By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Am I making this clear? There is so much crap put out about what Apple does and what some fantasize it should be doing that these disparate figures end up being interpreted as failures when they clearly are not; and there are so many headline hunters trolling for hits: a disaster makes better news than a success.

Unfortunately it seems that the 100 million or so users of iOS 6 are reporting a 0.1 satisfaction rating lower than for iOS 5, Mel Martin reports for TUAW. No mention here of statistical variance?

Fortunately there are sane heads about and Zach Epstein reports on one analyst who regards the launch of the iPhone as "epic" (with reasons why) and suggests that we should not be fooled by the (record) 5 million sales for the first weekend. A longer view is far better.

After the iOS 6 update, much comment came on the heels of the supposed problems with Apple's new Maps App (real and imagined). There were a few saner comments as the realisation that this was on the way to a fix -- where it needed fixing -- and that the alternatives in some cases (especially Google Maps) were no better, or even worse.

Indeed, Daniel Eran Dilger reports on AppleInsider that Google subsidiary, Motorola, faked a NY address to show how Apple's maps could not find a location, while the Razr M can. Tested afterwards but not by Google, the iPhone was correctly able to find addresses in the same street. Instead the knee-jerk press switched to purple halos. This is an effect in some light conditions that certain lenses will exhibit, and rather than being unique to (and hence a problem with) the iPhone 5, it is common with many cameras, particularly when the camera is pointed towards the sun.

While some tried to make heavy weather of this and produced pictures to prove the point, especially with comparisons between iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s, like Charlie White on Mashable, others like Matthew Panzarino on The Next Web did the same and came up with haze on both cameras, with the older device exhibiting a worse display of the artifact: "The iPhone 5's image is better by far and actually produces reduced flare, so I'd call that an improvement." He went on to detail the problem and how all lenses produce this and there were also a number of useful reader comments. Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider also had a purple iPhone 5 image or two, but pointed out the same basic ideas as Matthew Panzarino and dismissed the panic of another iPhone 5 problem. So how did Charlie white produce those perfect pictures?

I was critical of a fairly unscientific drop test of iPhone and a Samsung device that appeared last weekend. In the final analysis, it failed really to prove anything: if you drop phones maybe they will break, maybe not. Somewhat more to my liking is an analysis of the iPhone 5 and 4 screens using a stereomicroscope. Kelly Hodgkins reports on the work of Bryan Jones of the University of Utah who tested the two devices and found that,

. . . the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4's pixels are about the same size, but the iPhone 5's are more vibrant and have better contrast than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5's pixels are also more square and less oblong than the pixels in its older counterpart.

A link in the article takes us to a page put together by Bryan Jones where there are a number of interesting images of the displays. The page also has a link to another academic analysis of the iPhone concentrating on its saturation and examining this against Apple's claims. Jeff Yurek writes that "Apple did an exceptional job improving color saturation and display quality in general, but the unit we measured just missed the 44% more color saturation claim", concluding "it's an exceptionally well-calibrated and accurate display for any kind of device, especially a smartphone."

Despite the purple flaw that isn't, Lance Whitney reports that the iPhone has passed regulatory approval in China and that suggests one more step to a release there: let's see how the figures fly then and what the analysts say.

A proud new owner of an iPhone 5 found that there were images on the camera roll and a look showed these to be test images from the factory. Mikey Campbell offers the images and a possible explanation. As a note, the images were edited by AppleInsider to keep some sensitive information from readers' eyes.

The update to iOS 6 produced several changes that I am still going through and I have been helped by an item from Chris Armstrong on The Industry who has come up with a side by side comparison of versions 5 and 6, making the interesting comment that "Some of my favourite features . . . are UI enhancements and are therefore not headline-grabbing". Very Apple, really.

One of those new features is Do Not Disturb which I have been using this week after reading an article on this by Allyson Kazmucha on iMore.

The Maps app still held a firm position in the news but one interesting revelation was that although Apple had come up with its own version of a Maps app now, there was still a year to run on the contract it had with Google. Victor Agreda Jr., reports on TUAW that "Apple felt Google's offering was lagging behind. Plus there's the contractual limitation of turn-by-turn directions" and other reasons. As one source had it, Google was Skyhooked. Jeff Gamet on The MacObserver also reported on this.

However, one app developer has had some spin-off success, Darrell Etherington reports on Tech Crunch with a transit app called Embark seeing 100,000 downloads since the release of iOS 6.

Kate MacKenzie on Pixobebo has not been impressed by the app switch here and thinks this is a negative part of the Apple experience and that too much control is being exercised from the Mother Ship these days, turning Apple into what it initially despised.

I saw last night that Camera +, one of my useful photo apps for the iPhone had been updated, but this morning in an item by Darrell Etherington found that this is also now available for the iPad (when I sync, I guess). Worthy app indeed, this would seem to expand its usefulness.

Rumours this week suggest that Apple is beginning to develop products that are made of carbon fiber. At least some of the components of an upcoming devices appear to be made of this, which would make the device somewhat lighter than a metal device. What it is may be a secret for now although the MacBook Pro could be a favourite here AppleInsider speculates.

As well as products and releases, Apple was being blamed by some because of the riots at a Foxconn factory. Quite how sadistic security guards and staff that object most strongly to being beaten about the head can be laid at Apple's door in a factory that makes parts for several manufacturers, is a bit beyond me. However Shara Tibken writes an article (without mentioning other companies) that puts the real blame at delayed overtime payments which will now be speeded up. A worker (singular not plural now) was struck during a rally and that escalated things. Well, it would, wouldn't it?

News of another Java exploit that would affect Macs was reported by Victor Agreda Jr., on TUAW, but Java is not bundled with OS X now; this is proof of concept only; Oracle knows and should be working on a fix.

Other Matters

I am a fan of Dropbox which seems to work a little more easily than iCloud, although the two are very different cloud services. Federico Viticci reports on MacStories that a new beta version of the software brings a number of useful new features including an attractive new menu system as well as support for Notification Center, a new installer, and better performance. There is no release date for the finished version as yet.

There was an interesting interview report by Alex Williams this week who had spoken to the former CEO of Sun, Scott McNealy who in one part of the interview made the worthy comment that "the tech world no longer has a major corporate supporter for open source."

Epson corporation are reporting the arrival of their next-generation receipt printers for quick and easy web-based systems:

Intelligent receipt printers have XML Web service print functionality built-in. This means there is no need for users to install applications and drivers on each terminal within the system, and no need for a print server. Epson's intelligent receipt printers come standard-equipped with the ePOS-Print API. This API can be used to easily write printing programs for intelligent receipt printers, programs that can be embedded in Web applications. Epson's intelligent receipt printers are also equipped with a streamlined PHP web server. Web applications can be stored on an SD card, and PC-less systems can be built. In addition, you can connect and control up to 20 other TM printers on a network.

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.