As ye sow … so shall ye reap … Apple wins an early battle very big but do they lose the war

There is this somewhat silly concept called karma, which perfectly describes the concept of behaving as you would want others to behave towards you – the “golden rule” if you will. In other words, if you screw someone to get ahead, you are accruing “bad karma” …

So when Apple won that wet dream award of $1B from some wing nut jury over their patent dispute with Samsung, things were looking pretty rosy. (Note: The award has been reduced already by a judge with a capacity for reason.)

Things must have looked pretty rosy for Apple and I’m sure more than a few corks were popped … but as they say, karma is a bitch.

And now Samsung is tightening the supply chain noose for displays and processors and that has Apple predicting a “divot” in their upcoming profits.

http://www.zdnet.com/is-apple-about-to-feel-samsung-squeeze-on-iphone-costs-7000014654/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539

I laughed out loud when I read this paragraph quoting analyst Peter Misek:

Apple is having to switch from in-cell to on-cell for the iPhone 6 as in-cell is proving unable to ramp to 4.8”. This new technology is unproven and Apple will incur significant costs to ramp production. We also believe that this is a stopgap technology in front of OLED. We believe it will take Apple and partners two years or more to commercialize OLED as the OLED market for smaller displays is effectively controlled by Samsung who will not supply Apple. In the meantime both LG Display and Japan Display will be forced to be on a dual track for screen technologies for Apple.

This transition for Apple will raise screen prices by 10 to 25 percent. Remember that it is Samsung who has completely swung the market towards the larger displays and even “phablets”, a crossover tablet and phone. Think they had something in mind?

But it gets better … I read this next and howled …

Apple is trying to switch processor manufacturing completely to TSMC and away from Samsung. The problem: Apple need Samsung for its older chips and cant cut over production. Misek said Samsung will start raising prices on legacy chips in the summer which will raise Apples bill of materials another 20 percent to 30 percent.

This is a beautiful example of how the opponent’s next move is sometimes subtle. Apple may not yet be defeated, but I think they earned themselves this swift kick in the jewels :-)

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Sanjit An Olympus Inspiration

Sanjitpaal Singh is an amazing wildlife photographer, who strongly supports Olympus Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds system. I first saw him giving a talk live on stage at Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival in 2008, sharing tips on shooting wildlife, and I was blown away by his images taken with Olympus DSLR system (with that crazy amazing 300mm F2.8 lens). He left a very strong impression in me and made me believe in Olympus, and love the system even more. He showed me how capable the Olympus Four Thirds system can be, and I was merely scratching the surface of what I could do with my then Olympus DSLR E-520 and kit lenses, and motivated me to explore further and improve more and more. Sanjit has always been a local idol for many Olympus photographers in Malaysia, and I still see him that way even today. 

I had a Godsent chance to work alongside Sanjit during my OM-D E-M5 review series, where he took care of the video review part, shooting me in action for all my review activities. Working closely with him I was amazed even more by his endless creative ideas overflowing from his artistic mind. and I got to witness first hand his dedication and passion toward the craft. He is not just a great photographer, he is willing to go the distance, dare to dream big and push beyond the limits. I was moved by his unfallable discipline and sacrifice he was willing to make to accomplish his creative goals. No wonder, he is a multiple winners of many prestigious international photography awards, which includes last years IPA Award. I was blessed to have known Sanjit, and be touched by his photography work and passion. 

Earlier this evening, Sanjit was giving a talk at Peter Tans Behind the Lens session, and it somehow reminded me of the first time I saw Sanjit on stage. That reminder has made me reflect on how far i have come ever since that first year I have got my first Olympus DSLR, all the incredible adventures I have gone through, the beautiful people I have met and the wonderful experience I have had while shooting as well as all my activities here blogging. Surely I have come a long way, and I have a lot to thank Sanjit for. 

I did not have a camera with me, so I have to make do with my phone camera for shots with Sanjit. I thought, after all the reflection and nostalgic reminders, a photograph with an important local Olympus hero has become a necessity!

Please check out Sanjits work at the following links:

Website/Portfolio: http://fullcirclepix.com/

and also here: http://www.jitspics.com/

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Replace Older Newer And Home Blogger links with an image or text

Newer Post, Home and Older Post are links that appear on the bottom of the posts. When a visitor click on one of these links, they will take him to the page with the list of your previous posts.
The number of the posts on these pages will be the same as the number of the posts on your main page.

What we can do:

A. Change the text of Newer, Older, Home links
B. Place a picture beside them (a small icon, arrow, or whatever...)
C. Add an image instead of the links

So lets start customizing them...

1. Log in to your Blogger Dashboard, go to Template > Edit HTML

2. Click anywhere inside the code area and find - using CTRL + F keys - the following code:

    <b:if cond=data:newerPageUrl>
      <span id=blog-pager-newer-link>
      <a class=blog-pager-newer-link expr:href=data:newerPageUrl expr:id=data:widget.instanceId + &quot;_blog-pager-newer-link&quot; expr:title=data:newerPageTitle><data:newerPageTitle/></a>
      </span>
    </b:if>

    <b:if cond=data:olderPageUrl>
      <span id=blog-pager-older-link>
      <a class=blog-pager-older-link expr:href=data:olderPageUrl expr:id=data:widget.instanceId + &quot;_blog-pager-older-link&quot; expr:title=data:olderPageTitle><data:olderPageTitle/></a>
      </span>
    </b:if>

    <a class=home-link expr:href=data:blog.homepageUrl><data:homeMsg/></a>

Or find in this code the following fragments which corresponds to each page links

• <data:newerPageTitle/> represents Newer Posts link
• <data:olderPageTitle/> represents Older Posts link
• <data:homeMsg/> represents Home link

Now change these fragments of codes as it follows:

A. Change the text of Newer Posts, Older Posts and Home Links

You need to REPLACE following parts in original code with ANY TEXT you like:

• replace <data:newerPageTitle/> with, for example NEXT POST 
• replace <data:olderPageTitle/> with, for example PREVIOUS POST
• replace <data:homeMsg/> (only the first one) with, for example HOMEPAGE

B. Place a picture beside Newer Posts, Older Posts and Home links

Add the below code just at the beginning of each of the colored fragments of codes from step 2.
<img src="URL Address"/>

So it should look like this:

<img src="URL Address"/><data:newerPageTitle/>

Note: Replace URL Address text with the url address of the image you want to appear

C. Replace Older Posts, Newer Posts and Home links with an image/picture

You can place any kind of picture you want All you have to do is use this code for the pic:

<img src="URL ADDRESS"/>

...just replace URL ADDRESS, with the URL of your hosted picture
...and in code, REPLACE the original link code for text with picture code

• replace <data:newerPageTitle/> with the pic for newer (next) posts
• replace <data:olderPageTitle/> with the pic for older (previous) posts
• replace <data:homeMsg/> (only the first one) with the pic for homepage

Screenshot

3. Thats it! Preview and Save the Template.

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How to add an image next to Blogger Post Title

It has often been said that a picture says a thousand words, so in the struggle for the attention of the reader, we can add a picture or an icon to our post title, as I have put in the title of the post in the screenshot above.

Show Image Icon before Blogger Post Title

Step 1:

First thing first you have to do is to prepare an image. After that youll need a direct link to an image before you proceed further. You can upload it to tinypic.com and copy the URL located in the Direct Link for Layouts box. Also, make sure your image is sized appropriately. You dont want to see a huge image next to your post title.

Step 2: Go to Dashboard - Template - Edit HTML - Proceed if needed

Step 3. Click anywhere inside the code area to find (using CTRL + F) the following code:

<b:includable id=post var=post>

Step 4. After you found it, click on the left arrow next to it to expand the widgets code

Step 5. Then delete it until you reach to <div class=post-header>:

              <b:includable id=post var=post>
  <div class=post hentry itemprop=blogPost itemscope=itemscope itemtype=http://schema.org/BlogPosting>
    <b:if cond=data:post.firstImageUrl>
      <meta expr:content=data:post.firstImageUrl itemprop=image_url/>
    </b:if>
    <meta expr:content=data:blog.blogId itemprop=blogId/>
    <meta expr:content=data:post.id itemprop=postId/>

    <a expr:name=data:post.id/>
    <b:if cond=data:post.title>
      <h3 class=post-title entry-title itemprop=name>
      <b:if cond=data:post.link>
        <a expr:href=data:post.link><data:post.title/></a>
      <b:else/>
        <b:if cond=data:post.url>
          <b:if cond=data:blog.url != data:post.url>
            <a expr:href=data:post.url><data:post.title/></a>
          <b:else/>
            <data:post.title/>
          </b:if>
        <b:else/>
          <data:post.title/>
        </b:if>
      </b:if>
      </h3>
    </b:if>

The code to be deleted:

Step 6:

Paste the following code in the place of the deleted code in Step 5:

<b:includable id=post var=post>
  <div class=post hentry itemprop=blogPost itemscope=itemscope itemtype=http://schema.org/BlogPosting>
    <b:if cond=data:post.firstImageUrl>
      <meta expr:content=data:post.firstImageUrl itemprop=image_url/>
    </b:if>
    <meta expr:content=data:blog.blogId itemprop=blogId/>
    <meta expr:content=data:post.id itemprop=postId/>

    <a expr:name=data:post.id/>
    <b:if cond=data:post.title>
      <table><tr>
        <td class=posttitle>
           <img src=IMAGE-URL/></td>
        <td><h3 class=post-title entry-title itemprop=name>
      <b:if cond=data:post.link>
        <a expr:href=data:post.link><data:post.title/></a>
      <b:else/>
        <b:if cond=data:post.url>
          <b:if cond=data:blog.url != data:post.url>
            <a expr:href=data:post.url><data:post.title/></a>
          <b:else/>
            <data:post.title/>
          </b:if>
        <b:else/>
          <data:post.title/>
        </b:if>
      </b:if>
      </h3>
        </td>
        </tr></table>
     
      <style>
        h3.post-title {
          margin: 0px !important;
        }
      </style>
   
    </b:if>

Step 7:

Replace the IMAGE-URL text in blue color from above with the URL address of your image (the one that youve gotten from Step 1).

Step 8: Save the Template and thats it! Enjoy :)

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