societies that are affiliated to organizations beyond the party or state.

**** Changes To Polling Districts Published <http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/01/07/changes-to-polling-districts-published/>
Alicia Wong, Yahoo!

**** The Real Lessons Of BLYC <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/01/the-real-lessons-of-blyc/>
Joshua Chiang, The Online Citizen

It might appear to be too much of a stretch to make a direct link between the BLYC and the prevalent attitude of the incumbent towards public service.

But what’s apparent is how such ‘pragmatism’ appears to be the norm in all levels of thinking; this thinking that something is not worth doing unless there is an assurance of success and that there is a tangible incentive for doing it. We have to seriously ask ourselves where such thinking originates.