By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

A leak from a Chinese site, which will no doubt infuriate Tim Cook, purports to have seen the specs for the new MacBook Pro 13" reports Don Reisinger.

Preparations have now begun to prepare the Moscone Center West in San Francisco Matthew Panzarino reports (with pics). We always look carefully at the posters and themes to see if we can outguess each other on what Apple has in store. Apps, iOS 6. . . .

Of course, Apple may simply clear the decks before the conference and make a separate announcement, or just change the online stores. They have been testing changes already. This option would be useful if there is a lot of business to cover at WWDC.

As well as probable updates to Macs and the announcement about a new iPhone, center-stand at WWDC will be iOS 6 and there are lots of rumours about this. One that appeared on MacNN was that Siri could be made available on the iPad.

We have also heard several suggestions that Google maps is on its way out and that a new app will be available that uses other sources for mapping according to a link on MacDaily News that takes readers to a Wall Street Journal article if you have subscribed.

While we are on the iPad, we have looked a number of times at the variety of uses these have been put to, not the least in the airline industry. Several articles, including one by Chris Oldroyd on iMore covered the news that a budget airline called Scoot was using the iPad for in-flight entertainment on its planes. What this has done is to save out 7% from each flight's weight, with a consequential reduction in costs (less weight = less fuel) and 40% additional space for seats (more passengers = more income). Scoot is apparently owned (or part-owned) by Singapore Airlines.

We must also not forget OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion which, bearing in mind this is a developers' conference, is bound to feature although versions have been in the hands of testers for months now. We will doubtless hear more about what it can do and there will perhaps be a release date. While I am betting on July, there can always be surprises.

Oh and there is that iPad mini that keeps putting its head above the grass. This week Neil Hughes on Apple Insider mentions this long-rumoured 7" device in the context of a September release and the suggestion that it could be education-bound. We will believe all of this as and when (and if) it is announced.

As part of a clearing of the decks, MainStage has been updated to version 2.2.2 we are told by MacNN. While, also on MacNN we read that Apple TV firmware is updated to 5.0.2.

I am not convinced that this will find its way into any product from Apple in the immediate future, but Slash Lane reports on AppleInsider about a new product from Corning, who make the Gorilla glass used in the iPhone: Willow glass. Aptly named really as this bends and flexes like the tree that is often found at the sides of rivers, and from which baskets and cricket bats are made. MacDaily News also has a report on this and there is a video embedded in the page as well as a link to FoxNews who have another article on this. That Corning video is worth viewing: the company have thought out the possibilities quite well including printing on the glass which comes in rolls and flexible displays. Impressive stuff. Minority report anyone?

For the second time in a week, the Apple store went down on Tuesday: at least in the US. I saw a report that came out early afternoon, and by the time I was home the Thai (and US) store was its normal self. We may, however, see more changes in the next few days, especially Monday (Tuesday morning here).

A major change with OS X 10.7, Lion, was the loss of Save As, although it still exists in a couple of third party applications I use. It is a pest not to have this I think and was one of the changes that I am not happy with. Another concerns the way Safari wants to reload pages that have already been downloaded -- all in the interests of efficiency. This does not take account of local network weaknesses: and boy are there weaknesses here. A couple of writers have looked at the Save As situation and offered solutions: one of these is the Duplicate although that is a bit messy. Topher Kessler runs through some of the alternatives and explains in some detail how we might get the best out of what Lion offers.

As part of the move to avoid carrying the Mac backwards and forwards to work every day, I have started to rely more on the Cloud, which includes Dropbox and WriteRoom as well as Apple's iCloud. I made some changes early in the week and accessed iCloud using a browser at work. I added a calendar item on the iPhone and it took ages to appear in iCal, so I checked the calendar on iCloud (they should all be the same).

The entry was on the iCloud calendar but instead of Thursday after lunch, it was shown as running from Wednesday 11 pm until 1 am on Thursday. I checked settings and made sure the Time Zone was checked, but there was no change. I checked time zone settings on the Mac but they were OK, however, when I looked at email on iCloud, that was also hours wrong. I checked the iCloud preferences again and then noticed the small print. I had to exit the app to the iCloud login panel and click on my name. A panel there showed that I was using Pacific Time: Cupertino. I changed that to Indo-China time and made sure Bangkok was shown. The emails registered the correctt times. I did however have to exit iCloud and login again before the calendar entries slid to their right places.

As a note, I wrote this on WriteRoom on the iMac at work, saved it and opened it when I got home using WriteRoom on the MacBook Pro: copy and paste got it here.

Half and Half

Other Matters

Hagen, Silvia. IPv6 Essentials. O'Reilly; Sebastopol, CA. US$44.99. ISBN: 0-596-10058-2

Today is the day, finally, and we are told by Andrew Webster on The Verge, that the new protocols will be launching with several major players all on board, like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. Most of us should see no difference in the services we receive -- at least that is the theory -- but Webster's article has a link to a couple of handy sources that many might want to look at.

Vinton Cerf who is now Google's cheif evangelist but was credited as being one of the co-creators of the internet for the packet switching system they came up with, was interviewed on IPv6 by Stephen Shankland and the comments on this and other internet related items is worth a look.

Vinton Cerf along with some US senators have been warning (crying wolf?) that the United Nations is trying to take over the internet. The US (and Cerf) invented it, and they are darn well gonna keep it. Frederic Lardinois on Tech Crunch looks at how the rumour started and the story behind it. There are a lot of other interests out there these days and these may not always coincide with US interests -- as is common with much in geopolitics. ICANN controls things now and they are wise to keep this away from the US government. The UN is not the US government, but many in the US do not trust the UN: perhaps for similar reasons to why many do not trust the US government.

We are aware that we are constantly under some form of attack on our computers, whether it is gentle probing by companies whose software we have installed, like Adobe or Apple, to more serious attempts at access by outsiders, we need to be vigilant. It was interesting to read in an item by Frederic Lardinois on Tech Crunch of a new service by Google that warns users if their accounts are under attack by states or groups that are state-sponsored.

A couple of items this time about Windows 8 and apart from Microsoft, not too many people are impressed. John Dvorak is one. Sure he is often wrong too and is reported to be more about hits on his pages than much else, but taken in context, his comments that "Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future" is at worst, interesting. He wrote this on Marketwatch, but my original source, MacDaily News is also worth a look for the comments on Dvorak that are there. Hard call: who is trusted less, Dvorak or Microsoft.

But then the context changes slightly when we read an item by Kieran Cummings (on The Register) who is a sysadmin in Australia, who writes that Windows 8 is not ready for business. His detailed review is worth looking at if anyone were to be thinking of taking this rash step.

Later on Tuesday I saw a further report from Alex Wilhelm on TNW who has also had a look at the new OS and is also unimpressed: "Its user interface is chaotic on all screens but the smallest" which is not very good for an operating system meant for desktops and laptops as well as mobiles. They have not been paying attention up at Redmond. Maybe Dvorak is right.

As a late note, Topher Kessler tells us that Parallels has added support for Windows 8 for those Mac users crazy enough to want this on their computers.

We often go on about security, passwords and the like. No one, believe me, is immune from thieves or other means of loss. Putting it all back together, unless you are totally backed up is a pain in the rear end (and not just because you need to spend a lot of time sitting down making the fixes). It was interesting to read on the Help Net Security site that Stella Rimmington -- her real name we are informed -- former head of the internal security service otherwise known as MI5, had her laptop lifted last week at London's Heathrow airport (itself once known as Thiefrow). There is no information as to information on the computer, the password protection (if any) or encryption. Fingers crossed.

HP made an announcement via a press release this week concerning the record backup speeds it had been able to find with its HP StoreOnce system of 100TB per hour with data recovery up to 40TB per hour. We can think of a few companies and banks round here who should have a look at this.

Not doing too well is RIM who seem to be in all sorts of problems right now, not the least of which concerns the share price, currently at its lowest level ever: just below $10 according to Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider. Campbell has no mention of this, but the price would make the company a prime candidate for a takeover. Not that the technology is particularly wonderful, but the patents it holds and its highly thought-of messaging system will retain some attraction for potential investors.

My opinion about acquisition was supported Wednesday morning by Richard Saintvilus on The Street who is also predicting this and says that a buyout is inevitable despite $2 billion in cash, NO debts and over 78 million subscribers worldwide. (My link for this was MacDaily News)

We mentioned an error in an app by the Mitt Romney campaign, who had used Amercia instead of America, but according to Ethan Klapper on Huffington Post, they are making a habit of this and now have three spelling errors to their credit (credit?) this week. As well as Amercia, there was "sneak peak" and "Offical gear." But then what do you expect when "alot" is used so often and online forums and blogs are full of the same, mainly down to the fact that most Americans do not read, so all input is aural. Clearly some people online haven't got a clue how to spell (and I am not immune from the occasional typo).

And then some make silly Tweets. I have criticised ASUS chairman in the past for that horrible presentation that introduced the Padphone (product as well as presentation are dire). We are not sure who made the Tweet that had a sexist comment on a comely lady's nether regions, but ASUS was quick to remove it, although not before -- as Chris Matyszczyk (and many others) reports -- it was saved and is in the article for all to see.

Silliness appears to abound when it comes to computers. I have reported a number of times about Orbicule's security software, Undercover (nearly got my PowerBook back if the police hadn't been so slow with the IP numbers), and there have been several other stories. Huffington Post reports on a stolen laptop from Michigan that snapped a picture of the thief and sent it home. That is what Undercover does. Let's hope Stella Rimmington had that installed.

Quite a while back I was intrigued by the music of a young Scottish musician who went by the name of Unicorn Kid. His real name is Oliver Sabin and he made music using the chips from old gaming machines and at 16 had quite a following. He is 20 now and details can be found if you do a search for Unicorn Kid on Google. The type of music is called Chiptunes and Adi Robertson on The Verge has a fairly lengthy and informed item on the Blip Festival held in New York. Don't throw that old Nintendo out: make music.

Local Items

I had an email on Tuesday morning purporting to come from LinkedIn, the professional networking service and it is just as well I never click on these right away. The subject matter was the problem: why would I forget my password? Letting the cursor hover for a moment over the link, gave me the answer: this was a phishing email with the host service in Utah.

Late News

Morgan Stanley, a company with an impeccable reputation when it comes to investors and investing, is now lending shares of Facebook to short sellers, Alex Wilhelm reports. He also explains what short selling is and why this is worrying.

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.