By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Fortunately this weekend I have been saved a lot of work as the Macalope whose columns I usually reserve for my own amusement (and silent confirmation that I really am on the right track) scores a bullseye. Several in fact.

Apparently, some bit has switched somewhere - like a Manchurian candidate being triggered - and everyone is willfully ignoring the state of things in Cupertino. Samsung, meanwhile, gets a note from its doctor to skip Ethics 101, and a writer for The New Yorker uses some bad examples to show how "badly off" Apple is.

It just gets better from there. We did mention the "reality distortion" idea last week, as well as the Doug Kass ethics lesson; plus the ethics lesson about the UK judge who got all out of shape about Apple, but now works (indirectly - so legally if not morally) for Samsung.

And then the New Yorker. That this publication has a reputation for accuracy and integrity is (or up to now has been) without question. The fact-checking department is legendary with a concern for the "prime source" - not unchecked third-hand information that seems to be the stock of many calling themselves journalists these days. So when an article on Apple appeared, by James Surowiecki, following the same tired, hand me down arguments that many who should not really be commenting on Apple rehearse, a lot of people stopped what they were doing. And then they cried "foul".

The New Yorker does not have a tech department, per se, but on occasion there have been some well-researched articles on technology. One example was the Xerox mouse that many think Steve Jobs stole. Too convenient, that idea. As Malcom Gladwell wrote in the excellent May 2011 New Yorker article, it may have been the brainchild of Douglas Engelbart at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, but making it work as a realistic computer peripheral was the work of Steve Jobs and his team working on the early Mac development. The story also appears in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs and I was surprised by the similarity between the two texts. I did write to Gladwell asking about this but had no reply.

That was a great article and it was well-researched. That the Macalope and others are able to attack Surowiecki is because he just follows the herd without examining the real situation, including the success of Samsung (20 million devices in a year) against the disaster that is Apple (more than 40 million in a quarter).

Also commenting on that New Yorker article was Rene Ritchie (iMore) who asks, "Does a magazine like New Yorker need smarter tech coverage?" and mentions that "Two of the dumbest memes in recent history". One of those concerns the Apple is closed, Google is open, idea and John Gruber on Daring Fireball, has a field day with another New Yorker article on Apple, this time by Tim Wu.

As is often the case, Gruber writes at length, but it is by working through such items as this, rather than a 10-line 4th hand summary in an online source that people can actually understand that Apple is not the share price, nor (totally) the innovation. And it certainly is not a religion as some critics often throw up.

Another article with a theme similar to the Macalope's came from Rene Ritchie on Sunday who, like me, struggles to understand the anti-Apple articles, although (like Ritchie) I have mentioned the point that headlines sell, Apple headlines more and negative Apple headlines sell the most: "the only thing of interest remaining to an attention-seeking media and greedy money maker community is watching them fall. Even if that fall is completely made up."

As above, the article also includes the Macalope and Gruber but ends with a warning: Apple should not "switch to a reactionary strategy" but keep on making those great products that sell. And sell so well (despite what some tech writers would have us believe).

Before the Apple shareholders meeting there was some discussion about what to do with the cash that Apple has on hand. Not that Apple was a party to any of the discussions: Wall Street decided long ago that it should not be retained by Apple but they are just figuring out ways to get their hands on it, without thinking that most of it is in other countries (so the $137 billion is academic really) and that repatriation would make it liable to a 30% levy.

That has not stopped the attempts to try, by way of articles, punditry, and of course that case brought by David Eindhorn, ostensibly about Preference shares, but really about ways to share that cash. With a judge deciding for Eindhorn and Greenlight Capital over the way the vote on the issue was to be put to the meeting, Apple withdrew the motion; and now Eindhorn has withdrawn the lawsuit, Wallace Witkowski reports on Market Watch. Having seriously upset the status quo he expects we will all get back to normal. [My link for this was MacDaily News.]

As Wall Street and the Kassites appear to have brought the share price tumbling everyone is wringing their hands with wailing and (virtual) gnashing of teeth about a price that is simply on track from 2008 up to now in a straight line. The Wall Street wet dream was what sent the share prices soaring in 2012 and we trust many of these fools got their fingers burnt.

One of the themes that has been aired over and over since Steve Jobs died was that Cook must go. Some do not like him because he does not have a stage presence like the former CEO; others because he is quietly spoken. They do however ignore his proven abilities at supply chain, which has paved the way for much of Apple's profitability in recent years (not just since Steve died); and his ability to wield power was demonstrated with the removal of Scott Forestall who was a Pretender for the Throne (and may still be - at least in his own mind).

So when Huff Post in another of its consistent downs on Apple - this one by Jason Gilbert - goes for Cook with the statistical suggestion that every time Cook speaks, Apple shares go down, one wonders what is the real purpose behind this. And have no doubt, the terminology and use of words like, "ignominious streak" should leave us in no doubt of the intent here. [My link for this was MacDaily News whose own comment is not exactly pro-Cook, although this source has been critical of him on a number of occasions in the past.]

Along the way, the old argument about Apple licensing the OS often comes up. The last time this was done (as Gruber - above - points out) Apple nearly died. Now there are wails from the sidelines that Apple should licence iOS. Why on earth should it? Everyone and his dog tells us that Android is just fine and does things so much better than iOS and Apple's walled garden, so why would anyone want this? Perhaps the grass is greener after all. Patently Apple tackeles this question and also the idea of some form of makeover. Now that is possible; but from a company that never innovates, are the Androidettes not expecting a lot?

And if anyone thinks that Apple is not considering an update, as part of the evolution, then you deserve all the Androids you can afford.

Ah right: no one buys Macs. Not so these days with there being a far wider acceptance in the business world, unless you are a system administrator unable to think outside of the Microsoft box. The iPhone and the iPad have forced some changes in business, but it is interesting to speak to those who have changed their work places to all Mac from PC-oriented.

I met a couple of guys in Bangkok who could not understand why they had not made the move years ago: and the old comment, about "my staff will not be able to. . . " was firmly put to rest in one office. The girls made the switch in days and never looked back; with the boss making more on not having to pay out for maintenance and downtimes, especially from viruses, to recoup the investment in a very short time. Galen Gruman on OnfoWorld is also seeing a change in enterprise wit far wider acceptance of Macs and he has a useful article on some of the system management tools that are now available. [My link for this was from MacDaily News.]

While we are on innovation, it was revealed by a number of sites, such as Panic dot com over the weekend that a teardown of the Lightning Digital AV adapter, shows that this has a SoC CPU: there is an ARM processor in there and they theorise that the adapter outputs video by using AirPlay. One of the other sites carrying this was AppleInsider.

As a side note here, AppleBitch reports that Apple wants to recruit an Engineer with expertise in anodizing processes. The article continues, "The person will apparently be working on new aluminum anodizing processes and additional surface finishing techniques such as blasting, polishing and PVD, or Physical Vapor Deposition." And then the article mentions the rumours about all manner of different iPhones - colours and types - that the pundits are convinced we are going to see real soon now.

There is a really good example of bad checking this week from T3 dot com, who may have been a respectable tech site, but slip in a beauty about that Judge working for Samsung (or not), writing that "Sir Robin Jacob - now retired from the judiciary - has been hired as a consultant by Foss Patents in Samsung's lawsuit against Ericsson." Foss Patents, for those who have not seen my use of Florian Mueller's excellent online resource (with web pages, Twitter and RSS feeds), is an online service that tracks patent cases - particularly Apple ones - throughout the world and is not a law firm. And it is certainly not helping Samsung. I reloaded the page on Sunday afternoon and it still displays that glaring error.

There have been supply problems concerning the latest iMac computers in recent months, with delays up to 4 weeks in some markets. We are told by Mark Gurman that all this is behind us now as the latest shipping times are showing 1 - 3 business days in the US shop. I checked the online Apple store for Thailand and the delays are still showing 2 - 3 weeks for the 21.5" models and 3 - 4 weeks for the 27" ones.

There have also been loads of problems over the years with Adobe Flash with some users coming round belatedly to realise that Steve Jobs was right (again). Actually, most Mac users were with him at the time of the open letter as the experience of using Flash on a Mac is often dire. Note that users of iOS devices have no access to Flash and the experience (with continuing high sales) would seem to contradict the idea that you must have Flash. Josh Lowensohn reports that a recent security update from Apple blocks older versions of this Windows-based software (that is why it is so bad on OS X).

Talking of the iPad, we keep hearing rumours (about 2 years now) about a version of Office for the iPad. Too little and too late is my take on this. There are much better apps without going through all that MS bloat. Anyway, Redmond apparently think they should be immune to Apple's 30% deduction that ALL developers have to agree to. Woe betide Apple if it does let that one slip through. MacDaily News links to an item that discusses the tardy arrival of such a suite for the iPad and is rather critical of the lack of direction that Microsoft is showing: as it often does - a bear arriving late to a party still wins through size alone.

I think they should stick to the Surface tablets, although there is apparently not that much room to spare, as millions have already found, you no longer need Microsoft (or Office) to work.

A minor criticism on the iPad, with a let-out appeared in a lengthy Electronista item at the weekend concerning repairs to the device. As iFixit intimated in its earlier teardowns, it now confirms in its report on the top tablets that the iPad is not easy to repair (the Surface is worse). However, that is tempered by the point that, of tablets in the market place, the iPad appears to be the most reliable of all tablets.

A year or two back, there was a considerable amount of controversy concerning the tracking that carriers and some handset makers did. Apple, Google and Microsoft took the brunt of the investigations with Senator Al Franken leading the charge from the rear. It seems however, that a lot of Apple's tracking was actually prediction. I have proved this with a map of the antenna tracking me on a weekend up north. Some sites were marked and I had not been within 100 kms of them. They were shown as they were where I could have gone. At that time, the data was stored on the iPhone and could be viewed on the Mac after synchronisation.

That feature was cut in an update but as the APIs were also updated some developers were still permitted access to the data. Kevin Bostic on AppleInsider reports on a case in the US about this so-called tracking as the litigants are trying to turn it into a Class Action suit: more money that way. Apple allowed certain apps to gather personal information without their consent, the plaintiffs allege, but Apple is saying that they have failed to show that the tracking has actually caused any damage to them. The Class Action move is to try and recoup legal costs.

While to many people David Bowie was a creature of the 1970s, like Peter Gabriel in the 1980s, he is still influential. This week, he pre-released a new album, called The Next Day on the iTunes store and pre-orders took it to number one in 34 countries, Kevin Bostic reports on AppleInsider. And great Scott, it is in the Thai iTunes store too ($8.99 pre-order).

Those problems with letting others use your iTunes account may not be over for some and I guard my password carefully. However, Jacqui Cheng on Ars Technica reports on a kid in the UK asked Dad for the password and junior had access for 15 minutes. In that time he managed to run up a bill of around $2500. It is of course Apple's fault, the father suggests, even though the switch for control is in his hands and it would be wrong to hope Apple will issue a refund (as it did in this case).

Half and Half

I had an email on Sunday morning telling me that Evernote wanted me to reset my password after an insecurity had been discovered. The email looked OK and when I examined the source, all the source addresses seemed to check out, but I am just too wary these days. It seems that this was genuine and that Evernote has reset all passwords: users must go into the site and create new ones, Louis Goddard on The Verge (among others) reports

Other Matters

I have covered the use of the Internet and related security matters in the UK, the US and other countries, including the way the governments in those countries keep trying to have new internet control legislation created; but a report by Mike Masnick on TechDirt this weekend would appear to suggest a new, sinister turn of events. The British Phonographic Institute is already telling courts which sites should be blocked, but in a recent case, decisions were made with no presentation of evidence: "again, there was no hearing, no defence, no cross-examination of evidence" and web sites can just be shut down. My link to this came from a Tweet put out by a local user.

We may try to keep our phones nice and shiny, but these are apparently a magnet for germs and bacteria, Kristy Korcz reminds us on GeekSugar. She outlines a few ways in which to clean off some of the nastier things that we may be carrying about and (remember) putting near our faces.

A security warning concerning HTML 5 came overnight and was put out by many sources, including AppleInsider. A problem with HTML 5 coding, "could allow websites to bombard users with gigabytes of junk data, with a number of popular browsers being open to the vulnerability". Named in the article are Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Opera, which could cover most users I know. Apparently "Mozilla's Firefox . . . capped storage at 5MB."

The others allow storage of 2.5 MB but there is a loophole that creates "numerous temporary websites that are linked a user-visited site". It is possible to create unlimited storage space on a user's computer. Bug reports have been sent to the browser developers.

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.