[MyAppleMenu] Nov 6, 2012

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Review: The Skinny On The iPad Mini—it's Not The Size That Counts ****
<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/the-skinny-on-the-mini-its-not-the-size-that-counts/>
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica



**** Review: iPad Mini Gives You Most Of An iPad At Half The Size ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/2013515/review-ipad-mini-gives-you-most-of-an-ipad-at-half-the-size.html>
Dan Frakes, Macworld


> Don’t confuse the “mini” in “iPad mini” with “lite”—with the exception of a Retina display, this slimmed down iPad gives you the full iPad experience, including access to over 275,000 iPad-optimized apps, in a device that’s about half the overall size and weight of the standard iPad. Retina-display purists will (justifiably) balk at the 1024-by-768-pixel screen, but I suspect that most people will be wowed enough by the iPad mini’s other features, performance, design, and build quality to accept the screen for what it is—very good, but not Retina.



**** Forget Apple’s Mail: Here’s The Best Desktop Gmail App For Mac Users ****
<http://teratalks.com/2012/11/forget-apples-mail-heres-the-best-desktop-gmail-app-for-mac-users/>
Tera Thomas O'Brien, Tera Talks



**** Apple Trims Number Of Licensed Distributors In China ****
<http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/11/apple-trims-number-of-licensed-distributors-in-china.html>
Patently Apple



**** How Apple Avoids Paying Billions In Taxes ****
<http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2012/11/how-apple-avoids-paying-billions-taxes/58681/>
Adam Clark Estes, The Atlantic


> Apple is one of many major corporations that keeps its taxes low by stashing cash offshore. In reality, it's not as simple as just opening a bank account in the Caribbean and sending checks there every month. In order to get its rates down, Apple has actually set up subsidiaries and subsidiaries of subsidiaries in countries with low corporate taxes, and it shuttles funds between them in order to minimize its liabilities. The specific strategy that Apple uses is known as the "Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich."

When something like this has a name, you know the issue is not limited to just about Apple.


**** So You Want An Office Of Apple Macs - Here's A Survival Guide ****
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/05/apple_in_enterprise/>
Trevor Pott, The Register


> With so many organisations deploying so many Macs, we can no longer rely on the psychological crutch that these units are seeing service simply because of the ego or desire of a handful of top brass. My personal experience says that business Mac usage is being driven by employees looking for comfortable and familiar environments; the results of BYOD policies at IBM, Intel, Google and other large organisations would seem to agree. It would seem that when everyday people are given the choice of computer platform, we do not all choose the same thing. Let's review what it takes to make the jump.



**** How To Share Family Contacts ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/2013415/how-to-share-family-contacts.html>
Christopher Breen, Macworld



**** Twitter And App.net Come Together To Form Your Own Personal Watercooler ****
<http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/11/quickadvice-watercooler>
Christine Chan, AppAdvice



**** Why Didn’t Apple Reveal iPad Mini Sales Figures? ****
<http://www.robservatory.com/?p=1267>
Rob Griffiths, The Robservatory


> So even ignoring Apple’s track record of reporting sales by family, it seems there’s no upside to splitting the sales figures. Given the lack of a good interpretation for any split, as a shareholder I’m happy they’re reporting a lump sum figure.






The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** A Beautiful Design And No Jerks: How Tumblr Did It ****
<http://gigaom.com/2012/11/05/a-beautiful-design-and-no-jerks-how-tumblr-did-it/>
Jeff John Roberts, GigaOM






MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Need A Room? Be Careful How You Ask ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/books/heads-in-beds-a-memoir-by-jacob-tomsky.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0>
Janet Maslin, New York Times


> “Heads in Beds” is Mr. Tomsky’s highly amusing guidebook to the dirty little secrets of the hospitality trade. But it is neither a meanspirited book nor a one-sided one. It tells the tale of how and why Mr. Tomsky worked his way up the industry ladder, beginning as a rubber-burning parking garage valet in New Orleans (“AC running and classic rock on low for you, sir,” went the patter) and then making his way indoors. It views the worst species of hotel guests with a gimlet eye. But Mr. Tomsky also captures the thinking of hotel patrons who just want decent treatment. His main tip on that score: tip. And don’t do it nervously. “It’s not a drug deal,” he says.



**** Spread Good Taste ****
<http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article10261201.aspx>
Sara Davis, The Smart Set


> But don't spread it too thin.






SingaporeSurf
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**** AG Appeals Against High Court Ruling In Hougang By-election Case ****
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1235586/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia


> The Attorney-General said its objective in appealing is to give the Supreme Court the opportunity to consider and clarify this issue of public importance.



**** Singapore, Where Have All Your Talent Gone? ****
<http://e27.sg/2012/11/06/singapore-where-have-all-your-talent-gone/>
Cedric Chin, e27


> I must admit that it confuses me when people say Singapore faces a lack of good engineers. You must understand what the experience has been like, for me: on the one hand, local startup people have been going on about Singapore’s talent problem. These people are often from companies or entities I have never heard of. On the other hand, my friends are being recruited away by the best tech companies in the world.



**** Capital Punishment In Singapore: Is It Ethical? ****
<http://meetntalk.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/capital-punishment-in-singapore-is-it-ethical/>
The Tree Of Knowledge Of Good & Evil



**** Some Thoughts From An Activist The Government Doesn’t Listen To ****
<http://spuddings.net/2012/11/06/some-thoughts-from-an-activist-the-government-doesnt-listen-to/>
Kristen Han, #spuddings


> It’s fine if the government doesn’t want to acknowledge the anti-death penalty campaigns. As long as the issues are recognised and the change is real, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit. But from what I’ve seen in the Yahoo!SG article, all Mr Shanmugam has done throughout the interview is repeat the same assumptions and rhetoric that the government trots out every time the death penalty is mentioned. For some reason, the journalist seems not to have probed deeper.



**** Well Done SDP For Your Housing Policy Plan! ****
<http://sgthinker.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/well-done-sdp-for-your-housing-policy-plan/>
Sgthinker



**** Death Penalty Change Came From Review, Not Activists: Shanmugam ****
<http://sg.news.yahoo.com/death-penalty-change-came-from-review--not-activists--shanmugam.html>
Jeanette Tan, Yahoo!


> “This is something we do continuously. We monitor to see firstly, is it necessary, because it’s a serious penalty. Secondly, is it effective? And, thirdly, are there tweaks or changes that need to be done to this system?” he said. “Any responsible government will do this — which is what we’re doing.”



**** 150th Place! Woohoo! ****
<http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2012/11/150th-place-woohoo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mrbrown+%28mrbrown%29>
mrbrown.com


> Like we used to tell our mothers: "Ma, I was first the exam leh!"

> Mother: "Wah really ah?"

> Us: "Ya, from the bottom!"



**** The End Of Another Judicial Era ****
<http://article14.blogspot.sg/2012/11/the-end-of-another-judicial-era.html>
Article 14



**** Am I Disappointed With SDP’s NOM? ****
<http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/2012/11/am-i-disappointed-with-sdps-nom.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MySingaporeNews+(My+Singapore+News)>
Chua Chin Leng, My Singapore News


> The solution must be straight and simple. Build more flats for Singaporeans at cost plus, not that the govt must make a loss, but with the aim of providing the citizens, not PRs, with decent and genuinely affordable housing. Not the kind of flexible affordable housing that can be stretched like rubber bands. Is this so difficult to do?



**** Singapore's StarHub To Guard Market With Sticky TV Content ****
<http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-05/starhub-to-guard-market-with-sticky-tv-content-southeast-asia>
Sharon Chen, Bloomberg



**** Building Families With Bricks, Not Straw ****
<http://www.publichouse.sg/categories/topstory/item/802-building-families-with-bricks-not-straw>
Elaine Ee, Publichouse.sg


> Because what the government does is provide bundles of straw when you need bricks for a foundation. And unless the marriage and parenthood measures coming up provide more fundamental support, families are pretty much on their own, still.



**** That $7,000 Cabby ****
<http://berthahenson.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/that-7000-cabby/>
Bertha Harian


> I suppose we can speculate about why the cabby chose to give a different story now. That he was being ridiculed, faced pressure from his colleagues and so forth. May he <i>did</i> make $7,000 a month and is now saying something different to take the heat off himself. Except that he quit what he said was a good job. Maybe he really wanted to say that $7,000 a month is do-able if you worked hard and smart. That when he said his taxi was a “money machine’’, he didn’t mean he was minting money but that his livelihood was dependent on it. Maybe he got carried away speaking to a reporter. Some people do, you know. They make things out to be bigger, better than they really are. And it’s no fault of the interviewee…he isn’t the expert.

> The journalist is.



**** Singapore PMI Shrinks For 4Th Month As Orders Fall Further ****
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/05/singapore-economy-pmi-idUSL3E8M51VV20121105>
Reuters


> Singapore's manufacturing activity contracted for a fourth consecutive month in October as orders fell further, a business survey showed, bucking the tepid signs of improvement in other parts of Asia.



**** Singapore Government Resolute In Its Limits On Foreign Workers ****
<http://www.relocatemagazine.com/immigration-a-visas/immigration-a-visa-news-main/6462-singapore-government-resolute-in-its-limits-on-foreign-workers>
Re:locate



**** Has Singapore Gone Too Far In Tightening Tap On Foreign Manpower? ****
<http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20121105-381524.html>
Robin Chan and Janice Heng, Straits Times


> But that story of one company's brush with a tighter foreign manpower regime - in place since 2009 - was one Mr Shanker Iyer shared, to illustrate the growing fears among foreign companies and even the larger multinational corporations (MNCs) about the policy's impact on their ability to plan ahead.



**** Are Too Many Singaporeans Expecting ‘An Easy Life’? ****
<http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/everybody-ought-know-leading-easy-life-142641021.html>
Daniel Wong, Yahoo!



**** Human Rights In Singapore: Always Derogated (Part 1) ****
<http://rodsjournal.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/human-rights-in-singapore-always-derogated-part-1/>
Roderick's Journal



**** HDB, The Ball Is In Your Court ****
<http://www.voiddecker.com/2012/11/hdb-housing-sdp-paper/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hdb-housing-sdp-paper>
The Void Decker


> Interestingly, the paper discusses a notion I pondered on recently: the obsession with property investing in Singapore, fuelled by the lack of capital gains tax, is harming entrepreneurship and the spirit of enterprise. Instead of investing in new ventures and companies that generate actual wealth for the country, cash rich Singaporeans spend their time in condominium showrooms in search of the next property to invest on. Huge amounts are poured into an asset market that doesn’t benefit the economy.



**** Get The Basics Of Public Housing Right ****
<http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7841>
Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net


> To use a word Mr Lee once used, the aspirations of the average Singaporean family are not some highfalutin ideals, but the daily struggle to make the mortgage and have enough left over to raise their children properly.

> Let us therefore get our priorities right: The first and foremost task is to rectify the huge imbalances and distortions in the housing market which has been caused by the government rigidly controlling the supply of flats and selling them at a market subsidy rather than at the cost price of construction.



**** What ‘Fairy Tale’ Of S$7,000-a-month Cabby Can Teach Us ****
<http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-flipside/fairy-tale-7-000-month-cabby-teach-us-072647460.html>
Belmont Lay, Yahoo!


> True, people want to read good news once in a while for a kick. But they don't want to feel like an idiot reading it. Especially one written with a pitiful lack of hard data.