From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jan 1 13:15:02 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 1 Jan 2009 18:15:02 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 1, 2009 Message-ID: <20090101181502.71282.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Mac OS X Redesign: Feedback For "Hold Keys" by Vincent Gable There isn't any indication that hold keys are special. Worse, if you try to use one the way you use /every/ other button on the keyboard, mouse, or computer — by tapping them — nothing happens. **** Apple And The Great Confusion by Harga-Blog So Apple now sits with us, on the verge of the next major transition. Are they going to announce a radical change in strategy? **** Macworld Will Be Notable For Who Won't Be There, What It Won't Have by John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News Even if there are no big announcements from Apple, there is apt to be news on Tuesday that will interest fans of the maker of iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers. **** Apple Could Suffer PC's Revenge by Scott Moritz, TheStreet.com Apple had a great decade, but its success has hinged as much on the downfall of the PC as it has on heralded CEO Steve Jobs. **** When Woz Speaks Who Listens? by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com When it comes down to today's Macintosh and iPhone hardware and software, Woz is just another power user. Don't count on him for a glimpse of Apple strategic direction. **** Signs Of The Times by Guy Kawasaki, How To Change The World There were a handful of stores without sales signs, but only one didn't offer discounts and had lots of people in it. **** Macintosh At 25: Still The Innovation Leader by Dan Farber, CNET News.com Don't expect the Mac faithful tow alk away from Macworld without something to satisfy their cravings. **** Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak To Appear At Macworld by AppleInsider Modbook maker Axiotron announced Wednesday that Wozniak, an active member of its board of advisors, wil participate int he unveiling of the company's latest product an technologies. **** NoteBook 3.0 Enhances The Page Concept by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS NoteBook 3.0 does a good job at providing a wide range of features, though with a focus on note taking and information collection. **** 2008 In Review: Apple by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld >From the high-flying iPhone to record sales of the Mac and strong financial results, 2008 was a year of success for Apple. **** 2008 In Review: The Year's Top 10 Stories by Philip Michaels, Macworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** New Year, New You? Nice Try by Alex Williams, New York Times In a season of change, in a year of change, most people who embark on a journey of self-renewal can expect anything but. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Opposition In 2009 - Time To Get United by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen **** Trains Are Now Less Crowded by Tan Kin Lian, Public Transport In Singapore What is the main reason? **** Great Fireworks - What About The Fallout? by Wild Shores of Singapore I wonder if the environmental impact had been considered. **** Singapore Expunged - Bit By Bit by Ng Beng Choo, The Online Citizen As Singaporeans ring in the new year with celebration, some residents of one area will leave their homes as development moves in on 1 January and demolishes their hosues. The area will then be turned into an aerospace hub. **** Singapore Prepares Climate Change Impact Report by DPA Environment experts are expected to release a climate change report on Singapore this year, highlighting the impact on coastal erosion, water scarcity and higher energy demand, according to a news report Thursday. **** Who's Helping The White-Collar Workers? by Ng Tze Yong, New Paper It's the white-collar workers - someone like your retrenched boss - who needs more help in this recession than the poor. That's the view of Mr David Ang, execuive director of the Singapore Human Resources Institute. **** Public Hospitals Begin Means Testing by Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia In light of the current economic downturn, the health ministry says it will be implemented with flexibility and compassion. /I wonder when the ministry will withdraw its flexibility and compassion, and whether the withdrawal will be announced./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jan 2 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 2 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 2, 2009 Message-ID: <20090102181501.82955.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Raising The App Store's Base Price To $4.99 Would Be A Good Thing by James R. Stoup, Apple Matters /As one of the comments noted, it's like the owner of an expensive restaurant saying, "cheaper restaurants are killing my business, so let's pass a law that every restaurant must charge at least $30 for a meal."/ /To compete, you need a quality product, and you need to show off your quality. You need to do more than just simply putting your app on the App Store./ **** Google's iPhone App Has A Hidden Menu by Mg Siegler, Venture Beat It's an interesting use of the iPhone's touch feature to reveal an Easter Egg. **** Enjoying The Show, Avoiding The Flamethrower: Life Inside Apple by Chuq von Rospach, The Guardian The fact is, Macworld causes all sorts of problems for Apple's workers, and is an expensive proposition for the company to be ready for. It usually ment a bunch of people had to work through the Christmas break to make deadlines, and then get compensatory time later. It's terribly timed to Apple's sales cycle: right after the holiday buying season. Who really wants to announce new stuff then? **** Play Flute, Name A Tune Or Even Made A Call by Matt Richtel and Laura M. Holson, New York Times The new status symbol is what your phone can do — count calories, teach Spanish, simulate a flute, or fling a monkey from a tree. **** Pre-MWSF Rumor Of The Week by John Gruber, Daring Fireball The way Apple stays ahead of the web app trend is by creative native Cocoa experiences that can't be duplicated in web apps — both on the Mac and iPhone. **** Apple Really Need To Conslidate Their Peripherals Now by CodeHappy I hate buying stuff and then worrying about it whether or not I got the right thing and will have to trudge back later to change it. **** iPhone 3G Unlock Now Available by Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo Install at your own risk. **** Review: Geneforge 5: Overthrow by Chris Holt, Macworld If you enjoy deep, long RPGs with a complex storyline and love old-school turn-based combat then Geneforge 5 will make you nostalgically satisfied, like watcing an old 80s movie would. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Defense Contractors Eye Cybersecurity Bonanaza by Jonathan Skillings, CNET News.com The industry side of the military-industrial complex is on the scent of the federal government's cybersecurity dollars. **** Six New Web Technologies Of 2008 You Need To Use Now by Michael Calore, Wired For this list, we've compiled the most truly life-altering nuggets of brilliance to hit center stage in 2008: the ideas, products and enhancements to the web experience so huge that they make us wonder how we got along without them. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** My Secret Life by Ellen Ullman, New York Times I am not adopted; I have mysterious origins. **** Behind The Green Veil by William Birdthistle, Wall Street Journal The case for seeing Ireland and its literature in a fresh way — free of Celtic lore. **** The Sentence Is A Lonely Place by Gary Lutz, The Believer And as I encountered any such sentence, the question I would ask myself in marvelment was: how did this thing come to be what it now is? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Government Has No Power by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu I think there is one point that a lot of bloggers failed to recognize in the discussion (more like rants to me, more often than not) about public transport fares: the government simply does not have the power to force transport companies to lower their fares outside of the annual reviews. The relationship between the government and the transport companies is based on a contract: in exchange to providing a minimum level of service as stipulated by the government at a fare capped by a formula, the government gave monopoly power to the public transport companies to earn 'reasonable' profits. No where in the contract — at least, publicly — gave government the power to force public transport companies to lower fares outside of the annual review and outside of the formula. Do you really want a government that changes the rules in the middle of a game? Do you really want a government that goes back on its word, after signing a contract? (Aren't you reminded of a certain government that unilaterally declared an MOU null and void after signing the said MOU?) Perhaps the government should negotiate for a contract that is more 'favorable' to its citizens for the next annual review. Perhaps haiving for-profit companies provide public transport is a wrong move. But I certainly don't want a government that ignores contracts. Moreover, after all the rantings by all the bloggers out there, I fail to see a single blogger taking the public transport companies to task in lowering the fares. The power to lower fares lies in the public transport companies, not in the government. At least until the next review in October this year.

Permanent Link to This Post **** Facebook Group: Boycott Sentosa Marine Life Park by Wild Shores of Singapore **** Singapore Home Prices Post Steepest Drop In Decade by Chen Shiyin, Bloomberg Singapore's fourth-quarter private home prices declined 5.7 percent, the steepest drop in a decade, as the global financial crisis and an economic recession deterred buyers. **** Pay Per View - Nee Soon South New Year Countdown by Rafiz Hapipi, The Online Citizen >From the way I read it, the canvass barricade serves to do send out the message, "Pay Per View or Keep Off!" /I see no problem having an entertainment event being "pay-per-view," so long as it is not subsidised heavily by the government./ **** Sleepless In Singapore by Jack Sim, 360Perspectives I feel the only way forward is to make Singapore a timeless zone: one where all our offices, factories, civil service, public transportation, banks, shpping, leisure and entertainment centres run round the clock. /We are not robots. There are deep biological and evolutionary reasons why we wake up in the day and sleep in the night./ **** Chartered Alert Adds To Singapore Woes by John Burton, Financial Times Chartered Semiconductor exemplifies the problem facing Singapore's ailing electronics sector after warning that it will suffer its biggest loss in nearly four years when it reports its results for the last quarter of 2008. **** CIQ Complex A Major Letdown by Costronic, The Star These point to inadequate planning and some might even say it was built with no consideration to the actual users. **** Tourists Find Singapore Pricey by Cheryl Lim, Straits Times Some locations the visitors felt are cheaper include Taipei, Hong Kong and Shanghai. **** Singapore's Must-See Botanical Gardens by Susan Fogwell, NY International Travel Examiner Considered one of the most beautiful public gardens in the world, one of the highlights at the botanical gardens are the extensive and diverse orchid pavilions. **** Singapore Lowers Economic Growth Forecast To -2.0% by Channel NewsAsia The Singapore economy is expected to grow between -2.0 per cent and 1.0 per cent in 2009. The forecast by the trade and industry ministry is lower than the -1.0 per cent to 2.0 per cent range forecast in November 2008. The weaker prognosis for the Singapore economy in 2009 is based on the sharp contraction seen in the fourth quarter of 2008. See Also: Singapore Cuts Economic Forecast Amid Deepening GLobal Crisis , by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg. **** No Direct Link To Fuel Prices by Phua Hooi Boon, Ministry Of Transort, Straits Times We explicitly decided not to allow operators to pass on their direct costs, such as fuel and wage costs, or to base their fares on these costs. This is to give operator every incentive to operate efficently, and keep their costs as low as possible. Thus, even though the operators have sought to justify fare increases based on rising fuel prices, the Public Transport Council (PTC) will adjust fares only according to prescribed formula . This is why last year, despite a 40 per cent increase in diesel prices, the increase in CPI and WI was only 2.1 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively, leading to an allowable fare adjustment of 3 per cent. As the PTC also made the operators absorb a large part of the increase in transfer rebate, fares went up by only 0.7 per cent in October last year. **** Hotels Roll Out Red Carpet For Singaporeans On 'Staycation' by Crystal Chan, New Paper With tourist arrivals falling, some hotels are now rolling out promotion to lure more local guests. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jan 3 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 3 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 3, 2009 Message-ID: <20090103181501.86972.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Austin Game Developer Enjoys Success In iPhone Application Creation by Lilly Rockwell, Austin American-Statesman Austin game developer Brian Greenstone has been riding a wave of sudden celebrity. **** Homework Is Fun On An iPod Touch by Miki Perkins, Sydney Morning Herald A pilot program in which teenagers used iPods for school work has increased attendance and increased enthusiasm for homework. **** Macworld Site Rife With Concealed Banners (Photos) by AppleInsider Despite lessened expectations for next week's Macworld Expo, the Moscone Center venue for the trade show already sports roughly a dozen sprawling, cloth-concealed banners that hint at several product announcements. **** Mr. Game & Watch Saunters His Way Over To The iPhone by John Mahoney, Gizmodo **** Spotlight Enhancer HoudahSpot Gets Enhancements Of Its Own by Rob Griffiths, Macworld HoudahSpot 2.3.1 adds full support for Finder labels. Another new capability in the 2.3 series is BlitzSearch, which is a menu that drops down from the main meu bar, and can be activated from anywhere via a user-defind global hot key. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Hyperlinking The Real World by Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb European researchers working on the MOBVIS project have developed a new system that will allow camera phone users to hyperlink the real world. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Kyoto Celebrates A 1,000-Year Love Affair by Michelle Green, New York Times The city known for its shrines, temples and blazing autumn hills is celebrating the millennial anniversary of Murasaki Shikibu's episodic story of love and loss among the imperial set. **** East Meets West, East Loses West by Sarah Fay, New York Times This novel traces the delightfully absurd affair between a Belgian language teacher and her Japanese student. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore - A Few Seconds Of Discipline by Confabulations Galore!, sin This sort of discipline speaks volumes about the culture of a land. **** Chua Mui Hoong: An Incorrigible Spin Doctor Take On 2009 by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Past accolades were never an ingredient for future successs. **** Chief Justice Chan Says Justice Can Only Be Rendered According To Law by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Chief justice Chan Sek Keong has reminded Singaporeans that justice can only be rendered according to the law and the Courts' authority must be respected by all. He warned that the law will not tolerate any attempt by anyone to undermine public confidence in the courts by making false and scandalous allegations. **** Heavy Hearts Amid The Revelry by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star Job opportunities, or the lack of it, will be the biggest worry for Singaporeans this year and probably a little beyond. Alredy 10,000 workers have been laid off. **** Tourism Malaysia Wooing Singaporeans by New Straits Times Malaysia is stepping up its efforts to attract more tourists from Singapore. **** Extra Trains To Ease Commuting To Singapore by Syed Umar Ariff, New Straits Times Two additional train services tailored for Malaysians working in Singapore will begin on Monday, after a dry-run of the service yesterday. See Also: Rail To JB Mega Mall Starts Mon , by Diana Othman, Straits Times. **** Rear Seatbelts: SIngapore, Thai Visitors Also Required To Buckle Up by New Straits Times Motorists from Singapore and Thailand, enterting the country, will not be exempted from the new regulation on the compulsory use of rear seatbelts. **** Singapore Contracts Sharply by Lionel Laurent, Forbes Recession deepens as the export slump infects one of Asia's most advanced economies. **** Passengers Who Live Near Airport Must Endure Grouchy Cabbies by James Wong, Straits Times I hope the taxi companies will teach their drivers not to react in such a way and perhaps impose a minimum charge on all taxis taking passengers from the airport. /Maybe Singapore should learn from Hong Kong: built the airport far away from civilisation, so that nobody lives near the airport. :-)/ **** Freedom Of Expession, Offense And Anger by Mathia Lee Would the important messages that is uglified by offensive or poor language be ignored? Should we start listening to them, and dignifying the cusses? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jan 4 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 4 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 4, 2009 Message-ID: <20090104181500.8409.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Mac Only Apps by Thomas Fitzgerald With all the focus on the App store over the past year, I think some of the great work being done by Mac developers is getting lost in the chatter and I hope in 2009 a little more light might be shone on the Mac. **** He Put Movie Lisings In An App by Lisa Guernsey, New York Times Jeff Grossman, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon, had created a digital application for local movie listings for the iPhone. He was offering his service free as a promotion, but still he wondered: Would anyone want it? **** Code Of Secrecy For Apple's iGod Still Goes With The Jobs Description by Amanda Andrews, The Age need for control comes as little surprise. Insiders say that he lost Apple once and made a pact that this would not happen again. **** Macworld Expected To Attract Faithful Despite Steve Jobs' Absense by Glenn Fleishman, Seattle Times Macworld is the Jerusalem or Mecca for the Mac faithful, many of whom consider each year whether they should make the journey to San Francisco to bask in the milieu and see everything's that new in the Mac cosmos. **** Win To Mac - Day One With A MacBook Pro by Michael W. Jones, Mac.Blorge.com is a feature with real benefits, and it is things like that which justify my switch as much as moving to OS X does. **** What Apple Must Do At Macworld by Joe Wilcox, eWeek I won't join the chorus of Macworld Expo predictions. I'mmore arrogant than that. I'm telling Apple what it better to hell announce next week. **** Apple Sued Over iMac Screens by Bloomberg Apple Inc., maker of the Macintosh computer and the iPhone, was sued over claims that display screens on the company's iMac desktop computer aredefective and show unwanted vertical lines. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** See Me, Hear Me: A Video Game For The Blind by Abby Ellin, New York Times The game stars a D.J. named Vinyl Scorcher whose objective is to get the people in his nightclub on the dance floor, by playing great music. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Creature Comforts by Rebecc Skloot, New York Times It's no longer just guide dogs for blind people. Service animals now include monkeys for quadriplegies, parrots for psychotics and at least one assistance duck. Should the law recognize all of them? **** Hew And Haw by Terri Trespicio, Boston Globe Can the wrong pair of jeans throw a first date into serious doubt? **** Timing Is Everything by Ian Bostridge, Standpoint Online If the world of physics is a space-time continuum, music is a pitch-time continuum. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Singapore Change - Real Or Illusion? by Wong Wee Nam, Sgpolitics.net There is no doubt that many Singaporeans are still waiting for Nanny to change their diapers. Until this changes, nothing has changed. **** Sarawak Wants Singaporean To Buy Houses In The State by Jack Wong, The Star Sarawak will go on a roadshow in Singapore this year to promote Malaysia's Second Home programme. **** Stranded As Walking Banned At Causeway by Gladys Tay, The Star The new ruling barring people from walking across the Causeway has not only turned out to be an inconvenience but left some stranded in Singapore. **** Singapore In Deep Recession: Time For Expatriates In Singapore To Plan Their Exit by The Star The ugly truth is that Singapore "prospered" from the massacre and suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in Korea and Vietnam for decades in the 50s, 60s and 70s by the American and the western "democrcies". The Singapore government have never acknowledge this fact, always insisting that the economic "miracle" was their own ingenuity. As such, the young generation of Singaporean have developed similar arrogance, devoid of any humility and gratitude to those of whose suffering and blood they have now benefited from. The truth is that Singapore is nothing more than a puppet to the "masters of the world", run as a dictatorship by a single family and their cronies. **** Urban Singapore Prepares To Gobble Up Its Last Village by Seth Mydans, New York Times With just 28 houses in an area the size of three football fields, it is Singapore's last rural hamlet, a forgotten straggler in the rush to modernize this high-rise, high-tech city-state. But apparently not for much longer. Kampong Buangkok is designated by the government for demolition and redevelopment, possibly in the near future. When it is gone, one of the world's most extreme national makeovers will be complete. **** Forbidden Questions, Or: Tactics Of Persuasive Denial by Mollymeek False and scandalous? Who determines what the truth is? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jan 5 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 5 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 5, 2009 Message-ID: <20090105181501.72327.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Why Macworld Is Moribund - But Not Dead by FJ de Kermadec, O'Reilly Digital Media Blog By showing Macworld is, front and foremost, about discussing and expanding technologies that exist whether their begetter is in the audience or not, IDG can certainly give the devent a new vitality and purpose. **** Macworld: The Men Who Could Replace Steve Jobs by Claudine Beaumont, Telegraph With Steve Jobs absent from this year's Macworld, all eyes are on those senior executives who could, in time, take his place at the Apple helm. **** Macworld 2009: Andy Ihnatko Tweetup by Magnus Nystedt, Shufflegazine Macworld is the annual gathering of the who's who in the Apple world. **** Apple Bites Into China by China Daily As soon as Li Jianming found out Apple's iPhone wouldn't be sold at his favorite Beijing electronics store, he hopped on a train for a 25-hour ride to Hong Kong, the nearest city where his dream machine was readily available. He bought the phone on arrival and caught the next available train to Beijing. **** Whither Apple? Dispatches From The Steve Jobs Rumor Mill by Josh Quitnner, Time In the end, of course, until Jobs actually does appear somewhere looking healthy — a cameo appearance at Macworld would be awesome — people will fret. As they should: The world will be a diminished place when Jobs steps down from Apple for good. **** Macbook Air Pre-Keynote Clearance Sale by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune The road warrior's favorite Apple notebook, pulled with great fanfare from an interoffice envelope by Steve Jobs at Macworld 2008, is being steeply discounted this weekend, on the even of Macworld 2009. **** Apple Fans Pray For Steve Jobs Surprise At Final Macworld by Michael Harvey, The Times Some bloggers are still holding out for a cameo appearance from the star of previous Macworlds to liven things up at the Moscone centre in San Francisco. **** The App Store: First Comes Power by Deal Range Apple is using the App Store to create switching costs, and they know that if /all/ of their users have "invested" in /many/ little applications that will only work on the iPhone, they will eventually have users locked in to a long-term investment in the iPhone franchise. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** All A-Twitter About Stars Who Tweet by Noam Cohen, New York Times Deciding to join a service devoted to spontaneous, often spectacularly mundane updates throughout the day apparently was something to be thought out carefully. **** Google Hopes To Open A Trove Of Little-Seen Books by Motoko Rich, New York Times Ever since Google began scanning printed books four years ago, scholars and othrs with specialized interests have been able to tap a throve of information that had been locked away on the dusty shelves of libraries and in antiquarian bookstores. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** How To Live What Michael Pollan Preaches by Laura Miller, Salon Mark Bittman's revolutionary "Food Matters" is both a cookbook and a manifesto that shows us how to eat better — and save the planet. **** Snark Attack by Adam Sternbergh, New York Magazine I'm sorry, did that sound snarky? I apologize. **** Bleeping Expletives by William Safire, New York Times Today we are going to deal with the media coverage of /profanities, expletives, vulgarisms, obscenities, execrations, epithets/ and /imprecations/, nouns often lumped together by the Bluenose Generation as coarseness, crudness, bawdiness, scatology or swearing. But roundheeled readers should stop smacking their lips and rubbing their hands because the deliberately shocking subject can be treated with decorum, in plain words, without the titillating examples of "dirty words." (/Titillating/, from the Latin /titillare/, "to tickle," is clean.) SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Life And Style: What Singapore Children Want by Antara News 88% of Singapore's workforce of tomorrow believe that it is more important to spend time with family than to make a large salary and lots of money. **** Double Standards In Application Of Laws: Do Foreigners Have More Rights Than Locals? by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore **** HDB Home Loan Defaults On The Rise by Jessica Cheam, Straits Times The number of home buyers defaulting on their home loans for three months or more has risen significantly over the last five years. **** A Piece Of Steak by Ngoc Thinh Le, Thanh Nien Daily The way Singapore chooses the right students to benefit from the subsidy is the most important thing we have to think about. **** Doing IT For Free by Neo Chai Chin, Today Retrenchment presented software engineer Francis Ong with the opportunity to make a difference in India. **** Disgrace - The Life And Times Of Chua Lee Hoong by The Online Citizen To pose Chua Lee Hoong's question back to herself: The problem with the Straits Times is realiability. To what extent can you trust what you read in print? **** Singapore Disturbed By Gaza Invasion by Zakaria Abdul Wahab, Bernama "This is an extremely disturbing development," Singapore said today of reports that Israel has begun ground operations in the Gaza strip in Palestine. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jan 6 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 6 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 6, 2009 Message-ID: <20090106181501.88092.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Was Apple 'Adequate But Late' On Jobs? by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek Some corporate governance experts question whether the tech giant could have been more forthcoming about its CEO's hormone imbalance. **** Sync Multiple iPods To One Mac by Kirk McElhearn, Macworld When two or more people share a Mac, it gets a bit confusing. There are several ways you can sync multiple iPods to one Mac, but the easiest method is to share a music folder. /Still involves cumbersome workarounds. Simply put, there are no good way for two people to share the same music files./ **** 'Hormone Imbalance' Raises Question Of Cancer by Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times Steve Jobs' disclosure about having a hormone imbalance indicates he may be dealing with a recurrence of the disease, some doctors suggest. Hormonal imbalances are common in people who have an active neuroendocrine tumor but would not be expected in someone who has been cured of the cancer, said Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers, chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Minnesota. **** MacBook Wheel Revealed By The Onion News Network by Laura June, Engadget Sent from my MacBook Wheel. **** Apple: America's Most Fragile Company by U.S. News & World Report If Jobs is Apple, and vice versa, then why own the stock if the man is so fragile? And why believe Jobs when he says he'll function impartially as CEO on matters that affect his own future? **** How Much Apple Tax Do You Pay? by Joe Wilcox, eWeek How would I ever have known if not for Microsoft e-mailing information and a chart comparing Windows PCs to Macs? **** Why All The Digging By The Apple Faithful At Steve Jobs' Health? by Andy Ihnatko, Chicaco Sun-Times Yes, Mac people: this is what you've driven him to. **** First! 14-Year-Old Already In Line For Macworld '09 Keynote by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Nick Lensander told us that he felt this was an /especially/ important keynote to attend because it will be the last Macworld Expo that will feature Apple. **** Apple NewtBook by Dan Gillmor, AllThingsD Apple was late to the MP3 party, but it beat everyone else with a system that changed the game. Could we see a similar breakthrough with its netbook? **** Macs Vs. PCs: Is It Still A 'Tax' If Users Happily Pay A Premium? by Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet.com It's the eve of Macworld Expo and Microsoft officials are out talking up the idea of the "Apple tax" again. See Also: Microsoft's New Apple Attack Strategy: We're Cheaper , by Eric Krangel, Silicon Alley Insider. Windows machines /are/ cheaper than Macs, andt here's nothing wrong with competing on price, especially amidst a recession. **** Mac Attack: More Students Are Turning To Apple by Clinton McGue, Mustang Daily Apple has reemerged as a premier computer company by creating a line of long-lasting, versatile computers with a user-friendly interface, while lessening the threat virus contamination. **** Did Apple Disclose Enough? by Erin White, Wall Street Journal **** Steve Jobs' Health Now A Public Matter by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com By finally deciding to talk about Steve Jobs' health, Apple may have opened a Pandora's Box. **** Once Again, Apple Not Forthright About Steve Jobs' Health by Henry Blodget, Clusterstock Apple shareholders have every right to be outraged about the way the company has handled this. **** Cue The Complaints: 17-Inch MacBook Pro Without A Removable Battery? by Chuqui Cheaper, more reliable, and for most devices, users don't actually replace the batteries. It's a big non-issue, except for the really loud and noisy minority - the power users. **** BusyMac Debuts BusyCal Calendar Sharing App by MacNN BusyCal enables people to share and annotate iCal calendars using Bonjour over a local area network (LAN), without the need of a dedicated server. **** Now Apple's Credibility Really Is In The Balance by Charles Cooper, CNET News.com This latest PR stunt is going to raise new questions. Not about the exact nature of Jobs' ailment but about the parsimonious way Apple has communicated with the public about the health of its CEO. **** Switcher's Lament: The Case Against Mac by Rafe Needleman, CNET News.com Not all of the issues we have are with Apple products, and that's rather the point: No platform exists in a vacuum. See Also: Not Buying The "Switcher's" Case Against Apple's Mac , by Applepeels. **** Google Releases Picasa For Mac Beta by Jonathan Seff, Macworld The free Picasa software is designed to help you organize your photos, regardless of where they reside on your computer. **** Expo: ModelBaker Rapid App Development Software Debuts by Peter Cohen, Macworld ModelBaker helps users create applications for the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Google Android devices. **** Roxio Releases Toast 10, Has Little To Do With Burning by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica New features include the ability to archive AVCHD-format footage from camcorders to DVD or Blu-ray discs, capturing streaming audio and video from the web for offline enjoyment, send SD or HD video frm your Mac to a TiVO, convert audiobook CDs to a single file with chapters for playback on an iPod, and sync folders between multiple devices on a network. **** Mac-Based Image Editor Acorn Bumped To Version 1.5 by Justin Berka, Ars Technica **** First Look: FileMaker Pro 10 by William Porter, Macworld I'm pleased that this upgrade offers lots of gain and almost no pain. In fact, at first glance, FileMaker Pro 10 offers so many real benefits to developers and end-users alike that, if you're already using FileMaker, you're going to find it hard to resist the urge to upgrade. **** Jobs Has Hormone Imbalance, Will Remain Apple CEO by Philip Michaels, Macworld In a separate statement also published on Apple's web site, the company's board of directors expressed its support for Jobs. **** Letter From Apple CEO Steve Jobs by Steve Jobs, Apple As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008... My doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been "robbing" me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment... My doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regin . I will continue as Apple's CEO during my recovery. **** Expo: FileMaker Turns 10 With Database Update by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Apple subsidiary FileMaker on Monday introduced the next major version of its flagship database application for Mac and Windows. The application has undergone some interface tweaks over the years, but nothing as dramatic as what users will see in FileMaker 10. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** How Newspapers Tried To Invent The Web by Jack Shafer, Slate But failed. **** Intel, Adobe To Tune Up Flash For TV Devices by Jonathan Skillings, CNET News.com MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman, The American Scholar I never felt the pain of unbelief until I believed. But belif itself is hardly painless. **** The Written History Of Prose by T.R. Hummer, Slate SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** CCT Aborts Market Street Car Park Redevelopment Plans by May Wong, Channel NewsAsia CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT) has decided not to redevelop the Market Street Car Park into a commercial builing. CCT said the decision was based on the uncertain market outlook and conditions liket ight credit and high redevelopment costs. **** Jan 22 Is Budget Day by Straits Times The government will present its budget for the 2009 fiscal year when Parliament sits on Jan 22. **** Senior Civil Servant Boasted About Spending S$46,500 To Learn French Cooking by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Not that it was immoral for him to do so, but to boast about it openly in the papers to ordinary Singaporeans fretting about their livelihoods amidst an economic recession is downright insensitive, callous and arrogant. **** Disappointed With NTUC Chief's Top Three Priorities by Gilbert Goh, The Online Citizen The current crisis seems to have hit many PMEs right now. THis group of people is highly qualified and may not benefit from such retraining. **** Singaporeans, Be Proud Of The Heartlands by AC Analysis And Coment In Singapore, heartland is a term used with disdain, or even disgust. **** Singapore Airlines Flies Into Price War by Mithun Roy, Economic Times The cash rich Singapore Airlines is offering discount deals of up to 60%, connecting Mumbai with various South-East Asian cities. **** Sell Singapore Dollar As Government Supports Exports, UBS Says by Patricia Lui, Bloomberg INvestors should sell Singapore's currency against the dollar, euro and yen as the government will favor depreciation to support exports amid a deepening recession, according to UBS AG. A weaker currency may help boost exports, although it may also fuel inflation by making imports more expensive. **** Singapore Slump Makes For A Toxic Cocktail by Rupert Walker, FinanceAsia.com Economists fear that the Lion City will fall into the worst recession in its history, while hope rests on a resurgence of intra-regional trade. **** Real Chinatown Is At Waterloo Street by Tan Siang Meng, Straits Times The present Chinatown has failed in its attempt to attract tourists. It has lost its charm. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jan 7 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 7 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 7, 2009 Message-ID: <20090107181501.58109.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Is iWork '09 An Office Competitor? by Zack Stern, PC World A few of the new features look good. **** Three Reasons The Internet Is Eroding Apple's Mojo by Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasion Apple is still having a good run, but the times are changing. Here are three reasons why Apple may not make the turn like it did before. There's a lot of lessons here for PR professionals. **** Apple Won't Be Missed At Macworld Expo by Tom Yager, InfoWorld Here's to future Macworld Expos featuring keynote speakers who don't have to walk eggshells to avoid alienating Apple. **** Cool Fun Macworld With Free Hugs by Maggie Shiels, BBC There was plenty around the hall to make me smile. **** Apple: Monetizing The Recession by Thomas Fitzgerald Peppered throughout the keynote were numerous subtle hints at Apple's new revenue streams. **** iPhoto Update Helps Show Merits Of Geotagging by Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com The good news is that the world of digital photography is moving to a new organizational scheme, finally shedding the filing-cabinet metaphor of a hard drive's file system or the shoebox full of prints. The new tag-based world is more flexible and approachable in several ways, and it is still fully compatible with the older methods. The bad news is that in order for it to work, you have to do a little more work getting the tags right in the first place. **** Expo: HoudahGeo Upgrade Mkes Geocoding Your Snapshots A Snap by Dale Roe, Macworld The new version adds direct support for many brands and models of GPS devices. **** The Amazing Vanishing Mac Desktop Machine by Rob Griffiths, Macworld It's now been about 17 months since the Mac mini was updated; a full year since the last Mac Pro update; and more than eight months since the iMac was updated (which is lenghty given its historical update rate). In the fast-paced world of computing, these are long periods of time for a model to go unchanged, and it's obvious that updates must be coming soon... just not quite yet. **** Expo: Punch Knocks Out Home Design Studio For Mac by Dale Roe, Macworld A QuickStart system that facilitates fast home design and a decidedly green focus are hallmarks of the Punch Home and Landscape Design Studio for Mac, announced by Punch Software Tuesday at Macworld Expo. **** Steve Jobs Wasn't The Only One Who Skipped Macworld by Andy Ihnatko, Chicaco Sun-Times And so, I spent this morning lounging comfortably in bed witha Dr. Pepper and a Pop-Tart instead of sitting awkwardly in the press section of a ballroom with about 3,000 media, analysts, and fans of Apple in general. **** Why Apple's iTunes Concessions Are A Double-Edged Sword by Mathew Ingram, GigaOM The labels may be hoping they can sell the bulk of their hits for $1.29, but the reality could be very different. **** Snow Leopard Is An Endangered Species by Joe Wilcox, eWeek The Mac Box Set foreshadows that Snow Leopard isn't coming anytime soon. **** When Labels Fought The Digital, And The Digital Won by Dwight Garner, New York Times "You can't roll a joint on an iPod," the singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne told The New York Times Magazine early last year. And, O.K., I suppose that's among the iPod's drawbacks. But it's hard to think of an electronic device released in recent decades that's brought more pleasure to more people. Should anyone care that in the process, the iPod ha all but killed the music industry as we've known it? **** Apple Lacks Broad Corporate Strategy But Still Sees Gains by Jon Brodkin, Network World You won't hear much talk about corporate IT at Apple's Macworld conference this week, but the maker of the iPhone and the Mac is nonetheless making steady progress in the enterprise technology world. **** Apple's Entry Into Online Office Apps Is Confusing, Laughable by Michael Calore, Wired These are desktop software makers clinging to their old business models by keeping users partially tethered to the desktop, even as they try to compete with newer, smarter solutions that live entirely in the cloud. /Apple will not make money makng office applications on the web — this is simply a market that the company will not pursue. People who think that there are no place for desktop applications are probably still waiting for the death of books and radios./ **** Apple Laptops Extend Their Lead In Reliability by Jeff Bertolucci, PC World In our annual survey of the most reliable laptops, Apple leads, HP bleeds, and Lenovo significantly recedes. /There seems to be trouble in Windowsland. I can't think of a single brand of Windows PC that I can trust, with Sony and IBM dropping off my list due to recent troubles I've had./ **** Apple Shows Us How To Compete With Microsoft by Matt Asay, CNET News.com Companies that try to placate Microsoft and avoid ruffling its feathers often find that Microsoft has no such compunctions about avoid ing stepping on their toes. **** Macworld.Ars: GarageBand '09 First Impressions by Clint Ecker, Ars Technica Now for the new features that Phil didn't mention. Most of these are much-needed refinements to the user interface. **** 25 Years Of Mac: From Boxy Beige To Silver Sleek by Steven Levy, Wired Here's what's amazing about the Mac as it turns 25, a number that in computer years is just about a googolplex: It /can/ look forward. **** Macworld Already A Bummer, With Or Without Apple by Mathew Honan, Wired It was almost like the company was trying to go out on a whimper. **** Macworld 2009 - No Big Steps Forward For Apple, But No Steps Backwards, Either. by Peter Burrow, BusinessWeek Schiller did a perfectly workman-like job of running through one of the least newsworthy Macworld agendas I can recall in my years of covering the comapny. **** Woz Helps Take The Wraps Off Modbook Pro Tablet by Zach Spear, AppleInsider The tablet Mac uses the 15.4" unibody MacBook Pro as its base system. **** Expo: 17-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Replacement Will Cost $179 by Aayush Arya, Macworld **** iPhoto '09 And Domain Language by Ryan Singer, 37signals iPhoto '09 has kicked their language up a notch further. **** News From Macworld: Recording Industry Declares Surrender by Andrew Leonard, Salon That fat lady has sung — and been digitized, ripped and distributed worldwide. The recording industry has finally recognized the inevitable. They're declaring surrender. **** ChronoSync 4.0 Improves Sync Speed, Adds Options by MacNN ChronoSync 4.0 adds many new features, most notably bootable backups, full admin access, and faster synchronizations. **** No, An Overgrown iPod Touch Is Not A Netbook by Dan Knight, Low End Mac Make sure that everything about it says, "I'm a Mac." **** To Err Is Human, To Live Divine: How Exactly No One Got It Right About Steve Jobs's Health by Kara Swisher, All Things Digital A confluence of events seems more likely than one big Apple lot. But it did not stop Gizmodo from declaring it so. **** Macworld.Ars: First Impressions Of (The Forgotten) iWeb '09 by David Chartier, Ars Technica The new features and fundamental changes—like FTP publishing and multi-site support—feel like exactly what it needed to mature into a viable, WYSIWYG Mac website design app. **** Macworld.Ars: iMovie '09 First Impressions by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica The feature that has the most "wow factor," in my mind though, is the real-time image stabilization feature. **** Upgrading To iTunes Plus: Why The Hassle? by Kirk McElhearn, Macworld Why won't Apple let me choose what I want to upgrade? Is the company afraid that it won't make enough money? /Because, I suspect, is that Apple knows as time passes, and you buy more DRM-free music, you will less likely want to upgrade the previusly-bought DRM music./ **** Mac Box Set: The Overlooked Gem Of The Keynote by Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica The package, which is made up of the newly-announced iLife '09 and iWork '09 packages, also includes Mac OS X v10.5 and will go on sale late this month for only US$169. /Probably like many others, I am tempted to just wait for Snow Leopard to be included before buying the whole set. Will this impact sales of iLife and iWork?/ **** iWork 09, iWork.com Collaboration Site Make Their Debut by David Chartier, Ars Technica Documents from nay iWork '09 application can be shared to the iWork.com site, where other collaborators can view, add comments in the form of sticky notes, download versions in multiple formats, and upload revisions to. **** Macworld.Ars: iPhoto '09 First Impressions by Clint Ecker, Ars Technica There are some pretty clever additions in terms of adding important metadata to your applications, but it would seem that there are few core-functionality updates to the application. **** iMovie '09 Seems To Fix Everything From iMovie '08 by Jeff Carlson, TidBITS Based on what Phil Schiller presented, iMovie '09 looks to be the iMovie we were expecting last year. **** GarageBand '09 Adds Music Lessons by Doug McLean, TidBITS HD video instructions walk you through nine basic lessons with synchronized notation, and animated fretboards and piano keys appearing at the bottom of the screen showing you how to follow along. **** Expo: Microsoft To Enhance Entourage Exchange, SharePoint On The Mac by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Entourgae will get a makeover, at least under the hood. Microsoft will stop using the WebDAV protocol in favor of the Exchange Web Services—a change the company said would bring better compatibility, performance, and reliability. The second update to Office for Mac will give Mac users the ability to work with SharePoint Products and Technologies and Office Live Workspaces. **** Macworld.Ars: First Impressions Of Unibody 17" MacBook Pro by David Chartier, Ars Technica Check out a few photos and some brief first impressions. **** Expo: 17-Inch MacBook Pro Gets Unibody Makeover by Chris Holt, Macworld The most intriguing feature is likely the different battery it uses. Instead of the standard cylindrical AA cells that most batteries utilize, the MacBook Pro's battery uses custom-shaped cells. The lifespan of the cells is three times the length of the industry standard. In a decision that will likely cause some controversy, the battery is not removable. **** iTunes Stores Goes DRM-Free by Peter Cohen, Macworld Beginning today, 8 million of the iTunes Store's 10 million songs will be offered without DRM; the entire catalog is expected to go DRM-free by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2009. There will be three pricing tiers: 99 cents, 69 cents, and $1.29. **** Expo: Apple Adds Productivity Features To iWork by Philip Michaels and Peter Cohen, Macworld The updated version of Keynote adds a Magic Movie feature that adds a "morph"-like transition between slides. Pages '09 is highlighted by the addition of full-screen view that lets users focus completely on their writing project. **** Expo: Apple Introduces iLife '09 by Peter Cohen, Macworld iPhoto '09 uses face-detection and facial-recognition technology to automatically detect the faces of people in the pictures you take and to determine which photos include the /same/ faces. In introducing iMovie '09, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller noted that Apple has added "depth and power" to the new release. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Shape Of Things To Come by Tom Teodorczuk, The Guardian No one, of course, can know what a future media landscape will look like. But, given that Shirky was among the few to have forecast 15 years ago that classified advertising would be sold online rather than via a newspaper ad, his crystal ball is more estimable than most others. **** The Real Community Organizer by Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason Magazine Craig Newmark on Craigslist, libertarianism, online democracy, and nerd values. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Why Early Detection Is The Best Way To Beat Cancer by Thomas Goetz, Wired Despite a proven model, early detection is an afterthought in cancer research. **** From Asia, Rapture In A Bowl by Julia Moskin, New York Times People priase chicken soup, especially in these chilly, Kleenex-ridden days, but a bowl of it is usually greeted politely — not rapturously. Purists find pleasure in a clear, golden broth with a few perfect dice of carrot and egg noodles, but the taste? Dull, honestly. Bland, even. Enter, steaming: the rich, spicy chicken noodle soups of Southeast Asia. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Empathy, Where? by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen While I applaud the government for the pay cut, I cannot but be entirely disappointed that, as Mr. Tan Yong Soon, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, has shown, it is only cosmetic. How else can it be if one is willing to spend thousands on a cooking course on a 5-week holiday and then boast about it in a national newspaper? **** Hollow Words Of 'Empathy' From An Elite PAP MP by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Your words sound empty and hollow to me. Your empathy is shallow and pretentious. Instead of being comforted, I felt belittled, neglected and betrayed by the ruling elite which seems to be living in an ivory tower of their own far detached from reality. **** The Sons Of Singapore by Helloxiu I thought Pulau Tekong had only trees and rundown buildings (or rather huts) where the recruits would sleep in. **** Singaproeans Must Apply For Authorisation 72 Hours Before Flying To US From January 12 by Ca-Mie De Souza, Channel NewsAsia >From January 12, Singaproeans heading to the United States must obtain travel authorisation at least three days ahead of their trip. **** From Asia, Rapture In A Bowl by Julia Moskin, New York Times The first hit from any curry noodle soup is visual: steam rising from a glided broth, dotted with urnt-orange oil, flecked with red from driced chilies and brown from warm spices like cinnamon, cumin, black pepper and coriander seed. The next is olfactory, as the perfumes of giner, lemon grass, fresh curry leaves, lime leaves and turmeric kick in. **** Flyer GM Quits by Tessa Wong, Straits Times His sudden exit was among several signs of tension among the Flyer's top management. **** Walk Ban Confusion by Esther Tan, Straits Times Johor state immigration director Mohd Nasri Ishak told The Straits Times yesterday that walking on the Causeway - from both directions - was not permitted. But Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said it was not aware of the rule and its officers do not stop people who opt to walk. **** 90% Get Maximum Subsidy by Salma Khalik, Straits Times Six days since the start of means testing for hospital patients seeking subsidised treatment, more than 90 per cent of those opting for B2- and C-class wards are getting the maximum subsidy. **** A National Shame: An Exhibition Of Homeless Singaporeans by The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore **** Singapore To 'Explore' India's Soft Power by P.S. Suryanarayana, The Hindu **** Chee Responds To CJ, AG And Law Ministers by Chee Soon Juan, Singapore Democratic Party What the three of you have described is not the rule of law. Rather, it is a system where laws — unjust laws, laws that run contrary to our Constitution, and laws that contravene the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — are used to suppress the rule of law in Singapore. The truth is that the rule of law must be practised, not merely proclaimed. Saying that we have the rule of law in Singapore does not make it so. If and when the rule of law is entrenched in this country, I assure you that respect will flow not just from the mouths but also from the hearts of the people. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jan 8 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 8 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 8, 2009 Message-ID: <20090108181500.26085.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The Big Apple Letdown: No Mac Netbook Is A Good Thing by GottaBeMobile.com The introduction of a low cost Mac netbook would harm the current, developing market. **** Waiting For Apple To Meet 'Computer Detox' Promise by Greenpeace The only new product Apple has announced so far at this year's Macworld was a new MacBook Pro with reduced amounts of PVC and BFRs. Which is good, but not what Apple had promised for 2009 and no substantial further progress than the MacBooks announced in October. /I think Apple can 'conveniently' blame Macworld Expo, by claiming the MacBook Pro 17-inch is actually an end-2008 product. "But we have to push back the production schedule a bit so that we'd have a hardware to announce at Macworld Expo." :-)/ **** Town Hall Gives Clues To Future Directions For Macworld Expo by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Future Macworld Expos could embrace film or music festivals. Or they could return to East Coast destinations like Boston or New York. Or they could move from cty to city. Those were some of the ideas floated at Wednesday night's town hall meeting, in which Macworld Expo organizers tossed around ideas with Expo attendees and exhibitors about the future shape of the annual Mac trade show. **** Is The Real Steve-Note 09 Coming Next Month? by Jack Scholfield, The Guardian El Jobso is going to give the real keynote later, and he'll use it to announce the things that Schiller wasn't allowed to unveil. **** Apple Awards Raises To Key Executives by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com Apple awarded three key members of its executive team with $100,000 raises to kick off its 2009 fiscal year. **** OfficeTime Update Offers More Time-Tracking Reports by Dale Roe, Macworld Transcena Design announced OfficeTime 1.4, with the latest version of the time-tracking program allowing you track your time and review instant reports of where you've been spending your time. **** Apple Shows Us DRM's True Colors by Richard Esguerra, Electronic Frontier Foundation An inventory of Apple's remaining DRM armory makes it vividly clear that DRM is almost always about eliminating legitimate competition, hobbling interoperability, and creating de facto technology monopolies. The majority of these DRM efforts do not have even an arguable relation to "piracy." **** Apple's Brilliant Video Engineer: Anonymous No More by Harry McCracken, Technologizer Schiller, who demoed iPhoto himself, didn't show off iMovie 09—instead, he brought Randy Ubillos onstage. The software's creator got to do the demo and receive the applause. **** Apple Without Its Core by Farhad Manjoo, Slate It wasn't only that Schiller had nothing great up his sleeve; he also lacked his boss's ethereal style. **** Analyst: Steve Jobs Is Still In Charge by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune "If Phil Schiller had made a significant announcement, we would have seent aht as a sign of a changing-of-the-guard, but that was not the case," said Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster. **** Apple's Jobs Takes $1 Salary, But Holdings Suffer by Jordan Robertson, Associated Press As he's done for the last decade, Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs took home his customary $1 annual salary in 2008, but the economic meltdown and Apple's falling stock price whacked half a billion dollars off the value of his personal holdings in the company. **** Apple's Modern Look Rejected In Georgetown As Store Hits Snag by Rochelle Garner, Bloomberg Apple's architects, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, proposed building a store with an all-glass front at street level, topped by a slab of masonry with an Apple logo cut through it. THat's not Georgetown's style, a committee apoointed by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts said last month when rejecting the plan. **** Who Did Apple Hurt With Its Macworld Announcements? by Maya Baratz, Venture Beat In yesterday's keynote address at Macworld, Apple unveiled a series of software product upgrdaes that will potentiallyencorach on the territory of a handful of startups and larger companies. Should you be worried? **** Macworld Expo Best Of Show 2009 by Macworld **** Is It Time To Kill The Apple Press Event? by Don Reisinger, CNET News.com Is it time for Apple to finally put an end to its strategy of holding major events to unveil product updates? It may heop Apple build hype for a product, but I can't help but wonder if the company has gone to the well one too many times. **** Microsoft: Mac Office Use Is 77% by Todd Bishop, TechFlash About 77 percent of Mac users in the U.S. are running Microsoft's Office for Mac, the Redmond company said today. /I sure hope Microsoft is not counting the Messenger IM client as part of Office. :-)/ **** 17 Inch MacBook Pro: A Missed Opportunity by Thomas Fitzgerald As the company grows and as the user base grows, the one thing from Apple that isn't growing is choice. You have their limited line up of computers and that's it. /Apple as a company has definitely grown significantly in the last decade, but if we only look at the Mac portion of the company, how much has that grown?/ **** Things Task Management Software Helps You Get Organized by Dale Roe, Macworld Things take a unique approach to personal task management. It offes great flexibility through the use of tags and an intelligent, contextual filter bar that enales users to drill down through long lists of to-dos. **** Autodesk Offers Three New Mac Creative Software Tools by Peter Cohen, Macworld The company's new offerings includ Toxik, a procedural compositing tool; Mudbox, designed for digital sculpting and texture painting; and ImageModeler, image-based modeling and photogrammetry software. **** First Look: Numbers '09 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld New features gained, some old issues squashed in updated spreadsheet app. **** The History Of The Mac, Told By Those Who Were There by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Initial thoughts about the film "Welcome to Macintosh". The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google News by Adam Lashinsky, Fortune CEO Eric Schmidt wishes he could rescue newspapers. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Inching Its Way Back Onto The Lip by David Colman, New York Times Beards have had their moment, now it's time for mustaches to get their 10 minutes of fame. **** End Times by Michael Hirschorn, The Atlantic Can America's paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Police, SCDF Say No Foul Play Behind Singapore Flyer Incident by Channel NewsAsia **** EDB CEO Teo Ming Kian And PAP Ministers Must Be Seeing Red Over Satyam's Fraud by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore **** More On Leave, Short-Week by Li Xueying, Straits Times In a signal that a wave of retrnechments may be on the way, the number of unionised workers who have been asked to go on a shorter work week or to clear their leave has drastically spiked in the past month. **** Pay Up Fines Or No Books by Derrick Ho, Straits Times >From April, members with unpaid library fines and fees will not be allowed to borrow until they have settled the outstanding amount. **** Singapore To Legislate On Right To Work Until 65 by Reuters Singapore plans to compel firms to offer re-employment to staff when they reach retirement age and introduce an annuity to help it cope with a rapidly ageing population, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday. **** Work As Long As You Can by Straits Times This is the advice from prime minister Lee Hsien Loong to older and retired Singaporeans, who he said should stay active and engaged as they can still contribute much to the orkforce and community. See Also: Speech By Mr Lee Hisen Loong, Prime Minister, At The AARP-Council For Third Age Conference: Reinventing Retirement Asia , by Singapore Government. **** Singapore Flyer Files Police Report After Information Leak by Derrick A. Paulo, Today The Singapore Flyer management has filed a police report after an information leak resulted in a news report on Wednesday on the sudden resignation of its general manager Steven Yeo. **** Temasek's Merrill Losses Could Exceed $2Bn by Saskia Scholtes and Greg Farrell, Financial Times Temasek, the Singapore state investment fund, is sitting on significant paper losses related to its stake in Merrill Lynch, the investment bank acquired by Bank of America last week. The state agency's unrealised losses could amount to more than $2bn, excluding any hedges, according to a Financial Times analysis based on publicly available filings. Some 40 per cent of Temasek's portfolio is in the financial sector, and it has suffered paper losses on other investments, including Barclays, Bank of China and China Construction Bank. **** Food-Tripping In Singapore by Lea Salonga, Philippine Daily Inquirer We arrived at around 1.30 a.m. on New Year's Eve in Singapore, one of my favorite cities for—food! **** Museum Of Failed Love Offers Balm For Heartbreak by Rina Ota, Reuters The "Museum of Broken Relationships", which opened in Singapore on Wednesday, is a traveling display of items related to failed relationships donated by people who live in the cities the museum has visited. **** Passenger Numbers Drop For Taxis, But Rise For MRT Trains by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia People in Singapore seem to be choosing cheaper ways to travel in these tough economic times. Latest figures from the Land Transport Authority showed that taxis are picking up fewer passengers while MRT trains are carrying more. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jan 9 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 9 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 9, 2009 Message-ID: <20090109181501.81959.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Akkadia by Ted Bade, Inside Mac Games Akkadia is a word game. It is pretty basic and simple, but it can be quite addictive if you are into word games. I know I spent a lot of time with it, and enjoyed every minute. **** EFF Proposing DMCA Exemption For iPhone Jailbreaking by Justin Berka, Ars Technica The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked the Copyright Office for a DMCA exemption for jailbreaking. **** Pictures From Macworld Expo by Guy Kawasaki, How To Change The World **** Apple Should Start Taking Enterprise Servers Seriously by Timothy Prickett Morgan, The Register With the economies of the world tightening and SMBs crunched and looking for a platform that is easier to use and administer, it is a good time to get a line of tower and rack servers into the field. **** DRM-Free iTunes Store To Haunt Apple? by Don Reisinger, CNET News.com In an effort to make up for lost song sales by enticing more people to use its download software, Apple may see its device competitors gain market share. /I think Apple's is not obssessed about market share. What Apple really want is to make a good living with great products. Regardless of the market share of its competitors, DRM-free music store definitely contirbute to making the iPhones and iPods better products, and that's what Apple really cares about./ **** DocProtect 1.0 Launches, Controls Access To Documents by MacNN Excel Software has released DocProtect 1.0, an application for protecting rights and access to files, from actions like drag-and-drop copying to exporting and saving. **** Cool Enterprise Security Developments At Macworld Expo by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com Several developers showed new security tools for the Mac and iPhone platform at this week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, including biometric locks for storage and a forthcoming app that turns an iPhone or iPod into a PKI token authentication solution. **** More Evidence That The iPod Touch Is The Surprise Hit Of The Season by Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek New survey data from AdMob, which runs an ad network for mobile devices, says the number of ads served up to iPod Touch devices rose from 86 million in November to 292 million in December. And the vast majority of those December clicks occured after Santa had made his rounds. **** Expo: Paragon Software Offer 'Talking' Dictionaries For Mac OS X by Dale Roe, Macworld Word definitions are accompanied by usage and sound samples, transcription, grammar information, and colour markup, and the pronunciation samples have been recorded pre-recorded by native speakers. **** A Strange Macworld Expo by David Pogue, New York Times Phil Schiller noted that Apple marches to certain annual product cycles. Janaury doesn't fit /any/ of them. **** Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery Software Debuts by MacNN This software provides recovery from hard drives, camera/flash cards, FireWire dirves, and USB drives. **** iMovie '09: What You Need To Know by Dan Frakes, Macworld Latest version to add depth and power to iLife's video editor. **** City Of Heroes For Mac Emerges From Beta by Peter Cohen, Macworld City of Heroes is a massively multiplayer online game featuring costumed superheroes and supervillians. **** Macworld.Ars: Get Free Admission Into Macworld Expo 2010 by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica IDG is offering all Expo attendees free admission into next year's show. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Palm Pre In-Depth Impressions, Video, And Huge Hands-On Gallery by Joshua Topolsky, Engadget **** A Joined-Up Bot-Fighting Strategy by Duncan Graham-Rowe, MIT Technology Review Can simulated handwriting stop the spambots from getting through? **** Palm Announces WebOS Platform by Nilay Patel, Engadget MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Twilight Of The Color Photo by Dushko Petrovich, Boston Globe As printed snapshots vanish, we're losing more than shoe boxes full of memories. **** Stephen King Fan Publishes Shining's Jack Torrance's Novel by Alison Flood, The Guardian Phil Buehler said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance's work from the film. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Mediacorp To Cut Costs by Robin Chan, Straits Times Media giant MediaCorp has started a cost-cutting drive, which will see the broadcaster shutting down operations and scaling back staff benefits. **** Protection From Slander by Clarissa Oon, Straits Times Web content hosts could get some protection when their users are sued for defamation, following a government review of existing laws on the subject. **** Gag Stays For Civil Servants by Li Xueying, Straits Times The gag stays: civil servants are stil not allowed to publicly express their personal opinions on government policies. Allowing them to do so would 'compromise the performance of their duty by undermining discipline and trust within the civil service,' said the government. **** Givernment Accepts 17 Of 26 AIM's Recommendations by Gerald Giam, The Online Citizen I feel that the government's moves are a positive step forward in engaging citizens and liberalising the political atmosphere. However they are not nearly what is expected of a country at such an advanced stage of its economic development. **** More Space For Political Discourse Expected With Liberalisation Of Online Space by Hasnita Majid, Channel NewsAsia The Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS) says it views the government's rejection of nine of its 26 recommendations as a reflection of its cuation in using new media as a platform for discourse. **** Films Act To Be Amended To Allow Factual Party Political Films by Channel NewsAsia The Singapore government will amend the Films Act to allow for certain types of party political films, which means that political parties and their candidates will be able to use films for internet election advertising during an election. But party political films will have to be factual and objective and not dramatise or present a distorted picture. **** Should Temasek's Thoughts Turn Closer To Home? by Arthur Sim, Business Times Reading very closely between the lines of Temasek's mission statement, one can argue that, unlike GIC, Temasek has a social mandate to support businesses. **** Singaporeans Ranked Lowest by Straits Times Singaporeans are at the bottom of a ranking of retirement income from pensions in the Asia-Pacific region, says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. **** Keeping Seniors At Work by Tan Kin Lian, The Online Citizen The wages of our lower income workers are inadequate and had stagnated during the past decade. This is due to the absence of a minimum wage policy, a pro-business environment and reliance on market forces. We need stronger regulations, trade unions and consumer associations to safeguard the interests of workers and consumers in the free market enviornment. **** Credibility: An Inverse Relationship Between The New And Old Media by Fang Zhi Yuan and Lim Siow Kuan, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Is the media serving the interests of the nation or the government? Till Ms Chua answers this question truthfully, no amount of "quality control" instituted by SPH will vindicate its current standing of 141st on the World Press Freedom index. **** CIQ Plauged By Complaints by The Star The new Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigrtion and Quarantine (CIQ) complex, has regularly been featured in the media but for all the wrong reasons since it started operations on Dec 16 last year. **** Making Changi T3 More User-Friendly by Yeo Kia Thye, Civil Aviation Authority Of Singapore, Straits Times In view of Mr Tan's observation, we will review how to make it easier for non-travellers using Terminal 3 to find such services and facilities easily, without causing clutter or reducing ease of use for arriving travellers. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jan 10 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 10 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 10, 2009 Message-ID: <20090110181501.66780.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Dropbox And iWork.com by Kyle Baxter, TightWind iWork.com looks like is designed for more simple work scenarios. It works better for documents which need thoughts and corrections — the person sharing it is the sole content owner and creator, and the reviewer is just that, a reviewer. **** Apple, Microsoft: Best Frenemies by Todd Bishop, TechFlash Two hours before Microsoft's Mac software group announced an online collaboration tool for Mac Office users this week, it got a surprise: Apple had been working on something very similar for its own Mac word-processing and spreadsheet programs. And Apple was unveiling its tool first. Welcome to one of the tech industry's most complicated relationships. **** Amazon, Apple And The Price Of Music by Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com I don't consider myself an Apple fanboy in any way but there's nothing compelling enough out there for me to bother switching. **** How Will The iTunes Pricing Changes Change The iTunes Top Songs List? by Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek **** Only At Expo: It's The People, Stupid by Scott McNulty, Macworld This might seem obvious, but the Macworld Expo can survive without Apple as an exhibitor and the media but it can't survive without the everyday Mac users that come to learn something and perhaps even to make a new friend or two. **** First Look: Pages '09 by Jeffery Batersby, Macworld After less than a week's worth of face time with the latest version of Pages, it's clear that the updates make Apple's business productivity application a more viable option for all your business needs. **** Opinion: The $169 Mac Box Set And Apple's Motives by Aayush Arya, Macworld In this blogger's humble opinion, and I'm just speculating here, this may be Apple's way of steering clear of a backlash when they do introduce Snow Leopard at the full price of $129. **** Review: Avid Media Composer 3.0 by Gary Adcock, Macworld Update handles tapeless camera data and HDV formats with ease. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Children Of The Left, Unite! by Caleb Crain, New York Times A new anthology of radical children's literature shows that Marxist principles have been dripping steadily into the minds of American youth for more than a century. Hear Also: Tales For Little Rebels , from The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC. **** Mining The Mountains by John McQuaid, Smithsonian Magazine Explosives and giant machines are destroying Appalachian peaks to obtain peaks. In a tiny West Virginia town, residents and the industry fight over a mountain's fate. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Not The Time To Flaunt Your Riches by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star A high-ranking civil servants'a account about spending RM110,124 for him, his wife and son to learn fine French cooking has blown up in his face. **** Singapore Tycoon Gets Kidney From Hanged Ganster: Report by AFP An ailing Singapore retail magnate has received a kidney believed to have come from a convicted ganster hanged on the same day, The Straits Times reported Saturday. **** Singapore Misses Tourism Targets In 2008 by Channel NewsAsia The city-state welcomed an estimated 10.1 million visitors last year, down 2.0 percent from 2007, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said. It had aimed to attract 10.8 million visitors during the year. **** Singapore Government Rejects AIMS' Key Recommendations by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread The overall conclusion I make is that the government really do not want to do anything progressive. Long live arbitrariness, opacity and nonaccountability! **** Films Act: Fate Of Political Documentary Films Remains Unclear by Cherian George, Journalism.sg The government's latest stand on th eFilms Act has fallen short of hopes that documentary films on domestic political themes could be screened as freely as other films in Singapore. **** Singapore Government Still Fearful Of Political Films by Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans The government's claim that they are "protecting society" by reserving their right to ban films holds no water. A few hundred thousand people have seen 'Singapore Rebel' and 'Zahari's 17 Years' on the internet. I have not receivd a single complaint calling for the removal of these films. The only people who objected to the screening of these films are the government themselves. Whose interests are they really protecting? Singaporeans' or just Lee Kuan Yew's? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jan 11 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 11 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 11, 2009 Message-ID: <20090111181501.77602.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** How Long Can Apple Stay Fresh Once It Loses Its Core? by Bobbie Johnson and Charles Arthur, The Guardian Predicting Jobs's successor is almost impossible. **** CEA Confirms Apple-Related Ehibits At CES 2010 by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com The Consumer Electronics Association has confirmed plans to host a Mac-centric area at CES 2010, but Apple has still not commented on whether it plans to participate. /Given that Apple has already pulled out of Macworld Expo 2010, it is an easy decision for CEA to start woo companies in the Mac/iPod/iPhone ecosystem, no matter whehter Apple itself expressed any interests at all./ **** Is There An Apple Community? by Zach Bass, Investor In THe Wilderness **** One Apple I Love by NYC Resistor Lo and behold, that little crapy underpowered and truly ugly device actually somehow defied all odds and powered on. **** The Search For The Next Steve Jobs by Daniel Lyons, Newsweek Compare Jobs's recent recklessness to the way Microsoft managed the delicate hand-over of the cmpany from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer. **** Apple: Ten Things It Needs To Do In 2009 by Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek Like the rest of the business world, Apple is embarking on treacherous times in 2009. But Apple faces special challenges: it sells boutique products that cost more than the competition. **** First Look: Keynote '09 by Franklin N. Tessler, Macworld After exploring the newly released Keynote '09 for the past few days, I've discovered several exciting new features as well as a few old shortcomings. **** An Apple Genius Saved My Visit To Macworld Expo by Jochen Wolters, O'Reilly Digital Media Blog Not only did Zach manage to fix the core problem. He also showed me exactly what he was doing all along the way so I could add new trouble-shooting techniques to my virtual Mac Tool Belt and also share the process with you, valued reader. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Software Populist Who Doesn't Do Windows by Ashlee Vance, New York Times With Ubuntu, the devotees believe, things might finally be different. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Telling The Holocaust Like It Wasn't by Jacob Heilbrunn, New York Times The further the Holocaust recedes into the past, the more it's being exploited to create a narrative of redemption. **** At McDonald's, The Happiest Meal Is Hot Profits by Andrew Martin, New York Times It wasn't too long ago that McDonald's, vilified as making people fat, was written off as irrelevant. Now, six years into a rebound spawned by more appealing food and a less aggressive expansion, McDonald's seems to have won over some of its most hardened skeptics. **** My Genome, My Self by Steven Pinker, New York Times Like the early days of the internet, the dawn of personal genomics promises benefits and pitfalls that no one can foresee. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Police Arrest Suspect Over Attack On MP by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia The suspect who poured flammable liquid on Member of Parliament (MP) Seng Han Thong and set him on fire, has ben arrested by police. The man, a resident in Mr Seng's ward and whom the MP has been trying to help, has been in and out of the Institute of Mental Health. **** MPs Must Be Accessible by Jermyn Chow, Straits Times While MPs can take precautions against mischief-makers, they must remain accessible to their residents and approachable, said prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, after visiting injured MP Seng Han Thong in hospital on Sunday. **** MP Hurt After Man Reportedly Threw Kerosene-Filled Bottle by Asha Popatlal and Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong has been taken to hospital after he was hurt in an incident at Yio Chu Kang Community Club on Sunday morning. **** Chambermaid Vs Foreign Maid - Got Difference Meh? by Kaffein-nated Being a maid is a shameful thing. But working as a chambermaid is not. /Huh?/ **** A Distrusting Government, Suspicious Of Its Employees And Its Customers by Everyday's Life In A Snapshot It's time the government stop treating Singaporeans as foreign enemies who are out to get them. **** Few Changes Expected In Singapore's Political Status Quo In 2009 by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore A weak economy, coupled with a divided if not disoriented opposition and a timid, pragmatic and conservative electorate means that we can expect few headways made in Singapore's political status quo. **** 'Don't Stop' Pedestrians by The Star People should be allowed to walk from the Immigration checkpoint at the CIQ complex to the Causeway and on to Woodlands in Singapore," said home minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar. "I will check the matter as there should be a route for pedestrians." **** Wireless In Singapore... Not! by Oon Yeoh, ZDNet Asia All in all, I had wasted well over an hour trying to get onto the internet at Changi. /The "free" wireless at sg is definitely not free. In fact, it is quite costly, in terms of the things you have to give up./ **** Government Retains The Same Old Climate Of Administrative Discretion With Regards To Political Films by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net The same tools of suppressing political dissent and curtailing free political discourse that existed before are still equally available for use by the government at its own discretion. **** Has The PAP Internet Brigade Lost Its Teeth? by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net **** Mission (Im)possible: State Regulation Of The Internet by Mathia Lee How do you criminalise films (or anything)? When they can be hosted overseas by people overseas. How can you criminalise civil servants speaking up? When the internet offers wonderful identity cover, of when information could be passed on to people posting from overseas? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jan 12 13:15:02 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 12 Jan 2009 18:15:02 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 12, 2009 Message-ID: <20090112181502.4696.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple In The Enterprise: Inevitable, But Still Not Easy by Mary Brandel, Computerworld Thanks to the enthusiasm it has generated in the consumer market and the enterprise-friendly features it has added to the Mac and the iPhone, Apple will likely make inroads into more corporate environments, but gaining acceptance may not be easy. Even Mac veterans say that Apple doesn't always act like other technology partners and that mixing Macs into the enterprise requires time and research. **** Accidents Will Happen by Jon Henley, The Guardian It is worth noting that there is no point disputing Murphy's Law. **** iPod, iTouch, iLove! by Seema Ghatnekar, The Pacifican **** Senators' Laptops The Apple Of Their Ayes by Paul Hammel, Omaha World-Herald Issues of size versus extra cost have been raised about hte purchase of new MacBook Air laptop computers for Nebraska state senator — although the purchase has plent of defenders within the Capitol. **** BravoBug Launches Mega BrickBash 3000 For Mac by MacNN BravoBug Software has launched Mega BrickBash 3000 for the Mac, an arcade-style game where players move a platform right and left in order to deflect small energy balls. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** To Connect To The Internet, Just Turn On Your TV by Saul Hansell, New York Times If there was one overarching theme from the Consumer Electronics Show last week, it was that absolutely every device in our lives is becoming a computer connected to the internet. **** Sign-Language Translator by Jennifer Chu, MIT Technology Review The first sign-language dictionary that's searchable by gesture. **** Let's Invent An iTunes For News by David Carr, New York Times Those of us who are in the newspaper business could not be blamed for hoping that someone like Steve Jobs comes along and ruins our business as well by pulling the same trick: convincing the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it's time to pay up. **** How Investigative Research Happens In The Blogosphere by Dave Winer, Scripting News MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Learning To Read by Franz Wright, New Yorker **** Eh? by Nathalie Anderson, New Yorker **** L.A. Weekly: The Autopsy Report by Marc Cooper The slow-motion collapse of L.A. Weekly also coincides with a radical shriking of the L.A. Times, the implosion of The Daily News and the continuing downard descent of smaller papers likeCity Beat and The Daily Journal. If there was ever a time for an aggressive, irreverent, credible metro weekly to take on the Gray Lady, it's right now, right here. That requires investment, not layoffs — seriousness and not shoddy, half-arsed ideological crud passed off as news. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** One Country, Two Systems Part III by Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** Response To Media Queries On Arrests Of Two Singaporeans Who Staged A Protest In MOM by Ministry Of Manpower, Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore Government Police confirm the arrests of two Singapore citizens, Seelan Palay and Chong Kai Xiong. At about 12 pm, the two entered the premises of the Ministry of Manpower to stage a protest against the non-renewal of the work permits of some Myanmar nationals. **** HDB To Build Granny Flats by Theresa Tan, Straits Times The Housing Board (HDB) will continue building small flats meant for the elderly, known as studio apartments, as these have proven a hit with older Singaporeans. **** 2,000 Electronics Jobs To Go by Aaron Low, Straits Times At least 2,000 workers in the electronics sector are expected to lose their jobs by March, said National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary general Halimah Yacob said on Monday morning. This is comparable to the 2,300 jobs lost in the ailing manufacturing sector int he whole of last year. **** Singapore At A Bargain Basement Price by Richard Tulloch, The Age I remember when the Singapore dollar was worth a good deal less than the Australian dollar. Now they're almost the same. So, faced with an unavoidable stopover en route to a modestly paid job, I was determined to do it on a shoestring. I had one rule, though - if luxury was out of the question, my stayhad to be comfortable, interesting and fun. That turned out to be easy to achieve. **** Safeguard Your Info by Peter Douglas, Today In Singapore, individuals are often asked to take reckless chances with their personal information. **** Would A Women's Ministry Help? by Lin Yanqin, Today There's no such pressing need for such a ministry in Singapore, argue some women politicians here. **** Mr Tan Kin Lian And His Bid For Political Office by Chee Wai Lee What has impressed me about Mr. Tan is his willingnes to engage with people, even with peole he does nto agree with. **** Why Obsess About Government Response? by P N Balji, Today Here's a reality check for those bloggers who want the government to respond to their views. The government will do it on its own terms and in its own turf. Instead of waiting, I suggest they cast aside this craving for government attention and continue to do what they have been doing all this while. **** Singapore: A Future Player In Islamic Finance by Lahem al Nasser, Asharq Alawsat **** Singapore Expects 'Challenging Year' For Tourism by Simeon Bennett and Chen Shiyin, Bloomberg Singapore expects a "challenging year" for tourism in 2009 as the global economic recession curtails consumer spending and holiday plans. **** Tippling Club Mixes Cocktails, Molecular Food: Singapore Dining by Adam Majendie, Bloomberg Singapore's Tippling Club is defying the times, charging S$600 for a two-person dinner of deconstructed food and smoking cocktails that is as much abaret as cuisine. **** Their Home Under The Flyover by Zalhan Mohamed Yusof, New Paper It's hardly the great outdoors. But, to at least three people who have been camping out below a flyover along Telok Blangah Road, it's home. **** Typical US Home Now Cheaper Than HDB Flat by New Paper /Is the question, as New Paper puts it, "how bad are things over there", or is the question, how big a bubble we have over here?/ **** Muslims Can Work In IR by Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times Muslims here should not rule out working in the upcoming integrated resorts where there are jobs, as long as it is not in their gaming sections, said minister Yaacob Ibrahim on Sunday. /One has to note, however, that probably almost everything in the non-gaming-section are really in support of the gaming section where presumably the big profits are./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jan 13 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 13 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 13, 2009 Message-ID: <20090113181501.62733.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** It's A Mac Trap, And We've Been Caught by Ben's Blog The overall effect is... Windows-like. **** Apple Quietly Releases iLife '09 Hardware Up-To-Date Program by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet.com **** Cool Stuff From This Year's Macworld Expo by Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle **** Disclosure Of Information Vulnerability In Safari by Brian Mastenbrook I have discovered that Apple's Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user's hard drive without user intervention. All users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard who have not changed their feed reader application preference from the system default are affected, regardless of whether they use RSS feeds or use a different web browser. **** A Post-Macworld Apple Event? History Would Seem To Suggest So by John Paczkowski, All Things Digital **** Apple Tries To Avoid Sustainability Report by Environmental Leader Recently, Apple ha unveiled a number of new green products, but they're opposed to a shareholder resolution that would require them to publish a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. **** Here's Praying That Palm Gives Apple A Run For Its Money by Matt Asay, CNET News.com I just want Apple to have to compete again. **** Thoughts On The Past And Future Of Macworld Expo by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Forced change is always scary, without a doubt, and Macworld will have to change to survive. **** The iPhone "Nano" Makes No Sense To Me by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet.com I just can't see how a small "nano" screen would work. **** Democracy 2 by David Allen, Inside Mac Games It's by no means perfect, but it's a very ambitious outing for a smaller gaming company. I think if you are willing to overlook some of the frustrating aspects of the experience, and really throw yourself into the role of a national leader, you'll be entertained and possibly enlightened as well. **** Top Mac Software At Macworld Expo 2009 by TidBITS **** First Look: iWork.com by Dan Miller, Macworld iWork.com is a convenient way to share iWork documents, particularly with people who don't run iWork themselves. **** Expo Notes: Restoring The Matte Screen by Rob Griffiths, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Building An iTunes For Newspapers by Jack Shafer, Slate Answering David Carr's excellent challenge. **** Carr's "iTunes For News" Already Exists by Scott Rosenberg, Wordyard It's called Google text ads. It's ad revenue tailored specifically for the web environment. It works, and it's already bringing considerable sums in to many web sites. The problem is, it doesn't bring in /as much/ cash as newspapers want, or have traditionally expected. **** Penny For His Thoughts by Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine The real fallacy in David Carr's delusion is that a news story or an opinion, like a song, is unique—that you can't get it somewhere else and so you hve to buy the original. **** Not Your Father's Censorship by Harry Lewis, The Chronicle Of Higher Education Ironically for the American pioneers who expected the internet to foster unprecedented information freedom, its rapid and ubiquitous adoption has created a flexible and effective mechanism for thought control. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Morning Of The Monsoon by Diane Mehta, Slate The blue-black curve of weather sizzles when it smacks the asphalt.
Ocean air tumbles in, loosely shaped in networks of water. **** At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going The Way Of The Blackboard by Sara Rimer, New York Times For as long as anyone can remember, introductory physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was taught in a vast windowless amphitheater known by its number, 26-100. But now, with physicists across the country pushing for universities to do a better job of teaching science, M.I.T. has made a striking change. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** NTUC Fairprice Pledges No Retrenchments In Next Two Years by Ting Kheng Siong, Channel NewsAsia The union-led cooperative has pledged not to retrench workers in the next two years and plans to send some 5,000 frontline staff for further training. **** Singapore Bureaucrat's Cooking Trip Sparks Outcry by Melanie Lee, Reuters A Singaporean bureaucrat who wrote about taking his family on an expensive cooking course in France has sparked ire from locals, with some accusing him of extravagance given the city-state is in recession. **** Singapore Press Drops As Investment Loss Hurts Profit by Chen Shiyin, Bloomberg Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., the city-state's biggest newspaper publisher, fell after saying first-quarter profit dropped on a loss on investments and as an economic slowdown eroded advertising demand. **** Why There Mustn't Be An Election This Year by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread If an election is called, and it is not due to greed for power, but instead due to this reading of our economic future, then it is really bad news indeed. **** Good-For-Nothing PAP Hooligans Only Know How To Bully Own Singapore Citizens by The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore **** More Pain To Come For Singapore's Property Market by The Edge Singapore If you thought the local property market was fairly close to bottom and it was time to start looking at bargains, think again. **** Singapore Is Second Freest by Michelle Tay, Straits Times Singapore has again been ranked the world's second freest economy, after long-time rival Hong Kong, which retains the top position for the 15th straight year. The republic scored 87.1 on the Index of Economic Freedom, which is published annually by The Wall Street Journal and American conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation. **** Fire Attack On MP Draws More Amusement Than Outrage From Netizens by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Singapore Enquirer While few netizens condemned the violent act and expressed their sympathies for the victim, others gloat about his misfortune openly making Mr Seng and the ruling PAP to which he belongs to the butt of many crass jokes. **** "I Hope Singapore Government Punish Them" by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen "My wife crying, my mother crying, my father crying," Delowar said to me when I asked him if he told his family that he was returning to Bangladesh. "Everything I lost," he added. He had sold his land and borrowed from the bank to raise S$9,000 to come to work in Singapore. In the end, he is paid a measly S$600 to bring home with him. **** The AIMS Report: Fire-Fighting The MICA Way by Groundnotes Amidst the euphroic headlines and self-congratulatory media fanfare, the fact is MICA's response was a demonstration in fire-fighting - it accepted recommendations for practices that were /already happening/ and that it has /absolutely no control over/. **** Self-Defense For Females In Singapore by Daphne Maia What can girls use for self-defense in Singapore? **** How To Manufacture All-Rounded Students by Mr Wang Says So Overall, I think that DIrect School Admission (DSA) is an excellent idea. However, one can also see how the DSA can backfire. **** Are Netizens Living In THeir Own Ivory Towers In Cyberspace? by Fang Zhi Yuan and Jeremy Yau, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Electoral battles are won at the grassroots level and not in internet chatrooms. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jan 14 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 14 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 14, 2009 Message-ID: <20090114181501.23085.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Review: Pandora 2.0 For iPhone And iPod Touch by Donald Bell, CNET In version 2.0, Pandora adds several new features without undermining the simplicity that made the original application so great. **** Apple Allows Third Party Web Browsers Into App Store by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com Over the past 24 hours, Apple has begun to approve 3rd party web browsing applications for the iPhone. A number of new web browsing apps have suddenly appeared with original submission dates ranging as far back as October. **** MacBook Pro Benchmarks by James Galbraith, Macworld High-end model is the fastest standard configuration portable we've tested. **** Local Mac Fans Get Their Day On The Big Screen by Michael Singer, Castro Valley Forum Most peopl eknow Tim Holmes as the owner of Zocalo coffee house on Bancroft in San Leandro, but he was featured in a documentary film premiering last week for his passion as a MacHead. **** 'Bring Back Steve Jobs' Flyers Frustrate Apple by MacNN The man behind "Bring Back Steve Jobs" flyers at last week's Macworld Expo says the stunt was not meant as a slam against Apple. **** Is Camino Now The Best Browser For Older Macs? by Charles Moore, Low End Mac **** Freeware For Networkers by FJ De Kermadec, O'Reilly Digital Media Blog **** Mac Clone Maker Psystar Claims It Bought OS X From Apple by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Apple, argued Psystar, can't have it both ways by taking Psystar's money and then claiming its copyright has been infringed upon. **** BackJack Introduces Business Backup Version by Peter Cohen, Macworld Synetcis Business Solutions has announced the release of BlackJack Business Version, a new version of thier online backup software now catering to business. **** The iPhone (And iPod Touch): Apple's Netbook? by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica The computing experience offered by many netbooks is already on sale from Apple, kind of. **** Variable iTunes Pricing And The Future by Christopher Breen, Macworld By relenting on variable pricing, Apple's bought more than the hope that it may drive a stake through Amazon's musical heart. It's also purchased a measure of cooperation from the music industry. **** Force Dock To Hide Programs On Switch by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Hiding while switching can be very useful for those times you want to focus on the program you're switching to. But what if you'd like to /always/ use this mode, without the need to hold down the Command and Option keys? The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Yet Another Rebuttal To Carr's iTunes-For-News Notion by Steve Outing The "let's charge for content" argument keeps rearing its head, but get over it. Let's focus instead on "let's charge for services" that are valuable enough to the news consumer that he or she is willing to part with some money. **** Is An 'ITunes For News' Possible? by Rich Gordon, Poynter Online **** Shafer's This-Ain't-The-Web Dream World by Scott Rosenberg, Wordyard The more energy the news industry wastes trying to repackage the dead old form in new, ill-fitting digital clothes, the fewer resources it will have to tackle the real challenge. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Zeros-Sum Game Of Inflation by Neely Tucker, Washington Post Real money. Lots of zeros. Getting scary, isn't it? **** The First Suppers: A Tradition Of Inaugural Meals by Andrew F. Smith, Los Angeles Times Over the last 200 years, food has been an integral part of the celebrations surrounding the transition of power from one American president to another. **** Chefs Settle Down In 'The Real D.C.' by Kim Severson, New York Times In Petworth, Columbia Heights, the U Street district and even the dicier parts of North Capital Hill, a little restaurant revival is under way. Washington neighborhoods that for years were considered too dangerous or too poor for a viable sit-down restaurant are suddenly entertaining quite a few. **** The New Journalism: Goosing The Gray Lady by Emily Nussbaum, New York Magazine WHat are these renegade cybergeeks doing at the New York /Times/? Maybe saving it. **** Baby Food by Jill Lepore, New Yorker If breast is best, why are women bottling their milk? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Man Arrested For Vandalism by Selina Lum, Straits Times Police on Wednesday arrested a man in his 40s for vandalism, after a signage stone wall outside Parliament House was defaced at lunch hour. **** Singapore To Roll Out Public Sector Projects Worth Up To S$50m Each by Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia The Singapore government will roll out public sector projects worth up to S$50 million each in a bid to help the building and construction industry amid the economic downturn. **** TOC Expose: Repatriation Companies by Jolovan Wham, The Online Citizen 'Repatriation companies' are businesses that are set up specifically to help employers manage 'troublesome' foreign workers by roughing them up and sending them back to their home countries forcefully. Many employers are more than happy to pay someone to do this since they find it difficult to handle work place disputes and get rid of foreign workers who do not toe the line. **** Amnesty Urges Singapore To Stop Executions by AFP Human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Wednesday asked Singapore to make public "comprehensive information" about its use of the death penalty and again urged the government to stop executions. Singapore's continued use of the death penalty for criminal offences, including drug trafficking, goes against a global trend that has seen several countries abolish capital punishment, Amnesty said in a statement. **** Singapore Second Freest Economy: What It Means by Blowin' In The Wind Singapore might have even beaten Hong Kong to the top spot if the government played a smaller role in the economy. **** Can Singapore Understand Biology And Economics At The Same Time? by Bryan Caplan, EconLog Is it possible that Singapore's leaders realize that the standard eugenic policy recommendations are biologiclly informed but economically illiterate? **** Glitch Hits Comfort Cabs by Christopher Tan, Straits Times A rare technical glitch has paralysed the mobile data terminals - necessary for call bookings and cashless payments - of hundreds of ComfortDelGro taxis. **** Wearing Shorts Sluttish? Give Me A Break by Joy Fang, My Paper Give tertiary students a break. Allow them to enjoy this period of their life, and let them grow up at their own pace. Because, trust me, they will in due time. **** Independent Investigation Needed Over Tang's Kidney Transplant by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread The whole affair cries out for an investigation. **** Malays Are Generally Discriminated In Multinationals In Malaysia by Malaysia Waves Almost all multinationals in Malaysia have their regional headquarters in Singapore. And, in Singapore discimination on Malays is an official policy. **** Duty For Singaporeans, Scholarships For Foreigners by Military Life: Memoirs Of A Conscript In The Lion City It's really sad how we've tilted our system of meritcracy to the point where citizenship counts for far less than academic intelligence. **** Cheated Workers Forced To Return From Singapore by Porimol Palma, The Daily Star Several thousand Bangladeshi workers who went to Singapore with valid documents are being forced to return home in small groups as the Singaporean labour supply companies allegedly cheated them by not arranging jobs for months. **** The Labrador Kopi Shops Are No More by Otterman Speaks... It was a rare gem of old Singapore squirreled away in the protective bosom, it had seemed, of the nearby cliff. **** TOC Opinion: Snap Election For Early March? by Choo Zheng Xi, The Online Citizen Two external factors bolster the snap election hypothesis. One of these is unpredictable, the other less so. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jan 15 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 15 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 15, 2009 Message-ID: <20090115181501.83389.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The Big Apple by Ed Fear, Develop Apple has finally entered the game industry - and with recent promotions focusing on the gaming power of the iPod Touch, it's clear that the company now has dominance of the portable gaming industry clearly within its sights. We sat down with Greg Josiwak, Apple's head of iPhone and iPod marketing, to talk about Apple's new strategy as a games platform holder, and the opportunities that lie therein for developers. **** Why Apple Is In Safe Hands With Tim Cook by Gary Marshall, TechRadar.com He may not have Steve Jobs' fearsome temper or quick sarcasm - his sense of humor is bone dry and he's more likely to disarm you with his slow, southern drawl than go ballistic - but like Jobs, Tim Cook is a force to be recknoned with. **** Jobs' Absence An Important Opportunity For Apple by Thomas Fitzgerald More than ever Apple needs to show that the company's success has not just been a stroke of luck or the result of a series of eccentric whims by its famous CEO. **** Steve Jobs And Death by Leander Kahney, Cult Of Mac Work and family — that's all he does. I think he's now focusing on his family. I hope it's not the case, but I suspect Jobs will not return to Apple. **** For Apple's Jobs, What A Difference A Week Makes by Jim Goldman, CNBC Apple could have broken new ground on this front, ignited a new realm of transparency. Instead, it chose a different path. And shareholders, fans, and the Apple community are paying the price. **** Apple Chief Steve Jobs: Health Timeline Since 2003 by Bloomberg The following timeline details the reports about Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs's health since his bout with cancer five years ago. **** Apple Addicts Are Shaken To The Core by Alan Firmin Does the word Newton or Duo Dock send shivers down your spine just thinking of that gloomy depressing past? **** Apple Could Face Lawsuits Over Jobs' Health by Gina Keating, Reuters Apple Inc probably will be sued by investors unhappy with the company's about-face on the health of its visionary chief executive, but the law is not clear on what duty the company has to disclose personal medical information, legal experts said on Wednesday. **** Video: Dan Lyons Takes On CNBC's Jim Goldman Over Steve Jobs' Health by Jordan Golson, Venture Beat Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons takes CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau chief Jim Goldman to task after Goldman swore that sources told him that Steve Jobs' health was not the reason Apple marketing head Phil Schiller presented at Macworld instead of Jobs. **** State Of Affairs Affecting Apple... by A Curious Case Of Shanks What will happen to these people when theirmotivation leaves the station? It's quite simple, without Steve, Apple will not be the same, we know this but where do we go from here? **** Steve Jobs Rumors Are Unavoidable When The Facts Are Hidden by Andy Ihnatko, Chicaco Sun-Times Today as always, I respect and try to honor Steve's insistence on keeping his private life private. But today as never before I know just how much good Steve could do for the company and the community by sitting down for twenty minutes with a single journalist that he trusts. **** Creating Apps For Apple TV by Learning Interaction And Experience Design Considering that the Apple TV is a computer, Apple could choose to release an SDK and make an even wider range of capabilities available to developers. **** Coming Soon To A Generic Server Near You: OS X Server by Tom Yager, InfoWorld I'm not privy to any insider information, but I think that Apple is setting up the ability to run OS X Server on generic x86 servers. It's probably just an attack of wishful thinking, but check my logic. **** What If Steve Jobs Doesn't Come Back To Work? by Saul Hansell, New York Times The inevitable process of reworking the entire corporate operating system, changing the culture of how decisions get made and how executives relate to each other, entails enough risk that investors and customers are right to wonder whether Apple after Steve Jobs may lose its way. **** Tim Cook - Jobs' Temporary Replacement At Apple - Seen As Strong Manager by Brandon Bailey, San Jose Mercury News Unflappable, analystical and highly disciplined. The man taking the reins of Apple may not fill the role of brilliant visionary that Apple fanatics have assigned to Steve Jobs, but analysts say that veteran executive Timothy Cook has the right qualities to run the trend-setting technology company for at least the next five months. **** Shortcovers, Iceberg Put Latest E-Books On Your Cellphone by Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal Two companies are launching new e-book apps that aim to bring current and popular titles from major publishers to the iPhone and Touch. And they add interesting features, including fancy formatting and community tools. **** Even Without Steve Jobs, Apple 'Can Clearly Execute,' Says Analyst by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld **** The One Very Un-Pro Thing About The New Unibody MacBooks' USB Ports by John Mahoney, Gizmodo When I pulled my MacBook Pro out for its first run at CES, one limitation I hadn't prviously anticipated arose. It's something you should consider if you're using anything larger than standard USB plugs. **** The Cost Of A "Complex" Jobs Helath Issue: About $6 Billion (So Far) by Mg Siegler, Venture Beat What will be interesting to see is what happens to Apple's shares during tomorrow's trading day. **** Check Point Shows Off Full Disk Encryption For OS X by Aharon Etengoff, ITExaminer.com Check Point has been showcasing its full disk encryption programme for OS X, which prevents data theft via a comprehensive security field that remains in place even after the computer is shut off or forced into standby mode. **** Apple's 8 Hour Battery: Breakthrough Or Bungle? by Robin Harris, ZDNet.com Good products serve; great products surprise. For a generation that has never known more than 4 hours battery life, the new 17" MacBook Pro will be a revelation. **** The End Of My Love Affair With Apple? by Christopher Dawson, ZDNet.com Apple makes some great products, but they are not exactly key to getting the most bang for your buck. **** Apple Shares Tumble; Motorola Warns Of Loss by Charla Mozee, MarketWatch Apple Inc. shares dropped as much as 10% Wednesday evening after the company said that chief executive Steve Jobs will take a medical leave of absence until the end of June. **** Four Web Browsers Get In To Apple App Store - But Which Ones? by Brian Kraemer, ChannelWeb The fact that Apple seems to have eased up on duplication of functionality is nice, but it doesn't necessarily point to good news for web browsers that run on independently developed engines, such as Firefox and Opera. **** Godspeed by John Gruber, Daring Fireball So even if his health issues are not life-threating, they are obviously quite serious. There's not a word in today's announcement that can be interpreted as good news, other than his closing: "I look forward to seeing all of you this summer." Right back at you, Steve. **** Monitor Your Site's Uptime On The iPhone by Stan Schroeder, Mashable Website uptime monitoring service Pingdom has released an iPhone application which enables you to check the current status of your site. **** With Steve Jobs Sidelined, Who Will Evangelize Brand Apple? by Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age Macworld VP-editorial director Jason Snell talks about Apple's challenges in the wake of news reports about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' mysterious health problems. **** AllSecure 1.0 Keeps, Safeguards Sensitive Info by MacNN Arizon's EdgeRift has announced an initial release of AllSecure, a tool used to store sensitive information on a Mac. **** Jobs To Take Leave Of Absence Until June by Philip Michaels and Dan Moren, Macworld Apple CEO Steve Jobs told employees that he wil be taking a leave of absence until June to deal with lingering health issues. Chief operating officer Tim Cook will handle day-to-day operations in Jobs' absence. "Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well," Jobs told employees. "In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought." See Also: Steve Jobs' E-Mail To Apple Employees . **** Apple On iPhoto '09 Changes by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld When Apple sat down to tackle an update for iPhoto, it knew what features it wanted to tackle—the ones that other image editors and organizers had failed to master. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Tech Shows, And Writers, Uninspired by David Pogue, New York Times Hey, boss — sorry for this really superlong e-mail message. But since you're my editor, I figure you should be the first person to hear the bad news: I've got no column for this week. **** Work On Stuff That Matters: First Principles by Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Radar Work on something that matters to you more than money. Create more value than you capture. Take the long view. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** In The Lap Of Luxury, Paris Squirms by Elaine Sciolino, New York Times France is the birthplace of luxury fashion, and here the recession biting the world has the feel of a morality play. **** How To Write A Poem For The President by Jim Fisher, Salon Elizabeth Alexander has been commissioned to write a poem for Inauguration Day. But the checkered history of the form suggests it's an almost impossible task. **** Our Inner Artist by Jonah Lehrer, Washington Post The premise of Dutton's work is that this instinct for art isn't an accident. Instead, he argues that our desire for beauty is firmly grounded in evolution, a side effect of the struggle to survive and reproduce. **** Lunching On Lympus by Steven L. Isenberg, The American Scholar My meals with W.H. Auden, E.M. Forster, Philip Larkin, and William Empson. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Marina Bay To Have Dedicated Police Centre by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia The Singapore Police Force is setting up a dedicated security centre at Marina Bay to manage the challenges expected once the integrated resort there has been completed. **** Two NGOs Call For More Steps Be Taken For Foreign Workers by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia Two non-gogvernmental organizations (NGOs) have urged more steps be taken for foreign workers affected by the economic crisis to be adequately compensated. **** Zoo Names Two Eateries After Ah Meng by SoShiok.com **** Singapore Retail Sales Fall 5.2 Pct In November by Associated Press Singapore retail sales fell in November as the city-state's residents tightened their belts amid the worst recession in decades. **** Charged With Vandalism by Elena Chong, Straits Times Koh Chan Meng, 47, is said to have written words on a low display wall outside the building at the junction of North Bridge Road and Parliament Street on Tuesday and Wednesday. **** Work For Life, Live For Work by Insane Polygons I think life should be more than about work and contributing to the economy. And that life has got more meaning than work and only work. Don't live your life and base your self image and identity solely on work or eventually you might just fnd that the MM is right and that life without work is death. **** The HDB Scam: Are Singaporeans Real Owners Or Mere Tenants Of Their Flats? by Eugene Yeo and Jeremy Koh, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Public housing should be kept simple, low-cost and easily affordable to the masses. **** Singapore Gripped By Employment Squeeze by Sumathi Bala, Financial Times Singapore's job market is looking gloomy as the global economic slowdown takes its toll on local industires' hiring. **** Downturn Raises Odds At Singapore Casinos by Muhammad Cohen, Asia Times Conceived in prosperity to win a competitive bidding process that attracted the world's top gaming operators and onctracted during a regional construction wvae, Singapore's IRs will be the world's most expensive casino resorts constructed wave, Singapore's IRs will be the world's most expensive casino resorts constructed, costing up to US$6 billion. The global economic downturn, and falling revenue at Macau's casinos, now cast dark shadows over those heady plans. **** Rising Costs Strain Singapore's University Students by Fong Wei Li, UPI A handful of varsity students are taking on part-time jobs to finance their tuition fees and daily expenses. These students usually come from lower-income families with paretns who are unable to foot the steep bils tagged to a tertiary education. **** Sarkozy Seeks To Share Louvre Art With Singapore by Artinfo French prsident Nicolas Sarkozy said he'd like to share art from the Louvre with Singapore. **** Police Responses No Slower Than Before by Paul Tay, Singapore Police Force, Straits Times While we take all calls seroiusly and strive to respond to urgent cases within 15 minutes and non-urgent cases within 30 minutes, there will be unavoidable instances where we are unable to meet our target response times due to abnormally high incident loads. See Previously: Are Responses Slower Now? , by Yong Sing Wee, Straits Times. Has it come to the point whereby the police take more than 40 minutes to reach the scene of a potentially serious crime as my experience on Sunday has shown? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jan 16 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 16 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 16, 2009 Message-ID: <20090116181501.98094.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Jobs Or No Jobs, Apple's Pipeline Of Products Is Intact (For Now) by Mg Siegler, Venture Beat While Cook may run the business just fine, who's going to dream up the products? **** Don't Worry About Apple by I, Cringely In the long run the goal won't be to replace Steve, anyway, but to transcend him, because Steve was far from the perfect leader. **** Cook Relies On Core Values As Jobs' Surrogate At Apple by Dawn C. Chmielewski and Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times The chief operating officer's accomplishments include transforming the firm's supply chain operations. **** In The Beginning: The Making Of The Mac by Ryan Faas, Computerworld The course of events that led to the Mac as we know it was convoluted, the result of luck or coincidence as much as planning. But those events began with desire of Apple executives to develop a next-generation computer following the success of the Apple II. **** Opinion: The Top 10 Standout Macs Of The Past 25 Years by Michael DeAgonia, Computerworld To celebrate the Mac's 25th anniversary, I looked back over the years and picked 10 Apple computers that altered the company's course and changed the way the world works and communicates. **** Can Apple Fill The Void? by Brad Stone, New York Times Some Apple watchers and former employees are skeptical about Apple's fate if it is forced to soldier on without Mr. Jobs. **** Health Isn't A Private Issue When You're A Legend by Joe Nocera, New York Times Enough is enough. If Mr. Jobs wants privacy, he should resign from Apple. Barring that radical move, Mr. Jobs' medical problems will continue to be a "distraction," as he himself put it in that recent e-mail message — and a big one. **** Apple Faces Issues Of Disclosure by Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post The argument that Apple has a duty to discover and disclose Steve Jobs' health status has grown more persuaive, business and legal experts say. **** AppTheater Offers "View Before You Buy" iPhone Game Videos by Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica AppTheatre is a new site trying to make the process of choosing of your next title a little easier by providing user-submitted videos of iPhone game gameplay. **** Five Background Apps For Your MacBook by Lisa Hoover, The Apple Blog Throughout the course of the workday, I open and close dozens of apps on my MacBook. There are five tools, however, that I keep running continuously in the background on my laptop. **** The Genius Behind Steve Jobs by Adam Lashinsky, Fortune The man at the helm of Apple for the next six months while CEO Steve Jobs is on leave is an exacting executive who shares his boss' perfectionism and obsession with detail. **** Top Five Mistakes We Hope Apple Makes While Steve Jobs Is Gone by Philip Berne, infoSync World While Steve Jobs isn't looking, we'd like to see Apple slip out a few new products, like an Apple Tablet and some other intriguing, if doomed, device ideas. **** Apple Approves E-Book After Dirty Words Removed by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com An e-book submitted to Aple's App Store has been approved after the author removed language that apparently offended Apple. **** Fake Mini iPhones Ring Alarms For Apple And Hi-Tech Manufacturers by Karl Barnfather, The Times Opportunistic counterfeiters have apparently jumped the gun by selling a device that has not yet been invented. But how did this happen and how concerned should businesses be? **** Caution, Change Surround Apple's Quarterly Report by Rex Crum, MarketWatch With chief executive Steve Jobs going out on medical leave for the next five months, there is a definite snese of change going around Apple Inc. as the company prepares to deliver its fiscal first-quarter report on Jan. 21. **** Apple's Cook Pushes Staff In Lieu Of Jobs's Magic by Dina Bass and Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg Cook's management style won't be a shift for employees. He's been quietly running the company for several years, said Mike Janes, who worked with the executive for five years at Apple. **** CNBC Denies Banning Fake Steve Jobs, Defends Jim Goldman by Henry Blodget, Silicon Alley Insider CNBC believes that Goldman's personal note to Steve Jobs forced Apple to come clean. Jim himself does not argue that he forced Apple's hand. **** Punishing The Wizard: On Apple And Steve Jobs by Mark Sigal, O'Reilly Digital Media Blog Who looks better than Apple on a long-term basis in terms of differentiated products, diversified revenue sources, depth of product pipeline, quality/depth of management team, operating margins, profits, cashflow, cash reserves and absence of debt? **** Apple Faces Credibility Crisis Over Jobs' Health by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com Apple may have wanted to protect Steve Jobs' privacy with the way it chose to address his health. But the end resulti s a credibility problem that will not go away easily. **** Things I Like About Picasa For Mac by Giles Turnbull, Cult Of Mac Beta status or not, Picasa offers a decent alternative for photo management for people who don't want to spend the kind of money required for Aperture or Lightroom. **** Apple's Core Problem by Daniel Lyons, Newsweek My guess is that yesterday's announcement was, in effect, Jobs's letter of resignation, and that he'll never be back. **** Apple Investors Are Wusses by John Paczkowski, All Things Digital To sell on this news, or any of the Jobs-related health rumors or reports the company has suffered this past year, is silly. **** Review: Wolfram Mathematica 7 by Flip Philips, Macworld Mathematica 7.0 continues the tradition of the pat 20 years—each version sets a new standard for scientific and technical computing innovation. **** Apple Trademarking "OS X" Without The "Mac" by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica **** iPhone Apps: Fool's Gold For Developers? by Bill Snyder, InfoWorld What's important to understand is that the iPhone application environment is very difficult. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Basking In Big Data by Kate Greene, MIT Technology Review Visualization software makes viewing and interacting with enormous data sets practical without a supercomputer. **** Twittering Tips For Beginers by David Pogue, New York Times Twitter /is/ a massive time drain. It /is/ yet another wayt o procrastinate, to make the hours fly by without getting work done, to battle for online status and massage your own ego. But it's also a briliant channel for breaking news, asking questions, and attaining one step of separation from the public figures you admire. No other communications channel can match its capacity for real-time, person-to-person broadcasting. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The American Character by Louis P. Masur, Chronicle Of Higher Education Obama's popular narrative, and the way he has told it, promises to revive interest in what scholars term American exceptionalism — the idea that the American story is somehow unique. **** Mission Accomplished by Chris Mooney, Slate The "war on science" is over. Now what? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Family Wins Suit by Selina Lum, Straits Times The parents of a former full-time national serviceman, comatose for more than three years after an incident in camp, have won their lawsuit against the defence ministry. **** Another ACJC Ragging Incident - This TIme, The Girl Gets Dumped Into A Waste Bin And Wheeled Around by Alvinology The guy circled in red is said to the son of minister of community development, youth and sports, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan. **** 58 Percent Of Investors 'Missold' Lehman-Linked Products To Be Compensated by Nicholas Fang and Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia More than half of investors who complained they were mis-sold products linked to the collapsed Lehman Brothers are set to be compensated. 25 per cent of the over 5,300 complaints will receive full settlement, wile 33 per cent will get partial settlement. **** Singapore To Revise 2009 GDP Growth Forecast by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the situation is gloomier now than at the start of the new year when the growth estimates were announced. **** Parliament To Tackle Questions On Jobs, Minibonds And Singapore Flyer by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia **** Singapore Dec Exports Plunge by Straits Times Singapore's exports fell the most since early 2002 in December as a deepening slump in global economies pared demand for electronics and pharmaceuticals. **** Why Is Everyone Talking About Elections? by Ephraim Loy, A Writer's Blog For one, the electoral register to allow citizens to participate in elections has not been opened for scrutiny. Secondly, the final map of electoral boundaries has not been released... I think we should wait for more concrete evidence before jumping to a speculation that elections are round the corner. **** Singapore Airlines Cuts More Than 200 Flights by AFP Singapore Airlines (SIA) is cutting more than 200 flights to Australia, China, Europe and India in response to falling passenger numbers, according to the company and travel agents. **** Singapore Wages Council Predicts Unemployment To Soar by Kevin Lim, Reuters Singapore's National Wage Council (NWC) said on Friday unemployment and layoffs will be "substantially higher" this year, and recommended that firms affected by economic downturn institute a wage freeze or wage cuts to stay competitive and save jobs. See Also: National Wages Council's Revised Guidelines From 16 January To 30 June 2009 , by Ministry of Manpower, Singapore Government. Government Accepts National Wages Council's Revised Guidelines (16 January 2009 - 30 June 2009) , by Ministry of Manpower, Singapore Government. **** Uncommon Strong Winds In Singapore by Sufian Suderman, Today "The mpact of the high pressure system is windy conditions across the island as we have been having the past couple of days," said the NEA. **** Likely Mas Selamat Has Fled by Li Xueying, Straits Times Almost a year after he escaped from custody, where is terror fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari? Home affair minister Wong Kan Seng narrowed it to either of two scenarios: one, he is in Singapore and hidden by sympathisers unknown to the authorities, or, two, he has fled the country. **** When Idiots Rule The Blogs Of Singapore by Hard Hitting In The Lion City **** Temasek Invests In Talent And People by Wong Kim Hoh, Straits Times At a media conference to launch the Temasek Foundation two years ago, a foreign journalist asked its chairman Goh Geok Khim a pointed question. Is the outfit - which was set up with a $500 million endownment by Temasek Holdings - an independent philanthropic organisation or a spin machine for the government-linked corporate behemoth? Two years on, the question still surfaces. **** OFW Jobs In Singapore Not In Peril by Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, The Manila Times Although Singaporeans are "tightening their belts" because of the global economic crisis, there are plenty of opportunities for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on the island-state, its ambassador said Thursday. **** Time For Singapore To Think Small by Patricia Kowsmann, Wall Street Journal Singapore has a small-business problem, which could feature big when the country unveils its 2009 budget next week. Built on the back of cheap credit and government incentives in recent years, the island's small businesses now face a credit drought. Banks, fearful of a rise in non-performing loans as Singapore's recession worsens, are growing cautious. **** More Misses Than Hits by Neo Chai Chin, Today Good turnouts at job fairs but poor job-match mrat disappoints employers. **** Directed Organ Donation Is Legal by Ng Wan Ching, New Paper It is a little-known fact that there is a way for a kidney patient to legally leap ahead of others in the queue. This can happen if Tan, also known as 'One-Eyed Dragon', had decided to direct who his organs would go to after his death. Under this scheme, the donor's wishes will be granted, never mind the other rules on donations. This was confirmed by a Ministry of Health spokesman. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jan 17 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 17 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 17, 2009 Message-ID: <20090117181501.36500.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Developer Considers Charges After iPhone App Is Pirated by Elinor Mills, CNET News.com The devloper of an iPhone app that has been cracked and distributed for free said he is considering pursuing criminal chrages against whoever is responsible for the piracy. **** The Mac At 25: Success And Regrets, Apple's Had A Few by Dan Turner, Computerworld 5 things Apple did right and 5 things it didn't over the last quarter-century. **** Hope Can't Defy Gravity by Joe Wilcox, eWeek People can believe that Apple is different, that the economy won't sap Mac shipments. You can jump off a cliff on absolute conviction that you will fly. But gravity is stronger than hope. **** Despite Everything, Mac Sales Grew Year-To-Year by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune CEP Steve Jobs may be struggling with health problems, but sales of Apple's computers seem to be holding up. **** Apple Tells Dual-Link DVI Display Adapter Customers That Their Monitors Are Incompatible by Jason Chen, Gizmodo Users of Apple's Mini Display to Dual-Link DVI Adapter are still experiencing the distortion issues, but now Apple Engineering is supposedly telling people this is only compatible with the Apple Cinema Display. **** Opinion: What Will Macs Be Like In 25 Years? by Seth Weintraub, Computerworld We'll likely still have Macs in 2034, but they'll be based on the iPhone — and about the size of an iPod shuffle. **** Timeline: Milestones In The Mac's History by Ryan Faas, Computerworld Take a trip down memory lane as we revisit the highs, lows and in-betweens of the Apple Macintosh from 1978 to today. **** UK's Only Independent Mac Developer Conference, MacDev 2009, Announced For April by Nick Spence, Macworld UK The conference will consist of eleven one-hour sessions, aimed at intermediate or advanced level users. **** Kivi's Underworld by Franklin Pride, Inside Mac Games Its limited scope and simplistic gameplay simply aren't enough to keep most players entertained for any significant length of time. **** Expo Notes: A Last Look At The Weird And Wonderful by Chris Holt, Macworld Let's take one last, loving look at the odd and oddly wonderful things on the show floor last week. **** A New Reality Distortion Field by Dan Miller, Macworld What is it about Steve Jobs' health issues that has not been journalist's finest hour. **** Up Close With The 17-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery by Chris Barylick, Macworld New battery brings longer life—and controversy. **** Review: Hands On With Slacker Radio For iPhone by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica All in all, Slacker Radio offers a pretty decent package despite its newness and rough edges (plus those ads). **** VisualHub Rising From The Dead by Christopher Breen, Macworld VisualHub is on its way to being reborn as the open-source FilmRedux. **** iPhone App Store: Half A Billion Served by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica The popularity of the App Store is undeniable. **** Review: Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures by Chris Holt, Macworld Lego Indiana Jones is a solid platformer, a humorous ride, and a satirical lookat one of films' great franchises at the same time. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Microsoft Ordered To Delete Browser by Associated Press The European Union said Friday that Microsoft's practice of selling the Internet Explorer browser together with its Windows operating system violated the union's antitrust rules. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Popular Newsweekly Becomes A Lonely Category by Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times People have asked for a generation whether newsweeklies would survive — but that is a more pressing question than ever, as the recession pummels the magazine industry. For now, the answer maybe that newsweeklies are already gone, having evolved into something else. **** Modern Darwins by Matt Ridley, National Geographic Magazine The father of evolution would be thrilled to see the science his theory has inspired. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Elderly Citizens Bearing The Brunt by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star With the economic storm worsening, the suffering poor could become a potential source of social unrest even for this orderly society despite the draconian control. **** Archaic Policy Of No Benefit To Tourism, Travellers by Michael Tan, Sydney Morning Herald The recent Australian government announcement is simply protectionist and in sharp contrast to the worldwide trend towards liberalisation of international aviation policies. **** Singapore Government To Tighten Laws Against Protests: Deputy PM by AFP Singapore's deputy prime minister said the island state, which is hosting a summit of Asia Pacific leaders this year, may further tighten laws against public protests, according to reports. Wong Kan Seng said police could be granted power to take action before protesters could gather at specific areas such as parliament. **** How About New Year Gift, SMRT? by Reggie J, New Paper From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jan 18 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 18 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 18, 2009 Message-ID: <20090118181501.45931.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Status Anxiety by Toby Young, The Spectator Puritans love disasters. No sooner has some calamity befallen mankind than some hair-shirted scold emerges from his priest hole and starts wagging his finger. The message is always the same: 'You are being punished for your immoral lifestyle.' SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Solidarity For The PAP And Its Cronies, Enslavement For Ordinary Singaporeans by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore It is time for Singaporeans to wake up from the long-held myth that the PAP is responsible for the economic "prosperity" SIngapore has enjoyed over the last 2 decades and only the PAP has the ability to bail us out of the economic woes. **** Are Our Economic Priorities Right? by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread Investing in the export-oriented sector, neglecting the domestically-oriented sectors. **** Philippines Asked To Return Dolphins Here by Solomon Star International animal activities are urging the Philippine government to return dolphins exported to them back to the Solomon Islands. There dolphins were sent there to be trained before they are re-exported to Singapore for entertainment purposes. **** Government Should Not Respond To Only Views It Can Control by Gerald Giam It makes sense to respond on the platform where the original comment was made in order to reach the right audience. **** Singapore Government May Dip Into Reserves by Dominique Loh, 938Live As Singaporeans brace themselves for a difficult year, a strong response to the global recession will be needed in the upcoming budget. This could involve dipping into the carefully-guarded reserves of the country, according to senior minister Goh Chok Tong. **** MAS Announcement Brings Relief To Some, Raises More Issues For Others by Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia Investors whom Channel NewsAsia spoke to said the announcement by MAS holds no surprises and still fails to address certain questions. Most investors also said they would continue to pursue the issue of compensation with their financial institution. **** Singapore Firms Invest Nearly S$1b In Iskandar Malaysia Project by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore-Malaysia ties will remain positive under Malaysia's next premier Najib Tun Razak - that is the view of Malaysia's new High Commissioner to Singapore, Hussin Nayan, who has described current ties as excellent. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jan 19 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 19 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 19, 2009 Message-ID: <20090119181501.11224.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The Video Industry Just Doesn't Get It by Rob Griffiths, Macworld As things stand now, video producers are treating their customers like thieves, and encouraging them to find alternative solutions that are less costly, unencumbered by DRM, and more agreeably priced. **** Review: Peak Pro 6 by Peter Kirn, Macworld Sample editor and audio suite tweaked for pros, sound designers, and podcasters. **** Jobs' Worth by The Guardian At a time when computers are more commodified than ever, and designed as well as manufactured in Asia, Apple has become something of a role model for a different way of doing things. **** Macworld Expo 2009 For Photographers by Jeff Carlson, TidBITS **** The Apple Store Replaced My Cracked iPhone 3G by Casey Woods, ITInfusion I was instructed that this was a "one time" deal, and that I would have to pay for the repairs if I dropped the phone and cracked it again. But am I complaining? Not at all! **** Wanted: The Truth, The iTruth by Mark Veverka, Barron's There is no evidence that the recent information provided by the company over the past couple of weeks is untrue. However, by the same token, it's hard to avoid the suspicion that shareholders aren't getting the full story. Apple is a repeat offender of failing the smell test. **** Steve Wozniak Sheds Some Light On Steve Jobs' Health Issues by MacBlogz "I disagree with the press getting into his private life. Let him communicate the way he wants to communicate to the public... Leave him alone," Wozniak said. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Paralleisation: The Next Performance Horizon by Tom Yager, Computerworld New Zealand There is enormous potential in the GPU, but similar potential can be extracted from resources that standing servers already have. **** An Online Farmers Market by Claire Cain Miller, New York Times The local food movement has been all about buying sesasonal food from nearby farmers. Now, thanks to the web, it is expanding to include far-away farmers too. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Cursive, Foiled Again by David Mehegan, Boston Globe We e-mail, we text, we Twitter - what will become of handwriting? **** From Books, New President Found Voice by Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Much has been made of Mr. Obama's eloquence — his ability to use words in his speeches to persuade and uplift and inspire. But his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have not only endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas to millions of Americans while ocntextualizing complex ideas about race and religion, they have also shaped his sense of who he is and his apprehension of the world. **** Last Robot Song by Robert Pinsky, New Yorker **** It Must Have Been The Spirits by C. P. Cavafy, New Yorker **** Pink Is A Flower... And Other Things The Nose Knows by Russell Smith, Globe And Mail On New Year's Day, I rather idly threw out a question to the great cosmic ear, a question about the language of smell. I wondered aloud why all our words for smells seemed to be the words of real things — such as apple or ozone — while we had abstract words for colours (red) and other sensations (soft). The massive response from scientists and poets of all stripes was overwhelming. It made clear two things: (1) science is hard (2) scientists tend to seek explanation from within their own disciplines. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Human Organ Transplant Amendment Bill Introduced In Parliament by Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia The Human Organ Transplant Amendment Bill aims to allow compensation to altruistic living organ donors. **** Minister Rebukes Perm Sec For 'Lacking Sensitivity' by Gerald Giam This once again shows how the internet has managed to force the government's hand. **** The Tan Yong Soon Cooking Fiasco: What Lessons It Hold For Both The Government And Blogosphere by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Singapore Enquirer Going by the rapid rate at which the new media has evolved over the last few years, the government may have not much time left to keep pace with it. It needs to find ways to engage this growing segment of voters in cyberspace soon before it gets unnerved by a similar political tsunami which hit our neighors' shore not too long ago. **** Law System Is Open by Aaron Low, Straits Times Law minister K. Shanmugam on Monday rebutted claims by Law Society president Michael Hwang that Singapore lacks a principled and transparent penal system. **** Losses Less Than Markets' by Straits Times The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and Temasek Holdings outperformed global equity markets in 2008, said finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Parliament on Monday. 'Their overall value has fallen by less than the decline in global equity markets, as they maintain diversified portfolios and had taken precautionary actions early in the crisis to reduce their exposures to the equity markets,' he said in a written reply to a query in Parliament from non-constituency MP Sylvia Lim. **** When Will We Hear Tan Yong Soon's Public Apology? by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore If you are reading this, Mr Tan Yong Soon, I sincerely hope you can demonstrate your gaciousness and magnanimity by eating the humble pie to apologize to those whose feelings have been hurt by your ill-timed article. However, if you continue to choose to remain silent and aloof, you will be remembered rather unfortunately as "The French Cook - 'Le Cordon Tan'" for many years to come. To apologize or not, the choice is yours. **** Rapped For Insensitivity, And It's All Thanks To... by I Have Succumbed To Peer Pressure Keep it up, Singaporean bloggers. Staying together, moving ahead and all that jazz. **** Association Of Bloggers (Singapore) by Singabloodypore I am sceptical to say the least. **** Singapore Cuts Top Government Salaries As Recession Deepens by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore's government said it will cut the salaries of its top public workers and ministers as a "sharp" recession threatens to increase job losses and hurt lending this year. The top government salaries, which are linked to economic performance, will fall 12 percent to 20 percent in 2009, and "may be subject to further adjustments given the volatility of the economy," Teo Chee Hean,t he defense minister who's also in charge of the civil service, said in parliament today. **** Rapped For Insensitivity by Straits Times Top civil servant Tan Yong Soon has been rapped for a travelogue he wrote about his family holiday to Paris to learn cooking French cuisine at the prestigious Le Cordon Belu. Defence minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also the minister in charge of the civil service, said in Parliament: "What the civil servant in question - Mr Tan - does during his vacation leve is his private decision. However I was disappointed with what he wrote in The Straits Times. The article showed a lack of sensitivity nd was ill-judged. It struck a discordant note during the current difficult economic circumstances when it is especially important to show solidarity and empathy for Singaporeans who are facing uncertainties and hardship." **** Singapore In Sharp Recession by Straits Times Singapore's economy won't recover from the current 'sharp' recession until the second half of 2009, trade and industry minister Lim Hng Kiang said in Parliament on Monday. "There is very little we can do to try and mitigate the impact of such a major decline in external demand," said Mr Lim, during question time. /So money cannot buy us some cushion? So, why is the government collecting and hoarding so much cash from its citizens?/ **** Singapore May Tap Reserves Amid Recession by John Burton, Financial Times Singapore has signalled that it will adopt a carrot-and-stick approach in dealing with possible public unrest as the city-state enters would could be its worst post-war recesion by increasing spending and tightening laws against political protests. **** Investments To Slow by Straits Times EDB said bearish sentiments in the fourth quarter has affected various companies' ability to invest. **** Facing A Complex Problem by Nelson Benjamin, Meera Vijayan, Gladys Tay and Suan Ong, The Star The new RM1.3bil Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in Johor Baru has been plagued with incessant complaints, including traffic congestion, hassles for pedestrians and poor signages since its opening a month ago. **** The 'Business Killer' Of JB by The Star The exodus of businesses from Johor Baru has begun and the blame for the shift is on the new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex. Moneychangers, restaurant operators, traders and hawkers in the city's once-busy streets of Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Jalan Ngee Heng, Jalan Siew Chin and Jalan Segget are moving out. **** Medium-Term Link Can Solve Problem by The Star Traffic congestion at the CIQ can be rectified if the proposed bridge from the complex is continued and extended into the causeway, says former Gerbang Selatan Bersepadu construction director Ng Ah Kow. **** Recession-Hit Singapore Could Tap SWFs: Newspaper by AFP Singapore's sovereign wealth funds, which have helped bail out troubled global financial institution,could for the first time be tapped to help the ailing domestic economy, a report said Monday. **** Why I'll Say No To Being A Government Mandarin... by Eugene Wee, New Paper Top civil servants need to have a certain moral authority to go about their work, especially since part of their job entails crafting policies that, while good for the country, may be hard for Singaporeans to swallow. They need to have not only top minds and world-class skills, but they must uphold certain social values that are acceptable to all. **** Singapore Airlines To Enter The Australian Market? Testing The Waters by Centre For Asia Pacific Aviation Singapore Airlines has quietly tested the environment in Australia to see what response it might expect if it established a locally based airline in its biggest foreign market. **** Squeezed Between High Rent And Poor Sales by Jessica Lim and Ang Yiying, Straits Times Whether in prime Orchrd Road or a suburban mall, small businesses are feeling squeezed by falling receipts on one hand, and non-negotiable rents on the other. /HDB should consider building neighbourhood shops in the 'newer' town centers such as Woodlands and Sengkang so that residents there are not held ransom by the shopping mall giants./ **** Bloggers Forming An Association? by My Singapore News Getting approval and permission are the last things in the minds of bloggers. **** PSA Expects Difficulty Year Ahead by The Star PSA International Pte Ltd anticipates a difficult year ahead for the port industry although it recorded a 7.3% increase in volume last year. **** TBT Goes To Bukit Panjang by Singapore Democratic Party >From the enthusiastic response, SDP and its supporters are encouraged to continue our walkabouts and to engage our fellow citizens. This is despite the series of court cases that the actvists are facing for standing up for our rights to freedom of speech and assembly. **** Encourage Ostentatious Lifestyle by My Singapore News For those who do not know how to spend or share their wealth, just stand outside a MRT station with a sack of angpows and hand them to the passerbys. No need for any mean testing. **** Singapore Facing Worst Downturn In 40 Years by Blowin' In The Wind There are so few jobs that the Straits Times didn't publish the usual separate Saturday Recruit supplement yesterday, running the job ads with the other classified sections instead. **** Words Of Wisdom by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg In these bad times, the buzzword is save, not spend. It is not the right economic climate to be lavish or to have a luxurious lifestyle. /And even if you do, don't brag about it. :-)/ **** Asia Holiday Sales Test Depth Of Economic Woes by Dhara Ranasinghe, Reuters Shopping is a national obsession in Singapore, yet this Lunar New Year retailers are struggling to get the city's usually insatiable shoppers to part with their cash as a cloud of economic gloom hangs over Asia. **** Cancellations Hit Oil Rig Builders As Global Downturn Bites by AFP Singapore's once-roaring oil rig industry has been hit by contract cancellations due to weaker energy demand and as plummeting crude prices dampen exploration. **** Mobile Phone Giants Dial Up Entertainment In Growth Bid: Analysts by AFP Mobile phone giants are going beyond their traditional role as handset makers by offering entertainment and lifestyle content to help grow revenues amid tough competition, analysts say. /In other words, be more like Apple./ **** Bloggers Are Uniting Slowly But Surely by Alicia Wong, Today Bit by bit, the blogging community in Singapore is getting more organised. Its latest movie: A bloggers' association — the first in Singapore. The non-profit association aims to raise the profile of bloggers and will promote, protect as well as educate its members, said founder and president Jayne Goh. See Also: Association Of Bloggers (Singapore) Revives Kampung Spirit , by EastCoastLife. **** No Big Deal About Danga, Yet... by Ho Lian-Yi, New Paper High rentals push Singapore shop owners to Danga, hoping to draw Singaporean shoppers. **** Disturbed By Government's Response To New Media Proposals by Tan Kee Lin, Straits Times **** 'Free Booty' In Carparks by Diana Othman, Esther Tan and Kimberly Spykerman, Straits Times Over the past three months, lone motorists in malls and office carparks are finding themselves pounced upon by wine sellers. Think of scantily-clad women who hawk certain types of liquor in night spots and picture the same scene in a carpark. **** Home Team Serves Red Herring by Groundnotes These new regulations have been mooted to make the jobs of police officers easier. Let's have regulations that /prevent/ messy protests instead of having to clean them up. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jan 20 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 20 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 20, 2009 Message-ID: <20090120181500.8394.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Jobs' Hiatus Doesn't Ruffle Educators by eSchool News Educators say they remain confidet about the company and its vision. **** The Day I Met Steve Jobs by Ridzwan A. Rahim, New Straits Times **** Apple Sells Used Products For Less In China by Michael Wei, Reuters Apple Inc said on Tuesday it had launched an online shop selling second-hand Apple products in China, offering discounts of up to 22 percent, as it looks to beef up its business in the country. Apple has introduced similar deals in other countries for years, but second-hand purchase only makes up a small portion of its total sales. **** Ten Things That Apple Has Taught Me by Tim Holt, Newspaper Tree Here are 10 lessons I have learned from watching Apple, and I think that these can be replicated in anyone's vocation. **** Review: Apple iPod Touch by Seattle Post-Intelligencer **** Time Machine Wipes Out Boot Camp by Tom Yager, InfoWorld I did not expect that satisfying this best practice would wipe out my MacBook Pro's Boot Camp partition. **** Apple Among PC Makers Sued Over OS Permissions Tech by Katie Marsal, AppleInsider Aple is among a dozen systems builders being sued this month for infringing on a pair of patents that cover system-wide software permissions for defining the range of operations that computer applications may or may not perform. **** Twitter For The Creative Mac User by James Dempsey, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Forget Yahoo - Buy Palm by Farhad Manjoo, Slate Why Microsoft would be foolish to get into the web ad business. **** Questions About TIming Of Europe's New Microsoft Inquiry by Kevin J. O'Brien, New York Times This time, legal experts say, the European authorities may have a harder time winning their case because Microsoft may in fact be losing market share — at least in some segments of the software market. **** Will User Interfaces Be The Downfall Of Microsoft? by Michael Horowitz, Computerworld Microsoft has made, what I think are, mistakes in changing the user interfaces on their two most important products, Windows and Office. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Inauguration Day by Frank Bidart, Slate **** Solving Avalanches' Mysteries by Jim Robbins, New York Times Forecasting avalanches has always been as much an art as a science because of the wide variability of conditions, from time of day and year to type of snow, to slope and temperature. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Amends Law To Help People Avoid Bankruptcy Amid Slump by Luzi Ann Javier, Bloomberg Singapore, facing its worst economic slump in four decades, changed its law to help people avoid bankruptcy as job losses and loan defaults rise. **** Move On, Shut Up by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread Our Attorney-General's Chambers devise ever more ludicrous laws that not only take leave of basic principles of civil rights, but also do not address any issue that vexes the public. They are quick fixes that seek to impale one man and his plans. **** Xenophobic President Of Association Of Bloggers (Singapore) Attacks Bystanders by Daphne Maia How important is it for you to be given a stamp of approval which affirms that you are indeed, a blogger? **** Whose Side Are You On? by Singularity Industries My validation as a blogger comes through my own integrity and my audience. Not necessarily through an external body. It works for me, but /you/ will definitely have your own opinion. **** Philip Jeyaretnam: Remove Perception Of Government Intervention In Legal Profession by Choo Zheng Xi, The Online Citizen 23 year old amendments to the Legal Profession Act curtailing the Law Society's powers continues to be a hindrance to the perception of the legal profession's independence. **** PAP MP Floats Idea Of Minimum Wage, Critcizes 'Overheated' Growth Model by Choo Zheng Xi, The Online Citizen Speaking in his personal capacity at the Institute of Policy Studies' (IPS) Singapore Perspectives 2009 seminar, Mr Inderjit Singh said that cheap foreign labor had depressed wages, and this hurt low income Singaporeans the most. **** Employment Outlook For Fresh Graduates Less Rosy This Year by Channel NewsAsia In his written reply to a parliament question, acting manpower minister Gan Km Yong said the manpower ministry and the Workforce Development Agency will work with the education institutions to organise job fairs for graduating students. Mr Gan said some of the graduating students could consider continuing with post-graduate studies and defer entering the job market until the situation improves. **** Beware Of The Young Doctor And The Old Barber by Balderdash And don't forget a healthy sprinkling of delusions of grandeur. **** Nobody Bloggers Start Associaton Of Bloggers (Singapore) by Talk Rock This kind of... association is usually started by those bloggers who tired of their blog read by only their mohter, so want to become more famous. (Note: strong language in this post.) **** Key Household Income Trends, 2008 by Department Of Statistics, Singapore Government Media monthly household income from work of /resident/ households increase dby 13 per cent from $4,380 in 2007 to $4,950 in 2008. After adjusting for higher consumer price inflation in 2008, media household income saw slower growth in 2008, growing by 6.2 per cent compared with 7.2 per cent in 2007. (Note: Link goes to PDF document.) **** CIQ Woes To Be Brought To Cabinet by The Star Reopening the old Customs and Immigration complex to pedestrian traffic can be one solution to the long walk public transport users now endure at the new CIQ. **** Lesser Mortals, Unite And Remove The Greater Mortal! by Everyday's Life In A Snapshot It's not a wrong choice of words. It's honest words from a thoroughly arrogant MP. In other words, he just said: "Get out of my elite, uncaring face." **** I Live In A Country Populated By Idiots by Misanthropic And Loving It! Mr Chong, your attempt at humour missed the mark. And since you're an MP for my GRC, who have inexplicably lost $4 million of what is actually public money, we should be chasing you for an answer on where that went instead of blaming Mr Tan for his moment of folly. While Mr Tan is spending his salary, no one can disguise the fact that the $4 million lost is nothing but public money. **** We Be Lesser Mortals by Insane Polygons If you are not part of the elite, then you must be a lesser mortal. **** Singapore Blogger Association?! by Brennan.sg It's just another clique in the local blogosophere, or even the online world. **** Foreign Workers Still Wanted by Straits Times Singapore still needs foreign workers, even in an economic downturn. This is because many of them take on jobs that Singaporeans may not want to do or unable to fill, like in construction and marine, said acting manpower minister Gan Kim Yong. /And this is because government policies with respect to foreign workers and the lack of minimal wages had drove many industries to unsustainability without foreigners, from which there is no simple recoveries./ **** Singapore May See 200,000 Foreigners Leave, Credit Suisse Says by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore's population may shrink in the next two years as "sizeable" job losses amid the city - state's deepest recession force 200,000 foreigners to leave, Credit Suisse Group said. About 300,000 jobs may be lost by 2010, two-thirds of which are held by foreigners and permanent residents, economists Cem Karacadag and Kun Lung Wu wrote in a report received today. **** We Must Stop Then At All Costs. This Cannot Carry On :) by Chia Ti Lik Morale will never be high when the priorities are wrong. When service in the Home Team is aimed at stifling democratic movements, this essentially mean a betrayal of the nation for the fruits dispensed by a despotic government. The Home Team members will have to face their own consciences and the challenges when they do so. **** Lesser Mortals: Tell Me What We're Fighting For Again? by Military Life: Memoirs Of A Conscript In The Lion City I mayb e a salaryman in Singapore Inc and not a member of the Elite Club but I am a Mindef-Reserve status citizen who encountered people dying for a Singapore that celebrates conspicuous consumption by Civil Servants and MPs who feel that, hey, give that man a break, you green-eyed lesser mortals just don't get it! **** Little To Smile About At Jetstar Asia by IntellAsia.net The figures show that four-years on, the low-cost airline boom in Asia has failed to live up to its hype. **** Singapore Press Falls To 10-Year Low On Earnings Concern by Jonathan Burgos, Bloomberg Singapore's Press Holdings Ltd., the city's biggest newspaper publisher, fell to its lowest in a decade on concern earnings will slump this year as the economic recession crimps consumption and advertising. **** Home Prices Still Falling by Joyce Teo, Straits Times Home prices here largely continued to be eroded at the end of last year, according to early indicators. **** PAP MP Charles Chong: You "Lesser Mortals" Are Just Envious Of Tan Yong Soon! by The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Mr Charles Chong is entitled to his own opinion and we respect his right to disagree. However, it is totally uncalled for to resort to name-calling and insulting those who choose to see the issue from a different perspective. It is utterly for a public servant - a MP who is supposed to represent the people in Parliament to lack basic empathy and considerations for the feelings of the man in the street which he has conveniently brush aside as "lesser mortals". **** Jubilant Washington, Gloomy Singapore by Blowin' In The Wind **** Sigh, Why Do I Live In This Country!? by The Random Adventures Of Jojo **** Yes We Can by Think For Me, Singapore While in less than 24 hours, America will be celebrating a historic moment, our little red dot continues to defy odds by making it less and less tolerable to live here. **** Let's Keep It Real by Yaw Shin Leong To acknowledge verbally that people and businesses both need help in the current economic downturn is a good step in the right direction, but this must also be in sync with its action of freezing, if not reversing hikes in the rents, taxes and charges. **** Cactus In Singapore? by Cactus Blog It's an outrage! I won't stand for this sitting down! **** Busienss Slow Minus Bridge by Hamdan Raja Abdullah, The Star Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said when the bridge project was called off, the government had to build a temporary access road to the complex. He said in doing so, all routes planned from Tanjug Puteri to the city had to be closed and motorists had to travel to the inner ring road to enter the city. /This city intentionally left blank./ **** Death Penalty Effective by Straits Times Theissue is a philosophical one and cannot be decided by statistics, law minister K. Shanmugam said yesterday. There are powerful arguments on both sides, and no consensus is in sight. The Singapore government thus has to find its own stand. It has decided to retain the death penalty as it has been effective in controling the drug menace. /If there are indeed powerful arguments on both sides, then I would imagine one will have to err on the side of not killing lives, not doing something that cannot be undone./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jan 21 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 21 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 21, 2009 Message-ID: <20090121181501.49841.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Updates White 13-Inch MacBook To NVIDIA Architecture by AppleInsider Apple this week quietly upgraded its previous-generation while 13-inch MacBooks to NVIDIA's 9400M architecture, a move aimed at boosting sales of its most affordable notebook offering during a period of reduced consumer spending. **** SmileOnMyMac Updates TextExpander by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld A new URL shortening service has been added to the internet productivity snippet group with the latest version. **** The Best Mac Ever by Macworld Three out of our five experts came up with the same answer to our question. The best Mac of the last quarter century is the Macintosh SE/30. **** The Mac At 25: Interface Design by Rik Myslewski, Macworld Ever since Apple introduced the world to the mouse and the window-based graphical user interface in 1984, the company has worked tirelessly to develop a more efficient, yet more powerful, user experience. It's also worked equally hard to protect its user-interface innovations with an unending stream of patent filings. **** The Mac At 25 by Jason Snell, Macworld We saw that 25 years ago with the original Mac, which was a quantum leap forward in usability for personal computers. We saw it with the iPod in 2001, and again with the iPhone in 2007. Where will Apple go next? **** Wow! Macs Really Are Overpriced by Stephen Wildstorm, BusinessWeek Last year saw tremendous downward pressure on notebook prices, which Apple manage to resist. It successfully introduced new MacBook last fall with upgraded specs at pretty much the same prices as the models they replaced. And the gap grew and grew. In today's market, those Apple prices look unsustainable. **** Apple's Disclosures About Jobs's Health Said To Face SEC Review by David Scheer and Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg U.S. regulators are examining Apple Inc.'s disclosures about chief executive officer Steve Jobs's health problems to ensure investors weren't misled, a person familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission's review doesn't mean invetigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn't public. **** Steve Jobs And Apple: A Reality Check by Nick Mediati, PC World There is only one Steve Jobs. There isn't a person on Earth who could actually replace him. That said, in Jobs' absence, Apple should be fine. **** Apple Removes Serial Number From iWork '09 by Nick Spence, Macworld UK It apears that iWork '09 has no anti-piracy measure included whatsoever. **** EverSave Automatically Saves Your Work On A Regular Interval by Adam Pash, Lifehacker EverSave automatically saves your open documents on a regular interval so that you'll never again lose progress to a crashed application. **** New OS X Research Warns Of Stealthier Mac Attacks by Dan Goodin, The Register A computer security researcher has discovered a new way to inject hostile code directly into the memory of mahinces running Apple's OS X operating system, a technique that makes it significantly harder for ivnestigators to detect Mac attacks using today's forensics practices. **** Apple Chief's Leave Not The End Of The World by Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle Apple will be fine. It has an excellent senior management team in place, all handpicked by you-know-who. Furthermore, most of them have been at Apple for a long time, so they know how things are done. /The worry to me is that, if Steve Jobs does leave, people at Apple will be always asking "what will Steve Jobs do" whenever decisions need to make, and fail to venture forth to new grounds./ **** Apple And App Store Censorship: Where To Draw The Line? by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica Apple's actions are a kind of censorship, and the company seems to be teetering on the edge a slippery slope. **** Picturesque 2.0.3 by James Dempsey, Macworld While Photoshop or any of a number of other image editors could produce the same results, few (if any) can do it with the ease of use or speed that Picturesque can. **** EyeTV 3.1 Adds New Programming Guide by Peter Cohen, Macworld New to the 3.1 update is "premium" Electronic Program Guide data for the United States and Canada hosted by TV Guide. **** Review: Mobile Colloquy For iPhone Does IRC Right by Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica Mobile Colloquy is certainly the best chat-related application I have used on this platform thus far. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Crowd-Sourcing The World by Kate Greene, MIT Technology Review A startup hopes to tap into the expertise of developing nations via cell phones. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Cooking Their Books by Lauren Shockey, Slate Trying to re-create restaurant dishes at home. **** His Camera-Ready Comedy by Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal Hammett's 'The Thin Man' should be taken seriously. **** Back Issues by Jill Lepore, New Yorker The day the newspaper died. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** PM Lee Says Singapore Will Not Have An Ordinary Budget by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said if the growth estimates for this year materialise, Singapore will see its worst economic performance in decades. As a response to the crisis, Mr Lee said the government's budget, to be announced on Thursday, will not be an ordinary one. **** Solicited In Singapore by David Stewart, Running In The Rain **** Sorry, Association Of What? by Jialat Dot Com **** I Lost My Kidney/To A Guy Named Sidney by Ben Bland, Asia Sentinel Across Asia, the going rate for a kidney is usually agreed in the backstreet surgery of some unscrupulous doctor but in Singapore the government will soon be setting the price for this much in-demand organ. A controversial amendment to legalize the payment of compensation to organ donors was put before the Singapore parliament this week and while the health ministry is yet to decide on the upper limit for reimbursement, it is expected to be at least S$50,000. **** No Need For Overhaul by Judith Tan, Straits Times Singapore's primary school education is not in need of a fundamental overhaul, but increasing the confidence of pupils and igniting their interest in learning would be helpful, a new report has concluded. **** Special Book Delivery by Jalelah Abu Baker, Straits Times For book lovers like Madam Quek, who is paralysed on her left side due to a stroke, the library now goes to their homes with 'Project Deliver Me', a delivery service for the physically challenged launched by the National Library Board on Wednesday. **** Budget For Crisis Of Confidence by Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives Unless we get the main theme and priorities right for tackling this mother of all crisis, we may just end up worsening the situation with some ineffective or even detrimental policies. **** Charles Chong Reply To Wayangparty by The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore "After I re-read Mr Tan's article, I noticed that he did not really brag about the cost of his holiday and the cooking lessons. However other information he revealed about himself and his family that were unrelated to cooking, left me with the impression that he was a bit boastful and maybe insensitive to (us) lesser mortals. This may naturally lead to unhappiness and even envy especially during difficult times." **** The New Poor Revisited by Yaw Shin Leong In GE2001, when WP first raised the issue about the new poor phenomenon, the PAP regime outright denied of its existence. In 2009, the potential fallout of the new poor phenomenon is right at our doorsteps, ina magnitude far scarier than 2001. The incumbent regime must now take full responsibilities for its initial denials, act fast or face dire consequences. **** The Association Of Bloggers. WHat's In It For Me? by A Thing (Or Two) About Holly Jean Is it just me... or is this sounding more and more like a petty attempt at being elitist and exclusive? **** Sacrebleu! Singapore Is Classed by Sam's Thoughts The state may distract its people with materialism, so that they would not interfere with its political affairs. But this materialism has made people more class conscious, and it might undermine the state's power in another way. **** Hope Over Fear, Singapore! by Blowin' In The Wind It is atonishing how a smart government like Singapore's with a reputation for economic acurmen could get things so wrong that it had to change its annual economic forecast only two weeks after making the prediction. But the government has come out of denial now — and prepared to confront whatever the future holds, no matter how dark and uncertain it seems. **** 300,000 Job Losses Is A Scary Thought by Mr Wang Says So The media has news to suggest that the property market is in for a huge dive. **** Casino Days In Singapore Kampung by Baby Boomers One of my most unforgettable memories of CNY in my kampung was the ritual of gambling. /And, if the economy doesn't drag down the 'integrated' resorts, there may well be a new - and expensive - CNY tradition starting next year./ **** A New Association Of, Or For, Bloggers by Melvin Tan, A Blog Day's Work The key issue behind the reservations about the ABS is that many bloggers regard cybershpace as their only liberation outlet in a regulated environment and may not be interested to submit even their last bastion of freedom to an "order". **** Singapore Opposition Leader Appeals To Obama On Rights by AFP The leader of a Singapore opposition party, jailed numerous times for defying local protest laws and for other offences, has posted a video message asking for US president Barack Obama's support. Chee expressed hope that the United States "will pay more attention to the human rights abuses of the Singapore government and take positive steps to help Singapore join the community of democracies." **** Health Budget To Go Up by Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times The nation's health budget will be raised significantly this year by 'a few hundred million dollars, which will go towards more medical subsidies during the recession, and possibly speed up building projects, health minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed yesterday. **** Monthly Manufacturing Performance - December 2008 by EDB, Singapore Government Manufacturing output in December 2008 decreased 13.5% compared with the same month in 2007. The three-month moving average index for December fell 10.7% over the same period in the previous year. (Note: Link goes to PDF document.) **** Singaproe Consumer Price Index December 2008 And Year 2008 by Singapore Department Of Statistics, Singapore Government The consumer price index (CPI) in December 2008 declined by 0.6 per cent over November 2008. The decline was attributed largely to lower costs of transport & communication and housing which more than offset higher costs of food and "recreation & others". Compared with December 2007, the consumer price index in December 2008 increased by 4.3 per cent on account of higher costs of housing and food. (Note: Link goes to PDF document.) **** Empathy For Tan Yong Soon... by Diary Of A Lesser Mortal There is a reason why people are very angry and it has little to do with Tan Yong Soon learning French cooking... that article was just a spark that lit a fire. There is still plenty of firewood left for many fires to come. **** Quit Lying, Today by Everyday's Life In A Snapshot Today's reporter made his assertion that there was support for Mr Tan based on "posts" online, and did not even cite the source or evidence. **** A Study Of Contrasts by Harish Pillay Ah, what an arcane and myopic stand. Never mind that you cannot use their content (paid out of tax dollars), you cannot even link nor frame the site. /Worse, the licensing of content (paid out of tax dollars) to business is not entirely transparent either. For example, the public still does not know why the map data licensing was withdrawn from Streetdirectory.com./ **** Freedom And Fear by Singapore Democratic Party Singaporeans are told that given freedom of speech and assembly, chaos and turmoil would engulf our country. We know that this is untrue. Let us not wait another 50 years to find out how foolish we have been. **** To The Singapore Government: What I Do With My Money Is My Own Bloody Business! by The 'Tao' Of Teoism Mr Tan did earn his money fairly through his own hard work, merit and effort. So who are we to begrudge how he wants to spend it? /The issue is not the spending, but the apparently flaunting of riches. In a national newspaper no less. Which points to a fundmental issue in Singapore today: the wide income inequality. (After all, if many of us are just as rich or just as poor, this issue may not arises.)/ **** Singapore, Boston And NYC Public Trains Matchup by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Although we don't have the unlimited fare option, I think the general cleanliness and spacious design of our trains more than make up for it. **** Singapore Economy May Post Biggest Decline On Record by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore's economy may suffer its worst annual contraction on record this year amid a slump in exports, increasing pressure on the government to take steps to help businesses and consumers. **** Singapore Banks Expected To Survive Downturn Despite Negative Outlook by Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia Even though 2009 is expected to be a difficult year for the banking sector, industry experts said SIngapore banks do have enough capital to tide them over. **** Shark's Fin Not On Menu by New Paper When the Singapore Chefs Association holds its annual lo hei dinner this year, one dish will be noticeably missing. SHark's fin, a near staple at Chinese banquets, will be left out of the menu by the experts at making it. Ironically, though, the same chefs admit that they will not be able to stop serving the dish to their customers. **** Singapore Revises Down 2009 Growth Forecast, Inflation Rate by Channel NewsAsia Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Wednesday revised Singapore's GDP growth forecast downwards to -5.0 to -2.0 per cent, lower than previous estimates of -2.0 to +1.0 per cent. The ministry also revised down its forecast for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in 2009, estimating inflation to remain unchanged or to decline at 1.0 per cent. See Also: MTI Revises Forecasts For 2009 GDP Growth To -5.0 To -2.0 Per Cent And CPI Inflation To -1.0 To 0 Per Cent , by Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore Government. (Note: Link goes to PDF document.) **** Why Is Obama Paid Less Than The Prime Minister Of Singapore? by Feed Me To The Fish Maybe local politicians can learn some humility, sensitivity, sensibility and responsibility from the 44th POTUS. /The question is: why does the government — the PM, the cabinet, the MPs — only care about monetary rewards? The government had talked about remaking jobs; maybe Lee Hsien Loong should spend more time to remake government services as less about monetary rewards./ **** Singapore In A Sling by Financial Times As harsh as that looks, the pediction implies that the economy merely give sup the jobs it created in 2008 and a portion of the new jobs in 2007. The reality could be far worse. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jan 22 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 22 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 22, 2009 Message-ID: <20090122181500.32218.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Mac At 25: What's Next For Apple's Mac? by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com One of the main questions around the Mac in 2008 was whether or not Apple would bow to a coming recession by either cutting the price of its MacBooks or introducing a so-called Netbook. It's hard to imagine Apple fighting with its PC counterparts on the bargain shelves with the basic MacBook lineup, but if the cost of computing power continues to decline as performance flatlines, cost-cutting might happen on its own without poisoning Apple's margins. **** Recollections Of The Mac's Creators by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.com As part of our commemoration of the Mac's silver anniversary, CNET News asked a number of the team's earliest members to share some of their recollections of helping to change the world. See Also: Folklore.org . **** Mac At 25: Readers Reminisce by CNET News.com As the Mac celebrates its 25th birthday, we asked CNET readers to send us stories of their most vivid memories of the groundbreaking computer. **** Ustream's iPhone App A Big Hit Out Of The Box by Lonnie Lazar, Cult Of Mac Users downloaded Ustream's free video viewing app for the iPhone more than 113,000 times in the first 24 hours it was available, according to the live video broadcasting company. **** Six Things Apple Needs To Do Right Now by Andy Ihnatko, Macworld Apple has made a go of this Mac business for 25 years, but who's to say that the company doesn't need some helpful advice on how to keep the platform thriving for the next quarter-century? **** The Mac At 25: Portability by Rik Myslewski, Macworld New batteries, power-saving technologies will prolong on-the-go life. **** Review: Pages '09 by Jeffery Battersby, Macworld I'm very happy to say that with Pages '09 Apple has hit a sweet spot: it added necessary features, enhanced existing tools, fixed minor annoyances, and gave users exactly what they asked for, although there are still some minor issues Apple needs to address in order to make the program perfect. **** Reading Apple's Netbook Tea Leaves by Jason Snell, Macworld "Nobody will do Netbooks right until we do it. Just wait." **** Steve Jobs Lawsuits Face Tough Odds by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune Even if Job has been less than forthcoming about his health problems — as many doctors suspect — legal experts say that neither the SEC probe nor any investor lawsuit is likely to get very far. **** What Makes Apple So Different? by Tom Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle **** iWork '09 by Nick Fletcher, The Guardian All things considered, iWork '09 is well-designed with some glaring omissions from previous years finally added. It costs less than even the cheapest version of Microsoft Office, and uses far more visual flair throughout the applications and their end results - so long as you keep the documents within iWork. **** Apple Serves Notice: Don't Rip Off The iPhone by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com "We will not stand for having our IP ripped off," Cook declared, perhaps firing a shot across the bow of Palm and executive chairman Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple employee. **** Apple Proves Recession-Resistant, For Now by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com Could Apple have already turned the corner on the recession? Given Apple's notorious record of underpromising and overdelivering when it comes to financial guidance, the company could have far more aggressive internal targets for its business in 2009. **** Boot Camp And Time Machine, For Consumers Only by Tom Yager, InfoWorld Time Machine's promise — foolproof, hands-off backup and versioning — is a worthwhile one, but poorly executed by Time Machine. **** Apple Rules Out "iPhone Nano," Not Keen On Mac Netbook by Prince McLean, AppleInsider Apple exposed its complete lack of interest in building a stripped down, voice-only iPhone or a Mac-based netbook during its fiscal first quarter conference call Wednesday afternoon. /And then every blogger recalled Steve claiming Apple had no interest in an video iPod./ **** Can Apple Survive Without Steve Jobs? by Jacqui Cheng, The Guardian Truth be told, attempting to predict the far future is always a difficult endeavour, but one thing is for sure: Steve Jobs as an iconic leader will surely be missed if he decides to make his temporary levae more permanent. Should this happen, it would signal the end of an era, but not an end to Apple. **** Application Developers See iPhone As Way To Get Noticed by Jefferson Graham, USA Today Savvy software developers are trying to stake a claim for early prominence int he mobile economy, where it's still a bit easier to get noticed than on the web. **** NetNewsWire And iPhone-Sized Data by John Gruber, Daring Fireball It' snot enough for an iPhone app to sport an iPhone-optimized user interface. It needs iPhone-sized data, too. **** Cook: Business As Usual At Apple by Peter Cohen, Macworld Apple COO Tim Cook says it's business as usual at Apple despite CEO Steve Jobs' recent decision to take a leave of absence until June. **** Apple Reports Record Profit For First Quarter by Jim Dalrymple, Jonathan Seff,and Philip Michaels, Macworld For the first time in its history, Apple tallied more than $10 billion revenue, reporting sales of $10.17 billion for the three months ended December 31. That's up 6 percent from the revenue of $9.6 billion Apple recorded during the year-ago quarter. **** The Mac At 25: Processors by Rik Myslewski, Macworld Faster CPUs and GPUs are on the horizon. **** QuickTime Update Increases H.264 Encoding Quality by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld According to notes accompanying the update, QuickTime 7.6 contains updates to both audio and video components. **** Review: Sally's Salon For iPhone by Bonnie Ruberg, Macworld Sally's Salon isn't a bad game, just a mediocre one. With little by way of new gameplay mechanics to make it stand out from other Diner Dash clones, it reains fun, if sluggish. **** Three Things OS X Could Learn From The Classic Mac OS by John Gruber, Macworld WindowShade, predictable Finder window behavior, and file names as just names. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Staff Finds White House In The Technological Dark Ages by Anne E. Komblut, Washington Post If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past. **** Internet Giants Return To Basics by Jeff Segal and Martin Hutchinson, New York Times MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Someone To Disturb by Hilary Mantel, London Review Of Books It was then June 1983. I had been in Saudi Arabia for six months. **** America's Fear Of Competition by Eliot Spitzer, Slate How cronyism and rent-seeking replaced "creative destruction." SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Shows The Benefits Of Real Prudence by Ben Bland, Telegraph Having diligently and prudently accumulated two vast sovereign wealth funds, the government has a handsome war-chest with which to help cushion the blows from the global downturn. The government is in a strong position to ease the pain, not just with this budget, but with further measures in future. **** Singapore Budget Targets Recovery by Mariko Oi, BBC News When times were good, few questions were asked about how the wealth was distributed, or the lack of social safety net. The next few years could be the biggest test ever faced by the Singapore government. **** Discordant Note - Pax Singaporeana by Cavalierio The likes of Tan Yong Soon will always be simultaneously envied and resented. Not because Tan and the elites have succeeded, but because the system that produces them is unjustifiably unfair. And because the system of rewards is based on misguided values. **** Number Of Foreign Worker Salary Disputes Doubled In 2008 by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia **** Singapore's Aim To Attract One Million Foreign Patients By 2012 May Take Longer by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia **** Budget Speech 2009 by Singapore Government **** Larger Tax Deductions For Donations, Extra Funding To Charities, ComCare Fund by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia Community initiatives will get a boost in the arm — for every dollar you give to charity this year, you will get back S$2.50 in tax deductions. **** S$4.4b To Be Spent On Country's Infrastructure, Government Projects by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia The government is pushing ahead with plans to develop Singapore into a global city, as well as making it the best home for Singaporeans, and S$4.4 billion has been set aside for this. The projects include HDB lift upgrading, building of park connectors and upgrading of military facilities. Others are projects previously deferred to lessen pressure ont he overheating construction sector. **** Government To Give S$2.6b To Households And Community Welfare Groups by Channel NewsAsia The government will give S$2.6 billion worth of support for households and community welfare organisations. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam believes this will do more for Singaporeans than a GST rate cut. **** Government To GIve Cash Grants To Help Employers Keep Workers by Channel NewsAsia The government will introduce a Jobs Credit which will encourage businesses to preserve jobs as much as possible in the downturn, said finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his budget speech to Parliament on Thursday. "The Jobs Credit that an employer receives will comprise 12 per cent of the first S$2,500 of the wages of each employer who is on the CPF payroll. It will be given in four quarterly payments, with each payment being based on the workers who are with the employer at the time." **** Singapore Government To Spend S$2.6b To Enhance Business Cash-Flow by Dominique Loh, Channel NewsAsia **** Singapore Government To Spend S$5.8b TO Stimulate Bank Lending by Channel NewsAsia The government has introduced a new initiative to help companies obtain funding amid the current credit crunch. The government will be taking on a major share of the risks of bank lending, although it stops short at taking over the lending business itself. **** Singapore Taps Into Reserves For First Time To Handle Crisis And Future Uncertainty by Channel NewsAsia Singapore has taken the unprecedented step of tapping into its past reserves to give it the flexibility of dealing with future uncertainties even as it responds to the current economic downturn. The two main measures to be funded from past reserves are the Jobs Credit scheme and the Special Risk-Sharing Initiative for bank lending. And these would require $4.9 billion in total. **** 20% Personal Income Tax Rebate, 40% Property Tax Rebate by Channel NewsAsia Households will get a 20 per cent personal income tax rebate for Year of Assessment 2009, capped at S$2,000. There will also be 40 per cent property tax rebate for owner-occupied homes in 2009. The Additional CPF Housing Grant for first time home-buyers will be increased from S$30,000 to S$40,000. **** Government To Lower Tax Burden For Businesses by Channel NewsAsia In a move to sharpen Singapore's competitiveness, finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the corporate income tax rate will be cut by one percentage point to 17 per cent from the Year of Assessment 2010. Businesses also stand to gain from a 40 per cent property tax rebate for industrial and commercial properties in 2009. **** Singapore To Spend S$20.5 Billion To Help Business, Workers by Shamim Adam and Andrea Tan, Bloomberg Singapore, suffering its deepest recession since independence, will spend S$20.5 billion to help businesses and workers, finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said today. The government will cut taxes and increase expenditure on infrastructure, education and healthcare, Shanmugaratnam told Parliament in the nation's budget speech. The spending will result in a deficit equivalent to 6 percent of gross domestic product, he said. **** Recognition Of Bloggers By The Government May Become A 'Kiss Of Death' by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Bloggers need not go on bended knees to seek attention from the government. Once your blog's viewership has attained a certain critical number, they will be compelled to sit up and pay attention to you. They may not wish to engage you officially, yet they cannot afford to take their eyes off what you are writing especialy when there are a few thousand people reading your blog daily. **** Square Room by A Long And Arduous Road Of An Entrepreneur I thought this was ironical that it came from the president of an association supposedly created to 'promote professionalism among the association's members'. How is this professional blogging? In a short 3 days, instead of uniting the local bloggers, I observed more strife. **** A Tale Of Two Singapores by The Kway Teow Man **** Obama To Influence Hongkong As Tax Havens by International Business Times Hong Kong and Singapore may soon come under increased scrutiny from the US, if incoming president Barack Obama follows through with his pledge to crack down on abusive "tax havens" which "peddle secrecy" and "cloak tax invasino and other miscondut," according to Withers law firm. **** A Blogger's Assocation For Singapore by Anthony Chua, Fence In Singaporeans, and Singaporean bloggers have to understand that such "engagement" through an association can only be a cheap and ineffective replacement to the parliamentary process. See Also: Japan's Most Exclusive Clubs , by Mark Philips, On The Media. To be a reporter in Japan is to navigate the unique and often troubling system of Press Clubs - known there as /Kisha Clubs/. With thousands of them attached to everything from government agencies to corporations, many argue that Kisha Clubs foster a dangerously close bond between reporters and those they cover. **** Facebook - The New Consumer Boycott Tool In Singapore by Erin Lyon, CSR Asia The emergence of Facebook as a tool used by civil society, and often a new kind of civil society that is not 'registered' as a legal entity with a constitution that sets out 'goals and missions' and produces regular research reports but who are simply a group of people with aligned perspectives on often single issues and with respect to single companies, is something which business must come to quickly understand. **** Anger Over Delays In JB-Singapore Service by Mohd Farhaan Shah, The Star Frequent delays in the train service from Danga City Mall to Singapore have left many commuters irate. **** Think Like Private Firms by Felix Ng Hong Peow, Today Town Councils (TCs) are public organisations, and therefore should operate like organisations with greater openess comparable to that of charities, ministries and statutory boards. **** Employers More Reluctant To Wield Axe? by Lin Yanqin, Today **** Services Sector Shrinks by Fiona Chan, Straits Times The Singapore economy has lost two of its three engines of growth for now, after its key services sector sputtered to a halt in the fourth quarter last year. The services sector make sup 70 per cent of the economy, and covers a vast array of businesses including tourism, financial services and education. **** Bad Timing, But Let's Not Go Overboard by Tavence Kang, Straits Times This episode was just the tip of the iceberg. Are top civil servants out of touch with the common man? Perhaps or perhaps not, but who are we to judge. That is the role of the Civil Service. /Isn't the civil servant serving the government - which, by extension, the public "we"?/ **** Mindef Should Be More Tree-Friendly by Tan Lay Pheng, Straits Times I would like to appeal to Mindef to minimise the destruction of the valuable but fast-disappearing secondary rainforest left in Singapore. **** Pity The Dolphins Caught From The Wild by Deirdre Moss, Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals, Straits Times The act of taking these animals from the wild (endangered or not) is at odds with the letter and spirit of Singapore's Wild Animals & Birds Act, which prohibits the taking of an animal from the wild. The list of injustices throughout the dolphins' ordeal is extensive and heart-rending to those in animal welfare. See Also: Who Killed Flipper? , by Ric O'Barry and Louie Psihoyos, Salon. If you end the demand for dolphin meat and captive dolphin shows, you end the trade in living and dead dolphins. **** Singapore: Things Are Good^H^H^H^HWeak^H^H^H^HAwful by Paul Kedrosky, Infectious Greed Nothing like playing catchup with downbound economic weakness. **** There Is None So Blind As He Who Refuses To See by Feed Me To The Fish It's time for the PAP government to grow up and not hinder Singaporeans their rights to live the Singapore pledge of "building a democratic society based on justice and equality". **** Religious Harmony In Singapore - A Facade? by Terence Lee, The Online Citizen Religious discussion should be allowed to flourish with less restraint, as this well benefit Singapore society and its people. /Religion is part of the upbringing of many Singaporean, and cannot be simply disregarded or ignored when many of our social issues are being discussed./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jan 23 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 23 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 23, 2009 Message-ID: <20090123181500.71282.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Are Today's Macs Related To The Mac Daddy? by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.com The Mac is all about ease of use and simplicity—as well as the continuity of a low-maintenance user experience. **** 25 Years Of The Mac: A New Type Of User-Interface by Owen Linzmayer, Macworld UK Discover the story behind Apple's introduction of hte Mac's graphical user interface. **** 25 Years Of The Mac: The 20 Most Important People In The History Of The Mac by Owen Linzmayer, Macworld UK **** 25 Years Of The Mac: Cold Cash For A Code Name by Own Linzmayer, Macworld UK Jef Raskin bucked the trend in naming the Macintosh project. **** 25 Years Of The Mac: The Birth Of Desktop Publishing by Pamela Pfiffner, Macworld UK **** 25 Years Of The Mac: Steve Jobs Writes In Macworld by Steve Jobs, Macworld UK Read what Steve Jobs thought of the Mac in the first ever edition of Macworld. **** The Six Worst Apple Products Of All Time by Adam C. Engst, Macworld The Mac is certainly a landmark product, one of the many to make its way out of Cupertino in the last quarter-century. But not everything Apple touches turns to gold. **** Apple Issues Threat, Palm Investors Fret by Sinead Carew, Reuters **** The Mac At 25: Storage by Rik Myslewski, Macworld Make way for faster data connections and solid-state drives. **** Apple Loses Front Row Dinner-Party Marketeers With Remote Move by Andrew Donoghue, ZDNet UK I guess I am in the minority but I actually like the remote and I think Apple is missing out on a trick here. **** Apple's Macintosh Celebrates Twenty-Fifth Birthday by John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News The Apple Macintosh, born at the hands of renegade engineers in the early 1980s, changed the relationship between human and keyboard. **** Apple Mac 25Th Anniversary: The Cult Of Mac Is Still Going Strong by Claudine Beaumont, Telegraph The cult of Mac remains alive and well, thanks in no small part to the foundations laid by that first Apple Macintosh. **** The Truth by John Gruber, Daring Fireball Macworld Expo brings together the full spectrum of people involved in this racket. Designers, engineers, marketing guys, managers, the press, and, yes, just plain /users/. There is nothng else like Macworld Expo, and if it fades away, there will be nothing to take its place. **** Review: Keynote '09 by Franklin N. Tessler, Macworld Despite some disappointing oversights, Keynote '09 is an evolutoinary upgrade that raises the bar further. **** The State Of The Mac by Laarni Almendrala Ragaza, PC Magazine Love them or hate them, you can't deny that Apple desktops have led the charge in design innovation. **** A Trip To Wonderland (Or My Take On Mac OS X) by Luca Morandi, PDA Thoughts After only a short period, I don't want to use anything but Leopard. **** In Pursuit Of Quality: The Apple "Fanboi" by Tom Reestman, Salon Apple quality and value are not that hard to find for those who look. Whether they /matter/ to y ou is another thing altogether. **** What Can We Learn From Apple? by Jay Rollins, TechRepublic Solution orientation in IT is looking beyond just a single technology. Instead, it focuses on delivering a valuable experience for the end user. **** Why The SEC Is Probing Steve Jobs by Roger Parloff, Fortune The SEC, trying to reestablish its credibility after years of ignorning explicit and apparently dead-on warnings that Bernard Madoff was running a massive Pnozi scheme, could hardly afford to ignore Apple's latest in-your-face flip-flop concerning Jobs's battles with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. **** Apple's Success Formula: A Simple Product Line by Matt Burns, CrunchGear Consumers hate choices. They say they love them, but have you ever stood in front of a wall of plasmas and LCDs with a random person? **** The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Of Apple's "1984" by Darren Rovell, CNBC "Without the 1984 commercial, it would have been very difficult for us to have gotten the attention for a product that really was so innovative at the time." **** Microsoft Earnings Update: "We Lost Maybe A Point Of Share" To Apple, Says Ballmer by Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek Microsoft's numbers highlight the fact that Apple isn't only getting more new customers—but it's getting the best customers. **** Apple Easing Back Retail Expansion by Tom Krazit, CNET News.com Apple plans to open just 25 stores this year, with roughly half coming outside the U.S., after opening 50 last year. When you consider the retail climate in general, that seems prudent. **** Handful Of Pencils, Four Rubber Bands = iPhone Stand by Nicole Martinelli, Cult Of Mac **** It Was A Great First Quarter, But Are Mac "Switchers" Becoming Harder To Find? by Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek Fir the first time that I can remember, the percentage of Mac buyers at Apple stores who said they were new to the platform fell below 50%. **** Textcast 1.0.2 by Dan Frakes, Macworld If you've got a daily commute or if you travel often, podcasts are a great way to keep up with the latest news and your favorite entertainment. But wouldn't it be great if you could also absorb other information—say, articles you found online, email messages or attachments, documents you need to read for work, or even your daily RSS fees—the same way? **** Four Great Mac Icons by John Siracusa, Macworld What's more iconic than icons? **** App Store Lessons: Six Ways To Better Promote Your Application by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica **** The Mac At 25: Software by Adam C. Engst, Macworld A new OS X? For sure. An App Store for Mac software? Probably not. **** 99-Cent Apps A Steal, But Who's Really Being Robbed? by Dan Moren, Macworld The risk we, the consumers, run is forcing the talented, professional developers out of business, and ending up with a proliferation of junk food applications that might satisfy our appentite temporarily, but lack any real redeeming value in the long run. **** Today 1.6 Task Manager Brings Natural Language To iCal by David Chartier, Ars Technica Second Gear has updated Today, its event and task manager that integrates with iCal and offers a condensed view of the day's agenda. The new version supports natural language when creating events and to-dos, plays better with Spaces, and fixes a handful of bugs. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** One Laptop Per Child: When Went Wrong by Jon Evans, The Walrus 1. It was a bad idea to begin with.
2. The XO laptop is a piece of crap. **** Learning To Think Like A Progammer by Tom Armitage, Infovore What's really important is to not understand how to do magical things with code, but to learn what magical things are possible, what the necessary inputs for that magic are, and /who to ask to do it/. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Don't Fear The Reaper by Laura Miller, Salon Is it really so terrible to grow old? Two new books explore what we can (and can't) learn from the elderly. **** It Took A Village by Louis Menand, New Yorker How the Voice changed journalism. **** Books Unbound by Chris Jackson, Time We think of the novel as a transcendent, timeless thing, but it was shaped by the forces of money and technology just as much as by creative genius. **** Middlebrow Messiahs by Brendan Boyle, City Journal Robert Hutchins didn't think much of his Yale education, which he said had "nothing to do with any intellectual development." He didn't keep this opinion to himself. When the Yale class of 1921 elected him "most likely to succeed," he delivered a speech titled, "Should Institutions of Higher Learning Be Abolished?" Alex Beam's /A Great Idea at the Time/ shows what an odd answer to this question Hutchins had in mind. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** On The Budget by The Kway Teow Man The KTM thought the Job Credit scheme is an excellent alternative to a cut in the CPF rate for several reasons. **** Will The Use Of Past Reserves Set A Precedent For Future Drawdowns? by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net The government's tapping on past reserves appears to be a pre-emptive measure that gives it the flexibility to deply its current remaining resources in whatever way it sees fit in the future, rather than as a "last resort" when all other measures have failed. This is a departure from the government's previous position that dipping into reserves is strictly a last resort. **** Red Shirt Protesters Call For Singapore And Burma To Boycott Asean Summit by The Nation Red shirt protesters who are loyal to ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra called for leaders of Singapore and Burma to boycott the upcoming Asean Summit in Thailand. They rallied in front of both embassies on Friday and submitted petitions to the leaders through representatives of the embassies. **** Public Transport Council To Reduce Bus And Train Fares by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia Public transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT have now said they will not apply for any fare adjustment this year. In fact, they are working with the Public Transport Council (PTC) to pass on savings they will receive from this year's budget to commuters. **** Filming An Illegal Event Is... Illegal? by The Online Citizen **** Proposed Amendments To Films Act Are Even More Ambiguous by Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** A Glimpse Of Chinatown by Yesterday... Today... Tomorrow **** Singapore's Limits by Wall Street Journal It's not often that a Singaporean official concedes the limits of the city-state's economic engineering. But the downturn is proving so severe that the finance minister said in yesterday's budget speech that the government's stimulus package "will not get us out of the recession," but rather "help avert an even sharper downturn." That ought to be a wake-up call for Singapore, where government built a modern metropolis by hoarding its citizens' capital, plowing those savings into designated industries and opening itself up to foreign trade. The government could unleash more productive, sustainable growth by trimming back its public sector and allowing the economy to diversify on its own. **** Would You Give Up Seat For This Man? by Teh Jen Lee, New Paper We go on the trains to find out. **** Tax Experts Disappointed by Michelle Tay, Straits Times Despite the spectre of the deepest recession in Singapore's history, personal income tax will not be cut this year, said finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Thursday. This surprised many tax experts who were expecting to hear about a direct tax rate cut. **** My Take On The Key Highlights Of Budget 2009 by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net My analysis of the key highlights of Budget 2009 is that some of the more outstanding measures stand a good chance of succeeding only if the economy does not spiral downwards further, turning a sharp recession into a soft depression. It is therefore imperative that the government comes up with backup plans in case the worst cmes to pass. **** What Is Lacking In Budget 2009? by Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives Although the specific steps taken by minister Tharman have generally gone into the right direction (except for the tax cut and rebates) but I think the extend of the budgeted amount is not gong to be big enough to withstand the onslaught of the crisis of confidence as well as the expected huge unemployment we are going to face in the short future. **** MPs Say Budget Is Bold And Decisive by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Budget 2009 is bold and decisive - that is the general feeling of Members of Parliament. /No opposition MPs were interviewed for this report./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jan 24 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 24 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 24, 2009 Message-ID: <20090124181500.55490.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Microsoft Shuts Down 'Flight Simulator' Game Studio by Brian Heater and Mark Hackman, PC Magazine Microsoft confirmed Friday that the software giant has shuttered ACES Studios, the developer of the Flight Simlator series of games, whose latest inarnation is Flight Simulator X. The simulation is considered Microsoft's oldest product, whose original version first shipped in 1982. **** I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With The Location-Aware Lifestyle by Mathew Honan, Wired On a sunny Saturday, I spotted a woman in Golden Gate Park taking a photo with a 3G iPhone. Because iPhones embed geodata into photos that users upload to Flickr or Picasa, iPhone shots can be automatically placed on a map. At home I searched the Flickr map, and score—a shot from today. After adjusting the settings so that only her shots appeared on the map, I saw a cluster of images in one locatoin. Clicking on them revealed photos of an apartment interior—a bedroom, a kitchen, a filthy living room. Now I know where she lives. **** Swarm Gold by Franklin Pride, Inside Mac Games Swarm Gold is a repetitiv space shooter with no much variety in levels or enemies, but it's an ok purchase if you've got nothing to play. **** Palm To Apple: We'll "Vigorously" Defend Our IP, Too by Zach Spear, AppleInsider **** Settlement Reached Over Scratched 1G iPod Nanos by Dan Moren, Macworld Some unlucky consumers who jumped headfirst into the pool of first-generation Apple products foundselves the owners of iPod nanos that were rather easy—okay, let's say /very/ easy—to scratch and otherwise damage. **** Review: Third-Party Browsers For The iPhone by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Each of the eight browsers reviewed here has found a rationale for its existence, whether that be faster page loading by skipping images, implementing tabbed browsing, or some other such reason. But how well do they work, and can any of these alternatives suplant Safari's role as the primary web browser for iPhone users? **** The Mac At 25: Networking by Rik Myslewski, Macworld Long-range WiMAX and speedy FiOS means more bandwidth for more people. **** Growl Offers System-Wide Notification Management by Doug McLean, TidBITS As Growl's list of compatible applications and third-party plug-ins expands, this handy tool is inching closer to truly becoming a system-wide notification system. **** Review: MacBook Air 1.6GHz by James Galbraith, Macworld Internal updates boost performance. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** What The Hell Just Happened? A Look Back At The Last Eight Years by Tom Junod, Esquire As we move into the next era of American history, we need to reflect on the bizarre sequence of events we've experienced since 2000, and on how we — and not just George W. Bush — handled them. **** Handwriting Is On The Wall by Cullen Murphy, Wall Street Journal Penmanship skills are being slowly erased in a typing and texting age. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Head To Geylang For A Gay Time by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star Building on its history of prostitution and triads, this red light district has evolved into a mini United Nations of sorts. **** Request For Support: Demand An Apology From MP Charles Chong For His Discriminatory Remarks by This Lush Garden Within I argue that this statement is discriminatory, and against the principles of human rights - that all humans should be equal regardless of race, religion, achievements or wealth. May I also add that this statement is also against the principles of a democracy (which Singapore is supposed to be), as well as against the values of the National Pledge which we make our children recite daily in school. Such a person does not deserve to be an MP at all, because he holds beliefs that advocates social divide distincing lesser and higher mortals based on socio-economic statuses). **** What Is Tan Yong Soon Apologizing To Peter Ho For? by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Of Singapore Since Mr Tan has realized his mistake, why wasn't the letter written by him instead? Is Mr Ho trying to tell us indirectly that Mr Tan lacks the language ability to draft a simple letter of apology? Mr Tan Yong Soon has apologized to the wrong person and Mr Peter Ho has apologized for the wrong reason. **** Saving Jobs, Savaging Filmmakers by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread What does this show about the People's Action Party? It really shows that they have no confidence that they can win people over in a fair and open debate. This very silly move undermines the legitimacy of their own election victories, begging questions as to why they think they cannot afford to act fairly. It also shows how mean they are, and that there is nothing sincere in their words about opening up. **** Concerns Over Tight Bank Loan Criteria And Other Issues Dominate Budget Feedback Forum by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jan 25 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 25 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 25, 2009 Message-ID: <20090125181501.82745.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** On The Mac by ParisLemon When I was growing up, I knew exactly /one/ friend who had a Mac. Now, I would say more than half of my friends have them. **** Apple Fans Mark 25 Years Of Mac Devotion by Jessica Ravitz, CNN Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine. **** What Made The Mac Different by Dave Winer, Scripting News Guy Kawasaki not only spoke our language but he spoke Apple's language. When we needed to get things done inside Apple, he managed them on our behalf. Believe me that was necessary, because while a small number of people inside Apple wanted developer support, the company was leaning toward the very big developers, Lotus, Microsoft and Software Publishing. Guy believed in the little guys, like my team, and it turned out he was right and they were wring. The products that made the Mac were ones no one had heard of: Aldus Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop, Quark XPress, Filemaker, BBEdit, Macromind Director, 4D, Think C and Pascal. Borland, Ashton-Tate and the other BigCo's, the ones that Apple management courted, with the exception of Microsoft, never shipped anything worthy of the Mac. **** When Is A CEO's Health 'Material' To Investors? by San Jose Mercury News Given the fuzziness of the SEC guidelines, the probe is unlikely to turn up any wrongdoing by Apple. Clarifying the disclosure rules is in everyone's best interests. **** Apple's Holier-Than-Thou Attitude May Be Its Salvation by John Naughton, The Guardian **** "Mac Is Back?" Hey, It Never Left. Macintosh Turns 25 by William Bradley, Huffington Post It hasn't taken over the world, as Steve Jobs hoped. But it's changed the face of computing in many ways, and is doing a lot better than any other computer in this global recession. **** How Mac Gaming Has Changed by Peter Cohen, Macworld Even this cursory look back at the past quarter-century shows just how far Mac gaming has come and how much it's changed. If the next 25 years are even partly as interesting, it should be a very entertaining show. **** The Best Mac Games Of All Time by John Siracusa, Macworld Many of the classics required dexterity and dedication well beyond that demanded by today's crop of mass-market video games. Here are the best of a bygone era. **** Five Forgotten Apple Products by Benj Edwards, Macworld Everyone remembers the Mac, but what about these Apple offerings? The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Cellphones As Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait by Leslie Berlin, New York Times The myriad companies that must work together to give the technology to the masses have yet to agree on how to split the resulting revenue. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story by Molly Young, n+1 The first thing that strike the casual reader is the anatomical variety among bunnies. Nipples, for one thing. Some are as big as cupcakes, others are the size of a penny. They are occasionally erect and come in a range of colors as varied as drugstore lipsticks. Pubic hair is another delight to behold, appearing first in 1971 and thriving until 1997. **** Sad Men by Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times "A new breed of American has arrived on the scene," Dalton Conley declares in "Elsewhere, U.S.A.," his compact guidebook to our nervous new world. Instead of individuals searching for authenticity, we are "intraviduals" defined by shifting personas and really cool electronics, which help us manage "the myriad data streams, impulses, desires and even consciousnesses that we experience in our heads as we navigate multiple worlds." **** Appraising Grace by Toni Bentley, New York Times The first English-language edition of one of the very greatest writers on ballet, who witnessed the mythic Russian ballerinas of the early 20th century. **** The End Of Solitude by William Deresiewicz, Chronicle Of Higher Education As everyone seeks more and broader connectivity, the still, small voice speaks only in silence. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Wil Allow "Room To Speak" At APEC Summit by Ben Bland, Telegraph The executive director of APEC (the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation grouping) has insisted that there will be room for free speech at this year's annual summit in Singapore despite the government signaling that it will toughen its protest laws ahead of the meeting. See Also: Singapore Will Allow "Room To Speak" At APEC Summit , by Singabloodypore. The problem is that we have heard this nonsense before. From past experience and with the recent tightening of anti-protest legislation, what will actually happen is the same old authoritarian heavy handed approach of crushing any and all descent. **** You Know You Are Getting Old, If During Your NS Days... by mrbrown **** Freedom And Constraint: Insights From Singapore by David Sibbet I can't pretend to understand a different culture from a couple of week visit, but I came away feeling that Singapore is a harbinger of the future. As our challenges rise, the call for more control and order will also rise. We see it in the new mood to regulate business, in response to the excesses of the financial industry. At the same time the life force seeks expression, and people move toward the freedoms. The young in Singapore want more freedom of expression and the government is having to respond. The push and pull feels like a river of life, moving to reconcile Freedom and Constraint. I see the pattern in the way modern architecture is bending material to the flow of light and line. This picture of a walkway at Clark Quay seems to sum it up for me. **** Massive Jam @ JB New CIQ by The Star **** Singapore PM Says Recession May Last For Whole Of 2009 by Reuters Prme minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday that the government's S$20.5 billion stimulus package will not immediately lift the country out of a recession, which may possibly last for the whole of 2009. **** Budget: Where Are The Safety Nets? by Diary Of A Singaporean Mind From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jan 26 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 26 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 26, 2009 Message-ID: <20090126181501.70864.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Looking Back To The First Apple Mac by Larry Magid, San Jose Mercury News I was blown away when Steve Jobs gave me a one-on-one preview of the original Macintosh in January 1984. **** Review: Apple iWork '09 by David Flynn, Sydney Morning Herald The fourth generation of Apple's iWork software suite for the Mac may not be a giant leap from the current iWork '08 editio but it certainly takes a long, confident stride ahead. **** Apple Ships iLife '09 by MacNN The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** $200 Laptops Break A Business Model by Brad Stone And Ashlee Vance, New York Times Silicon Valley has been gripped by a growing sense that the economic retreat might do more than depress earnings. There is too much ingrained optimism here to think that the tech sector will not bounce back, stronger than before. But the fear now is that consumers and businesses operating with the same cost-cutting mind-set, will erode the high-margin businesses of the information technology industry — slowing some technologies and companies but giving new momentum to others. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Army Cats by Tom Sleigh, New Yorker SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Big Wheel Reopens After Fire by AFP Passengers buying tickets for the first "flight" of the wheel said they had no safety concerns. **** PM Lee Says Impact Of Budget To Be Assessed Before Considering Off-Budget Measures by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia SIngapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the idea behind crafting this year's budget is to have one that deals directly with the economic issues that confront Singapore, instead of having smaller measures every few months. **** Not Efficient To Engage Singaporeans On Many Online Platforms by Julia Hang, Ministry Of Information, Communicatons And The Arts, Straits Times Over time, as we enhance our capability and experience, we will explore other objective and accountable online platforms. **** Think Of Faceless Online Critics As Bacteria by Eugene Wee, New Paper Blogs like yawningbread.org, wayangparty.com and theonlinecitizen.com have names to them. And Messrs Alex Au, Eugene Yeo and Choo Zheng Xi have earned themselves a growing number of readers. **** Thus Spoke Shanmugaratnam by The Online Citizen Despite the government's constant invocation about "staying together", its will-power in maintaining a staunchly anti-welfare stance has ensured that most individuals would be facing this recession starkly alone. **** My Dear Government, Why Do You Treat Me So? by My Thoughts Then, not only will protesting be illegal, so will filming it. My God! What's next? Turning your head to glance becomes an offence? Or will reading the placard/banner/t-shirt lead to being indefinitely detained under the ISA? **** Singapore Flyer Resumes Operation After Month-Long Shutdown by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia The world's largest observation wheel, the Singapore Flyer, will resume operations on Monday - the first day of the Lunar New Year. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jan 27 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 27 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 27, 2009 Message-ID: <20090127181500.85828.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Aquaria by Susie Ochs, MacLife **** Bento 2 Is A Versatile Database Organizer by Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle Bento 2 is easy even if you've never used a database. **** Apple Throws Another Curveball, Approves Podcaster For The App Store With Changes by Chris Ziegler, Engadget **** Apple Nvidia Update Fixes Some Mini DisplayPort Dual-Link DVI Issues, Boosts HD Video Performance by Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo **** Apple Updates iLife Media Browser by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld According to Apple the "update improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues." **** Apple Releases iDVD 7.0.3 by Jim Darlymple, Macworld According to a rather terse note on the company's support page, iDVD 7.0.3 "improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues." **** Review: RoadTrip 2.0 by Ted Wallingford, Macworld GPS software offers excellent Mac-based trip planning. **** Review: Numbers '09 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld The new functions, Function Browser, Formula List feature, Table Categories, and charting options eliminate many of the weak points in the first version of the program. **** A Quick Look At VirtualBox 2.1 by Dave Girard, Ars Technica While it might take some tweaking to get basic things like networking or sound working, it's worth a shot to see if it can save you some bucks. If you're looking for someting more stable and integrated, then you're still going to have to opt for a commercial virtualization solution. **** The Mac Turns 25: Our First Macs by TidBITS We're all taking a moment to dig back into the depths of time and share a few thoughts about our first Macs. **** Apple Vs. Palm: Geeks With Grudges by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune The bad blood between Apple and Palm that bubbled to the surface last week has a history that long predates Palm's launch of the Pre, a smartphone that flatters Apple more sincerely than any of the other iPhone imitators. **** Macintosh Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Reunion: Where Did Time Go? by Guy Kawasaki, How To Change The World I hope that everone gets at least one chance to work on such a great project with such great people as the Macintosh Division. **** 25 Years Of Mac: Repurposing Your Dead Mac by Nicole Martinelli, Cult Of Mac When a computer gives up the ghost, there are a lot of things you can do to keep it around the house. **** Changes To Low-End MacBook Promise More Value Than Ever by Peter Cohen, Macworld We're still working on getting a version of this updated MacBook into Macworld Lab for testing and review. But based on the revised specs of the laptop, this model appears to be a solid value for both gamers and Mac users on a budget. **** The Mac Turns 25: Best Mac Ever? by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS The SE/30 was a great package that offered a glimpse of what the Macintosh could be in the future and then stuck around to watch that future come to life around it. **** Review: Araxis Merge 2009 by John Brandon, Macworld File comparison utility pinpoints even minor discrepancies with ease. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Tool To Verify Digital Records, Even As Technology Shifts by John Markoff, New York Times Simple-to-use digital technology will make it more difficult to distort history in the future. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Sicko-nomics by Zachary F. Meisel and Jesse M. Pines, Slate Health care reformers should look to the banking collapse as a cautionary tale. **** Out Of The Fire, Into The Frying Pan by Judy Joo, Wall Street Journal The analogies between the financial world and the world of restaurants don't stop in the kitchen. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** "Strong Fundamentals For Future Learning" - Key Directions For The Future Of Primary Education by Ministry of Education, Singapore Government Primary Education Review and Implementation (PERI) committee shares preliminary recommendations. **** Government Seeks Cap On Temasek, GIC Holdings In Listed Companies by Javed Sayed, Economic Times The finance ministry has proposed that a key agreement between India and Singapore be amended to prevent two Singapore government-owned investment entities — Temasek and GIC — from together holding more than 10% equity stake in any publicly-traded Indian company. /If one is to read between the lines, it seems that India is accusing the Singapore government of not acting responsibly./ **** Let Us Mindful Of The Potential Pitfalls Ahead While Being Grateful For What We Have by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Singapore Enquirer In spite of the apparent social stability we have now, there exists hidden undercurents of tension and discontent beneath which will erupt eventually when the conditions are ripe. **** Solar Eclipse In Singapore by Fresh Brainz I don't have any sophisticated equipment for taking eclipse photos directly, so I used my old solar projection rig to project an image of the Sun onto a piece of card instead. See Also: Partial Solar Eclipse In Singapore , by Stormelement.com. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jan 28 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 28 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 28, 2009 Message-ID: <20090128181500.87599.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iPhone Push Notifications: Dead And Buried, Or Waiting In The Wings? by Dan Moren, Macworld Apple prides itself on simplicity and elegance—maybe the company realized that the notification system might cause more problems than it solved. **** Missing iPhone Notification System Leaves Some Third-Party Apps Out Of The Loop by Dan Moren, Macworld Without multitasking, notifications could be an important asset in the iPhone developer's toolbox, but it doesn't look as though Apple is planning on launching this system anytime soon. /The apparent lack of communication (I'm not an iPhone developer, and I didn't signed any NDAs) from Apple is not a good sign./ **** Review: FileMaker Pro 10 And Pro Advanced 10 by William Porter, Macworld Saved finds, dynamic summary reports, and script triggers make FileMaker Pro 10 a very desirable upgrade for current users. And if you remember the pain of upgrading from versions 6 to 7, panic not: the format of FileMaker Pro 10 databases has not changed. **** Tim Cook's Big Problem by Tim Beyers, Motley Fool Apple needs innovation. A big idea. Soon. /If that big idea is not already in prototype — and as envisioned by Steve Jobs — Apple is indeed in big trouble. But I don't think that's the case here. There are probably several big ideas in Apple's labs right now./ **** Papermaster Settlement: Apple Innovations May Require IBM's OK by Paul McDougall, InformationWeek Thie chip expert must check in with his former employer if he believes he's using Big Blue technology at Cupertino. **** Apple's Nvidia Graphics Update Doesn't Fix Mini DisplayPort Dual-Link DVI Distortion Issues by Jason Chen, Gizmodo **** MacScan Releases Free Mac Trojan Removal Tool by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com With the arrival of yet another trojan targeting the Mac, antispyware vendor MacScan on Tuesday updated and renamed its trojan removal tool. **** The Irony Of Apple Packaging by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet.com The problem is with the external packaging. **** iMovie '09 Image Stabilization by Jason Snell, Macworld I wanted to present a brief sample video of the new image-stabilization features in iLife '09. **** MacBook Account For 70 Per Cent Of All Apple Mac Sales by Jordan GOlson, The Industry Standard Apple's notebook sales are, just like PC notebooks, trending a larger and larger part of Apple's mix. **** Review: Pinboard For iPhone by Ben Boychuk, Macworld Brainstormer's delight offers an easy way to list to-dos, reminders, and other short items. **** Apple Yanks iMovie 6 Download, Ends Era Of Appeasement by Dan Moren, Macworld **** Apple: Papermaster Lawsuit "Resolved," Will Start In April by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica It appears as if Papermaster and IBM have reached some sort of settlement (though Apple's announcement doesn't directly acknowledge a settlement, that's the most logical explanation in this circumstance). **** New Mac Screenshot App Snapplr Offers File, E-Mail Options by Justin Berka, Ars Technica A new Mac application called Snapplr promises to make taking screenshots easier than ever, and also includes a variety of web upload and e-mail features. **** Apple Releases iPhone Software 2.2.1 by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Apple says the update provides improved stability for the Safari web browser and secondly, an issue was fixed where some images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll. **** Apple Secures Multitouch Technology Patent by Dan Moren, Macworld **** MacHEADS Documentary Now Available For Download Or Rent by Cyrus Farivar, Macworld iTunes offers it up for $15 for purchase and $4 for rent. **** Monitor Your Mac From Your iPhone by Derik DeLong, Macworld Install a little server on all your Macs, buy the $2 application of the App Store for your iPhone, and the Macs on your Wi-Fi network instantly show up for your monitoring pleasure. **** Review: FusionFall by Chris Holt, Macworld Cartoon Network deserves credit for creating a game where kids 8 to 14 and their parents can share in the fun. While adult gamers may find the game shallow, the short game sessions, multiple character cameos, and simple game mechanics will likely entertian kids and be a safe introduction into the world of MMOs. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Muxtape Returns From RIAA-Induced Hiatus by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News.com The new version of the service, which does /not/ allow users to upload music from their hard drives, instead relies on bands to submit ther own tracks for listeners to play on Muxtape—and Muxtape only. **** Self-Publishers Flourish As Writers Pay The Tab by Motoko Rich, New York Times The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Book Soup's Ending Isn't Yet Written by Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times "When a wise man dies," Rabbi David Wolpe asked at the memorial service for Book Soup owner Glenn Goldman, "how can he be replaced?" For customers, employees, sales reps, writers and just about everyone who ever wandered into the Sunset Boulevard bookshop, this question has taken on an added significance in the wake of Goldman's death. **** Late Works by John Updike, New Yorker Last words, recorded and treasured in the days when the deathbed was in the home, have fallen from fashion, perhaps because most people spend their final hours in the hospital, too drugged to make any sense. And only the night nurse hears them talk. Yet, at least for this aging reader, works written late in a writer's life retain a fascination. **** Updike Made The Mundane Into A Saga by Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Endowed with an art student's pictorial imagination, a journalist's sociological eye and a poet's gift for metaphor, John Updike — who died on Tuesday at 76 — was argably this country's one true all-round man of letters, moving fluently from fiction to criticism, from light verse to short stories to the long-distance form of the novel: a literary decathlete in our age of electronic distraction and willful specialization, Victorian in his industriousness and almost blogger-like in his determination to turn every scrap of knowledge and experience into words. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Naked Couple Greeted With Applause by Reuters A couple treated open air diners to a 15-minute naked parade in Singapore, triggering both embarrassment and applause for a scene almost unheard of in the conservative city-state. Police said the couple, a Caucasian man and an ethnic Chinese woman in their 20s, had been arrested and released on bail. **** Malaysiakini At Vanguard Of Media Revolution by Sarah Stewart, AFP "Malaysiakini could only have existed in places like Malaysia, Singapore or Burma, simply because the mainstream press have no credbility," James Chin, a political analyst from the Kuala Lumpur campus of Australia's Monash University, said. **** Why This Is Not Election Year by PN Balji, The Online Citizen The one thing this Budget lacks is a feel-good factor. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jan 29 13:15:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 29 Jan 2009 18:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 29, 2009 Message-ID: <20090129181501.35137.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Sued Over 'Broken Promises' Regarding 3G Speeds by Slash Lane, AppleInsider A new class-action lawsuit claims Apple knowingly profited from faulty iPhone 3Gs that couldn't stay connected to the faster 3G network, costing buyers inferior service and missed opportunities to use an alternative provider. **** What TO Know About iPhoto '09 Face Detection And Recognition by Wilson Rothman, Gizmodo After heavy testing for half a day, iPhoto became /shockingly good/ at identifying my face. I can onl imagine that, given more calibration and identified content, it will be better and better. My biggest fear is how many photos aren't clearing the first hurdle—face detection—and are therefore left completely out of the system. **** Toonz Adds Story Planner, Story Planner Pro Animation Software by Digital Arts Magazine Digital Video, creator of the cel animation software Toonz, has released Story Planner and Story Planner PRO are brand new tools for creating storyboards with graphical and textual information, and generating animatics with soundtrack and animations. **** iTunes Plus Goes A La Carte by Christopher Breen, Macworld Apple has dispensed with the iTunes Store all-or-nothing upgrade policy. **** Will Apple's App Store Change The Desktop App Market? by Ryan Faas, Computerworld Exactly where the App Store model will lead software distribution isn't clear. But the model has been a radical success, and I doublt it'll remain limited to smart phone apps for long. **** Next Generation iPhone Model Revealed In Firmware by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com Meanwhile, at least one developer has noticed actual "iPhone2,1" models in use based on PinchMedia ad serving reports. **** iWork '09 by Jason Parker, CNET iWork '09 makes many of the already user-friendly features from last year's version even easier. iWork '09 offers an extremely intuitive interface and has plenty of advanced time-saving features to make it a worthy replacement for the much more pricely Microsoft solution. **** iLife Gets Better; Just Don't Ask It To Find A Face by Walter S. Mossberg, AllThingsD In my tests, on two different Macs with thousands of photos, face recognition worked most of the time. But I was too often disappointed. I still like and recommend iPhoto and iLife But, in my opinion, the new face-recognition system isn't up to Apple's self-proclaimed high standards, and isn't reliable enough to justify an upgrade all by itself. **** Apple's Freshened iPhoto Makes Photo Organizing A Snap by Edward C. Baig, USA Today It's mainly the Faces and Places features that stand out. Though these can improve, they make a solid photo-management program that much better. **** Becoming A Mac Convert by Rosalie Marshall, Computing The lack of a Start button, an inability to right-click using the trackpad, even maximising windows all threw me at first. **** MobileMe Renewal: Yes Or No? by Dave Caolo, The Unofficial Apple Weblog Honestly, it doesn't always "just work." **** My Last MobileMe Renewal by Joe Wilcox, eWeek Apple deserves high praise for doing sync pretty much better than anyone. But Apple surprisingly stumbled with MobileMe sync, which has been glitchy since its mid-July launch. **** iDVD Hung Out To Dry As Apple Pushes Movies Online by Prince McLean, AppleInsider One of the original pillars of Apple's iLife suite, iDVD, has increasingly been given the cold shoulder to the point where it is not even depicted on the retail package anymore. How much longer will the app stick around now that the company has focused on pushing media sharing online? **** Akamai Losing Some Apple Business To Limelight by Eric Savitz, Barrons Akamai is apparently losing some of Apple's content delivery business for software updates and the App store to Limelight Networks. **** Distorted Grudges by Macsimum News The conventional wisdom that Rubinstein had a bitter falling-out with the Steve Jobs was confirmed to be not true. **** Global Recession Catches Up To Apple's Retail Stores by Sam Oliver, AppleInsider Apple's retail stores are showing signs that they're not immune to the deepening recession, but at the same time they're still serving their intended purpose of attracting more and more Windows users to the Mac platform, a new report explains. **** Reivew: iLife '09 by John Biggs, CrunchGear iLife 09 is a semi-solid upgrade but probably not wroth $79 if you're not overly excited about Faces or Lessons. Folks who are not impressed by some comestic changes and a few feature additions, you might be able to sit this one out. **** Drobo: Its Part In My Downfall by Fraser Speirs Let me summarise that for you: "Our documented disconnection proceure will silently corrupt your Drobo. Sorry about that. Hope you have a backup. Also: /Your fault/, depsite you dong what we said to do." **** $999.99 iPhone App MyCentrl Hooks You Up With Other Dumb Rich People by Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo Love blowing cash on stupid, useless crap in the middle of the recession just to show how rich you are? Want to meet other people like yourself? **** Does Apple Own Touch Technology? by Ian Paul, PC World The future of multitouch technology seems to be in Apple's hands at the moment. Whether it stays that way may be a matter for the courts. **** Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Of The Mac: Apple In The Media Archives by Cyrus Farivar, Macworld **** GarageBand '09 A Boon For Guitar Players by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld What's really interesting about the new release is that the amps have been completely remodeled. Apple didn't just slap a fancy picture on the previous amp and call it new, Apple told me it was actually proud of the fact that so mcuh work went into the amps. **** Getting Public Radio On Your iPhone Now A Bit Easier by Cyrus Farivar, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Sugar Daddy For Future Generations by Jack Schofield, The Guardian Nicholas Negroponte's visionary One Laptop Per Child project may have had its setbacks, but he's still intent on helping young lives. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Flipping Awful by Tim Harford, Slate Why the NFL should replace the overtime coin toss with an auction system. **** The Complete Updike by Lorrie Moore, New York Times It has been a hard year or so for writers. The world seems to grow emptier and emptier, depletion without replenishment, and now with the passing of John Updike at the age of 76, death has taken perhaps its biggest prize. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** I Heart Popeyes - Singapore by Bellygood I was told I had to try Popeyes. "They only have stores at the airport terminals, but it's better than KFC," they told me. **** More Sex Please, You're Singaporean by Ben Bland, Telegraph While other governments are focusing solely on fiscal and monetary stimulus packages for their economies, Singapore is also pushing ahead with its sexual stimulus plan as it seeks to shore up its flagging growth prospects. **** Worst Is Yet To Come by Straits Times Finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has warned that the worst of the credit crunch has yet to come. **** Taxi Companies To Pass On 30% Road Tax Rebate To Cabbies by Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia **** Cats And Nonsense by Mollymeek **** $41.5M Rebates For Tenants by Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times Tenants of 18 CapitaLand-owned malls will gain from the $41.5 million property tax rebates which Singapore's biggest mall operator stands to get from the government's 40 per cent property tax rebate. CapitaLand Retail chief executive officer Lim Beng Chee said the $41.5 million will translate to about 4 per cent rebate for its tenants. **** Small, Furry, Outlawed: Singapore Torn Over Cat Rights by Gillian Murdoch, Reuters Cat lovers in Singapore are campaigning for felines to have the same rights as dogs — a roof over their heads and a safe home. For decades cats have been banned from Singapore's high-density Housing and Development Board flats, which house more than 80 percent of the 4.6 million population. **** Growth Model Still Works by Straits Times "The fundamentals of the growth model are sound," said finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said. "We should not be less susceptible to global markets. That's our future, that's where our fortunes are tied to." **** Prince Cinemas Shut Down by John Lui, Straits Times Prince 1, Singaproe's largest cinema, and its smaller sibling Prince 2 have shut down with no plans to revive them. /Large movie screens, circles and stall seats, and handwritten seat numbers on tickets, these are my memories of watching movies in Singapore./ **** Singapore's DBS Says CEO Has Leukemia, To Take Leave by Saeed Azhar, Reuters **** Most Hawkers Hold Prices by Jessica Lim, Straits Times Nearly 190 hawker stalls have not increased their prices over the past six months, despite escalating costs and dropping sales, a survey released yesterday showed. **** Is There Any Art In Singapore by Everyday Blog **** Singapore Air Meets Agents To Break Deadlock by Omkar Sapre and Mithun Roy, Economic Times Singapore could lose its numerous high-spending Indian travellers, thanks to the zero-commission stance of its national carrier, Singapore Airlines. **** Euthanasia - The Right To Self-Determination by Richard Woo, The Online Citizen We all live for a time only, but to be able to die peacefully, with dignity and without pain or fuss, can be considered a life achievement. **** Tough Rules, Short Queue by Jessica Cheam, Straits Times Serious house-buyers are getting the flats they want sooner because a group of 'frivoulous' buyers, who used to clog up the queue and wsate everyone's time by rejecting flats offered to them, appear to have dropped out. **** Why Sack Me Before Verdict? by Desmond Ng, New Paper Now, former SIA Engineering technician jobless despite being cleared of charges. /Shame on you, SIA./ **** Traffic Diversion To Stay by Yeo Ghim Lay, Straits Times A temporary traffic diversion to ease congestion at Woodlands Centre Road has now been made permanent. This comes after a four-month trial showed the diversion was successful in reducing traffic jams on the road which has heavy use due to the Woodlands Checkpoint. **** Shameful Piece Of Legislation by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net We have had 12 general elections in the last 50 y ears since the PAP first came to power. Laws have been constantly changed not just to ensure that the PAP wins every single time but the opposition's presence in Parliament remains non-existent or miniscule. **** Changes Proposed To Films Act And Enhanced Police Powers by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net The legitimate use of police powers is effectively hijacked for the purposes of political oppression. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jan 30 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 30 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 30, 2009 Message-ID: <20090130181500.44320.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iPhone Takes 1.1% Of The Mobile Phone Market by Mark Hattersley, Macworld UK Apple's meets its goal of selling enough iPhones to get 1 per cent of the market. **** 'A Vampyre Story' Released For Mac by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** On The Flickr Support In iPhoto '09 by Fraser Speirs You have no control over the safety level of your photos, nor whether they should be made available in public areas on Flickr. You cannot effectively self-moderate your photos with iPhoto '09, as Flickr members are expected to do. **** Review: MacSpeech Dictate 1.2.1 by Kirk McElhearn, Macworld If you can't type, or have RSI problems, this program is a must-have; if you type slowly, you'll find it to be a boon to your productivity. **** First Test: Apple GarageBand '09 by Ben Rogerson, Musicradar.com New users will find GarageBand '09 to be a superb entry-point into the world of computer-based music production. It remains insanely easy to use, and it now looks a bit nicer too. **** Hollywood Has A Lot Riding On Steve Jobs by Sue Zeidler, Reuters Hollywood has a lot riding on Jobs, given his role in shaping digital entertainment and the challenges that lie ahead for the media industry. **** An Apple For The Systems Administrator by Joab Jackson, Government Computer News Contrary to popular belief, Macs do have enterprise support tools and can coexist in a Windows world. **** Major Archiectural Changes Suggested By iPhone 2,1 by Zach Spear and Prince McLean, AppleInsider Various clues on the next version of the iPhone are being collected that point to a major architectural overhaul that coul dbring dramatically improved graphics performance to Apple's popular smartphone. **** What A $5 GarageBand Artist Lesson Actually Includes by Mark Wilson, Gizmodo There's some real love in GarageBand's Learn to Play interface that is well-suited for celebrities to show up and teach you to jam. **** Apple Vs. Palm: The In-Depth Analysis by Nilay Patel, Engadget We enlisted Mathew Gavronski, a patent attorney in the Chicago office of Michael Best & Friedrich, to help us clear up some of the confusion and misinformation that's out there. **** iPhoto 09: Nice Ideas, Shame About The Eye Candy by Giles Turnbull, Cult Of Mac The net result of all this animated swishery is my MacBook's fans going bananas, and the machine slowing down noticeably when I'm browsing or editing. **** Apple Pulls NVIDIA Graphics Update, Reasons Unclear by Zach Spear, AppleInsider Apple has yanked a software update that was intended to fix graphics-related issues with its latest notebooks just two days after pushing the patch to users via its Software Update mechanism. **** Agatha Christie - Death On The Nile by Richard Hallas, Inside Mac Games Death on the Nile is certainly one of the best hidden-object games I've seen to date, and deserves credit for doing its best to expose the player to the Agatha Christie story as fully as possible within the game's own context. **** Have Investors Vanquished Fears Regarding Steve Jobs' Health? by David Zeiler, Baltimore Sun Is it possible investors suddenly realize Apple's success derives from more than just one man? **** TaskPaper 2.1 by Dan Frakes, Macworld TaskPaper's most unique attribute is that it offers speed and dead-simple ease of use while still providing the essential formatting you need for tracking tasks and projects. **** Twitterific 3.2 Marks Old Tweets As Read by Peter Cohen, Macworld New to the 3.2 release is the ability to mark old tweets are read when you first launch the app. **** Captain FTP 6 Released by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Among the additions to Captain FTP 6 are Synchronization scheduling, Amazon S3 backup and storage service, editing remote documents through WebDav, Add entry from Quick Connect to Address Book, Offline browsing and file listing for Amazon and WebDav, and Address Book search, among other changes. **** HyperImage 2 Downloads Web Photo Galleries by Peter Cohen, Macworld With HyperImage lets you enter the address of a web site; the software "crawls" every page and downloads every image. **** Apple's Greatest (And Worst) TV Commercials by Philip Michaels, Macworld The problem, of course, when drawing up a list of the best Apple TV spots of all time is that your toughest decision has already been made for you. It's a lose-lose proposition. **** Alternatives To MobileMe by Joe Kissell, Macworld If you're willing to mix and match services, you can replicate MobileMe's functionality but get greater flexibility and much lower cost. **** Review: Flickr Apps For iPhone by Jonathan Seff, Macworld Trio of iPhone apps let you enjoy photo-sharing site on the go. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Best E-Mail Program Ever by Farhad Manjoo, Slate How Gmail destroyed Outlook. **** iPhone Covergence: Microsoft And Red Hat by Matt Asay, CNET News.com IT's software, not religion. It matters, but not /that/ much. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Requiem by John Updike, New York Times **** Wnadering Life, Perpetual Feast by Ian Brunskill, Wall Street Journal A food critic remembers far-flung places and the meals of a lifetime. **** Can I Serve You Now? by The Economist American attitudes to stem-cell therapies are changing fast. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Waste Of Money, Waste Of Electricity by Choongyong.com Who foots the bill for the purchase of the screen? Who foots the bill for the electricity to power it? **** Prices Of Beverages At Coffeeshops May Be Lowered by Zhao Qianyu, Lianhe Zaobao **** Expect 2% Less Pay by Fiona Chan, Straits Times A new survey b the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) has found that employers plan to give out less in bonuses this year, with the lowest payments coming from small firms and Unites States-based companies. **** Dear National Library Board (Singapore) by Cowboy Caleb The poor librarian serving me had to /disarm each CD manually/ and took about 20 minutes to proces everything. **** Employment Situation In Fourth Quarter 2008 by Ministry Of Manpower, Singapore Government Employment growth slowed significantly in the fourth quarter of 2008, as the economic enivornment worsened. Preliminary estimates show that total employment grew by 26,900, which is only about half the gains of 55,700 in Q3 2008 and compared to 62,500 in Q4 2007. Preliminary estimates show that 7,000 workers were retrenched in the fourth quarter of 2008, up substantially from 2,346 in the previous quarter and 1,966 in the same quarter a year ago. See Also: Singapore Unemployment Jumps To 2.6 Percent , by The Associated Press. **** Malls To Pass On Tax Rebate by Straits Times Four more mall landloards have said they would pass on at least part of the 40 per cent property tax rebate they are getting from the government to their tenants. But City Developments, Frasers Centrepoint, AsiaMalls and Marina Centre Holdings were unable to say how much of the rebate would be passed on and how it would be distributed. **** Singapore: The Switzerland In Asia (Only Dictators And Mass Murderers Need Apply) by Everyday's Life In A Snapshot - For Lesser Mortals Only For you and me to see, and for corrupted Indonesians and dictators from Zimbabwe, North Korea and Burma to enjoy. **** Singapore Loosens Up by Steve Burgess, The Tyee How many red-light districts offer the chance to squeeze actual tomatoes? **** Genting's Casino Resort Project On Track by Eileen Hee, The Star **** Kidney Transplant Tourism To Hit Singapore? by Aaron Hotfelder, Gadling Until the buying and selling of kidneys is legalized in other parts of the world, Singapore may find that thousands of desperate kidney-seekers are willing to travel abroad for a new chance at life. **** Domestic Workers Profit From Financial Education by Prime Sarmiento, IPS This is thanks mainly to various non-government organisations (NGOs) in Singapore which hold workshops on business management, computer literacy and livelihood training. **** Travel Agents Threaten To Boycott Singapore by Chinmayi Shalya, Times Of India "We have given a memorandum, saying we shall stop promoting Singapore and its airline to Indian tourists if the airline does not give travel agents the commission that used to be paid earlier," the Travel Agents' Federation of India (TAFI) vice-chairman Pradip Lulla said. **** Eugene Wee, We Love You! by Feed Me To The Fish From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jan 31 13:15:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 31 Jan 2009 18:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 31, 2009 Message-ID: <20090131181500.49659.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Store Glass Door Explodes On Couple by Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo **** Extremely Short Apple In-Ear Headphone Review by Thomas Fitzgerald **** SEC Review Of Apple May Pit Investors Against Privacy by Karen Gullo, Connie Guglielmo and David Scheer, Bloomberg Apple Inc.'s shifting disclosures about chief executive officer Steve Jobs's health are forcing regulators into new legal territory, balancing investors' right to information against a last bastion of eecutive privacy. **** Apple Warns Of Reduced iMac Availability In Near Term by Katie Marsal, AppleInsider Apple this week is advising members of its reseller channels that supply of iMacs will be constrained in the immediate future, a move that may signal new models are nearing production. **** Steve Jobs A Music Visionary? Judge For Yourself by Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com **** Putting A Premium On iPhone Games by Peter Cohen, Macworld I haven't found many games that sustain my interest long enough or offer a compelling enough experience for me to try to get $20's worth of entertainment from. And the device itself has much to do with that s the games I've been playing. **** Review: City Of Heroes by Chris Holt, Macworld Despite its flaws, City of Heroes nearly lives up to its superhuman potential. **** Rowmote Brings Apple Remote Functions To iPhone, iPod Touch by Dan Moren, Macworld **** Why CableCard Isn't On The Mac by Jason Snell, Macworld There are the copy-protection issues around CableCard, mandated by content owners who are terrified of piracy. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Thoughts On The City By A New Yorker Writer Who Avoided New York by Clyde Haberman, New York Times John Updike defined "the true New Yorker" as someone who came with a "secret belief that people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding." The guy nailed it. In the depths of their souls, that is exactly how unreconstructed New Yorkers feel. **** How To Measure A Cheshire Grin? by John Allen Paulos, New York Times Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was a mathematician at Oxford University for most of his life. His fanciful "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" are quite familiar to us, as, to a lesser extent, are his photographs of young children. In "Lewis Carroll in Numberland," the distinguished British mathematician Robin Wilson has filled a perceived gap in the writings about Carroll by describing in a straightforward, jbberwocky-free fashion the author's mathematical accomplishments, both professional and popular. **** Eyeless In Gaza by Roger Cohen, New York Review Of Books I have never previously felt so despondent about Israel, so shamed by its actions, so despairing of any peace that might terminate the dominion of the dead in favor of opportunity for the living. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Who Needs A Big Raise? SEC Staffers by Peter Gumbel, Fortune Regulators shold earn more than bankers — at least that's what several regulators from Europe and asia have been saying at Davos. **** Singapore Says Wealth Funds May Play Bigger Role In Markets by David Yong, Bloomberg Institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, may play a bigger role in stabilizing the global financial system as leveraged banks and hedge funds stumble, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. said. **** Fewer Youths Pursuing Their Dreams by Jeffrey Francis, The Star In a shrinking job market, fresh graduates normally further their studies, but with a declining asset base, too, fewer can do so now. **** Chartered Axes 600 by Cheow Xin Yi, Today In the first big retrenchment that comes a week after the government unveiled job-saving measures in its budget, Chartered Semiconductor said it will lay off 600 workers worldwide. The bulk of the job losses, 540, will be in Singapore. **** Spread The Foreign Talent Around by Groundnotes Being a PAP MP is a /de facto/ appointment that is ideologically uniform and purely administrative. There is no reason why a competent foreigner with excellent managerial and people skills can't do the job. /I'll go one step further: eliminate the jobs. There is no need for so many MPs. Or cabinet ministers either./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jan 31 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 31 Jan 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jan 31, 2009 Message-ID: <20090131235901.98231.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Store Glass Door Explodes On Couple by Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo **** Extremely Short Apple In-Ear Headphone Review by Thomas Fitzgerald **** SEC Review Of Apple May Pit Investors Against Privacy by Karen Gullo, Connie Guglielmo and David Scheer, Bloomberg Apple Inc.'s shifting disclosures about chief executive officer Steve Jobs's health are forcing regulators into new legal territory, balancing investors' right to information against a last bastion of eecutive privacy. **** Apple Warns Of Reduced iMac Availability In Near Term by Katie Marsal, AppleInsider Apple this week is advising members of its reseller channels that supply of iMacs will be constrained in the immediate future, a move that may signal new models are nearing production. **** Steve Jobs A Music Visionary? Judge For Yourself by Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com **** Putting A Premium On iPhone Games by Peter Cohen, Macworld I haven't found many games that sustain my interest long enough or offer a compelling enough experience for me to try to get $20's worth of entertainment from. And the device itself has much to do with that s the games I've been playing. **** Review: City Of Heroes by Chris Holt, Macworld Despite its flaws, City of Heroes nearly lives up to its superhuman potential. **** Rowmote Brings Apple Remote Functions To iPhone, iPod Touch by Dan Moren, Macworld **** Why CableCard Isn't On The Mac by Jason Snell, Macworld There are the copy-protection issues around CableCard, mandated by content owners who are terrified of piracy. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Thoughts On The City By A New Yorker Writer Who Avoided New York by Clyde Haberman, New York Times John Updike defined "the true New Yorker" as someone who came with a "secret belief that people living anywhere else had to be, in some sense, kidding." The guy nailed it. In the depths of their souls, that is exactly how unreconstructed New Yorkers feel. **** How To Measure A Cheshire Grin? by John Allen Paulos, New York Times Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was a mathematician at Oxford University for most of his life. His fanciful "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" are quite familiar to us, as, to a lesser extent, are his photographs of young children. In "Lewis Carroll in Numberland," the distinguished British mathematician Robin Wilson has filled a perceived gap in the writings about Carroll by describing in a straightforward, jbberwocky-free fashion the author's mathematical accomplishments, both professional and popular. **** Eyeless In Gaza by Roger Cohen, New York Review Of Books I have never previously felt so despondent about Israel, so shamed by its actions, so despairing of any peace that might terminate the dominion of the dead in favor of opportunity for the living. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Who Needs A Big Raise? SEC Staffers by Peter Gumbel, Fortune Regulators shold earn more than bankers — at least that's what several regulators from Europe and asia have been saying at Davos. **** Singapore Says Wealth Funds May Play Bigger Role In Markets by David Yong, Bloomberg Institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, may play a bigger role in stabilizing the global financial system as leveraged banks and hedge funds stumble, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. said. **** Fewer Youths Pursuing Their Dreams by Jeffrey Francis, The Star In a shrinking job market, fresh graduates normally further their studies, but with a declining asset base, too, fewer can do so now. **** Chartered Axes 600 by Cheow Xin Yi, Today In the first big retrenchment that comes a week after the government unveiled job-saving measures in its budget, Chartered Semiconductor said it will lay off 600 workers worldwide. The bulk of the job losses, 540, will be in Singapore. **** Spread The Foreign Talent Around by Groundnotes Being a PAP MP is a /de facto/ appointment that is ideologically uniform and purely administrative. There is no reason why a competent foreigner with excellent managerial and people skills can't do the job. /I'll go one step further: eliminate the jobs. There is no need for so many MPs. Or cabinet ministers either./