By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit

Apple Stuff

Know is a verb that means "be aware of through observation, inquiry or information". The word, speculation does not figure in there at all. Of course, with Apple, anything is possible.

One thing that no one has considered is that rather than iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, Apple might just drop numbering conventions - as it did with the iPad - and simply call it the iPhone.

There is a new slant on the iWatch story as one of Apple's board members, Bill Campbell, gave a talk at Intuit - where he is chairman - in which he mentioned, the future of personal tech, including the effect technology will have on devices he referred to as "intimate", AppleInsider reports. Needless to say there was much excitement about this.

Also expressing excitement is Rene Ritchie on iMore: on two fronts. The first is the arrival of Peter Cohen, who has also been working at The Loop with Jim Dalrymple. This will help expand iMore's capacity for covering Mac=related items. The second concerns an event that Rene is off to in New York and he promises "some mind-blowing, network-shaking news coming your way later this week".

Related in a way is a comment from Daniel Eran Dilger on AppleInsider about the reported intention to move chip production from Samsung to other companies, particularly TSMC. The history provided in the article is rather good, but Dilger often provides such excellent background and he points out the way that every iPhone, since (and including) the January 2007 iPhone announcement, has been "viciously attacked as flawed, incompetent and the likely subject of a massive recall prior to each achieving record sales".

The article also explains why Apple could not move from Samsung (even if it had wanted to) because of the supply problems: not too many plants exist that can make the types of processors needed in the quantities Apple wanted. Now TSMC is almost ready, and the next processor (the A7) is likely to see life there cutting Samsung out of the chain completely.

Last week we reported on the removal from the app store of AppGratis by Apple. Steven Sande reports on TUAW that while Apple reps claim they are in contact with the developer, the CEO says that apart fromn one phone call, Apple has refused to discuss the removal further. Steven's report was first put out on 12 April and up to last night (14th) there had been no update.

On a couple of occasions there have been reports of kids being given the keys to the kingdom on their iOS devices and when they run up amazing bills on their parents' accounts, Dad (usually Dad for some reason), takes some drastic action, contacts the newspapers and expects Apple to DO SOMETHING. On a couple of occasions Apple has, but not in all cases. This is a problem not unique to Apple, but with the nature of hit-whoring journalism these days, use of "Apple" in a heading is bound to bring in the punters.

Despite warnings, parental controls, and lax parenting, it may be that warnings may be insufficient: at least for the parents of iPad owning kids who like to play games with in-app purchasing. Don't the parents communicate with their progeny? Maybe not.

So to make their own publicity and show that they are doing something, a government department in the UK is having a look at the methods used by developers to see if they are "misleading, commercially aggressive, or otherwise unfair", Electronista reports. The BBC is mentioned in the article and was the surce of the story. I saw this on TV late last week and, while iPads and iPhones were clearly shown, there was no specific mention of Apple during the report. The conclusion did discuss the Apple app store as well as Android, so there appeared to be some attempt at balance.

I was quite happy to link to an item last week that said teenagers were keen to have the iPhone which contradicts what some have been saying. From observing my students, I do not doubt that this is so, but it is worth mentioning a report by John Moltz who points out on his Very Nice Website that Piper Jaffray who produced the survey had Apple as a client for investment banking in the last 12 months.

Not long ago one media source was commenting on the low availability of Apple products in India - which seemed to mean shops in upscale malls - while Apple was mentioned in another article for the way it was cleverly gaining exposure for the iPhone there by the use of Mom and Pop shops rather than shops in upscale malls (you can please some of the people some of the time. . .). Now Sneha Shah, on Seeking Alpha, writes about the way Apple has penetrated the market, but also how the company is changing its strategies to suit the unusual market that India is.

Among the ideas is a scheme for selling the iPhone 4 at a discount to new customers, while also having a cashback scheme for those trading up to an iPhone 5. As well as this there is some interesting background information in the article which I linked to from MacDaily News.

Another new plan for owners of older iPhones to trade up is being touted as part of the reason T-Mobile shops have been seeing lines of people buying the iPhone 5 now that the carrier offers it. Yoni Heisler comments on a statement from their chief marketing officer in which he expresses his pleasure at the long lines. They did not offer the iPhone before and this was believed to be a reason for "high customer churn". One of the problems Apple had a couple of years back concerned the sensors in iOS devices (and others) that indicate if water has come into contact with it. Areas like I live in have rather high humidity ands the sensors may not have taken account of this, despite claiming to do so. After a lawsuit, according to an article on Electronista, Apple has been ordered to pay up to $53 million in settlement for those affected.

A copy of the judgement is included with the article and shows who is elegible. Slow down, slow down, this only applies to those in the United States who had the problema and had warranty claims turned down. All those of us who suffered damage (say to the Home button of the iPhone 3GS) and were turned down by True here, are not going to get anything.

I think there is something wrong here.

One of the apps I use for sharing information quickly on the iPhone is Bump. If used, I usually share pictures, but it was capable of sharing many fiile types, including music. But not any more, Don Reisinger reports. The developers are " no longer permitted access to iTunes audio files". This may have been in the latest iOS update.

Half and Half

If they are considering a switch to metal, that could mean a higher priced phone which would erode any advantage they think they have now: they certainly don't have the profits like Apple do. But Samsung does have hubris, and on the "flagship" S4 they say that the "plastic chassis allowed for manufacturability while retaining a premium feel." Premium plastic of course.

Other Matters

Last week we covered a couple of articles that were reporting figures of PC sales and also the way Windows 8 is not the major success that some were claiming it was, with one analyst reported as saying, "the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market." I am impressed. Patently Apple has a look at the sales and the spread - the thin spread - of users who have adopted this latest update. Bear in mind also that Windows Blue (or 8.1) is going to fix all the problems.

As a result, Microsoft may now be experiencing the same as Apple when it comes to stock prices: panic rather than careful analysis. Brooke Crothers reports that Goldman Sachs recommends that investors sell the stock, although one was OK with how things are going. Really.

It is not only Apple (or Microsoft) having problems with speculation and so-called analysts, as BlackBerry are so annoyed by one report that was patently false that it is asking the Securities Commission in Ontario to investigate. Detwiler Fenton (research and investment firm) reported high return rates of the latest BB model, the Z10, Shara Tibken reports. BB are suggesting that this "false and misleading" report amounts to "either a gross misreading of the data or a willful manipulation".

I look occasionally at the way governments want to trample over our freedoms, particularly with regard to internet access, private emails, and even (in the past) taking photographs. But companies also play the game at times. A recent spoof video advertisement that had the message Exxon hates your children, is available online (for now), but Exxon has tried to stop TV stations from showing the clip and demonstrate that they do not understand satire. Mike Masnick on TechDirt explains the problem and the over the top response by the (sometimes) largest company and also includes a link to a clip (which actually had no connection at all to the subject). As this Exxon muscling gets out, of course, more and more people will share the clip thus negating Exxon's attempts at control, making them look more ridiculous than the satire does.

Oddly the video in the TechDirt article has no connection to the video, so I followed the links to EXXON HATES YOUR CHILDREN and it is patently obvious in the first few seconds that this is not a serious ad. The message may be serious, but no one would ever think that this was a real ad.

While the police hate being photographed in some places and are not sure what the internet is, Timothy Geigner on TechDirt reports that after 3 weeks of traditional policing to try and catch a mugger, the police - in a sort of insitutional exasperation - tried the internet. A video of the mugging was posted on Gawker and within an hour they had information that led to an arrest.

Rachata Tanalumpongphol

An urgent call on Saturday morning took me to his apartment where a resuscitation team were already working hard to revive him. They were unsuccessful and he died a few days before his 26th birthday.

His family wanted the funeral to be completed that day and the following morning we collected the ashes and took them to Wat Raikhing where they were scattered on the Ping river in accordance with his wishes - so no one could hold on to him.

I had known him for more than ten years and he became a close friend - if you ask me about his death, I will tell you about his life.

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.