By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

I hated the Calendar finish when it arrived and far preferred the neutral finish of the earlier version, while iBooks is a useful design and that other one I mentioned, Notes, is not overdone. Some are. There is much useful input in the article about the ideas conveyed by this form of design, which some regard as outmoded, although there are other, stronger comments. While Carr comments (helpfully),

It's important to note that not all visual metaphors are bad. Rather, it's the excessive UI adornments of these visual metaphors that many insiders I've spoken with find distasteful and inherently confusing.

My source for this useful item was MacDaily News who include some diplomatic comments from Jony Ive.

In other staff-related news about Apple, Don Clark on Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has hired Jim Mergard who was once with AMD but more recently had a position with Samsung. There was speculation recently that Apple was pushing ahead with development of its own processors after the A6 was examined and a number of new features found. I have long expected that a move away from Intel could be the eventual result of Apple's work on these processors and an analyst in the WSJ article suggests that the hiring of Mergard might be aimed at this (My original link for this was Seeking Alpha).

There is an interesting report on Seeking Alpha this week from Jason Schwarz who looks at what Ben Reitzes from Barclays is reporting after his annual meeting with Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer. He expects major movements in Apple's stock in the next couple of weeks, which would tie in with an expected product announcement and mentions an Apple TV-related device. Not an Apple TV, we note. There is speculation that this may also be the iPad mini, but from a different direction. As an iPad mini alone does not have enough excitement for some (including me) is this another fairly typical Apple moving of the goalposts: new product with unexpected features?

Earth-shifting in terms of stock would not describe a smaller form tablet computer that many have been expecting but extra icing as suggested in this article could add that must-have quality that lifts the share prices again. Schwarz reckons that a $350 price would be good but if it comes in at $299 that would hit a sweet spot and sales could be phenomenal.

One of the criticisms of the iPhone 5 camera has been that in certain light conditions, a purple haze is visible. I just tried pointing my DSLR at a light source in my room and despite the expensive lens I use, there are optical aberrations when I point it in the direction of the light source: albeit white artefacts because of the nature of the lamp. The sun has the full spectrum so the lens would split that light into colours. Sam Oliver on AppleInsider points out that Consumer Reports (who seem to be a bit careful these days after their earlier suspect reporting on Apple products) says that the "iPhone 5 is no more susceptible to lens flare than other smartphone-based cameras, including the latest devices running Google Android." They tested a number of other devices as did Matthew Panzarino on The Next Web a couple of weeks ago, just after Mashable proved that the iPhone 5 had a problem that the iPhone 4S did not: the only source who managed to find that.

You will note in the shot that is on the AppleInsider page, that although purple (or mauve) is predominant, there are also other colours streaming out from the center.

There does seem to be a problem with that beautiful looking aluminium surround of the iPhone 5 and this may be responsible for delays in production, Chris Oldroyd reports on iMore. The type of aluminium is making it easier to scratch and production quality standards have been tightened. This has led to worker problems as extra hours have been needed along with stricter controls.

Another useful item on this on Bloomberg, written by Tim Culpan, Alexandra Ho and Adam Satariano, confirms the choice of a specific type of aluminium as a source of the problems and mentioned Phil Schiller's crass comment about normal use: out of the box, is not normal use. However, there have been follow ups at the factories and this has caused a knock-on effect: shortages and unhappy staff.

It is not a complete surprise to hear the (perhaps related) news that Apple is to bring in another manufacturer for the iPhone called Foxconn International. The Tell on Market Watch explains the details. My original source for this was MacDaily News.

With iOS 6, we are told by Jim Edwards on Business Insider that there is a new tracking technology that allows better targeting of advertisements. There is a way to turn this off, but that may bring random ads that may not appeal to all users. The control is in Settings > General (not Privacy) then Advertisements and must be set to ON. ON means Ads are off. Seriously.

My link for this was MacDaily News.

The new iPod touch has had its iFixit strip down and AppleInsider reports on some of the things that were found: 512 megabytes of Hynix RAM inside its A5 processor, as well as a home button design different from the iPhone 5. Steven Sande on TUAW also has information on this and the retractable post for the color-matched carrying "loop" that Apple includes with the iPod touch. I remember seeing that on the video of the Event: nice touch.

PC Mag also thinks the iPod touch is nice and the review by Sascha Segan is positive with him calling it, "the most elegant device I've ever handled - and yes, that includes the iPhone 5."

I am not a player of Games, but apart from getting hooked on Solitaire once or twice -- I used to play with real cards too -- there are only three games that have captured my imagination: the original SimCity, which I bought on a 3.5" floppy disk on a rare trip home to the UK; Sid Meier's Civilisation which like SimCity I used in teaching; and Transport Tycoon. I kept that for myself and played for hours on my last PC until it died and I moved to Macs. I tried once or twice to get an Open Source based version of Transport Tycoon up and running, but that was limited and I have always wanted to play again.

Sometimes wishes come true, sort of, and a report by Peter Cohen on The Loop tells me that a new version of Railroad Tycoon, called Sid Meier's Railroads (there's a combination) is coming to the Mac this fall: surely that is now.

This was originally a Windows version we are told, and the system requirements are detailed on the Feral Interactive website, where pre-orders are also possible.

I see only one update for OS X this morning: an HP Printer Software update 2.12 but we can look forward real soon to an update to iTunes.

Half and Half

There has been much criticism of Apple over patents in recent months but time and again questions are raised about intentions of other companies. I am convinced that among them Samsung is deluded about what innovation actually is; and the changes in their devices hint strongly at influence from others.

Sometimes Asian students just do not get this concept of originality because from high school days copying is drilled into them as a way of producing work and the mark of a good student is not the content, but a beautiful cover. Time and time again I have to try and convince (unsuccessfully in some cases) my students, that just because they have read something in a book and remembered it, this does not mean they know the information and it does not need citing as a reference. Read, turn round three times and I know this. . . .

Maybe that was the approach of some design teams: look at the iPhone, go home, have a sleep, then come back the next morning and draw that new device that will slay the dragon.

There is also the question of FRAND patents and Samsung may have to learn what the ownership of these patents really means: not a free for all to selectively charge a licence to the one who will pay the most, but a fair and reasonable fee.

Google as owners of Motorola also seem to have selective problems with such patents and an interesting article on Patently Apple outlines the efforts by the authorities (Department of Justice, FTC and International Telecommunication Union -- quite a team) who are not convinced by Google's take on the use of essential patents. The DoJ has praised Apple (gasp) and Microsoft (gasp again) for their approach to fair licensing but are concerned about Google's "ambiguous" approach and complain that the company "do not provide the same direct confirmation of its standard-essential patent licensing policies."

There is much more in the item. The information originated in the NYTimes and has been carried by other sources, but Patently Apple highlights some of the more significant passages that suggest that Google and Samsung (as we have said a number of times before) are just not playing fair with this licensing and their "good guy" routine in public while authorities "see a much different legal stand that Google is definitely using that is anything but good for the technology sector."

We read in MacDaily News that HTC has decided to call in quits on its involvement in the tablet market in the US. MDN heads the item with "More blood on Apple iPad's touchscreen" and makes the point that the iPad does seem to be the tablet of choice, despite the claims and attempts of others.

Other Matters

In the same article it was reported that (again) the CEO got a lower bonus than last year: down 9%. Reason: flat sales and poor browser choice for European customers. Another Reuters' report by Bill Rigby covered the bonus decision on its own.

I have tended to avoid information about the Facebook IPO as that was not really relevant, but in the light of the comments on Google and Samsung and the way they deal with patent fairness, it seems an interesting comparison when I read on Seeking Alpha about the way the SEC was trying to extract key data from Facebook in the run up to the IPO and found, "a management team...still guessing at even rudimentary aspects of its business". I also read somewhere that the shares are around (or under) $20 right now. The original information came from a longer article on Bloomberg, by Linda Sandler, Brian Womack and Douglas MacMillan. It would appear that investors did not have all of the information that they should have before putting money in, but either through lack of knowledge or other reasons, the right information was never made available.

I rather like music and we are aware that some musicians influence others. you can often hear the sounds of one piece of music inside another, for example folk tunes appear in a lot of composers' works. A German computer scientist has developed a search engine for sounds called Peachnote. You can track down music using this (say by entering a few notes) but then it will search more and further if needed, Adrian Giordani reports on ISGTW. I gave Peachnote a whirl and accidentally wrote part of Schumann's 3rd Symphony.

News direct from Sony this Friday morning tells me that the company has introduced its first mobile Tabletop PC for the U.S. market, the VAIO Tap 20 PC, and its slider hybrid, the VAIO Duo 11 Ultrabook, powered (they say) by Windows 8. The press report adds that there is a T Series Ultrabook and portfolio of VAIO PCs that put touch right at the heart of the personal computing experience.

The VAIO Tap 20 is a family tabletop PC designed to take advantage of the intuitive ease of Windows 8. Featuring a 20-inch screen, this mobile desktop PC can lay flat on a coffee table for the whole family to play games on the large screen. With a removable battery, users can easily move it from room to room in the house. The Vaio Tap 20 starts at $879.99 and comes in Black or White. Duo 11 starts at $1099.99 and comes in Black.

Wasn't there criticism of Apple last week because the iPhone 5 was only in black or white?

Local Items

I just caught this on an early morning Twitter trawl: Richard Barrow is reporting a massive update to Google Street View for Bangkok.

Late News

Just in time for the iPhone 5. . . .

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.