By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

In one of those tear-downs of software AppleInsider reports that others have found that in the current version of the iOS software there is a hint that FaceTime could have 3G support in the future. Currently it only works on wifi, but I find, for example, that when I am out, I am more likely to be using 3G than wifi as free wifi is almost non-existent here. My original link for this was MacDaily News.

There had been some news on the new nano-SIM card that Apple was trying to develop. It came up against a string of objections from RIM, Motorola and Nokia particularly. Now, Kelly Hodgkins reports on TUAW, a couple of the objectors have put forward their own adaptations. There is a tentative maybe here.

There are certainly some changes occurring within Apple these days. We remember in the last year the setting up of research facilities in Israel, and now Apple appears to be creating another such establishment in Russia, MacNN reports.

As usual, Apple is being sued by someone new this week: this time over the transition to iCloud from Mobile Me. A free service from a paid service. And having paid, to have the carpet pulled out from beneath can be annoying. I was particularly upset that keychain synching has gone as that is really useful when setting up a new computer. There is detail about the case in an item on Electronista. The filing mainly complains about email which is not really a problem for me, but there were changes I do regret.

I have been trying to find a keyboard solution for the iPad for a while. Every time I go to a store that lovely Apple wireless keyboard was suggested, but apart from being expensive, it is not the sort of thing to sling in a backpack. I finally found a Bluetooth keyboard with a case that goes part of the way to giving me a solution to using the iPad as a replacement computer, but it does have some limitations.

Apple announced its iTunes Festival for this year, to be held in the Round House, Camden Town, London: 1 - 30 September. This venue has become a major artistic centre but it has had a few changes. It started as a railway turntable in a building (I saw one of these at the Old Oak Common depot in west London): the steam trains need to point in the right direction. I fell out of use and may have been used for a while as a storehouse for booze.

Then it became a theatre in the 1970s and I saw a production of Brecht's Edward II (a reinterpretation of the Marlowe play). Now it has been much refurbished and extended. Lots of famous names perform and, as Rene Ritchie tells us we will be able to watch live performances on our iOS devices. There is more about artists and tickets (not that I will get one) in an item by Dave Caolo on TUAW.

Another interesting tip appeared in OS X Daily this week concerning PhotoStream, which I am using a lot, but which sags a bit with Aperture. With the process that is explained here, I can now view images directly in the Finder, so if I need a pic quickly and Aperture is still thinking about things, I can grab it from here.

I am confused. I was put right a week or so ago when I spelled the name of Ashton Kutcher wrong and may have referred to him being in a movie on the life of Steve Jobs bankrolled by Sony. But there are two movies I now have confirmed in an article by Sean Hollister on The Verge. Sony are producing one based on the Walter Isaacson biography and will be using Aaron Sorkin (whom I mentioned Friday) with Steve Wozniak as adviser. The movie with Kutcher is by Five Star Productions and they are already filming at Jobs' childhood home.

Graphic Converter

New features:

• 64 bit support added
• support for large images with more than 16,000 x 16,000 pixels added
• EMF import added
• EMZ import added
• cpbitmap import added
• added import of FLIR raw data to context menu
• added mirror indicator to menu items
• added batch scale to size with crop
• added interpolation of EXIF date function
• added option to show elapsed time in slideshow
• dds import improved
• added rating filter to sort popup in the browser
• WMF import resolution change added
• added open and save to multiscale dialog
• added option to replace underscore with space in html catalog creation
• page up and page down do advance random slideshow in sorted order
• enhanced multiscale dialog
• key command for moving selection added
• added option to set predefined selection
• added histogram equalization batch
• added equalizer batch
• added highlights and shadows batch
• changed format of stored catalog settings to XML for better compatibility

A note on the 16,000 x 16,000 image size support. The pictures from my Nikon D7000 are 4928 x 3264 and they can be exported as fairly large TIFF images, so the size here indicates larger, professional cameras. The installations was easy and there were zero problems.

Half and Half

Not for the first time, I was on a bus this weekend watching someone with a Samsung phone, convinced initially that I was looking at an iOS device. It was only when the lady accessed music that the green color of the controls -- identical in shape -- told me this was not iOS. A closer look showed the Samsung name on the phone.

This week the CEOs of the two companies will meet in San Francisco we are reminded by Steven Musil and there is some hope that there will be, if not a deal, then some steps towards a deal, but it may not be helped by legal filings that are coming to light that accuse Apple experts of slavish devotion to the brand as reported by Foss Patents. That really is a problem: if you like something and are asked to express why, what language do you use as an expert to express an opinion? If you play it down, then the case may not be proven; of you are enthusiastic, out comes the stale old "fanboi" argument again.

It is not only Apple having such patent decisions enforced. This weekend, Foss Patents reports that Microsoft has had a ban enforced against Motorola devices, which is a little interesting in view of what is happening in China

Other Matters

I am trying to avoid it as much as possible, although on Friday it was almost the only news in town: the Facebook IPO. And when the deal was done, because it sagged slightly, all the pundits came out of the woodwork for a second time and told us that the sky was going to fall. It did not, but the nicest news of the weekend was that Zuckerberg married his long-time girlfriend with suitable gifts and sappy reminders, such as chocolate mice.

There were of course countless articles about this. I link to the first one I saw by Kim-Mai Cutler on TechCrunch. Nice dress and he wasn't wearing a hoodie, which is interesting after all that noise about being disrespectful to Wall Street and investors. Maybe Zuckerberg had a far better idea of what he was doing.

The move to create an Eduardo Saverin Bill moved a bit closer -- you think? -- when the Speaker, John Boehner, put his extra weight behind it and demonstrated how little he knows. He is reported on Huffington Post as saying that to "renounce his United States citizenship in order to avoid paying taxes on his Facebook stock was "absolutely outrageous,"" when as has been widely reported in the news, although perhaps not "all of them" he renounced his citizenship last September. It should also be remembered that he had no choice as a 13-year old in being taken to the US (for safety reasons) by his parents. So like many Thais I know who were born in the US and who have a decision to make when they come to 18, that is not the same as a renunciation facing anyone US-born.

Boehner adds to the impression of this being a knee-jerk, voter-grabbing action, by also saying that the "move was "already against the law," likely referring to legislation written in the 1990s by now-Sen. Jack Reed". So if there is already legislation, why is there a need for more? Indeed, all of this is now so aimed at one person (Saverin) that it cannot possibly turn out as anything more than a witch hunt with Saverin as criminal-victim, making those politicians look more out of touch with the electorate -- especially young voters -- than normal. A pity the same care over taxpayers money was not used on Wall Street and the banks.

Local Items

The source said that CAT would end cooperation with TrueMove H, meaning that TrueMove H would no longer be able to get import licences for new equipment but might be able to continue operations on existing equipment for the time being. The source also said that CAT's own 3G network My 3G, which runs on the TrueMove H network, is to be cancelled to prevent legal complications.

Situation normal I guess. Brinksmanship, threats and power plays, with the consumer not considered and in the end always screwed.

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.