By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

However, first some interesting news for those in Asia, from Seth Weintraub on 9to5 Mac about a new Apple data center: but this one is to be in Hong Kong. Groundbreaking should begin early 2013, in the New Territories region of Hong Kong near the Shenzhen China border. The scale of the construction is said to be "unprecedented". Apple is using some of its offshore cash reserves.

It is also pointed out by MacNN that Apple is to open five new stores this week: in Valladolid, Spain; Sindelfingen, Germany; La Toison d'Or in Dijon, France; Valley Plaza in Bakersfield, CA.; and at Il Leone in Lonato, Italy.

On Monday it was announced that the iPhone 5 pre-orders had passed 2 million in the first day. One could almost hear the gnashing of teeth from all those correspondents who were trying to convince readers (and themselves) that Apple had a dud. There was nothing new here and it was time to move on.

Unfortunately for them, they do not control the consumer and consumers as customers were voting with their credit cards all day Friday. I lost count of the number of sites that covered this -- it was even on Thai TV news, lunchtime Tuesday -- but it looks as if the first I saved for later reading was from Neil Hughes on AppleInsider, who also writes that there were strong sales of the older models too: these saw price cuts with the announcement of the iPhone 5. I also read an item by Rene Ritchie on iMore with the same theme.

Tech Crunch also followed with a reasonably sarcastic headline, "As Expected, The Boring iPhone 5 Breaks Previous Sales Records", with an article by Matt Burns, who examines the iPhone experience as a large part of the reason for the excellent response, but does nothing much to relieve the point about technical innovation.

It would appear also that the iPhone has begun to ship a report on AppleBitch claims. As customers are able to track shipments (see below) it is evident that some of the devices have already left China and are heading for their new users.

The loss of magic was a continuing theme by some early commentators, but as I found over the weekend, they were either trying to draw a line in shifting sands, or had not looked closely enough: mostly the latter. Patently Apple, which has become slightly more partisan -- out of exasperation perhaps -- points out some of the sources of these "lost magic" articles and there may be a connection to Samsung: not directly, perhaps, but the winds are blowing from that direction. It is also pointed out that the death of Steve Jobs has not finished off Apple (something many American and European writers cannot quite get right) but "Steve Jobs created an army and its name is Apple Inc."

Tim Cook's introduction at the event was masterly. Just enough facts, just enough derision for the missing opposition and a couple of well-placed jokes delivered in that dry manner, before handing over to the major advance troops, headed by Phil Schiller and Scott Forestall, with Jony Ives on video as backup.

There was also some faux news on the iPhone. Not the simple lack of detail but a totally false report by Fox News that used a concept phone that was rolled out several months ago. As Chris Oldroyd on iMore complains, " I really can't understand why a news network like Fox can't carry out some simple research on a product prior to reporting on it to a huge audience."

A number of my sources had a look at that Samsung ad that I mentioned on Monday: their side by side comparison, which conveniently missed a number of facts. Dave Caolo on TUAW has a brief look and wonders about some of the points Samsung was trying to make.

One thing they missed, which I mentioned on Monday was the breakdown of the A6 processor and I have long seen this move towards independence from the mainstream processor makers as a potential Apple strength. Ashraf Eassa on Seeking Alpha analyses the discovery of the A6 design in terms of a future Apple strategy and tends to think that while Cupertino may indeed capitalise on this in the mobile market, they are unlikely to do so with computers. I quite see his points here although I would like to imagine that some time in the future, perhaps when iOS and OS X are closer than at present, there could be a processor that was a complete Apple design and not an Intel chip that everyone gets to use.

With iOS 5 almost upon us, I was discussing this with a colleague in the office on Tuesday. He is going to let me upgrade first and then try himself later if my upgrade is OK. It always goes wrong for him, he told me. But then he added that he had been trying a developer version and had problems after that was installed: which is the point about developer versions. It is rare to have a perfect experience, which is why Apple puts these out: to try and discover problems before the full release, not to give some folks a bling advantage over their friends. There are too many people in Thailand and elsewhere who think that is the point of developer releases, so someone is breaking the terms of their non-disclosure agreement and that should be addressed.

There was a flurry of overnight news concerning the AT&T announcement recently that it would not allow Apple's FaceTime to be used over its carrier system unless the user had a special plan, which has now been followed by legal filings from interest groups. Josh Lowensohn reports that three public interest groups have filed complaints concerning Net Neutrality: "a clear violation of the FCC's Open Internet rules."

There were a couple of important iOS app updates on Tuesday evening with Twitter (5.0) and Dropbox (1.5.5) both posting major improvements and fixes. There were also updates to Air Sharing and Files: both early apps that were invaluable for transfer of documents between the computer and the iOS device.

We also read in an item on AppleInsider that a ticketing company called Accesso is one more joining the club that is to use Passbook in the new iOS 6 release. This will allow access to Columbus Zoo and other venues.
The mini iPad rumour took another breath this week now that we finally have the iPhone 5 announcement and Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider reports that it is expected that Pegatron (not Foxconn) will fill most orders. This is in line with how Apple has been trying to diversify the supply chain and as well as Foxconn being affected by this rumoured decision, Samsung could expect less business.

I was a bit put out on Monday afternoon when I saw that the new EarPods I had ordered from Apple had come from Singapore in double-quick time then passed through the airport and arrived at the DHL depot, only to be held there, "1 to 2 business days later than we originally committed," according to the email from Apple.

This sounded just like my order for Snow Leopard and for iLife disks. The MacBook Pro 13" I bought online did arrive when they said it would, although it was delivered to the wrong part of the university and had to be retrieved. However, on Tuesday morning I saw that my new toys were on the way and the box arrived as I was buying lunch. I managed to write a review of the EarPods and took a fair number of photos in the afternoon.

On Wednesday morning a report on iFixit has a teardown of the new EarPods. As usual there are some stunning photographs, but to get inside the Pods themselves, they needed a cutter: "The voice coil is supported by a composite diaphragm made of a paper cone and a polymer surround" - the first time Apple has used paper rather than all plastic.

I have also continued my look at Terminal for new Mac users this week, with an other item added to the list:

1. A Quick Look Round
2. Basic Navigation
3. Shell Basics
4. Lists and Manuals

Half and Half

Another comment on the advertisement comes from Kate MacKenzie on PixoBebo who explains why Samsung needs to lie, cheat, and steal to compete with Apple. But the Korean company is not taking any of this lying down and Ben Kersey on The Verge reports on how Samsung is putting information online that -- in a form of desperation -- it wants to tell the world how the court decision was wrong and Samsung never copied anything at all from Apple, especially rounded corners. Keep screaming rectangles and rounded corners, like democracy and justice, to anyone who will give you the time of day and a few people eventually believe.

It was not Samsung's week last week and this week is no better as Judge Lucy Koh has ruled that the injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is to stay in place, Jeff Gamet reports on the MacObserver

One of the false claims that appeared after the Apple v Samsung case, more as a way to try and steer the public perception, was the claim that Apple had patented those rectangles and rounded corners. Florian Mueller on Foss Patents revisits this wrong assertion and uses this as a reference to criticise Google comments, especially as Google was founded on a patent: linked documents. And this, as Mueller points out, is the point of the world wide web: it all depends on linking. And perception.

Motorola -- now part of Google -- made complaints about the use of certain patents in Apple's devices, most notably iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Macs, and have asked the ITC to look into this, Don Reisinger reports.

Other Matters

Leica are well known for beautiful cameras. One of my colleagues has one and I would love to get my hands on it. So expensive though: way out of my range. However, we are told by Michael Zhang on PetaPixel that Leica is to produce a one-off special and that this will be designed by Jony Ive so we might expect something rather special indeed. The camera is not yet designed and will be auctioned off when it is created with the proceeds going to charity. This story appeared in several other outlets not long after I read that.

Also on the camera front, an announcement from Sony reports that Hasselblad will work with Sony to cultivate new markets for photo enthusiasts and consumer digital imaging products. Hasselblad is keen to expand and develop its product portfolio to include a new range of advanced mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, followed by new DSLR and compact cameras. Hasselblad and Sony have agreed further on plans for the two organizations to work together in efforts to achieve technical and engineering breakthroughs in various photographic technology challenges.

Patently Apple could hardly keep the laughter in check over an item that its sister publication, Patent Bolt had discovered: How to Silence your Device by whacking it off. Now those from the UK or with less than perfect English skills may be in need of a little assistance here, but the term can also refer to an American expression for a particular form of self-abuse. So Microsoft wants us to do this to a phone?

To complement the idea, as with all patent applications, there is a diagram that shows a single hand in the act of whacking the phone. I think. The diagram also refers to input from "Exemplar whack event data". Patent Bolt are right, this does get funnier as you read it, adding, "Microsoft provides twenty-six exemplary ways to whack your device off including exemplary multiple whacks with acceleration - relating to data of course."

Not connected (as far as I know) is the news from Tom Warren on The Verge that RIM, makers of the BlackBerry have signed a deal with Microsoft to use file system patents that Redmond controls: the exFAT system. There is a good comment about the value to all about licensing here; and a dig at Android,

Epson continues to develop its solutions for digital camera viewfinders and this week announced a new Ultimicron panel that has increased resolution for smoother gradations with no color break-up. It is 0.48 of an inch diagonally and offers XGA (1024 x 768) resolution in red, green and blue for a total of 2.36 megapixels.

Local Items

Late News

And the first review for the iPhone 5 comes from Jim Dalrymple on The Loop.

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.