By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Other rumours that seem to have some substance to them came in a number of reports this week concerning meetings between Apple executives and those of Beats, the music streaming service. Mark Gurman on 9to5 Mac reports that both Tim Cook and Eddy Cue met last month with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine and although there is nothing concrete reported, there have been noises off about Apple and a streaming service, so this could fit nicely. There is also no information if the two would work together, or if Apple would buy some (or all) of Beats.

Also reporting on this is Mikey Campbell of AppleInsider who mentions an earlier report that Jimmy Iovine had said in January he was to meet Eddy Cue. Iovine was earlier involved in the setting up of iTunes deals with the label Interscope-Geffen-A&M. However, later reports suggest that there is still some haggling to do over the price with Sam Oliver writing on AppleInsider that the low royalties offered by Apple are not making the record companies happy. But the service seems ready to go according to the information here about buttons discovered in iOS 6.1.

I was chatting to a class of students this week about how Art mirrors life, or more precisely how often Life mirrors Art with the predictions we see in old movies and books written a century ago. I pulled out a couple of items, like the flat screen TV and a device like an iPad in the 1936 movie, Things to Come.

The references were also included future technology in comics such as Superman, and Dick Tracy with the wristwatch: from that time the wrist-worn communicator has been a dream of many. Some take this as a sort of inspiration that they believe Apple will be working on. Not so fast.

I do not believe that this form is what Apple is working on at all for a number of reasons, most notably because the watch has a limited appeal. Many commentators may have talked themselves into a corner by specifying the concept of the iWatch and if there is some device that is worn, it may be something else. Jim Kerstetter for example speculates that this is just a fashion thing and may not be a big thing after all. As there are a number of devices that have now been dubbed "Smartwatches" Apple does not usually come late to such a party although he wonders (if they are working on something) just what will it need to make it that bit more smart.

Indeed, it would have to be so smart that one of the leaders in the field, the CEO of Swatch, does not believe the iWatch is going to happen, with the "primary difficulty in having a watch replace a smartphone would be display size", Kevin Bostic reports on AppleInsider. Nick Hayek, the CEO, also explains that a watch is not suimply an accessory for many, but an item of jewelry, so becomes replacable (which would of course do wonders for Apple's sales) so this would not fit with the type of device Apple excels at. But then Jordan Kahn, also reporting the comments of Nick Hayek, points out that the CEO of Palm said something relatively similar to John Markoff, not long before Apple produced the iPhone.

In what Jim Dalrymple calls the stupidest headline of the week, Nate Sawnner explains in Android Authority, in what may actually also be the stupidest article of the week, why the iWatch could destroy Apple. I suppose it is good to recycle, but not the leftovers of all the other speculations that have still proved nothing and have nothing to work on.

As the Macalope points out when discussing the iWatch commments, "Apple products are still the most reviewed before anyone has ever seen them."

And the iPhone is now the dominant device in the smartphone market in the US, according to a report cited by Jim Dalrymple on The Loop, with 37.8% market share in January, up 3.5% from October. Samsung is also up (1.9%) with a market share of 21.4%. Kevin Bostic on AppleInsider tells us that that gain of 3.5% was at the expense of Android with HTC and Motorola falling by a combined 3.1%, wiping out the Samsung gain. Google (Android) now has 52.3% of the total smartphone market.

Mind you, there is one area in which Android is wiping the floor with Apple. F-Secure reports that the OS accounted for 79% of all malware in 2012 and 96% in Q4 2012. The information is reported on the MacDaily News site. The link to the report opens a PDF document. A follow up I read on Wednesday morning from Jordan Kahn on 9to5 Mac has comments on this and a Tweet from Phil Schiller: "Be safe out there."

It is Apple against Wall Street again this week as the company is optimistic about its upcoming products, while the analysts are cutting their predictions, Neil Hughes reports on AppleInsider. Despite meeting with Apple execs this week and listening to their own outlooks for Apple, Ben A. Reitzes of Barclays Capital later lowered his price from $575 to $530. On Thursday evening here, the share price was shown as $425.66.

While I would prefer to see Apple produce its own processors for the iOS devices (and the Macs come to that), although it has a number of facilities capable of the tasks, AppleInsider reports on a rumour that appears again concerning a link between Apple and Intel to build the A series processors. This could suit both companies as with PC sales falling, Intel wants new products (and markets) while this would move Apple further away from Samsung which would be a good thing. MacNN also has some information on this idea and has some input on the previous time some of these ideas appeared (as well as a neat pic of a chip).

Over the last couple of years Apple has taken a considerable amount of unwarranted criticism over the alleged behaviour of some of its suppliers with many commentators wanting to apply western norms to Asian behaviour. MacNN report that with the workers in plants limited to 60 hours overtime a week Apple now claims that 99% of plants are now in compliance with this rule.

It is interesting also to see that in the article MacNN point out that the same plants carry out work for other companies that were not criticised in the same manner that Apple was: "inordinate publicity blaming it for previous problems" they write, adding that,

Foxconn, as an example, also helps build most Android smartphones, the Playstation 3 and Wii U, HP computer, many Android tablets and a host of other devices for smaller companies.

They also point out that Apple is the only company of Foxconn's clients [my italics] that has proactively promoted a system of greater worker rights, safety and education, and stricter enforcement of both overtime limits and rules against underage worker hiring.

Didn't I write all that when the New York Times started the ball rolling?

In another court case that Apple has ongoing, it is being sued for its alleged monopoly behaviour over iOS apps. Jordan Kahn on 9to5 Mac reports that as there is not an aftermarket of apps, Apple, it is claimed is behaving like a monopoly. Apple of course denies this and asserts that "charging a price for distribution of a product on a new and unique platform doesn't violate any antitrust laws. . . ."

As a note, being a monopoly is not against the law in the USA; it is abuse of the monopoly position that can be.

Some of those guys ought to visit one of the Thai malls and see the booths jailbreaking iPhones and iPads, then selling a package of apps on the cheap, taking money from developers and from Apple as well as putting their customers at risk.

A new build of the OS X update to 10.8.3 was released to developers this week, Jordan Kahn reports on 9to5 Mac. He reports that the company asked developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. I hope that means the way Safari wants to reload pages it has already downloaded will be fixed, but I somehow doubt it.

He adds that this build appears to include support for NVIDIA's Quadro K5000 graphics card that the company announced for the Mac Pro in September.

While we are waiting for the 10.8.3 update to OS X, Topher Kessler reminds us that the current version of Mountain Lion occasionally needs some nudging. I use Launchpad a fair amount, but not in the same way as the iPhone Home Screen that it is meant to emulate. Sometimes, stuff goes missing, so Kessler outlines ways in which users can update the interface.

Another tip page comes from Christopher Breen on MacWorld concerning configuring Parental Controls. As I covered this in my A-Z series on System Preferences in OS X last year, I will link to the Parental Controls page there too. It is odd that months later, someone still links to these pages: I must be doing something right.

Note that there was an update to iTunes Producer this week bringing it to version 2.9.0.

An interesting article by Kirk McElhearn on Macworld expands on an idea I have heard of before: that a family iPad might be better managed if there were multiple user accounts. This is what is possible on our Macs and I would not dream of running these without Admin (mainly unopened) and User accounts, in which I work.

It doesn't work like that in iOS but that does not stop McElhearn running through some rather good ideas on how it might work, although he does point out that the obvious solution - which would suit Apple most - is not multiple accounts, but multiple iPads.

While my main iTunes account is in Thailand, I do have a UK account that I had to sign up for a couple of years back when I was given a gift certificate. I am of course not alone. While I do not use my UK account much at all, there are some who would like to switch between accounts but Michael Grothaus on TUAW complains that this is not easy at all, indeed there are some silly obstacles in the way and he wishes that Apple would be a little more practical concerning these accounts.

A late report from Michael Grothaus on TUAW tells us that Apple has issued an update to iWorks apps on iOS. Sure enough, Keynote was shown in the list. There was also an update shown for Skype, plus a couple of others (SCB Easy, Comics and Pinball HD).

A note on comics (see previous item) Michael Grothaus also reports that marvel has taken another step in online publishing with a new subscription service for iOS, called Marvel Unlimited.

Half and Half

With the main patents case still ongoing, it was revealed a short while back that (of all companies) Nokia has joined in but as a friend of the court. In an Amicus brief filed, it is clear that Apple's interests are also Nokia's interests particularly in terms of enforcement of patents (Nokia has loads) and especially against Samsung. Megan Geuss on Ars Technica has a report that fills in a lot of useful background here.

Also reporting on this (among others) is Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider: "The company questions Judge Koh's December ruling requiring a patent holder to first establish a "causal nexus" between a patented feature and customer demand before securing a permanent injunction against offending products. If such a precedent were set, Nokia asserts, the ability of patent holders to obtain sales bans would be crippled."

Samsung is also in the news concerning the amount of money it is spending, not just for advertisements (and heavens much is being spent in that area) but for lobbying, which is a funny term that seems to mean buying people lunches and other things so that they vote your way. Dara Kerr reports that whle the company spent $150,000 in 2011, they upped this to $900,000 in 2012 - exactly the same time that the main patents case was running in California. As part of the comment on why they are spending so much, Bloomberg were told that it is a "commitment to transparency" which I don't get at all. As a note (in fairness) Apple spent $2 million in 2012, down from previous amounts.

And the Korean company has not had a good time of it recently in the UK courts, despite that infamous case last year when Apple was defeated because the Samsung device was clearly not cool enough. Florian Mueller in a series of Tweets reports that Apple has won a case against Samsung concerning two patents, bringing the total number of losses or withdrawls to 24 there. There is a little more too in this report on that infamous case (above) and the judge who was later shown as working for a law company that Samsung uses with a sarcastic comment by Mueller that "Justice Floyd appears unlikely to follow in Sir Robin Jacob's footsteps and work for Samsung as an expert witness in USITC investigations."

Other Matters

We mentioned monopolies concerning Apple and the iTunes store earlier (above), and pointed out that it is abuse of a monopoly that is the problem, which we might remember when reading about the EU decision to fine Microsoft €561 million for failing to offer customers easy access to competing browsers, Sam Oliver tells us. Microsoft blamed this omission on what it said was "a technical error." As a note, the EU has fined Redmond some €2.24 billion in the last 10 years. A bit careless, eh?

While we are on Microsoft and carelessness, MG Siegler on TechCrunch wrote a rather strong article criticising the monopoly major software company from out of Washington State for predictions it made in 2010 that are coming back to haunt it now: "Nearly every number boasted about two and a half years ago has now turned against Microsoft". He then sets out a major list of erroneous predictions.

If it has been making these sorts of predictions and the company has been basing its economics and financial position on these, then something may be going very wrong behind the closed doors up there.

There is another nail in that coffin with a report from Peter Bright on Ars Technica in which he says that Windows RT is a Lemon and that users are avoiding it in droves. He has some suggestions as to how Redmond could make some lemonade.

Great Scott, it is not new clothes that the emperor wants; but there should really be a new emperor.

Another one of those mergers made in Hell is to end with Time Warner splitting itself and allowing Time Inc to be a separate arm, Electronista reports.

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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.