It's a heavy news week this week. In the last couple of weeks, the Macs have been updated a bit, there have been a number of software updates, and a completely new iPod shuffle, while this week there is an event about the next version of software for the iPhone. Any other companies doing as much?

GarageBand (1) Creating Music Files on a home computer.

As often happens, within a couple of hours of me uploading the podcast last Wednesday, Apple released a new iPod shuffle. I did change the text on the page that goes with the podcast, but was too late for the podcast sound file. No matter, the shuffle is on its way here I was told and it has some interesting new features.

The outside has no controls: the click-wheel that was an Apple feature, is no more. Controls are moved to the headphone cable and the number of clicks decides the action. As on the iPod nano released last year, there is now some voice interaction and announcements are made to indicate tracks and playlists among other things. There is a lot on this on the Apple pages and you should note the new icons for playing content, this may be what we will see in Snow Leopard with Quick Time.

There is also a selection of 14 languages including English. The new iPod is a bit more expensive than the 1G ones it replaces which were $49 but the $79 shuffle also has 4G capacity. The older version, is still available in the Apple store at 2290 baht, while the new ones are 3290 baht. 1,000 baht more for 4 times the capacity: I could work that into a title for the review I will be writing. There also seems to be a different voice for those with Leopard and those with Tiger or Windows according to the information I read.

At its release there were understandably only headphones from Apple which I am sure will cause some hand-wringing in the Apple is always guilty columns; but by Thursday morning, there was at least one alternative, from Etymotic, announced, which "will support the new integrated control functions of Apple’s third-generation iPod shuffle." If they were announced the next day, I guess they had already got the go-ahead from Apple.

Not everyone likes the voice feature, but maybe they are really missing that click-wheel. We have to learn new tricks and we have all done that before, so it may not be a big deal. What it is a big deal for is people who are blind. Try working a click wheel with your eyes closed; so the new click interface plus voice over, which we have already experienced on the iPod nano and of course is available on Macs, may have some more significance.

David Conroy who did not like the interface is sort of having second thoughts and suggests that perhaps the big thing about the release is not the iPod but what it implies for future interactivity. Actually, that is my word, but he is working in the same direction; and we have covered this with Universal Preferences which may be read via my downloadable A- Z of System Preferences in PDF format.

iFixit has details of a disassembly.

As we have seen time and time again, Apple does what my police driving instructor told us was essential and overlaps its planning. With the driving, you don't deal with the old lady in the car in front of you, but you consider the old lady plus the approaching intersections along with the kids on the bus that is pulling away, and so on: it is an evolving series of situations.

With Apple too, and this is what I find attractive, it is not simply a computer, and the operating system, but we consider the way the hardware and software interact, say with Core Graphics, and the way iPhoto and Aperture work, plus the integration with other parts of iLife and then there is some of that 3rd party software that also works with this too and next year something else will be available that we are already thinking about. And so on.

After the new iPod was released, we had a new iTunes. Now at version 8.1 it has updated the Party Shuffle feature and this has been refined into iTunes DJ. There was also an update to the Apple Remote for the iPhone, which I did not have so missed. TUAW tell us "it is now possible to set up iTunes so that anybody with an iPhone or touch connected to the same network can actually request songs from your library into the DJ list." Something that Mat Lu calls a brilliant piece of integration. Didn't I say that earlier?

Needless to say, I downloaded that Remote app and cannot figure out why I never had before. Integration again. Another feature that is now available for all iPods and not just the shuffle as before, is Autofill. Dan Frakes at MacWorld has a look a this and how to find it in the new iTunes.

As a note on that problem with iPhone developer contracts we mentioned last week, Apple has extended the licensing period until 11 July. Apple are covering the delays and making many people happier all in one go.

There was a first this week when Drew McCormack over at MacResearch let us know about a book he had released on Scientific Scripting with Python was published only via the App store. Costs to him are minimal and he gets more of the $4.99 fee this way than if he were to go the traditional publishing route. Admittedly the audience is limited, but you can't go down to the Xerox machine with this, so there is less pirating. He is lining up a tutorial on Cocoa for Scientists on how to develop a book reader for the iPhone as well as other related information. I have bookmarked the RSS feed for this.

It is clear that Apple has a cash cow in the App store, both for Apple and the developers and they may be set to leverage this into other platforms as well, such as Apple TV or (if one believes all those rumours) a tablet computer or even a games console, which I do not believe at all. However CNET's Matt Hickey has some details of a patent that could be relevant for controlling the interface by a wireless controller. The device and the interface look similar to the current infrared remote and Front Row that we have on Macs already. Who knows what Apple has up its sleeve for the next few years?

Also from last week, and the week before, was news of the 10.5.7 update which seemed to fade and now is getting closer. Alex Brooks in World of Apple reports on the latest build that is in developers' hands and outlines a number of areas where there are to be changes or improvements. Or both. Latest release suggestion is the end of March.

We had a heads up for the new iPhone in Malaysia last week to be carried, as expected, by Maxis, from 20 March. The iPhone will also be available in Indonesia on 23 March with a launch event planned for the 21st. If Thai users are worried about the price here, although different circumstances apply concerning call costs and data, the packages appear at first look to be considerably more expensive than the fees charged by True.

I took a screenshot from the MacDailyNews item and that is on the podcast text page. The Ringgit is at 9.76 baht, let's call that 10 for easy calculation, the basic plan gives us the 8G iPhone for about 15,000 baht and the 16G for 19,000. With that there is also a monthly fee of 1,000 baht for which the user is allowed 333 minutes of "voice credit," and 500MB data.

More voice and less data seems to be the pattern throughout, but the fees for the top of the range packets are really high at almost 4,000 baht per month and with the top three packages the user still has to pay for the phone except for that top package for which the 8G one is free. That also allows 2,500 minutes of voice credit -- almost 42 hours -- but only 3G data. The top packages in Thailand give unlimited data probably because True understand that if people use their services they are going to make money.

As yet pricing details for Indonesia are sketchy. An older article in Asia's Mobile News suggests a plan with a 12-month payment period. Like Thailand part of the problem of introducing something like this is because 90% of subscribers use prepaid systems.

Just to get us warmed up, during the week, Apple posted a firmware update for the mini displayport to VGA adapter. Then we had the Event.

Overnight I picked up several news reports on the Apple event at Cupertino that was to announce the third version of the iPhone firmware and, as part of that, the beta of the iPhone 3.0 SDK. Lots of changes coming, some of which are evolution and some welcome fixes or changes. Several sources carries the event, some with live feeds, and I will put a couple of links on the page that goes with the podcast.

There are apparently over 100 new APIs, and an API is an Application Programming Interface. And a quick look at Wikipedia (a source I tell my students not to use in academic papers) tells us that an API is "a set of routines, data structures , object classes and/or protocols provided by libraries and/or operating systems." Programmers stuff to make it all work properly. The Apple press release is one of the best sources as the details are all there and there is also a QuickTime video of the presentation.

Some of the things us users will get is background processing, rather than the current one app at a time. There will also be cut and paste between apps., and a full implementation of the push technology that was supposed to be available earlier. Tom Krazit has some of the information at CNET.

It will also be possible to imbed maps into an app, although the effectiveness of this will depend on how good a connection there is, particularly with the iPod touch. Talking of which, the 3.0 update will be free for iPhone users but will cost us touch owners $9.95, which is about 350 baht. There will also be better access to the music library on the device as well as better integration with external hardware. There are still no plans for Flash implementation, but there is to be much more use of Bluetooth when connecting to devices. One of the more interesting possibilities concerns subscription services for apps, like access to software services and there was a demo of a magazine app. Someone wondered whether newspapers, currently in a bit of trouble, could benefit from this.

One more point, despite an announcement that there will be support for more languages and improved alternate keyboards, I can find little on this, particularly with reference to Thai. When I looked at the Apple Developer pages, the languages panel lists fewer languages and keyboards than are available now, so that was less than helpful. Other sources I have tried are equally blank.

We have complained about the BBC and its supposed IT program, which I call, "Cluck" a few times in the past. From memory the last effort that I noticed was when Steve Wozniak was interviewed and they tried really hard to get him to condemn Apple over Steve Jobs' health issues. Now, apparently in the interests of something or other the program has created its own Botnet and ended up sending Spam to some 22,000 users. As Rixstep points out in a justifiable diatribe against Cluck and its wimpy presenter Spencer Kelly, these were Windows users.

Rixstep, as others have done, condemn the event and question its legality, apart from the ethics involved. Glyn Moody in MacWorld also had something on this which he describes as "something of a brouhaha". I would call it shoddiness, and it is about time that Cluck was replaced with something less patronising.

With Jon Stewart doing a lot of damage to Jim Cramer and Mad Money last week on the TV, including Apple stock manipulation, here is another case of so called experts perhaps pandering to a minority using dubious methods and information. As a note, there were a lot of sources following the Stewart exposure of Cramer last week, and this picked up momentum over the weekend, but I am using the Roughly Drafted one by Prince McLean as that brings together some of the history and the way Apple was involved: quite disgraceful really.

The video of the confrontation is well worth watching.

How do you explain to people who ask you about a Mac that, It just works. David Alison, who has a blog, was faced with friends who used to tell him that and when he finally had enough of his Windows experience, he made the switch himself. Now a year later, he details some of the changes he has gone through and tells us why, "It just works" is perhaps the best answer.

And not only him. Apparently some 74% of companies in the US plan to expand their Mac use. They cite productivity gains and employee preference.

A couple of sources last week were also talking about the TCO, or Total Cost of Ownership, which is less with a Mac.

While in India, Microsoft has been dumped by the Office of the PM -- and India is a huge market. Outlook managed to lose the emails of the Prime Minister following another virus attack. The PM is using Squirrel Mail which is what I use on my website when I access mail that way. Mind you, it took the technical people some 3 months to realise something was wrong.

Not a surprise really as so many continue to use Windows despite much evidence that suggests it is not safe or effective. Lots of people use it because lots of people use it.

I had dinner with a university friend who lives and works in Bangkok. His wife had a baby three months back and my friend is a new man. I took some photos during the visit and had a couple printed -- one in a poster using Posterino. This makes god use of images in a number of formats, including posters and I use it often. Of course, as often happens to me, in the middle of using the program, an update popped up, but I left it for the time being. Posterino is now at version 1.5.

Annoyingly, I put the camera down while we ate and left it there. I had to rush back the next day to collect it. I am lost without a camera.

On that Posterino update, I saw that as part of the specs, the postcard service was to e discontinued. You can create a postcard in the application and send it to the company who send it out as a real postcard via Swiss Post. A nice way to send your own images to others. But apparently Swiss Post is stopping this service for small businesses. The Posterino FAQ tells you how it is still possible to do this, however, directly via Swiss Post. I later had an email circulation from Posterino in which Cristoph writes, "The real postcard service never has been a big selling point for Posterino but I must admit that I really love this feature and I'm quite unhappy to let it go." A nice touch, I thought.

In the US this month is a major Music, Film and Interactive festival and conference called South by South West. As well as a host of groups there are thousands of people in the music and related business attending and it has become a better showcase than some of the more traditional exhibition formats.

As such it was a disappointment to hear that AT & T was having trouble with its networking to such an extent that people with iPhones at the event, who do all manner of related exercises on top of telephone calls and text messages, like Twittering -- which I am trying to avoid -- had major problems with phone calls. AT & T were later forced to upgrade the network.

One of the features that I keep reading about is Twittering which has apparently come into its own at SxSW. I first heard about this a year or so ago when CC Chapman of Accident Hash mentioned his use. Stephen Fry also Twitters and has much on this on his blog; a trial was affected in the US last week when a jury member was Twittering about the case; and I see this week that John McCain gave a Twitter interview. As some of the devices and apps I have take advantage of this, I am going to break down real soon now.

SxSW is a conference with much going for it. I mentioned the groups and know that several from Britain will be performing. An oddity I found at the weekend, was a performance by Arc Attack who are local to Texas and who have singing Tesla coils. A YouTube video of this is on the CNET article by Daniel Terdiman who reports on this and on the previous item.

TUAW also had a report on a panel on iPhone gaming. These guys come up with figures that Apple declines to provide and suggest that there are some 20 million or more devices out there. And those numbers translate into far more browsing on the platform which in turn produces income for lots of people as it translates into apps.

At the time of that iPhone 3.0 event, Apple later released a figure of 17 million devices sold. With the touch, there are 30 million devices running that OS, and hence 30 million potential buyers for Apps.

One of the featured presentations at last year's Developer Conference that showed us the first apps was from Pangea Software who had ported some of their products to the iPhone and the touch. Brian Greenstone was at South by South West and Chris Ullrich of TUAW interviewed him about the software and his revelation that Pangea is now developing only for the apps platform: "its all iPhone and its all good" he says.

Too Good to Miss?

However a few sources are suggesting a Kindle-like device may be coming. Tom Krazit brings together several reports including from Andy Ihnatko who picked up some stories that Apple was having scores of books delivered.

I ask why would Apple scan the books, unless they are old ones; and then they are probably online as part of the Gutenberg Project? If Apple were doing this, they would do it legally, which means with cooperation of publishers and, as such, they would have access to digitised versions of the texts. I am not completely dumping this rumour, but this version seems to have some holes in it.

As I work in a university, it is a hard job sometimes to make students stick at it: the argument is that the degree is a way to future prosperity. Or not. The Insider reminds us this week that Steve Jobs dropped out of college and gives a run down of some of his life, ending with the mention that other college dropouts include Bill Gates and Larry Ellison: three of the most influential (and wealthy) men in computers. I guess that these men had something special that college was actually restricting.

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