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- Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, App Store
It's being reported by PC World that Apple has begun censoring iPhone applications that contain any reference to the Dalai Lama in the Chinese App Store. At least five applications that contain references to the Dalai Lama have been banned: three of the apps - Dalai Quotes [$.99, iTunes], Dalai Lama Quotes [$.99, iTunes], and Dalai Lama Prayerwheel [$.99, iTunes] - contain quotes by His Holiness, while a fourth, Paging Dalai Lama [free, iTunes] tells users where he is currently teaching. A fifth app called Nobel Laureates [$.99, iTunes], details information about all the Nobel Peace Prize winners since the prize began in 1895. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
If you don't know much about the Dalai Lama, there's a great documentary you should check out called 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama [iTunes]. The filmmaker poses some tough questions to the Dalai Lama about today's world and the individual's place in it, as well as presenting the viewer with an excellent biography of this remarkable man. In May of 2008 I had the honor of seeing the Dalai Lama speak in London. He's a wonderful person with an infectious laugh (and he even sounds like Yoda - no joke, check out my videos here). If his laughter doesn't win you over, perhaps the fact that he's a spiritual leader who loves and embraces technology will.
It's no secret that I'm very bullish on Apple [AAPL] stock. I've made money investing in it since 2003. But as a shareholder second and a human being first, Apple's censorship sickens me. This is capitalism at its worst. It's no mystery why Apple, along with many other tech companies, cave to China's totalitarian demands: China has the largest population of consumers on the planet. Apple is gunning for many more than its existing 300,000-strong customer base of the 1.3 billion Chinese mobile handset market.
Now, I'm a realist. Apple's move isn't surprising. Though it's publicly stood up for human rights in the past, Apple exists to sell products, and a billion people is a lot of cheddar. In Steve Jobs' eyes, the goal of the company may be continued innovation (he may even be "the Dalai Lama of integration"), but there are plenty of money men at Apple and their number one concern is to grow the bottom line. China can add a lot to that bottom line. So it's no surprise when Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shrugs off Apple's censorship with a "We continue to comply with local laws" jibe. Just go ahead and read that as "Not our problem. Anyway, do you know how much cheese is over there?"
But here's where the real problem lies. I'm a hypocrite. Things won't change until we do and I can't really convey to you just how hard that is. If you're a shareholder, as I am, you're complicit in Apple's and others decisions to cave to China (and capitalism) at the expense of human rights. I mean, I know I was downright giddy when I heard the news that Apple had come to an agreement with the Chinese government to sell the iPhone there. All I could think was ka-ching!
We may read (or in my case, write) opinion pieces like this and lament "Gosh, that censorship is just horrible" but then we look at the ten-, fifty-, one hundred-thousand, or even millions of dollars of Apple stock sitting in our brokerage accounts and think, "But, that's my nest egg and I want to see that puppy grow. What's the harm in five little apps being censored?"
The harm is this: that line of thinking doesn't change the status quo. It doesn't move the world forward. Our inaction is a form of complicity with Apple's deliberate censorship. But, as long as we don't experience the oppression first hand, what the shareholder wants will always outweigh the good of the individual - even if it's 1.3 billion individuals. I'd like to believe that I think mindfully; that I'm strong enough morally to sell my Apple stock as a show of solidarity for the greater good... but am I? Are you?
We are all cogs in the wheel.
Still, it's the end of the year, and I don't want my last post of the first decade of the twenty-first century stopping on a depressing note. So, I'll wish you all a Happy New Year now and leave you with this quote by the Dalai Lama (a quote which could easily apply to our conundrum):
"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."TUAWApple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AppStore - Apple - IPhone - Steve Jobs - Dalai Lama
Переслать - The 12-hour iPhone app
Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store
Gizmodo has an interesting story from David Quinlan, a coder who decided sit down over a weekend with a few friends to crank out an iPhone app. It's an excellent read, not only for the little quirks and tips about organizing a collaborative project very quickly (they sketch out features and then prioritize them, and use Dropbox to keep all the files in the right places), but for the sheer push of how you actually go from idea to concept to code and finally to released iPhone app.
I won't say it sounds easy -- these guys had a good amount of experience at development and releasing software even before they started work on this app, and if you sit down with Erica's book [Amazon link to the 2nd edition] and hope to release your very first piece of code after just a weekend of solo work, it's not going to happen. But it definitely sounds possible -- the iPhone's development platform is relatively easy to pick up (especially if you're already experienced with coding in other languages), and Apple's release process is open to anyone willing to spend the $100 to become an official developer.TUAWThe 12-hour iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Power Mac G5 turned time-teller
Filed under: Hardware, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Mods
This is great, and highly appropriate for the tick-tocking away of the year -- Japanese modder Nobon had an old Power Mac G5 (case, it looks like, though this would be cool on a working Mac as well) sitting around, and he wanted to know what time it was, so he installed a little clock in there. As mods go, it's pretty simple, but man that looks great. Like most users, I usually hide my actual boxes under the desk or in a cabinet, but if any of my computer cases were as beautiful and functional as that, I'd put them out front and center.
There's a sequence of pictures on his site showing how he did it. It's all in Japanese, so you'll only be able to read it if you happen to be fluent. But it looks pretty simple -- drill a hole in the side of the case, install a battery operated clock, shine a light on it, and voila, instant Mac centerpiece. Apple products don't die, they just change function!
[Via Cult of Mac]TUAWPower Mac G5 turned time-teller originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Mac 101: Stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto
Filed under: iLife, iPhone, Mac 101, Snow Leopard
More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users.
I love iPhoto. I use it for most of my photo editing. The thing I don't like about iPhoto is how it opens each and every time I connect my iPhone to my Mac. What strikes my as plain silly is that, since the introduction of the iPhone two and a half years ago, Apple has not built in an option in the iTunes iPhone status window to disable the automatic iPhoto launch every time you plug in your iPhone.
If you want to take control of this behavior, and you'd prefer to stick with Apple's built-in tools (rather than take advantage of the free and easy Cameras prefpane) there is good news: there's a simple way to disable this 'feature' and it doesn't involve command line stuff. Even better, it isn't an "all or nothing" solution - eg: you can still have iPhoto automatically open when you connect your camera, but not have it open when you connect your iPhone. Aron mentioned this approach a few months ago but I thought it would be helpful to walk through it in detail.
It should be noted that this solution only works on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you are running 10.5 or earlier, you'll have to use one of the solutions noted above; we recommend the free Cameras preference pane as a quick fix.
You'll see the image above is of iPhoto's preferences. You may think the option of disabling iPhone auto-open is in there, but it's not. To stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto you actually need to launch the Image Capture application.
Step 1: Launch Image Capture (Applications>Image Capture). If your iPhone isn't plugged in already, plug it in to the USB port on your Mac. It should then show up in the devices source list.
Step 2: Make sure you have the iPhone selected in the source list. When you do, you should see any photos you have on the iPhone appear in the right-hand column of the Image Capture application.
Step 3: At the bottom of the source list, you'll see your iPhone's name then, below that, you'll see the words "Connecting this iPhone opens:" and a drop-down menu. Select "No application." Now close the Image Capture app and you're done. No more iPhone opening up iPhoto, but your other cameras will still auto-launch iPhoto when they are connected!
TUAWMac 101: Stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPod bedding set redefines 'touchably soft'
Filed under: Odds and ends
All you really need to do is ask yourself three things: Do I have a kid bed? Could my kid bed be so much cooler with an iPod touch duvet and pillowcase? Can I afford 349 Swedish kronor (about US $45)?
If you answered 'Yes! Yes! Uh... yes!' to this informal product survey, Swedish retailer Ellos has exactly what you need. Questions raised in the TUAW offices like "Is that a touch-based capacitive sleep-enabled UI?" and "I wonder if that surface is oleophobic?" may require firsthand testing.
The bedding set looks to be a pretty faithful iPod touch reproduction, with the exception of the misspelled legend for the Calendar icon. It's so faithful, in fact, that I wouldn't be surprised if the company heard from Apple's Swedish legal representation in short order, with a suggestion that this product be sent to sleep with the fishes.
OK, I grant you, this is no Tauntaun sleeping bag -- but if you're raising a household full of Apple geeks, it might be worth a look.
Thanks Bertil!TUAWiPod bedding set redefines 'touchably soft' originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple nabs four of Engadget's 10 gadgets of the decade
Filed under: Hardware, iPod Family, OS, Apple, MacBook, iPhone
Our friends over at Engadget have selected their top 10 gadgets of the last decade (the naughts, as I like to call them), and Apple has come up big: four out of the ten choices are made by the company from Cupertino. The iPhone is on the list (of course), as is the iPod. The original Titanium PowerBook fills a spot for its "category-shaping design" and its influence on laptops since its release in 2001.
Perhaps most interesting, Mac OS X is on the list right alongside Windows XP as a co-gadget of the decade. Engadget says that both operating systems provided fresh and clean restarts for their respective companies, and that while OS X took a little while to "become a usable daily OS" (ouch), it still helped to "set a new standard for computing."
Being the Apple weblog that we are, we might argue that Windows XP provided a solid update to Windows 98, while OS X offered up some actual innovation in the operating system market (and Apple still carries the banner on commercial UI innovation today). But we're nitpicking on that one -- 40% of their gadgets that shaped the decade were made by one company, and that's good enough for us.TUAWApple nabs four of Engadget's 10 gadgets of the decade originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Found Footage: Sudoku Grab goes Augmented Reality
Filed under: Cool tools, Hacks, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK
When it comes to the iPhone, Augmented Reality refers to applications that integrate live camera feeds with data generated either directly from those camera images or from related data linked to the user's real world location. Over the past year, we've seen a number of augmented reality applications appear on App Store and in the Cydia store, offering a way to connect real world visuals with enhanced data presentations.
On the recent Augmented Reality front, Sudoku Grab [iTunes Link] developer Chris Greening has been inspired by Apple's recent decision to allow calls to UIGetScreenImage(), the computer function that allows iPhone developers to copy an image directly from the iPhone screen. By relenting on this issue, Apple has allowed programmers to pull live data from the iPhone camera, and process that data in real time. That opens the door to immediate image processing and visual presentation of data on top of that image stream.
The above video demonstrates this ability by scanning for Sudoku boards. When it detects one, the numbers in question turn green. So how useful in general is this new SDK feature? Chris says, "It's a bit horrible to do anything really useful, you haven't got a direct feed from the camera so you have to do a bit of jiggery pokery if you want to draw on top of the camera preview and still have something usable." As you can tell from the video, his "jiggery pokery" is pretty well done. His real time scanning and enhancement of raw image data allows his detection routine to work with the camera's live feed to acquire new Sudoku boards.
It's still early days on the augmented reality front. Greening's work represents just the start of where this technology can go. With faster processors and better screen access routines (UIGetScreenImage is a very slow call compared to the iPhone's non-public CoreSurface routines), real world integration is just going to get better and better.TUAWFound Footage: Sudoku Grab goes Augmented Reality originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Two broken promises from AT&T and Apple as 2009 comes to a close
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software
As I sit by the light of the Christmas tree in my mother's house with the vestiges of presents all around, it occurs to me that no matter how good Santa might have been to you, both Apple and AT&T left us lumps of coal for the end of 2009.
You might remember this promise from Apple a few months ago:
"Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp."
It is possible to run Windows 7 under Boot Camp, but given the number of months Windows 7 was available as a beta, and now the length of time it has been released officially, it's disappointing not to have it officially supported, especially given Apple's simple and unequivocal promise.
Boot Camp runs a distant second, however, to the much larger missed deadline and broken promise from AT&T that tethering would be available for the iPhone in 2009. Despite being available all around the world, and on other smartphones on AT&T's network, tethering remains unavailable for iPhone users in the USA unless you have stayed behind on firmware or have taken the jailbreak route.
Rogers / Fido customers in Canada have been enjoying free tethering until 2010, and their deal has been extended until May 3rd. Given the way that I expect most people will use tethering, for occasional connections when traveling or out and about, free is exactly the price that tethering ought to cost. Given AT&T's existing costs for Blackberry tethering, though, I would not be surprised if AT&T expects another $30/month on top of the current $30/month data charges.
When will we see Windows 7 Boot Camp support and tethering? I have no idea, but I fully expect Apple to come through before AT&T does.
Coal picture courtesy of Wikimedia.TUAWTwo broken promises from AT&T and Apple as 2009 comes to a close originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Fox News backs up "big" Apple event rumors for January, cites "mobility space"
Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Other Events
Shortly after Google China's former head posted what appear to be insider details about the upcoming Apple tablet, Clayton Morris at Fox News has confirmed the Apple January event will be "big" and focus on the "mobility space." Fox's story follows up on the original Financial Times report that Apple is hosting an event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Tuesday, January 26th. Morris reports:
What will Apple announce that day?I've spoken to a source inside Apple who confirmed a "big" event for January.
While nothing official has been handed down from the notoriously tight-lipped company, my source took the Financial Times report one step further by saying this event will focus on the mobility space, meaning we'll see something related to the iPhone/iPod touch product line.Only Steve and the team at Apple know for certain, but I can bet you that it's not just going to be an 8GB iPhone 3GS. Here's hoping it will be the Apple tablet, whether it's called the iSlate, Magic Slate, or iGuide. Personally, my money is on the iSlate running the iGuide OS/app.TUAWFox News backs up "big" Apple event rumors for January, cites "mobility space" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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