By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

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Apple Stuff

One of those reminding us of the Apple Financial report was Federico Viticci on MacStories, who has a link to the Apple announcement which also provides the way to access the audio link (when it is live) on 23 January at 2pm Cupertino time, as well as a number of useful facts. There is also the reminder that Apple is usually conservative on predictions, so often has a report that looks good, while analysts often guess wildly wrongly, then blame Apple for their own wrong predictions: the analysts', not Apple's.

Also giving us information about the financial report to come is AppleInsider, who mention that we may expect to hear about performance numbers for the iPad mini. We are also reminded that "Apple forecast revenue of $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75 for the quarter ending in December".

I think the wildest rumour of the last few days concerned coloured iPhones. We have actually heard this before, but Neil Hughes on AppleInsider suggests that the iPhone 5S (not the 6 that was mentioned in logs and that we discussed Wednesday) and quotes Brian White of Topeka who expects "pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate shades currently found on the iPod nano". There is more: multiple screen sizes are suggested. And Jony Ive in a scarlet t-shirt, too?

On that larger display, Patently Apple has some comments, including Phil Schiller's defining idea of the hand as the important limiter for a phone. There is a point there. Someone in our office has a larger screen Samsung thing that I watch him use as a phone. The thing looks daft tucked under his chin: it fails as a design exercise right there. It is just overdone. I did try one once in a class, when a student who was in an accident phoned a friend and asked to speak to me: it was not an easy call in more ways than one.

A more believable rumour concerns the display type of the iPhone. Electronista reports that there is a rumour suggesting Apple has been testing a "touch on" display for the next iPhone as the iPhone 5 sensitivity may not have been good enough: slow touch response and some interference problems. Perhaps related is the news from AppleInsider that Corning is to produce Gorilla Glass 3 which is stronger and more scratch resistant.

While it is reported by Lance Whitney that Samsung's share of the US market is now 26.9% (up from 25.7%), Katie Marsal on AppleInsider also writes that the iPhone (the single device) now has a share of 18.5% of subscribers in the US; a rise of 1.4%.

One of the fastest spreading rumours this week was the idea that Apple was to acquire the mapping company, Waze, although a report that I saw Friday morning from Don Reisinger suggests that this is not going to happen at all and that reports have been fabricated. I saw the rumour first in an item by Mike Butcher on Tech Crunch (source MacDaily News) who relates the success of Waze to Google Maps and the Apple Maps replacement, so there seems some sense to this, although no one is talking. Sam Oliver on AppleInsider also mentions this and the point that Siri was once an app in the app store. All is possible.

Another possibility is the upgrading of wifi in new Macs that will be released in 2013 to be able to handle the new standard of 802.11ac, or Gigabit Wi-Fi. Katie Marsal on AppleInsider reports that Apple may be acquiring chips from Broadcom which would allow 5G Wi-Fi offering up to 1.3Gbps data with a three-antenna design.

This of course would need new wifi routers in the house, and seems a waste when round here, for example, we are currently working with 7 Mbps (on a good day with a following wind); but this is not really the point as anyone following Apple will have noted. The key is the digital home, when all devices are connected by superfast wireless connections, with video, audio, images are streamed through the house to a variety of devices.

A couple of weeks ago there were some dubious reports that suggested Apple and Intel were working on some sort of watch that linked to a computer. Neil Hughes on AppleInsider looks at an extension of that rumour that has one analyst examining the idea of Apple wearable computers. Note that the analyst is Gene Munster who seems to be more wrong than he is right, and ranks in my book not far behind Rob Enderle these days: especially with this. OK, he is looking long term - real long term - but including clothing, shoes, belts, earrings, bracelets, hats, seems a little too fanciful to me. Stick to what you know.

It may be a coincidence, but Patently Apple is reporting on a new patent granted to Apple concerning "a method and system that would more efficiently deliver power throughout a home via an intelligent power-enabled communications port." The diagrams are interesting and remind me a little of the way it was thought possible to wire a house for Ethernet; but there was also the work that many, including Siemens, on using the domestic power supply (and its connectors) to transmit data.

There were several reports Thursday evening and Friday morning concerning a home automation business that Apple (and Google) had reportedly sniffed round, and Microsoft bought. In a report from Randy Nelson on TUAW, we read that id8 Group R2 Studios which was started by Sling Media founder Blake Krikorian in 2011 had so far released one product an Android app for communicating with Crestron home automation systems. I wonder how well those at Microsoft play poker?

Not related, at least as far as I can see right now, is the news from Michael Grothaus on TUAW that the fibre optic Thunderbolt cables may soon be produced by Sumitomo Electric Industries. Currently all Thunderbolt cabling is metal and there is lower data transfer because of this. With fiber optic, things will fly.

There were a number of conflicting reports over the holiday period concerning downloads and the implications. Earlier reports had Apple clearly leading. Mike Wehner on TUAW adds to this with the combined figure for Android and Apple reaching 65% higher than normal.

Also with some interesting figures was Florence Ion on Ars Technica who has download figures for the top 20 countries and Thailand is in there. The US is clearly ahead - way ahead - with 604 million, with China and the UK following (183 m and 132 m respectively). Thailand is at 17 with 22 million, ahead of Malaysia (15 million) and behind India (24 million). It is interesting to factor in the respective populations: that would make India lag but Malaysia surge. Oddly, with the number of smartphones in the country, Singapore is not shown at all.

There was an interesting point mentioned by Mike Schramm on TUAW this week concerning pricing of apps. Over the last year, "35 percent of paid apps on the store ended up dropping their prices at some point last year" and there are some other useful comments on pricing too. I am reminded of the comment by Ballmer to developers, when he suggested that low prices were not the way to go and they should make money by putting the price as high as they could. We can see how far that one went.

An analyst has named Apple's app store as the best overall app market: better than Google or Microsoft, according to Mike Wehner on TUAW.

It did not go all Apple's way over the holidays as a fault appeared in the Do Not Disturb facility in iOS 6: it stopped working and Apple says it will be back with us on 7 January. A number of reports commented on this including Chris Foresman on Ars Technica. It reminded me of something in alarms a couple of years ago that also packed up on 1 January and came back a few days later.

There was also another report, from Don Reisinger, on the move of A6X production from Samsung to TSMC. This has been suggested before on a number of occasions, but this looks at the idea of a trial period, which if successful could see all such production headed for Taiwan.

The movie on Steve Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher is apparently set for release on the last day of the Sundance Film Festival, Electronista reports: April 2013. There are also some words on this from Mike Schramm on TUAW.

While I offered some suggestions on how to use Apple's ability to generate sound output from text this week a hint from Paul Horowitz on OS X Daily tells users how to go some way to blocking calls we do not want: or at least identifying and reacting to those persistent ones that we really do not want to talk to.

Half and Half

There is more concerning the case in California in front of Lucy Koh, who seems to have done some sterling duty in the last few months. Joe Mullin on Ars Technica reports that a number of decisions were made including the unsealing of some documents Samsung wanted kept secret, and criticising both parties for the large amount of documentation: too much paperwork that was just so much of a smokescreen.

Now, however, a company called InterDigital is calling for a ban on wireless devices made by Samsung, Nokia, ZTE, and Huawei and say that they have have engaged in unfair trade practices by selling certain 3G and 4G wireless devices that violate the seven patents, Lance Whitney reports. It seems significant that Apple is not in there.

HTC are reportedly a lot happier than Samsung is ever likely to be: they know when they really are onto a good thing. Mike Schramm reports on TUAW that Ray Yam - president of HTC China - that they are happy to be free of the lawsuit and the licensing deal gives them a better way to navigate the telecomms world.

Other Matters

On this idea, there seems to be an insidious series of approaches to small businesses, involving a limited number of lawyers and a lot of shell companies, all going after small businesses in the Atlanta region. On Ars Technica Joe Mullin. reports on the way a specific patent concerning the way scanners can be connected to the internet. Mullin has a useful and extensive examination of this and the way the lawyers slide around concealing their intentions and who they really are. All a bit slimy really.

With problems anywhere you want to look in the world, North Korea is not one's favourite holiday destination; although there is great potential there for business. And food. There have been several stories over the last few days, concerning a visit that Google boss, Eric Schmidt was intending to make to the country ostensibly for humanitarian reasons. This is apparently not going down well with the State Department, Donna Tam reports.

Local Items

I wrote back with a brief summary of the main points: The new guide is not good enough. Not enough content. Cost-cutting. Not a proper service for all users.

So far I have had no reply to that.

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.