By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Comments before the results are announced are varied. Perhaps quite reliable is a comment from Neil Hughes on AppleInsider who shows the figures that Apple has predicted and what the so-called analysts think Apple will produce. And of course, it does not matter if Apple is on target, failure to meet the analysts' guesses, is sometimes seen as failure: something I never understand.

Also commenting on the way many will be watching the figures, is Josh Lowensohn has almost the same information as Neil Hughes, although the opinion content is different.

On that question of reliable sources, a lot of the rumours in recent months have been coming from sources that are known to be unreliable, but that has not stopped the bloggers jumping on the bandwagon all trying - like teens at a set of traffic lights - to beat everyone else to the jump. And often getting it wrong for that reason.

Some of these sources and rumours are related by Patently Apple, including new iPhones, a 12 Megapixel camera (I wish), HDTV and a surprise that no one is talking about. The article also mentions the source: large pinches of salt may be needed here. AppleInsider also had these rumours but there was additional information in that a 4.8" version was to be called the "iPhone Math" which is dubious. Then we were told that the source of the rumours was citing "upstream supply chain sources, the China Times (via global investment news service BrightWire)", which has more skins than an onion; or more layers than one of those Russian dolls. And of course the bloggites went crazy. Wait and see.

I will leave the link to MacDaily News as this is my source and there are some suitable comments. Peter Cohan on Forbes suggests that Apple is to have its first profit drop in years (see the iPhone figures in the next item) and therefore Apple should replace Tim Cook with Jony Ive. This is another one with his eye on the short term drop of Apple stock who misses the long term life of the company. To add to that, something that I have been saying for months is contained in the headline on MacDaily News. "Apple manipulated by Wall Street Journal before earnings?" (although I think it has been manipulated by Wall Street for months)

Despite all the rumours of doom and despair, a report this week, as relayed by Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider tells us that Apple still has top smartphone spot in the US with 51% of the sales, up from 44.9% a year ago. So much for iPhone demand slumping that all the faux-bloggers have been reporting of late: how inconvenient facts can be. In the table, Android is down a bit, RIM is bottoming, Windows has crept up a bit and Symbian has halved, from 0.3% to 0.1%.

Following on from that is a comment from Mike Wehner on TUAW who writes that the iPhone was number 1 in Japan over the holiday season (as well as China). So wait, this dead product from a dying company is selling more in three of the biggest markets? Oh, and Apple's profits are closer to 75% of the market.

The production of the newest iMac has been delayed a few times with shipping times being put back once or twice. Now AppleInsider reports that there is a new delay with the 21.5" iMac which has now had its shipping time extended to 2 - 3 weeks in the UK. In the Thai online store, the 21.5" models are shown as shipping in 2 - 3 weeks, while the 27" version has a wait time of 3 - 4 weeks.

Future products are always worth thinking about with Apple and sometimes we need to join the dots as Patently Apple has done with a news report from Korea. This suggests that LG is looking at flexible displays and oxide-based LCD technologies, with the implication being that companies like Apple may take these up and these displays could be used with the iPad.

Another rumour carried by Patently Apple suggests that an insider at Hon Hai (Foxconn) has leaked information about the next iPad: a new design that will adopt narrow bezels and chamfered edge corners.

Despite the lack of Apple's official involvement in MacWorld in San Francisco, now called MacWorld/iWorld, Mikey Campbell reports on AppleInsider that the organisers have arranged for Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad who are starring in the new Steve Jobs movie to start the show next week.

There are plenty of useful tips about Macs and OS X being written daily and I manage to pick up on some of these. Steven Sande on TUAW has information that some will find useful. In Aperture I use a magnifier called a loupe, that is activated by the tilde key (to the left of the "1" key). By accident he found that this also works in Preview and from the way he describes it, it seems to be similar to the way this works in Aperture.

Another useful tip (or series) comes from Christopher Breen on MacWorld who advises users on how to limit children's use of iOS. He first writes about evaluating their use and advising, which I think is far better than using artificial gates and barriers: sooner or later they will have to face the world. If they do this with cooperation and openness, this is much better. Reading between the lines here, this is what he seems to advocate too, but does advise on some ways to apply limits.

There is another MacWorld hint from Joe Kisell this time who tells users what they can do if the Trash will not empty. There are a number of reasons for this, and the article examines some of them.

Apple users are warned about a spam threat that arrives via SMS, HelpNet Security report. Users should "lookout [sic] for fraudulent spam texts informing them they have won a free Apple product such an iPad, iPhone or MacBook." It appears to come from Apple, but has not. Although this is US only right now, there may be expansion, so be warned.

On the other hand, I had email from Apple this week that links to a page on the Apple Store telling users about discounts on Friday this week for Chinese New year. There are expected to be discounts for a number of Apple products, including MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, iPad and iMacs.

Not long after Steve Jobs died, a burglar entered the home - it was being renovated - and stole several personal items and computing devices belonging to the former CEO. He may have been caught by the simple use of Find my iPhone, iPodNN report. That house was not the only one, and he has been sentenced to 7 years in jail for a series of burglaries. And stupidity methinks: if you steal Steve Jobs' iPad and turn it on, of course Apple are going to track you down quicker than anything.

I had a phone call this week from [S]edition who were conducting a survey of those who had bought digital art. As well as being probed (nicely) I was able to give some ideas and ask some questions about the service. On the front page of the site is one of the works I bought recently, called Transfiguration - a figure walking along changes its outer form - really quite beautiful. I like to display this stuff in the classroom: it makes the students take notice.

While Thai school kids get third rate tablet computers, the Smithsonian National Zoo has given iPads to orangutans, like other zoos. In the Apps for Apes program the orangutans are given iPads as part of an enrichment scheme. MacDaily News has a longish item on this that includes a video.

Other Matters

One threat that appears to have been neutralised is the Red October network that was an online spying ring. As well as computers, the H-Online reports that it "also stole data from mobile phones connected to those computers, with special tools for iPhones and Nokia smartphones." The report has a lot of detail about how the spying and data thefts took place; and there is more to come with a Trojan called Flame.

And a further threat reported by the H-online comes from some Trojans that use instant messaging services to make their way onto computers. We did mention the one that uses Skype a few days ago, but this is a bit more complex it seems.

A couple of students testing software found a security hole so reported it and were told it was tobe fixed. When they tested again to see if the company had kept its word, H-Online reports that there were threats and one student was expelled. Needless to say, the media in Canada are on to this and the publicity will do DAWSON COLLEGE no good at all. It is not the students but the profs who should be kicked out.

A Tweet from a tech-aware local user sent me to a page where Lance Whitney outlined a device that projects a keyboard onto a flat surface. I am sure I saw this mentioned a few months back, but nevertheless this is a solution that could be useful in a number of situations, such as in hospitals where contact needs to be minimised for health reasons.

A sad announcement this week came via the Los Angeles Times where Ben Fritz reports that Atari, one of the oldest video game makers has files for bankruptcy as a way to break away from the French parent company. The company has been in financial troubles for a while and this article has some useful background on the situation.

Another company in trouble is RIM and we wonder just when the BlackBerry maker will call it a day. At least Kodak had the decency to recognise the reality of its situation. However, Steven Musil reports that the CEO told a German newspaper that although the BlackBerry 10 is out at the end of the month, RIM could license the operating system to other manufacturers. The goal is to "create a solid platform that would last a decade." We wish them luck.

This week, one of my colleagues was proudly showing off the results of several days trying to set up a 3D printer he has that will help him prototype the biomedical devices he engineers. I now read, in an item by Dara Kerr, that an architect is to use a 3D printer to carve out a building. The D-Shape printer he intends to print the building with, uses a "stereolithography printing process with sand and a binding agent" and it will be built in 20 x 30 foot sections.

Taking a leaf out of Tim Cook's book, but for different reasons, a report on Reuters, from Bill Rigby, suggests that the reason Ballmer keeps his hold on power at Microsoft is that he culls those that come close to the crown. That is all very Machiavellian (in the true sense of The Prince). In an examination of a book from a former MS executive, we hear that Ballmer "purposefully ousting any executives with potential to wrest him from the CEO seat, which he has occupied since 2000." Is that what happened to Steven Sinofsky?

Where is the surprise in any of this? [My source for the link was MacDaily News.]

We have mentioned the path being taken by the UK in which so-called "orphan" images will be usable by news organisations with no care as to the true ownership of the image: all those Facebook and Twitter images, just up for grabs. Well not in the USA - Addy Dugdale writes on FastCompany - where a judge has ruled that pictures posted on Twitter are not up for grabs. Agence France-Press and The Washington Post took some pictures that Daniel Morel took in Haiti and when he questioned them, they said that they were free for all. Not so says the judge in a preliminary ruling. The UK should take note. [I found this link in a Tweet from CC Chapman.]

Local Items

Foxconn is also investing in a facility in Indonesia.

Late News

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.