Quark says Quark XML Author now supports the Japanese language with a fully-localized and integrated user interface.
Quark XML Author is the add-in to Microsoft Word that enables the creation of structured XML content through the familiar Word interface. With Quark XML Author all content creators, not just technical experts, can create valid XML-based content components.
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As I write this paragraph, I’m enjoying a playlist that I created from among the thousands of songs on my iPhone, and it’s no big deal. It wasn’t always so simple: Once upon a time, crafting the perfect playlist for your MP3 player felt like an epic project. You had to rip the songs from a CD onto your computer, find sources—legitimate and otherwise—for tracks you didn’t own, and then hope everything was in the right format to play on your portable device. Apple changed all that, thanks to a series of musical moves right at the dawn of the 21st century—not the least of which was the launch of the iTunes Music Store.

It was only ten years ago—on April 28, 2003—that Apple opened the iTunes Store (then called the iTunes Music Store) and changed the way we buy music. The store arrived with just 200,000 tracks; in the ensuing decade, that library has grown to more than 35 million songs, from the Beatles to Jay-Z. You can even download those tracks over your phone if you want—no...

Marshall has released its latest branded headphones dubbed the Monitor. The headphones are the first from Marshall that utilize an over-ear design, but is also relatively compact and features a collapsible design. Designed with studio listening in mind, the Monitor also incorporates an F.T.F insert that can be removed to allow a user to tailor their listening experience....  ...

In September 2012 we reported that "Apple has reduced purchases of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for tablet computers from Samsung Display amid the deepening patent disputes." Market experts had stated that the move is aimed at minimizing its reliance on Samsung parts. Today, news of Samsung's earnings ...  ...

A new TV ad for Apple's iPhone has debuted, a departure from the recent short "showcase" ads that highlighted apps -- instead spending a full minute extolling the virtues of the iPhone's use as a camera through gorgeous vignettes of people taking pictures. As pointed out at the end of the spot, "every day, more photos are taken with the iPhone than any other camera." In addition to seeing people taking pictures, the ad also subtly highlights the ease-of-use in editing and sharing pictures, and harks back to some earlier Apple ads.... ...

Facebook has purchased Parse, a service that provides a cloud-based set of mobile services and development tools. This news comes on the heels of last week's Mobile Developer Conference where Facebook introduced tools making it easier to implement Open Graph on mobile along with the release of Facebook SDK 3.5. With the addition of Parse's toolset developers will be able to store and build server-based apps for Facebook in the cloud without the need for expensive infrastructure.

The best news regarding the deal is Facebook's plan to keep Parse's current tiered pricing. The basic level of Parse is free, with up to 1 million requests or pushes per month. Pro and Enterprise options are available for users seeking more requests and pushes, greater security, support, and...

Popular Mac punditry figure, developer and publisher Marco Arment has announced that he has sold a majority share of his web-article saving and syncing app Instapaper to Digg owners Betaworks. Under the deal, Betaworks will "take over the operations, expand its staff and develop it further," says Arment, while he will continue advising the project "indefinitely." He admitted in the blog post that he had "had trouble" keeping up with the needs of the service for the past year, while rivals such as Pocket and Readability could devote more resources.... ...

The big deal with Popcap's latest big entry into the App Store, Bookworm Heroes, is that it's social. It's a version of the company's popular wordfinding game given a social twist, so that you can play against your friends, neighbors, or just random people online. But here's the thing I most don't like about Bookworm Heroes: It's social.

Yes, the thing that might most appeal to you about this one is the thing that makes it least appealing. Bookworm Heroes isn't a bad game. If you love the Bookworm series (the first version of the game has been on the App Store for a while), Heroes shows off the same polish and excellent gameplay that the other titles offer. But Heroes is only social, which means that to play, you've got to wait for your opponent to pass a turn back. And if you don't have anyone else interested in playing (...

Apple's share prices have been dipping in recent months as analysts have predicted the company's pace of remarkable growth is starting to slow. At their all time high Apple margins were at 50%, but in the most recent quarter they had shrunk to 37.5%. So why exactly is Apple's margin shrinking?

Asymco analyst Horace Dediu has posted an interesting examination of Apple's margins since 2005 to find the reason for their recent reduction. When his prediction that the company's margins would improve in quarter four of 2012 proved false, Dediu looked at the data to see what went wrong. His analysis takes into account the three major factors effecting margin changes for Apple: price changes, cost of components, and a mix of high and low margin products.

Dediu discovered it largely comes down to the iPhone, Apple's top selling product. While sales and the asking retail price of the iPhone have remained consistent...

According to Facebook, the company has just acquired cloud coding company Parse, giving it a platform for back-end tools for mobile developers. Facebook calls the size of the deal "not material" to the acquisition, but reports place the deal between $80 and $95 million. Parse ownership claims that it had many corporate suitors, but chose Facebook because the social network fit the ethos of the startup better than the other companies involved....  ...

The iOS Calendar app is pretty basic, but for a lot of people, it gets the job done. If you're left wanting more, take a look at Horizon Calendar, which is US$1.99 in the App Store. We've taken a look at an earlier version of the app before, and this next generation, released today, adds more features and improves the GUI.

Horizon Calendar is part calendar, part weather app. It pulls your current calendar info from your iOS device and stays synced to the cloud. The app arranges your info into a very nice set of screens that is easy on the eyes and well-organized.

Weather is the other big feature of Horizon Calendar, so as you plan an event occurring within the next two weeks, you'll see a weather forecast. That's pretty handy, especially as better weather starts to roll in. If...

“Everyday more photos are taken on the iPhone than any other camera”
This is the best one I’ve seen in awhile and runs a full minute. Reminds me of “We Believe” and  “We’ll always”.
Also on Apple.com. 

//

Related articles

• iPhone 5S to reportedly come with 12-megapixel camera, improved low light mode (9to5mac.com)
• New iPads in April and iPhone 5S with...

The Instapaper read-it-later clipping service will be developed in the future by BetaWorks, a website incubator that purchased a majority interest in the product from its developer, Marco Arment. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Part of Apple’s campus is delayed until after a spaceship launch, iTunes sales aren’t on the grow, and German iPhone users may once again be notified of their email schnell! The remainders for Thursday, April 25, 2013 speak a dozen languages, know every local custom—they’ll blend in, disappear, you'll never see them again.

Apple Campus 2: Project Description (Apple)

Apple’s updated the plans for its “spaceship” campus, adding information about parking, bicycle and pedestrian paths, and public art. But it also signals the delay of building the so-called “Tantau Development,” a series of buildings on the edge of the campus, until after the main building is opened. Perhaps most interesting of all is Apple’s report that its current campus contains 4,506 trees. So, well, at least we know what they’ve got...

As she did in the first Apple vs. Samsung patent trial, Judge Lucy Koh is again requiring the companies to narrow their claims and limit the scope of their arguments against each other as both firms prepare for a second patent trial on different patent infringement arguments than those in the first trial, which Apple won handily but is currently on appeal. The order, which was issued late on Wednesday, comes ahead of some possible summary judgement rulings that could leave either Apple or Samsung with fewer patents to argue over.... ...

After selling out of tickets to its Worldwide Developers Conference in less than two minutes, Apple is reportedly calling a select number of developers with a chance to purchase.  ...

Layoffs are striking video game publisher Electronic Arts, for the second time in a month. According to reports, as many as one in ten employees have been axed from the company, forcing an estimated 800 people to look for new work. This latest round of firings are part of a restructuring effort so the company can focus on "new technologies and mobile."...  ...

Apple is apparently contacting some developers who didn’t get a chance to purchase tickets, offering them a second chance.
Huh. Voicemail from Apple: “We’re just calling to let you know that we actually do have a ticket available for you for this year’s WWDC.”— Jordan Kay (@jordanekay) April 25, 2013
Red Sweater Software’s Daniel Jalkut speculates that tickets are being offered to those who had the item in their cart, but were unable to purchase due to the record 180 second sellout.
Apple is now calling some folks who didn’t get a WWDC ticket earlier. Not sure how many, but stay by your phone if you had tried and failed.— Daniel Jalkut (@danielpunkass)...

That is the classy thing to do. Good move by Apple.
∞ Read this on The Loop

Tickets for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference sold out this morning in less than two minutes, leaving a number of developers with error messages stating that their purchase requests were unable to be processed. According to a tweet from Red Sweater Software founder Daniel Jalkut, Apple contacted some registered members of its developer program to offer them a second chance to purchase a WWDC ticket. Eric Doleki detailed his phone call from Apple in a blog post.I pick up and a nice guy tells me he's from Apple Developer Support and that they noticed that I tried to purchase a ticket today and that the transaction didn't go through. I told him that was true. I thought the next thing out of his mouth would be an apology or something – just to...

As the Northern Hemisphere of the planet wakes up from winter, accessory manufacturers are coming to life with some new or revised products. One of those companies, Just Mobile, has released a crop of accessories that can help to organize your workspace and protect your iPhone 5. There's the AluCup (a sturdy dock for your iPhone or iPad mini, US$29.95), the AluFrame iPhone 5 case ($69.95), and that place to neatly store your headphones -- the HeadStand ($49.95).

You'll have an opportunity to win one of these hardy aluminum accessories, so be sure to check them out and then enter the giveaway.

Design

The AluCup is a delightfully simple dock for your iPhone or iPad tha's made of a machined aluminum cylinder sliced at an angle, lined with a...

Reduces memory memory usage and provides several form-related improvements and fixes. ($59.95/$99.95 new, free update, 49.4/50.2 MB) Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Gaming fans on Apple devices got two new options for fun on Thursday, with XCOM landing on the Mac platform and Lego Batman coming to iOS.   ...

Daniel Jalkut offers some tips on how Apple can improve WWDC so it benefits all developers. While I don’t disagree with the premise, I still think holding the conference is important for developers and Apple.
∞ Read this on The Loop

This looks very interesting. The possibilities go far beyond controlling guitar software.
∞ Read this on The Loop

Amazon today announced financial results for its first quarter that ended March 31. The company reports that net sales increased 22 percent to $16.07 billion in the first quarter, compared with $13.18 billion a year ago. Despite the increased sales, net income decreased 37 percent to $82 million in the first quarter, or $0.18 per share, compared with $130 million, or $0.28 per share in the first quarter of 2012....  ...

Twitter has updated its Twitter for Mac client, and you can see all of the new changes on the official company blog. The biggest update is that you now get a camera icon when you're composing a tweet, which makes it easier than ever to share pictures straight from your desktop (other Twitter clients have had this for a while, and you could always drag pictures over, but this is a clearer way to do this anyway). The app has also added Retina display support, which is nice, and there are now 14 more languages: Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish.

As always, the app is available for free directly from the Mac App Store. Twitter says to keep an eye out for more changes as well, so it's working hard on...

Apple announced the Apple Music Store—that's the iTunes Store today—on April 28th, 2003. That means on Sunday, April 28th, 2013, the iTunes Store will be 10 years old, and Apple is marking the event with a timeline appropriately called "A Decade of iTunes."

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has ordered T-Mobile to alter its new "Uncarrier" advertising strategy, calling its contract free claims "deceptive." Alongside the launch of the iPhone 5 earlier this month, T-Mobile rolled out new rate plans, which are designed to separate device costs from service costs. To purchase a device like the iPhone 5, T-Mobile customers make a small downpayment and pay off the rest of the cost over a two-year period, while also paying for a separate service plan. According to Ferguson, T-Mobile has failed to clearly state that while there is no annual contract for T-Mobile subscribers, customers who cease using T-Mobile's...

Mike Doughty, a singer/songwriter (formerly of Soul Coughing) and now an indie artist, was asked by Yahoo! Music to write a song celebrating ten years of iTunes.

Not content to put yet another spin on the standard birthday song, this became an ode to drunken iTunes purchases (I believe "drunken iTunes binge" is a cousin of the "eBay blackout").

It's a catchy number, and will certainly be stuck in your head after watching the video. Mike also gets bonus points for using Cassingle[TM] as though it is still an actual word. It's a self-shot video, mostly likely from a built-in iSight camera (I am guessing -- at the end of the...

… in under two minutes. Last year it took two hours. In 2008, it took about two months. If that trend continues, the 2014 event may well sell out hours before tickets actually go on sale.

Pangea Software announced today that for 24 hours its entire library of its iOS games are completely free on the iOS App Store starting the afternoon of April 24 until the morning of April 25. The free games include:  Monkey Bongo, Billy Frontier, Jive Turkey Shoot, Cro-Mag Rally, Warheads, Enigmo, Enigmo 2, Enigmo Deluxe, Nucleus, Air Wings, Air Wings Intergalactic, Nanosaur 2, Bugdom 2, Otto Matic, Quarters!!, and Antimatter. These games normally sell between $1 and $4.... ...

Pangea Software announced today that for 24 hours its entire library of its iOS games are completely free on the iOS App Store, starting the afternoon of April 25 until the morning of April 26. The free games include: Monkey Bongo, Billy Frontier, Jive Turkey Shoot, Cro-Mag Rally, Warheads, Enigmo, Enigmo 2, Enigmo Deluxe, Nucleus, Air Wings, new release Air Wings Intergalactic, Nanosaur 2, Bugdom 2, Otto Matic, Quarters!!, and Antimatter. These games normally sell between $1 and $4.... ...

As reported by China Daily, a Beijing court has ordered Apple to pay three Chinese authors US$118,000 in damages for selling their books without prior consent through apps available on its App Store.

The lawsuit was filed against Apple by the Writers' Right Protection Union (also known as the Writers' Rights Alliance), an organization that protects the copyrights of authors whose works are published online.

According to China Daily, Judge Feng Gang, who was presiding over the case, said Apple "has the duty of checking whether books uploaded by third parties are in line with current laws."

The ruling follows a long line of complaints and lawsuits against Apple...

Experiment: text your parents “got 2 grams for $40″ then right after “Sorry ignore that txt. Not for you” Then tweet pic of their response.

Holy shit, I giggled my ass off.
∞ Read this on The Loop

We went hands on with the Leap Motion controller a couple times already and we were quite looking forward to the potential for gesture controlled apps that it offers devs. Back in February the company announced that it would be ready to ship the device by May 19 with pre-orders available through BestBuy, but today Leap Motion announced its gesture controller would be pushed back over two months until July 22nd.
Leap said the decision behind the delay is to allow more time for testing (via TNW):
“There’s nothing catastrophically wrong,” Buckwald added, “we’re very proud of the product…if...

Fotopedia Reporter is a unique, free iPad app that I would describe as a socially aware, digital coffee table book that lets you see and share photos that tell stories. The stories can be travel photos, landscapes, a restaurant visit, or a dive trip. Anything that would be of interest to others that you know or don't know.

To help you get started, the app provides some attractive designs. Your creation can be shared on Facebook or Twitter, or you can email a web link and it can be viewed in a browser. You can view others' projects and leave comments. Of course, you don't have to be a contributor, you can just browse the many stories and photos submitted.

One question I had to the developers was the issue of rights. The answer is that people who publish photos choose their license type (all rights reserved, creative commons or public domain) and the poster retains the rights. The terms...

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSSDaily Update for April 25, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:45:00 EST. Please see our...

T-Mobile's newly-launched "Uncarrier" plans are seeing some resistance from judicial channels. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has demanded T-Mobile correct "deceptive advertising" that promised customers no annual contracts not requiring the user to "serve a two-year sentence," despite having what the office calls hidden charges for early termination of a new device plan that amounts to the same two-year contractual obligation.... ...

Google has released a beta Office Viewer extension for the Mac and Windows editions of Chrome. The add-on requires either the Chrome 27 beta or the latest Canary release, but enables viewing Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files within Chrome instead of separately. To protect against trojan attacks the extension is sandboxed, limiting the reach of any malicious code hackers might insert into a document....  ...

As expected, WWDC 2013 tickets sold out in record time. If you are one of the many disappointed developers locked out of Apple's premier developer event yet again, take heart. The folks behind Appsterdam and a number of other developer events are organizing AltWWDC this year, a free 5-day event that will be held in San Francisco June 10 - 14, 2013.

Appsterdam's Mike Lee, TUAW editor-in-chief Victor Agreda, our very own wizard Brett Terpstra, Brent Simmons, Saul Mora, and Steve "Scotty" Scott are among the confirmed speakers at the event, which is sponsored by 360|Conferences, Hidden Memory and Server Density.

Read the press release below for further...

In a sign that perhaps, on occasion, pigs do fly, Twitter has announced an update to its official OS X client, Twitter for Mac, bringing it to version 2.2.

The new release comes with a number of new features, including a slightly tweaked user interface, support for Macs with Retina displays, and the ability for users to upload and share photos along with their tweets. The app now also supports fourteen new languages, including Italian, French, German, Dutch, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and more.

The good news doesn’t stop there, though: It seems that this is more than just a one-time event. Twitter developer Ben Sandofsky has announced—in a tweet, of course—that he will now be working on the company’s OS X client full-time, indicating...

WWDC sold out in just minutes this year. As iOS developer Josh Avant put it, "Next year, tickets are going to sell out before they even go on sale."

Many developers were greeted by server errors, failed purchases, and the "Sorry, tickets are sold out" banner.

Others like Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software were able to place an order. In the end Jalkut decided to cancel his ticket, stating, he was "[v]ery conflicted, but it ended up feeling too exclusive for me."

In a move that was seen as a boost to fairness, developers were given a day's warning about sale time. This enabled people around the globe to set their alarms and schedule their visit to Apple's developer site.

Unfortunately, the...

Twitter (was Tweetie) is a Twitter client with a variety of features.
Important Note: As of January 2011, AteBit's Tweetie application has been acquired and renamed by Twitter. Version 1.2.8 of the original Tweetie application is available above as an alternate download.
Features:

• Conversations: Double click on a tweet to view not only that tweet, but the entire conversation history leading up to that tweet. Never lose track of a conversation again.
• Easy Compose: Independent compose windows stay out of your way until you need them. Have as many open at a time as you'd like while you compose your thoughts. Everything has a keyboard shortcut, (Command-Enter will send a tweet).
• Easy Search Trends: See what's hot on Twitter right now, then search for the most recent tweets on those popular topics with a single click.
• Easy Threaded DM's: Have a real private conversation over Twitter...

Following the launch of T-Mobile’s new “Uncarrier” strategy alongside the $99 iPhone 5 and new no subsidy pricing plans last month, today the Washington State Attorney General has ordered T-Mobile to change its advertising calling its promise to offer no annual contracts “deceptive”.
The result of a court order filed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson and signed by T-Mobile will ensure the carrier’s commitment to changing advertising in order to properly outline “the limitations of its new no-contract” service plans. It will also allow “customers duped by the deceptive ads to exit their contracts with no penalty.”
“As Attorney General, my job is to defend consumers, ensure truth in advertising, and make sure all businesses are playing by the rules,” Ferguson said. “My office...

Zynga's Draw Something, the incredibly popular drawing game for iPhone, now has a follow-up: Draw Something 2. It's available now on the U.S. App Store as an ad-supported free download or premium, ad-free version at US$1.99.

It was just in February that Zynga VP and General Manager, Dan Porter, said there were some exciting things in the pipeline for Draw Something, and we now know what he was talking about.

Draw Something 2 has many new additions and features, including 5,000 new words, more drawing tools and over a...

A Chinese court in Beijing slapped Apple with a US$118,000 fine for copyright infringement over three titles available through the iBookstore. The Intermediate People's Court ruled that the books shouldn't have been available through the iBookstore and that Apple was responsible even though it was actually other people who apparently didn't have permission to distribute the titles that added them to the online store.
The Mac Observer Spin:
China's culture is very different from the United States, but it still seems a little wrong that its copyright protection favors pirate publishers and punishes the resellers like Apple.
...

(Updated with corrected timing) Apple has already sold out of passes to attend WWDC 2013 in San Francisco, according to the company's website. AppleInsider notes that sales were ended just two minutes after they opened at 10AM Pacific time. The pace beats last year's record, when passes were gone in roughly two hours....   ...

Like any good Apple project, it appears that the Apple "Campus 2" building project in Cupertino, California has undergone some revisions to make it perfect. The spaceship-like building is expected to be finished in 2016, about a year later than originally planned and US$2 billion over the original budget.

The revised plans were published today on Electronista and include a host of changes: 240 more parking spaces (bringing the total to 10,980 spaces), four new public art installations, and more bike and walking paths along the private roads around the main building.

But the biggest change is to what is known as the Tantau Development, a separate set of buildings that were going to be built along North Tantau Avenue that would house about 2,...

In 2014, tickets to Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference will possibly sell out before they go on sale. Tickets for this year’s WWDC, which went on sale at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) sold out in fewer than three minutes.

Last year, tickets to the conference took nearly two hours to sell out; in 2011, the event took 12 hours to sell out.

WWDC is Apple’s conference for iOS and OS X developers to attend educational sessions, spend lab time engaging with hundreds of Apple engineers, and socialize with their peers. This year’s conference runs from June 10 through June 14.

This year, Apple promises for the first time to post session videos during the conference, instead of asking those who missed out on attending to wait days or weeks for those...

6Wunderkinder today introduced a new Pro option in its popular to do app, Wunderlist. The new Wunderlist Pro moves the task manager towards small business use by adding features that focus on team collaboration.

Wunderlist Pro now lets users share their workloads by assigning tasks to colleagues and friends. Both parties will be able to update the task and track it as it moves towards completion. Users can also break down a task into subtasks and add as many subtasks as they need, now that subtasks are unlimited.

Wunderlist is available for free from the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. Customers can upgrade to the Pro version via an in-app purchase. Wunderlist Pro costs $4....

After years without an update, Twitter has updated its official Mac app with Retina display support and much more:
Today we’re announcing a few improvements to Twitter for Mac:

• Photos: It’s easier than ever to share photos. Simply click the camera icon in the lower-left corner of the Tweet compose box, and choose a photo to share. If you prefer, you can still drag and drop photos from the desktop.
• Retina display support: Now Twitter is even more vibrant and detailed on the highest resolution Mac notebooks. With this update, Tweets will be clearer and sharper, creating a more vivid...

Tickets for Apple's 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference went on sale at 10AM pacific time, and within two minutes were completely sold out. That's the fastest the event has sold out, beating last year's two hour selling frenzy.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Wow, that was fast. At this rate, WWDC 2014 will sell out before Apple even has tickets available for sale. And if you need proof developers are still very interested in the OS X and iOS platforms, they managed to pack plenty of evidence into a two minute window.

Tickets for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference sold out in a matter of seconds after they went on sale on Thursday, marking the fastest sell-out in WWDC history.   ...

After going on sale at 10:00 AM Pacific Time today, tickets for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco have already sold out in two minutes. WWDC has sold out increasingly quickly in recent years, and this year in particular saw a massive rush of developers ready to purchase at the launch time due to Apple having announced the on-sale time a day in advance. Previously, Apple had begun sales at the moment it announced details on the annual conference, but with last year's tickets selling out in under two hours, some developers found themselves out of luck before they had even woken up for the day. WWDC 2011 sold out in...

Today, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is being dedicated on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. David Greene of NPR talked to former first lady Laura Bush about the library as well as her husband, former president George W. Bush, and his new iPad-inspired hobby.

About three minutes into the conversation, Mrs. Bush talks about her husband's new past time, drawing. His hobby was kicked off when he downloaded an app and started sketching on his iPad. He communicated with Mrs. Bush and their daughter Jenna by sending them self-drawn images of things at home while they were traveling.

You can listen to the Morning Edition clip on NPR'...

Apple's June-quarter MacBook shipments should increase about 10 percent over the previous quarter, say DigiTimes supply chain sources. The people claim that Apple has almost finished consuming excess inventory, and will probably start placing new orders in mid-May. Most of the ordered systems will likely be Haswell-based MacBooks, the sources comment....  ...

Nokia is expected to unveil its response to Apple's iPhone 5 at a newly announced Lumia smartphone media event set for May 14 in London.   ...

I saw Bill Gurley say that you can only make money by being right about something that most people think is wrong. His logic was that you can’t make money by being wrong. And you can’t make money by being right about something everyone else knows. So you have to be right about something that most people think is wrong.

Sounds a lot like what Apple does.
∞ Read this on The Loop

GarageSale is a slick, full-featured client application for the eBay online auction system. With GarageSale Mac OS X users can edit, track and manage all their auctions with one single application - easily and fast.
Use GarageSale's intuitive and reliable interface to create eBay auctions conveniently. Stop waiting for eBay to lead you through endless Web pages step-by-step. No more hassle: Create and manage your auctions with ease
GarageSale is fast, easy to use and comes with everything you need to create, list and manage your auctions. GarageSale also integrates perfectly with iPhoto, offers WYSIWYG text editing, free image hosting and comes with over 130 free auction designs. GarageSale supports many eBay Sites, eBay Motors, Digital Delivery, PayPal, Twitter and eBay Stores. Have a look at the Features section to...

Apple has included one or more versions of python with OS X since Jaguar (10.2). Their latest version, Mountain Lion (10.8), includes python versions 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7. This presence of python on a clean install of OS X makes it a compelling language choice for automation and information gathering scripts – especially when combined with pyObjC and Scripting Bridge. In fact, various portions of OS X rely on the included python environments to function correctly. Attempts to remove python from OS X or re-link /usr/bin/python to an alternate python installation could result in unexpected effects.If you plan on using python with OS X, you should also know that different versions of OS X include different selections of python version. Snow Leopard (10.6), for instance, only offers python 2.5 and 2.6. Knowing which version of python you’re running in can have a major effect on how you write your scripts. Certain language features and module functions are not available in earlier versions...

It's a big day for football fans who are gearing up for the 2013 NFL draft. The first round picks start tonight, Thursday, April 25, at 8:00 pm ET, followed by the second and third round on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Use one or all of these iOS apps below to bone up on the draft picks as well as follow the NFL draft live for the next few days.

Draftpedia [iPhone; Free]

Draftpedia offers comprehensive draft information for the NFL and NBA that extends back to 1970 for the NFL and 1969 for the NBA. It's a wealth of sports draft information right at your fingertips.

2013 Draft HQ - Pro Football [iOS Universal; US$2.99]

2013 Draft HQ - Pro Football is your one-stop shop for information about the draft. Follow news on the top players and read...

Horace Dediu takes a look at Apple’s gross margins back to 2005.
∞ Read this on The Loop

Firaxis, 2K Games, and Feral Interactive have launched a promised Mac port of XCOM: Enemy Unknown in the form of the Elite Edition. The download includes the content of the main game plus a soundtrack, desktop wallpapers, and three DLC add-ons: the Slingshot Pack, the Elite Soldier Pack, and the Second Wave update. The two packs allow for more soldier customization, and add more council missions and the Shaojie Zhang soldier. Second Wave adds a collection of gameplay modifiers....  ...

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• GamersGate: [PC Games] GamersGate Spring Sale: Up to 90% off game downloads for PC or Mac
• TigerDirect: [USB Flash Drives] Centon 64GB USB Flash Drive, security software for $0 after rebate + $4 s&h
• Adorama: [Laser Printers] Dell WiFi Monochrome Laser Printer for $50 + free...

Cyberduck is a robust FTP/FTP-TLS/SFTP browser for the Mac whose lack of visual clutter and cleverly intuitive features make it easy to use. Support for external editors and system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, Keychain and AppleScript are built-in. Cyberduck is a open source product licensed under the GPL and free to use. Donations are welcome to help advance development in the future. Thanks to contributors, Cyberduck is available in English, Japanese, German, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and Polish.Version 4.3:

• [Localize] Arabic Localization
• [Feature] Retina resolution support (#6760)
• [Feature] Notification center support (10.8) (#6792)
• [Feature] Gatekeeper support (10.8) (#6888)
• [Feature] Bucket location in South America (Sao Paulo) Region (S3)
...

You’re gonna either love or hate this.
Per CNET, Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro is the “best performing” Windows laptop.
The MacBook Pro won out over established PC makers like Dell, Acer, and Lenovo, according to Soluto, which was quick to explain its finding.
A main factor in this machine’s metrics is the fact that every Windows installation on it is clean. With PC manufacturers loading so much crapware on new laptops, this is a bit of an unfair competition. But, on the other hand, PC makers should look at this data and aspire to ship PCs that perform just as well as a cleanly...

Tickets for Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference are set to go on sale at 10AM pacific time, or 1PM eastern time, on Thursday, and they'll likely go fast. Last year, the event sold out in just under two hours, and thanks to Apple's decision to announce ticket sales a day in advance, they'll probably go even quicker this year.

WebStart is a US$0.99 utility in the Mac App Store that lets you customize a browser home page with frequently used links, like search engines, news or weather. Yes, you can just use standard bookmarks as you are already doing, but this simple app presents your preferred links on one page.

When you open the app for the first time you'll get a brief tutorial. Basically you create topics and add relevant URLs. You can customize the fonts by color, style and size and choose the fill and background colors.

To further customize the look of your home page, drag and drop headings and topics into an order that works for you. When you are done, save it all, and the app will provide the link for your browser. You can paste it into the location where your browser sets the home page and you're ready to go. You can get a better idea how WebStart works in this...

Want to use binoculars or a telescope as an iPhone lens? There's a Kickstarter for that. Hi Resolution Enterprises designed the Snapzoom, which is an adapter that connects your iPhone to lenses you wouldn't otherwise think of as camera attachments. Your photos benefit from the optics in your binoculars and other long distance viewing tools, and lets you use the gear you already have as a telephoto lens. Snapzoom is compatible with pretty much any smartphone in or out of a case, and fits most binoculars, telescopes, and spotting scopes. The team behind the project is hoping to raise US$55,000 to get Snapzoom off the ground, and there's still about a month left to hit that goal.
...

On Thursday, software company Delicious Monster released version 3.0 of the shareware favorite, Delicious Library. Delicious Monster allows Macs with webcams to scan the bar codes of any book, movie, music CD or video game, then creates an archive based on background information from the Internet. Additional features help keep the library organized and reseller’s tools allow for items to be quickly posted for sale online.
The new version, an 81 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
Major New Features:
- Fully 3D cover view.
- All items are drawn in full 3D [industry first], with multiple light sources and normal, reflection, and environment maps.
- Books are...

On April 25, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new In-Plane Keyboard Illumination system designed to allow future MacBooks to be even thinner. Apple's engineering teams are always pushing the boundaries of industrial design to deliver the very best products in the marketplace.  ...

As part of its new revamped Contacts section coming soon for select users on the desktop, LinkedIn today is also launching a standalone Contacts...

Last year tickets for WWDC sold out about as quick as a Justin Bieber concert with Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars opening up. And this year, I see no reason to expect any less, despite the wonky logo on the website. For more, check out the WWDC site at:
https://developer.apple.com/wwdcSimilar Articles:

• WWDC Tickets On Sale
• WWDC Videos

Copyright © 2008 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of...

That has to hurt.
∞ Read this on The Loop

Delicious Monster is known for Delicious Library, a comprehensive inventory app that lets you track items from every nook and cranny of your life. The OS X app was updated today to version 3.0, and the changes that Delicious Monster made to Delicious Library are impressive.

First and foremost is an improved UI that not only looks better, but has nice touches like the book icons, which vary their thickness based on the number pages in the book. The bookshelf now has crown molding as well as improved lighting and reflections to make it more realistic. Items on your bookshelf now have a 3D look and even pivot to follow your mouse cursor.

New features are abundant in Delicious Library 3 and include a recommendations engine, a wishlist pane and smart shelves that let you create rules to easily populate any shelf. There's also a global search function that supports voice search and shows results from your collections and friend'...

Earlier this week, we gave a brief preview of Delicious Monster's Delicious Library 3, a brand-new version of the company's popular cataloging app for OS X. The app is now available in the Mac App Store [Direct Link], and Ars Technica has a thorough overview of the new features. Among the most immediately obvious changes for existing users of Delicious Library is its updated look, which includes the use of SceneKit to boost the realism, along with subtle animation that allows shelf items to constantly move to face the user's mouse cursor."We cranked up all the visuals and then cranked down every visual effect so it was...

Literature & Latte has introduced Scapple, a project planning and organization tool for Mac OS X (10.6.8 or higher).
Scapple is designed to help you get ideas down quickly and make connections between them. More like a freeform text editor, it allows you to make notes anywhere on the page and to connect them using straight dotted lines or arrows.
read more

On April 25, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that generally relates to future iPhones being able to locate your vehicle in a multi-tiered parking lot. In fact, Apple states that a "parking location" can be any place where a vehicle can be parked, stored, or docked. For example, in the case of a boat, a parking location can refer to a berth in a marina; in the case of an aircraft, a parking location can refer to a location at a municipal airport (e.g., outdoors or in a hangar). The vehicle can go beyond a car and it could be useful in trying to find a bike that you've parked. This new parking system application is likely a sub-system of a broader application. Part one of ......

Image: Engadget
China Daily (via ZDNet) reports that Apple has been ordered by a court to pay 730,000 Yuan ($118,000) to three Chinese authors as their books were apparently uploaded to the iTunes Store without permission.
The uploads appear to have been made by third-parties rather than by Apple directly, and it’s unclear who did upload them, but the court ruled that Apple has a duty to ensure that uploads don’t breach copyright.
The fine is of course small-beer to Apple, but does form further bad PR in the country after previous warranty...

Famed iPhone jailbreaker Comex, whose real name is Nicholas Allegra, tweeted on Tuesday that he will be joining Google as an intern in the coming weeks.

Allegra originally made a name for himself when he released a jailbreak tool dubbed JailBreakMe. As the name implies, the tool enabled users to easily and quickly bypass Apple's iOS security measures.

Allegra's work eventually caught the attention of Apple who decided to hire the Brown University student as an intern in August of 2011.

Allegra lasted 14 months at Apple before being let go under somewhat murky circumstances in late 2012.

As for what Allegra will be up to over in Mountain View, well that's anybody's guess. It doesn't...

From 9to5Toys.com:
Firaxis and 2K Games have officially launched the critically acclaimed XCOM: Enemy Unknown on Mac today. Known as the Elite Edition, the Feral ported Mac version will come with the base game, the Slingshot Pack, the Elite Soldier Pack and the Second Wave update as well as some wallpapers and the soundtrack for $49.99.
The Slingshot and Elite Soldier DLC brings additional character customization as well as extra council missions and the “Shaojie Zhang”...

I admire Tim Cook's unflagging patience with investors and analysts during quarterly conference calls. However, I'm starting to wonder if his subtle digs and point-by-point comments are enough for a guy who's stuck on the biggest tech company stage in the world right now. I just wish he would conduct these calls while languidly sharpening a knife. In fact, I want the guy to pull out a freaking sword -- a metaphorical sword, of course. I want him to use that sword to eviscerate the asinine complaints about Apple.

Perforce Software (www.perforce.com) has released five tips for software teams to consider this spring when managing their development environments. The suggestions are guidelines for maintaining well-organized codebases and improving development processes.
"Springtime is when software projects begin to pick up steam, but longer days don't have to equal longer delivery cycles," says Randy DeFauw, senior product manager at Perforce. "With a well-maintained and well-managed codebase, companies can have peace of mind while ramping up to launch various projects."
read more

Perforce Software (www.perforce.com) has released five tips for software teams to consider this spring when managing their development environments. The suggestions are guidelines for maintaining well-organized codebases and improving development processes.
"Springtime is when software projects begin to pick up steam, but longer days don't have to equal longer delivery cycles," says Randy DeFauw, senior product manager at Perforce. "With a well-maintained and well-managed codebase, companies can have peace of mind while ramping up to launch various projects."
read more

Native Instruments has released Pulswerk, a new Maschine Expansion designed for minimalistic house and techno. It was created by sound designer Denis Gökdag, the creator of NI's Maschine Expansion Transistor Punch, and the name behind Surround SFX and Zynaptiq.
Aside from its 30 drum kits, Pulswerk contains 20 Special Kits created exclusively with pitched sound sources. The Expansion also features an array of Multi-Effect Kits containing pre-sequenced, tempo synced effect chains and 60 new Massive presets.
read more

Sonnet's xMac mini Server 2H is a second model of the company's xMac mini Server Thunderbolt-to-PCI Express (PCIe) expansion system and 1U rackmount enclosure for a Mac mini with a Thunderbolt port.
The new xMac mini Server 2H enables the use of two half-length, full-height PCIe cards, allowing users to select from and install the majority of Thunderbolt-compatible cards into either slot. The original xMac mini Server accommodates one full-length, full-height PCIe card and one half-length, half-height (low-profile) card.
read more

You can never have too much juice for your laptop. Which is where QuickerTek's US$299.95 EyeBattery for all MacBook Pros comes in handy. It adds up to four extra hours of battery power to the MacBook Pro.
read more

Apple’s first store in the German capital Berlin is opening at the unusual time of 5pm on Friday 3rd May. (If you’re confused by the graphic, European dates have the day before the month.)
The graphic has a small play on words, Kurfürstendamm being the area of Berlin in which the store is opening, and the highlighted text reading ‘Apple for Berlin’.
This brings the total number of Apple Stores in Germany to 11. We previously showed some photos and videos of the store preparation here.
(Thanks to Alex and Jim for the tip.)

//

...

A pair of patent filings discovered on Thursday reveal Apple is actively investigating the possibilities afforded by the iOS mobile platform's various wireless connectivity options, including the ability to interact with, and at times control, a Bluetooth-enabled automobile.  ...

Apple sold $2.4 billion worth of apps, music, movies and books via its iTunes store last quarter. That’s almost twice what the company was doing two years ago. And no matter how you look at it, it means Apple is a giant force in digital media retail.
That said, it looks like iTunes’ sales growth may be slowing down.
Last quarter iTunes sales increased 28 percent; in the previous quarter they increased 23 percent. Most retailers would be very happy to see those kind of leaps, but as far as I can tell they are the smallest increases Apple has seen in the last two years.*
You can see what the last two quarters looked like in context, below:

So what does that mean? Dunno. Maybe nothing more than a statistical blip.
If I had to bet, though, I’d put money on a couple different culprits:

• In the old days, when Apple only sold music, iTunes sales rose along side iPod sales: Whenever someone bought a new gadget, they spent some money on songs, too...

1Password is a password manager that uniquely brings you both security and convenience. It is the only program that provides anti-phishing protection and goes beyond password management by adding Web form filling and automatic strong password generation. Your confidential information, including passwords, identities, and credit cards, is kept secure using strong encryption. 1Password fully supports major Web browsers, including Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. All browser extensions share the data stored in the keychain which means you never need to manually copy your passwords between browsers or from the password manager to a browser ever again! 1Password has received numerous awards, including 4.5 mice from Macworld magazine, MacLife Editors pick, and was the Pick of Week on MacBreak Weekly by both Leo Laporte and Merlin Mann. 1Password also has a companion iPhone/iPod touch application available in iTunes App Store.Version 3.8.21:

• Added support for the...

If you like TV, and you like the Internet, you've got some really good options for getting those two crazy kids to play nicely together. Even without a Smart TV in your living room, you can use an HDMI cable to connect your Mac or iPad directly to your big-screen HDTV (although that's a bit of a mobility buzzkill). It's easier to put something in the middle to handle that conversation, at least until Tim Cook and Jony Ive make all our big-screen dreams come true.

For most Apple-centric households, the natural middleman is the $99 Apple TV. Apple's "experiment" delivers 1080p content direct from iTunes, subscription goodies from Netflix or Hulu, sports from the NBA, MLB and NHL, free video from Vimeo and YouTube, and of course your photos, music and videos from household Macs. The relatively recent debut of AirPlay mirroring for Macs in OS X 10.8 means that your computer can...

Movie ticket and promotion app Fandango has updated its iOS app (free) with improvements for both iPad and iPhone users. Those on iPads can now scroll through photos and videos and view in full-screen mode, while iPhone users who are also Visa Signature account holders can purchase tickets faster and receive special offers from Tixpress by saving their card info in the app. The update also features better Facebook sharing and the usual general bug fixes and usability enhancements....  ...

Apple recently submitted a fresh set of plans for its second Cupertino, Calif., campus, adding a few enhancements to the original proposal, including the addition of bicycle pathways and a slightly revised timeline.  ...