A couple of interesting bits of information following this week's main item [but see below. . . ], which is the final part I have on iWork, this time mainly on Numbers.

iWork Updated (3) Numbers

A lot of what Daniel Eran Dilgar calls, "frothy mouthed pundits" have been commenting on the iPhone patents and how this applies to the new Palm Pre. As ever he does a long analysis of the situation filling in a lot of the gaps that these commentators fail to examine before rushing to their web blogs or into print. He explains fairly clearly, although at length, about what Apple can and cannot patent, why Apple and other companies have to use patents to protect their ideas and just what it is exactly is in question with the iPhone and the Palm product.

Those taking the podcast will know I like cool apps that run either on the iPod touch or on the computer, but it gets even better when there is a way to work with both. I do have an app called Air Sharing that allows me to send files using WiFi from the computer to the touch and vice versa; and there is also that neat little Keynote Remote that I bought to go with the latest version of iWork, to mention two.

On the Mac there is a really useful widget called iStat nano and I use this to monitor temperatures, fan speeds and other system information. For a free widget this has a wide range of features and I am constantly glad I found it. Now Bjango who make the thing have an app for the iPhone and iPod touch with the 2.0 firmware that, in its basic form will monitor what goes on with the touch or iPhone. A surprising amount of activity actually. I downloaded this on Saturday, not just because it monitors my iPod touch, but there is a way to get it to monitor the computer as well, which makes this $2.99 app, which when I got it was up for grabs at $1.99 an amazing little multi-use utility.

The extra features come from a free download of Bjango's iStat Server which installs and runs pretty easily but does need permission to download one more piece of monitoring software. Once done, the application on the computer allocates a port via which it will transmit data and display a pass-code which is entered in the iPhone or touch when we want to start the ball rolling. There was a definite, Wow, when this started.

I checked some of its monitoring by moving the mouse about, deleting a file and emptying trash: the data display was refreshed instantly as if it were attached. Actually, I suppose it was in a way.

This connects via the router and so I was a bit apprehensive when I took it into work on Monday. The network there is a bit slow at times and this was reflected in the slowness of the software recognising the computer, although once it did data was transmitted OK, albeit with a slight delay. My home network was fine but the office wifi rarely is.

Apple continued its extended rollout of services in MobileMe by adding the ability to share large files using iDisk. There is a reasonably long note on this from Cupertino online. This looks as it it might be tying in, in some way, with iWork DOT Com.

There were a couple of updates last week, of course, after I had uploaded the podcast. The first was Security Update 2009-001, a 44MB download that covers a series of security fixes. Also available was Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 3 which delivers improvements to security and compatibility of Java. I downloaded these. They require a computer restart. The first one, particularly did some things to Safari and it certainly seemed to improve RSS handling.

We heard reports over the last few months about the holdout of China Mobile with the handling of the iPhone, but it looks as if Apple has had enough and are looking now to China Unicom, who may be more compliant. There are a couple of other advantages to this for Apple as well as they would not need to provide special iPhones for the market and he App Store control factors in as well.

Locally, AIS has stamped its feet a bit after the apparent success of the iPhone with True and not long ago insisted that it will not be handling the iPhone at all. Coming now, when the devices are beginning to move out of the door -- you should see the interest in the True store in Siam Paragon, for example - that sounds like sour grapes. Also, in the Bangkok Post, Business News on Monday of this week was an item that tells us that DTAC, similarly, are declining to handle the iPhone, citing Apple's demands. Well done True for outmanoeuvring them both.

The parent company of AIS now is Temasek which itself is facing severe losses after a series of poor investment decisions and as fallout from the US banking problems.

Some sources also put the acquisition of AIS as one of those less than perfect decisions as the first few months saw a paper loss of 41%.

There was some discussion during the week concerning the iPhone and the idea that iPhone jail-breaking could be in contravention of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Theoretically, that could get someone a jail sentence and the Electronic Frontier foundation wants an exemption under fair-use rules.

Apple have apparently come out in support of the argument that jail-breaking is a violation of the rules, MacNN tells us. I suspect this one is going to take a while to play out, but remember, until Apple produced the iPhone everyone was content that handsets were tied to service providers in the US, but suddenly (actually it was within days) some legislators started making noises: what was convenient before instantly became inconvenient which some lawmakers might remember when they rush to control something.

In another perhaps laughable use of rules, the Author's Guild, again in the US, is claiming that software reading text out loud impinges on authors' rights -- specifically they mention the latest Amazon Kindle. I have pushed the useful iSpeakIt a couple of times and Apple's OS X has this ability built-in for any text used on a Mac, so the whole thing is a bit of a waste, particularly when the Guild claims that "even to read out loud is a production akin to an illegal copy, or a public performance."

If true, then a lot of mothers with kids on their knees will be in trouble.

I didn't get an invite to the opening of the new improved iStudio in Central World last week, but I do keep my eyes open and saw a that new, larger iStudio in Siam Discovery is getting closer to completion. And there is a change apparently.

The current store is run by a company called Z29, but the new store frontage which is in place while the builders and shopfitters do their stuff, clearly has Copperwired as the franchise holder and in two places: and they were the original operators of the Siam Discovery store.

Now whether this is because they have borrowed the covering from the place just finished, which was Copperwired too, or of there is to be a real change of operator, I cannot yet say. The new location, by the way, is on the same floor as the current store, but nearer the second escalator and is where there used to be a hi-so store that sold furniture and fittings that no one ever bought.

As an additional factor in this, I read in last week's Post Database that VNET, run by Narong Intanate -- who also has a hand in Value Systems, the distributor -- has a 10% stake in Copperwired now. This feels like some early stages in consolidation.

People, especially my mother, ask me sometimes why I don't go back to the UK. I came here at a time of many changes and I do not really like what I see; or perhaps, more especially what is seen. A part of my distaste is the prevalence of TV cameras. In a way, these have been found to be really useful as a form of protection, but at great cost. As the US is beginning to wake up to the words of Benjamin Franklin: They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Imagine then how this struck me: that the Metropolitan Police -- the guys who cover London, and were not really liked by provincial policemen when I was in the force -- have been trying to force pub landlords to install CCTVs inside their pubs. Fortunately the the Office of the Information Commissioner (and it is revealing that such a post is needed) has flexed its muscles and suggested that this is not the way to go.

I have mentioned it before, but a few years ago on my Palm, I used a neat application called Documents to Go and apparently this is in the beta stage for the iPhone and iPod touch. There is more information in a piece on MacNN. They have a link to the Babelfish translation, but this is just a bit easier. If you do want a look at the app when it arrives, there is a notification link as well. I thought I had done this, but I checked it again to make sure: this will be a must have.

The idea of being able to edit and synchronise documents and spreadsheets on a handheld device makes the device really useful.

As many people will realise I do not have a lot of support for Windows users. Sympathy, Yes. Actually I don't hold out a lot of hope for them either partly because of the way that they are convinced it is the only way to go, despite a lot of proof to the contrary. Part of that proof, if you will, lies in the number of viruses and other attacks that come their way. I was in a presentation session last week with students and when one group put a USB drive in a computer and the virus software alarmed, there was much derision, but no surprise.

My Sunday morning was livened up by a Rixstep article on the latest in a long line of attacks, this time a worm called Conflicker, which as Rixstep tells us is really a naughty word if we translate from the original German.

I am always surprised by the way that some people who ought to know better tell me that the reason Windows is the most common system is because it is the most common system. Everyone has it, they say, so everyone (and their friends) follow suit.

What was amusing -- to me at any rate -- was the stance that was taken in the Rixstep article suggesting that Windows users get what they ask for and what they deserve: they just roll over and take it. Stupid, lame and sheep are some of the tame words used in the article which is not for anyone who is sensitive.

To redress the balance, IBM are reporting that OS X is the MOST vulnerable operating system with the number of patched vulnerabilities compared to the number of disclosed ones. IBM claims that AIX, its own Unix flavour has patched 96% of the reported problems. When you look a little deeper, it would seem that Apple has not issued patches for some (that was at the time the report was written, so this week's updates are not included), but there is no indication as to the seriousness of those problems. At the end, of the article in MacNN, IE and Active X are shown to be the real problems. And there was no mention of viruses in the report.

I must say I was a bit surprised to find that there was no eXtensions article in the Bangkok Post this week. We discovered that emails, both ways have not been getting through, so a change is being made.

Too Good To Miss?

When I first read this, in Apple Insider, I began to wonder what on earth would be in these shops apart from boxes and boxes of software. Apple at least has its own range of computers. And iPods. And Apple TV and Airport Extreme and Time Capsule and Cinema Displays. Apple also has a lot of software: operating system, consumer software and the professional offerings as well. Plus the accessories.

Microsoft makes some nice keyboards' and the mouse ranges too. And the Zune. They could have lots of anti-virus software that isn't in the Apple stores.

The guy who they are getting in is David Porter who used to be a big man at Wal-Mart and analysts suggest this is a bad time to be opening new stores. Mind you, they did when Apple opened its stores. And they dissed the mouse when it first appeared on the Mac some 25 years ago.

Actually the man who dissed the mouse was John Dvorak and he is also dissing the Microsoft shops; and the Apple shops too for that matter: not sure of they are going to last, he writes. rather than the article, I shall keep the link to Mac Daily News who make some suitable comments and mention the mouse prediction again.

Just over 100 years ago, some divers off the coast of Greece found a shipwreck. The bits they brought up were taken to Athens and put in a museum but several years later one of the bits split into three and revealed a system of wheels and gears that are far in advance of what it was thought ancient Greeks could make.

Fast forward to now and with modern technology we now have a number of techniques that can cut through the corrosion non-destructively. HP has a camera system that takes images with differing light sources; and we have some powerful x-ray technology. What this device, known as the Antikythera mechanism appears to be is a machine for calculating events: mainly astronomical but some social ones as well.

The website of Nature has a streaming video that runs for some ten minutes and fills in the details as well as showing a computer reconstruction, thus bringing in more technology and merging it with human skills. Want to educate yourself? take a few minutes.

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