By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

The discovery of the apparent insecurity was made in the UK by a researcher Daniel Eran Dilger reports on AppleInsider. It does not affect all phones (or carriers) but could be addressed by Apple before iOS 6 is released which is why the person, identified as pod2G is taking it public now.

A little more on this was in an item by Allyson Kazmucha on iMore and a useful blow-by-blow explanation by Victor Agreda Jr., on TUAW, while a follow up from Katie Marsal on AppleInsider reports that Apple are suggesting users stay with iMessage to avoid this problem, which is part of the point of iMessage. An item on MacNN also had some information concerning this apparent insecurity.

I was not over surprised to see a link to another Rob Enderle "Tim Cook is Ba-a-a-a-ad" story, but the response from MacDaily News did catch me by surprise as that source is one of the most consistently pro-Apple (and anti-Enderle) online. The anti-Enderle bit is still alive, with an "off-his-meds" comment, but many of the rest of the comments play right into the hands of the Enderle's of the world. Just to take the first comment as an example,

A "new" iPhone (4S) that looks exactly like the previous iPhone and whose claim to fame is a beta feature (Siri) that Apple purchased and which even Apple's co-founder lampoons with regularity.

There is more.

I searched online for iPhone 4S and MacDaily News, finding a number of articles from MacDaily News, not one of which was critical of the device (73% faster than the iPhone 4) and in one, dated 4 October 2011, wrote, "we understand why iPhone 4S is different from iPhone 4 and that the 4S is simply the best damn smartphone ever made." I saved the page as a Web Archive and posted the quote on the MDN site.

We have been told new products are coming, including a replacement for the Mac Pro. The Retina display MacBook Pro is already with us, the iPhone 5 should be announced in a couple of weeks and there is more on the way. More patience, less hypocrisy. And much less Enderle, please.

And as a side-note, on Isiah's web log, there is a simulation of Microsoft's small table, the Surface inside the virtual display of an iPad in portrait mode. Where is all the moaning and bitching about Redmond and its loss of direction?

A rumour, reported by Katie Marsal on AppleInsider tells us that a research firm is looking forward to a $900 Apple share price partly because it believes that Cupertino has some interesting new gesture control technology licensed from new a third-party that could be used in iOS devices including a new AppleTV.

As a sign that more analysts are coming round, at least for the time being, the Lucid Investor column on Seeking Alpha has a look at the "misunderstood" aspects of Apple and its stock. Not much misunderstanding here, although I can quite see how investors are panicked by a few comments in the news mostly by those who either don't have a clue or have other short term things to think about.

The lengthy analysis here is quite accurate and searching. It deserves a good read by more than a few people who claim they know about Apple.

Of course it has not all been perfect in Apple land and one of the comments made in the MacDaily News article concerned Apple retail. After the departure of Ron Jonson to JC Penney (where things are not going that well) people were shocked by the appointment of John Browett formerly CEO of Dixons in the UK. Did no one at Apple check that one out? Kate MacKenzie at Pixobebo makes some comments on news we saw a week or so ago concerning the cutting of hours in the retail stores, cut staff and changed schedules. All rather Dixons I am afraid and it has given Apple a PR problem -- the first mis-step post-Steve Kate writes. Apple staff work for the company because they want to: bribery and then beating them round the head is not going to inspire loyalty.

I am continuing with my look at System preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion, and in the last week or so, have put the following online"

• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: Dock
• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: Energy Saver
• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: General
• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: iCloud
• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: Keyboard

As ever, the update to a new OS has not been without problems although some of these may actually be new features. While looking at the Keyboard preferences, I found that the repeat option was not working, despite it being prominent in the panel. When I looked closer, I found that,

Since the update, key repeating has not been available on my MacBook Pro for characters or numbers. Punctuation and other marks do repeat: for example 2 does not, while @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ does. This is the same for Thai characters. On the same 2 key, when Thai is active, the / key repeats, while the Thai character for 1 does not. Other keys (punctuation, character/numeric) are likewise affected.

I wonder how may other refinements (changed without asking the users) are being reported as problems.

An item on MacNN had a look at some problems that are being reported on their forums concerning changes or faults: for example one user can now only turn the computer (Mac Pro) off by pulling the plug.

On Friday we mentioned that the burglar who stole Steve Jobs' stuff from the empty house was caught when he turned on the iPad - a direct link I guess to Apple's own servers. But there was a twist, John Paczkowski reports on All Things Digita, when another device was given to a locally famous clown -- Kenny the Clown -- who was quite happily tapping away when the police, who seem to have accepted Kenneth Kahn's story and did not arrest him, came to fetch it.

Half and Half

There was some more on this from Electronista who also explain about some of the companies who could be involved and comment on the way this will probably affect the amount that Kodak eventually receives. While the company was hoping for something over $2 billion, more realistically they may be looking at $500 million although could still decline to sell at that price.

Back to the old reality as Apple closed the trial in California against Samsung with a claim that Samsung didn't live up to its obligations with regard to its standards-related patents, Ina Fried reports on All Things Digital. This refers to some specific wireless technology and to the FRAND patents that Apple says were not licensed properly. With the recent case of Apple and Motorola that was decided on part of this aspect, and Microsoft's new filings on the same, this could be one more problem for Samsung. Mikey Campbell reports that the case will be going to jury as the two parties were unable to reach any form of consensus when asked to try one more time by Judge Lucy Koh.

More reality too in another lawsuit from Motorola who are seeking an import ban on the iPhone, Frederic Lardinois reports. The patents involve location reminders, email notifications, video playback and Siri. Information right now is sparse, but there will be more revealed when offices open on Monday in the US.

Other Matters

Facebook investors have been enduring all manner of problems since the IPO. There are a lot of sad and angry people out there. A $20 million deal in a case in San Francisco about the way users's rights were violated through sponsored stories, was rejected by the judge who can obviously do maths: $10M is going to lawyers, the rest is going to advocacy groups and none is going to Facebook members (Seeking Alpha).

One of my colleagues at the university who is usually so engrossed in writing books and other deep academic activities that he claims (or at least feigns) his office is a technological black hole, was alert enough at the weekend to forward me an interesting article by Katherine Maher on the Atlantic concerning cyber war and banks in Lebanon. Despite the difficulties that country has experienced in recent years, these banks are apparently as secure as the Swiss banks used to be and reject all requests for information about depositors.

As a result it is suspected that a lot of what might be called dirty money is sitting in the vaults and some governments would like to know who has what. Ms Maher reports that Kaspersky have found malware called Gausss, which bears similarities to the earlier Stuxnet and Flame Trojan Horse malware, and this is apparently being aimed at these cellars of Lebanon. It was strongly suspected that these applications were the fruit of a US-Israeli cooperation.

She comments,

If the Gauss malware is indeed the product of the same U.S.-Israeli cooperation that built Flame and possibly Stuxnet, it would be yet another indicator of how rapidly the new world of cyber threats, offensives, and engagement, is developing, how untested it all is, and how few norms or regulations keep it in check.

Breaking into banks and spreading malware is wrong, unless it is us of course. The good guys are defined by all their actions.

After the furore about the alleged threat to storm the Ecuadorian embassy in London last week, the UK government and particularly the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, had to back down a bit and walk some of the comments back, although they reiterated the point that Julian Assange is wanted and they will arrest him if and when they have the chance. When Hague first came into the public eye he was a 16 year old schoolboy with long hair and the sort of turn of phrase that delighted then PM Margaret Thatcher with its hard disciplinary tone: none of that namby-pamby left wing stuff.

I saw Assange make his statement to the press from a window at the front of the embassy -- not from in front of the building -- and he pleased the crowd by outlining some of the bad guys in freedom of information and some of the victims, like Bradley Manning the US Corporal who started the ball rolling and who has spent over 800 days in custody so far.

The BBC news-reader after was a bit dismissive as Assange did not tackle some of the points concerning his asylum, like the case in Sweden. My dear, he didn't need to. A lot of public opinion is on his side: the UK and Swedish governments are seen as the bad boys with the US pulling the strings. Assange scored the PR coup on Sunday. There was a brief report by Zack Whittacker on this with some background to the situation. I will put more as it appears.

The full transcript of his speech is available on the website of The Independent. Like the BBC, The Independent tone was less enthusiastic mainly because of the sexual assault allegations he faces in Sweden which he did not address.

Local Items

Want today's wifi password?

1. Make your beds
2. Vacuum downstairs
3. Walk the dog

Applying pressure where it hurts.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.