WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Wow. Near the end of the first month of 2012 already. Doesn't time fly when you are having fun? And, of course, writing Winding Down is the ultimate in fun (except for programming). I thought I'd take a quick look at Apple this week. In the event it didn't turn out to be quite as 'quick' as I thought it would be, so it's more of a round up than a single news piece. However, I would urge people to read the New York Times piece in the URLs. It's somewhat longer than I usually recommend, but it's well worth a look for a glimpse of one possible future.
So let's get down to it...
Shorts:
Apple's report of marginally over US$13 billion profit for the last quarter of 2011 got me wondering. Wondering about where these profits come from, and whether they will be able to sustain them in the future. One thing I've noticed, but on which I could find no research, was the propensity for iPhone users to upgrade their phones as soon as a new model becomes available. Of course to a certain extent, so do the users of other brands of smart phones. However, in my admittedly limited and non-statistically significant experience, iPhonoids are far more likely to upgrade immediately. This leads me to wonder just how much the specifically iPhone user base is expanding and how much it is just the same group of people automatically upgrading every time a new version appears.
Looking round the net did, however turn up a few useful pieces on Apple. The most interesting was an extended piece in the New York Times, which looked at Apple's manufacturing, and in doing so raised some interesting questions about the US economy. For a start virtually all of Apple's products - 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products sold last year - were manufactured overseas, mostly in China.
It is cheaper to manufacture overseas, obviously, if only because the cost of labor is considerably less. However, that, it seems is not the key issue. It turns out that there just isn't the flexible manufacturing base available domestically anymore. Neither are there engineering skills in the quantities needed. Americans are some of the most educated workers in the world, but it looks like the US has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that are needed for the factories.
To give an example, Apple estimated that it needed 8,700 industrial engineers to oversee the 200,000 assembly line workers who would assemble the iPhones. Apple's analysts estimated it would take nine months to find that many engineers in the US. It took a mere 15 days in China.
I'd recommend that my US readers take a good look at this article, because Apple is merely the poster boy for this movement of jobs overseas. Where Apple leads the way, others will follow in an increasingly competitive environment.
In other Apple news, I see that some iPhone users are launching an anti-trust class action against the company over the way in which it tied everything up with AT&T when the iPhone first came out, and the way in which it locks people in to the App Store. Then there is the investigation into an alleged no-poaching agreement to fix wages - Google, Adobe, Intel, and Pixar are suggested as the fellow fixers in this little line up. And finally it looks like trouble is also on the horizon over the license for using Apple's new iBooks software. Apparently, you can only sell material produced by the software via Apple's own bookstore. I think I detect the hand of the late Steve Jobs in that one!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57364815-37/iphone-4s-propels-apple-to-massive-earnings/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/09/apple_class_action_suit/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/20/doj_emails_anti_poaching_deals/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/01/lawyer-ibooks-author-eula-restrictions-could-raise-antitrust-concerns.ars
Oooops! UK cell phone provider O2 (declaration of interest - I use them for both cell and broadband) blundered in a recent upgrade to their software, which started telling websites visited by users the cell phone number being used to access the sites. It does appear to have been a genuine blunder, rather than a deliberate attempt to make a quick buck. In fact the way they handled the problem was exemplary. As soon as it was reported to them they tracked down the bug and fixed it, and issued an apology. They made no attempt to cover it up, and took the report seriously, acting on it immediately. Bugs do happen - I should know, I'm a programmer - and sometimes they get through Q&A. If only all carriers were as open and reacted as fast. Then again, pigs might fly...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16725531
Who's watching your online comments? Why, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who else? 'But what are they watching', I hear you ask. Well now you can find out, because Cryptome has released a list of 96 sites monitored by the DHS. It makes for interesting reading, and you can look for yourself to see which of your insightful snippets are being noted down for future use by the powers that be. I have to say that I was appalled to see that this august rag is not on the list of things to be monitored. Obviously I need to start being more outrageous...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/12/cryptome_dhs_monitoring_list/
http://cryptome.org/2012/01/0001.pdf
Homework:
How would you like a bare bones computer for US$30? It's not pie in the sky, it's the Raspberry Pi. It really does exist, and it's going into production about now. It comes in two versions, one without an ethernet connector for US$25, and one with an ethernet connector for US$30. I'd recommend spending the extra $5 for the extra connectivity!
In the 1980s cheap programmable home computers (as opposed to consoles) created a massive pool of self taught programmers for the nascent micro and games industries to draw on. The inventors of the Raspberry Pi hope that they can produce a similar outburst with this tiny offering. Whether they will succeed remains to be seen - the world today is a very different place to what it was 30 years ago. None the less they are to be applauded for their initiative. And I intend to get my hands on one as soon as I can!
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16316439
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/raspberry-pis-gertboard-expansion-board-already-works-video-2012019/
Kids in one of South London's community schools got quite a shock the other day when they gathered in the hall of Deptford Green School to hear a guest speaker. The speaker turned out to be none other than Bill Gates who was flying from Seattle to Davos - via Deptford! It's not very often that a world famous philanthropist drops into a school to explain to a bunch of teenagers what the money is being used for - like the eradication of polio. Quite a little coup for the organizers, the Speakers for Schools project. It's a brilliant idea, but I wonder how they will follow that one up!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16726193
Art lovers might like to take a look at GizMag's gallery of art from techno artist Yasuhito Udagawa (also known as 'Shovelhead'). I can only describe his art as technicy-roboty-sculptuish. You have to see it - there is nothing else that I know like it. Recommended.
http://www.gizmag.com/shovelheads-outrageous-techno-art/20882/
Geek Topics:
Are you a photo-geek? Then I have just the thing for you - reverse cropping software. Yes, you read that correctly. AntiCrop -expands- your pictures by adding more background! And that's not all - it also straightens up crooked shots by rotating then to the correct angle, and then filling in the corner gaps created. I'm not a photograph person myself, but even I can see how useful this would be. I suspect it will soon become a staple for a generation of digital photographers.
http://www.gizmag.com/anticrop-photo-extending-app/21174/
Scanner:
Brazil: Checking email after hours? It's overtime
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-brazil-email-hours-overtime.html
Philips develops efficient solar powered LED street lighting
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-philips-efficient-solar-powered-street.html
New magnetic soap could be used to clean up oil spills
http://www.gizmag.com/magnetic-soap-oil-spills/21204/
Man vanquishes robot cop in hand-to-hand combat
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/23/robot_cop_vanquished/
The family home made of salvaged car scraps
http://m.gizmag.com/article/21199/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
29 January 2012
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist, the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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