[MyAppleMenu] Oct 27, 2011

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** They (Macs) Just Work, Duh <http://t-gaap.com/2011/10/26/they-macs-just-work-duh>
Three Guys And A Podcast

**** Apple Has Made Some Very Subtle Updates To The Visual Design For iOS 5. <http://usersillusions.com/post/11948201269/apple-has-made-some-very-subtle-updates-to-the>
Users Illusions

**** EFI Firmware 2.2 Patches MacBook Air (Mid 2011) Thunderbolt Issues <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/efi-firmware-22-patches-macbook-air-mid-2011-thunderbolt-issues/11492?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2FApple+%28ZDNet+The+Apple+Core%29>
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet

Apple has released MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.2 which fixes issues with the current-generation, (mid 2011) MacBook Air related to Thunderbolt Display compatibility and Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode performance.

**** 'Codify' Brings Touch Based Programming To iPad <http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/26/codify-brings-touch-based-programming-to-ipad/>
Arnold Kim, MacRumors

iOS developers TwoLivesLeft have just released an interesting new app called Codify, which brings touch based programming to the iPad.

**** iPhoto 9.2.1 Update Fixes 3ivx Bug; Addresses Compatibility With iCloud And iOS 5 <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/iphoto-921-update-fixes-3ivx-bug-addresses-compatibility-with-icloud-and-ios-5/11498?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2FApple+%28ZDNet+The+Apple+Core%29>
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet

The 350+MB update to the popular photo management software addresses an issue that could cause iPhoto to quit unexpectedly on Macs with the 3ivxVideoCodec plug-in installed.

**** iMessage May Slip Past Police Monitoring <http://www.zdnet.com.au/imessage-may-slip-past-police-monitoring-339325060.htm?>
 Josh Taylor, ZDNet

Apple's new iMessage application, which bypasses carrier SMS services in favour of data, raises questions about police ability to intercept messages, according to James Espie, product manager for applications at Vodafone.

As companies such as Apple and Skype increasingly take on functions that were traditionally the domain of telcos, they were not taking on the same regulatory obligations as telcos, Espie said at the Planet of the Apps conference in Sydney today.

**** Apple Issues EFI Firmware, iPhoto, QuickTime Updates <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/27/apple_issues_efi_firmware_iphoto_quicktime_updates.html>
AppleInsider

Apple on Wednesday issued EFI Firmware updates for its Thunderbolt-equipped iMac, Mac Mini, Macbook Pro and Macbook Air computers, as well as minor updates to QuickTime for Windows and iPhoto.

**** Adobe Launches Carousel App And Photo Service For Mac And iOS <http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/27/adobe-launches-carousel-app-and-photo-service-for-mac-and-ios/>
Arnold Kim, MacRumors

Adobe has launched the Universal iOS app and Mac app for Carousel this evening. Carousel is Adobe's cloud storage service that allows you to access your entire photo library from all your devices.

**** Pixelmator 2.0 Now Available On The Mac App Store, Our First Impressions <http://www.macstories.net/news/pixelmator-2-0-now-available-on-the-mac-app-store-our-first-impressions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macstoriesnet+%28MacStories%29>
Graham Spencer, MacStories

A big drawcard for many will be Pixelmator’s new drawing tools that make it easy to create, combine and edit vector shapes easily. A new ‘Shape Settings’ palette also makes it simple to adjust the shadow, stroke and fill of a vector shape. A new healing tool in Pixelmator 2.0 features content-aware fill technology so that it is easy to remove ‘objects’ from a photograph and make it appear as though it was never even there.

**** Bloomberg TV And DirecTV Debut New Live Streaming Services For iPad <http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/27/bloomberg-tv-and-directv-debut-new-live-streaming-services-for-ipad/>
Eric Slivka, MacRumors

Financial media and data company Bloomberg today launched a new Bloomberg TV+ app for the iPad, offering free, ad-supported live streaming of the financial news channel.

**** Spreaker: Podcasting At The Intersection Of Social And Mobile <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/spreaker-podcasting-at-the-intersection-of-social-and-mobile/11528?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2FApple+%28ZDNet+The+Apple+Core%29>
Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet

Spreaker (free) just went live in the App Store this morning and it does for audio what Twitter does for text (and YouTube does for video): it makes it easy to share audio content across social networks.

**** Adobe Carousel Review: Sync & Edit Photos Anywhere <http://www.macstories.net/reviews/adobe-carousel-review-sync-edit-photos-anywhere/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macstoriesnet+%28MacStories%29>
Federico Viticci, MacStories

**** Reopen Recently Closed Tabs In Safari For iPad <http://lifehacker.com/5853873/reopen-closed-tabs-in-safari-on-the-ipad>
Whitson Gordon, Lifehacker

In Safari for iOS 5, just press and hold on the "new tab" plus sign on the right, and you'll see a menu of your recently closed tabs. Nifty!



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Google's Business Experiment: Nothing But Web <http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38985/?ref=rss>
Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Decades of Moore's Law have trained us to expect every new computer to do more than the one before. Google's most ambitious foray into cloud computing, however, has it wooing businesses with computers that do much less.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Where An Internet Joke Is Not Just A Joke <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/magazine/the-dangerous-politics-of-internet-humor-in-china.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all>
Brook Larmer, New York Times

No government in the world pours more resources into patrolling the Web than China’s, tracking down unwanted content and supposed miscreants among the online population of 500 million with an army of more than 50,000 censors and vast networks of advanced filtering software. Yet despite these restrictions — or precisely because of them — the Internet is flourishing as the wittiest space in China. “Censorship warps us in many ways, but it is also the mother of creativity,” says Hu Yong, an Internet expert and associate professor at Peking University. “It forces people to invent indirect ways to get their meaning across, and humor works as a natural form of encryption.”

To slip past censors, Chinese bloggers have become masters of comic subterfuge, cloaking their messages in protective layers of irony and satire. This is not a new concept, but it has erupted so powerfully that it now defines the ethos of the Internet in China. Coded language has become part of mainstream culture, with the most contagious memes tapping into widely shared feelings about issues that cannot be openly discussed, from corruption and economic inequality to censorship itself.

**** The House Of Silk By Anthony Horowitz – Review <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/27/house-silk-anthony-horowitz-sherlock-holmes?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29>
Ian Sansom, The Guardian

But The House of Silk is in a class of its own: Horowitz's novel is the first Sherlock Holmes addition to have been written with the endorsement of the Conan Doyle estate. It is not a pastiche. It is not an update. It is, as its cover proudly declares, "the new Sherlock Holmes novel". Horowitz is the anointed successor. And to whom much is given, of him shall much be required …



SingaporeSurf
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**** In Singapore, The Future Is Now <http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/26/in-singapore-the-future-is-now/>
Mohammed Khan, VentureBeat

But perhaps most important of all is Singapore’s deep-rooted cultural affinity for new technologies.

**** Why We’re Seeing Corruption In American Classrooms: Comparing The U.S. To Finland And Singapore <http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/get_in_the_fracas/2011/10/finland-singapore.html>
Dan Brown, Teacher Leaders Network

**** Stars & Stripes <http://politicalwritings.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/stars-stripes/>
Political Writings

This has nothing to do with how “young” a country Singapore is, or that we lack a national “identity”. PAP, the answer is in the mirror.

**** Stretching Cheryl Lee’s Plea <http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/2011/10/stretching-cheryl-lees-plea.html>
Chua Chin Leng, My Singapore News

Both parents and grandparents are expected to work till dead. Where got time for the precious children? Who says the children are precious? They are meant to be digits for the workforce. Our country need more children not because we love them, but we need them to ensure economic growth.

**** Food Fix, Fix Food <http://singaporeshortstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-fix-fix-food.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingaporeShortStories+%28SINGAPORE+SHORT+STORIES%29>
Singapore Short Stories

**** Architects sued over delayed Majestic renovation <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_727658.html>
K. C. Vijayan, Straits Times

The Singapore Turf Club (STC) is seeking damages from two architects whose alleged failures to get early clearance to renovate the Majestic Theatre, a conservation building, led to delays in the project's completion.

**** Lawyer M Ravi: My Biggest Weakness Is... <http://sg.news.yahoo.com/lawyer-m-ravi--my-biggest-weakness-even-until-today-is---.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter>
Deborah Choo, Yahoo!

One of the most highly profiled and controversial lawyers of his time, Ravi’s dogged push for constitutional reform in areas that he feels “do not measure up to the ideals in the constitution” makes him a rarity, even in his profession.

**** Singapore Says Economic Growth To Stall <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-27/singapore-s-growth-may-stall-over-next-few-quarters-central-bank-predicts.html>
Shamim Adam, Bloomberg

Singapore’s growth will stall over the next few quarters as the global economy deteriorates, before a “modest recovery” in the second half of 2012, the central bank said.

**** Govt Warns Against Violating International Sanctions <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1162016/1/.html>
Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia

Singapore law and foreign affairs minister K Shanmugam, said authorities will commence proceedings against anyone who is believed to have acted in violation of international sanctions. 

Asked if Singapore's relations with the US or Iran might be affected by this case, Mr Shanmugam said state-to-state relationships are good.

**** Shenton Way area hit by flash floods on Thursday <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_727702.html>
Straits Times

Flash floods were reported along the Shenton Way area, following heavy rains on Thursday afternoon.

**** HDB Gives Woman In Distress No Good Options <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/10/hdb-gives-woman-in-distress-no-good-options-no/>
Ravi Philemon, The Online Citizen

**** TOC’s Commitment To Our Readers <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/10/tocs-commitment-to-our-readers/>
The Online Citizen

Ultimately, a free Internet is critical to the flowering of Singaporeans’ political consciousness. The government has to decide if this is a good thing. But let us be clear: any effort to clamp down on the Internet in the name of “promoting responsibility”, is merely a disguised attempt by the government to extend its existing control over traditional media to online media, or otherwise discredit online media as being unreliable, destructive or divisive.

Our political leaders are barking up the wrong tree. They are still caught up in the elections, thinking of how to win the next one. They need to understand that their old tactics of control and fear no longer work.

**** First Morning After Pill Introduced Here In 10 Years <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_727704.html>
Poon Chian Hui, Straits Times

**** HDB: “Affordability” And “Market-based Land Costs” Redefined”? <http://atans1.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/hdb-affordability-and-market-based-land-costs-redefined/>
Thoughts Of A Cynical Investor

Remember Minister’s Mah rants about “reserves being raided” if the land on which HDB flats were built were not valued at “market-based land costs”? Well Minister Khaw may have redefined “market-based land costs”, without the “reserves being raided”.

**** Make Parliament More Accessible <http://thinkhappiness.blogspot.com/2011/10/make-parliament-more-accessible.html>
Dharmendra Yadav, Think Happiness

**** For Contemporary Lighting, Echoes Of A Lion Dance <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/arts/for-contemporary-lighting-echoes-of-a-lion-dance.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
Sonia Kolesnikov-jessop, New York Times

Early this year, the Singaporean designer Hunn Wai was looking for inspiration for his studio’s contribution to Milan Design Week when he chanced upon a local newspaper article about Henry Ng, the last Singaporean craftsman to make the heads worn for the traditional Chinese lion dance.