By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

At the recent WWDC keynote it was revealed that several car makers were working on hands-off Siri controls. General Motors, on their own blog, reveal that the Siri Eyes-free functionality is to be available with the release of new cars: the Chevy Sonic, and Spark. In the interesting article by Alex Luft, GM's own ideas of how this could be used are revealed along with some useful links to more useful items.

A bit more news about the newest MacBook Pro with its Retina display came in an item by Josh Ong on AppleInsider who reports about a test that had the computer powering four displays: the Mac itself, two connected via Thunderbolt and another by HDMI.

Apple has had a couple of problems in Australia of late with one of them ending in a fine of more than $2 million. However the Consumer Affairs department of Victoria State had a page that, "alleged Apple's App Store contains "counterfeit or 'cloned' apps" that "look like real apps but don't have the same kind of security as those made by established software programmers" Simon Sharwood reports for the Register. But the page disappeared really quickly (there is a link to a copy) as the CAV appears to have jumped the gun quite significantly: maybe they will be sued for around $2 million.

The headline for this article caught my eye as the Register was gobsmacked by Apple actually getting back to them: something that has not happened in the US for a number of years. They don't tell you that it was because the Register broke an embargo and paid the ultimate price of banishment.

Apple also had a problem over the iPad name in China as a basically bankrupt company there, Proview, said it owned the name despite another part of the company having sold it to Apple earlier. The battle went to the courts as the dying Proview wants a lot of money, mainly to pay off its creditors -- they have nothing else. There is a new twist this week Patently Apple reports as a creditor (one of many) is asking that Proview be declared bankrupt officially by the courts. If successful, the spinning plates come to an abrupt halt and like Jarndyce v. Jarndyce all the lawyers can go home.

I had an email on Friday morning with information concerning a new Nike + Running app for the iPhone (and Android apparently). It is the same Nike + running app I used on the iPod a couple of years back but with some updates: "Map your runs, track your progress and get the motivation you need to reach your goals. No sensor or additional products needed, just grab your phone and go." It would also appear from the email that Nike are looking to increase the social aspects of the app with sharing and friend tagging.

Another app that came my way this week was Filtermania which I really liked and not just because it is free. Anna Heim writing on TNW reports that I was not alone and some 1 million downloads occurred in the 6 days after its release plus 22 million downloads of the free filters. While I do not particularly like sharing aspects of some apps, this is an important feature and was part of the unusual success the developers experienced.

While we are on apps, I also looked this week at Color Splash Studio, an app that made the leap from the desktop to iOS and produces some interesting results.

There could be a messy PR problem for Apple in the US, perhaps focussed on Georgia, where shoppers -- who may or may not be US citizens -- have been refused purchase of iPhones or Macs because they were heard speaking Farsi, Simon Sage reports on iMore. Although I have an Iranian colleague -- really nice guy too -- I would not know if he was speaking Farsi or (say) Arabic, so someone down in the Peach State does and they are using this to negative effect. Some good comments in this article on this over-enforcement of Apple policy.

While on the subject of retail stores (more on the Thai equivalents below) it was revealed this week that the staff in the US shops are to get significant pay rises and Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider cites up to 25% for some, depending on performance.

I wanted to weep when I saw the article on Geek Sugar about 8 great cases with keyboards for the iPad. I have still only found one here. I reviewed this last month as part of an attempt to move more to the iPad and reduce the weight. I still need the Mac with me some days. As a point, number 3 in the Geek Sugar list -- the Rubata Leather Case ($60 = 1850 baht) -- looks very much like the one I found in central Bangkok but that was 1796 baht with VAT, so is slightly cheaper. The keyboard needs some improvement too.

There is a lot of stuff that goes on under the surface of a Mac with OS X and some of the hints I find are useful so I like to share these. This time, Melissa Holt brings out a problem that I must have fixed a while back: showing event times in the month view of iCal.

I used the view this week on a large screen discussing scheduling with classes of students: it is useful for them to have a larger view as most have a planner that ends at midnight with a blank page for the morrow. Adding the times is a really easy fix using the General Preferences panel of iCal. There are several other things to play with in there too.

Another useful tip comes from the ever-helpful OS X Daily who look at ways to get more out of Mission Control. I use parts of this as a matter of course to assist the minute by minute running of the Mac, but there are a few tricks here that I had missed.

Half and Half

• It is only with pre-iPhone-4S devices (not sold now);
• All patent assertions by Samsung against Apple that previously came to judgment were dismissed.
• Samsung failed to win preliminary injunctions against the iPhone 4S in France and Italy, and lost three cases in Germany, including one over the same patent that the Dutch court now held infringed.

Steven Sande, however, on TUAW does point out that the list of devices includes iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, as well as the iPad 1 and 2.

It gets worse as the licence fees that Apple will have to pay may not cover the legal costs that Samsung has to pay Apple over the three other cases it lost in the same court.

As Apple had already offered to pay a reasonable FRAND rate the victory here is, as Mueller suggests, rather exaggerated: but Apple losing something makes far better headlines than full facts.

I am rather fond of the Fotopedia apps that I have on my iPad and iPhone as most are free and give me access to some of the best photography that I have seen: some of it rivalling sites such as National Geographic. Frederic Lardinois reports on Tech Crunch that the company has released a model that allows advertisers to target the many users of the apps. So far ads appearing with the apps have been very successful and the company wants to capitalize on this.

Other Matters

I just loved this part from the article when citing a company PR person, Tenille Kennedy. She explained all about the contractions and efficiency changes that have to take place so that there will be at least $1 billion in savings by the end of next year [if RIM still exists by then: GKR] and then adds a sentence that I find astounding in its coldness and disregard for those whose jobs are going, "Head count reductions are part of this initiative."

It is a surprise to me how many Mac writers have enthused about the Surface. Andy Ihnatko and Jason Snell both Tweeted enthusiastically at the launch, and while some reports have been dubious (I am still undecided: in two minds) others have been full of positive noises. Dan Knight on Low End Mac is such a one and he thinks Microsoft is changing the game, but ignores significant details, like price and availability, and thinks that the approach of making it an extension of the PC is the right thing to do, while also thinks that the almost permanent landscape use, is right as well. Those are the exact reasons that I think are negatives.

I was intrigued by the most recent Microsoft entry into the tablet arena, because they have done it before and because they left out other manufacturers. Part of this may be to encourage the others to come to bat with a decent device -- most have not been all that good or even vapourware (as some think this will be). Acer founder, Stan Shih is betting on the latter strategy and according to Brooke Crothers thinks that Redmond is pathfinding: show the way then step back. All very well, but Brooke also mentions the other interpretation that suggests that "Microsoft believes it must bypass PC makers to better compete against Apple and Android." [Especially Android.]

Initially it was reported that no manufacturers had made any comments about the Surface. Bryan Bishop on The Verge tells us that the manufacturers were asked but there was a certain reluctance to say anything apart from Dell's, Microsoft was "an important partner" for the company and a couple of similar mumbles from Lenovo. Also interesting is how some, like Acer (above) were in the dark until the announcement itself: that is unusual in itself.

I wonder about the reluctance, is it: long-term fear of Microsoft (although that should be eroding a bit these days); infuriation at being left out; denial (that is Stan Shih's approach); waiting by the phone for a call that may not come?

Not everything went well for the Surface announcement. Actually, the more I say that, the more shallow the product begins to sound. For one thing, few reports that I read mentioned that a Surface broke while being used in the presentation. Steven Sinofsky kept his cool but there was a growing sense of his frustration, then he apologized and did a camp little hop and skip over to where another one was already up and running (preparation or readiness?) and carried on browsing. The video (which I downloaded as this will be useful for students I am teaching presentation skills to) was on a page that MacDaily News has that links to another article that compared the Microsoft presentation with earlier Apple product releases in a sort of blow by blow, frame by frame approach. I downloaded this too.

But equally devastating is the point that the main feature of the Surface was the keyboard but no one actually had a hands on with this Jay Yarrow points out on Business Insider, and also mentions that the Kindle Fire was hands off too. At most Apple events there are hands on sessions and even the first iPhone had some selected persons, like David Pogue and me to try it out. Actually, Pogue had an hour and I had about 10 minutes with a group of journalists from the region. But I did touch it and I did try the scrolling. My link for this was MacDaily News.

Someone else who thinks that the keyboard is the killer app for the Surface is Mat Honan at Gizmodo who noticed that he was not allowed to try a keyboard and does think that Redmond was not being 100% open, but still . . . . Oh well.

John Gruber on Daring Fireball had an interesting analysis of the event and what the Surface means and it goes a lot further than just an Apple iPad competitor. He hated the presentation that looked hastily put together but notes that the biggest decision was "to turn against their OEM hardware partners" and thinks that this is significant in other ways and concludes that "it's inevitable now that Microsoft will acquire Nokia" [made even more interesting by the news that the newest phone from them will not run Windows 8].

Some news that arrived late on Thursday from Monica Chen on Digitimes suggests that Pegatron, who also make some stuff for Apple, is to be the source of the Surface and that prices are expected to be $599 and $799 [Has Microsoft learned nothing?]. My source for this was MacDaily News whose own comments are worth noting.

Also worth noting -- the whole article is actually -- is the Motley Fool's comment on the pricing: "That's suicide".

Almost the laugh of the week came from Nick Bilton on the New York Times when writing about the Surface, who comments on the iPad "It's very difficult to use for creation." This is risible, even if he thinks he is thinking about text input and Jim Dalrymple was one of those who puts him straight. Sort of.

I was almost hopeful when I saw the headline for an article by Ingrid Lundgren reports on Tech Crunch: "Another Step For Kindle Fire Abroad?"

I tried to place an order the very day of its announcement, but was shown the usual panel: not in your area. Now with sales not so good, they are opening up sales to international purchasers. Don't get too excited, it is only asking developers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain to submit apps to the store and maybe sometime in the future, the Kindle will arrive in those countries too. Like other companies, Amazon have not grasped the full possibilities of international sales of such a device.

What did we say a couple of weeks ago in relation to the UK seeking new powers to check online messaging and then the Canadians joining the party with the FBI and DEA? This is part of an international move (Aus and NZ have yet to join in) to shit down the internet freedoms that we all expect and should have, with the weakly explained reasons of terrorism and child pornography.

As a historical note, it used to be pornography cited most often as the reason for any such powers being needed, but after 9/11 there was an immediate switch to terrorism and the poor abused kiddies got left on the back burner, so to speak. Some good cops kept on the job with the tools they had, however, and the arrests still keep coming. Now these two are linked (but separate of course) by the authorities, although quite how the DEA came into this I am not sure: sex, drugs and rock & roll?

On the Verge, Sam Byford has another article on the iPV6 disaster that the agencies and governments seem to have forgotten about (until it appeared last week) which is pretty much what we reported last week. However, the reason he is given is a cracker. It concerns the way the iPV6 numbers are distributed and that this may make it difficult to dredge up a site's details.

This sounds to me somewhat disingenuous as law enforcement agencies tend to cooperate (especially on kiddy-porn) and the issue of a warrant would be par for the course, although some ISPs tend to cooperate even without such legal instruments, but the Mounties are saying this might take time. In the context that governments are asking for sweeping powers to snoop, this should be looked at warily.

Slightly related to parts of the above is the browsing history that some users might prefer not to have others find out about. There is already Private browsing on Safari that Apple introduced with a nod and wink for those interested in banking which may be rhyming slang, but this did not work for example with Paypal when I tried, which was exactly the sort of thing I would want to keep from prying eyes if my computer were used by others. Elinor Mills has an item on some methods that coy users could use if they were looking for information that could make their mothers blush (or even faint in some cases).

A nice little snippet arrived on AppleInsider late Thursday from Sam Oliver who reports that the Lumia 900 will not be able to use Windows 8 (it will just look like it), which is a handy piece of information which is unlikely to have buyers flocking to the stores for this product, leaving Nokia with more problems than it wants. Tom Warren on The Verge adds to this with the gob-smacking comment from a Nokia exec: "I definitely think it's more than enough. I think that ultimately your typical customer probably isn't all that aware of this upgrade thing", which suggests that the typical Nokia exec may not be all that aware of this customer thing.

Local Items

The next day I had some time and called in at Central Pinklao only to find that the True shop had gone. Odd that: I thought I had seen one of the staff in a BTS train last week going from Wongwian Yai to Sala Daeng. Fortunately, True have two shops in the Pinklao mall, so I went to the other, caught up with the bills that I was going to pay anyway and asked about the Spin thing. Four months outstanding. . . . The reason was that the bills had been going to the old address, so there is still some fallout from the floods last year. And while I am sometimes critical of True and its service the girl who served me was patient and polite right the way through.

Next to the missing True shop was one of the many hairdressing salons in Central Pinklao, but it was all boarded up and had signs indicating that this was to be a new iStudio. The company was Com7 who already run the relatively small iStudio and started with a tiny iBeat a while back.

I wandered past the current shop which was packed out on a Thursday afternoon: sales, iPads, computers with an instructor in full flow, and a service section. I had to smile: years ago I had suggested to someone in touch with the Apple system in Bangkok that there was fertile ground for a store on the west bank of the Chao Phraya: millions of people over here and no retail outlet of Apple products. Now there are four -- all busy -- and the expanded store to come.

Local Twitter user Dave Oliver has written a useful blog posting concerning Software tools on Macs for affiliate program management. I earlier only found part 3 and Dave later Tweeted me with links so that parts 1 and 2 are now available

I will be using some of this local news as well as some other events in the past few days as content for this week's podcast which should be going out late Saturday. Although last week's -- the first for about a year -- was an experiment, now that I have found some software to put the fed together, the number of downloads was quite respectable and makes it worthwhile.

Late News

In a press release, SingTel has announced that it intends to support the Singapore National Paralympics Council (SNPC) and that eight competitors heading to London for the Paralympic events there will benefit from this.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.