A few hours after this podcast goes out, Apple releases its quarterly figures. A little more on that later; and we are still waiting for the 10.5.7 update to OS X. That has been a long time in coming. And in all this heat, I have a cold. This week, the lovely new iPod shuffle.
iPod shuffle 3 : Another Sound way to Handle Music
That iPod really is delightful; but then I am biased and I love them all.
I had one of those depressing emails last week: a user in Ubon was asking for help. A MacBookPro had been stolen. I will be using this as intro to next week's article, but will put some of the outlines here as I think it is useful. Most of my suggestions were for future actions, like backing up data, strong passwords, and I also feel that users should have an account extra to the Admin user; plus another account for the occasional test.
I am often disturbed by the resistance that some users have to passwords as they complain of the inconvenience. Believe me: a stolen computer is several times more inconvenient than entering a password a few times a day. Been there, suffered that.
The other thing I do not understand is the way so many bewail lost data; and yet, there are scores of remedies for this with hard disks, online data storage services, CDs and DVDs that can be burned; and some even have spare computers. It is not a question of if but when. This is where I find Time machine (one of my backup methods) so useful as I can go back and retrieve stuff that I might have deleted in error -- or not thinking I would want it any more -- and I am happy again. Don't backup tomorrow, do it today: now. You can come back to the podcast.
Back now? OK, while I was looking for solutions for the guy in Esaan, I looked at Orbicule's site. They do the helpful Undercover, that I have on my computers and now they have one for the iPhone. It also works for the touch but both require location services. On the iPhone this is OK outside, but inside,say Siam Paragon, the signal does not reach, so then Apple's devices use the Skyhook locator service. Only, none of the 15,000 wifi antennas that True has in Bangkok (or is that 1500 -- the site is not clear), is entered on that Skyhook database. Not one.
I have written to True but am not holding my breath; and I have also written to Skyhook who immediately sent a notice that my query is in the queue. I don't even know if True got mine although I used their web-based contact method.
I bought the new Undercover and put it on the touch, and when I tested this in the Siam area, it sure recognises the IP numbers, but is unable to find a geographical location. At home, which it recognises as a safe place, it lets me log in, and shows the location on a Google map when I check. At my office which also is on the Skyhook database, it pretends to load up a game, then stops, so the thief sits there waiting, and all the time recording data. When I logged in to the site on my computer later that day, it showed that the iPod touch was used at Salaya and gave the IP numbers. It did not send the information then as the network would not allow it, so this works best with an open wifi and there aren't that many about in Bangkok.
We claim security is high on Macs, but it does need some co-operation from users as I have explained earlier, although many people love to use the security through obscurity argument, forgetting that hackers are more vain than the rest of us and breaking Macs would have a cachet.
There has been a report of a Botnet that affects the Mac, but before you run around crying that the sky is falling, let us have a sober look. Indeed, we mentioned that a few months ago there were some pirate copies of iLife doing the rounds (although I thought it was iWork); and like them, some Photoshop downloads were also affected. This was similar to the "free" Office 2004 that some downloaded via Limewire a couple of years ago: you get what you pay for, remember?
And you also have to actively install any software that you download -- you know, passwords and all. Having downloaded their free goods, and installed them these users have installed an iServices botnet apparently. MacNN has some details. I just checked and the two folders they refer to do not exist on my machine. But then, all my software has come from respectable sources.
Like the above, MacDailyNews illustrates some of the best reasons I can think of for not using, shall we call it, shared software in the release of information about that Botnet. Once again, like the free version of Microsoft Office 2004 and other similar free offers, the malware was to be found in illicit copies of iWork earlier this year and Adobe Photoshop CS4. The originals of all of these (although I would warn against MS Office as a matter of principle) are not affected: you sure get what you don't pay for.
Following on from my comments last week concerning the way some performers are beginning to get to grips with the new technologies and are going to leave the record companies behind, one of those I mentioned, Nine Inch Nails, who have already begun to take the revolution to the consumers with their free downloads, have now come up with a free iPhone app. I does work on the iPod touch although there are some limits with what I have been able to do.
This is a deft way to market themselves and it gives access to some of the features of their sharp website that has newsfeeds, videos and photographs among other ways to reach the fans. Unlike many of True's phone apps that only run on the iPhone or the generation 2 touch (I really don't understand that) this works on mine. This app links to the media, the member messaging, tries to locate users within 50 miles and provides access to user forums. I am fast becoming a fan if only for their technical prowess.
I loved the headline the Apple Blog gave to this next item, which I saw via MacDaily News: "Nintendo and Sony freaking out over Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch platform". I bet a few people elsewhere are too, particularly here with some having kept up a policy in print of continually belittling the device and what Apple does with it.
Darrell Etherington comments on an interview EA Games founder, Trip Hawkins had with Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat. Trip is now an executive of Digital Chocolate (which sounds good to me) and the company is putting all of its efforts into the iPhone platform because of the return; which others will also take note of and move away from those other platforms, which is why they may be freaking out.
We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that IBM had backed away from its deal with Sun, and then there were some who suggested that Apple might join the party, but now Oracle has jumped in and acquired Sun for $7.4b. As well as CNET, The Register also comments on the sale. While on Wednesday morning, Sun announced that it was releasing MySQL Cluster, version 7.
According to Ina Fried, IBM was somewhat taken aback by the deal and Ballmer over at Redmond was so surprised that he had nothing to say. That won't last long.
On the other hand, this week, Apple reports its quarterly results and this is the first quarter after the recession has begun to bite. We already know that some figures may be down: for example computer sales everywhere dropped in February. However, with the share price still rising -- it was $123 earlier this week, though now back to $122 -- not many people are expecting a disaster: business as usual we hope. Some analysts are expecting Apple to record $7.9 billion in revenue. Tom Krazit has a look at the expectations and shows how some of the sales numbers are higher than usual. I will be reporting on this next week, with something probably on the RSS feed on Thursday morning.
We also note that for the first time in years, Apple appears on the Fortune 100 list of the largest companies, climbing 32 places to 71st. It may not be that Apple is getting much larger but that some other companies are falling.
That small Apple computer rumour appears again this week in a report that Foxconn, who do make a lot of bits and pieces for Apple already are expected to get the contract for a "netbook" from Apple. File this under, "Who Knows?" The Inquirer also looks at this and Sylvie Barak uses some of the same sources, but adds one that includes the rumour about the 10" screen.
A little hint from Apple this week about AV cables as they have sent out a memo to retailers suggesting that they get rid of the current stock as new ones are on the way; and the next generation of iPhone and iPod touch will make broad and sweeping changes to HD display capacity we are told.
I wonder what happened to that iPhone I was supposed to be having on test.
We did touch on the use of iPhone and iPods in Iraq some months ago as some of the troops found them ice-breakers and with some of the apps, they were able better to communicate with Iraqis which in some cases could mean life or death. Now we hear that the US Military has bought loads of iPhones and iPod touches to assist in this. A Newsweek article has an extensive explanation of the how and the why.
We are aware that there is a new beta of version 3 software for developers of the iPhone doing the rounds, but the Wall Street Journal is suggesting that major changes may be about to happen with the way developers can do their stuff, with Apple removing many restrictions and, in the same item, Yukari Iwatani Kane (I hope I got that right) discusses the new version of the iPhone's operating system: version 3.
That Undercover app has a drawback right now because Apple does not allow background apps to run, but that may be one of the changes. Orbicule also tell me that they are trying to integrate some of the operations with other apps, so that if these run, the necessary tracking data is recorded: that seems to me preferable as that increases the subtlety.
Quick Office who make software that works on Symbian phones and the Blackberry have announced a version for the iPhone. This handles a lot of MS Office documents and works with MobileMe. It is priced at $19.99.
In the UK, sales of the iPhone are reported to be poor. Those Brits still want their phones to be free. There were apparently some new discounts and the 8G is £35 a month while the 16G is £45 and both are over a 2 year period. This makes them slightly more expensive than in Thailand and there is no mention of taxes. The VAT in Britain is an unhealthy 17.5%. People are also holding off with the expectation of a new iPhone in June.
I will be looking at this later, but the Billionth app download is about to happen, and some suggest April 23 which is St George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday. Of course, as we mentioned before, the prizes for downloading that app are unavailable for anyone here.
Harking back to last week when we looked at Dr Smoke's book, Troubleshooting Mac OS X, which is PDF download only, I now see that O'Reilly, who have a useful range of books is providing many of their titles in PDF form too, while they are also making some titles available as downloads for the iPhone.
A rumour this week on the next version of OS X. A new build of Snow Leopard has been seeded to developers according to Apple Insider.
As we all know, there is only one version of OS X for desktop machines and notebooks, rather than the mix that MS releases for its operating systems these days. We read that the starter edition of Windows 7 only runs 3 applications at any one time. As Vivek Gite writes, "is Microsoft nuts?" We have long suspected the answer to that is in the positive, with a sprinkle of greed thrown in.
This is apparently intended for poor and developing nations: Africa and Asia are mentioned. Are they nuts? That main item in last week's Post on Reuters' Software moving its operation here a few years ago suggests MS has little idea of what Asia and Africa need. And the Reuters office is only round the corner from the Microsoft operation here.
Also rumoured for future Macs is Bluetooth 3 which has just been released and is expected to be available on next year's machines according to Dennis Sellers over at Macsimum News. As I type this up, there is a baby Asian Fairy Bluebird on my doorstep watching me. Lost? I suspect it is exhausted as it finally perked up and flew off.
I am not sure about the headline, but it is worth including this item if only for the images. Macenstein picks up a story following that tragic Turkish Airlines crash in Amsterdam. Nine people were killed, but a unibody MacBook Air, belonging to Sefer Baris, did survive, with a bent body and a cracked screen, but it still works. The picture here came from the Macenstein article where there are some more. Oh, and Sefer's iPhone was undamaged.
I made some comments on the coverage by the BBC of recent events in Bangkok as I honestly believed that considerable bias was being shown in the reports. I am clearly not the only one as a number of letters in the Bangkok Post in the last week have also expressed this view. I find this disturbing.
And does it strike anyone as odd that the Post's RSS feed for Tech has not been carrying any items from its own pages?
And where is my 10.5.7 update?
