By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Some substance to the rumours about new Macs came when online benchmarking tests began to surface. There are applications that we can download that do the benchmarking and I have one from the Mac App Store, called NovaBench that did some sharing when I ran the software on my Macs. This time, Steven Sande reports on TUAW, the tool used was Geekbench (he has a link) and there was a mystery computer, designated MacBookPro9,1 which has a score higher than anything else and seems to have the Ivy Bridge Core i7-3820QM running at 2.7GHz: no great step forward for the processor, but a small bump. So what else may be there? . . .

Despite having had problems with the cards before and currently using AMD Radeon graphics, Josh Ong on AppleInsider has a note (from The Verge) that Nvidia GPUs will be used.

This could fit well with another piece of speculation fueled by a 9to5Mac item according to Rene Ritchie on iMore: the new Macs will have Retina displays. It may also be thinner with the Ethernet port removed (sad that), but a USB 3 port added. Those USB ports will require integrated circuits (chips) and Katie Marsal reports on AppleInsider that these are to be supplied by Genesys. Electronista has some more related information on the USB 3.0 and other features of the new MacBook Pro and has a look at the expected shipping schedules.

A note by Sam Oliver on AppleInsider tells us that Samsung (Apple still loves them really -- out of need) has a book-full of orders for flexible OLED displays although this is probably really an iPhone rumour and this could mean a certain flexibility to the device some suggest.

I read somewhere -- perhaps a Tweet -- that with so much news of MacBook Pro rumours, there really must be a lot coming in iOS 6. The idea is that Apple wants to get the Mac rumours out of the way first. Rumours are already appearing about the loss (I use the term loosely) of Google Maps for the iPhone, but a new one this week that could be an SMS killer. The messaging system is expensive, especially in the US and that has led to a growth of other apps, such as Facebook messenger which Kevin Purdy writes about on ITWorld. I do use the Facebook service for some private messages, as well as Apple's Messages, but there is also What's App and one I picked up at the weekend, Line. Mind you with the way people here change SIM cards, I keep getting messages and "who are you" queries from people appearing in the "friends" list.

As well as the MacBook Pro having a Retina Display, Electronista reports on a rumour that suggests the iMac could have this too.

We have heard of late about malware attacks on Macs, which are worth taking note of if you read someone like Topher Kessler, or doom and destruction if you take any notice of the virus protection companies (who are dying for entry to the Mac market) and their acolytes. I was a bit taken aback when I read on some sources, such as from Jeff Gamet on The MacObserver that Apple was apparently talking to Kaspersky Labs, to get help for malware protection. This would signal a sea change and also a warning to users that problems are on the horizon. Why Apple could not do this in-house was sort of beyond me Monday evening. Like the Foxconn CEO (see below) we are told by Gamet (above) and Mike Schramm on TUAW that the quote that started the excitement was "taken out of context." Panic over. MacNN also had the denial.

Not wishing to labour the point, but even after the above points, Kaspersky is still finding sources willing to put out the "Apple is doomed" message, although instead of the Mac and OS X, Sara Gates tells us on Huffington Post that this time it is iOS that will be under attack next year.

Dears, dears, it is under attack now. This moment. And it has been from the moment it came out of Cupertino's front door. The reason we don't know about the attacks is that Apple's closed system -- you know the control that Apple insists on having over its products and that some think is so wrong -- is stopping them. Indeed Android users have lots more malware fun, as do the iPhone users who use jail-breaking tools: all of this Gates tells us after a scary title. The only thing I want protection from is Kaspersky (and the others) and the writers of articles that keep repeating this guff over and over again.

Talking of Topher Kessler, he wrote an item concerning the release by Apple of removal tools for the Flashback Trojan horse for OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard. And he didn't mention Kaspersky once in the article.

Early in the week, there was a stir when the CEO of Foxconn told everyone that they were all ready to put the Apple TV into production, and everyone online went crazy (useful to have a review column that does not appear daily). Not so, Matt Brian reports on TNW. Foxconn says this was taken out of context and the company is always ready to meet the demands of any of its partners. Other commentators also suggested this was more likely to be the case as Terry Gou has the interests of several major companies in his hands and he is known for his maintenance of secrecy.

There were a lot of rumours this week and there was also a lot of criticism of some of those making them. John Biggs on Tech Crunch analysed some of the ways in which the Terry Gou rumour began and gained legs. Harry McCracken on Technologizer was also critical of the way that Digitimes rumours keep appearing and are found to be wrong, but not before those who like to be first out of the trap have spread them, with others then picking up on the stories. As we have commented before, much more fact-checking is needed. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. MacDaily News linked to the McCracken report and to one by Phillip Elmer DeWitt on Fortune. That MDN item also links to an item by Charles Cooper who has the same problem I have sometimes: someone else gets to a great idea before I do.

A mystery solved, sort of. After finally getting round to updating OS X to version 10.7.4 last weekend, a run of Software Update showed me that Safari 5.1.7 was available for download. There had been some confusion with the OS X update, with many sources referring to 5.1.7 and a couple (including Apple) having 5.1.6. To confirm: the update to OS X has Safari 5.1.6 and the 5.1.7 update is a separate download. This must have been in development at the same time as the OS X update, but may not have been quite ready to include when that was put together for users. With time not on my side, I still have not gone to 5.1.7. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. . . .

A fairly long-running saga has been put to rest this week (maybe) when -- Jeff Gamet on The MacObserver tells us -- the Supreme Court denied Psystar's request to order a review of the case: Psystar built Apple clones with OS X installed and Apple primed the lawyers. No one seriously thought there would be any other outcome, but it just used up lawyers and wasted a lot of time,

Other Matters

Although there was not much taught about plagiarism when I was at school or university in the UK, we knew what it was and not to do it. Once I went to the US, the idea -- the anathema -- was hammered home at the beginning of every class and I had to hand out sheets to my own freshman students as well as telling them what not to do, although a few cases appeared from time to time. Much worse in Thailand of course where students are taught in high school to copy from sources and as long as the cover is beautiful, all is OK. It takes ages to beat this out of the students a university, and I am not convinced that some of them ever get it. With proper (and severe) control of student writing input, we do get through with some.

I have also been concerned at the approach bloggers take these days, many just rehashing someone else's news, making a few significant changes, adding a soupçon of extra information and then sending it out on the internet to garner lots of hits (and the advertising revenue). A review column like this deliberately uses input from other sources but then adds to them, in terms of comment, agreement or criticism: that is a review. Occasionally, on eXtensions (and AMITIAE before) a link to another online column was used where there was a point of interest (such as malware on Macs).

A lot of writers/sources do this, but there is a line over which some step. It was with a fair amount of interest that this matter appeared this week with an article called, "Plagiarism" from Joshua Gross on Unwieldy Notes who complained about the way The Next Web had picked up an article he had written, played about with the paragraphs just a little (see above) and put it online. When he sent a Tweet in a sarcastic mode, the content was changed without letting him know and several tweets back from the editor of TNW later were not exactly in friendly mode.

As I picked this up from the newsfeed of Jim Dalrymple at The Loop -- a significant player -- but there are others who are also more than a bit concerned about this new approach to original content. I write that very tongue in cheek as many sites these days have very little that could be called original.

I actually completed an online application to be a contributor for The Next Web. Never heard a word: not even a Tweet.

Every once in a while a Rob Enderle article appears and you think to yourself, do people really pay for this crap? He has picked up on the Zuckerberg hoodie comments past week and resurrects other CEOs who have done untold damage to their companies (his thesis, not mine) just by being there and of course as well as Marc Andreessen he brings in Steve Jobs and (borrowing freely from Walt Isaacson's biography it seems) outlines some of his problems as a brash young man. We were all different people when younger. But Zuckerberg is Enderle's new "Walking disaster" and he writes that "one of the quickest ways to turn a $100B opportunity into a $10B opportunity is to act quickly and not engage any of the resources in place to protect the firm."

With almost perfect timing, a few hours after the link to that appeared in my email, I read in a Reuters article on Huffington Post, that Facebook raised the price range on its initial public offering to $34 to $38 as there is so much real interest behind the IPO and the valuation would exceed $100 billion, hoodie or no. Perhaps what some commentators are unwilling to see is that the world is a different place to Silicon Valley in the 1980s and a young dynamic boss like Zuckerberg is more attractive -- and realistic for investors. What is the alternative: bankers?

While I was reading through the various news items on Facebook it occurred to me that the one thing that Facebook has, apart from any advertising income it can raise, is our data. Already it uses some user photos but if you think that the rest of the golden data is going to stay out of bounds, you may be naive. It may be a good idea to tighten up the privacy agreements. Paging Al Franken, paging Al Franken. . . .

A note on the DOJ suit against Apple and book publishers from Dara Kerr tells us that a release of a previously redacted document has some of the input from Steve Jobs to the book people. The contents of the email show the alternatives he was suggesting were open to the publishers and this looks less and less like a conspiracy than a realistic business analysis: with Amazon as the bad guy of course.

There was some more on the renouncement of citizenship by Eduardo Saverin in an item by Ben Popper on The Verge who points out that the actual fact took place last year and that Eduardo Saverin has been in Singapore for a long time, making investments there. As US residents here will confirm, if you are here and earning here, you still have to pay taxes to Uncle Sam (even on the local income), unlike me who pays nothing to HM Inland Revenue: indeed they give me a little spending money each year for reasons I will not go into (and it is legal). So why on earth would Saverin want to make all that money by working in Singapore and then hand it over? It makes even more sense to me now and when I commented on that whiny article on Monday -- that there should have been more fact checking -- I was more right than I realised.

I saw on a Tweet on Tuesday that Rebekkah Brooks and her husband were charged with perverting the course of justice. My first thought was that notebook computer that was dumped in a car-park in London and (surprise, surprise) found by someone going through the trash. There were actually other boxes and materials involved (see below). The computer was not dumped they claimed at the time, just left there. For safekeeping or something? Not that we have been told -- at least not yet -- but there may have been at least some addresses and other data that could have been useful; or damaging if examined. The thing that these clever people never take into account, always thinking that (based on the experience of a dogged constable who stops the car late at night) is that the police are dumb. And what people like this hate more than anything is that they get found out, but they still go down shouting.

It is actually useful to cultivate that dumb image as it goes well with the arrogance they often have to face. What these people also fail to take into account is that the same doggedness that infuriates them at a late night check is applied to detailed examination of documents, witnesses and forensic examinations which these days includes computers. The array of tools at the disposal of law enforcement is phenomenal so if you do not want anything to be found, do not put it on the computer.

While journalists will check a source and try to verify, the police will cross-reference and read every statement; and it is not just one person. I was on a murder inquiry once as the Chief Superintendent's driver, which allowed me a number of unique insights into how such an inquiry works. I was also one of those able to read the entire case; but the best examinations were by an experienced Detective Sergeant who read it all over and over again, his marker hovering over the pages, cross-checking and referencing all the time. Some minds work well at this sort of analysis, and some is done these day using algorithms, but a computer cannot repeat the human factor: the feel for the case. Some of the suspects in the News of the World enquiry and related investigations have not taken enough into account and will be singing different tunes (and perhaps wearing different clothes) soon enough.

As expected, after being charged, she made a lot of noise and accused the authorities of being "weak and unjust" -- like some in Thailand, Justice only works if it works for you -- according to Tom Morgan on the Independent who has some details of the three conspiracy charges. The BBC report on this has a gorgeous quote on this from Brooks, "[the] harshest critics can't wish to see, today, people with no involvement with the central issues being treated like this"; or maybe they do?

A Tweet this week from a user in Bangkok had me rushing to .NET which reviewed the desks of 20 leading web designers. As the Tweet noted, every one a Mac. I wonder why this would be? . . . (thanks to Dave).

Along with many others we commented on the apparent ousting or resignation of Yahoo CEO, Scott Thompson, following on from the discovery that the facts on his résumé did not check out completely. When "Personal reasons" was given as the reason for the resgination, everyone nodded sagely: this has been used as a face-saving excuse in many cases. It now appears that this was correct as reports appearing afterwards reveal that he is suffering from thyroid cancer (Matthew West, CNBC). My sympathies to him and to his family.

Local News

And as a link that might be useful to some connected with education or with kids who got to school, Federico Viticci on MacStories has an item on the iPad as the future of education and this has a video showing students using the devices: presumably the teachers have had proper training and are not resistant to anything new.

Late News

This is really late, late news as I had already uploaded the column when I saw the news on AppleInsider (as well as a number of others sources) that Tim Cook had met with John Boehner, the Speaker of the House. There is no information concerning discussions, but there is speculation concerning the 35% tax Apple would pay under current tax rules if it repatriated the billions it has earned abroad.

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.