At least some anecdotes from AT&T subscribers have shown that its throttling practices for unlimited data plan users have started to take effect at low levels. John Cozen claimed to have seen the throttling take effect with as little as 2.1GB of data used in the month, or just over the pre-increase 2GB tiered plan's cap. He escalated complaints about the issue to levels where he could confirm the throttling wasn't a mistake....
| Read more »AMD in conversations at the end of the week wouldn't discount the possibility of making ARM-based processors. When pressed by Wired, CTO and former Apple executive Mark Papermaster made the unusual non-denial that "the answer is not no." The company's long-term plans were aiming for a modular chip design that could drop in ARM or another architecture without losing Radeon graphics or other AMD-specific touches....
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SpuriousLogic sends this excerpt from a BBC article detailing the suspension of a sales ban on certain Apple products in Germany:
"Motorola Mobility had forced Apple to remove several iPad and iPhone models from its online store [yesterday] after enforcing a patent infringement court ruling delivered in December. An appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a new license payment offer. However, Germany-based users may still face the loss of their push email iCloud service after a separate ruling. 'A suspension like this is available only against a bond, but Apple is almost drowning in cash and obviously won't have had a problem with obtaining and posting a bond.' ... A statement from Apple said: 'All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly.'"
...
CBS Sports:
This is your regular beer-league hockey game and the small rink gets filled with a rabid fan base complete with body paint, thundersticks and banners. The looks on the players’ faces is priceless.
This video will touch the hearts of every beer league player out there. It’s a shame it will only be shown in Canada during the game.
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CNET:
Apple’s A5 processor includes noise-reduction circuitry licensed from a start-up called Audience, and a chip analyst believes that fact resolves an iPhone 4S mystery and explains why the iPhone 4 lacks the Siri voice-control system.
Audience revealed details of its Apple partnership in January, when it filed paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. Teardown work from iFixit and Chipworks revealed a dedicated Audience chip in the iPhone 4, but the iPhone 4S integrates Audience’s “EarSmart” technology directly into the A5 processor, the company’s S-1 filing said.
The explanation make sense even as it disappoints those of us with the iPhone 4 who were hoping to get Siri retroactive on our phones.
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The ongoing patent spat between Motorola and Apple has reached an interesting crossroads. Just recently a German court granted an injunction against sales of many of Apple's 3G-bearing products, including older model iPhones and the iPad. That injunction held for less than a day, however, pending further review of Motorola's claims against Apple. Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents found new information that suggests Motorola has offered to end the patent dispute and license its wireless patents to Apple -- in exchange for 2.25 percent of Apple's sales. It's unclear whether this is a percentage of all Apple revenues or, more likely,...
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iTunes:
Trouble is brewing in Westeros. For the inhabitants of this world, control of the Iron Throne holds the lure of great power. But in a land where seasons can last a lifetime, winter is coming…and beyond the Great Wall that protects them, a forgotten evil has returned.
If you are a fan of the “Game of Thrones” series, these free behind the scenes videos might tide you over until the show comes back to HBO in April.
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This week, we wrapped up our coverage of the 2012 Macworld|iWorld conference in San Francisco just as Apple issued an update to Final Cut Pro X and gave the AirPort Utility an iOS makeover. Additionally, Tim Cook offered some strong words in response to doubts about Apple's attitude toward worker conditions in China, Neil Young recounted stories about Steve Jobs working towards higher-quality music downloads, and more. Need a recap? You're in the right place.
Rethinking iPhone UI and getting things done with Clear to-do app: Realmac is set to launch an iPhone to-do list app in a few weeks that breaks list making and maintaining down to the barest essentials, eschewing some common...
| Read more »Bob Borchers used to be an iPhone product marketing engineer for Apple. Part of the team that brought the first iPhone to market in 2007, he's now a venture capitalist with Opus Capital. Borchers recently gave a talk to students at a California school talking about the thought processes that were involved in the iPhone's development. Borchers says that Steve Jobs didn't have a specific device in mind, but instead gave the team a mission: create a phone that people would love so much that they'd never leave the house without it. Borchers believes that Apple has been so wildly successful with the iPhone because the company focused on fundamentals -- breaking the rules, but in an exceptionally well manner; paying attention to details; and making people focus on the relationship they have with their device. Jobs wanted the phone to be revolutionary...
| Read more »Once a week, we gather together to recap the best stories published on Macworld over the past seven days. This week, those include software updates from Apple--and the problems that go along with them--tips on using your Mac more efficiently, and plenty more.
| Read more »Apple has temporarily solved problems with the CUI bug in the Mac OS X 10.7.3 update by changing the download users get. Anyone who checks Software Update, along with seeking the usual download, now gets the combo update to Lion (1.3GB, link may not work) instead. The full installer is known to work properly at the expense of a much larger file size....
| Read more »Haven't heard of AnyPlay? That's not surprising. It's a small initiative slowly being introduced by Comcast into select cable markets. With it, you can watch live television over your home network on your iPad. So if your spouse is hogging the HDTV during your CW night, you can watch Supernatural using your local Wi-Fi. (Cablevision and Time Warner have similar apps on the App Store now.) AnyPlay consists of two parts: there's the standalone box ($10 one-time charge) and the iPad software, which is built into Comcast's existing XFINITY TV app. To get them to work together, you must sign into the app with your Comcast credentials and enable AnyPlay using the app's settings. On the hardware side...
| Read more »Android users were on the top of the list with 87% of their owners admitting they have used their smartphones while sitting on the throne. 84% of the BlackBerry users admit to doing it (smartphone use in the bathroom) and iPhone users checked in at 77%.
| Read more »What do you get when you have patents of money and piles of money? Apple versus the world in patent fights, Microsoft paying for iPads in schools, and lots of iPhones. That, and Mac OS Ken’s Ken Ray with plenty of opinions.
iMovie vs Avid Studio
iMore:
Avid Studio may be iMovie’s newest competitor for video editing on the iPad, but it’s not a fair competition. Avid Studio is the clear winner. iMovie doesn’t offer any significant features that Avid does not, but Avid can do much more than iMovie. Since they both cost $4.99, it’s almost a no-brainer.
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It's nearly Valentine's Day, and what better way to show you care than by helping to protect a beloved iPhone?
| Read more »Undisputed fact I just made up: The more time we spend online, the dumber and more myopic we get.
Hacker Noah Litvin set out to combat that observable phenomenon with DailyPag.es, an app that wo...
| Read more »As noted yesterday, many of the users who updated their OS X 10.6 systems with Apple's most recent security patches found themselves unable to run PowerPC legacy apps via the Rosetta compatibility layer. Today a new version of that update (Security Update 2012-001 v1.1) is now available, and it should resolve the issues. The latest build removes the patch to the ImageIO code that was included in the original version; this, apparently, was the cause of the breakage. 10.6.8 users can download the new version from Apple's site or via Software Update. [via MacDailyNews]...
| Read more »Newly uncovered documents from Apple's opposition to a Motorola attempt to silence its requests have uncovered Motorola's demands for a 3G patent license. In explaining why it needed to get details of Qualcomm's patent deal with Motorola, Apple mentioned that Motorola had wanted a 2.25 percent royalty on Apple product sales as its attempt at a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) patent licensing offer. Florian Mueller, who unearthed the details, saw it as likely an excessive rate given that Apple wouldn't only be licensing from Motorola and that it coul...
| Read more »Apple’s latest Mac OS X 10.7.3 release is a pain for some users due to its bugs surrounding CUI issues and the crashing of applications. Apple has already been investigating the issues with test groups, and it has apparently decided that the best thing to do at this point is remove the standard 10.7.3 update from its servers and provide users with the ability to only download the combined installation. This combo installer is not riddled with the CUI and app crashing errors as explained in our report from yesterday. Read on for all of the details:
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Apple removed its online...
| Read more »We spent a lot of time at the D: Dive Into Media conference talking about the way entertainment gets distributed. But it was also important to talk about the way it gets created. App-maker Khush’s pitch is that it lets everyone become an entertainer, via its music apps that let even the most tone-deaf mumblers create a song.
Here, co-founders Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia show off some of their creations, including Songify Live, a new app that will let you make music in real time with an iPhone, even if you’re a tone-deaf mumbler like myself.
I do sort of wish we’d kept audio warrior Neil Young onstage just a few minutes longer, so we could have captured his reaction to all of this:
[...
You may be familiar with the iPad’s split keyboard, introduced along with the roll out of the iOS 5. The wonderful keyboard has some more hidden features...
| Read more »Recently uncovered court documents from Motorola's legal complaints against Apple have revealed that the handset maker is seeking 2.25 percent of Apple's sales of wireless devices in exchange for a patent license covering its standard-essential intellectual property.
| Read more »As a Member of the European Parliament, I very much welcome the increased attention the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has received in the past weeks. It has taken a while for massive outcry to emerge, but we are seeing protest voices getting louder and louder.
| Read more »Our own Matt Neuburg has received the good news that Steve Job left him £4 million in his will. Perhaps Matt will invite the entire TidBITS staff to live with him on his private island. 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 »iTunes Match subscribers late Friday reported a problem with iTunes Match playback failing. Anyone on a desktop, whether Mac or Windows, couldn't play cloud-stored songs unless they were already matched with the iTunes Store. The problems didn't appear to be limited to particular app or OS revisions, and iOS users could still access the service....
| Read more »Last week the European Union has officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA. This brings ACTA a step closer to passing, but individual EU Member States and the European Parliament still have to ratify ACTA later this year. But this may not happen.
| Read more »Apple has removed from the App Store a number of copycat applications that closely mimicked the titles of successful games after they provoked a public outcry from developers over the issue.
| Read more »Two applications from Google to the FCC, one asking to test a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled "entertainment device" from December and other seeking to set up a residential gateway using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth from earlier this month may indicate that Google is planning to deploy or at least support future 802.11ac networks and devices, which would dramatically increase transmission speeds for HD video and other data throughout a local network....
| Read more »Apple has released a new version of its Security Update for Snow Leopard which fixes the Rosetta bugs caused by the first release.
| Read more »Apple has quietly added its "Genius" suggestion technology to Apple TVs, offering recommendations on other shows viewers might enjoy based on their past rentals or purchases. The option is selected via a new menu item that can be chosen by users. The new feature was added to most connected current-generation Apple TV units silently overnight, and mirrors a similar feature that has been a part of the iTunes application for years....
| Read more »Facebook may run mobile ads before its IPO takes effect. Its S-1 filing revealed that one of the companyís revenue soft spots was in the level of income generated from mobile devices. With mobile devices rapidly becoming one of the most common ways of connecting to Facebook and the Internet for users, the company looks to be moving quickly to address the perceived weakness....
| Read more »As it gears up for a high-profile initial public offering, Facebook has managed to lure Rebecca Van Dyck, Apple's former senior director of worldwide marketing and advertising, away from Levi's to serve as its head of global marketing.
| Read more »A problem with the previous 2012-001 Security Update posted for users of Snow Leopard (client and server) that caused Rosetta-based apps to misbehave or fail entirely has been corrected, and the company is pushing a "v1.1" edition of the update through its Software Update servers (support web page not yet updated). Over the next 24 hours, users who installed the previous security patch for 10.6.8 systems should see the update available....
| Read more »John Browett masqueraded as an ordinary salesman, The Daily reveals its subscriber numbers, and a former Apple product manager unveils the not-so-secret secrets of the iPhone's development.
| Read more »I met up with the guys behind iBackflip while at Macworld, and was impressed with their passion for design. Their first iBackflip was a pretty straightforward flip-down arm sling for the iPad. Using Velcro, it offered a basic black design and minimal extras. The new iBackflip Somersault, now available for pre-order, is a thoroughly updated version. At $99, I got to see one of the final versions, fresh from their factory. The Somersault's main feature is the ability to position the iPad in front of you while being securely fastened to your body via an ample sling. The flip-down panel securing the iPad is no longer Velcro, it is a sturdy YKK zipper now, and the iPad is more securely fastened in its own pocket. In addition to an iPad, the Somersault has room for an 11" MacBook Air, pockets for your headphones, ID, etc. and several loops on the shoulder strap. This is made of durable...
| Read more »Apple released iBooks 2.0.1 for the iPhone and iPad on Friday to address a problem where some iBooks textbooks failed to open.
Users who have been recommended to get a certain game but are not totally clear on the name of the app are the target market of "copycat" games that have similar names and borrow gameplay and other elements from more successful apps, hoping to cash in on brand confusion, TechCrunch reports. Titles like "Plants Vs. Zombie" and "Tiny Birds" are "fast fakes" of real apps. Apple is again removing such apps from the App Store, highlighting an ongoing problem....
| Read more »Smartphones passed up PCs for the first time last year, with Apple leading that industry while iPad accounted for most of the growth among computers, alongside moderate sales of notebooks, nearly flat sales of desktops, and a sharp decrease in netbooks.
| Read more »Apple released Security Update 2012-001 version 1.1 late on Friday for Snow Leopard users. The new version of security update replaces the one Apple released on Wednesday, and the cryptic release notes only state that it is “recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X,” although it seems likely it actually fixes odd errors some Snow Leopard users were experiencing after installing the version.
Yahoo has launched an app filtering tool to its search engine. Yahoo's main page now gives a user a tab for Apps as well as the traditional Web, Images, Video, Local and More. With it, users can get app only search results and filter them for either iOS or Android apps....
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bonch writes "After drawing criticism over iBooks Author's licensing language, Apple has modified it in a software update to make clear that Apple is claiming rights to the .ibook format itself and not the content therein: '[The license restriction] does not apply to the content of such works when distributed in a form that does not include files in the .ibooks format.' In other words, the content may be sold on competing book stores as long as it is not packaged using iBooks Author."
...
Apple updated the latest Snow Leopard security update, 2012-001, to version 1.1. While the company didn't spell out what changed, many users who installed the previous version of the update had encountered problems with the Rosetta technology used to run PowerPC-based apps.
| Read more »Metrics from ad tracking agencies has hinted that Samsung's TV ad campaign has lost momentum. YouGov BrandIndex has posted updated ad effectiveness tracking that suggests the buzz, or conversation around the brands, has leveled off. Its score has climbed since October, from 18 to 26, but Apple has also grown in the same space of time to get a comfortable lead at 34....
| Read more »A silent update to the backend has introduced Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows to the Apple TV. No user action is required to access the new feature, as it's not part of a device firmware update. Instead, Apple has updated its own servers to send this information to the Apple TV from its iTunes Store equivalent. Based on AppleInsider's screenshots of the updated Apple TV UI, this feature appears essentially identical to the Genius recommendation features already present in iTunes on the Mac and iOS devices. With access to your library and purchase history, the Apple TV can now recommend TV or movie content based on what you've watched before.Apple TV now offers Genius recommendations for movies, TV shows originally appeared on...
| Read more »If you want to pass like Tom Brady from the comfort of your living room chair, then you should grab a copy of NFL Flick Quarterback for the iPhone. The app is a flick-style passing game that lets you take on the role of an NFL quarterback. The game isn't a full-fledged football simulation like Madden 2012, but a passing game as its name suggests. Even though it focuses on only one aspect of the gridiron game, NFL Flick Quarterback is a lot of fun. You star as a quarterback of your favorite team and get to choose your jersey number. Your goal is to complete passes to receivers down field. Sounds easy until you throw in a defender or two who'll try to deflect your pass. You throw the pass by flicking the ball out of the quarterback's hand. The faster and straighter you flick the ball, the harder and straighter your pass will be. Once the pass is in the air, you can swipe left or right to nudge the...
| Read more »After meeting with Apple chief executive Tim Cook and chief financial officer Peter Openheimer, Citi analysts noted a strong iPad outlook leaving little likelihood of an ARM-based MacBook Air, vast growth potential in China, an indistinct future role for Apple TV, and the strength and importance of iCloud....
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PC World:
Super Bowl XLVI kicks off on February 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, and no matter where you’ll be that Sunday, you have plenty of ways to stream the big game to your PC, tablet, or smartphone so you can watch the Giants and the Patriots struggle for supremacy on your preferred device.
Best to test out your streaming options beforehand in case your provider or country doesn’t allow you easy access. Even better, go to your local pub and watch it with friends and strangers!
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Apple's newest handset returns to the company's Chinese online store following a brief stoppage of sales due to overwhelming demand that led to scalpers and violence, though wait times for orders can range from overnight to weeks.
| Read more »Creative has introduced a pair of noise-canceling headphones. The HN-900 integrates an in-line microphone with the over-the-ear headset. The Aurvana X-Fi 2 is a pure headphone, but supports a multi-dimensional surround-sound effect....
| Read more »Seamus Blackley is one of the co-creators of Microsoft's original Xbox console, and he put together a really interesting team of old-school Atari game developers recently to make mobile games. Blackley's new company is called Innovative Leisure, and while the website isn't anything more than a groovy logo, the devs he's got on board make for a pretty impressive list: Ed Rotberg (who made Battlezone), Owen Rubin (Space Duel), Rich Adam (who worked on Missile Command), Ed Logg (the creator of Astroids and Centipede), Dennis Koble (who programmed Shooting Gallery), Bruce Merrit (creator of Black Widow) and Tim Skelly (who is also an old school game dev, though not with Atari). The company is completely...
| Read more »Microsoft took a symbolic blow Friday after its Windows Phone Developer Experience lead Brandon Watson confirmed he was leaving for Amazon. The often outspoken advocate of WP7 told ZDNet he would now direct the Kindle Cross Platform team, which develops the e-reading app both for Windows Phone as well as for Android, iOS, and competing platforms. He explained it as a virtue of a tempting offer, but whether it was the work itself, the pay, or both wasn't apparent....
| Read more »AppleInsider:
Apple has added its Genius recommendation system from iTunes to Apple TV, offering to suggest titles related to previous purchases.
Sounds like a good update.
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Where can you get new feet for a MacBook system, and what can you do when Mail's toolbar suddenly disappears? Here we answer these and other questions from MacFixIt readers.
| Read more »Customers are annoying. You have to figure out what they want and then figure out how to avoid angering every one else in the process. Mozilla gets its funding from a competitor so they can give away something for free — that competes with, wait for it… the competitor. Publishers try to make money, please the customers and avoid upsetting the authors. Amazon found a tiny opening with the Kindle Fire — and, maybe, waits for the Apple shoe to drop. Apple may have to navigate some tricky HDTV seas. Microsoft buys a product that’s generally distributed for free, then tries to avoid upsetting its partners as it deploys it. And poor Siri has a hard time just delivering a Scotish sandwich. Times are tough.
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| Read more »Apple has added its Genius recommendation system from iTunes to Apple TV, offering to suggest titles related to previous purchases.
| Read more »The Oatmeal is a very funny web site, skewering all aspects of life, tech and otherwise.
In (dubious) honor of the upcoming Valentine’s Day, The Oatmeal serves up a selection of cards that, after some sober reflection, you should think very hard about your relationship before you buy/send these.
“If I were trapped in a blizzard…”
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Want to shoot panoramas? With your iPhone? You’re in luck! This week in Free on iTunes Vern Seward takes a look at three free apps that will get you shooting pans like a pro. PanoStitcher, PanoMinute, and TourWrist.
Apple CEO Tim Cook spent part of a recent Apple town hall meeting touting his company’s charitable donations, according to a report from The Verge. If true, it marks a new direction for the world’s wealthiest technology company, where previous Apple CEO Steve Jobs either didn’t bother with many corporate or didn’t bother talking about it.
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.Daily Update for February 3, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | ...
| Read more »StudioProper has released a new iPad stand designed for in-car use. The Wallee Headrest can be attached to any car seat and positioned either on the back of a headrest or in a central position between the front seats. Support is also offered for holding the device in both portrait and landscape orientations. The Wallee Headrest can be purchased through StudioProper's online store for $40 with free shipping around the world....
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Apple updated iBooks Author to version 1.0.1 on Friday afternoon, the only change being an update to the software's controversial end user license agreement. The updated EULA now specifically only applies distribution restrictions to the interactive .ibooks format files generated by the app.
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| Read more »A Canalys wrap-up of 2011 smartphone share painted an overall picture that kept Apple and Google in front, but also provided clearer pictures of Windows Phone. Android was just short of an absolute majority at 48.8 percent, while the iPhone held 19.1 percent. Nokia's Symbian and RIM's BlackBerry still held on to the double digits at 16.4 percent and 10.5 percent each....
| Read more »Apple changed the wording on the iBooks Author end user license agreement (EULA), clarifying the company’s restrictions on what can be done with content created with the software. The clarification specifies that Apple is restricting what can be done with the company’s proprietary .ibooks files, and is not claiming the content.
Apple just updated its End User License Agreement for the iBooks Author application, and the changes clearly outline the Cupertino, Calif.-based Company only requires .iBooks formatted products created in iBooks Author to sell through the iBookstore.
With that said, Apple aims to sell the packaged format without claiming the content nor restricting where else authors can distribute the content.
iBooks Author released alongside iBooks Textbook last month and controversy immediately brewed over its terms and conditions,...
Apple has pushed out an update to iBooks Author, the company's recently-launched publishing tool. The sole change in v1.0.1 is a new end-user agreement, clarifying a controversial portion of the document which initially suggested that any material produced with the software could only be sold through the iBookstore if it was sold at all. "If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a 'Work'), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate...
| Read more »If you've ever corresponded with Apple Support (or any major customer support outlet, really), you might have seen that little notice at the bottom of the email that says any conversation included "may be privileged and may contain confidential information." Most of the time, that's just a weak move to try and cover up any issues that customer support may cause. But in Apple's case, they sometimes try to take it seriously. David Bowles is a blogger who had an issue with his Thunderbolt display warranty, and when he corresponded with Apple about it, he posted it on the Go Inside magazine website. Just a little while after that, however, he received an email from Apple's tech support notifying him that they'd seen the "confidential" information posted online, and telling him that he should take it all down, under threat of "further action" (whatever that may be). After discussion with a support...
| Read more »Disinformation:
Host Adam Savage of Mythbusters tells how Visa, Mastercard, and Discover had the Discovery Channel put the kibosh on an episode that would have revealed just how “trackable and hackable” the RFID chips found in many credit cards are. It’s a telling example of how corporate advertisers serve as the gatekeepers of mainstream media/entertainment.
The video with the story has Mythbusters host (and fellow Mac user!) Adam Savage explaining how their investigation was shut down by The Discovery Channel.
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The latest edition of iLounge Weekly, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes Monday morning. iLounge Weekly is a summary of the week’s best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s…
| Read more »This week 10.7.3 was released, and MacNN forum goers were quick to start discussing this latest update to the Mac operating system. Yesterday Moderator OreoCookie started a thread looking for some advice on what kind of Solid State Drive to get for their MacBook Pro, click here to read more....
| Read more »Apple is quite comfy selling high end smartphones at a solid profit, and feels no need to venture deeper into the low end of the smartphone market, according to Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner. The analyst met with Apple executives and released his thoughts on that meeting in a research note to clients.
Apple on Friday updated the end user license agreement for iBooks Author, clarifying the restrictions on where the program's output may be sold.
| Read more »At Apple's online store today save on refurbished iPods, iMacs and more. The 8GB iPod nano in green, pink, yellow, blue, silver or black is available for $99 after a $30 price cut. For $119, after a $30 price cut, is the 16GB iPod nano in pink, silver, black or blue. A $120 price cut can be found on the refurb. 64GB iPod touch, now only $249....
| Read more »Crittercism has conducted a rare study of app stability that implied iOS apps might crash more than Android versions, although raising questions. Covering the top three quarters of popular apps downloaded in the first half of December, it found that iOS apps were slightly if noticeably more likely to crash. The relative gap diminished as researchers delved into less popular titles, although the sheer number of apps that crashed went up....
| Read more »FileVault 2 is a feature of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion that provides a way to encrypt a full disk drive so that it can only be used by those who know a password ... until now, that is. Passware, a company that makes forensic software used to recover lost passwords or open encrypted files to police and others, has announced that their Passware Kit Forensic 11.4 software (US$995) can extract the keys to FileVault 2 in an average of 40 minutes. Password was able to recover data from FileVault 2 encrypted drives regardless of the length and complexity of passwords. Fortunately for Mac users, however, not only does the cracking require a relatively expensive piece of software, but it also requires that certain conditions be in place for the software to be able to extract the FileVault keys. The Mac must be powered on and logged in; in other words, the FileVault keys must be in memory for Passware Kit Forensic to extract them. Passware can't extract...
| Read more »Apple has reopened online sales of the iPhone 4S on the Chinese mainland, says China Daily. The option actually became available again on Wednesday local time, but customers wanting to buy a 4S may still be waiting for weeks. The Chinese storefront mentions an expected delivery date of "February," while a phone sales staffer tells the Daily that "If you pay today, you might get the items tomorrow, and no later than March 2." Orders are restricted to two devices per person....
| Read more »The Next Web:
Apple has updated its iBooks Author app in order to clarify the language of its End User License Agreement. The changes to the EULA clarify that Apple does indeed intend the packaged product to be sold on the iBookstore only, but also makes it clear that it does not lay claim to the content that you use to create the book, nor does it try to limit what you can do with that content elsewhere.
Clarifying what intelligent people already knew.
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A couple weeks after introducing its new iBooks Author app, Apple has clarified legal language about what happens to the books users create with the software. Apple continues to insist that users can only sell electronic books in the iBook format via its iTunes store. But it makes it clear that the content of those books can be sold in any other format, without Apple’s approval.
| Read more »Apple has reached new heights in unit sales and revenues, but its remarkable profitability in doing so has inhaled three quarters of the oxygen in the room.
| Read more »We were so beguiled by AD's bamboo-bound smartphone that we had to track down the designer to get some hands-on time with these
| Read more »Apple attempted to head off a minor controversy surrounding iBooks Author by clarifying that it does not claim ownership of the content authors write, restricting only sales of its .ibooks format.
| Read more »Motorola has won a pair of injunctions against Apple in Germany, one against certain iPhones and iPads, and another against push email in iCloud. But the bigger question is whether this means war between Apple and Google at last.
| Read more »The Super Bowl is just around the corner which means it's time to get ready for the big game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. Rather than our usual five apps, I couldn't contain myself and, instead, put together five categories of apps that'll set you up nicely for food, football and fun this coming Sunday. Official NFL and Team Apps if you want to learn more about the Patriots's offense and the Giants's defense, then you should download each team's iOS app. The Giants have a free app for the iPhone, while the Patriots have chosen to go iPad-only with a magazine-style app. The Patriots Football Daily app has a free 7-day trial followed by a paid subscription. The NFL...
| Read more »Apple managed to have an injunction against online sales of certain models of the iPhone and iPad in Germany suspended. But it wasn’t quite so lucky with a second injunction against iCloud push email notifications.
This morning, a Mannheim Regional Court granted an injunction against Apple’s implementation of push email in iCloud and its predecessor, MobileMe. Sought by Motorola Mobility, which claims Apple has infringed its European patent on a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method,” the injunction could force Apple to deactivate push email in iCloud in Germany,...
Security Update 2012-001 for Mac OS X 10.6.8 can cause crashes, printing problems, and other issues with Rosetta applications; you can attempt to restore support with a patch created by a group of sysadmins at a Nebraska high school.
| Read more »USA Today reviewer Edward C. Baig describes his experience using the first Multi-Touch digital textbooks published for the iBooks 2 for iPad app, noting that they are “engaging in ways that were simply not possible with the textbooks I grew up with.” Baig likes the portability, updatability, and low pricing of iBooks 2 digital textbooks and touts specific features like instant search, highlighting, bookmarking, and interactive graphics. Writes Baig, “It’s better to see an animated tour of the genome in E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth than just to read about it. ”
| Read more »The NFL has released three official iOS apps for this year’s Super Bowl XLVI. Super Bowl XLVI Official NFL Game Program (free) for iPad has been updated for this year’s event packing over 400MB of exclusive NFL video and other multimedia content plus additional interactive content chronicling the Giants’…
| Read more »iLounge is pleased to announce the iBattz Mojo Power Card Giveaway. In our Giveaway of the Month for February, iLounge and iBattz are giving away one of ten iBattz Mojo Removable Power Card battery packs. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the…
| Read more »The news just keeps getting better for Apple in the mobile phone business. Just yesterday, IDC reported that the company is in third place in terms of worldwide mobile phone sales. Today, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu announced that with a relatively small piece of the pie (IDC said 6 percent of market, Dediu says 8.7 percent), Apple is pulling in a whopping 75 percent of profits in the industry. Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Apple 2.0 notes in an analysis of Dediu's numbers that out of the top eight manufacturers, only five are showing meaningful profits. Samsung has about a 16 percent profit share, while "Nokia, Research in Motion, and HTC are just...
| Read more »A new report from start-up company Crittercism claims that iOS apps are crashing at a greater rate than most popular Android apps.
| Read more »Readdle has released Remarks, a new note-taking and PDF annotating app for the iPad. Remarks provides the ability to create text notes and freehand sketches that are saved as PDF files that can be easily viewed, printed and edited on the desktop or shared via e-mail. In addition, Remarks provides…
| Read more »Apple has released a minor maintenance update to iBooks, addressing an issue where iBooks textbooks may not open under certain circumstances. An update to iBooks Author has also been released on the Mac App Store expressly to provide an updated version of the End User License Agreement. The original iBooks…
| Read more »An incremental release for iBooks Author has been released with changes to the program's EULA. The update is 143.50 MB, which seems pretty hefty for a EULA change. The change is an important one though, clarifying that Apple has rights over the format a book is in, not the content. If someone wants to charge a fee for an .ibooks formatted file, that document can only be sold or distributed through Apple, and that work will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple. The restriction does not include works distributed in non-.ibooks formats (such as the Kindle), as TUAW's Erica Sadun previously discussed.iBooks Author 1.01 out with updated EULA originally appeared on...
| Read more »Apple’s Airport Utility, version 6.0 introduces a graphical look that mimics that of the iPad version. But it also loses some functionality compared to the 5.x version.
A student from Middlesex University has designed a smartphone made from bamboo, which he plans to release in the UK and Europe later this year.
| Read more »Though you might be tempted to ditch your office fax machine, you probably have to send out at least a few faxes every year. Luckily, a number of services can help, even if you don't have a fax machine connected to an old telephone line.
| Read more »A handful of new tips have hinted that the US government's custom Android work is going beyond just military use. After soldiers, federal agencies and contractors would get the devices, CNN heard. The platform would be locked down enough only to store the documents at first, but it could be cleared send them over the cellular network in a matter of a "few months" if the sources were right....
| Read more »Former Apple employee Bob Borchers:
“What’s interesting is that the challenge Steve laid out for us when we created the iPhone wasn’t to make a touch-screen device that would play apps and do all of this stuff,” Borchers told students. “His [charge] was simple. He wanted to create the first phone that people would fall in love with. That’s what he told us.”
And that is why Apple is so successful.
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In a stunning release, the mysterious hacker organization “Anonymous” has published audio of an international coordination conference call between the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the British Scotland Yard, revealing officers’ secret communications on investigations into the group’s recent exploits.
| Read more »Several OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard users are reporting that Power PC-coded apps no longer work after applying Security Update 2012-001. The Apple support boards are full of stories about Rosetta apps crashing when any command is selected from the menu bar. Complaints seem heaviest from those running older versions of Microsoft Office, Quicken, FileMaker and Photoshop. Some users have recommended unofficial workarounds for the problem (attempt at your own risk), and it isn't known if Apple will fix the issue. Rosetta was deep-sixed in Lion, but was working fine in Snow Leopard until the security update was issued on Wednesday. Rosetta was introduced in...
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