By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit

Apple Stuff

Bearing in mind the FUD reported to be from Samsung as given out by DigiTimes (see linked article), I don't quite know what to make of comments in Patently Apple, who cite comments in the Taipei based China Business Journal that something like 8 million iPhones were returned to Foxconn for bad workmanship. On the one hand, I want to say, "good" the consumers are being protected by Apple protecting itself; but on the other, is this just another example of a placed report? There is no named source, so there is no confirmation other than Hon Hai denying the report, but adding they will "look into issues of management and product yield rate mentioned in the report."

A report from AppleInsider tells us that Siri data in an anonymous form, is apparently kept by Apple for at least two years. Apple admitted this to Wired after privacy concerns were aired. Let's see who makes a a scandal out of this. There are also comments on this from Kelly Hodgkins on TUAW.

Anyone who visits a mall in Thailand will see the booths available that offer to install apps on the iPhone or iPad. There is a fee of course, and the iOS device then has installed any apps that you want. These all seem to have iMacs, so the profits must be fair, but none of these are going to Apple, nor (more importantly) the developers that write the software in the first place. It is not hard to see these places: there are a couple right outside the iStudio in Central Pinklao for example; and I met one colleague who had just bought an iPad for his son, but when I made suggestions about the iTunes store, he felt he would be better off getting apps right away from the booths, he said. This was not a Thai colleague I might add.

Now there is a report on AppleInsider that links to an exposé of a website in China that not only offers free distribution of iOS apps, but uses a version of Apple's own technology to do this.

Apple may want to break into the markets in Asia, but it will also have to deal with the widepsread attitude that downloading or installing apps for free - or copying Apple products - is a right.

It is nice to be ahead of the professionals and this week I saw a review from Mel Martin of TUAW on one of my favourite photogrpahy apps of the last few months, Aviary, which I reviewed back in June last year. Oh, he likes it too.

Despite knowing about updates being available from late last week, I checked and checked the App Store pages several times but never found the ones that a number of sites told me were available, even going to the Apple downloads pages to update Aperture. On Sunday morning, the updates appeared. I saw that the icon for App Store had a 1 in the red circle telling me that something was waiting, but when I accessed the app, saw the one was Software Update and that instead the 1 was a 4: HP Printer software, iPhoto, Digital Camera Raw, and Safari 6.0.4. I had to quit Safari before that part would update.

Having had to track a computer before Find my Mac (and having done in with Find my iPhone) it is useful for someone to walk a user through the steps needed for setting up and trying to find it when it has gone missing. Serenity Caldwell sets out the steps needed in an item on MacWorld.

A hint from Allyson Kazmucha on iMore tells users how the default font in Notes for iOS devices can be changed. There are apparently three options.

Another tip from Allyson Kazmucha concerns browsing history on iOS devices. She shows how this may be accessed easily with a few taps.

There is also a hint from Topher Kessler on Finder shortcuts in Open and Save dialog boxes. I try to introduce people to key commands from time to time as this is so much faster, but usually have blank looks and a mumble about sticking to what they know (the menu system)

Wonder how tough that iPad is? A video on YouTube shows a user at a ball game taking photographs with the device when it was hit by a foul ball. After the surprise, he carries on and so does the iPad.

An oddity now. I rather like those displays that have thousands of dominos set up in patterns and when one is knocked over there is a real domino effect. Want to see what this looks like with 10,000 iPhones? Michelle Starr has a link to the video.

Half and Half

One of the sources I use regularly for Mac (and other) information, is iMore. With the recruitment of a new editor, Peter Cohen, Rene Ritchie has dropped couple of teasers about a new venture, but stops short of saying what it is. This week he is in New York with a number of others as they prepare for what is coming. . . .

Boston Fallout

It is what got us to that point that contains the real story behind the events. With the bombs having exploded, the two young men responsible might have been expected to escape, but this was not the case. As expected, an awful lot of video and amateur camera footage was examined. Despite a couple of false reports, most notably by the New York Post (later defended by - who else - Ruprt Murdoch, Jack Mirkinson reports), the FBI (after some internal debate) released images of the two criminals late in the week. Some of their friends may have identified them from the images (especially the younger one) but apparently did not come forward until the shooting started.

In a late report, Steven Musil writes that facial recognition technology did not help in identification of the suspects. It was used, but "in official government databases, facial-recognition software was unable to put names to their faces". There is a fairly good, 4-page summary of the events by David Montgomery, Sari Horwitz and Marc Fisher, on The Washington Post.

In what appeared to be unconnected events - robbery at a 7/11 (the suspects did not commit the robbery, but were on surveillance video), shooting of a police officer just sitting in his car, and a car hijacking - the penny dropepd when the hijacked person was told that these were the persons responsible for the Marathon bombs. Like Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, they were discovered because they wanted to draw atention to themselves: what is the point of committing such a dastardly crime if no one knows it is you?

The elder of the two brothers was killed by a combination of factors: gunfire wounds, a report of an explosive device attached to him that detonated (not a good one if that is all that happened) and his brother ran over him with the stolen car. If not so serious this would look more like Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy.

The man in the white baseball cap was arrested and he too was injured but I do not know why at this stage. He was taken to hospital and given treatment but was not read his Miranda Rights. I queried this but there is a provision that allows this when the suspect needs to be questioned to elicit further information - practical for example when dealing with terrorists and what comes next - and the court is provided with a document that states that this was the case, something I doubt any judge would reject.

Some important points that come from this show the importance of the video - both CCTV and casual shots from the public - in getting the pictures out. Also useful, up to a point, were sources like Twitter: this had good information and bad (unubstantiated rumours): there is a coment on this from Eric Mack. Some of the press did a good job, although there was far too much speculation. What also impressed me was the clear chain of command, despite many forces and Federal agencies being involved, that reduced confusion.

As an odd aside, I was pleased to see that as well as a number of expected expressions of hatred there were a few - most notably from Catholics - offering prayers, according to Jaweed Kaleem on Huffington Post, one of which said "we must pray for the captured suspect, for he still is a child of God!" Not that I am religious, but one must wonder what made a 19-year old change; and blaming his radicalisation on his brother may not work.

It is sometimes said that there is good in everyone, although this may be hard for some to grasp, and I knew of one former British Army officer whose very worst criticism was "Oh, he's not such a bad sort after all." We can aspire to that.

Other Matters

Under normal circumstances, I might have ignored the Tweet and carried on but as it came from PC Mag and said, "Microsoft still has the chance to ditch Windows 8 and return to its tried-and-true OS. Unfortunately though". . . it looked worthy of some more attention. I mean, if this is what your friends are saying, maybe there is some concern, even if it is John Dvorak (known for baiting and going after hits).

He worries that with the state of Windows 8, an update to version 9 will do away with the Desktop and leave him (and many like him), without the ability to worm more efficiently. Just reading that suggests that Windows 8 may be far worse than us OS X advocates understand. Dovorak has some harsh words for the team that came up with this, and by implication the management who let it go through.

Local Items

I wrote on Sunday evening (it took me three or four clicks to finally come to a link that allowed me to write to a Contact:

Having lost all channels overnight Thursday with True's latest reorganisation, users had to rediscover channels for themselves and then enter all favourite details on the set-top box, wasting even more time.

This might have been easier if the company had bothered to update the iOS app that all users were pressured into downloading. I find that on Sunday evening I am still unable to track the channel listings effectively adding to the frustration of using True's second-rate service.

Perhaps you might think about informing customers when the app data is to be revised.

When the complaint was sent, the webpage reloaded with, "Thank you for submitting youe request" and "We will contact you back shortly" [sic].

"Shortly" does not mean by the next morning of course: not even an automated reply.

I have complained here about the way that Amazon lets me buy books, but not other items and certainly not software. I have to revise that a bit, but still do not understand how this all works. On Sunday I wanted to buy an accessory for the camera. I ended up with four I liked, each from a different maker. A fifth I had liked warned me when selected that it was not available in the area I "appeared to be" from. One by one, I selected the items and clicked through to the checkout only to be told there that I could not buy this because of my location. The final item was permitted, so that is on its way, I hope.

• See also this week's extra Cassandra column with comments and thoughts on Samsung's actions with Apple and others.

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.