By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

Apple won another patent victory recently when a judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that it had not infringed on 4 Samsung patents, AppleInsider reports.

The specific patents covered "related to 3G wireless technology, the format of data packets for high-speed transmission, and integrating functions like web surfing with mobile phone functions" we read on Reuters.

We read some rumours about the next update to OS X last week, and I would have expected this to become available around the time of iOS 6 as there are likely to be a number of complementary features. However, a report by Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider over the weekend tells us that a second quick build arrived three days after the previous one and that it is suspected a release may be with us real soon.

I checked a number of times over the weekend but nothing is available as yet. And I checked again early Monday morning just to be sure.

There is still some information here about the iPhone 5, starting with a couple of accessories. The specifications were made available to developers at the end of the week, mainly aimed at makers of cases. As I never bother with these and just use an iPod sock, I am already accommodated. If you are interested, AppleInsider reports that the blueprints were put online. I wonder if other handset makers grabbed a copy.

A few months ago I bought a case for a friend who has an iPhone 4S like mine and now he complains about pitting on the case and some slight corrosion on the iPhone edge, which looks as if it had been as a direct result of contact with the case. That was dumped on Friday and I donated an iPod sock as he was jealous of the condition that I have managed to keep mine in.

I do have a couple of accessories for the iPhone that I consider important: the olloclip lens kit and the Glif tripod support. I saw that olloclip -- who have some spiffy new web pages now -- will produce a new version of the lens kit. A shame really, but in a Tweet, they write that the "new iPhone 5 is thinner and camera is in a different spot so we are working on a new olloclip." The "thinner" aspect may be a small problem, but camera location cannot be easily dealt with.

I have written to Glif about the tripod support but it was only at the weekend and do not expect a reply just yet. I would expect them also to produce a new version of the device, but in the email noted that the difference is only some 1.7mm (iPhone 5, 7.6mm; iPhone 4S, 9.3mm) and wonder if an insert may suffice.

Apple has been expanding its North Carolina data center over the last year or so and is trying to make it green with a solar panel array which can be seen from a long way with its size of 100 acres. It will generate 20 MW and we are told in an article by Katie Fehrenbacher on GigaOm, which also has a selection of aerial shots of the installation, that Apple is also building another 20 MW solar farm nearby.

I saw a hint last week from Topher Kessler on how to prevent a computer from sleeping in OS X. I held this back from last Friday as there was already too much information and this has a better shelf life. As well as system settings there is a new command that can be used in the Terminal: caffeinate.

I have been running a couple of articles on use of Terminal which usually terrifies most people I know. It is a powerful and quick way to make changes or run commands, but if used wrongly -- or in ignorance -- can cause problems. The purpose of the articles, therefore, is to create a form of familiarity for new users in the hope that some will be able to use Terminal in the future.

So far I have

1. A Quick Look Round
2. Basic Navigation
3. Shell Basics

Other Matters

Those politicians sometimes care about taxes more than people and the online world has meant that state incomes have not felt the full benefits, so California for example, took steps to ensure that the coffers would begin to fill again. Declan McCullagh reports that from this week Amazon will start to collect taxes for a lot of the items they ship and the tax man is after the rest it seems. Users in Thailand, worry not: this is for those in California only. The Thai taxman hasn't cottoned on yet.

We sometimes wonder about the hypocrisy of politicians (everywhere), for example the GOP willingness to support the RIAA on piracy but their own piracy of music when it comes to a suitable tune to use as background for a conference. While in opposition, the Tories in the UK objected most strongly to Labour's attempts to legislate the internet, but now in office are trying to do the same. Or worse.

The Tories of course are dead against hacking, so it is a little surprising (or not, depending on how cynical one is) to find that the Member for Welwyn Hatfield, Grant Shapps, who is also Conservative Party Co-Chair, has another name, Michael Green, John Biggs reports on Tech Crunch. And it is with this other name that he runs a link farm service: it "scrapes the web for related content, runs it through a thesaurus, and posts thousands of copies everywhere."

More on this in the TechCrunch article.

There has been a fair amount of press on Google's new Google Glass of late, but as Liz Gannes tells us on All Things Digital, Google might have some patents for the technology, but a number of other companies, including Apple, IBM and Microsoft also have patents in the same field.

On The Verge, Bryan Bishop writes that the next iteration of Windows Phone 8 is ready to roll and Microsoft is expecting manufacturers to be lining up soon. Maybe.

There was supposed to be a launch of a new phone last week from Acer who had a tie-up with a company called Alibaba. The phone was to use the Alibaba OS, called Aliyun. The launch was cancelled, a Reuters report (Melanie Lee, David Lin in Shanghai and Clare Jim) tells us and the reason it later transpired was that Acer was pressured by Google: go with this and you lose everything. Google threatened to "terminate Android product cooperation and related technical authorization". So much for open Android.

There was more on this as Google's Andy Rubin tried to calm the waters by telling the press that Aliyun was "a forked version of Android . . . modified to the extent that it's incompatible with other Android devices". He added, "As a member of the Open Handset Alliance, Acer is forbidden from using such an operating system" Roger Cheng reports. Back came the response that Aliyun is not Android so does not have to be compatible. Amazon are not members of the club, so they can do what they like. Samsung is and for now is restricted. We shall see how that one plays out. The article was again updated on Saturday to include information from Alibaba that explains more about the intentions.

More comment on this comes from Liz Gannes on All Things Digital.

We read in an item by Jim Tanous on The MacObserver that the new CEO of Yahoo! has decided to give all employees smartphones and rather than make decisions that might be criticised, or that might not suit employees, she has offered the choice of iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, HTC EVO 4G LTE, or Nokia Lumia 920. No Blackberry we note.

Local Items

A link on Jim Dalrymple's The Loop, opens an article on fileperms that outlines major security problems on the popular What's App: really broken, they write.

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.