I record this first part on Monday due to my schedule and then the rest when I can, usually Tuesday and Wednesday when I have time. The reason I mention this is that on Tuesday (which will be almost Wednesday here in Bangkok), Apple have a special event and it is expected that there will be changes to the iPod lines as well as new related software. You can find out later after this week's main item which is the second part of the articles on Sharing preferences.

Sharing Preferences (2) in OS X

We mentioned last week the new browser by Google, Chrome, which is only available for Windows users right now.

Sergey Brin found the lack of an Apple version of Google's new Chrome browser, a problem and hoped this would not be too long a-coming.

What was also a problem was that Google fell into the same trap as Adobe by putting in a clause in its regulations that, if accepted by the user, signed away all copyright. That was soon amended after much negative comment on the web.

I tried to download the Windows version to see if I could get it to start with Crossover -- even IE works in that -- but Google kept recognising I was using a Mac (something a music website failed to do some time last year) and would not show me where they had hidden the other version.

Some people are saying that this is really Microsoft's worst fear come to fruition several years after Gates himself recognised that the web was a danger. It was fairly new then and Microsoft had little presence: Mozilla was king. But not for long.

John Gapper of the Financial Times has a fine analysis of what Chrome may mean and the dangers to Microsoft because it marginalises the operating system to an extent.

My own view is that Microsoft is doing enough of a job on its own to marginalise Windows without any help from Google. Belatedly, as part of an attempt to counteract the advertising of Apple, which must be really getting under the Redmond corporate skin, MS has come up with a start for its own advertising campaign using Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in the first in what is something of an embarrassment.

We are told it will be backed by more better ads in the near future, which is good as what they have is fairly insubstantial now. After the comments I saw -- after what I saw -- that would seem to be a priority because what this showed me was that MS are not in the business of communicating.

In case anyone has not seen it, here it is in all its glory. . . .

As one wag wrote: Made on a Mac, no doubt. If this was an attempt to produce a positive impression, then it fell flat on its face.

To counterbalance that, there is a new newspaper headline one from Apple:

We mentioned in the last podcast that MS was about to come up with an App store for mobile phone apps and they already have what is supposed to be an iPod beater in the Zune. Now they are going to top those copies of Apple's success by introducing the MS Guru into retail outlets like Best Buy. Apple of course already has the Genius in its stores. According to one source, the so-called Gurus, wear clip on ties (naff), but "Mac Geniuses averaged over $36,000 annually compared to [the] Geek Squad at $23,000. . . ."

Flip4Mac, the plug in that converts WMV files to QuickTime after Microsoft stopped updating their player was updated to 2.2.1.11 on Monday. The download was 11.2MB and came down pretty fast. There were compatibility improvements and also one security update as well as a couple of other fixes.

Apple has been getting some criticism for apps which are being pulled from the App store with some dubious reasons. One which was pulled last week was an app that, when activated makes the sound of someone passing gas. There are several options. This is not quite to our taste, but pulling the app suggests there is some censorship going on. This propbably does not come right from the top, which is all the worse as someone in the middle ranks is setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner. Chuqui whom we have quoted before makes some comments here and there is something else from Ars Technica.

I also noticed a day or so later that a comic app, Murderdrome, was also pulled due to questions of taste.

Both the comic writer and the developer of the noise-making app are making pleas to Apple about this selective censorship. They might be juvenile or bloody (that knife slashing app for example) but the user should make the decision unless there are clear questions of copyright or legality.

We have looked at copyright before particularly with the way that it comes into play with downloading, something that the US-based RIAA and other organisations tell us we must not do, and so as Thailand has a bad reputation, will not let us buy: particularly affected are the iTunes store and Amazon. Those of us here can get nothing out of these. It is, at best, disheartening therefore, to find that the Republican Party in the US, a party that is strong on law and trade agreements, despite being warned, have had to have cease and desist notices isued because they keep playing song at their conferences and speeches that neither the recording companies have agreed to; nor more particularly the artists -- who are upset that their work is being linked to these guys -- want.

Mind you, when it comes to selling GOP logos and other related stuff without permission, the GOP are first out of the trap with the litigators. Not the only group, or the only country where people are selective about enforcement.

Along with all the rest of the rumours concerning the iPod and iTunes event this week is more news of the approach of the next update to Leopard, 10.5.5. Coming soon, we expect.

I use GarageBand now to record the whole of the podcast and I have seen that some performers have used this then gone on to Logic Pro; but this week the Apple site had a story on the British group Oasis who now do all of their basic demo recording using the application after so much frustration with other software. The comments along with many others, some not exactly for tender ears, are in an interview on the Music Radar site. You can download the file directly and it is 11.5MB.

I had a rare wander in the Mahboonkrong centre last weekend as I was looking for a small monopod -- that's a tripod with one leg. I found that the floor below the food area has changed somewhat. There used to be a lot of furniture stores there and I had bought a couple of items in the past, but as I went up the escalator I could see the familiar sign of an Apple outlet.

It was a new store and it was incorporated into a larger Canon outlet which itself had a good array of equipment available. It is run by a company called FotoFile and that is a new one on me. All the better. It is not listed, however, on the iStudio pages, but it does have its own site.

Looking at the iStudio site, I was surprised to see a number of events. Main item was a Pro day [sic] on 9 - 10 of October at the Intercontinental Hotel Bangkok (I hope to have something on this later now that I know about it); then there was a GarageBand contest, but the link did not download the PDF properly; and then there was a help page, mainly in Thai. Glad to see this.

MobileMe seems to be working for almost everybody now after its clouded start; but there are a couple of related problems, such as phishing. A forum poster tracked a mail that purported to come from Apple but it had originated in Karachi. Apple has information about what to do in the case of phishing and the KB article includes an email link to reportphishing@apple.com so that the legal department can get to work.

I also had email this week concerning the Google ads that some of my pages carry, but it was easy to see this was a spoof as the sender had included a reply-to address on Hotmail. When I looked at the raw source of the message, the redirect was to somewhere in Canada. Easy to spot this, but so hard to report to Google.

There was a great tip on MaxFixit this week concerning Time Machine. I use this all the time but the backups are specfic for the computers I link the disk to. This is what MacFixit tells us abolut retrieving files if the original machine is not available:

"attach the Time Machine drive to the second computer, and then hold the options key and select the Time Machine menu from the system menu. There should be the option to "Browse Other Time Machine Disks", which should bring up a list of available Time Machine backup volumes. Users can then access their backed up files from the new computer."

You can also access this feature by right-clicking the Time Machine icon in the Dock, they tell us.

The game Spore is getting some good write-ups and there is also a Spore Origins to be released for the iPhone by EA Mobile. There is a fair description on MacNN by Dennis Sellers. But when it comes to finding out information for this area of the world, forget it. Listed on the web site are North America, Brazil only in Central and South America, Europe has 13 countries; and there are no countries listed for Asia.

We are told by Dennis that it will be available globally via the Apple app store, however. I do hope so.

There are also reports this week that some people are not happy with EA's DRM that allows only three installations of the game before you have to phone and plead with the company.

There was considerable speculation before Apple's special Let's Rock event: not only on which products would feature, but also on if Steve Jobs would do the presentation and the state of his health. As it turns out he was there and he was well, but he put the blame for the health rumours on an unnamed hedge fund. Someone trying to force the price down, perhaps?

The event was fairly much as expected with new iPods and updates to iTunes and QuickTime, as well as a follow up change to Front Row. There were also a couple of other related changes and I will get to these in the next minute or so.

Biggest change was to the iPod nano which has a new shape -- long and thin -- with a slightly oval cross section. Nice new colours too and accelerometers so if you turn it on its side the screen changes like in the iPhone. There are two now: 8G and 16G priced at $149 and $199. A friend who has the current 8G nano had an immediate reaction of, "ewww," but does approve of the new Classic which has been changed to only one version at 120G, with two colours, and is apparently thinner. It has come down to $249.

There is also a new version of the iPod touch which is slightly smaller and has some built in changes, including the Nike + system. The three versions are 8G, 16G and 32G at $229, $299 and $399 respectively. The iPod shuffle was also changed but only in the colours now available.

With the new touch there is new software, which also updates the iPhone. This is version 2.1 and though Steve said it would be out on Friday, I have already found it in the downloads and installed it.

There are also some new earbuds with woofer and tweeter. No date yet but these will be $79.

I will be writing this all up for the Post soon with more details, probably concentrating on the software; and the Press Briefing for Bangkok will be at the local Apple office in Siam Tower next Thursday (18th), starting about 10:30am.

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