[MyAppleMenu] Jan 26, 2012

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Thu Jan 26 18:59:01 EST 2012

MyAppleMenu
====================================
**** Harvard Study Finds The iPad Can Be A Pain In The Neck ****
<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/harvard-researchers-ergonomics-ipad.html>
Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times


> A new study published by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, in conjunction with researchers at Microsoft (a long-time Apple rival), is the first of its kind to examine the physical effects on the head, neck and shoulders of spending time staring at a tablet.

> The good news is that it is not all bad news. The researchers found that people are more inclined to move around and shift positions when they use a tablet compared with people who are sitting at a desktop computer. That's definitely good. However, tablet users that hold the device almost at their lap, or rest the tablet in a case on their lap, are putting a lot of strain on the neck muscles -- much more than someone using a laptop or desktop computer.



**** Chinese Readers On The ‘iEconomy’ ****
<http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/chinese-readers-on-the-ieconomy/>
New York Times


> The New York Times partnered with Caixin, a Chinese business magazine, to publish the article in Chinese. The goal was twofold: to share the content of the article with readers in China, and to solicit Chinese comments for translation into English that might prove illuminating for readers of the English-language article on NYTimes.com.



**** 5 Music-focused iTunes Alternatives For Mac ****
<http://gigaom.com/apple/5-music-focused-itunes-alternatives-for-mac/>
Alex Layne, GigaOM


> Below are five alternatives that focus on the music, without the bloat.



**** Yoink Offers A Shelf For Temporarily Stashing Files And Content ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/164975/2012/01/yoink_offers_a_shelf_for_temporarily_stashing_files_and_content.html>
Dan Frakes, Macworld


> Yoink has been improved considerably since its debut, making it a useful utility that's easy to integrate into your workflow.



**** Human Costs Are Built Into An iPad ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, New York Times


> In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.

> However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.



**** Poll Finds Consumer Confusion On Where Apple Devices Are Made ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/poll-on-iphone-and-ipad-finds-consumer-confusion-on-apples-manufacturing.html?partner=rss&emc=rss>
Marjorie Connelly, New York Times


> The outsourcing of manufacturing jobs remains a major sore point for most Americans. But owners of some of the nation’s most popular electronics — including iPhones and iPads — are less concerned than other Americans about where their purchases are made, according to a nationwide survey conducted by The New York Times.

> Apple, meanwhile, remains a hugely popular American company. More than three-quarters of respondents said they had a very favorable or mostly favorable opinion of Apple.



**** All The Awesome Things You Can Do With A Long Press On Your iPhone, iPad, Or iPad Touch ****
<http://lifehacker.com/5879239/all-the-awesome-things-you-can-do-with-a-long-press-on-your-iphone-ipad-or-ipad-touch>
Adam Dachis, Lifehacker


> Long pressing—that is, tapping and holding down on a part of your screen—provides a lot of handy shortcuts on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Here's a look at practically everything you can with this technique to save you a bunch of time typing and navigating your device.



**** Watching Apple Win The World ****
<http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3084-watching-apple-win>
37signals


> While Apple has certainly shown that at times they’ve let their power corrupt, they’re still guided by the fundamental principle we fell in love with: Superior products through superior design.



**** Is Apple's iBooks Author The Right eBook Creation Tool For Journalists? ****
<http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201201/2050/>
Robert Niles, The Online Journalism Review


> So while I wish Apple success in disrupting the textbook market, I also hope that the company will further develop its iBooks Author tool, adding templates for other genres of publishing as a well as an ePub export tool.



**** Q&A: Setting Up A Mac Printer ****
<http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/qa-setting-up-a-mac-printer/?partner=rss&emc=rss>
J.D. Biersdorfer, New York Times



**** Apple Program Lets Businesses Buy Apps In Bulk ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/164994/2012/01/apple_program_lets_businesses_buy_apps_in_bulk.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Joel Mathis, Macworld


> Essentially, it’s an App Store specifically for businesses, where they can purchase iOS apps in bulk. It allows developers to custom-tailor software for specific businesses; it also gives Apple another entry into the business market.



**** MacBook, Mac Mini Get Firmware Updates ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/164986/2012/01/macbook_mac_mini_get_firmware_updates.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Philip Michaels, Macworld


> Owners of the mid-2010 Mac mini and mid-2010 MacBook also have firmware updates to call their own. And like the MacBook Pro firmware release, these updates enable Lion Recovery from an Internet connection on their respective Mac models.



**** Lion's FileVault 2 And Disk Restore: Caveat Encryptor ****
<http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2012/01/lion-filevault-2-and-disk-repairrestore-caveat-encryptor.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Iljitsch Van Beijnum, Ars Technica


> If you're a FileVault 2 user, remember two things: use command+R when booting to go into recovery mode, and you can always decrypt your drive if FileVault 2 gets in the way of fixing a file system issue. Of course decryption won't do anything for physical drive problems, so always back up first and make sure you don't overwrite backups from before the disk trouble started.






The Tomorrow Weblog
====================================
**** HP Publishes webOS Enyo Framework Under Open Source Apache License ****
<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/hp-publishes-webos-enyo-framework-under-open-source-apache-license.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Ryan Paul, Ars Technica


> HP has published the code of Enyo, the underlying JavaScript framework of the webOS platform. It is available from a public repository on GitHub and is distributed as open source software under the permissive Apache license. The release of Enyo is the first step in HP's plan to completely open the webOS mobile platform.






MyAppleMenu Reader
====================================
**** The Mystery Of Poetry Editing: From TS Eliot To John Burnside ****
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9025194/The-mystery-of-poetry-editing-from-TS-Eliot-to-John-Burnside.html>
Sameer Rahim, The Telegraph


> Often seen as the most personal and mysterious of literary forms – and therefore least likely to be guided by an outside hand – poetry is, in fact, strikingly indebted to invisible creators. What, we might ask, are the effects and risks of this little-understood practice on the nation’s verse?



**** Signing Off: The Slow Death Of The Signature In A PIN-Code World ****
<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/signing-off-the-slow-death-of-the-signature-in-a-pin-code-world/251934/>
David Wheeler, The Atlantic


> With the expansion of electronic communication, the rise of more advanced forms of authentication, and the ease of signature forgery, some experts believe it's only a matter of time before the handwritten signature starts to vanish.

> In other words, the PIN is starting to look mightier than the pen.



**** The Long Goodbye ****
<http://www.atlantamagazine.com/features/Story.aspx?ID=1629702>
Doug Monroe, Atlanta Magazine


> Daddy used to laugh at Trisha and me whenever we suggested discussing assisted living and long-term care insurance with him. He insisted—with the unshakable confidence of a career civil engineer—that he didn’t need to make such plans, that he would simply drop dead one day and that would be the end of it. He refused to discuss it further.

> It didn’t work out according to that plan, and there was no other plan.






SingaporeSurf
====================================
**** PAP Supporters Are The ‘Silent Majority’? ****
<http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/01/pap-supporters-are-the-silent-majority/>
Ghui, The Online Citizen


> By painstakingly ensuring structure and order at all costs, the PAP has managed to suppress dissent. But in so doing, there was a price to pay. In return for a well-behaved society, the PAP also eroded any form of outspoken, all guns blazing support.



**** Parliament To Sit On Feb 14 ****
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1179152/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia


> Parliament will sit on February 14 at 1.30 pm, ahead of Budget Day which falls on February 17.



**** Premature To Assume Former SCDF, CNB Chiefs Liable For Criminal Proceedings: CPIB ****
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1179134/1/.html>
S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia


> Singapore's anti-corruption agency has stressed that as investigations are still on-going, it is premature to assume that former commissioner of the Singapore Civil Defence Force Peter Lim Sin Pang and former director of the Central Narcotics Bureau Ng Boon Gay, would be ultimately liable for any criminal proceedings.



**** 跨年旅行之新加坡印象 ****
<http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_501a77320100wh3w.html>
妞妞的写意生活


> 耳闻新加坡是一个法律严明的国度，到处都能看到No drinking,No eating，No Smoking的贴士，但我们并没有在街头看到警察等所谓的监督或执法人员，这更加是一个公民高度自觉的社会，它已经让国家法规与社会秩序内化成人们的生活习惯。身处这样的环境，你就自然不会吃东西吐痰、插队抢行，你不好意思啊，你也不敢呀。



**** Chinese New Year Holidays Are Over But Prices Remain High ****
<http://www.todayonline.com/Hotnews/EDC120126-0000039/Chinese-New-Year-holidays-are-over-but-prices-remain-high>
Sumita Sreedharan, Today


> The Chinese New Year holidays might be over, but some food stalls are still trying to cash in on the festive mood by keeping prices higher than usual. Their justification? Suppliers had increased their prices too.



**** At Singapore Airport, iPad-toting Team Eases Fliers' Frustrations ****
<http://travel.usatoday.com/experts/baskas/story/2012-01-25/At-Singapore-Airport-iPad-toting-team-eases-fliers-frustrations/52778060/1>
Harriet Baskas, USA Today


> Apropos of an airport with a butterfly garden, a rooftop pool, a three-story indoor slide and 500 complimentary Internet kiosks among its award-winning amenities, Singapore's Changi Airport is determined to best other airports in the customer-service department. Last March, the airport introduced a 90-member team of salaried, iPad-toting Changi Experience Agents (CEAs) tasked with roaming the four terminals assisting travelers with way-finding, check-in, transfers, lost luggage and other travel-related issues. In some cases the CEAs seem to all but read travelers' minds in anticipating their needs.



**** Residents' Concerns Are Acted Upon ****
<http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120126-0000018/Residents-concerns-are-acted-upon>
Michael Palmer, MP, Punggol East, Today


> While it is true that the Speaker does not participate in parliamentary debates, this does not prevent a Speaker from carrying out his constituency duties like other Members of Parliament. Previous Speakers have also represented Single Member Constituencies.

> Based on feedback gathered from my residents, I provide my views on national issues and policies directly to the various ministries, too. I assure residents of Punggol East that I will continue to do my best to look after their interests.



**** 'CPIB Probe Pivotal In Demonstrating Trustworthiness Of Gov’t’ ****
<http://sg.news.yahoo.com/‘cnb-scdf-probe-pivotal-in-demonstrating-trustworthiness-of-gov’t’.html>
Jeanette Tan, Yahoo!


> Media observers were surprised at the way in which this case was revealed, however — through a breaking news story, instead of an announcement by the government soon after the arrests were made (one in mid-December, and the other in early January).

> Media consultant P. N. Balji said that he found it “disturbing” that the official news of Lim and Ng’s investigations and suspensions from their posts came only after a Chinese daily reported the story, noting further that the two were put on leave at the start of the CPIB’s investigations, almost three weeks before an official announcement was made by the MHA.

I have to admit I'm feeling conflicted here. On the one hand, because these are public officials and this is the civil service, I want things to be as transparent and as honest as possible. On the other hand, we also need to be mindful of the fact that these two men have not been proven guilty.






More information about the applesurf-list mailing list