By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

If there were any doubts concerning his abilities, his commitment to Apple and to "excellence", his great regard for Steve Jobs (BBC) and his determination that he would move on, they were dispelled here. So was his apparent humourlessness that some claimed. His answer when asked about patents, was that they are " a pain in the ass" and this had many laughing. One of the lessons he learned from Jobs, we read also in an item from Alexia Totsis on Tech Crunch, was "focus". That is the key.

Others at All Things Digital included Larry Ellison of Oracle and Pixar's Ed Catmull. Both spoke about Steve Jobs and, according to Steven Musil, remember him as a "tireless perfectionist."

Cook also talked about patents and that he did not want Apple to be the designer for the world: which is fair enough. When people steal innovation, there is no desire to innovate. He also discussed the need for fairness in FRAND licensing: it is not a way to exclude another company, but should be licensed fairly to all involved in using that technology: he of course mentioned mobile phones.

One of the things Cook said when discussing Steve Jobs was that he was a flip-flopper (although the Register only managed to repeat the second of those two linked words): subject to change if he thought it was right and not dogmatic if the time was right (Steven Musil). A good example I can think of is the idea of the apps. When the iPhone first came out, this idea was an absolute no-no; but after a few months there was enough data to see that there were possibilities there. The rest is history of course.

As for what is coming next, the most Cook would say was to imply that we ain't seen nothin' yet. But he would say nothing more than that. There were some good reports and video links from the conference on The Verge. I found that the videos from the original source (ATD) were not good enough for me to waste time on as they had that infuriating Flash panel that keeps asking me for space on my computer -- I mean, how badly made was the software that it needs this? -- but every time I clicked "Deny" (as I always do) up came the panel again. I could hear the speakers in the background, but the level was so faint that this plus Flash, had me close the page. I went to the Verge offerings later, but even these had a low enough volume that I needed headphones. Nonetheless, the All Things Digital videos are available online.

We also read in an item from Bryan Bishop on The Verge that all the appearances of Steve Jobs at All Things Digital were being made available on iTunes. The video link is working for the iTunes store here as these are podcasts. There are 6, plus a legacy item from Walt Mossberg and Ina Fried. The same items are also available as audio downloads.

As a side note (or two) here, I noticed how some of the phrases that Cook used were so reminiscent of Steve Jobs. Perhaps this is Apple-speak. One of the strong points about Tim Cook's tenure at Apple is the way he has managed to control supply lines, especially with the operations in China. We see in an article by Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider that Gartner have shown an inventory turn-over of five days. I think some stores here may have a turnover time of 5 years.

A couple of days after the conference Mike Daisey reappeared, Don Reisinger reports, criticising the hosts (Mossberg and Swisher) for their easy questioning of Cook who at least did not lie. Swisher Tweeted that his "15 minutes were up already," and acidly wrote that it was a "good effort to make yourself relevant". Mossberg followed with "being attacked by an admitted liar is sort of a badge of honor."

Talking about being irrelevant, we read in a report by Neil Hughes on AppleInsider, that Microsoft Office for the iPad is to be released this year. Maybe, perhaps. The date given is 10 November 2012 (13, 14?); but with all the other apps already available and loved by users, how is this going to prove itself essential or special, other than the name?

Of course we are going to find out some of the answers to questions about what Apple is up to in a week or so with the keynote presentation at the Apple WWDC in San Francisco. I would expect Tim Cook will come out to open the act and hand over to Phil Schiller. As part of the background, we read on Electronista that retail staff are being prepared for . . . something. It is all highly secretive and interesting with a report of Cupertinistas entering the stores and locking themselves in the server room with some "black box". What might we expect: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro (naah), iOS 6 and a maps app, Apple TV, or some other as yet unidentified product? The next few days are going to see so much speculation (much of it fluff) that it is going to be hard to sit back and observe.

More long term, we expect, is the suggestion that Apple is looking for engineers to redesign the 30-pin connector for the iPhone and iPad. This has been mentioned before, but Matt Burns on Tech Crunch has information about job postings that suggest Apple are getting serious about this. 30 pins takes up a lot of space in a small device.

Tim Cook was asked about Apple buying up companies and he said that they will continue to do so, but the usual reason was not as a revenue stream but because of technology or technical personnel that they wanted to incorporate or make use of in some way. As he was saying this, there were rumours about the purchase by Apple of an Italian music editing company, Redmatica, that had been snapped up. Ingrid Lundgren on Tech Crunch tells us that it specializes in developing and selling software for digital music editing.

There was also a report late on Thursday that Apple was to buy Neonode, a Swedish company that holds a "swipe to unlock" patent according to David Price on CopmputerWorld.

Earlier in the week, we mentioned the EFF and their call for Apple to throw open the crystal prison that all us slave-like Apple and iOS users are locked into. I was more than a bit dubious about this: what would be the result, the alternative universe that Windows and Android users have? Steve Wildstrom on Tech Opinions comes out swinging against the EFF and is all for keeping the prison as-is: locked down. He provides a number of good arguments against the EFF case. So too does MacDaily News from whom we linked to the Wildstrom article.

We have long been appalled by what analysts and Wall Street experts say about Apple and it is clear to me that they just don't get it. But who am I? Bryan Chaffin, however, of the MacObserver (who has more of a voice) brings in a link to comments by a hedge fund manager who is also sure that there is little understanding of what Apple is. As we saw not so long ago, Apple's position and size puts it in a stock market classification all its own.

Apple has a fair bit of litigation on the go right now and one of the problems is the DoJ action concerning book publishers and what it sees as a conspiracy. Apple is having none of that and went on the offensive this week filking a response (MacNN), but Jim Tanous on The MacObserver, thinks that Cupertino may have "painted itself into a corner" by use of the phrase "speaks for itself" and the evidence of certain emails already submitted.

I am always going on in comments to my students and colleagues about checking English and spelling which may not always occur here. I do also mention that native speakers are also able to make mistakes, to try and affirm the need to check (water off a duck's back in most cases of course). An awful lot of sources had the information that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney released an app with the name including Amercia (perhaps a Freudian slip?). It was later corrected to America. As a member of the Republican Party, of course, he is full of support for small businessmen (and big ones) and these are sometimes called "mercers" so the slip may have been correct in a roundabout (and wrong) way. For a change, let's use the link to the article by Chris Cillizza on The Fix. Although a revised app was released, Mutt was already paying the price. How many people looked at that before it was released?

There is some information concerning the authorisation in China of an Apple 3G device that Kelly Hodgkins on TUAW suggests may be the latest iPad which would mean that could be going on sale there soon. There is still Proview to deal with.

There were other guests at All Things Digital including Aaron Sorkin, we are told by Dan Gallagher on Market Watch. Sorkin is to be screenwriter for one of the movies: the one based on Walter Isaacson's biography that is being produced by Sony. Thus far he has not produced a script but is working on ideas: these things are not instant at all.

We live and learn. I knew I could use text to speech on the Mac and use this for preparing presentations for example, but I had not realised it was available on iOS devices too. OS X Daily produces another of their excellent hints and explains how this is done, including screen shots. I tried this out and it works fine. Useful for editing, as the oral input makes us hear what reading may miss. Like on the Mac it is also useful for non-native speakers for help when learning English.

iOS at Home

At 800 baht, the price would work for me. He tells me that he is finding it fine for what he does, which goes a long way indeed. A look around shows that Jeremy Horwitz at iLounge was not over-impressed with this product, but at least I now have a picture and I am pretty sure this was one that I saw at the .iLife store.

There is also a Thai review for the product on iMod Net (not that I can read Thai, but I like the pictures) and there is a link in that article for an online store that carries it. They lost a sale: the ordering is all in Thai. For those who can read Thai or have Thai girlfriends/boyfriends that iMod Net site may be worth bookmarking.

A blogger at learn amniisia (I think I have that right) also used one of these and has nothing detrimental to say.

As well as the installation of Note Taker HD I saw a link to a Mac App called WriteRoom which was reduced to $1.99 on Tuesday, so installed that and started to play with it on Wednesday, after uploading Cassandra. From reading some of the notes, I realised that there was an iOS version that allowed synchronisation using Dropbox -- something I have avoided so far. The iOS version is more expensive at $4.99 but there is an idea here I am working on right now about smoother use of the devices and avoiding the weight of two bags.

I started with the iPad and set up a Dropbox account, then downloaded Dropbox onto the iMac (I did this for the MacBook Pro when I came home): then the iPhone. By saving any WriteRoom documents into the DropBox folder on the Mac, all the devices (2 computers, iPhone and iPad) are syncronised.

When I use PhotoStream, that works OK, although I have Aperture set up so that it does not stream automatically (this could mean a couple of hundred images if I have been busy) and I select those I want for that service. Keynote is a little different as presentations on the iPhone and iPad are synchronised, but not those on the Mac. Users need to use a browser and access iCloud to bring down any changed presentations. Apple needs to smooth this out and provide full cloud access to Keynote. I do not use Pages or Numbers on the iOS devices.

The cloud is beginning to form here.

Half and Half

Other Matters

The report on the troubles at RIM by Paul Kunert that appeared in The Register this week was a gem for its title. I normally hate the titles at the Register as they are sneaky, cheap and sarcastic in the worst way. This however was lovely and made use of the name of the new CEO, Thorsten Heins: "RIM seeks bailout buddies as banks count Heins' beans" and as a subtitle we had, "CEO predicts more half-baked finances".

For those not from the UK, there is a famous product from Heinz: Baked Beans. This is the source of the pun of the title. Great Scott, it has its own website: Beanz Meanz Heinz.

While we are on Blackberry -- and put in the back of your mind the Thai Pads for Kids project -- there was a move in the UK a while back to give policemen on the street Blackberry handsets after the riots last year when the police were out of touch (literally and metaphorically) with the Twitter generation. The government spent £71 million on RIM products "to reduce paperwork" but the whole thing was a failure. Mind you, it sounds a bit better to me than the PYE UHF radios we had when I was a policeman in the 1970s.

The article by Brid-Aine Parnell on the Register reads almost like an article on the execution of One tablet per Child (or child over 12, or child over 12 where there is internet...) in Thailand. Do see below.

In both cases, politicians and senior bureaucrats make decisions without consulting those who are actually going to be using the things.

While Epson has added another 4 years to its sponsorship deal with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), I read in an item by David Evans on Autosport that the World Rally Championship (WRC) is to lose its Nokia sponsorship. Oh, and this week we also saw a report from Ingrid Lundgren on Tech Crunch on the departure of Esko Aho (former PM of Finland) -- Corp Relations EVP of Nokia -- who is heading for the safety of Harvard.

We have just had the Facebook IPO and already we have a Facebook is dying article. Molly Wood follows Rob Enderle into the valley of repeated ideas with dire results. It's been a week, guys and the CEO is still on his honeymoon.

Local Items

Late News

A rumour of a new iSight camera. The inbuilt ones suffer because you cannot move them about except by moving the computer and this is not always useful. MacDaily News has a link to an item that has a suggestion that the new camera might be on its way.

We read in an item by Bryan Chaffin that Sharp are to produce a 10" tablet. Sigh. . . .

Apple is being sued for its iOS developer program (Patently Apple). Another sigh.

We see this morning that the Mac App Store now has the Editor's Choice that the iTunes store introduced last week.

Do have a good weekend.

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.