[MyAppleMenu] Dec 31, 2008

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** 2008 In Review: Mac Developers Who Made News <http://www.macworld.com/article/137835/2008/12/2008developers.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Peter Cohen, Macworld

>From major releases to Mac clones, third parties had plenty to offer in 2008.


**** A Computer Revolution Through A Child's Eyes <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-10128407-39.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple>
by Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com
I have proof from an expert that the iPhone interface really is better. Who's the expert? My 3-year-old son.

**** Does Your Application Create Value? <http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2008/12/31/value/>
by Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code
You can make it easy for your users to create awesome things, or you can make it easy for them to create crappy things. It's not only your job to make your application usable, it's also your job to make sure that the things your users build with your application are valuable.

**** Local Yogurt Store Tells Blogger That Steve Jobs Is "In Great Health" <http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/30/local-yogurt-store-tells-scoble-that-steve-jobs-is-in-great-health/>
by Mg Siegler, Venture Beat
While a yougurt store employee may not seem like the best source in the world, look at the sources attached to the other stories about Jobs' health &mdash; in quite a few cases there are /none/ and it's all speculation.

**** Apple's Five Biggest Moments In 2008 <http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9124563&source=rss_topic123>
by Ryan Faas, Computerworld
It's worth reflecting on some of the most notable innovations from Apple in a year that easily ranks as one of the most significant in its 31-year-history.

**** Top Ten Innovative Apple Products - That Steve Didn't Dream Up <http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/top_10_innovative_apple_products_steve_didnt_dream>
by Michael Simon, MacLife
/I wouldn't call the Macintosh TV or eWorld innovative. They really added nothing new, in my opinion./

**** Why Does Apple Stifle Mobile Safari's True Potential? <http://derekperez.com/blog/2008/12/why-does-apple-stifle-mobile-safaris-true-potential/>
by Derek Perez
The iPhone has immense data harvesting capabilities, from geo-location to the accelorometer, etc. But all of these fantastic APIs are available only to native, objective-C based applications, not Mobile Safari?

**** Just Propose A Federal Style Store Already, Apple <http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=1547>
by David Alpert, Greater Greater Washington
A permanent Apple-shaped architectural feature and all-glass first floor facade may fit Steve Jobs' megalomaniacal personality and Apple's brash corporate image, but if the Old Georgetown Board says it doesn't fit in Georgetown, they may be right.

**** Adobe's Flash And Apple's Safari Fail A Privacy Test <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/adobes-flash-and-apples-safari-fail-a-privacy-test/?hp>
by Brad Stone, New York Times
Apple's Safari fared the wrost of the browsers in tests by iSec Partners, a San Francisco security firm.

**** How Green Is Apple? <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123066532721343231.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>
by Ben Charny, Dow Jnes Newswires
Determining Apple's "green-ness" is difficult because so much of the information reported to authorities is provided voluntarily.

**** Apple's Jobs Is (Still) Fine <http://www.cnbc.com/id/28437017>
by Jim Goldman, CNBC
I was told two weeks ago by sources inside Apple that the <Macworld> decision had nothing to do with Jobs' health. I got the same message today. Period.

**** Apple's Got A War Chest Of Cash <http://theappleblog.com/2008/12/29/apples-got-a-war-chest-of-cash/>
by Jason Guthrie, The Apple Blog
Apple is currently sitting in Cupertino with a cool $12 billion in the bank. And if you throw short-term investments in the pot, Apple has quick access to $25 billion. That's a /ton/ of money &mdash; especially for a company with $32 billion in revenues.

**** Lightroom Vs. Aperture: The Continuing Saga <http://www.thomas-fitzgerald.net/2008/12/30/lightroom-vs-aperture-the-continuing-saga/>
by Thomas Fitzgerald
Both are good pieces of software and both are aimed at slightly different markets.

**** How iPod Touch Will Help Apple Win New Platform War <http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/appleaday/blog/2008/12/how_ipod_touch_will_help_apple.html>
by David Zeiler, Baltimore Sun
The contribution of the iPod Touch can't be overestimated. The Touch brings in millions of customers Apple's phone-making competitors can't reach &mdash; people like myself who want many of the capabilities of a smartphone without the steep monthly fees.

**** Ambrosia's EV Nova Makes The Jump To Universal Binary <http://www.macworld.com/article/137823/2008/12/evnova.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Dan Moren, Macworld
Nostalgia is by far the most powerful thing in the entire universe. There is no other way to explain my glee that AMbrosia has released a Universal version of their classic game EV Nova.

**** Macworld Expo '09 Will Feature Town Hall To Plan For 2010 <http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/30/macworld-expo-09-will-feature-town-hall-for-2010-planning>
by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
IDG announced today that next week's Expo will feature a Town Hall meeting, which will be open to all attendees who want to help "shape Macworld in 2010 and beyond."

**** App Store Lessons: Abandoning Settings Bundles <http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/30/app-store-lessons-abandoning-settings-bundles>
by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica
It's an elegant approach that allows you to forgo the extra design needed to create and maintain settings screens from within your program and to focus your design work on application semantics. There's only one problem: most users may never see your settings.

**** Apple's Biggest Blunders Of 2008 <http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/30/apples-biggest-blunders-of-2008>
by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
Despite the issues with the iPhone 3G launch, Apple has had a great year, full of exciting new product introductions, record sales, and record profits.

**** Analyst Predicts No Revolutoinary Products At Macworld '09 <http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/30/analyst-predicts-no-revolutionary-products-at-macworld-09>
by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
In a note sent out to clients this morning, Gene Munster pointed out that it's near impossible to predict an upcoming announcement what with updated iPods, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and the iPhone 3G having been released late in 2008.

**** Five Top Tips For New iPhone Users <http://www.macworld.com/article/137805/2008/12/iphone_tips.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Dan Moren, Macworld

The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Web Browser Flaw Could Put E-Commerce Security At Risk <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10129693-83.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1>
by CNET News.com
A key piece of internet technology that banks, e-commerce sites, and financial institutions rely on to keep transactions safe suffers from a serious security vulnerability, an international team of researchers announced on Tuesday.

**** Rising In The East <http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12863581&fsrc=rss>
by The Economist
Asia is steadily eroding America's leadership in research spending.

**** Internet Use Grows At Meetings, As Do Challenges <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/business/30internet.html?_r=1&ref=technology>
by Martha C. White, New York Times
Until recently, travelers attending conferences or trade shows had simple internet needs. Now, meetings are likely to include streaming video and online interaction. And back in their rooms, travelers are downloading movies and logging onto peer-to-peer networks.

MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** What To Do About The Torturers? <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22232>
by David Cole, New York Review Of Books
America's experiment with torture presents the Obama administration with one of its most difficult challenges: how should the nation account for the abuses that have occurred in the past, what are the appropriate remedies, and how can we ensure that such abuses not happen again?

**** The American Blair <http://nymag.com/news/politics/53154/>
by Jennifer Senior, New York Magazine
Tony Blair was both Britain's Obama, transforming its politics, and Britain's Bush, prosecuting a deeply unpopular war. But at Yale last semester, as he moved into his afterlife, he seemed oddly unencumbered by his past.

**** The Long Decline Of Reading <http://mssv.net/2008/12/28/the-long-decline-of-reading/>
by Mssv
The situation is undeniably bad. What's going to happen next?

**** Did Our Cosmos Exist Before The Big Bang? <http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026861.500-did-our-cosmos-exist-before-the-big-bang.html?full=true>
by Anil Ananthaswamy, New Scientist
If the loop quantum cosmology (LQC) theory turns out to be right, our universe emerged from a pre-existing universe that had been expanding before contracting due to gravity. As all the matter squeezed into a microscopic volume, this universe approahced the so-called Planck density. At this stage, it stopped contracting and rebounded, giving us our univese.

SingaporeSurf
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**** Observers Say PM's New Year Message Helps To Manage Expectations <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/399516/1/.html>
by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia
Political-watchers and economists in Singapore said the prime minister's new year message will help to manage expectations of Singaporeans in 2009. They said it is important for Singapore to realise that times are going to be tough and to band together to ride out the economic storm - a point that was stressed in PM Lee Hsien Loong's message on Wednesday.

**** Prime Minister's New Year Message 2009 <http://www.news.gov.sg/public/sgpc/en/media_releases/agencies/csg/press_release/P-20081231-1>
by Singapore Government
Singapore's key strengths are our honest and capable leadership, sound policies which look beyond the short term, social cohesion and talented and hardworking people. These strengths have brought us peace, prosperity and progress for decades, and they will see us through these difficult times. When the environment was favourable, we upgraded and grew our economy, lived within our means and patiently build up sizeable reserves. So when this sudden, severe storm struck, we were ready.

**** Singapore Appoints Permanent Representative To ASEAN <http://nationmultimedia.com/2008/12/31/regional/regional_30092260.php>
by The Nation
Singapore's permanent representative to ASEAN, Lim Thuan Kuan, is scheduled to present his credentials Monday to the secretary-general of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, at a ceremony held at the ASEAN secretariat.

**** Hello 2009, Goodbye "Honest Mistakes"! <http://feedmetothefish.blogspot.com/2008/12/years-ago-there-was-this-diamond.html>
by Feed Me To The Fish
It looks like 2008 is a nightmare year for the 1st world Singpore million dollar ministers. I guess it was a year of one "honest mistake" after another.

**** PAP Moves In To Shore Up Its Support Base During Troubling Times <http://wayangparty.com/2008/12/31/pap-moves-in-to-shore-up-its-support-base-during-troubling-times/>
by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore
A weak and divided opposition coupled with the typical "kiasi" mentality of Singaporeans will ensure the PAP be elected to power again on another "overwhelming mandate".

**** Singaporeans Are No Longer Sheep <http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20081231-111443.html>
by Kenny Chee, My Paper
In a country often criticised for the sheep-like mentality of its people, it may surprise some that dialogue and engagement on issues between the government and Singaporeans this year reached new levels, according to a political analyst.

**** Are These Workers Just The Tip Of The Iceberg? <http://www.todayonline.com/articles/295024.asp>
by Leong Wee Keat, Today
In what is becoming a familiar sight, a group of about 200 China national workers turned up at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday morning to complain about unauthorised salary deductions and wages owed to them.

**** Do Something Quick For CIQ Commuters <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/31/focus/2915121&sec=focus>
by Carol Wong, The Star
Let's hope that someone will come up with a brilliant idea to solve the traffic woes at the new Johor Baru CIQ. A workable solutoin is all we commuters ask for.

**** Singapore Warned On Dolphin Imports <http://solomonstarnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5646&change=71&changeown=78&Itemid=26>
by Ednal Palmer, Solomon Star
Singapore has been cautioned not to accept the bottlenose dolphins exported from the Solomon Islands. Chairman of the Mexican Congress, Committee of Environment of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries senator Jorge Legorreta wrote to the Singapore minister for national development Mah Bau Tan on this.
The senator said the 28 bottlenose dolphins exported to Mexico from the Solomon Islands in 2003 has tained their country's reputation.

**** Singapore Air May Ask Pilots To Take Unpaid Leave: Report <http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4BT5NZ20081230>
by Melanie Lee, Reuters
Singapore Airlines, the world's largest carrier by market value, may ask its pilots from its cargo arm to take unpaid leave in a bid to cut costs and reduce capacity, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

**** MOE To Hire 7,500 <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_320357.html>
by Amelia Tan, Straits Times
The Ministery of Education (MOE), which will aim to add 7,500 employees to its payroll next year, also plans to give the economy a fillip by speeding up its scheme to equip every school with an indoor sports hall by 2014 and look into building centralised facilities for arts, music and sporting activities.