Catch up on all of Apple's tax controversy here as both CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer gear up to testify in front of Congress to address Apple's billions in foreign-stored cash.
Livestream of Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer at today's congressional hearing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | ...
| Read more »If Apple has “sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” as Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) of The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims, the company didn’t find it in Ireland. Because according to the Irish government, Ireland is “a highly tax compliant country.” And if it’s allegedly being used as a tax haven by companies like Apple, it’s because loopholes in US tax law allow it to.
“[These] are not issues that arise from the Irish taxation system,” Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said Tuesday, responding to a U.S. Senate investigation that alleges Apple dodged taxes on tens of billions of dollars in profits held in Irish subsidiaries...
RE:Vision Effects has released RE:Match for The Foundry's Nuke and eyeon Fusion. It addresses common problems on multicam and stereo shoots.
RE:Match is a set of plug-ins to match one view of video or film to another so that it looks as if it was shot with the same camera and settings. The software assumes that both image sequences are taken roughly at the same location, but perhaps were not shot at the same time or from the same point-of-view.
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Football fans rejoice (that's soccer for you in America)! Sky Sports has released an update to its popular iPad app that offers a new feature called Sky Sports 360. It lets you switch between over 20 camera angles during a replay. The app also allows you to choose to view the replays at normal speed or in slow motion. Announcing the new feature, David Gibbs, Director of Sky Sports Digital Media, told Sky Sports:
"This is great news for the Sky Sports for iPad app, which keeps getting better and better. This is about putting the technology into the hands of the viewer and allowing them to recapture the big moments in the final. It's the first time we've offered this through our app and it's another example of our investment in the Sky...
| Read more »Bracketron has released the Twist & Charge USB Charger, a solution to overcrowded outlets that provides an USB charging port for mobile devices without blocking or taking up an AC outlet.
It allows users to add an USB charging port to any standard AC outlet. The design features one surge-protected USB outlet that rotates up to 270 degrees. The device is compact and small enough to toss into suitcases. The Twist & Charge USB Charger will be available for purchase on June 19 for US$17.95 at Bracketron.com .
Gus Mueller gives us a list of four points when we’ll know that Apple got iCloud right.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Tonymacx86 points (via 9to5Mac) to recently discovered photos of a Broadcom BCM94360CD Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card that supports the 802.11ac "Gigabit Wi-Fi" standard rumored to be coming to Apple's Mac lineup later this year. While the photos were posted to Chinese site VR-Zone in early March, they are only just now being noticed by those following Apple rumors. While the reports suggest that the new card is intended for the next-generation MacBook Pro or MacBook Air models rumored for...
| Read more »CS Odessa has unveiled a new set of tools and features for ConceptDraw Project to give users more control over project views and resource-allocation. ConceptDraw Project 6.4 is being enhanced with the addition of new resource types, custom filter tools, and a new set of printing options.
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Your Wi-Fi is about to get faster.
Which is never a bad thing.
Per 9to5Mac, additional evidence has surfaced indicating that Apple’s incoming next round of MacBook Air/Pros would contain 802.11AC Gigabit wifi chips, not the least of which was code we found referencing ’802.11AC‘ in 10.8.4 Betas.
Reader TonyMacx86, found some interesting parts on...
HGST says it's offering the highest storage density (MB/mm3) of any hard disk drive (HDD) today. The new Travelstar 5K1500 is the industry's first 9.5mm, 1.5TB mobile hard drive and features the industry's highest capacity in a standard 9.5mm design, the company says.
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This is an excellent deal for any iOS owners who are fans of football and video games. EA is releasing the 25th iteration of the Madden football games this year, called Madden 25. And in that box, which costs a standard $60, there will be a deal with DirecTV and the NFL to set up streaming to your television, your PC and consoles, or any mobile devices you have. The NFL has been stepping up on streaming game coverage to iOS over the last year or so, and usually services like that can cost a couple of hundred dollars.
To get the deal, you'll have to preorder the Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 (which costs $100)...
| Read more »Bobby Owsinski takes a look at some of his favorite compressors. I love the ones he chose, especially the Fairchild and the Universal Audio LA series.
∞ Read this on The Loop
This could prove useful.
Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog and The Verge, wireless carrier AT&T has indicated that all iPhone subscribers will be able to use FaceTime via a cellular connection by the end of 2013, as stated below:
“For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those...
LTE-capable networks will continue to mushroom around the globe through 2018. In particular, frequency-division duplex (FDD) networks will see their population coverage expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33% between 2012 and 2018 to hit 57%, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).
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The US Senate investigation, results of which were disclosed Monday, found that Apple employs a group of affiliate companies outside the United States to avoid paying taxes. The subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and other panel members could hold up Apple as an example of a powerful company using its privileged position to avoid taxes while ordinary Americans must pay them.
| Read more »ZAGG has introduced two new keyboard accessories for the iPad mini. The ZAGGkeys Cover and ZAGGkeys Folio are "ultra-thin" Bluetooth keyboard accessories built with a patent-pending hinge system that offers a range of viewing angles up to 135 degrees.
The new ZAGGkeys Cover is the most versatile Bluetooth keyboard on the market and the thinnest at just 6.3mm, boasts Kent Wuthrich, executive vice president of marketing for ZAGG. It features a hinge that lets users position the screen at virtually any viewing angle as well as reverse the iPad mini for a one-piece reading and playing mode.
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Once again, the strength of Apple's products has led to the Cupertino company being honored as the most valuable brand in the world, topping not only tech rivals like Google and Microsoft, but also giants of industry like McDonald's and Coca-Cola. ...
| Read more »Poser has come a long way from the last time I used it, right around version 4. We're now at 10 for the basic edition (retail US$299.99) and Poser Pro 2014 (retail $499.99) has become a powerful animation tool in its own right. I got to look at some of the new features rolling out today and they are impressive, putting Poser on par with many animation and modeling suites costing much more.
A problem with any humanoid character is how the "skin" folds when you bend it. Poser now offers Pixar's OpenSubdiv libraries, which means subdivision surfaces anywhere you need them. I was impressed with the accuracy and speed at which Poser created subdivisions, which add greatly to the realism already available in Poser. There are also some new characters, both realistic and cartoonish, to help get you started. For basic work the stock characters will keep you busy for quite a while, but there's also a great third party...
| Read more »Before either Apple CEO Tim Cook or Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer took the stand to testify on behalf of Apple to defend the company’s tax practices, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky lashed out on Senator John McCain and Senator Carl Levin for the “spectacle of dragging in here executives from Apple using the brute force of government to bully a great success story.”
Senator Paul, a notable Tea Party leader and son of Representative Ron Paul, is often outspoken on issues of tax reform and made no effort to align for his Republican colleague Senator John McCain.
Chairman Levin didn’t hesitate to bring the narrative against Apple and its tax practices back to the center stage soon after Senator Paul’s comments.
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“Apple has done more to enrich people’s lives than politicians will ever do,” Senator Paul voiced on Twitter after his monologue.
“If there is anyone to blame here it is not Apple, it is Congress and the tax code it created.”
Senator...
iTunes makes it easy to retrieve the artwork from the currently playing song. Just drag & drop the artwork displayed in the iTunes LCD (the bar at the top of the iTunes window, showing artwork, progress bar, etc.) or the MiniPlayer to the Finder, or to any other application that you can drag images to. You'll get a graphic file of the current artwork.
| Read more »The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims Apple has avoided paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes by using offshore entities. “Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” subcommittee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement. “Apple sought the Holy…
| Read more »Senate investigators are accusing Apple of wiring together a complicated system to shield billions of dollars in international profits from both U.S. and foreign tax collectors, reports "Politico" (http://tinyurl.com/kp3hh77).
A report released ahead of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s inaugural Capitol Hill appearance today alleges the tech giant took advantage of numerous U.S. tax loopholes and avoided U.S. taxes on US$44 billion in offshore, taxable income between 2009 and 2012. Apple denies this.
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AT&T has reversed its stance blocking FaceTime video chats over cell signals and will begin supporting that, along with all pre-loaded video chat apps, over LTE without any service plan restrictions before the end of the year. Currently, AT&T allows FaceTime video chats on its data network only for subscribers on shared family data plans.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Better late than never, but AT&T should've had this policy in place from the beginning.
In opening remarks of a hearing Tuesday morning, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused Apple of being the mastermind of elaborate tax avoidance practices that are unique to the iPhone maker. ...
| Read more »Touch Arcade recently had a chat with CCP, the Icelandic developer behind the popular MMO EVE Online, and while there aren't any announcements yet, it certainly sounds like they're gearing up for some iOS apps, or even maybe a client for the game itself. EVE's been on the Mac for a while now, and there have been some third-party attempts at bringing parts of the game to iOS. But CCP has just released a companion game called Dust 514 on the PS3, and that means it's probably time they start thinking about tying in iOS and other popular mobile platforms as well.
There's an app called Neocom coming from CCP to the PS Vita, and executive producer John Lander calls that app a...
| Read more »Zagg, a company that makes high quality keyboard cases for iPads that we’ve reviewed in the past, today introduced two brand new keyboard cover and folio designs for iPad mini. Zagg says both products are ultra-thin Bluetooth keyboards that take advantage of “a unique, patent-pending hinge system that enhances the iPad mini user experience with a full...
| Read more »After jostling in competing memoranda yesterday, Apple and a group of U.S. Senators are prepared to go head-to-head in a committee hearing examining the tax avoidance strategies of Apple and other multinational corporations. CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and Apple's head of tax operations Phillip A. Bullock will appear in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation in the second part of a committee hearing running now. The hearing is streaming live on C-Span and we will be liveblogging the hearing below. Apple yesterday...
| Read more »Update: Live coverage of the Senate hearing on Apple’s offshore tax practices is above.
As things heat up in the row on alleged tax avoidance by Apple, Ireland has denied a claim made by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that it had agreed a special deal with the company to allow it to pay corporation tax of just 2% on its Irish earnings.
The denial was made to Yahoo! Finance reporter Conor Humphries:
According to the congressional report, Ireland had also agreed a special 2 percent rate for Apple’s Irish taxable profits...
Sales of prepaid smartphones in the US consumer market have risen dramatically, doubling in the last year and "continuing a string of more than 12 quarters of triple-digit sales increases" according to a new report from market analysts NPD. Prepaid phones -- defined as either premium smartphones such as the iPhone bought outright to avoid a contract or low-end smartphones aimed at lower-income consumers -- increased 11 percent in year-over-year in the first quarter of 2013.... ...
| Read more »There have been plenty of hints over the past months that indicate that Apple’s incoming next round of MacBook Air/Pros would contain 802.11AC Gigabit wifi chips, not the least of which was code we found referencing ’802.11AC‘ in 10.8.4 Betas.
TonyMacx86, found some interesting parts on Chinese VR-Zone today that could be the next 802.11AC boards in Macs, widely expected to be announced at WWDC next month. The Broadcom BCM94360CD PCI-E mini custom combo WLAN+Bluetooth...
Logitech’s UE brand is often at the top of our list when it comes to the best bluetooth speakers around, so we’re excited that today the company introduced its latest product with the announcement of the ‘UE BOOM’. Logitech is calling this “the world’s first social music player,” and that’s due to the fact that it’s the first to offer 360-degree sound and a 15-hour rechargeable battery. That’s a nice step up from the 5-8 hours you’ll get with most Bluetooth speakers.
Logitech is also following a trend that many Bluetooth speaker manufacturers have been lately: With UE BOOM you’ll be able to wirelessly connect two UE BOOMs via a free companion app to allow for traditional right/left stereo sound and other sound settings. It’s also water and...
Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, joined the team at The Mac Show to talk about Apple's tax payment practices and the U.S. Senate hearing where CEO Tim Cook will be testifying.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three main granted patents. The first covers the possible implementation of a native Push-to-Talk feature for a future iPhone. The second covers a new flexible circuit supporting a double-sided touch panel that technically could be used for a wraparound display ...
| Read more »Have you ever heard the saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?" Apparently none of the rumor blogs have, because they keep publishing the same sketchy rumors from the same terrible sources. Many of these sources (*coughDigitimes* *coughPeterMisekcoughcough*) have proven to be wrong so often that they've been publicly lambasted by numerous actual news outlets... but for some reason, "sources from the Far East" and "analysts" still account for two out of the three legs on the rumor blogs' increasingly shaky table.
Despite 'mounting' pressure, Apple not seen releasing 'iPhablet' until middle of next year (BGR)
This is a perfect example of a rumor with a truly terrible source. Here's your homework assignment, BGR: tell us the last time "analyst" Peter Misek made a prediction about Apple that actually turned out to be...
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The Chrome App Launcher is coming to OSX, providing a simple way to launch Chrome ‘packaged apps’ – web apps that are written in a combination of HTML5, Javascript and CSS but which look and behave like conventional PC or Mac apps …
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Google Chrome team member François Beaufort, who has the whacky job title of Happiness Evangelist (some Google employees get to pick their own job titles), posted the screengrab on his Google+ page.
Chrome Team is currently working on bringing the App Launcher on the Mac platform as you can see in the screenshot below.
You can already give it a try by running the last chromium build available at download-chromium.appspot.com with the –show-app-list switch.
To see it in action, you’ll need to download...
Google is still axing services, and this time it's Google Checkout that's on the execution block. The Internet search giant warned retailers they have until November to find a replacement for the feature, although some users can move to Google Wallet.
The Mac Observer Spin:
This time Google already has an alternative in place for the service it's killing, but considering the number of services the company has killed off over the past few months, that probably isn't instilling much confidence in users.
With Apple under fire for its low international tax rate thanks to corporate subsidiaries housed in Ireland, the Irish government has spoken out on the matter, saying its laws are not to blame. ...
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Apple remains the most valuable brand in the world, in an annual ranking by market intelligence company Millward Brown, reported in Marketing Week.
The Millward Brown Brandz rankings take into account both financial strength and brand equity, a measure of the value consumers place in a brand. Despite Apple’s share-price woes, the brand is regarded by consumers as the ‘gold standard’, says the report …
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“What we see with the most popular or powerful brands is that brand lasts a lot longer, is more...
| Read more »In the aftermath of the devastating tornado that cut a path of destruction through Oklahoma City on Monday, wireless carrier AT&T announced that overage charges would be suspended for the area until June 30 as part of an effort to assist victims, many of whom lost everything. Due to high call volumes as friends and family check on their loved ones, the company said it would add additional resources to relieve cell congestion.... ...
| Read more »mspohr writes with news that Apple might be in a bit of hot water over its policy of offshoring revenues to favorable tax jurisdictions. Only they take it a step further, from the article: "Apple relied on a 'complex web of offshore entities' and U.S. tax loopholes to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on $44 billion in offshore income over the past four years ... The maker of iPhones and iPads used at least three foreign subsidiaries that it claims are not 'tax resident in any nation' to help it avoid paying billions in 'otherwise taxable offshore income,' the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a statement yesterday." ...
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Designers of operating systems can't think of everything that should be in their programs. Utilities are a testament to that. Utilities are software programs that do things that should have been included in an operating system, but weren't. They can help you keep your system performing at top speed, solve irritating problems or just keep valuable information at your fingertips. For example, you might want to have the windows on your desktop placed just so when you're working.
With the iPhone and iPad driving increasingly more of Apple’s profits, the Mac is no longer the defining theme of the company’s financial story that it once was. Which is why new data suggesting domestic Mac sales for the month of April didn’t grow at all is actually reasonably good news for Apple.
According to NPD, Mac sales for the month of April in North America were flat year-over-year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who reported the data, says that’s a “neutral to slight positive” data point for Apple, relative to expectations for its Mac business.
Why neutral? Munster’s own forecast calls for worldwide Mac sales for the June quarter to decline about 5 percent year over year. And last quarter supply issues hampered sales of Apple’s newer Macs. So if NPD is seeing flat sales for April, that potentially bodes well for the current quarter.
Level Mac sales aren’t great, but they’re obviously...
ABI Research's (www.abiresearch.com) latest data on the Internet of Everything (IoE) shows that there are more than 10 billion wirelessly connected devices in the market today; with over 30 billion devices expected by 2020.
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Reggie Ashworth (www.reggieashworth.com) has announced AppDelete 4.0.7, a new version of his application deletion utility. The upgrade sports an upgraded user interface and more.
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FMWebschool has announced FMStudio Pro 1.1.3, bringing new updates for Dreamweaver CS6 and FileMaker Server 12. This combination of technologies enables a direct connection from FileMaker to Dreamweaver.
Experts will appreciate the ability to rapidly create and deploy FileMaker driven websites, according to the folks at FMWebschool. Beginners to web publishing can now build FileMaker websites without knowing PHP by using the simple drag and drop tool-set and live data features, they add.
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KeyCue helps you to use your OS X applications more effectively. Just hold down the Command key for a while - KeyCue comes to help and shows a table of all currently available keyboard shortcuts. When you have found the desired shortcut in the KeyCue table, just type it and continue working as usual. The KeyCue window will disappear automatically. You no longer need to memorize and remember key combinations, just press the Command key and KeyCue tells you what you want to know. Over time, you will automatically remember frequently used shortcuts and become a power user of your favorite applications, working much more efficiently.Version 6.5:
Newer Technology's miniStack MAX, is now available in DVD/CD only read/write optical drive models for computer users that don’t require the Blu-ray functionality of other miniStack MAX models.
As the only four-in-one external drive, optical drive, SD card reader and USB powered hub solution on the market, the miniStack MAX supports multiple interfaces for plug and play storage of entire music, photo and video libraries, as well as burning backups via the internal optical drive, with new and legacy Macs or PCs.
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The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's future Magic Mouse that will utilize a new force sensor. Our report also covers and 4 new design patents covering Apple's Smart Cover and more.
| Read more »Last Fall, a discussion arose on the MacEnterprise list about deployment terminology, with the term “thin imaging” coming in as the winner for variety of (conflicting) definitions. (You can read the thread from the beginning or jump on when the discussion turns to terminology.) I was starting to prepare my session for MacIT 2013 at the time and it made me think more deeply about how we talk about what we do. Much of our deployment terminology is anchored in the past by relating everything to “imaging.” That is a useful point of reference for those transitioning to more modern methods, but I would argue that we have reached the level of maturity in our MacAdmin...
| Read more »HoudahSpot is a flexible file-search tool based on Apple's powerful Spotlight engine.
What a pity, the "Finder" name is already taken. This application would have deserved the appellation! HoudahSpot unleashes the power of Spotlight. It makes good on the promise of quickly finding the files you search for.
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| Read more »The Society for Information Display (SID) is one of the display associations in the world. The association's tradeshow kicks off today in Vancouver, Canada. Hundreds of research papers are presented at the event and new display technologies are introduced. Noteworthy is that LG, Apple's main LCD supplier, will be introducing a new display that Apple may be able to use...
| Read more »In response to the devastating tornado that hit Okalhoma City on Monday, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T announced it will be waiving all overage charges for those affected through June 30. ...
| Read more »As you have come to expect from your two favorite geeks, this show brought to you with real-time logistics: Dave flew in just in time to make the recording of the show, coordinating with John and prepping the agenda from the car while Dave's wife drove him straight to the studio. Good stuff in this show, too, as you'd expect with the kind of frantic energy that went into the prep! Download today (it's free, after all) and enjoy!
View Magazine is a nicely put-together coffee table ebook for the iPad or iPhone that contains photos that are interesting and certainly not run-of-the-mill sunsets and flowers. A variety of photographers have combined to submit some of their favorite work, and they offer some commentary about the images.
There are shots of urban landscapes, people, and nature images, but none are what I would call the standard 'pretty pictures'. That said, the images are striking, and the thoughts behind the images are often illuminating. You won't like everything you see, but there is plenty to choose from.
VIEW Magazine used to require a paid subscription, but it has just gone free, and you can manually download an issue or set it up for automatic downloading to Apple's Newsstand app.
I found the content stimulating and interesting. Any image can be shared to Facebook or via email. You scroll...
| Read more »Apple is preparing to open a new Apple Store in Adelaide, Australia on May 25 at 10AM. The Rundle Place outlet will not only be Apple's first in Adelaide, but also by extension the first in the state of South Australia, which is otherwise sparsely populated. The company has 19 other stores in the country, most of which are in New South Wales or Victoria.... ...
| Read more »Welcome South Australia to the Apple Store family. The Rundle Place Centre Apple Store will open at 10am local time on Saturday May 25th.
An anonymous tipster from the area sent in the above image which is supposed to be the store before opening.
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| Read more »In an update to its website on Monday, Apple revealed its newest retail location in Australia, at Rundle Place Centre in Adelaide, will open its doors on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time. ...
| Read more »A new Senate report (PDF from The New York Times) shows that Apple has been employing potentially sketchy business methods to avoid heavier tax burdens. According to the investigation, the company did dodged billions in potential taxes on $44 billion in foreign income during the past four years.
Some of the interesting bits from the Senate's report: three Apple subsidiaries in Ireland claim no responsibility to pay income taxes to any country. Apple Operations International, one of the Ireland three, reported $30 billion in income during 2009 to 2012 despite having no employees and not filing income taxes anywhere within the last five years. Apple did not violate any laws during this time according to the Senate investigation.
As...
Peter Molyneux's studio 22cans has been working on a Populous followup game called Godus, and the company has just announced a deal for a publisher. DeNA, the Japanese company behind the Mobage social platform, will be publishing Godus on iOS. And the game will also connect up to Mobage in Western companies and in Japan and Korea.
DeNA is an interesting choice for Molyneux -- the company is usually known for casual games, and the audience is largely Japanese so far. But DeNA has definitely been looking to expand to the west and seeking well-known developers to do that with, including a game they're working on with former EA designer Ben Cousins. Plus, Molyneux has released Curiosity on iOS...
| Read more »Facebook on Monday brought its Share Dialog out of beta which, once adopted by iOS app developers, will allow users to share content in-app without first having to sign in to the social network. ...
| Read more »Sony and Apple are at loggerheads over streaming music, AT&T gets ready to open the floodgates on video chat over its network, and the head of Turkey drops in on Silicon Valley. The remainders for Monday, May 20, 2013 are up a stream without a paddle.
One issue holding up Apple iRadio: The economics of skipping songs (CNet)
If you were expecting Apple’s rumored music streaming service to roll out at next month’s WWDC, you might be disappointed. CNet reports that Sony Music is at odds with Cupertino over what Apple will pay for songs that users skip or rate poorly. Here’s a tip, Sony: Make better music. That one’s free!
AT&T says ‘any’ mobile video chat app will work on its network by the...
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Yahoo, which had dropped off the important BrandZ Top 100 ranking several years ago, scratched its way on again this year at No. 92.
The Silicon Valley Internet giant had last been on the key list of brands in 2009, when it had a brand value of $7.9 billion. It now has a brand value of $9.8 billion, which is still down from its $11.4 billion in 2008.
And that’s tiny in comparison to Apple, which remains No. 1 on the list, with a brand value of $185.1 billion. Google ranked as No. 2, with a brand value of $113.7 billion.
Apple rival Samsung’s brand value rose by by 51 percent to $21.4 billion, clocking in at the No. 30 spot.
In tech, Amazon’s brand value was $45.7 billion, rising 34 percent to No. 14. IBM is No. 3 with a brand value of $112 billion.
And more: Microsoft (No. 7, $69.8 billion, down 9 percent); Facebook (No. 31, $21.3 billion, down 36 percent); and eBay (No. 47, $17.7...
Today, Google made it known to its array of merchants that it is discontinuing the Google Checkout functionality, and migrating some existing users to Google Wallet. In a blog post announcing the move, Google called the Wallet product "a platform that enables merchants to meet the demands of a multi-screen world where consumers shop in-stores, at their desks and on their mobile devices." Users have six months to find an alternative solution, if not migrated automatically.... ...
| Read more »In a statement provided to The Verge, AT&T has indicated that all iPhone subscribers will be able to use FaceTime via a cellular connection by the end of 2013.
For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we'll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers. Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by year end. Today, all of our customers can use any mobile...
| Read more »Apple's chain of retail stores continue to be the most profitable retail outlets in the world on a square-foot basis. According to Asymco, Apple hit yet another record in the March quarter for dollars-per-visitor, getting US$57.60 on average from the hordes of ravenous Apple fans that frequent Apple Stores.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Looking at these charts, it's hard to fit the Apple-hater narrative that the company is on some kind of downhill trajectory. Maybe we just need more time, and then surely it will come to pass?
Apple has been making moves over the last year to expand its market share in India after its net profit for their India devision increased 431 percent year to year. Tripling the amount of franchise stores in the country? Check. Trade-in incentives? Check. Now the incentives are continuing with expansions for college students and American Express customers.
The first incentive is designed to draw students into picking up an iPhone. Currently non-student residents who trade-in their smartphones for an iPhone get 7,000 rupees (US$130). Students, however, get 7,777 rupees (around $144) for their trade-in.
Apple's other new incentive is targeted at American Express owners and offers 10% cash back towards the purchase of an iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 before June 10th. The maximum refund...
| Read more »Samsung Display announced today that it is showcasing several mobile to extra-large-sized display prototypes at the Society for Information Display's Display Week. These include a Full HD 1920×1080 mobile AMOLED 4.99-inch display with the world's broadest color gamut, a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 LCD for tablets, and a 13.3-inch 3200 x 1800 LCD for notebooks.... ...
| Read more »It's official: Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer has gone completely bonkers, as the Yahoo-owned Flickr has just announced that all users now have a free terabyte of storage. That's a thousand gigabytes, folks. For free.
As the Flickr website touts, 1 terabyte will hold 537,731 photos at an average size of 6.5 megapixels each. No more are you going to need to scale down the size of your images to fit 'em on Flickr -- just upload them at their native resolution.
It's worth remembering that Flickr has a free iPhone app available to facilitate uploading, viewing, and sharing your images.
Yahoo raises the stakes for free Flickr storage: 1 terabyte originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple...
| Read more »Apple has set up three foreign subsidiaries that the company claims are not resident in any nation for taxing purposes, in an effort to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in taxes to the U.S. and other countries, according to a new report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
Apple has set up a “complex web” of offshore entities to avoid paying taxes, with some subsidiaries set up in low-tax Ireland, according to a report released Monday by the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
One of the subsidiaries set up by Apple has paid no corporate income tax to any nation for the past five years, although it reported $30 billion in net income from 2009 to 2012, the report said. Another subsidiary has paid a tax rate to Ireland of one-tenth of 1 percent or less in 2009, 2010 and 2011, far below the normal Irish corporate income tax rate of 12 percent, according to the subcommittee report.
Apple has negotiated...
| Read more »You can make your own filters for reducing or otherwise adjusting images when exporting in OS X's Preview application.
| Read more »In the wake of Apple's published testimony, US Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) have released their own joint statement on the work of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "Apple Inc. has used a complex web of offshore entities -- including three foreign subsidiaries the company claims are not tax resident in any nation -- to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes," Levin's office writes.... ...
| Read more »A Congressional panel has found that Apple avoided billions in taxes, the New York Times reports, thanks to an intricate network of subsidiaries throughout the globe. The structure of some of these sub-companies in certain countries made them exempt from paying or filing taxes or record-keeping laws.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that kept $74 billion from the IRS between 2009 and 2012. Apple is not charged, however, with breaking any laws.
Apple has published the full text of its upcoming testimony to the Senate congressional panel, which it's scheduled to make on Tuesday. Among those to testify include CEO Tim Cook. Cook spoke with The...
| Read more »As part of a special media event on Monday, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer unveiled major changes to photo management and sharing service Flickr, with full resolution image support, 1 terabyte of storage for each user, and a revamped user interface. ...
| Read more »A Senate committee investigating U.S. corporate tax rates has accused Apple of using a global network of complex subsidiaries to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. The accusation represents a rare bipartisan front in the U.S. Senate, with both Democrat and Republican senators issuing statements in the accusation.
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 May 20, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 20 May 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our...
| Read more »In its continuing quest for domination in the Android market place, Samsung has announced a global contest for developers to make Samsung-exclusive apps. In particular, they're looking for apps that highlight the Group Play function showcased in the new Galaxy S4. Group Play allows users to interact and share content like music, photos, and games with other users. 10 winner developers will split $800,000 in prize money as the company looks for the killer app to help it stand out in the pack of Android handset providers.
The contest requires developers to use Samsung's Chord SDK media streaming service to be eligible for the prize money. $200,000 goes to the first prize winner, three second-place winners get $100,000 each, and the remaining six third-place winners pocketing $50,000 apiece.
Entries will be judged based on originality, design, functionality, and...
| Read more »Facebook has brought a native Share Dialog for iOS out of beta via an updated SDK, v3.5.1. The change means that third-party iOS 6 apps will be able to share activity to Facebook without always requiring a login first. People should also be able to tag friends from within those apps.... ...
| Read more »Reading this will give you a good idea of what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s going to be messy.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Following this morning's acquisition of Tumblr, Yahoo today hosted an event in New York City to detail changes to its popular photo sharing site Flickr. Flickr on the web has been given a major design overhaul, with a focus on full resolution pictures. In addition to eliminating much of the white space on the site, Flickr is now displaying in-line photo streams that encompass the majority of the screen and detailed photo-centric profile pages. Flickr has also implemented a slideshow mode to allow its users to flip through photos hands-free. With the redesign, Flickr is encouraging its users to upload high resolution photos by giving every Flickr user 1TB of storage space for free. That is a marked increase from its former photo storage policy, which limited users' monthly upload bandwidth and allowed only 200 photos to be visible. Flickr will allow up to 3 minutes...
| Read more »Just hours after Apple published the full testimony which CEO Tim Cook plans to give to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the U.S. Senate, the government body issued its own findings on the company's offshore tax practices, saying subsidiaries were used to purposefully avoid paying billions of dollars in domestic taxes. ...
| Read more »Noise Industries has added Andy Mees' free Safe Guides plug-in to the FxFactory family of plug-ins and generators. Designed for use in Final Cut Pro(R), Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects, Safe Guides includes preset guides for 4:3, 14:9 and 16:9 title and action safe areas, an EBU/BBC compliance override and center cross marker.
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Tim Cook’s taking on the tax man. On Tuesday, the Apple CEO will appear before the U.S. Senate’s permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to discuss that body’s look into multinational companies and how they pay taxes. As a special preview to those who really can’t wait to hang on Cook’s every word, Apple on Monday released its head honcho’s testimony.
Those searching for even the merest hint of Apple’s future plans will want to find another tree up which to bark: the 18-page testimony deals almost exclusively the relatively dry subjects of Apple subsidiaries, the company’s corporate structure, and its broad suggestions for overhauling the federal tax system. Given that, it’s no surprise that Cook will be joined by Peter Oppenheimer, the company’s CFO, and Phillip Bullock, Apple’s head of tax operations.
Apple acknowledges that a corporate tax overhaul may may mean that it pays more, but says that...
| Read more »Tired of the same old keyboard design and looking for something a bit different? The Penclic Mini Keyboard K2 (US$69.95) definitely fits the bill in terms of not being the typical keyboard, and as you'll see in this review that's not necessarily a good thing.
Design and Functionality
When I think of Scandinavian design, I usually think of sleek minimalist wooden furniture. The Swedish-designed Penclic Mini Keyboard K2 comes in black (unless you're looking at the company's website, where the keyboard is white), and definitely has a different look to it. It's about the same width and depth of the Apple Wireless Keyboard, but with a top end that swoops up. It's striking but difficult to describe; if that description makes no sense to you, just take a look at the photos. That thick top end is where the batteries -- a pair...
| Read more »Original release date: May 20, 2013 | Last revised: May 21, 2013
Systems Affected
Overview
On May 16, 2013, US-CERT was notified that both www.federalnewsradio[.]com and www.wtop[.]com had been compromised to redirect Internet Explorer users to an exploit kit. As of May 17, 2013, US-CERT analysis confirms that no malicious code remains on either site.
Description
The compromised websites were modified to contain a hidden iframe referencing a JavaScript file on a dynamic-DNS host. The file returned from this site was identified as the Fiesta Exploit Kit. The exploit kit script uses one of several known vulnerabilities to attempt to download an executable:
TMO cofounder and copublisher Bryan Chaffin will be speaking Monday evening at the monthly meeting of the Silicon Valley Macintosh User Group. Bryan will be talking about Apple, the high noise-to-signal ratio in coverage of the company, and what we might expect at June's World Wide Developer Conference.
A Senate subcommittee has released a 40-page memo accusing Apple of not paying billions of dollars in federal taxes through "extensive tax-avoidance strategies". Apple CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and Apple's head of tax operations Phillip A. Bullock will appear in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation tomorrow. The company issued a statement earlier today in a preliminary defense against the Subcommittee's accusations. The subcommittee, which previously explored tax avoidance by other multinational corporations using offshore subsidiaries, found similar practices at Apple. In addition, the subcommittee review discovered an unusual tax scheme: Apple’s claim...
| Read more »Apple Inc. has set up corporate structures that have allowed it to pay little or no corporate tax—in any country—on much of its overseas income, according to the findings of a U.S. Senate examination released Monday evening.
The unusual result is possible because the iPhone maker’s key foreign subsidiaries argue they are residents of nowhere, according to the investigators’ report, which will be discussed at a hearing on Tuesday where Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook will testify.
The finding comes from a lengthy investigation into the technology giant’s tax practices by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.).
Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Apple has released Tim Cook's official statement to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments.
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Yahoo has been busy. I like this look better.
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Congrats to everyone involved. This is a great look at Tumblr from the inside.
∞ Read this on The Loop
All of a sudden Flickr is back. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s Tumblr (that was quick!) post on the matter:
Photos tell the stories — stories we’re inspired to relive, share with our friends, or capture simply to express ourselves. Collecting these moments is a part of our everyday. Since 2005, Flickr has become synonymous with inspiring imagery. Today, we’re thrilled to take Flickr even further with a beautiful, completely re-imagined experience that puts photos front and center. When it comes to photography, technology and its limits shouldn’t hinder the experience. So we’re also giving our Flickr users one terabyte of space — for free. That’s enough for a lifetime of photos — more than 500,000 original, full-resolution, pixel-perfect, brilliant photos. Flickr users will never have to worry about running out of space.
1TB is “I no longer have to think...
| Read more »A TUAW staffer recently asked if there were a way to snapshot the exact same region of the screen over and over at timed intervals without buying third-party software.
There is, but it depends on your comfort with the command line. If you're experienced in Unix scripting, read on. If not, you may want to investigate standalone screen-capture apps instead.
I pointed him to /usr/sbin/screencapture. This built-in OS X utility allows you to specify a screen region to capture. For example, to capture a 50x200 rectangle starting at the point 200, 200, you'd say:
% /usr/sbin/screencapture -R"200,200,50,200" ~/Desktop/foo.png
You can easily apply a Unix shell script to create numbered output files. Unix commands will also enable you to sleep and repeat the capture requests over time.
The utility is Retina-ready. Since it captures in points (and not pixels), the results are twice as big in each dimension when run on Retina systems....
| Read more »This is along the lines of what I would expect in iOS. Not throwing everything away, but more updating and modernizing the interface.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Speaking at tonight's Yahoo press event in New York City, Marissa Mayer and Yahoo's Mobile Engineering Senior Vice President and Flickr product manager Adam Cahan revealed the new Flickr and accompanying new Android app, offering users 1TB of photo storage in a "very metro" user interface.... ...
| Read more »Apple has already made its planned remarks before a Senate committee on Tax Reform known.
Here’s what the other side has to say via Michigan’s Carl Levin (Democrat) on the senator’s view of Apple’s tax avoidance strategy:
“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven. Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere. We intend to highlight that gimmick and other Apple offshore tax avoidance tactics so that American working families who pay their share of taxes understand how offshore tax loopholes raise their tax burden, add to...
Apple is testing 1.5-inch OLED touchscreens for use in its upcoming smartwatch, claims Taiwanese publication the Economic Daily News. Apple is in fact said to have tried 1.8-inch screens, but judged that they were too big. The 1.5-inch panels are reportedly being manufactured by Taiwan's RiTdisplay, and use one-glass-solution touch sensors, which should allow Apple to keep the watch thin.... ...
| Read more »Apple released the testimony CEO Tim Cook will submit to a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, including some of the details of a proposal to overhaul the U.S. corporate tax system. In a 16 page PDF, Apple asked that Congress eliminate all corporate tax loopholes, lower the corporate income tax rates, and to implement a "reasonable tax" on foreign earnings.
At a media event in New York today, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced a new office in Times Square for the Silicon Valley Internet giant.
“From one Mayor to another,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Mayer (get it?) about locating in Manhattan’s iconic location, which will house 500 Yahoo employees.
But not Tumblr, which will remain blissfully downtown, even after its $1.1 billion all-cash acquisition by Yahoo announced today.
“We’re very happy that Tumblr is a home-grown company,” said Bloomberg,
Irony alert: Yahoo’s new digs in the Big Apple is actually the old HQ of the New York Times.
“Twenty years ago there were a lot of Yahoos in New York,” said the Bloomberg, channeling Jackie Mason and then touting the local tech industry and reeling off the stats.
Boiled down:...
A few months ago I reviewed an external hard drive enclosure I was pretty fond of -- the Mercury On-The-Go-Pro. Today I want to tell you about one I like even more: The Oyen Digital MiniPro enclosure. The two enclosures actually are very similar in functionality. They both allow you to take your old laptop hard drives, insert them into the enclosure, and turn those old drives into useful spare external drives. They also both offer one USB 3.0 port and two Firewire 800 ports. The reason I like the Oyen Digital MiniPro more, however, is because its design mirrors the Mac Pro. It's made from a solid aluminum housing that Mac Pro users know and love. Because of this, it actually looks like it was designed by Apple. The enclosure is also bus-powered, so no power cord is required.
The Oyen Digital...
| Read more »At its event last month Facebook showed us a native Share Dialog as part of its Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS update, and today Facebook announced on its blog that the feature is now available to developers.
Now officially out of beta, the native Share Dialog will allow developers to implement easier sharing features into their apps using a single line of code. Facebook said it provides “a lightweight and consistent way to enable sharing from your apps,” allowing users to share data from apps without first having to login into Facebook. The result is the elimination of 1 – 3 extra steps required for login when sharing via the feed dialog and an experience similar to using a Facebook Like button.
The Share Dialog further improves upon the...
AT&T has made a statement suggesting the carrier will allow all mobile video chat apps over cellular on its network by the end of the year. In a statement made to The Verge, AT&T said that pre-loaded Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry’s video chat apps will be enabled by mid-June…
| Read more »Apple is making some moves to make its iPhone line more affordable in India. Deals sponsored by Apple with partners include credit card rebates, trade-in discounts, subsidies, and modified payment plans. As a result of the plans, analysts expect "significant growth" in the region.... ...
| Read more »While Apple's 15" MacBook Pro was the first consumer notebook to gain a Retina-level display nearly a year ago, it is no longer the only such offering, as Google's Chromebook Pixel with its 12.85" 2560x1700 display and Toshiba's Kirabook with a 2560x1440 220 PPI display have joined the market in recent months. Seeking to raise the ante on Retina displays, Samsung and Sharp have both introduced new high-resolution displays in the past week, targeting notebooks and ultrabooks with the latest technology. The new displays from both companies sport 16:9 ratios, making them unfit for Apple's line of notebooks, which all use 16:10 ratio displays, but they should make Retina displays a mainstream feature in the relatively near future. Sharp last week announced new...
| Read more »Apple has released a document containing CEO Tim Cook’s testimony ahead of his scheduled appearance tomorrow before US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Responding to questions about the company keeping more than $100 billion overseas, Apple used the testimony to state that it does not use tax gimmicks, and…
| Read more »Nozbe is a tool that helps busy professionals and teams organize time and manage their projects to get things done efficiently and effectively.
Nozbe keeps your tasks in sync. Featuring not only a powerful web app but also apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android (phones and tablets), Mac and Windows PC. (WP8 and BB10 apps in June).
Nozbe also keeps your team in sync. Easily share projects with anyone to delegate and comment on to-dos.
Nozbe also works with your favorite apps — you can comment on tasks with your Evernote notes and Dropbox files. You can also sync your date sensitive Nozbe tasks with Google Calendar.
Nozbe is Freemium. When you upgrade, use coupon code FIREBALL and get 20% off on any Nozbe plan (this week only!).
| Read more »If you are unable to sign in or purchase content from the iTunes Store, you may see the following alert:
"iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Store. A secure network connection could not be established.
Make sure SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 is enabled in the Internet Options control panel, then try again."
AT&T has made a statement regarding the future of video chat applications on its LTE network. According to the telecom company, all "pre-loaded video chat apps" will be available for all of its wireless customers "regardless of data plan or device" by the end of the year. The move is a turnaround from previous decisions by the company to prohibit use of FaceTime and now Google Hangouts chat on mostly grandfathered unlimited data plans.... ...
| Read more »AT&T has announced that all mobile video chat applications, including Apple's FaceTime, will work over its cellular network by the end of this year. ...
| Read more »A day ahead of CEO Tim Cook's planned appearance in front of the US Senate, Apple has published its official testimony (PDF) for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In the document, the company lobbies for corporate tax reform, specifically arguing that the government should be "revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates; and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US." Apple has roughly $100 billion in overseas cash, which it has refused to repatriate unless it can pay l... ...
| Read more »Apple has introduced incentives to make the iPhone more affordable for customers in India. Indian students who trade in an old smartphone will get 7,777 rupees ($144) toward a new iPhone. Non-students will earn the equivalent of $130 toward an iPhone purchase. Additionally, customers who use an American Express credit…
| Read more »Learn how to install Windows 7 drivers on your MacBook Air (11-inch, Late 2010) or MacBook Air (13-inch, Late 2010) computer.
| Read more »From 9to5Toys.com:
Are you ready for some football? Last Friday our 9to5Toys team discovered an Amazon exclusive preorder bonus that will make most gamers’ wives and girlfriends cringe.
The first 50,000 orders of Madden 25 for the...
There have been a number of mixers that utilize iOS devices that I never really liked, but this looks promising. It’s the first one I’ve seen that I’d like to try.
∞ Read this on The Loop
When Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook testifies before the U.S. Senate this week, he will make his case for comprehensive corporate tax reform, arguing that the current tax system actually undermines the competitiveness of American companies. ...
| Read more »Back in January, AT&T decided to open up Apple’s FaceTime video chat service over its cellular network to all users on its new tiered plans. Unfortunately, that left those still on grandfathered unlimited data plans out in the cold. According to a statement from the carrier (via TheVerge), by mid-June all customers with LTE devices will have access to the feature on its network:
For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan...
Great that Apple made this public.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.comApple CEO Tim Cook will testify Tuesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation as part of its examination of U.S. companies’ offshore tax practices, and he’ll defend the company’s handling of its international holdings while urging corporate tax reform here.
Cook’s travelling to DC well-armed. He’ll present some 18 pages of prepared testimony touching on everything from the “extraordinary” sums Apple pays annually in corporate income tax to the rationale for its massive foreign cash holdings and a careful rebuttal to allegations that it uses its Irish subsidiary to avoid US taxes. On that last issue, which has drawn scrutiny in the media, the company’s argument is particularly pointed:
According to Cook’s...
In a statement to The Verge on the future of pre-loaded apps, AT&T today revealed that it is planning to offer FaceTime over cellular to all of its customers on any data plan by the end of 2013.For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers. Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by year end.When FaceTime...
| Read more »Apple on Monday published in full the formal testimony that Chief Executive Tim Cook plans to give before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the U.S. Senate. ...
| Read more »Spring means migration and the return of birds to many parts of North America. It also means warmer weather and sunny days that are perfect for birding. Here is a list of apps to help you get outside and start learning about our feathered friends (all prices are USD).
Field Guide for birds [iOS Universal; $0.99 to $19.99]
There are several big name field guides that include photos and illustrations to help identification, bird calls, range data and other information about each bird species. Included in this list of guides is Audubon, Peterson, Sibley, and the all-digital iBird.
Audubon Birds is a digital version of the popular paperback field guide. It has excellent images of the birds, range maps and multiple calls and songs for each bird. It also includes NatureShare which allows you to find and share local bird sightings. The Audubon Birds app is on sale now for $3.99, down from $14...
| Read more »Everyone who's into theatrical movies knows the drill: what do I want to see next? What have I already seen? What's available now in theaters? iTunes? What's coming out soon? Let's view the trailer. And so on. ToDoMovies is an iPhone app that manages all that beautifully, and it's a must for movie fans.
Apple today has published its testimony proposing corporate tax reform and detailing the company’s tax practices ahead of CEO Tim Cook’s appearance at a Senate hearing on offshore tax practices scheduled for tomorrow.
In the testimony, Apple proposed what it called comprehensive corporate tax reform that should: Be revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates; and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US.
While some Subcommittee members may have differing views on these tax policy matters, Apple hopes the Subcommittee will see that these recommendations aim to create meaningful change and go well beyond what most US companies propose. As both a pioneer and...
Apple today released a statement [PDF] ahead of Apple CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and head of tax operations Phillip A. Bullock's appearances in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation tomorrow. In the seventeen page statement, Apple notes that it has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the United States -- both directly and through suppliers and contractors. It notes that the company paid nearly $6 billion in federal taxes in fiscal 2012 and the company expects to pay $7 billion in 2013. The company also says Apple "does not use tax gimmicks", pushing back against reporting in The New York Times that...
| Read more »Learn which versions of StorNext can be used in the same SAN with Xsan controllers, and which versions of Xsan can be used in the same SAN with StorNext controllers.
| Read more »Tumblr, which was purchased by Yahoo today for a cool $1.1 billion, received an update for iPhone and iPad today that introduces a new post type chooser that resembles fan stacks on the dock in OS X but still includes a 17+ rating. The update also includes attributing app sources to posts shared on Tumblr. This update doesn’t seem to reflect any changes from Yahoo as the social blogging platform was just acquired this morning.
//
What’s New in Version 3.3.2
A couple of cool updates for iPhone and iPad:
- Fancy new post type chooser
- App attribution on posts...
A new report from market analysts NPD Group indicates that US Mac sales for the month of April were about even with the same month last year, which some analysts see as a positive sign for Apple. However, NPD's data -- which is normally considered reasonably accurate -- only covers US sales, meaning the higher percentage of Mac sales overseas is making meaningful predictions difficult.... ...
| Read more »Samsung is hoping to draw more developers to the Android OS platform and to spark interest in the Group Play feature on the Galaxy S4 smartphone with a contest that includes US$800,000 in prize money. Group Play lets Galaxy S4 users share content like photos, music and games, and for the feature to take off, Samsung needs some apps that actually take advantage of what it offers. Investing in a contest, however, probably isn't the best use of the company's money.
Apple is continually trying new methods to get its products into the hands of Indian consumers, and the Cupertino company recently rolled out a range of new offers to attract iPhone buyers in the world's second-most populous country. ...
| Read more »Anil Dash gives his perspective of Tumblr as it grew.
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"Wait, who's Brett Terpstra? Does that guy still write here?" Yes, he does, on special occasions. The release of Lick of the Day 2.0 seemed like a decent reason to come out of hiding.
Lick of the Day is an app from Agile Partners for iPhone and iPad which teaches guitar players new skills in an easy to digest video and interactive format (see previous coverage by Matt Tinsley). With each lesson you get a high-quality video that includes explanations, fast and slow versions as well as tips for making the most of picking patterns and finger positions. Each lick also includes tab/notation, text narrative and backing tracks for practicing. The live fingerboard representation as the tab plays for you is one of my favorite parts of the app.
In version 2, Agile partners with TrueFire to include 20 new Lick Packs...
| Read more »SwitchEasy is now offering a a version of its cocoon laptop case designed for the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. Built form a polycarbonate material, the cocoon is offered in four different colors, black, white, grey and yellow, and features a textured finish for improved grip. The case provides protection to the entire exterior of the laptop and comes with four rubber feet to keep the laptop from sliding around on a desk. The cocoon can be purchased through SwitchEasy's online store for $50.... ...
| Read more »The latest data from the NPD Group shows that domestic sales of Mac computers were about even year over year in the month of April, which one analyst interprets as potentially a positive sign for Apple. ...
| Read more »A new study from Asymco analyst Horace Dediu finds that Apple is continuing to outpace the rest of the retail industry in sales per customer, sales per store and sales per square foot -- more than double the income of the second-place finisher Tiffany & Co and three times the third-place entry, Lululemon Athletica. In addition to retaining the crown of retailers, Dediu found revenues had increased from a year ago.... ...
| Read more »Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster today released a brief report highlighting April data from market research firm NPD looking at Apple's U.S. Mac and iPod sales. The data shows Apple's Mac sales coming in flat year-over-year, and while Munster acknowledges that it has become increasingly difficult to extrapolate NPD's numbers to Apple's global sales performance, he views the latest data as "neutral to slight positive" relative to expectations for the company.Based on the differences between NPD data and Apple reported Mac sales over the past few quarters, we note it is becoming more difficult to draw conclusions from NPD data (see table below). We note that some of the more recent supply issues with the redesigned Macs have impacted the Apple reported numbers over the past two quarters. At the end of the day, we believe this April data point is likely a neutral to slight positive given our expectation that iPads will continue to cannibalize Macs over the next few years.Munster...
| Read more »“I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.”
That’s what David Goldstein, president of research outfit Channel Marketing, said of Apple after the grand opening of the company’s first retail stores in 2001. Yet 12 years later, the lights in Apple’s stores remain lit, there are 406 of them spread across 14 countries, and they boast hands-down some of the most valuable retail space in the world.
In the first quarter, Apple’s average revenue per store topped out at about $13 million, reaching its highest level ever for a non-holiday quarter, according to Asymco analyst Horace Dediu. And the company collected a record $57.60 in revenue per visitor, with about $12 of that being profit.
Impressive numbers for Apple, which continues to outperform...
Asymco mobile industry analyst Horace Dediu is up to his number-crunching again, this time with numbers showing that Apple Stores continue to have the top retail revenues per visitor of any retailer in the US.
The first quarter of 2013 (Apple's second fiscal quarter) saw visitor growth of 7 percent and a new record revenue of US$57.60 per visitor. Average revenue per store was $13 million, a record-setting level for a non-holiday quarter.
Dediu noticed that the average visitors per store has steadied out at about 250,000 per store per quarter, and posits that that number might be stagnant because fire regulations keep the stores from packing in even more visitors. Apple's employment in stores has increased as well to about 110 employees per store, climbing from less than half that level in 2007.
Apple's new retail strategy appears to be expanding US stores in...
| Read more »Michael Lopp:
The cap on WWDC tickets means it won’t go the way of SXSW – a wildly successful conference that has grown consistently since its inception. I used to go every year until one late night we looked around a huge sea of strangers and decided that we no longer knew this conference. The experience had become diluted. It had become unfamiliar, full of strangers, and unknowable.
There is a lot of truth to that. A lot of people go to WWDC to meet up with old friends — the socializing is just as important as the sessions for many people. Lopp provides some other great insights in the article too.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Apple's retail stores have been ranked as the U.S. retail chain with the highest sales per square foot for a number of years and according to a new report from Asymco’s Horace Dediu, the company also outranks competitors when it comes to revenue per visitor, hitting a record high of $57.60 per visitor in the first quarter of 2013. Apple experienced a seven percent growth in visitors during the quarter, leading to an average of $13 million in revenue per Apple Store, which is the highest it has been during a non-holiday quarter. During its Q2 financial results call, Apple reported a total of $43.6 billion in revenue with $5.2...
| Read more »There is no doubt that a Lennon-owned guitar is worth a lot of money, but wow.
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Users of iOS file management apps File Lite and File Lite Pro might want to delete the apps from their iOS devices for now (or at least turn off Wi-Fi sharing). That's because the Vulnerability Laboratory has discovered three vulnerabilities in the latest versions of the apps, according to iMore.
The worst vulnerability allows an attacker to upload files to a user's account without any interaction, while the other two permit code injection in the user's browser while they are viewing file listings. All three exploits require that a user has the apps' Wi-Fi sharing option turned on.
Since the vulnerabilities were discovered on May 17th, the app has not been...
| Read more »A new and wild analyst report sees Apple's stock rocking to $888/share in the not-too-distant future based on Apple announcing an inked deal with China Mobile later this year driven by a new mid-range iPhone.
| Read more »For every person who visited an Apple retail store last quarter, the company took in a record setting $57.60 in revenue, according to a new analysis. ...
| Read more »The last time I talked to the guys from Happy Owl Studio, they were busy cranking out great-looking leather bags for Apple devices. Now the company is producing the Cashbox (starts at US$750 - $1,500, depending on the payment solution selected for the register), a product that was still in planning back in early '12 and is now ready to give your iPad cash register a solid and sustainable home.
As you'll see in the video at the bottom of this post, Happy Owl uses sustainably grown and harvested bamboo wood that is then cut to precise measurements with a CNC milling machine, laser-etched with a logo of your choice and hand-finished. The guts of the Cashbox are all industry-standard -- an iPad, of course, as well as a Star receipt printer and a Vasario cash drawer.
The Cashbox can not only accept...
| Read more »The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been touring Silicon Valley companies this week, on the heels of a similar tour by Turkish President Abdullah Gül last month. Both men received VIP tours of facilities at Microsoft and Google, and met privately with officials from Apple. All three companies are hoping to land a contract to supply the country with at least 10.6 million tablets for the country's students.... ...
| Read more »Museum buffs and tourists might want to download Google's Field Trip app right now. As we've told you before, the location-based app shows you cool things to do while on a trip. For a limited time, the app will also get you into 13 major US museums for free, as Google announced on the Field Trip Google+ page:
Rumor has it you can visit 13 museums in 6 cities for FREE with Field Trip...
RUMOR CONFIRMED!!! For a limited time you can walk into any of these for free:
Conservatory of Flowers, SF
California Academy of Sciences, SF
Walt Disney Family Museum, SF
Museum of Contemporary Art, LA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Adler Planetarium, Chicago
The Field Museum, Chicago
Museum of the city of...
Ahead of a planned purchase of more than 10 million tablets, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Apple's campus to hear the company's pitch for the iPad's use in education. ...
| Read more »Cobook Contacts is a better address book that makes contact management enjoyable for millions of people every day. Find contacts faster and organize them with tags. Get integrated social profiles and keep contacts up-to-date automatically. Highlights:
Version 1.2.6:
The team behind the social networking service App.net has a new app out called App.net Passport that gives users an easy all-in-one tool for managing their account on their iPhone. The app lets users create and edit accounts, find and follow other App.net users, and search for client apps. You can also use the app to sign up for a free-level App.net account. What it doesn't do is let you post to or read your App.net feed -- but that's on purpose, since App.net Passport is all about account management, not posting and reading. App.net Passport for iPhone is free and is available at Apple's iTunes-based App Store.
We showed you images of what we expect the fifth generation of the iPad to look like back in January, and today Digitimes reports that the updated hardware could be 25-33% lighter than the current full-sized iPad.
We expect the next 9.7″ iPad to resemble the design of the 7.9″ iPad mini, but dropping a third of its weight is certainly a tall order as it would bring it just under a pound.
Current iPads without cellular connectivity weigh in at 1.44 pounds while the iPad mini is much lighter at 0.66 pounds, but the iPad mini doesn’t require as much LED backlighting as the larger, Retina display full-sized iPad, though the report claims the next full-sized iPad will use a single...
Yahoo has confirmed it has bought Tumblr, in a deal noted yesterday to be in the region of $1.1 billion. The search company has already moved its company blog over to the blogging platform, and despite CEO Marissa Mayer saying "We promise not to screw it up," there is reportedly a large jump in the number of users moving from Tumblr to Wordpress.... ...
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Handbrake, Eric Petit’s incredibly useful open-source DVD ripping/conversion utility, has been updated to version 0.9.9.
The new version, a 9.1 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes:
General:
- Improved HandBrake pineapple icon by Matt Johnson.
- Improved Retina-resolution icons within the application, by Nik Pawlak (http://nikpawlak.com).
Core:
- Blu-ray (PGS) subtitle support.
- Works with Foreign Audio Search.
- Can be...
Apple is testing a 1.5” OLED display for use in its smart watch, according to a report in Taiwan’s Economic Times. Reportedly, the company was looking at a 1.8” display, but decided for some reason that it was too big. For comparison, the sixth-generation iPod nano contained a wearable…
| Read more »Digitimes briefly reports that Apple will be releasing updated notebooks "in the near future", with supply chain sources indicating that Apple's orders will rise 20% in the second quarter compared to first-quarter production.The new MacBooks are only expected to receive specification upgrades to Intel's latest Haswell platform and are estimated to be unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, the sources said.Claims of a 20% increase in orders come less than a month after the site claimed that orders would see a 10% increase for the quarter, although overall notebook shipments for 2013 are expected to be flat or only slightly higher year over year due to a lack of major updates and a weak PC market. Late last month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo...
| Read more »The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was seen visiting Apple's headquarters in Cupertino over the weekend, reports The Hurriyet Daily News. The visit was part of a series of stops to major technology companies in Silicon Valley, including Google and Microsoft. The visit wasn't just out of casual interest on the PM's part, however. Turkey is seeking to purchase 10.6 million tablet computers for use in its schools.
Even for a company as large as Apple, an additional 10.6 million iPads sold would be massive. It's unknown who Erdoğan met with at Apple, but this was not the first time a Turkish government official stopped by. Way back in 2011, Turkish Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan visited Apple to discuss the same tablet education...
| Read more »Rumors out of Taiwan claim Apple is currently testing 1.5-inch OLED displays from RITEK for its smartwatch device. That display will apparently be linked to RitFast sensors to make it touch-sensitive.
The Mac Observer Spin:
If the iWatch is just an accessory to the iPhone or iPad, it doesn't make sense for Apple to release the product. Apple's primary product line is all about stand-alone devices that also happen to interact really well with other Apple gear.
A report in the Taiwanese trade paper DigiTimes -- which has a mixed track record of accuracy -- claims that Apple will begin large-scale production of the fifth-generation iPad in July, with a possible launch in September. The new model is said to be significantly thinner than the previous full-size model, which was unveiled last September. The report also claims the unit will be a third lighter than the current model.... ...
| Read more »It’s in the rumor mill, so part of it must be true.
Per ” target=”_blank”>Macotakara and AppleInsider, development of Apple’s rumored smart watch is allegedly gaining momentum, as a pair of new reports claim the company is testing 1.5-inch OLED screens for a wrist-worn device, and that Foxconn has been contracted to build a trial batch.
The latest rumors on Apple’s so-called “iWatch” were highlighted on Monday by Macotakara. The publication spotted pair of reports from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News which, like other publications that print unattributed rumors stemming from Apple’s supply chain, has a hit-or-miss track record.
In the first report, the publication claims that Apple is testing organic light emitting diode displays for its anticipated smart watch...
A new report sheds light on the latest issue alleged to be delaying negotiations for Apple’s streaming radio service: Apple and Sony Music have yet to agree on how much Apple should pay for songs which people only listen to partially before skipping. The report notes that Pandora pays…
| Read more »iTunes 11.0.3 provides AppleScript support for controlling AirPlay devices. Below is a basic script that illustrates how AirPlay devices can be selected and applied using some of the new iTunes AppleScript classes and properties:
tell application "iTunes"
set apDevices to (get every AirPlay device whose available is true)
if apDevices is {} then display dialog "No Airplay devices available." buttons {"Cancel"}
set apNames to (get name of every AirPlay device whose available is true)
set selAirplayDevices to (get name of every AirPlay device whose selected is true)
set chosenNames to choose from list apNames default items selAirplayDevices with prompt "Select Airplay device:" with multiple selections allowed
if chosenNames is false then return
set apChoices to {}
repeat with i from 1 to length of ...
Apple’s US retail stores, which already make more money than any other store per square foot, also top the list when it comes to revenues per visitor, according to figures from Asymco’s Horace Dediu (via CNET).
Dediu calculated that in the latest quarter’s figures, Apple achieved an average revenue of $13m per store, equating to an average of $57.50 per visitor …
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The enviable figures are all the more remarkable given the likely proportion of visitors who enter the stores only to browse or to seek support – a percentage known only to Apple.
Apple reported total revenues of...
Apple's Knox Street store in Dallas, Texas, was targeted by a thief over the weekend that made off with about US$2,000 in iPhones. The suspect walked into the store in the evening, grabbed several display iPhones, and ran out before anyone caught him.
The Mac Observer Spin:
It seems the criminals are always on the hunt for iPhones, but never Samsung, HTC, or Motorola smartphones. How about that?
Digitimes reports that Apple will soon begin trial production on its fifth-generation iPad, with full production said to be planned to begin in July. Based on that schedule, Apple could hit monthly production of 2-3 million units by September as it prepares to launch the updated version of its full-size tablet. Mockup of iPad 5 next to iPad mini and iPhone 5 As with a number of previous rumors, the report claims that the new iPad will be narrower, thinner, and lighter than the current design, taking a number of design cues from the iPad mini. As a result, Digitimes says that the new iPad will be 25-33% thinner than the current models, in line with previous claims from KGI Securities analyst...
| Read more »When the inventory numbers trend downwards, the cool new stuff tends to be around the corner.
Per AppleInsider, availability of Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air had apparently begun to dry up at major authorized resellers.
The popular 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8-gigahertz processor and 256-gigabyte solid-state drive is currently out of stock at resellers Amazon, B&H, MacConnection, and MacMall. In addition, J&R is currently advertising that the thin-and-light notebook is only available for purchase in its brick-and-mortar stores.
In fact, one of the few resellers that is currently advertising available inventory of that 13-inch MacBook Air configuration is Best Buy.
Constrained availability of existing models is often one of the first signs of an...
A new report by Asymco states that Apple retail stores in the US, on a sales per square foot basis, continues to perform twice as well as Tiffany & Co., the second best retailer, and three times as well as lululemon athletica, the third best retailer. The stats show ...
| Read more »After less than 10 days on the App Store, Apple this past week gave the boot to "Bang With Friends", an app that seemingly runs afoul of Apple's efforts to keep the App Store as reasonably wholesome and free of smut as possible.
In case you're unfamiliar, "Bang With Friends" is an app that seeks to match up Facebook users with friends who share a common interest in, oh, how shall I phrase this, amorous relations.
This past weekend, "Bang With Friends" co-founder and CEO Colin Hodge confirmed the app's removal with Valleywag. Hodge did, however, note that he's currently working with Apple to get it back in the App Store.
While it stands to reason that the app was removed due to its mature nature, Hodge says that Apple hasn't yet given him a reason as to why the app was removed.
Interestingly enough, TechCrunch this past Friday ran an article...
| Read more »Development of Apple's rumored smart watch is allegedly gaining momentum, as a pair of new reports claim the company is testing 1.5-inch OLED screens for a wrist-worn device, and that Foxconn has been contracted to build a trial batch. ...
| Read more »An update’s an update.
OnyX, Titanium Software’s popular freeware multifunction utility for Mac OS X, has been updated to version 2.6.9. The new version, a 17.9 megabyte download via MacUpdate, adds the following fixes and changes:
- New option: Delete the saved application states.
- New option: Show/hide interface level switching (Simple/full Finder).
- New option: Turn on/Turn off Rubber-Band Scrolling.
- New version of sqlite3.
- It is no longer necessary to quit all applications in order to check the disk.
- Help improved.
OnyX 2.6.9 requires an Intel-based processor and OS X 10.8 or later to install and run.
If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback, please...
Notable software releases this week include MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0, Skype 6.4.0.833, PDFpen and PDFpenPro 6.0.3, iMovie ’11 9.0.9, Sandvox 2.8, and BusyCal 2.0.5. 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.
| Read more »Eerie Studios' Junk Punk 3D is now available on the Mac App Store (http://tinyurl.com/me6te83). It requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or higher and costs US$1.99.
Here's how the game is described: "Junk Punk 3D is the successor to Junk Punk. It is a fast-paced action game about free running, fast reflexes and competition. As the player, your ultimate goal is to get as far as you can, without falling down, in which case your only option is to try again. Compete against yourself, your friends or the entire world."
The U.S.A.F. is outfitting its flight crews with iPads instead of flight manuals, which is projected to save millions in fuel costs alone.
∞ Read this on The Loop
This week we have a grab bag of ExtraBITS for your reading pleasure, such as iOS 6 being approved for military use, an overview of announcements at the Google I/O developer conference, Bill Gates talking about the last days of Steve Jobs, Blackberry Messenger finally coming to iOS, and Matt Neuburg’s discussion of Apple’s future on the MacVoices. 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.
| Read more »Nominari has released matchTag 1.5 for Mac OS X (10.7.2 or higher). The app can update the title information in an iTunes music collection and amend, either completely or selectively, the missing data from the iTunes Store. Version 1.5 has been optimized for Mountain Lion.
matchTag facilitates the iTunes ID that was written into the new file during download and allows for either individual tags or for the whole set to be amended or replaced. MatchTag also has an option to download a cover image thumbnail.
read more
Kodak, continuing its journey back from bankruptcy, has introduced a ScanMate i940 scanner specifically aimed at Apple users for the North American and European market. In addition to featuring increase image accuracy and precision capture, the unit now comes bundled with NewSoft software for Macs, including Presto Pagemanager 9 for scanning images and doing OCR on the scanner as well as Presto BizCard Xpress business card-scanning software.... ...
| Read more »Apple rival Samsung is turning to third-party developers to help improve the standing of its smartphone lineup against the iPhone, offering $800,000 in prize money for Galaxy-specific apps. ...
| Read more »Lifeware Solutions has announced Image Resizer Deluxe 1.1, an update to their photo editing app for Mac OS X. The upgrade adds text antialiasing and fixes the preview size.
Image Resizer Deluxe provides tools to resize and rename large numbers of photos to reduce their size, and make them ready to be sent over email or posted on the web. You can add text, watermarks, border effects, change color depth, apply color effects and more.
read more
Matt Mullenweg:
Imports have actually spiked on the rumors even though it’s Sunday: normally we import 400-600 posts an hour from Tumblr, last hour it was over 72,000.
I understand why people are worried — Yahoo has a terrible reputation for screwing things up, but I don’t think it will happen this time. Maybe I think too highly of Marissa Mayer, but I think Tumblr will be okay.
∞ Read this on The Loop
The Mac Observer's Managing Editor Jeff Gamet joined The BIG Show from the British Tech Network to take a look at Commander Chris Hadfield singing from space, along with the mayhem from Star Wars and Doctor Who fans fighting at a convention. Really.
Japanese blog Macotakara points to a pair of reports in today's edition of Taiwanese newspaper Economic Times addressing rumors surrounding Apple's smart watch effort. According to the first report [Google translation], Apple has begun sampling 1.5-inch OLED displays from RITEK subsidiary RiTdisplay. The report also claims that RITEK's joint venture RitFast will be supplying the touch sensor technology for the watch. Today's report echoes a December claim about Apple's plans for RiTdisplay's 1.5-inch displays and word that Intel is involved in Apple's effort, but includes a detail...
| Read more »Yahoo on Monday announced it has reached a $1.1 billion agreement to buy Tumblr, the popular microblogging platform with a strong presence on Apple's iOS. ...
| Read more »In a recent interview, outgoing Intel CEO Paul Otellini explained how he passed up on an opportunity to get Intel chips inside the original iPhone.
According to Otellini, Apple and Intel couldn't come to terms regarding cost. Further, Otellini explained that he simply had no way of knowing how successful and ubiquitous the iPhone would go on to become.
While there's no way to know for sure just how seriously Apple was considering Intel as a partner for the iPhone, I couldn't help but laugh at the notion of an iPhone sporting an "Intel Inside" sticker on the back. Of course, Apple would have never allowed such a thing in a million years, but the thought reminded me of an old video where Steve Jobs is asked why Apple doesn't put "Intel Inside" stickers on its Macs.
The video is from August, 2007 and is of a Q&A session that followed an Apple special media...
| Read more »Internet search company Yahoo! confirmed rumors on Monday with the announcement that it is purchasing the blogging site Tumblr in a US$1.1 billion deal. Yahoo! said Tumblr will continue to operate as an independent company and that it doesn't have any plans to "screw it up."
The Mac Observer Spin:
Yahoo! says the deal is about enhancing user experiences for its users and Tumblr users. That may be the case, but it sure feels like a great way for Yahoo! to build a captive audience for advertising revenue tied to over 50 billion blog posts.
Two men have been arrested and charged with open murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in the death of 15-year-old Marcos Arenas in Las Vegas last week. Jacob Dismont, 18, and Michael Solid, 21, were charged Saturday over the incident. According to police, the two attempted to steal an iPad away from the youth but he refused to let go of it, resulting in his being dragged and run over by the two men.... ...
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan has visited Apple, Google and Microsoft in the run-up to a tender for 10.6 million tablets for use in Turkish schools as part of a major modernization program in which textbooks will be replaced by tablets and chalkboards by electronic whiteboards …
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The FATIH project (the Turkish acronym for Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology) will equip 42,000 schools with the equipment in a bid to put technology at the heart of education. The project is expected to take four years to complete, and to cost between $3b and $4b.
Apple believes the iPad has huge potential to reinvent textbooks, saying the iPad “may be our most exciting education product yet.” Turkish President Abdullah Gül met...
I'm a sucker for productivity management -- too much to do, never enough time, and there is always, it seems, some sort of flashing distraction. There are plenty of people out there with similar problems: Even if they survived a round of layoffs, there's usually a business need to get more done with fewer resources and people. If the ability to avoid distraction and meter out your energy in timed sprints sounds good, you'll want to check out 30/30 by Binary Hammer.
Trial production of Apple's thinner and lighter fifth-generation iPad is rumored to begin soon, with full-scale volume production to kick off in July, according to a new report. ...
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Following Sharp’s announcement of a 262ppi display, Samsung has gone even higher-res with the announcement of a 276ppi display in the form of a 13.3-inch QHD 3200×1800 panel (via The Verge).
Apple’s current Retina displays are 220ppi in the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 227ppi in the 13-inch model.
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| Read more »Today our Kool Tools includes three products/services that all work together: SMS Log for Mac, Call Log for Mac and Fliq for Mac.
read more
Organizations across the globe are searching for ways to capture the power of “Big Data” to unlock workforce insights. Unfortunately, many organizations get lost in the fog of big data analysis. The latest release of Mercer Analytics (www.mercer.com) addresses this challenge by leveraging the power of Long Data to unlock insights into an organization’s most valuable asset: its talent.
read more
Boinx Software has updated iStopMotion, its stop motion animation tool for Mac OS X (10.7.4), to version 3.1. The new version includes a screen capture feature that provides animators with a new medium for animating.
iStopMotion 3.1 is localized in English, German, French, Japanese and Russian. It's available for US$49.99 both from the Mac App Store and the Boinx Website (www.boinx.com/).
The United States Department of Defense has approved the “security technical implementation guide” for mobile devices running iOS 6, including the iPhone and iPad, meaning that Apple’s handhelds can now be used on DOD networks, joining BlackBerry smartphones and devices from Samsung running its Android-based Knox operating system. The DOD currently has around 600,000 commercial mobile devices in use, including 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 unspecified Apple devices, and 8,700 Android devices. Most of these are part of a pilot program by the Defense Information Systems Agency to make use of the latest in technology. Unlike most enterprises, BYOD, or “bring your own device,” isn’t allowed, at least when it comes to connecting to DOD networks. 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...
| Read more »AppDelete is an uninstaller for Macs that will remove not only applications but also widgets, preference panes, plugins and screensavers along with their associated files. Without AppDelete these associated items will be left behind to take up space and potentially cause issues. For a proper uninstall don't just delete but be sure to AppDelete! You can drag any item that can be uninstalled onto AppDelete: applications, widgets, preference panes, plugins, screensavers, etc. You can also activate AppDelete in many ways: dragging items onto main window, onto dock icon, selecting in menu, right-clicking using AppDelete workflow, and throwing items in the trash. When the preview screen appears you can uncheck any items you would like to exclude. You also have several choices: delete the items, log only the items, or archive (copy) the items to a .zip file for safekeeping or reinstall at a later date. The items you delete will be moved to the trash and arranged in a...
| Read more »Nobody outside of Cupertino's privileged bunch knows the future of the Mac Pro line for sure. Despite Apple's reluctance to tell us what the line holds, there are a large number of machines in service all getting a bit long in the tooth, relatively speaking. As production Mac Pros have been replaced with new iMacs and even the Mac mini, IT departments are looking for creative ways to repurpose some of the older machines to preserve dwindling budgets and continued expansion of needs. Regardless of generation, the Mac Pro makes an excellent server for the home or business, limited only by the dr... ...
| Read more »Nobody outside of Cupertino's privileged bunch knows the future of the Mac Pro line for sure. Despite Apple's reluctance to tell us what the line holds, there are a large number of machines in service all getting a bit long in the tooth, relatively speaking. As production Mac Pros have been replaced with new iMacs and even the Mac mini, IT departments are looking for creative ways to repurpose som ...... ...
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