By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Over the last few months, and particularly in recent weeks, I have been writing regularly about the negativity I see in many sources: from Tim Cook being the death of Apple, to questions on the loss of Steve Jobs as guiding light; plus a number of other, Apple is doomed scenarios. I am glad to see that Jonathan Littman on Huffington Post (which is one of the worst) has been taking notes as well and he analyses this phenomenon in "Shorting Apple" -- a quick way to grab headlines.

Indeed, when I started the eXtensions column in the Database, no one was really on board; but these days everyone is an expert and you cannot move for Apple news most notably from those who were not interested a year or so ago, local hacks and Tweeters included. No point in me trying to write anything, there have been ten identical, breathless items before I have had breakfast.

Littman analyses the way in which pundits have been producing their stories -- many of which are erroneous -- and groups them in three ways: The Achiiles Heel; The Parabolic Curve; and They can't continue forever. He has examples for each and shows how wrong they are and continue to be. I did a search and Rob Enderle wasn't mentioned once. He fits in all three of the groupings.

Also on the same theme -- and demolishing the theories of those who suggest that Cook is to be a danger for Apple -- is a report from Don Reisinger on the ways that the CEO is changing the company for the better with moves that would have been considered impossible when Steve was in charge. And despite Cook's reported coolness (it is perhaps shyness) Sam Oliver on AppleInsider reports that he has taken to sitting with random employees at lunchtime and he is described as down to earth and easy to talk to.

In common with a lot of execs who are aware of the wider economy and how people feel about excessive remuneration -- particularly with failing banks that still award their bosses multi-million dollar bonuses -- we are pleased to see in an item by Josh Lowensohn that Tim Cook is opting out of dividend payments from the company. I seem to remember that this was announced when the dividends were originally announced some weeks ago. That is $75 million he has turned down.

I was sent to the site of Le Figaro following a Tweet and a report there appears (my French is not that good these days) to tell is that the Vice President of Apple Europe, Pascal Cagni has been dismissed. A later confirmation of this was in an item by Matt Brian on The Next Web who adds that it was a resignation although this is as yet unconfirmed.

Jonny Ive went to see the Queen this week. Actually he saw the Princess Royal who dubbed him Sir Jonathan as we expect her Majesty is tied up with Jubilee celebrations and may have had a headache or something. The BBC has some good pics of this: the investiture, not the headache.

Actually the Queen is far less snooty than people outside the UK think as long as you behave yourself and was far more to the left than Margaret Thatcher -- the Queen actually cares about people. A nice story appeared in an Independent obituary this week -- for former editor of the News of the World (he only lasted a few months) Barry Askew. When the Queen complained to a gathering of editors (a clutch, a quill, a gaggle?) about their hounding of Princess Diana who had gone to the shops to buy some candies (the Queen used to go shopping by herself in an old Rover), Askew asked, "With respect Ma'am, don't you think it would be a good idea if she sent a servant out for the wine gums instead of going herself?" And she rounded on him: "That is a most pompous remark, Mr Askew," He was gone from the News of the World in a week.

Back to Jonny Ive who was widely quoted in a Telegraph interview. One of the gems that came out was snapped up by many of the sources I access. I will select just one -- Bryan Chaffin on The MacObserver -- who tells us that he was asked which Apple product he would like to be remembered for. A paragraph is needed here. . . .

His reply has had everyone in a tailspin: "It's a really tough one. A lot does seem to come back to the fact that what we're working on now feels like the most important and the best work we've done, and so it would be what we're working on right now, which of course I can't tell you about." Or does he mean that, whatever they are working on (and whenever) is always considered the most important, to be replaced by the next priority when that comes along?

But what? Better than the iMac, the iPhone, the iPad. What do we have to look forward to. And when?

And in a BBC interview, we are told by Bryan Chaffin on the MacObserver, Ive says - among other things -- that he wants to stay with Apple. Well, good.

As a side note (perhaps) Electronista reports the granting of a patent to Apple for an optical stylus: they note the Jobs quote that disses any stylus. Having a patent and making a device are not necessarily the same.

We also hear from AppleBitch that the dictation system that we have on the iPad may be coming to our Macs too.

The Department of Justice insists it has a case against Apple and 6 book publishers, but not everyone is convinced and certainly not Apple who are accusing the DoJ of doing Amazon's dirty work. Bryan Chaffin reports that Cupertino has made several assertions in court documents and insists that "The government's complaint against Apple is fundamentally flawed as a matter of fact and law." Fact and law. Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider also has a look at this.

We are rather taken with the way that Autodesk has reinvented itself and got to grips with apps as well as fallen in love again with the Mac platform. There was news from Matt Burns late on Tuesday on TechCrunch about another app from the company, called Sketchbook Ink App for the iPad which is another drawing app (Matt uses the term, doodling). As I already have the rather good Sketchbook Mobile that can sync via iCloud, I am going to pass for now, although the new app is only $1.99 and is available in the Thai app store.

Too little, too late? There are rumours this week that Microsoft is to release an iOS version of Office in November. A number of sites had this, and Sam Oliver on AppleInsider reports that the full suite will be coming (too much, too late?) and there will also be versions for Android phones.

What would a week be without someone coming out of the woodwork and suing Apple for something that it has been using for a while. This week it is the turn of STEC IP who are not to be confused with STEC, who are so concerned that they put out PR, according to Matthew Panzarino on The Next Web, to tell everyone that it was not them. This patent is all about synchronizing data which we do a lot of on Macs and iOS devices and the company has been buying patents about this, including one from Symantec. Amazon, Google and Oracle are all in the cross-hairs here: STEC IP has been deliberately focussing on this aspect of tech and hopes to make a killing perhaps.

And also what would a week be without a helpful hint from OS X Daily who tell us about a keystroke cheat sheet they found.

Also with some helpful information is Matt Neuberg over at TidBits who has been making discoveries about zombie documents: the ones that keep reappearing in applications when you thought you had already killed them. He thinks he has a silver bullet or something and explains why this odd feature keeps bugging him (and me).

This morning I see in Software Update that there is an update to Aperture (v. 3.2.4) which "Improves stability on Mac OS X Snow Leopard; and Addresses an issue that could prevent the Viewer from updating correctly after editing a photo using an external editor." It is just over 550MB so I may leave this until things are quiet.

Half and Half

Other Matters

There has been a lot of speculation about the Google and Oracle spat over patents, and there was some surprise (I admit being surprised too) when the jury found that there was no infringement on the two patents they considered. Only two, remember. The foreman is reported as saying, in an article by Steven Musil, that Oracle wasn't even close. We will see now what the judge has to say about the rest of the mega-case.

A detailed look at the current case and the future is provided by Foss Patents (of course).

Google however, did lose significantly to Microsoft in another patent case this week in Germany. It was actually a Motorola problem, but that is Google's now. It could mean a ban on Android in Germany, but Roger Cheng suggests this could signal a sort of truce. Also hoping for some sanity to appear in these disputes is Florian Mueller who cites the actions of MIT (yes, the university) who have a strong case and want licensing fees, but are not about to ask for a ban.

I tried to avoid too much discussion of Facebook and its IPO taking a "wait and see" attitude, but there may be a bit more to the drop in the price than first appeared. It may also be that those traders and bankers had their sticky fingers in the mess again.

According to a report on Huffington Post by Andy Ostroy the information provided to ordinary buyers of shares was not the same that Wall Street gave itself. He writes, "As a result, the IPO, and its lead underwriter Morgan Stanley, is under investigation by the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Massachusetts Secretary of State, whose office subpoenaed the banker over its discussions with investors over the offering." Some buyers did make a killing, but others without the special knowledge that some of Facebook's forward looking predictions were not as good as had first been suggested, have lost. Heads will roll perhaps. Marcy Gordon on Huffington Post reports that the Senate Banking Committee is going to have a look at the allegations that some clients got better information than others. I wonder what that "look" will prove as they have done precious little about the banks so far.

Oh, nasty, nasty Facebook. Like a lot, I linked to the wedding photograph of Mr and Mrs Facebook taken at the weekend, but had not realised (see below) that this was the work of a professional photographer. Apparently one of the best, Noah Kalina -- so much for the unplanned nature of this wedding (and I bet there is a pre-nup) -- took the pictures but the photo on Zuckerberg's Facebook page had no credit, no name, nothing. Noreen Malone on The NewYork Magazine has some information on this and the poor way the photographer was treated.

I have my own Facebook problems, as the AMITIAE page I have been using for a year or more, decided to go on strike yesterday, when I was trying to update a link to an article I had on the significant update to StegoSec, software for Steganography. I had uploaded a link the night before on the iPhone tripod attachment I just had delivered, Glif, but could not add a new Facebook link. Oh well, Plan B: use my own account (it is linked there anyway). It is the same 24 hours later, even after a Safari restart, so ready to be abandoned.

We are told by numerous sites this morning that despite the recent purchase of Instagram, there is a new Camera app for Facebook that works like Instagram (Michael Grothaus). This is available in English speaking countries and I see nothing on my account: maybe I will find it later. Time to abandon Facebook? Boardroom coup?

We have had a fair amount of news concerning the hard disk industry of late with the floods cutting production in Thailand, and this affecting world supply. Now we are told in a report by Nilay Patel on the Verge (as well as many others) that Seagate is to buy LaCie. I like LaCie. I have a couple of their disk enclosures and these have never let me down (a recent hiccup turned out to be a cable connector): plus they are nicely designed. I hope that Seagate continues this. There was no mention of the other parts of the business, like their highly sought after displays.

And what would a week be if we had no exit from RIM. Scott Lowe on The Verge reports that Executive VP of sales Patrick Spence has resigned [there are sales at RIM?] to take a leadership position in the industry: fat chance of that at Blackberry these days.

I have to step outside IT for a moment to comment on the ridiculous use of the law in a county in Mississippi where a county supervisor is trying to have a regulation brought in that would ban sagging pants (Huffington Post). You have to read the quotes to see how out of touch some people -- people in positions of authority -- are sometimes: ""Young people have to pull their pants up . . . Most of the young people with their pants down are people who think they're gangsters. They have the wrong outlook on life. It's not a fashion thing. It's a criminal thing."

It is not, it is an old-fashioned person's thing; a freedom of expression thing; a personal choice thing. Having lived through fashions from teddy boys, Mods and Rockers, punk and seen the latest trend for tattooing over much of the body, sagging pants is nothing. Nothing but a symbol of facing in the wrong direction. One would think that with Mr Stokes background, human rights would be paramount in his legal forays, not spinsterish comments on other people's underwear.

Local Items

Late News

Apple reached a settlement with SimpleAir over a patent in a case filed in 2009 (AppleInsider)

Bump was among the apps in my list updated this morning and I see we can now sync with the computer. More details from Leanna Lofte who writes that it takes a browser connection. It may not take the place of Photostream for me.

Several sites have news about the removal of the Airfoil Speakers app and there are no reasons given for this. The app has been available for a while. There is speculation that some features will be in iOS 6, but this seems to have been poorly handled by Apple (Matthew Panzarino, TNW).

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.