Apple news

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What's the Latest?

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        Rumors, facts, photos, buyer's guide, blogs and forums — all that and more about Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad at macrumors.com Kyle Smith reminds us.  From his vantage point as tech/sales at MacMedia in Peoria I'd asked him what's the latest, so I'd have something to report at PMUG on Saturday.  Apple has issued invitations for Media Event on October 23.  There's always more happening at Apple!

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Too Soon for Passbook?

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        "Here is an article commenting on how the new iOS 6 app 'Passbook' is half-baked at this point. As you read through the article one wonders if anyone at Apple even tried this app before releasing it? Not a smooth move by Apple -- somewhat similar, apparently, to the maps app they just released, which is getting a lot of flack in the blogs."
        Jim Hamm closes with,  "Apple seems to be rushing some apps to market before they've been thoroughly tested."   

Apple $ Statistics

       "Who would have imagined this about Apple just a few years ago? The annual revenue from just the iPhone is larger than all of Microsoft," exclaims Jim Hamm.   

        "Click here for another article. Apple's market cap makes it the most valued company of all time. I suspect Apple shareholders are pretty happy about this.
        "Oh, why wasn't I smarter and bought Apple stock about 10 years ago?"
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Apple's Challenges

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        "With an anticipated huge demand for the iPhone 5 (probably to be announced on Sept 12), it's possible Apple may run into component supply problems. Here's an article with more comments on this potential issue. Another interesting aspect of this is Samsung is a major supplier to Apple, while at the same time they're in a bitter dispute and lawsuit on patent infringement by Samsung on the iPhone. Is this perhaps akin to the old saying: 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? And here Jim Hamm closes with . . . (of course) . . .(grin).

Apple/Samsung Lawsuit

        If you're following the Apple/Samsung lawsuit here's a couple of interesting facts.  Jim Hamm says, Here's one analysis of what the recent outcome of the Apple/Samsung lawsuit and verdict might be for Android devices. The author suggests that Android manufacturers might be pushed into innovating instead of copying, which would be good for all consumers."
        Jim follows up with this: "Is this a telling picture or what? If you were in the jury and saw this, what would you think? Do you suppose a wee bit of copying by Samsung is going on? And this is only the 'outside' copying you're seeing -- not to mention the copying of internal processes. 

"What an ingenious way to present 'just the facts, mam'..(grin)...Got to admire the perspicacity of someone on Apple's legal team."    


Click to enlarge the jpg. 
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The Next iPhone? And Apple Ads

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        Jim Hamm starts us off with this, "Could these be pictures of the next iPhone? Only conjecture at this point. At first glance it looks very similar to my existing iPhone 4. A closer looks reveals differences: eg, the bottom has a smaller dock connector (as has been oft rumored) and speaker openings. Will be interesting to what Apple has done to the 'innards' as well."
        A look there leads to this link with other Apple info, including a 1 minute video, and an article about the Apple TV ads shown during the Olympics opening ceremony. 

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iTravel is Coming!

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       Watch for convenience and simplicity:  iTravel is coming.  Jim Hamm found this interesting article here.  The writer gives a glimpse of the future with iTravel.  He states that Apple has been granted a patent for a service that will use near-field communication (NFC) so you'll just wave your iDevice near the reader to check in or board the plane.  It seems the function will be handled by Passbook, one of the new features of iOS 6 to be released this fall.  Read the article for more details.

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Those Helpful People at the Apple Store

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        Jim Hamm makes some observations, "Working at any retail store is tough: long hours, short pay, mostly on your feet, dealing with the public —which is tough in itself. Here's an article giving a peek at what it's like to work in an Apple Store.
        "If you've been in an Apple store you've noticed all the personnel are young — one never sees any gray hair (other than from the customers). Here's a comment from the article with a reason for this,  'Generally, an Apple employee is someone who can afford to live cheaply, is not bothered by the nonstop commotion of an Apple Store and is comfortable with technology.  People who fit that bill tend to be in their early or mid-20s, the former managers said. They typically don’t have children and many don’t have spouses, which means they are relatively inexpensive to cover with health insurance.'"

        Jim concludes, "It appears Apple store employees use this experience as a springboard to other jobs with more of a future."
        Trying to (unsuccessfully) open that link posted above a new article from Los Angeles Times dated 6-23 comes up: headline "Did NY Times Report Drive Apple to be Extra Generous to Workers?"
        This just in:  Jim Hamm sends this link about employees of Apple stores and this one from NY Times.   Click where it says Read. 
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Mac Buyer's Guide

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        Do you know when to buy a Mac, iPod, or iPhone?  Here's help from Prez Art Gorski.  He leads off with, "Don't you just hate it when you buy an Apple product and then they release a new, better version right after?  The MacBuyer's Guide keeps track of Apple hardware updates and is a great guide to when you should buy a new Apple product."
         So we look here and find info with recommendations such as "Don't buy: updates soon"  — "Buy only if you need it: approaching the end of a cycle" — or "Buy now!  Product just updated."  You also notice the links to their categories of blogs and forums.  Take a look, you may want to bookmark this.

WWDC 2012

        "Would you like to attend Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, if only vicariously?" asks Jim Hamm.  Of course! we answer.  And he goes on to say,  "Here's a set of 63 pictures taken live (by PC Magazine staff) during the conference. Very interesting, and note how 'well-dressed' the execs are onstage — definitely a carryover of Job's style.

        "Facetime calls will be available via a cellular network in iOS 6, which will make the carriers happy, no doubt — having to carry all that extra video load from cell tower to cell tower...(grin)...And the upgrade to OS Mountain Lion is now only $20 - a bargain."
       Now Jim gazes back to reminisce, "The whole setting brings back fond memories of when Zee and I attended the MacWorld Expo at Moscone Center in February, 2008. Jobs introduced the MacBook Air then, and, of course, I 'had' to buy one when we returned home. Enjoy the trip."  

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Apple's Six Best Decisions

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        "Here's an interesting article and observation by Ted Landau of Apple's six best decisions — and why they make Apple the company it is today."  Jim Hamm goes on to elaborate,  "My only quibble with Ted is that the iPad should be included in the list. But he goes in detail explaining why he left this device out of his nominees. Possibly many of us — well, me, anyway — tend to think of Apple as a Mac, or computer, company. Not so much anymore. Here is a quote from the article: 'Apple’s success depended upon moving away from its focus on the Mac.' Hence, the dropping of 'computer' from the company name a while back."

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Yes, You CAN Find It

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Mac makes it easy for you to find what you’ve written and saved. Of course, it does take a little effort on your part. So you wrote about your dog, but you gave the piece a cute little title. Now, where is it? You could try Command + the space bar which opens the Spotlight at the upper right side of the menu bar. With a few key words typed in you might get some clues as where to look. You can click on an entry there and it will open, or hold the cursor there and it will identify where it is filed.

Better yet. Give yourself an assignment. Go to that list of stories or articles or poems you’ve written. Click to open one of them and see what key words would help you find it next time. Then close the piece, click on just the title in the list of documents. Do Command + i and it opens the Spotlight Comments box with the info of Kind, Size, Where, Created, Modified, Open with, Preview and Sharing & Permissions. Put in some key words in that Comments box. Close and smile; you’ve just made your life easier with Mac. Next time one of those key words might help Spotlight find your document.

You already know you can find things by date when you click View to make it sort by date. If you just wrote this piece last week or last month perhaps you can find it by date. When you have Finder open on the screen you can do Search For and choose Today, Yesterday, Past Week.

Finding That Comma!

Something sent to me for posting on the newsblog had some commas misplaced outside, instead of inside the quotation mark. I needed to check the whole document while it was still on my mind.

In Pages, the writing program I use, I opened the document and did Command + F for Find. I put a comma in the blank by the word Find. One by one, as I went Next each comma in the writing came up highlighted. I could see the ones which were properly placed, and several that needed fixing. How easy is that! Find not only finds words that you want to locate, but can help you use your punctuation correctly. Sometimes in a font the exclamation mark looks too close, so I find each of them, highlight one of them at a time and change it to italic!

 

 Finding Help For Your Grammar

Need some help with punctuation or grammar? Here are several websites, quick and easy to read. Info from Purdue University, examples, etc. Examples from Stage Door, short and to the point. Lots of links, samples, specific info from the University of Northern Iowa.

 Finding Info on the Internet

What a relief. We no longer have to correctly type in http:// and the correct and complete URL of some site. Key words can help Google or Yahoo, whoever, come up quickly with a list of suggested sites. One of them on the first page is probably the one you want!

 Finding Yourself on the Internet

Yes, the search engines know where to find you. Take a look. I’ve used Google as the example, but try also other search engines listed & described here.

Where do you live? Google Maps can show you. Enter your address. Click on the Yellow Man and drag towards the marker Google has placed. Neighborhood streets that have been filmed by the Google camera vehicle are shown now in blue. Up comes street view.  Don’t like what they show? You can contact them about your concerns. What does your old house in Phoenix look like now? Are they keeping the yard looking nice?

If you enter your name in the Google search box and place quotation marks around it you can find websites that mention you by name, or other people with YOUR name. Interesting to see how many of “you” there are in the US.

You can also put your name down under Google Images and see what comes up! In my example, up came book covers and people’s photos from websites that have quoted a poem or writing of mine.

Been mentioned on the Daily Courier lately? Look under Find It for classifications such as Archive, Photo Gallery, Sports, etc. If you want to submit a great photo this is where to go.

Finding What Apple Is Doing

Keep up with the latest on Discussions and Widgets. Anyone download the “Boredom Button”? The Apple Store has items and prices, but also links to education, business, international stores, government and military, special deals, and click to talk to an Apple Specialist.

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Selling e-Books

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        Recent news about Apple caught Jim Hamm's attention.  He passes on what he's found out, "Here is an interesting article about the recent lawsuit against Apple and five major book publishers by the Department of Justice. I guess I'm against the idea of publishers forcing retailers to sell an e-book at a certain price. A retailer should be able to set their own price — that's the way competitive capitalism is supposed to work. However, according to this article, Amazon, at one point, sold new e-books below their cost, effectively slowly killing the real book industry. Is this good or bad? Why would Amazon want to do this, anyway — maybe to sell more Kindles, do you suppose?
        "Three publishers have already settled the lawsuit, but Apple and two publishers haven't settled yet. It will be interesting to see what ultimately happens with Apple in this lawsuit."

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Inside the Factory

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Jim Hamm sends this video of a visit inside a Foxconn factory where the iPad is manufactured.  He comments, "Very interesting to see what it is like to work there. When you see the crowded dorms, keep this in mind when you see the homes where the employees came from."For some reason all the criticism about working conditions in China's factories tend to focus on Apple's suppliers. I wonder where is the criticism about all the other computer, TV, etc., manufacturers that build and import products from China?"