Adobe Reader allows users to view PDF documents. You may not know what a PDF file is, but you've probably come across one at some point. PDF files are used by companies and even the IRS to distribute documentation and other pieces of information about their products, and Adobe Acrobat Reader is the essential interpreter. Acrobat integrates directly with your Web browser, so if you come across a PDF document on the Web,you can view it directly from within your Netscape or Internet Explorer browser window. Acrobat also makes printing much more practical, by guaranteeing that the printout will look exactly like it does on your screen.Version 11.0.03:
OS X 10.6.4 or laterDownload Now
| Read more »Expeditions: Conquistador, a tactical role-playing game, will be available for Mac, PC, Mac and Linux systems on Steam on May 30. It will also be available on GOG.com, Gamersgate and several other platforms.
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Penclic has released the Bluetooth B2 Mouse, it's available at Amazon.com for US$89.95. It's Mac and PC compatible.
The Bluetooth B2 Mouse wirelessly connects to your computer. It sports five click buttons with a scroll wheel and laser pointer. The mouse operates without the use of a mouse pad.
According to the folks at Penclic, the Bluetooth B2 Mouse -- available only in white -- will run two months on one charge with its rechargeable battery. It has a wireless reach of up to 16 feet.
Sharp, a key supplier of components that go into iPads and iPhones, lost $5.4 billion last year, prompting the Japanese display maker to increase its reliance on Apple's top rival, Samsung, in order to survive. ...
| Read more »EditShare has released the Field 2, its next-generation portable shared storage solution with integrated asset management.
The turnkey platform includes file ingest, advanced project sharing/bin locking, and archiving capabilities in an all-in-one, high-performance and rugged chassis. Designed for on-location shoots, ENG trucks and remote offices, the new Field 2 is durable, light and compact and meets airline carry-on regulations.
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Adobe Acrobat allows users to communicate and collaborate more effectively and securely. Unify a wide range of content in a single organized PDF Portfolio. Collaborate through electronic document reviews. Create and manage dynamic forms. And help protect sensitive information.Version 11.0.03:
OS X 10.6.8 or laterDownload Now
| Read more »Apple rumours have become almost beyond parody, an industry in themselves with websites, twitterfeeds and columns inches dedicated to digging them up and dishing them out. Charlotte Henry thinks that may be behind some of Apple's rushed products, and Apple fans, media and bloggers are to blame.
A job listing from Apple describing the need for a mechanical engineer with a wide knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes -- and some specific experience in skills required for dealing with the bulk-metallic glass alloy known as Liquidmetal -- has fuelled speculation that Apple's investment in the technology may be finally bearing more fruit. The technology is already used for specialized parts such as the SIM card ejector pin in older iPhone models, but very little has been seen of it thus far.... ...
| Read more »Adds support for OAuth 2.0 authorization and Google’s new CalDAV API for Google Calendar. ($29.99 new, free update, 9.4 MB) Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.
| Read more »In its ongoing second major patent trial against Samsung, Apple yesterday filed a statement with the US District Court in California claiming that after examining the recently released Galaxy S4 it has “concluded that it is an infringing device and accordingly intends to move for leave to add the Galaxy S4″ to its long list of 22 infringing products. Apple is hoping Judge Lucy Koh allows the S4 to be added, but in line with the court’s request to reduce the number of infringing devices ahead of a trial scheduled for spring 2014, Apple has also agreed to remove without prejudice one of the other 22 infringing devices from Samsung it currently has listed.
Apple’s current list of infringing Samsung products include Admire, Captivate Glide, Conquer 4G, Dart, Exhibit II 4G, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Player 4.0, Galaxy Player 5.0, Galaxy Rugby...
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we first cover Apple's granted patent which discusses how acoustic transducers could one day be configured to accept acoustic commands that consist of tapping, scratching and other interactions with a surface of an iPad, iPhone or MacBook Pro. Our report concludes with a list of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today.
| Read more »Here’s the thing, I’m wrong most of the time. I’ve long held fast that I do my best work after midnight. I’ve long felt that caffeine and sugar would keep me going deep into the night when I really hit my stride. I’ve also maintained that nicotine helped me stay focused because it gave me an excuse to get up and walk away from my computer for a little while and made me more social. Walking away from my computer to grab a smoke seemed like the perfect amount of exearcise too. Finally, I figured if I didn’t eat for 48 hours that it was no big deal.
That lifestyle worked for me for a long time. It kept me focused on work and learning. I bought into the notion that your brain gets imprinted a certain way when you learn things all hopped up on caffeine and nicotine. So I believed that I had to maintain.
I was wrong (don’t worry, I still believe in Jarmusch, despite how Ghost Dog turned out). Which is nothing new mind you. But this is a deeper, more long-term wrong. One that...
Analog Camera for iPhone by Realmac Software
From the wonderful folks who brought you Clear for iPhone and...
A few weeks ago we reported on an online auction where the winner will have a unique opportunity to sit down for coffee with Tim Cook over at Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop.
Since the auction began about three weeks ago, the bids reached unprecedented levels rather quickly. As it stands now, the winning bid checks in at $605,000. To put that into context, the highest bid previously received by Charitybuzz was $255,000 for the chance to shadow Bill Clinton for a day.
If you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare and would relish the opportunity to sit down with one of the more powerful CEOs on the planet, you better act fast. The auction is scheduled to close on Tuesday afternoon, at approximately 4 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Notably, 20% of the winning bid will go to Charitybuzz while the rest will be donated to the...
| Read more »In a discussion of where Apple needs to take iOS 7, WWDC, and the App Store, TidBITS Contributing Editor and iOS programming book author Matt Neuburg contributes his exhausting mix of detailed analysis and irrepressible ranting to Chuck Joiner’s MacVoices podcast, along with John Brayton of Golden Hill Software. 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 »Daft Punk's long awaited new album, Random Access Memories, isn't due for release until May 21, but anyone in the United States can stream all of the tracks now for free through iTunes. Unlike the usual 90 second previews for trackson other albums, you can listen to complete songs as often as you want, although you can't download any yet. Random Access Memories is available for pre-order at the iTunes Store and is priced at US$11.99.
Reader John has a hard disk gone bad and needs to recover some files off it before he moves on to a newer, more reliable disk. With that, though, he's having trouble deciding which data recovery software to use, in part because there are no good reviews of any options out there.
The fingerprint sensing home button rumored to be on Apple's next iPhone will be a capacitive touch-sensitive button covered by scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass, a new report claims. ...
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With iGoogle scheduled to be axed in November, orphans of that offering will be looking at alternatives like uStart, Protopage, Netvibes and Myfav.es. While those alternatives will meet the needs of many iGoogle users set adrift by the search company, some souls may want to create their own homepage substitutes for the versatile portal. Since the whole idea behind iGoogle is to avoid the hassle of creating homepages, it might seem a bit incongruous to suggest doing so as an alternative to it.
Bits&Coffee has released BatchPhoto 3.7, an update of its all-in-one photo manipulation program for Mac and PC that lets photographers, web designers, business people, and families enhance photos. To use you select a group of photographs, and, with a single operation edit, resize, convert, watermark, and rename every image in the group.
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Fitbit's Flex is a first-of-its-kind, activity tracking wristband that syncs wirelessly on-the-go via Bluetooth 4.0 to select iOS and Android devices.
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Following hot on the heels of the Sony SBH20 Bluetooth earphones, the company has also revealed a more upmarket variant, the SBH50. The new headset is notable for including a small OLED display into its remote with app extensions available through Google Play. The extensions allow users to browse their call log, read text notifications and messages on the display without needs to pull out a smartphone.... ...
| Read more »Reggie Ashworth (www.reggieashworth.com) has announced AppDelete 3.2.9, a new version of his application deletion utility. The upgrade has been optimized for Mac OS X 10.7, supports new languages and more.
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The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, says worldwide sales of semiconductors reached US$23.48 billion for the month of March 2013, an increase of 1.1% from the previous month when sales were $23.23 billion.
Global sales for March 2013 were 0.9% higher than the March 2012 total of $23.28 billion, and total sales through the first quarter of 2013 were 0.9% higher than sales from the first quarter of 2012. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.
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The $30 Innotraveler Universal Car Mount attaches to the inside of your car’s windshield, letting you mount your iPhone for easy access—say, for GPS guidance—while you’re on the road.
| Read more »For the last three years, Netflix has accounted for a third of the Internet traffic zipping into North American homes every night.
But Web video competitors like Amazon, HBO and Hulu all say they’re seeing significant growth. So is anyone cutting into Netflix’s lead?
Not really, says Sandvine, the broadband service company that tracks Internet usage.
A Sandvine report out this morning pegs Netflix’s share of prime time “downstream” traffic delivered over “fixed networks” — that is, wires and pipes — at 32.3 percent. That’s just a hair down from...
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two of Apple's patents relating to waterproofing iDevices. A waterproofing test was recently conducted ...
| Read more »The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday issued Apple a patent for an audio-based input system in which various noises made on a laptop's chassis are translated into actions, basically turning the computer into one large input device. ...
| Read more »Apple on Tuesday was granted a utility patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering the glass-on-metal trackpad seen across the company's laptop lineup, with the award coming almost four months after the design rights were garnered for the same invention. ...
| Read more »Late yesterday, the Nikkei reported that some 20 global companies including Electronics, NTT, Qualcomm, Ericson, China Mobile and Samsung have agreed to jointly develop a new Wi-Fi technology that is ten times faster than the current standard.
| Read more »We've mentioned before that we are far from a paperless society. For now, at least, there are tasks that require a piece of paper for confirmation, proof of purchase, or a litany of other needs. Laser printers have existed since the first practical commercial model in 1984, and have since been known as one of the best products for high-quality text and printing at a consumer or business price point. One name present in printing for decades at this point is Brother -- the lineage grew this year with the LED Brother HL-3170CDW color printer with duplexer. Electronista has been living with one fo... ...
| Read more »A major software update for Philips' Hue app brings an enhanced user experience to the multi-colored connected LED lighting system, granting owners location-based control of bulb settings, support for the "If This Then That" Internet automation service, and recurring "calendarized" scheduling. ...
| Read more »We've mentioned before that we are far from a paperless society. For now, at least, there are tasks that require a piece of paper for confirmation, proof of purchase, or a litany of other needs. Laser printers have existed since the first practical commercial model in 1984 and have been known for excellent text quality. One name present in printing for years at this point is Brother -- the lineage ...... ...
| Read more »A brief posting on the Google Fiber blog has noted the addition of a new locality to Google Fiber. Gladstone, Missouri has voted to allow Google to expand its network to the city, a suburb of Kansas City. The new locality is Google's fifth announcement in a handful of weeks regarding expansion of its gigabit Internet service.... ...
| Read more »A brief posting on the Google Fiber blog has noted the addition of a new locality to Google Fiber. Gladstone, Missouri has voted to allow Google to expand its network to the suburb of Kansas City. The new locality is Google's fifth announcement in a handful of weeks regarding expansion of its gigabit Internet service.... ...
| Read more »E-on Software has released LumenRT 4.1 Studio, an update of one of the developer's 3D modeling tools LumenRT meshes 3D models into realistic natural or urban environments, for instance adding people, plants, animals, and/or car traffic. The v4.1 patch introduces new animated water materials, ranging in scale from ponds to oceans.... ...
| Read more »Foursaken Media's Heroes and Castles has been updated yet again, with lots of new content to play. The game, which allows you to level up a hero by defending a town and its various resources against an army of invading minions, has been popular for Foursaken already, and the team told me during GDC that they were planning on adding plenty of extras to the game this year. They've reached version 3.0 now, and the latest update adds three new heroes: an Assassin, a Barbarian, and a Druid, each with their own abilities and weapons.
There's also a brand new campaign for the game that must be unlocked to play, with new maps to fight over, and new allied units to join you in battle. You can upgrade buildings and units even further, the graphics now boast real-time shadows, and the game's performance has been upgraded overall. Finally, there are new...
| Read more »Several recent Apple job listings may hint that the company is on the verge of updating both the OS X and iOS editions of iWork, reports say. Some of the listings date back as far as March; one of them, though, was posted on May 11, and specifically calls for an iWork QA tester, which could mean Apple is in the last phases of development. Another opening, dating back to May 7, asks for a "HiDP Image Specialist," tasked with bringing iWork visual designs to Retina displays.... ...
| Read more »Facebook today updated its iOS app to version 6.1. Overall, the update is rather minor but it does add some welcome enhancements to the way photos are handled within the app.
Under the previous version of the Facebook app, users were only able to comment, like or tag a photo. With the new update, however, users can now make a photo their profile picture with a single tap. Even more exciting is that users can now share photos they stumble across on their own timeline or on the timeline of friends. Other additions to the update include improved places editing when checking in on the iPhone and faster loading of events.
Here's a quick run through.
Here's how photos showed up in the previous version of Facebook.
Not much you can do here, aside from like, comment or tag.
But with Facebook 6.1 up and running, here's how photos now appear.
When you select the three dots above...
| Read more »Four years ago, we set out with a goal to bring great typography to
the web. Now, we’re taking the next step in our evolution: desktop fonts
and web fonts together in a single Typekit subscription.
On June 17, we’ll be making 175 beautiful font families from the Typekit
library available for desktop use. You’ll be able to sync them to your
computer and use them in all your applications for web mockups, print
design, word processing, and more.
Want a sneak peek? Ben made a screencast showing how it works. Let
us know what you think!
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| Read more »The next entry in our seemingly endless parade of new iPad keyboard cases is the Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad (US$129.99). This case, which works with the second- through fourth-generation iPads, has some new features that make it attractive as a full-time companion for your tablet.
Design
Like the the recently-reviewed iPad Keyboard Folios from Logitech, the Ultimate Keyboard Case is designed for full-time use on your iPad, protecting the back of the device while providing a flip-out keyboard for easy data entry.
The keyboard in this case is backed with a nicely-designed aluminum shell, and uses black keys with white lettering. The iPad cover is kind of an odd affair -- it's made of what feels like hard polyurethane around the sides, but the "hinge" that connects it to the keyboard and allows...
| Read more »Ceton Corp has announced the new InfiniTV 6 product line of CableCARD multi-tuner devices for Media Center PCs. InfiniTV 6 is available in two models, which each incorporate six QAM tuners and require only a single CableCARD. InfiniTV 6 ETH is a powerful Ethernet-based network tuner that plugs into a router or wired home network. InfiniTV 6 PCIe connects to a PC via a PCI-E slot for configurations where all six tuners are available on a single PC.... ...
| Read more »After just over a month of sputtering sales, and a subsequent price drop to $0.99, AT&T will reportedly discontinue the HTC First, otherwise known as the "HTC Facebook Phone." ...
| Read more »I have Fantastical on my Mac and iPhone.
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While the Origin Stories series has typically focused on products, in the coming weeks we're going to focus a bit more on the people and personalities behind the products. In this episode I spoke to Saul Mora of Magical Panda during the MacTech Conference in 2012 to learn about how he got started in iOS development.
Origin Stories: Saul Mora, developer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | ...
| Read more »Shocked, we say. Shocked. We are utterly shocked*. Sales of the HTC First—the so-called "Facebook Phone—have reportedly been so bad that AT&T is ready to kill it. The device was announced on April 4th, but according to BGR, AT&T has sold just 15,000 units and is ready to pull the plug.
Apple has been beefing up its iWork team since early February, and has posted several new job listings in recent weeks. The latest job posting, which was added this morning, seeks a software QA engineer. As noted by Apple Bitch (via AppleInsider) the position specifies that the engineer will work on "the next generation of Desktop, Mobile, and Web application/services." Apple is currently hiring a number of employees for its iWork team, including three QA...
| Read more »GungHo Entertainment is a game publisher based in Japan, and the company has just released some really wild financial numbers. According to the latest numbers, GungHo made $118 million this past April alone, most of it from one game: Puzzle and Dragons, currently available on iOS. Puzzle and Dragons is pulling in so much money (from audiences in both Japan and around the world) that GungHo says it's making $3.75 million a day. In Japan alone, Puzzle and Dragons is claiming 13 million players -- which is over 10% of the population there.
That is a phenomenal success story, and it gives GungHo a higher market cap than even the legendary game publisher Nintendo. As a result, the company's stock has skyrocketed, and it's even challenging current megapublisher...
| Read more »Amazon has released a native version of Cloud Player for Windows. Previously, Cloud Player was only accessible through mobile and web apps. Amazon says it also working on native Mac software, but no release date is available.... ...
| Read more »Although Samsung is the world's biggest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions and supplier of chips and flat-screens, Samsung continues to pay outsiders billions of dollars in return for using patents in semiconductors, displays and other software. Samsung wants to have first access to cheaper home grown ideas and solutions in the future and in order to get their hands on this new technology Samsung has set up the new "Samsung Future Technology Foundation."
| Read more »The wait is over. Random Access Memories, Daft Punk's first proper album* since 2005's Human After All, is now streaming in its entirety over at iTunes. It features guest spots and contributions from Chilly Gonzales, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas, and others. While the album doesn't officially hit stores until May 21, its leak earlier today most likely brought about this early stream.
Head over to iTunes to stream the album in one glorious 74-minute track. Don't worry, that's just the format of the stream. If you're not sold on Daft Punk or have been living presumably dance-free under a rock for a few years, we've included their delightful tune "Get Lucky" featuring Pharrell Williams for your listening pleasure below.
*Yes, they did the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy. No we don't count that as a proper album....
| Read more »When The Loop Magazine shipped last week, I had high hopes for delivering readers the best content available on Apple’s Newsstand. Unfortunately, the app shipped with a subscription bug that caused errors when trying to read the magazine on multiple devices.
In our efforts to fix the bug, we released an update over the weekend that actually made the situation worse.
Tonight, we released The Loop Magazine 1.0.2, which does fix the subscription bug once and for all. If you download the magazine on a second device, you just tap the “Restore” button and it will recognize your subscription and activate the magazine for that device.
In addition to the subscription bug, we also fixed App.net sharing, we added the ability to share selected text and fixed a crash on launch bug.
You deserved a better experience than what we delivered, and we expected more from ourselves....
| Read more »New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sent letters to several smartphone makers asking them to explain what they're doing to deter thefts, Bloomberg reports. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung are said to have been contacted on May 10th. "I seek to understand why companies that can develop sophisticated handheld electronics, such as the products manufactured by Apple, cannot also create technology to render stolen devices inoperable and thereby eliminate the expanding black market on which they are sold," reads Schneiderman's letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.... ...
| Read more »We were just talking about how Amazon is competing with Apple and other cloud services by offering 5 GB of storage for free. Now, that turns out to be old news, because today Google announced that free storage spanning several Google services like Gmail, Google+ and Google Drive is now going to come in the extra large economy size -- a whopping 15 GB.
Google says the changes will be rolling out over the next several weeks to all customers. All that space is shared, so if you are just using Google Drive Photo (for example), that 15 GB is shared with any other Google services that require storage. Still, 15 GB is a very competitive number since Apple and Amazon give you 5 GB with iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive respectively, and...
| Read more »A handful of recently discovered job listings suggest a possible next-generation iWork software suite may soon see release, with the latest postings asking for specialists in quality assurance, one of the final steps in software building. ...
| Read more »Amazon today announced that it is launching a standalone desktop app for its Cloud Player cloud music service that was previously only available through a web app and mobile apps. The desktop app brings offline support and, like the service on other platforms, will offer its usual unlimited storage of songs purchased through Amazon plus 250 imported songs for free. Unfortunately, today’s roll out only includes an app for PC with Amazon promising Mac users “we’re working on a version just for you.”
//
Amazon just last week launched a new Cloud Drive Photos app for iPhone, while the company already has a Cloud Drive app for Mac and a Cloud Player iOS app for iPhone and iPad that earlier this month...
| Read more »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 13, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 17:15:00 EST. Please see our...
| Read more »Samsung announced on Monday that it has tested a technology the company is calling "5G" that can transmit data at up to 1Gbps, a speed that is up to ten times faster than today's LTE networks. The company said that it could weaponize commercialize the technology by 2020.
How can you type on an iPad? You could muddle along on the virtual keyboard; or you could carry a physical Bluetooth keyboard around with you. The TouchFire takes a middle course. 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 »Some bug fixes, improvements and a couple of new sharing services added to the new version.
∞ Read this on The Loop
We've seen beer-pouring robots before, but MIT has recently put together a smartphone-controlled robot bartender, with three robot arms that can pour and mix up to 100 different alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavors. The Makr Shakr lets you order up a drink directly from your iPhone, and then it will make the drink and deliver it to you as requested.
The robot will be officially unveiled later this week at Google's I/O conference, and for now it's just an interesting robotics project, so it's unlikely you'll see your own robot bartender in a local watering hole any time soon (plus, who would you flirt with if there was a robot pouring you drinks?). But this is a fascinating idea -- it would save bars time and money to have a robot behind the counter, and the fact that nearly...
| Read more »If you are unable to successfully install the update or are experiencing problems after doing so, here are a couple of steps you can try.
| Read more »One of the most common frustrations among mobile phone owners is the feeling that you're paying way too much for services you're not using. Being locked in a contract that doesn't fit your needs just because it's all that offered is the pits. Zact, a new service from the Verizon-backed software company ItsOn, is looking to change that. Zact provides a flexible, changeable, data plan that empowers users to only pay for the services they actually use.
Along with customization of how many minutes and texts you pay for each month, users are offered an unprecedented amount of flexibility for data plans, down to forgoing traditional plans and just buying app-specific data. In addition the service credits back any money you paid for a plan that was bigger than you ended up needing. Families can connect an unlimited number of devices to a single plan. The service also including powerful parental controls, including curfews on service, app lock outs, and even contact restrictions....
| Read more »Popular login asset manager 1Password received a healthy update on Monday, bringing a number of new features to its built in "1Browser" Web browser, new sharing options and an advanced search tool. ...
| Read more »Two iOS apps, Twitterific and 1Password, have today received significant updates. Twitterific 5.2.2 adds support for bookmarking service Readability and image service Droplr. A number of smaller improvements have also been made, such as automatic flipping of the read/unread state of tweets as users scroll, and similar updating of indicators in timeline tabs. Yfrog images should appear in the in-app browser instead of the photo viewer.... ...
| Read more »The launch of the iPhone 5 on the T-Mobile USA network last month was greeted with a lot of fanfare and a new pricing structure -- customers could pick up a 16 GB iPhone 5 with a $99.99 down payment and then make 24 payments of $20 to purchase the phone outright. TmoNews reports that the down payment on all iPhone 5 models has been bumped up to $149.99, which raises the cost of the unlocked phone to $630.
That's not all that much less than the price of an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple -- $650. Of course, there's no monthly payment option if you buy direct from Apple. Customers wanting to reduce the down payment on that T-Mo iPhone 5 should remember that...
| Read more »Triple Town is one of my favorite games on iOS over the past few years -- it's a puzzle game with a simple ruleset and a whole lot of complexity. The creators of that game, called Spry Fox, have announced a new title in development called Road Not Taken, and you can now see some concept art from it over on the official blog.
The game is sort of a roguelike, according to the developers, and as you can see above, it has some similarities to the grid-based Triple Town. But instead of building up a world, it's more about finding a path through the world, and avoiding or confronting various dangers on the way. As you can tell from the title, which refers to the famous Robert Frost poem, the game will offer various paths, and it seems like most of the strategy will come from choosing your own way.
Sounds interesting. Road Not...
| Read more »This was a cool idea for an article from Dave Caolo.
∞ Read this on The Loop
The Attorney General for the state of New York has asked Apple and other tech leaders to do more to stop smartphone thieves and, further, aid in the elimination of a growing black market for the stolen devices. ...
| Read more »Lots of changes in the new version.
∞ Read this on The Loop
The use of automatic repair routines on newer Mac Minis and iMacs may combine two separate drives into a Fusion drive. Fortunately, there's a way to get around that.
| Read more »As its promotion of the iPhone 5 comes to an end, U.S. wireless provider T-Mobile has raised the price of Apple's flagship handset to $149; and a pair of hackers claim to have found a way to increase the handset's data transmission speeds by using the carrier's latest over-the-air update. ...
| Read more »Described by Sony as a culmination of its greatest technologies, the Xperia ZL is an attempt to bring the company's best offerings together in a single device. In many ways the ZL makes good on this goal, offering a superb display, solid camera, and sleek design. What's even more impressive is the compact frame that Sony was able to pack all of this into. Despite the inclusion of a five-inch full ...... ...
| Read more »Sometimes all it takes is a moment of time and an open mind to change your opinion of someone. In a recent column at Forbes, Drew Hansen, a management expert specializing in hyper-growth startups, writes about Steve Jobs and how The Lost Interview movie changed his view on the Apple co-founder.
Hansen says he ignored Steve Jobs' advice on building a company and cautioned entrepreneurs not to model themselves after the Apple founder. This attitude changed after Hansen watched the Lost Interview and realized he and Jobs share many of the same thoughts on building successful teams within a company.
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview is a 70-minute conversation between Steve Jobs and Robert Cringely that was held in 1995. It was recently turned into a movie and...
| Read more »
1Password 4, the popular login manager for iPhone and iPad has been updated to version 4.2 today. The new version sports a bunch of new features and bug fixes, including the ability to search for items in your vault by their URL, improved sharing of vault items, and more. This update also features the fill animation that appeared in the desktop browser extension recently.
The update is available for free on the App Store...
First, T-Mobile didn’t even offer the iPhone. Then, last month, it started offering the phone for $100—and it sold half-a-million phones in three weeks. But now, the carrier has boosted the upfront price on that iPhone 5 to $150.
As first reported by TmoNews, an unofficial T-Mobile blog, the $100 iPhone 5 price tag lasted just about one month. Now, the total cost for an iPhone 5 from the carrier is $630 (after making monthly $20 payments on the phone for two years), up from $580.
To put T-Mobile’s price hike in context, other major carriers charge $199 for the 16GB iPhone, and require two-year contracts. T-Mobile,...
| Read more »My thanks to World 1-2 for sponsoring The Loop. World 1-2 is a new videogames-inspired music album by Koopa Soundworks, directed and produced by Mohammed Taher. It hosts a number of famed superstars as well as rising indies, including Austin Wintory (of Journey), Akira Yamaoka (of Silent Hill), Manami Matsumae (of Mega Man), Chipzel (of Super Hexagon), and a lot others.
Get it on either Bandcamp or iTunes.
∞ Read this on The Loop
The newest national carrier of the iPhone, T-Mobile, has ended a promotional "introductory price" period for the iPhone 5, raising the down payment from $99 to $149 for the 16GB model -- with similar $50 increases for the 32GB and 64GB models. Though it is still one of the cheapest ways to buy an iPhone 5 rather than buying a no-contract phone or going through a contract with one of the other carriers, the price difference with a T-Mobile plan is now down to about $20 less than buying the iPhone outright.... ...
| Read more »Apple has posted a free streaming preview version of the upcoming Daft Punk album on the iTunes Store. Random Access Memories is 74 minutes in length, and due to be released May 21st for $12. At the moment, at least, the preview is only available to US shoppers.... ...
| Read more »Personal assessments of what technology to adopt and what to ignore is what we do these days. Developers develop, technical columnists experiment and report, and individuals decide yea or nay. However, basing those decisions on old-fashioned or emotional preconceptions in increasingly unproductive. John Martellaro roughs up the technical hobgoblins and sizes up iOS 7.
I kid you not.
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Smartphone thefts are running rampant -- especially in New York City -- so much that the practice of grabbing the expensive phones is being referred to as "Apple picking." Bloomberg announced yesterday that New York State attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman has sent letters to executives at Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung asking for information and cooperation on measures to diminish theft.
In his letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Schneiderman said "I seek to understand why companies that can develop sophisticated handheld electronics, such as the products manufactured by Apple, cannot also create technology to render stolen devices inoperable and thereby eliminate the expanding black market on which they are sold."
Schneiderman has concerns that the...
| Read more »New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent a letter today to Apple CEO Tim Cook — as well as the CEOs of Microsoft, Google, and Samsung — regarding the growing theft of electronic devices such as iPhones. Citing an increase in the theft of Apple products in New York City,…
| Read more »Low quality and fake versions of the much anticipated new album from electronic music super group Daft Punk have been leaking online for weeks now, but today we get our first official, high quality stream of the album through a free preview being offered on iTunes.
iTunes is currently streaming the full 74-minute album, but the stream appears be limited to users in the US and is now going live for iTunes users around the world. Random Access Memories is available to preorder through iTunes now and is expected to be released on May 21st.
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| Read more »Google today announced a combination of cloud data storage limits. Rolling out over the next couple of weeks to all users, the search engine is allocating a total of 15GB to users, shared across Gmail, Google+, and Google Drive. Business customers are offered 30GB of unified storage shared between the Google Drive and Gmail services.... ...
| Read more »The Twitterrific 5 for Twitter iOS app has been updated today to version 5.2.2 with a number of new features and enhancements. Among them, the popular iOS Twitter client gets support for the Readability bookmarking service, Droplr as a new image service, and a few welcomed performance enhancements such as Indicators in timeline tabs that “are updated as tweets are read” and updating read/unread notifications for tweet...
| Read more »Horace Dediu/AsymcoWhen Apple last reported earnings, the company said iTunes billings for the quarter came it at over $4 billion. Apple expects to post similar billings in the quarters ahead for a $16 billion annual run rate. That’s an awfully big number. How does it break down on a per-user basis?
Asymco’s Horace Dediu has done the math and come up with a number: About $40 per year, on average. Seem low to you? Does to me, but that’s from my own cord-cutter perspective. But taken together with all gross content revenues — including services & software — Apple’s iTunes business cleared over $5.5 billion in the last quarter (Caveat 1:That big number is as large as it is thanks to...
Speaking at an Interop keynote last week, Paypal chief information security officer Michael Barrett hinted that PINs and passwords may be going away when it comes to account security on smartphones. According to a post on CIO's website, Barrett serves as the president of the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance, an industry group looking for ways to replace the 52-year-old password technology with stronger authentication methods.
FIDO combines hardware, software and Internet services to provide that higher level of authentication. That hardware can include a fingerprint scanner, a voice reader or something else. Barrett noted in his keynote that FIDO-enabled devices should begin appearing later this year, and he'd love to see Apple and...
| Read more »The team behind a popular iOS camera app has put together a retrospective showing the dramatic improvement in image quality from Apple's first iPhone on through the iPhone 5. ...
| Read more »Reuters reports that France, in an effort to generate money to help fund cultural initiatives, is considering implementing a special tax on smartphones and tablets.
The proposal falls under France's "cultural exception" policy, enacted to ensure that the arts in France can continue to thrive in the face of competition and other market forces.
As it stands now, TV and radio broadcasters, along with Internet service providers, are already subject to a tax to promote the arts in France. A report commissioned by the French government, however, points out that a tax on hardware manufacturers like Apple and Amazon would be even more helpful given that folks are now spending more on hardware than they are on content.
"Companies that make these tablets must, in a minor way, be made to contribute part of the revenue from their sales to help creators," Culture Minister...
| Read more »With one day to go before bidding closes, the CharityBuzz auction for coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook is at $605,000. Bidding has slowed considerably since the first couple of days, with only one bid -- the current winning mark of $605,000 -- since April 26th. The current high bid for coffee with Tim Cook is worth twice as much as the total of the current high bids on all 118 other auctions supporting the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights in the current campaign on CharityBuzz. The site running the auction was also forced to implement financial verification checks for bids on the Tim Cook listing after a bid was placed using a stolen credit card. The auction's bidding quickly...
| Read more »Flipboard has launched a new version of its popular news aggregating app for the iPhone and iPad. Following March's update which introduced user-created magazines, the v2.0.2 release adds a new Friends category in the Content Guide that can be used to quickly find magazines created by friends. Flipboard has also added new profile pages that provide details on readership and curation activities, as well as the ability to share content via SMS and to save images to the Camera Roll.... ...
| Read more »Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was recently interviewed by Charlie Rose for 60 Minutes, and one of the topics of discussion was the late Steve Jobs. Mr. Gates became quite emotional when thinking back to his last meeting with Mr. Jobs, and he said he wished he had Mr. Jobs's sense of design.
T-Mobile is no longer offering a $99 down deal to get you an iPhone 5 – now it’s $149.
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Adobe's announcement that it will drop its traditional, perpetual license model for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and its other professional creative apps in favor of a Creative Cloud software subscription model rubbed lots of folks the wrong way. Now there's a petition to keep the Creative Suite perpetual license model alive, notes "The MacObserver" (http://tinyurl.com/bpox6gd).
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Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, there's one feature that has been steadily improving -- the built-in camera. Lisa Bettany of Camera+ fame provides a visual comparison of the quality of the iPhone camera over the generations in six sets of images covering the range from the original iPhone to the iPhone 5.
As Bettany points out, "It's clear from the detail shots that the iPhone 5 produces sharper photos with more accurate white balance, contrast, and saturation." She took photos in three different situations -- a well lit macro setting to test detail and quality, a skyline shot to test sharpness and saturation, and a candle list low light macro photo to test noise.
The results are amazing. I was surprised by how much of a jump in quality the camera received in the iPhone 3GS from the previous two generations, and how the iPhone 5 camera seems to have resolved some discrepancies in white balance that...
| Read more »AT&T is planning to discontinue the HTC First, better known as the "Facebook Phone," reports BGR. Released on April 12, the HTC First was touted as the first device to come with Facebook Home preinstalled, a feature that has not enticed buyers to purchase the phone.Our source at AT&T has confirmed that the HTC First, which is the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home pre-installed, will soon be discontinued and unsold inventory will be returned to HTC. How much unsold inventory is there? We don't have an exact figure, but things aren't looking good. According to our source, AT&T sold fewer than 15,000 units nationwide through last week when the phone's price was slashed to $0.99.When contacted, an AT&T spokesperson gave MacRumors the...
| Read more »IF you’re a fan of “The Office” you’ll need to check this out. There are three available: Dwight Schrute, Jim and Pam and Employee of the Month.
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I don’t see this as the smartphone manufacturers problem. They make a device that thieves want to steal — how can they combat that? Is Nike going to make their shoes explode if stolen?
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Over the past few years, 4G LTE wireless networks that can handle download and upload speeds of up to 75 megabits per second (Mbps) have become increasingly more commonplace. Still, it takes a long time to download movies, and streaming video can be a challenge on today's handsets. Yonhap News reported yesterday that Apple's arch-rival Samsung has achieved success in the lab with 5G speeds in the range of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), and expects that the technology could eventually provide speeds in the tens of gigabits per second.
With wireless data speeds in that range, a full HD movie could be downloaded in seconds. Samsung used 64 antenna elements and operated in the 28 GHz frequency band to accomplish the fast feat, and the technology could be commercially viable by 2020 -- a scant seven years away.
Both China and the European Commission want to have 5G...
| Read more »With the Pandora Desktop Application, you can play your Pandora stations right from your desktop.Version 2.0.8: Release notes were unavailable when this listing was updated.Mac OS X 10.4 or later, Adobe AIR, PandoraOne account.Download Now
| Read more »Nerval's Lobster writes "Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates displayed a bit of emotion when talking to CBS's 60 Minutes about Steve Jobs. The interview didn't focus entirely on the relationship between the two men, with most of its running time devoted instead to Gates's charitable efforts. But when the conversation shifted to their last meeting before Jobs's death from cancer in 2011, Gates—normally so cerebral—seemed a bit sad. 'When he was sick I got to go down and spend time with him,' Gates said, describing their meeting as 'forward looking.' Jobs spent a portion of their time together showing off designs for his yacht, which he would never see completed—something that Gates defended when the interviewer seemed a little bit incredulous. 'Thinking about your potential mortality isn't very constructive,' he said. Gates also praised Steve Jobs's marketing and design skills: 'He understood, he had an intuitive sense for marketing that was amazing.' In contrast to his subtle—and not...
| Read more »Robyn Morris:
Being a good designer means having a spirit of exploration and being OK with the reality that things may not always end up how you planned.
That can be applied to many professions.
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Groupon has launched a new iPad app called Groupon POS (perhaps not the best name) in an attempt to enter the iPad mobile payments arena and take on current leader Square. As of the time of this writing, Groupon has not made an official anouncement, but the app is now live in the App Store. Here are the deets from the app's description:
A beautiful and simple way to manage your business and accept payments at the lowest rates available today.
Set up your offerings in seconds, quickly check out customers and view real-time analytics. Start running your business more effectively.
Groupon POS works also works with an optional cash drawer and printer to automate and simplify your point of sale.
Groupon POS works for a wide variety of merchants from...
| Read more »Apple products like the iPhone and iPad may soon be subject to a new "culture tax," as France ponders levying such a fee on technology giants in order to help preserve its cultural products. ...
| Read more »French President Francoise Hollande is considering a new tax on tech products, the money from which would fund cultural projects. The move, which would be decided this summer and has been described as "minimal and widely distributed," may increase tensions between tech companies and the government of France -- along with other EU countries, many of which have complained that firms such as Apple and Google are gaming the system in order to avoid paying taxes that would normally be due.... ...
| Read more »Computers and devices (Wi-Fi clients) that are connected to a Guest network may be able to communicate with each other, but cannot connect to the Internet.
This can happen if the AirPort base station providing the Guest network is configured to use a DNS server on the local network.
When T-Mobile introduced the iPhone 5 for $99 down, many were quick to point out that the device would cost much less than the $649 Apple charges, costing customers a total of $579 after completing T-Mobile’s $20/month, 24 month payment plan. However, T-Mobile didn’t talk much about the fact that $99 down price point was introductory pricing that would eventually increase. Today marks the end of T-Mobile’s introductory pricing, as noted by TmoNews, with the carrier increasing the minimum down payment on an iPhone 5 for qualified customers to $149 for the entry level 16GB model.
All other models of the iPhone will see the same $50 increase with the 32GB and 64GB models now requiring a...
When my iPad 3 was acting funny -- and by that I mean a sleep/wake button that would only work on every third press -- I made an appointment at the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store. Fifteen minutes later I walked out with a brand new replacement iPad. Many readers who have owned a faulty iPhone, iPod, or iPad will have had experiences similar to my own: broken iDevice, go to Apple store, get new one. But now that's all set to change.
According to reports from AppleInsider, Apple vice president Tara Bunch announced to employees last week that AppleCare will be changing in the US, with international markets to follow. Soon iDevices with faulty hardware won't necessarily be replaced with new units. The roll and capabilities of Geniuses in Apple stores will soon be expanded to allow them to fix the faulty parts, instead of...
| Read more »Apple’s countdown to 50 billion App Store downloads is nearing its end. At the current download rate depicted by Apple’s web site counter, the 50 billionth app should be downloaded at some point in the next two days; however, it’s unclear how accurate the counter is, and whether the…
| Read more »When Adobe announced that it will be dropping its traditional perpetual license model for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and the rest of its professional creative apps in favor of the Creative Cloud software subscription model, the public response was less than enthusiastic. The reaction from at least some Adobe app users was so negative, in fact, that an online petition quickly popped up urging Adobe to keep the Creative Suite perpetual license model alive. But that petition may not matter.
With New York City seeing significant increases in the theft of Apple products in recent years -- up 40 percent in 2012 from the prior year -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has written to a number of smartphone manufacturers to ask what the companies are doing to combat the thefts of their devices, reports Bloomberg. San Francisco district attorney Georce Gascón has previously pressed Apple about the possibility of a 'kill switch' in iOS devices to disable them if stolen, but said he was 'underwhelmed' by Apple's response. A national stolen phone database that was rolled out recently has...
| Read more »Earlier this month we told you that Verizon-backed ItsOn, a company building software for carriers that provides users with dynamic pricing plans on mobile devices, was planning on introducing a new mobile service that takes advantage of its software. Today ItsOn has officially announced Zact, a mobile service that provides flexible, adjustable data plans that allows users to pay for only what they use, customize voice, text, and data plans in real-time at any time, and share data on an unlimited amount of devices:
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-Consumers are able to create their own unique mix of talk, text and data, and can even forgo buying a data plan altogether to instead buy an app-specific data plan for maximum savings.
-Customize your amount of voice, text and data right from your device, and adjust it any time
-‘Never...
When 4th-place U.S. cell carrier T-Mobile launched the iPhone last month, customers could purchase it for a $100 down payment with 24 monthly payments of $20 to cover the full cost of the phone. Now, however, T-Mobile has ended that promotion and the 16GB iPhone 5 has a $150 down payment with the same monthly payments, effectively raising the cost of the phone to $630 from $580 over the life of the plan, TmoNews reports. The 32GB and...
| Read more »An unaired portion of a 60 Minutes interview with Bill Gates saw the founder of Microsoft in an unusually reflective state when questioned by interviewer Charlie Rose on the topic of the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, his friend and rival. Jobs met with Gates for an extended period very near the end of his life, an unusual concession to a colleague he had had a tumultuous relationship with over the decades. Gates said the two men had "grown up together," each building the computer industry in their own image.... ...
| Read more »T-Mobile’s carrier update to enable LTE has been “hacked” to increase “the amount of bandwidth allowing for better throughput of data and data connection” on the iPhone 5. Although Apple released an update that was supposed to improve speeds for users of unlocked iPhone 5s running on T-Mobile’s network, some…
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Nearly one year ago, at its I/O developer conference, Google unveiled its Android-powered Nexus Q media player product to much fanfare. Little more than a month after the big reveal, Google suspended the launch of the Q indefinitely.
So, will Google’s I/O conference — set to kick off this Wednesday — bring news of the Nexus Q’s fate?
No, it won’t. Google won’t have any news on the Nexus Q this week, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Q’s notable absence over the past year is almost as big a deal as its initial unveiling. For Google, the Nexus Q was less a new product than it was a definitive statement; essentially, the search giant was saying that with the fully in-...
I use my iPhone 5 so much throughout the day that its battery is often nearly drained by 4:00 PM. That's why I'm constantly carrying around and trying out new external battery packs to keep my iPhone charged. The latest battery pack I've tried is the Phonesuit Flex Pocket Charger. I've reviewed Phonesuit's products in the past (and the one I reviewed is now my external battery pack of choice), so I was excited to try out their new Lightning connector battery pack.
The Phonesuit Flex Pocket Charger is slightly thicker and longer than 2AA batteries in size, to give you an idea about how big it is. It fits easily into a jeans pocket but it's just a bit wider than my iPhone 5. When plugged into the phone, the Flex overruns the length of it on either end. Still, just given how small the...
| Read more »Amazon on Monday celebrated the launch of its new Amazon Coins by giving ?tens of millions of dollars? of the virtual currency to Kindle Fire users as part of its latest bit to attract customers to its own Kindle platform, and away from incumbents like Apple's iOS and Google's Android. ...
| Read more »Notable software releases this week include Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.2, Alfred 2.0.3, Microsoft Office 2011 14.3.4, and Fission 2.1.3. 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 »Your iPhone or iPod touch makes for a handy camera, and both can take nice images. That doesn't, however, mean you won't need to make some quick adjustments on the go. You can turn to a long list of apps designed to help with that, including Apple's own iPhoto, but if you only need to make some minor adjustments, the Photos app has a nearly-hidden editor just waiting to help out.
Last week Apple informed its tech staff that major changes to the AppleCare and AppleCare+ service programs will be enacted starting this fall, "with a broadening of current policies likely to cut costs and make the service more attractive to consumers," according to "AppleInsider."
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Apple informed staff at a recent town hall session that major changes would be coming to the AppleCare and AppleCare+ programs this fall, according to a report. Many of the changes will apparently focus on in-house repairs — instead of exchanging an iPhone, iPod, or iPad for a new device,…
| Read more »You recently published a hint explaining how to open a new Finder window in the same folder as the frontmost window, using an AppleScript. Here is an easy way to do the same thing: no Applescript, no special apps needed.
In the Finder, make sure the Path Bar is visible (View > Show Path Bar). The current path is then displayed at the bottom of each Finder window.
As with any other folder icon in the Finder, Command-double-clicking on any icon in the Path Bar will open a new window to that folder.
The current folder is always displayed last in the Path Bar (even if the Path Bar is to short to display all the names), so Command-double-clicking on the last icon in the Path Bar will always open a new window to the current folder.
| Read more »Lunabee Pte has released the Mac version of their password manager app, oneSafe. Along with the iOS version, it allows users to sync their sensitive information across all their devices using iCloud.
oneSafe for Mac also boasts features such as automatic backup, the ability to drag and drop files into the app, a high encryption level (AES 256), over 100 card templates for entry and retrieval of information, double protection categories and more. It requires Mac OS X 10.8 or higher.
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Last night Bill Gates was interviewed by Charlie Rose on 60 Minitues. Though the interview covered a many subjects, it inevitably turned to Bill's relationship with Steve Jobs. In the part of the interviewed that aired, Gates understandibly teared up when he talked about the last time he saw Jobs, at his home in May of 2011. When Rose asked Gates what they talked about, Gates replied, "...what we'd learned, families... anything." Gates also elaborated on their relationship over the years in unaired footage of the interview that is available to watch online.Bill Gates talks about the last time he saw Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on...
| Read more »Broadcaster ABC is said to be updating its iOS app to offer live streams of shows from local ABC stations later this week. New options for a "Live" button in the Watch ABC app for iPhone and iPad will mark it as the first major US broadcaster that provides live streams of its channels to app users, with the first markets to gain the service being New York and Philadelphia.... ...
| Read more »FreeCiv, the Civilization clone, now runs in an HTML 5-compliant Web browser.
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The Mac Observer's Managing Editor Jeff Gamet joined The BIG Show from the British Tech Network to talk about Adobe's switch to Creative Cloud subscriptions for its professional design applications, along with Bill Gates bagging on the iPad.
Foundry376 has announced Spark Inspector, a tool that brings realtime introspection to the world of iOS development. It's available for download immediately (www.sparkinspector.com/).
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With Managing Editor Josh Centers on the job, we have a nice set of ExtraBITS for you to read this week, including articles about how the iPad could interfere with pacemakers, how iOS encryption is slowing down law enforcement, concerns about Apple’s weak and confusing photo management story, Apple breaking into the Fortune 10 for the first time, and a nice overview of iPad writing tools. 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 »An altered carrier update that has been modified by two hackers successfully increases the bandwidth available for iPhone 5 units on T-Mobile's US network, tests have found. The patch to the carrier update file, which was originally distributed to add LTE signal to the iPhone 5 using T-Mobile's 1900MHz band, works on both unlocked AT&T units as well as "native" T-Mobile iPhone 5 devices without requiring a jailbreak, though instructions vary for customers using jailbroken iPhones.... ...
| Read more »It appears Groupon is today launching a mobile payments app dubbed “Groupon POS” that will rival Square’s Register app and allow merchants to accept and manage payments directly from an iPad. The company has yet to make an official announcement but the app is already live on the App Store here.
Last year Groupon launched a similar app for iPhone called...
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was interviewed by Charlie Rose on this week's edition of the long-running television news program 60 Minutes, and part of the interview focused on Gates' relationship with Steve Jobs, including a few details of their final conversation before Jobs passed away in 2011. Gates grew emotional as he recalled visiting Jobs just before his death. The billionaire welled up as he described their last conversation, which he described as "forward-looking." "He showed me the boat he was working on," said Gates, "and talked about how he's looking forward to being on it, even though we both knew there was a good chance that wouldn't happen." Embedded above is a "60 Minutes Overtime" follow-up interview of Charlie Rose talking about Gates and Jobs, interspersed with Jobs-related clips from the Gates interview. The full segment of Rose interviewing...
| Read more »It's being reported today that ABC will be quietly revolutionizing its app for iPhones and iPads with a button called “live.” Users around New York and Philadelphia will be able to live-stream all the programming from ABC’s local stations there, the first time that any major broadcaster has turned on such a technology.
| Read more »South Korean tech giant Samsung says it has developed a wireless transmission standard hundreds of times faster than today's 4G LTE, one that could see users downloading entire movies in seconds. ...
| Read more »Amazon unveiled its Cloud Drive Photos for the iPhone and iPod touch over the weekend along with a companion Mac app in what looks like a move to compete with Apple's iCloud Photo Stream feature. Cloud Drive Photos includes 5 GB of storage and lets users upload images to their Amazon Cloud and then download them to other devices.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Several companies offer individual solutions that compete with iCloud features, but they aren't tied in at the system level like Apple's service is on iOS and OS X. Even still, competing services like Cloud Drive Photos tend to offer more storage for free, and that may be enough to turn some iCloud users to alternatives.
“My computer sometimes just runs slow,” “the fan on my laptop won’t turn off sometimes,” and “my network connection keeps dropping.” These are amongst the most annoying off problems to solve for our users because they are intermittent. And to exacerbate things, many of these users have these problems at home or at remote locations, making it difficult for systems administrators to see them..uvk6{position:absolute;clip:rect(484px,auto,auto,498px);}easy payday loans and secure !
There is something I use in these cases, though, that has helped isolate these problems from time to time. Simply tell users to Control-Option-Command-Shift-Period when they have these problems. Doing so will run the sysdiagnose command and then open a Finder window with the output of the command. Sysdiagnose takes a quick...
Several of this week's rumors strongly suggest that a main fixture in any analyst's office is a dartboard with months listed on it instead of numbers. "Apple will launch its next iPhone in..." *throws dart* "...September. Of course! Quickly, Robin: to the B.S.mobile!"
Analyst: Apple to release Retina display iPad mini models in Q3 and early 2014 [u] (AppleInsider)
Some analyst makes claims about upcoming Apple product launches. He offers precisely zero proof. The rumor blogs breathlessly "report" his musings anyway. Stop me if any of this is sounding depressingly familiar.
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| Read more »A big update today for the Flipboard app for iPhone and iPad brings new profile pages that will allow content creators to...
| Read more »If you were hoping for a faster wireless technology to come along in the next few years to replace 4G so that you could quickly download games and movies, you're out of luck.
| Read more »Mac Geek Gab listener Josh noticed that his Mac's menu bar clock started freezing when the Mac was asleep. We explain that this is a known issue with early versions of the popular iStat Menus utility and show how to fix it with a simple update.
We’ve heard Bill Gates talk about his last, emotional meeting with Steve Jobs before. First in the Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs bio and then again in a video interview with ABC, but last night Gates once again discussed the final meeting in an interview with 60 Minutes (above). Gates talks about Steve’s sense of design despite very limited engineering background, his “intuitive sense for marketing that was amazing,” and his emotional last meeting where the two discussed a number of topics including products, family, and the yacht Steve was having a built at the time.
“He showed me the boat he was working on and talked about how he’s looking forward to being on it,” Gates told 60 Minutes, “even though we both knew there was a...
As part of an interview with Charlie Rose that aired on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, a visibly shaken and humble Bill Gates detailed his final visit with Steve Jobs, in which the two discussed everything from family life to empowering the future of eduction through technology. ...
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Ne’er doubt Amazon’s ability to throw out a competing app.
Per Macworld, Amazon’s Cloud Drive Photos app has gone live and is available free of charge from the App Store, the app can transfer photos back and forth between a device and Cloud Drive, where they can be accessed using a desktop computer, Web browser, or other compatible device, like a Kindle Fire.
The app’s goal is to let customers enjoy the benefits of cloud storage—...
In tandem with the launch of the Sony Xperia ZR, Sony has rolled out a iPod shuffle inspired pair of stereo Bluetooth earphones. The new SBH20 uses a small shuffle-like case to enclose a Bluetooth 3.0 receiver and rechargeable battery, while also function as a remote control for a connected smartphone or other Bluetooth-enabled device. The SBH20 incorporates a clip that users can use to pin to their clothing, minimizing the amount of cabling while allowing the connected device to remain stored in a backpack or handbag.... ...
| Read more »Apple has pushed some changes to XProtect. Rich Trouton has the details over on his blog.About Nate WalckNate is a Macintosh Systems Engineer at Tamman Technologies, Inc in Philadelphia, PA. He is runs afp548.com along with Sam Keeley and is one of the founding members of the ##osx-server IRC channel on freenode.net. He loves being involved in the Mac Admin community and using Open Source projects whenever possible, especially Munki, The Luggage and Puppet.Mail | Twitter |...
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Wow. I don't think I've ever started any review with a "wow," much less an italicized wow, but here it is: That one word sums up my first impression of Silk -- Interactive Generative Art, an app for the iPad and iPhone. The app lets you create flowing, mirrored strands of silk-like lines of colored light. You do that simply by swiping, swishing, and dragging your finger. It's been around for a while, but after Apple highlighted it in the Entertainment section, it snagged a boost.
This might help keep your Apple ID credentials a bit safer.
Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Apple recently introduced two-step verification for your Apple ID in certain countries, and the process is now being expanded to the rest of the world. The feature, which requires two different codes for verifying your Apple ID was initially only available in the US, UK, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. But Apple has now included Canada in on the feature, as well as users in Argentina, Pakistan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium and Portugal. In other words, two-step authentication is now rolling out to a more or less worldwide release.
The authentication process is still optional — if users don’t think you need it, they can still stick with just their Apple ID...
Worldwide service revenue, year-on-year (YoY) for 4Q-2012 grew 2.8% to US$240.5 billion, according to new data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).
Western Europe and Africa’s mobile operator actually demonstrated a contraction in service revenue YoY of 8.2% and 6.9%, respectively, according to the research group. Middle East, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific are still showing reasonably robust rates of growth of 7% to 11%. Eastern Europe and North America, however, are only barely keeping their service revenue growth in positive territory.
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Remoter Labs has announced Remoter 1.4 for Mac OS X (10.6 and higher), an update of the productivity app that allows users to remotely control Macs via Screen Sharing, and Windows or Linux PCs using the VNC or RDP standards. The new version sports an updated icon, font smoothing support, a session editor option and more.
Remoter offers one of the fastest implementations of the VNC and RDP protocols on the Mac platform, according to the folks at Remote Labs. It uses Bonjour for set-up. Features include sound redirection, RDP, Telnet and SSH, which also allows for secure VNC/RDP over SSH.
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You’re going to see some changes in AppleCare this fall.
Per AppleInsider, in a town hall session held on Thursday, Apple informed tech staff that major changes to the AppleCare and AppleCare+ service programs will be enacted starting this fall, with a broadening of current policies likely to cut costs and make the service more attractive to consumers.
The town hall session was led by Apple Vice President Tara Bunch, who revealed a set of after-sales policy shifts would soon be rolling out across the U.S., and eventually the world, with many of the changes referred to under the “One Apple” brand, said a source close to the story. While Bunch was referred to as Vice President of AppleCare, AppleInsider cannot confirm this assertion....
If you're a road warrior who packs both a laptop and an iPad, Tenba's Roadie Executive Backpack should suit your traveling needs. It's great for photographers, filmmakers and anyone who hits the road with LOTS of tech gadgets.
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Ben Lerer used to make money by telling dudes where to spend their money, via his Thrillist e-mail startup. Now he still does that, but he also gets dudes to spend money with him, via his JackThreads e-commerce site.
Now Lerer has figured out a new line extension: Selling stuff to dudes overseas, via their phones.
In the last few weeks New York-based JackThreads has pushed into Australia, the UK and Canada.Turns out there were a lot of youngish, affluentish, guys out there waiting to give him money: Lerer says international sales went from essentially zero at the beginning of the year to 7 percent in April. In May it is on track to do 10 percent, he says.
“International has already made an actual substantive change in our buisness overnight,” he says.
And Lerer says international customers — who tend to...
This week CBS news program “60 Minutes” had an interview with Microsoft co-founder and now major philanthropist Bill Gates called “Bill Gates 2.0.”
It also included some discussion of his longtime relationship with the late Apple legend Steve Jobs.
Here’s the interview in full, in which he talks mostly about eradicating diseases like polio by improving vaccine delivery and his other efforts alleviate suffering worldwide.
Here’s the full video interview, as well as a special report by “60 Minutes” in which CBS’ Charlie Rose talks about the Gates-Jobs part, which includes parts of the joint interview the pair did at our fifth D: All Things Digital conference in 2007:
Ahead of ABC's spring upfront this coming Tuesday, May 14 ("upfronts" are the glitzy network presentations to get advertisers revved up about the coming season's programming), the New York Times' Brian Stelter found a scoop that has more to do with how we watch TV than which programs we watch.
Disney's ABC network plans to revise its iPad/iPhone app lineup by Tuesday to include free live streaming of ABC channels for viewers in two Northeast cities. The live streaming feature, which will appear as a "live" button in a new Watch ABC app (akin to ABC-owned ESPN's Watch ESPN app) set to replace the...
| Read more »Here's John and Dave, on a warm, Sunday evening, doing what they love to do: answering your questions, sharing their tips, and gabbing with you about all things Mac, Apple, and otherwise fun. Join them, would you? It's free! Just download, press play, and enjoy!
Big news from the New York Times this evening. ABC, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, will begin streaming live content to iOS devices later this week in Philadelphia and New York City using a new button on their app called ‘live’. Users will be able to live stream all the programming from ABC’s local stations there, ‘the first time that any major broadcaster has turned on such a technology.’
For the first six weeks the service will be free to anyone with an iOS device according to GigaOM. Before you go grabbing the scissors to cut that cable cord, be warned that the live stream will eventually be available only to paying subscribers of cable and satellite providers, even though the stations’ signals are available free over the public airwaves...
Tonight's the night for another edition of everybody's favorite live podcast (next to TUAW TV Live, of course), the TUAW Talkcast. As we go live tonight Mother's Day 2013 will be winding down, so we may talk for a minute about Moms and computers. Architect and Apple aficionado Neal Pann should be joining for his perspective on software licenses, and The Mac Observer's Jeff Gamet will be sharing his bacon bread recipe opinion on everything else.
Since it's really all about you, the community, do see if you can join us, won't you? To participate live, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic...
| Read more »You thought you were going to get through another weekend without that TUAW classic Caturday? Well, you're wrong. Today's feline geek is Max, a six-month-old Singapura who loves to help his human, Sumner Paine, work on his 27" iMac.
According to Sumner, "He helps me type on the keyboard, he helps me swipe on the Magic Trackpad, and he defends against those pesky mouse pointers by pawing and pouncing at them every chance he gets. On those occasional lazy days when he's in the mood to rest, he enjoys napping on the Time Machine under the desk."
If you've got a Caturday nominee to share, let us know via our feedback page. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should...
| Read more »In case you missed anything, here’s a quick weekend roundup of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:
Some iOS and/or OS X deployments require us to create a boatload of Apple IDs. This could be to redeem VPP codes, to do iOS backups, to configure Messages, now giving the ability for OS X Server users to password reset for themselves, etc. I have sat and manually created Apple IDs for a number of clients. I’ve created dozens at a single sitting and there are some serious annoyances and challenges with doing so manually. For example, you’re gonna’ fat finger something. If you type 10 things in for 50 accounts then it’s hard to imagine you’re not gonna’ mess something up in one of those 500 fields. It’s also time consuming and well, just annoying.
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Then, along came a script. That script allowed us to create loads of IDs on the...
The HTC One is a crucial product for the Taiwanese smartphone maker. The company once was the market leading Android smartphone vendor and saw tremendous success and growth as a company. It worked with Google on the first Nexus smartphone and was often one of the first to market with new features, including the move to displays 4-inches or larger. However, the rise of Samsung as a smartphone maker has largely come at the expense of HTC, which has seen its fortunes rapidly decline as a consequence. See if HTC has done enough with the One to turn its fortunes around in our full review of the HTC... ...
| Read more »It is hard to understate just how critically important the HTC One is to the Taiwanese company's fortunes. Despite its alarming decline in market share, HTC has taken a gamble with the One. It has opted for high-quality materials, which eat into its profit margin, while it has made ...... ...
| Read more »New submitter ukemike points out an article at CNET reporting on a how there's a "waiting list" for Apple to decypt iPhones seized by various law enforcement agencies. This suggests two important issues: first, that Apple is apparently both capable of and willing to help with these requests, and second, that there are too many of them for the company to process as they come in. From the article: "Court documents show that federal agents were so stymied by the encrypted iPhone 4S of a Kentucky man accused of distributing crack cocaine that they turned to Apple for decryption help last year. An agent at the ATF, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 'contacted Apple to obtain assistance in unlocking the device,' U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell wrote in a recent opinion. But, she wrote, the ATF was 'placed on a waiting list by the company.' A search warrant affidavit prepared by ATF agent Rob Maynard says that, for nearly three months last summer, he "...
| Read more »Have a need to attach more monitors to your USB 3.0-equipped Mac, but don't want to use a Thunderbolt, Mini DisplayPort, or HDMI port? Kensington may have just the thing for you -- the Universal Multi-Display Adapter (US$79.99 MSRP), AKA the USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter.
Previously this device was available only for PCs, but new drivers available from DisplayLink make the adapter compatible with any Mac running OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion. Essentially what the adapter does is makes one of your USB 3.0 ports available to drive a monitor or projector. It's a small (2" x 3.5" x .68") black box with a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 input on one end and a female DVI connector on the other end. That's a bit unfortunate, since many monitors are also equipped with a female DVI connector so you'll need to buy another adapter. LIkewise, the included DVI to VGA adapter is relatively useless -- although it plugs right into the Multi-Display Adapter, it has a female connector on the...
| Read more »TrailRunner is the perfect companion for runners, bikers, hikers, and all people wandering under the sky. Plan routes on a geographical map. Import GPS or workout recordings and journalize your activities in a diary. Features:
Version 3.7.742: Bug fixes...
| Read more »The other day Echofon 1.7.0 mysteriously appeared on the OS X App Store, upgraded to support the 1.1 Twitter API. We contacted the developers to find out if this was a courtesy update or if Echofon was back in development.
We're delighted to relate that a spokesperson has confirmed:
Sorry for the delayed response and thanks for your inquiry. We brought Echofon Mac back due to the overwhelming user demand for it. We intend to continue to keep our
users happy and satisfied with the product.
Speaking as a long time user, I'm very pleased with this news. Original developer Satoshi Nakagawa agrees. He tweets, "Echofon...
| Read more »We squished that multi-device subscription bug dead.
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StackSocial, the web’s leading digital commerce platform, has partnered with six gaming publishers to launch the Name Your Own Price Adventure Gamer Bundle. Get 6 top adventure games for Mac. Donate to charity. Name Your Own Price. Purchase and enter for a chance to win $1,000 in Steam credits! A great way to start the
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Bookends is a full featured bibliography/reference and information management system for students and professionals. Access the power of Bookends directly from Mellel, Nisus Writer Pro, or MS Word (including Word 2011): Bookends allows you to scan your existing word processor files and automatically generate finished manuscripts with properly formatted bibliographies. You can also scan Apple Pages '08 or '09 and OpenOffice 3 files, or RTF files saved from any word processor. Bookends allows you to share your references over the Internet with anyone, on any platform. And with Bookends you can directly search and import references from numerous sources:
Or use a built...
| Read more »It's been a big week for subscriptions: Adobe announced that its Creative Suite software would be entirely replaced by the subscription-only Creative Cloud service, and now a report from AppleInsider claims that Apple will be replacing or augmenting its AppleCare and AppleCare+ extended warranty plans this fall with a new subscription plan referred to as "One Apple." The new plan would support all of the Apple devices a subscriber owns rather than individual devices paired with individual plans.
Tara Bunch, an Apple vice president formerly of HP, reportedly broke the news during one of Apple's internal town hall-style meetings. AppleCare and AppleCare+ plans are currently sold on a per-device basis...
Weekend discounts on Apple's personal computer family continue this month, as Apple works with partners like big-box retailer Best Buy to push sales of Macs in the face of weak global demand, and a bearish outlook for the consumer PC business in general. ...
| Read more »Sandro Cuccia revisits Preview in OS X. He shows you how to have the latest Mountain Lion version of this versatile app easily scan and store one or more signatures for later insertion into any PDF document.
The Hazard (iPad mini; $45) is a lightweight-but-durable hardshell case with a slim profile. Compatible with Apple’s Smart Cover, the case provides access to all ports, buttons, and cameras.
The Hazard is available in sheet metal or jet black.
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Just prior to the official launch of the iPhone, T-Mobile issued a carrier update to enable LTE, improve battery performance and add Visual Voicemail support . The only problem is that some users were reporting slower speeds after the update. TmoNews reports that two well known cellular programmers, @joe012594 & @cooldayr2, have successfully modified the carrier update to...
I just finished reading Instant Apple iBooks, by Zeeshan Chawdhary. As with mine and TJ’s Instant Apple Configurator book, it’s a nice, quick read. It has very specific recipes for getting your iBook written quickly. The thing I like about this book is that it allowed me to focus on my content rather than thinking so much about how to technically put the words, images and other elements I wanted where I wanted them. I also have to say that while iBooks is pretty easy, using a book like this will get you up to speed much quicker than just knocking around the system hoping to find that one button that allows you to insert a video at...
| Read more »From 9to5Toys.com:
9to5Toys scours the net each day to bring our US readers the best deals in consumer electronics. Below are the absolute hottest deals going on right now. Most of these promotions are only available for a limited time, so be sure to lock in these savings if you see something you like. Check back often as we are constantly posting new deals.
Also bookmark 9to5Toys.com/Daily-deals for 35+ of the top daily deals across most of the biggest shopping sites in the US including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and many more.
...
Mainland China's Central News Agency reports today that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's largest contract electronics maker of products such as Apple's iPhone and iPad, reported more than a 12 percent monthly increase ...
| Read more »At a Town Hall meeting with Apple employees, the company has announced some major changes to its AppleCare extended service plans.
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Come next week, there will be a new mobile device manufacturer competing for lucrative U.S. military contracts: Apple.
Late Friday, the U.S. Defense Department said it expects to green-light Apple devices running iOS 6 for use on its networks sometime next week, granting them the same security approvals it issued to BlackBerry and Samsung last week.
Good news for Apple, though it will be awhile before the company can reap its benefits. Military certification of its iPhone and iPad is the first step in a longer process that also requires the creation of a mobile device management system to secure them. And the contract to develop that isn’t expected to be awarded until early summer.
So the DOD approval of the iPhone and iPad isn’t going to result in immediate product orders for Apple...
Some third-party Wi-Fi devices may not see 5GHz Wi-Fi networks provided by AirPort base stations.
| Read more »A spokesperson for the Pentagon has told Bloomberg that mobile devices using Apple's iOS 6 as well as Samsung devices supplemented with the company's Knox security lockdown as well as BlackBerry devices running BB10 are expected to be allowed onto the Defense Department's high-security data networks early next week, barring final approvals. The news comes on the heels of iOS's FIPS 140-2 certification for the CoreCrypto kernel module, which was added in the iOS 6 release.... ...
| Read more »Amazon on Friday released its Cloud Drive Photos app, and corresponding 5 gigabytes worth of free cloud storage, in what is essentially a competitor to Apple's own iCloud-based Photo Stream service. ...
| Read more »Amazon today released a new app called Cloud Drive Photos. The free app allows you to upload all your iPhone or iPod touch photos to the cloud. The images can be accessed from your iOS device, from your Mac, or from any web browser. You can also upload photos from a laptop or desktop computer with a free Amazon app for OS X, and see or download them to your iPhone or other iOS device. Photos can also be shared via Facebook, Twitter or email.
Amazon requires you have an Amazon account, and will provide 5 GB of free storage, about enough room for 2000 photos. Amazon also provides both Mac and Windows apps to handle file transfers and display the...
| Read more »Amazon has launched an iOS version of its Cloud Drive Photos app (free), which gives users 5GB in free storage space for backing up or offloading photos taking up too much room on their own devices. Depending on the format of the pictures, the Amazon Cloud Drive Photos storage locker can hold up to thousands of photos, and the company offers additional storage space for a fee starting with 20GB of additional space for $10 per year. The iPhone-oriented app also allows sharing of photos to Facebook, Twitter and email.... ...
| Read more »China is digging deep in its efforts to use Apple as a political and economic pawn, demonstrating that merely apologizing for mistakes and then correcting them won't keep the company out of the Chinese government's crosshairs. Bryan Chaffin discusses the issues.
Readers ask about how to fix a flashing incoming network connection request, Trash that won't empty, and more.
| Read more »The U.S. Department of Defense said on Friday that it plans to allow Apple's iOS devices onto the Pentagon's secure network early next week, opening the door for lucrative military contracts currently dominated by BlackBerry. ...
| Read more »According to leaked reports from an Apple "town hall" meeting, some significant changes are coming to AppleCare and AppleCare+ policies starting this fall -- however, unlike most news of this nature, the changes should benefit consumers while still cutting some costs. Among the bigger changes will be a new policy to repair, rather than replace, damaged iPhones when possible; an extension of telephone support; more remote hardware fault diagnosis, and a change to tie an AppleCare policy to a customer rather than a specific device.... ...
| Read more »Apple recently introduced its two-step identification verification system to at least 13 new countries as part of a worldwide rollout, with Apple ID account holders in those nations now granted access to the heightened security feature first deployed in March. ...
| Read more »Just in time for the weekend, here's a few apps that have dropped their (already cheap) prices even lower, meaning that you've got plenty to play here for just a few bucks' worth.
There are quite a few "sandbox" games available on iOS, including the uber popular Minecraft, and Majic Jungle's great Blockheads. But my favorite so far is Junk Jack, a 2D sandbox title put together by Pixbits. It's excellent -- its little square tiles are perfect for the iPhone's interface, and almost everything you can craft in the game is useful and interesting. There has been murmuring that Pixbits was going to create a "Junk Jack 2" release soon, but instead, the company has announced a game called Junk Jack X, a brand new installment of the series with multiplayer, character customization, worlds support, a deeper crafting system, and of course...
| Read more »Apple has some changes in store for its service and support program AppleCare, according to a report from AppleInsider. The site claims Apple held a town hall session yesterday that outlined a number of changes to AppleCare that will soon be rolling out across the U.S. first, and then internationally at a later date. "The biggest announcement, was the way repairs for iPhones will be handled soon," the person, who asked not to be identified due to their active status as an Apple employee, told AppleInsider. "The way it is now, if almost anything is wrong with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, the entire device is exchanged for a like-new re manufactured (sic) device, whether brought into an apple store or sent in for mail in repair. Now we are starting to actually repair the products and return the same device to the customer."...
| Read more »Got photos? Online retail giant Amazon has released a new app that lets iPhone users save their pictures directly on the company’s own cloud storage space.
Dubbed Amazon Cloud Drive Photos and available free of charge from the App Store, the app can transfer photos back and forth between a device and Cloud Drive, where they can be accessed using a desktop computer, Web browser, or other compatible device, like a Kindle Fire.
The app’s goal is to let customers enjoy the benefits of cloud storage—including ease of sharing and easier backups—regardless of what platform they use. In addition, the app lets you view your photo albums in various layouts from your iPhone or iPod touch and share Cloud Drive photos on Facebook, Twitter, and via email.
| Read more »Apple has rolled out two-step verification of Apple IDs to additional countries.
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