By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit

Boston Bombing

As so many people use devices these days that record digital images the authorities have a lot to work through, but they already have released some images of "persons of interest". These are shown carrying backpacks before the event, but the FBI page on which these are shown does not have any "after" shots. These may be unavailable or still being processed. There may be enough detail in the pictures to at least provide someone with an idea that they may know these two guys.

My link for the FBI site came from an article by Declan McCullagh who examines the background and also highlights a couple of false photograph reports that media sent out earlier, causing distress to those in the images who have been cleared of any involvement. But not those two guys that the FBI want to interview.

Apple Stuff

Having set up the idea (albeit dismissed too) Pendola sort of dares Apple to go down that road (perhaps adding colour, offering size options) but warns such a path would surely (ultimately, he writes) get Tim Cook fired.

So let me explain that: he tells us what Cook would not or even should not do, then suggests that if he did, that would be a reason to fire him. And in the item that is stretched to 2 pages, that "get Tim Cook fired" has a link to another Pendola "Cook was a mistake" article from a couple of weeks back [My source for this was MacDaily News].

I cannot wait for the Macalope to get his antlers into this one (he first goes for an easy Enderle - see below), or the one that came a couple of hours later (2 in one day) that takes up the Rocco Pendola theme that Ron Johnson was no good at JC Penney, and tars Cook with the same brush: "Tim Cook Must Go, He's No Better Than Ron Johnson" - Pendola is either deluded about Apple or off his meds (or both).

He uses the comparison of share prices of the two companies in an attempt to make a point, but omits the point that it was not Cook that drove the prices down, but this was fueled by analysts like Pendola relentlessly attacking anything that they saw as a weakness. This is looking more and more like an attempt to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs which was done, remember, to look inside and find the source of the gold [My source for this was also MacDaily News who point out that "all Tim Cook did last quarter was to post the most profitable quarter for a tech company in history].

And just by sheer coincidence, a couple of days later, Ernie Varitimos on AppleInvestor writes an article with the same theme, "I want my Apple back" that shows pictures of Steve Jobs at the top and Tim Cook at the bottom, with a reader survey checkbox: "Should Tim Cook Go?" I clicked No, but the results displayed 14 for, 12 against in this meaningles survey.

Also on the same theme is Rob Endlerle apparently and the Macalope has an easy task here with Rob who cannot even get the name, Margaret Thatcher right.

Those excellent quarterly results figures do not stop the speculators keeping on relentlessly with the 2 + 2 = 5 philosophy that is current in Wall Street. This week a company called Cirrus, which makes energy and audio chips reported that there would be lower shipments as "an unnamed customer migrates to a newer component from Cirrus." Everyone assumes (they may be right of course) that the unnamed company is Apple and that the report spells doom. Again. Down went the shares to below $400 for the first time in a while, AppleInsider reports.

Having connected changes at Cirrus to Apple and lower sales (read the above paragraph again, because I can't work it out), there was a knock-on effect when shares in LG Display (who supply Apple) took a small drop as well (Reuters). I wonder why this did not affect Samsung. MacDaily News has a number of useful comments on this.

Remember, however, that the week started badly for the market as a whole and it was not just Apple that slipped. The Boston bombings and the fall in the price of gold by over $230 in one go had Wall Street at a touch more than its usual level of panic; while here on Wednesday afternoon, all the gold shops I passed had crowds of people dealing (with a further drop on Thursday here).

The price that Apple's shares rise to (or fall) may depend on the level of its gross margin, Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes, when Apple reports its Q2 figures next week (23 April).

Later I also saw an item from Zac Hall on 9to5 Mac that compared the opposition and pointed out that while Android leads the market in phone distribution, and Android users download lots of apps, the iPad owns over 50% of the market and - more significant - revenue from apps is 74% of the market from iOS. More than that is the use of iOS by business - wasn't that a Microsoft preserve? - that makes Apple the leader in terms of revenue.

Almost as a side note, Nathan Ingram on The Verge reports that Verizon (just one carrier) activated 4 million iPhones in Q1, and half of these were the iPhone 5. Taking these figures, Lance Whitney tells us, Gene Munster now estimates that the total number of iPhones sold for the quarter was 35.5 million, but adds, "we caution the International wild card," which I take it to mean he doesn't really know how many were sold outside the US.

Note also that if half are the iPhone 5, half are not. Obvious, I know, but that means the other iPhone models are still being snapped up and these will bring in a greater profit for Apple: has anyone noticed that?

A report on AppleInsider that appears negative (originating from Digitimes) tells us that Apple has stopped placing component orders and is thought to be appearing less aggressive lookng forward. Unless of course this signals a series of new lines being prepared.

Add in those lower numbers of components from Cirrus that perhaps signals a new model, and there may be some significant changes upon us soon.

Apart from Tim Cook and Phil Schiller one of the best known faces at Apple is that of Jony Ive. A number of sources, including an article by Jospeh Keller on iMore, report that Ive has been named to the Time lis of the 100 Most Indfuential People.

One of the reasons that Apple does not make announcements about product releases, is because of what is known as the Osborne Effect. An early computer company let it be known that the second version of its interesting computer was coming soon, and sales of version 1 dropped, leaving the company with so much stock that it was unable to carry the load and ended up bankrupt.

However, these days, the game of predicting what and when Apple will do next has reached such a fine art that it is becomng reasonably easy to have an idea of the product cycle, even of Apple throws the occasional spanner into the works as it did with the last iPad update. Patently Apple reports that consumers are expecting a new iPad mini to be announced soon, so are holding off buying the current version. Not that Apple is going to slip into the Osborne abyss as stocks of any device are not at dangerous levels - thank Tim Cook for that.

More speculation but this time on the bigger iPad as Mikey Campbell reports on AppleInsider the rumours from KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, that the coming iPad will be 25% lighter and 15% thinner. It is said to be coming in the 3rd quarter: June onwards. There are several technical and specifications changes expected.

A lot of the PR that Apple gets is free, Kate MacKenzie writes on PixoBebo, but adds that there is a downside to this too with all the negative reports of late: pundits don't know what to write, so write about the negatives and the speculation, and especially about the new iPhone/iPhones.

Did you think that Apple and China had kissed and made up? I did, but this week, Kevin Bostic reports on AppleInsider, there are now accusations in the media that the iOS store is a source of porn. Not that I can find. And remember the story last week when a comic company declined to handle an issue because they thought they would save Apple the need (even though Aple had the same content in another online source).

The story, as it originated is not actually about Apple at all, but a whole list of sources were named by the authorities and Apple was one of those on the list. Media being what they are, the rest were ignored and Apple (despite its record on porn) were the focus. Despite the headlines and the hand-wringing, there is nothing to see here: no new threat to Apple, no risk of closure, no danger that the world's largest potential market will be closed. Move along please.

I mentioned a couple of days ago a report that there had been an update to Aperture and iPhoto released. I have seen one review for the new version of Aperture, by Jeff Carlson on TidBits, but so far neither this, nor the iPhone update has appeared on any of my Macs, despite several checks. The two updates show quite clearly on the Apple downloads page, but resolutely fail to appear in Software Update on my Macs. I have restarted Aperture and App Store a couple of times. Then it dawned on me: it may be that Aperture is not recognised as this is a pre-App Store install from a disk. I bought this, but Apple ignores me. I downloaded the 549 MB update from the website.

On Wednesday evening I found a couple of links that told me that one of the movies made following the death of Steve Jobs had been released on Funny or Die. I used the article from Mark Gurman on 9to5 Mac to access the movie and watched it on the Mac.

It is most certainly a low budget affair, and there are a lot of technical errors; in addition it is less a bio-pic than a bio-fantasy: a sort of "what if", as unconnected events come together, and make a sort of story of what might have been in a way that Shakespeare in Love joined unconnected comments into the fabric of Romeo and Juliet as it was being written.

Some of those errors are highlighted in an item by Amanda Kooser who says that the corner-cutting has "left the film open for evisceration by Apple fans on high alert for anachronistic images". I found it inaccurate but amusing in places as an artistic interpretation. Not brilliant, but acceptable.

However, Mike Beasley on 9to5 Mac was disappointed and writes in "I watched "iSteve" so you wouldn't have to",

Watching this movie felt a lot like using a PC. I spent half the time staring at the screen in utter bewilderment, and the other half desperately trying to figure out how something so void of any semblance of taste was actually OK'd by anyone at any level of the production.

Spoiler alert: he summarises the whole of the movie, so if you do read the article, you really would not have to watch the movie.

Half and Half

Other Matters

Think about that for a nano-second then consider the comments on CISPA by Mike Masnick on TechDirt who counters the comments from the Bill's sponsors that complainers don't understand the "benign nature" by pointing out the ways that the legislation could be used.

And he is right in one of his assertions, that law enforcement will push any weakness or loophole up to and beyond the limits of the law: as a former police officer, mainly dealing with road traffic, I would push when I thought I could although never actually went over the bounds.

Masnick also points out several ways in which the legislators pushing for the laws clearly do not demonstrate that they grasp what they are backing: that CISPA will allow the government to spy on its citizens.

And then later in the day, the story took on a new, more sinister turn as, again Mike Masnick reporting, it became apparent that the main member of Congress pushing so hard for CISPA has a wife who will benefit commercially from the passage of the bill. As Masnick writes - having covered a lot of the background and links between Congressman, wife, company and State Department - this is "the kind of situation that Larry Lessig has referred to as soft corruption."

And people (especially Americans) complain about corruption in Thailand. . . .

As a late note, CISPA was passed, Electronista reports, adding "the bill is nonetheless expected to encounter more resistance in the Senate and a possible presidential veto."

We are aware that, unlike iOS from Apple, the OS known as Android from Google has so many versions that there may be some confusion among users. Add to the mix the point that some Androids are better than others, and that Google may like some Android carriers more than others, and this appears to be a recipe for unfairness. H-Open reports that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), saying that "Android smartphones that do not receive regular, prompt security updates are defective and unreasonably dangerous". The problem is not so much Google as the carriers who fail to send out the updates, with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile all named in the complaint.

IBM has reported its Q1 2013 results with diluted earnings of $2.70 per share, a year-to-year increase of 3 percent. The press release also tells us that

Operating (non-GAAP) diluted earnings were $3.00 per share, compared with operating diluted earnings of $2.78 per share in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 8 percent.

First-quarter net income was $3.0 billion, down 1 percent year-to-year. Operating (non-GAAP) net income was $3.4 billion compared with $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 3 percent.

Total revenues for the first quarter of 2013 of $23.4 billion were down 5 percent (down 3 percent, adjusting for currency) from the first quarter of 2012.

Local Items

I later discovered that was not 8am but 8pm and a revised time appeared of 8.30pm while some are saying 8.30am. [This has been amended and updated.]

The reason (we hear) is to add some HD channels, but more ominously, to reorganise others. Thus far, the True app for the iPad has shown no changes that I can detect, so trying to plan for viewing round the weekend may be a waste of time; and who knows what the set-top box will deliver; or if all those favourites will have to be entered again - presuming the channels are still available. . . .

When I checked just after 0830, some channels are back with broken signals; the set top box will need completely re-organising.

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.