By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

I do expect a couple of columns will be written on Wednesday with real information. Of course, the Apple Event is late Wednesday our time, so we can read all about it on Thursday morning, which is what I will do. At that time we will also know the price, but some reporters, like Josh Lowensohn, think this will be the same as for the current device: the same price for more tech works for me. [I earlier write that 12 Sep was Tuesday -- brain fade as I was writing this up on Sunday evening: the corrected Wednesday is now shown (with Thursday for users here).]

In the meantime, news on that new iPhone connector: not 8 or 18 but 17 pins, AppleInsider reports A connection with the design as shown in some photographs that purport to be the real thing suggest that any connection would be smoother and we would no longer have to make sure (as we do with USB) that it is inserted the right way round into the port. As we have reported earlier, there are 8 pins either side, but the metal housing also acts as a pin, giving 17 which is an unusual number: odd, prime. Copy that Samsung if you dare.

Another possibility for the iPhone is the ability to use LTE or 4G, which will be just about useless here as they are still arguing over 3G. The reasons are obscure, but it seems to be the same chicken in the barrel syndrome that kept a workable suburban rail system from being developed for years and also delayed the current Bangkok airport: there is no second place in Thailand. That goes for driving on the roads too. Mikey Campbell writes on AppleInsider that there are reports LTE will be one of the features, but will this be true LTE or the US flavour, meaning that it will be limited (like the latest iPad) in some markets?

Along with the new phone, we will have a new iOS 6 but it is not known when this will come. My guess is that it will be confirmed on Tuesday but not released until the iPhone itself goes on sale. Bets are on for 21 September (the Singapore GP weekend).

We do know that Passbook is to be part of iOS 6 but there is much speculation that NFC (near field communications -- pay your bill by waving your iPhone near the checkout) will be part of the feature set. Most think this will not be so. However Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider discusses Passbook and its widening acceptance with two more airlines joining the club: American and Delta.

In good time, Kelly Hodgkins reports on TUAW of an app that will allow users (developers, companies) to make content for the Passbook feature.

Over the weekend there were several reports, for example from Daniel Eran Dilger on AppleInsider, about the banners being put up at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to announce the Apple Event: very rainbow. A closer look at the banner shows that each color strip is actually an app icon stretched out -- where does Apple get these detailed ideas? Graham Spencer at MacStories has some information on this and his attempt at recreating the banner can be downloaded to use as wallpaper.

The use of multi-colours may fit in with another rumour (from a number of sources) that I read in an item by Rene Ritchie on iMore that suggests there may be new multi-coloured iPods at the show too: not just the iPod nano, the iPod touch in technicolor too. There was more on this from Mark Gurman on 9 to 5 Mac who writes about the iPod shuffle, a new iPod nano, and new iPod touches. My source for Gurman's article was MacDaily News.

With the iPhone supposedly in full production a nasty story surfaced out of China at the end of last week concerning forced internships at Foxconns. I saw it on Friday morning but held off for Cassandra to see if anything else might develop. The story is still running on some sources, such as from Julie Kuehl on The MacObserver who has some information on the way a number of students were pressured into volunteering for duty. There is something in the back of my mind that tells me that if a small tech college here did this it would not surprise me.

Throw up a coin. What's it going to be: heads or tails? Don't know. Drop an iPhone, will the glass break? . . . I must admit to having dropped mine several times and held my breath until I was able to check the screen (walking in flood-water is another matter) and I have been lucky. Some people are not. So I was doubtful when some guys tried to sue Apple over breaking glass: the substance is by nature crystalline and brittle -- why you can break a diamond if you hit it right (or wrong). A judge had the same view and Alyson Kazmucha reports on iMore that he threw out the case that Apple had misrepresented the strength of the glass with a similar argument to above.

I am not so lucky with wine glasses.

There is a rumour that the iPad Retina display may be in for some sort of update, although I think this is rather unlikely. The purposes are to reduce weight and make other improvements Brooke Crothers reports.

We also hear that there could be new iMacs, which would be far more likely. Don Reisinger reports that several sources suggest Apple will have new iMacs with Ivy Bridge processors, better graphics and USB 3.0.

A warning from the vigilant Topher Kessler who reports of a new threat to the Password Utility -- it stores passwords -- that is thus far reported as a concept only. With this in mind, he hopes Apple is going to change the security aspects of the app. So do I.

A useful tip this week from OS X Daily who point out that there is a way to restore web sharing that was lost with the update to OS X 10.8. The item points out that the software is still installed on OS X, but less accessible, so there are a couple of ways to make it all work: either by commands in Terminal, or by installing a 3rd party solution, WebSharing, which installs a new preference panel.

A second useful tip arrived Sunday evening from OS X Daily that explains how to open an application directly from Quick Look while highlighting a file, which is a feature I use often.

They followed this with a 3rd tip (they have been busy) on some ways to transfer files between Macs: AirDrop, Message, AFP (OS X Daily).

Following The MacObserver's aesthetic changes last week, over the weekend I noticed that AppleInsider has had a spiffy new makeover from the serious grey to a more lively white and a font change too.

Half and Half

In a rare moment of (dubious) honesty, Samsung has admitted (sort of) that iOS is better than its version of Android, Loek Essers on InfoWorld reports: but it may simply be more dissembling as there is the ban to be factored in here. Why would any company claim its products were second rate (even if they were)? That way madness lies. Indeed over the weekend on Thai cable TV channels I have seen a number of Samsung advertisements telling viewers how wonderful their products are.

One of the lawyers argued that because "the Android based method is more hierarchical the system is more complex and therefore harder for developers to use" and this, as well as other obfuscation were part of the defence in a Netherlands court against a total ban of the devices and a recall. My source for the InfoWorld item was MacDaily News.

But what do you think the Android Tea Party will think of this rare admission? Not a lot I expect and will continue in denial.

I use the term Tea Party as a result of what I read over the weekend in the normally rather staid (but informative) Patently Apple who examine the way Samsung appear now to have filed a patent that is remarkably similar to Apple's own ear phones for the iPhone with the control switch on the cord. Jack Purcher of Patently Apple thinks this is a sort of "blind defiance" in the face of the recent judgement, but then looks at the reactions of many Android users who have a view of the trial and its result that is somewhat different to mine in a survey of Android customers: which is sort of guaranteed to get the result you want.

Purcher notes that their "fan base is . . . a boisterous one that will vehemently disagree with anyone or any source that gives Apple any credit". They think that "Apple stole everything that has made the iPhone and iPad a success". There is no arguing with those so entrenched.

Which is where Purcher's Tea Party line came in, especially when they complain that the patent system is broken, but ignore the point that "that Samsung was the number two patent filer in the world in 2011 while Apple ranked thirty-ninth". Why are all those patents needed, especially those that seem to duplicate what already exists? That is not innovation at all.

My original link for the item came from MacDaily News.

One of the sources I like to use often is John Gruber who will pull apart many allegations about Apple with his phenomenal knowledge of the company. This week, Mark Milian and Adam Satariano on Bloomberg Businessweek have a major profile of the blogger and what drives him.

Other Matters

I read somewhere that a new Kindle Fire was announced last week, which is a fat lot of good to me as the International Amazon won't sell anything except books here, and some of those at a higher price than in the US. One new feature was permanent advertisements: OK as a way to subsidise a product, I suppose, but you are buying the device and the books (which is where they make the money) and suffer ads too with no opt-out.

Well now you can -- after a bit of an outcry -- but you have to pay $15 for this (what a sauce). Scott Lowe on The Verge reported this on Saturday and there was a confirmation later from John P. Falcone who had initially been told the opt-out was not available, but after much negative feedback Amazon did a U-turn.

Although Intel is still a force majeure, it is being forced to cut back its estimates of sales for the year with the advance of devices that carry ARM processors. AMD are also facing a similar problem. Romain Dillet reports on TechCrunch that it is Samsung and Qualcomm who are reaping the benefits of the tablet takeover of the market, and of course ARM whose technology is used. Under license of course.

On the point about Samsung being a major supplier of ARM processors, we reported at the end of last week news in a Tweet that Apple may well have dropped Samsung as a supplier, at least for memory modules for the coming iPhone, Mikey Campbell reports on AppleInsider. Some products will still be ordered from the Korean company, but the iPhone modules will be from Toshiba, Elpida Memory and SK Hynix. This is not about the trial we are told and is part of Cupertino's move to diversify. Yeah. OK.

With the advance of the tablets and what is called a poor economy, PC sales hae taken a hit and Charles Cooper tells us that we are about to see the worst 3rd quarter in the history of PCs. Try as he might, he cannot ignore that Apple (as well as Google) are raking in the cash right now.

But no one buys Macs. . . .

But Apple shares? David Alton Clark writes on Seeking Alpha that investors should "Sell PC Players And Buy Apple Before It's Too Late" Dead money walking.

I have often mentioned the significance of Alan Turing to computing as well as the campaigns to put the record straight about his conviction, punishment and subsequent suicide from an ungrateful British Government. Not long ago, Google had a tribute to him and now the company that owns the rights to Monopoly -- a board game -- have issued a Turing version, using the board that he designed with a Bletchley park co-worker (Chris Matyszczyk).

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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.