Amazon is planning to extend its range of tablets and ebook readers by selling a set-top box, according to a report. The device, said to be coming out sometime in the fall, will provide streaming content, such as movies and TV shows to the user from the company's Instant Video catalog as well as Prime Instant Video....  ...

Good news for students interested in developing for iOS or OS X: Apple is awarding 150 scholarships to those who want to attend WWDC 2013 to benefit from the conference's many workshops. On its site, Apple states that it wants to “reward creative, talented, and outstanding student developers” by offering up these scholarships.
There is criteria for eligibility, however:
To apply, you must be a full or part-time student, 13 years of age or older, and a current member of the iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer University Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, or Mac Developer Program. You will need to provide proof of enrollment from your school when you submit your application.
Students must also use their existing coding skills to create an application that tells Apple something about...

Apple CEO Tim Cook is offering the chance to chat over coffee, and all it might cost is a charity donation ? to the tune of $50,000.   ...

Otterbox has added a new case to its Commuter line with its Commuter Series 3D Case ($45) for iPhone 5. The 3D case comes in three distinct raised patterns in green, teal, and pink. The cases feature an interior rubber…

via Business Insider
Unless the “April-ish” predictions come true for the iPad 5 launch event, Apple will have gone 230 days without a keynote when it holds WWDC on June 10-14th. 
To make it worse for Apple hardware-lovers, that event is billed as showing off the next version of iOS and OS X so we’re not guaranteed to see any new Apple gadgetry there. The wait is unusually long for Apple as Jay Yarrow demonstrates...

Amazon is reportedly working on its own TV settop box for streaming videos under its Instant Video -branded service. Citing three unnamed sources, Bloomberg said the product is being built in Amazon's Lab126 division in Cupertino, CA, under the direction of several settop and video engineering veterans.
The Mac Observer Spin:
The question in our mind is why the networks and studios that have met Apple's desires in this same space with such resistance have so freely licensed streaming rights to Amazon.

This is great. And a percentage of each sale will be donated to help fund Alzheimer’s research.
∞ Read this on The Loop

As it works to build all types of connected devices, that leaves a natural next step: a television set-top box. The e-commerce giant is planning to introduce a device this fall dedicated to streaming video over the Internet and into its customers’ living rooms.

This makes a lot of sense for Amazon and it would certainly be a bigger competitor than Google.
∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt put it the best in the subhead for his Apple Earnings Smackdown article this morning when he said "Apple management may have found a way to tame the wild beasts of Wall Street." What he was referring to was the fact that most Wall Street analysts were actually quite close on their estimates of how Apple performed in the second quarter of its fiscal year, thanks to new guidance rules that had been announced by CFO Peter Oppenheimer in January. The Smackdown is a quarterly roll call of analyst estimates and how well various institutional and independent analysts fared in their educated guesses of Apple performance.

On the Q1 2012 earnings call, Oppenheimer stated that the company would no longer give analysts conservative forecasts, or as Elmer-DeWitt put it "Rather than...

Mobile data provider FreedomPop has announced an expansion of its 3G coverage through support for Sprint. The change is effective immediately, and should enable nationwide access, solving some complaints about gaps in the carrier's service. The company sells cases and hotspots that enable otherwise Wi-Fi-only devices to get 3G/4G connections; each accessory comes with 500MB of free 4G data per month....  ...

For any company in the world, a quarter with revenues of $43.6 billion and profits of $9.5 billion would be cause for celebration. Unfortunately, Apple isn't any company. "Apple beat highly lowered expectations for the quarter," said Trip Chowdhry, managing director for equity research at Global Equities Research. Its numbers were better than expected by Wall Street, but disappointing to many financial analysts, especially compared to last year's performance for the quarter ending in March.

Adds calculation fields to expansions and includes over 20 improvements and fixes. (€24.99 new, free update, 5.3 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.

Following in the footsteps of Apple and Google attempts at the set-top-box market, Amazon is planning to release a set-top-box, according to Bloomberg. 
They say the box will plug into TVs and give users access to Amazon’s expanding video offerings. Those include its a la carte Video on Demand store, which features newer films and TV shows, and its Instant Video service, which is free for subscribers to the Amazon Prime two-day shipping package. The Amazon set-top box will compete with similar products like the Roku, Apple TV and the Boxee Cloud DVR, along with more versatile devices like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
The device is reportedly being developed in Amazon’s Cupertino based labs and could launch...

You can tell Scapple was designed by a writer. It's a simple, sparse Mac app that's free of unneeded bells and whistles. Scapple comes to us from the team at Literature & Latte, the developers who are responsible for the popular Scrivener word-processing and writer's management app.

While Scrivener is bursting with nearly every feature a writer could need, Scapple is simply a note-jotting app -- but it still keeps writers satisfied. Many have called Scapple mind-mapping software, but by L&L's own admittance, it's not. Instead, they liken it to a freeform text editor or "virtual paper" that allows a user to make notes anywhere on the page -- just like a writer would with his notepad as he furiously scribbles down ideas.

The way Scapple works is you double-click anywhere on a document and start writing. This can be something simple like the name of a...

While Apple posted better-than-expected quarterly results and increased its quarterly dividend this week, market watchers are still concerned a lull in new product introductions is likely to continue until this fall.  ...

During Apple's earnings conference call on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook fielded an analyst's question regarding Apple's product releases during the Fall 2012 quarter and delivered a surprisingly candid answer.

Addressing the shipping delays that plagued Apple's new iMacs, Cook articulated that Apple should had waited to release its new iMac models until this year.

"I don't spend a lot of time looking back except to learn from it," Cook explained. "If we could run it over, frankly, I would have announced the iMac after the turn of the year. We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product."

Cook explained that despite supply constraints for the iPad mini, he would not have changed its release date, because they were still able to get the device out to millions of customers....

Apple’s iTunes store is now featuring “A Decade of iTunes,” an interactive timeline celebrating the past 10 years of iTunes. The 10th anniversary of the iTunes Store is this Sunday, April 28. The timeline lets users view the top selling songs…

Drafts, the iOS note-taker from Agile Tortoise, has been updated to version 3.0, and it's a big one. Drafts 3.0 is available now for the iPad (US$3.99) and iPhone ($2.99), and it's a free update for existing users.

Much like Apple's own Notes, Drafts lets you quickly jot things down (we recently featured Drafts as a Daily iPhone App) But it's so much more than that. Use Drafts to create "actions" for moving your text into other apps, or sharing with family, friends or co-workers. You can even geek out and create complex workflows that interact with other apps. Drafts can be as simple or involved as you like. In both scenarios, it's fast and useful.

There's a lot to like...

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com2013 has been a sparse year for Apple special events. We’re already a third of the way through it, and the company hasn’t hosted a single gathering to debut a new product. Nor does it seem likely to until its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. And even that event is looking to be light on product news; CEO Tim Cook said as much during Apple’s second-quarter earnings call.
“Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services that we can’t wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014,” Cook said Tuesday in an unusually bald bit of expectation setting. Translation: No next-generation iPads and iPhones until at least September.
Disappointing news for folks who had been expecting a new iPhone (or iPhones) in June, and for Apple’s easily rattled shareholders. No substantial new products until fall means Apple will have gone nearly a year without a...

It’s the post-event questions that get interesting.
Per iMore, asked during today’s Q2 2013 fiscal results conference call as to whether or not Apple’s and CEO Tim Cook’s disinclination towards larger screens has changed, Cook said that there are a number of trade-offs that have come with larger screens. He said that Apple’s own research has revealed while some customers obviously place value on larger screen sizes (those giant Samsung, LG, and HTC phones wouldn’t be selling otherwise), others value resolution, color quality, brightness, portability, and app compatibility. He said that “our competitors have made...

Apple hinted during its second quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday that it may not have any big product announcements coming until this fall, and that has Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley expecting the company's June quarter to be fairly weak. While he sees a strong fall in store for the company, he's lowering his 12-month target price for Apple's stock from US$600 down to $560.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Just because Tim Cook was firm on his fall product announcement comment, that doesn't mean there won't be any big news this spring and summer. With WWDC scheduled for June, there's a chance that we'll get some kind of announcement in about six weeks.
...

Sales of Apple's iPhone were down at Sprint, as America's third-largest wireless carrier lost more than a half-million subscribers last quarter, but still posted returns that beat Wall Street's estimates.   ...

I can’t ruin the surprise, I’ll let Gruber tell you.
∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has formally announced the details of its 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference. The event will run from June 10 through the 14 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Tickets will go on sale April 25 at 10AM Pacific time, and Apple is promising over 100 technical sessions presented by over 1,000 Apple engineers. As usual, the conference will focus on helping developers creating, deploying, and integrating OS X and iOS-based projects, and networking between fellow developers....  ...

A meticulously illustrated catalog of 100 landmark cameras, culled from over a century of photographic history, depicting both professional and consumer models and tracing photography’s history from the first models to today’s digital wonders.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has pushed out a new update to its Apple Store app for iOS. Version 2.6 will notify you when an item you've ordered has been shipped and delivered. But perhaps the coolest push notification is the one that tells you when your iPhone is eligible for upgrade pricing. The iPhone upgrade eligibility is only available to US users.

Here's the details from the listing:

- Choose to receive notifications that let you know exactly when you're eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone. And since all you need to complete the order is your Apple ID and password, buying your new iPhone is fast and easy (US only).

- Stay on top of your delivery with notifications. We'll let you know when your order ships, keep you informed of any updates, and notify you when it's delivered.

The Apple Store app is a free download....

Drafts, the hugely popular iOS app for making quick text bits and notes, and then repurposing them in all kinds of ways, hit version 3.0 on Wednesday. The new version adds better organization options for drafts and actions, new action options, Reminders integration, and more.

At its core, Drafts () is focused on launching quickly and letting you instantly tap out notes on your iPad or iPhone. The drafts you create are saved automatically, but the real appeal of the app is that you can then act on your text or send it to other apps. Developer Agile Tortoise has been regularly adding all sorts of actions: Whereas the initial version of the app offered just a few, Drafts 3.0 packs in dozens. For example, you can publish drafts to Twitter, App.net, or Facebook; turn them into calendar entries (including optional Fantastical connectivity); save them as Reminders; send them to Evernote;...

Apple announced today that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held June 10 through June 14 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Get those credit cards out and prep those web browsers as tickets go on sale starting Thursday, April 25 at 10 a.m. PDT. They will be available from Apple's WWDC webpage.

Show full PR text

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 10 in San Francisco

Tickets on Sale Tomorrow
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2013

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple(R) today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 10 through June 14 at San Francisco's Moscone West. At the five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X(R), enabling them to create incredible new apps with innovative features. WWDC will also...

NFL Enterprises has updated its NFL ’13 app today to offer live coverage and a new second screen experience to a number of users directly through the app for the upcoming 2013 NFL Draft. NFL Network subscribers on COX, Cablevision, and FiOS in the US will have access to the live coverage on their iPads, while all users will be able to access a second-screen experience dubbed “Draft Extra” to enhance the event.
Other updates include a new custom push notifications for players, teams, and rounds, as well as additional live coverage for the Draft. Verizon customers can check out Draft Live...

Wireless provider FreedomPop, the company providing access to free monthly data plans through a number of hotspot devices and iOS device accessories, today announced it is expanding its 3G coverage through Sprint’s network to provide nationwide coverage to its customers.
“The biggest criticism with our service to date has been the coverage gaps in certain parts of the country,” said Stephen Stokols, FreedomPop’s CEO. “Starting today, FreedomPop users can connect to the Internet across the entire nation...

Drafts for iPhone and Drafts for iPad received a major update today.
Drafts is by far the fastest way to input text on iOS. A blank text field and keyboard greets you as soon as you launch Drafts. No need to fiddle with menus and buttons to reach your...

The latest versions of both OS X and iOS will be available to developers at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, suggesting the event might showcase the next major version of Apple's Mac operating system in addition to iOS 7.  ...

A new study by Filemaker has found that mobile devices are being used for building management and other "inside" enterprise jobs as much or more than they are employed "in the field" or on-the-go. Businesses -- the survey of 500 Filemaker Go customers found -- are "mobilizing" automated processes including web and remote-device admin, maintenance reports and connection to in-house servers more and more, allowing even workers who don't leave the building the freedom to do their jobs at or away from their desks.... ...

We live in a world positively soaked in data nowadays. Fortunately, the capacity to store that data has gotten bigger in volume, smaller in physical size, and cheaper per gigabyte as time progresses. Gone are the days where you'd have to lug a Zip disk around (remember those?) or stick your iPod into disk mode. At worst, you're carrying a USB drive with you -- though really, you should be relying on the cloud for by now. The issue is figuring out just what you're going to be keeping up there....  ...

Apple has announced that WWDC 2013 will take place from June 10th through 14th in San Francisco, and ticket sales will start at 10 AM on Thursday, April 25th. 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.

Apple is trying something new when it comes to ticketing for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Following five years of increasingly speedy sell-outs, Apple has announced that ticket orders will take place on Thursday, April 25 at 10am PDT, giving developers a chance to prepare in advance for the sale. The event will take place from June 10 to the 14th at Moscone West in San Francisco.
According to Apple, the focuses of WWDC 2013 will be, as usual, on iOS and OS X. There will be more than 100 technical sessions taught by Apple engineers and over 1,000 Apple engineers available on hand to help out in the labs and other events. The company will again be holding its annual Apple Design Awards to recognize iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps that meet Apple's standards for "technical excellence" and design.
"We look forward to gathering at WWDC 2013 with the incredible...

Apple will be hosting its annual Worldwide Developers Conference June 10 through June 14, but you'll have to wait just a little bit longer to get your tickets. Developers planning on attending the annual event get order their tickets online starting at 10AM pacific time on Thursday, April 25, and they'll probably go fast.

This morning, Apple officially announced that its 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place at Moscone West in San Francisco from Monday, June 10 until Friday, June 14th.
Tickets for the conference will go on sale at 10 AM Pacific / 1PM Eastern time tomorrow, April 25th.
The conference typically includes several sessions for iOS and OS X developers to work on their code and new projects alongside Apple engineers. Additionally, Apple engineers will make presentations about new developer-focused features in iOS and OS X.

Indeed, in Apple’s announcement of the WWDC 2013 dates, Apple says that the conference will include details about the next iOS and...

If you'd like to assign a place to images in iPhoto, there are a few ways you can go about it. One method in particular—copying and pasting the location data—makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The other ways are OK too, we suppose. For all of the details, come on in and read this tip.

An insightful Reuters blog by financial journalist Felix Salmon suggests that Apple’s surprisingly low share price may be due to the evolving nature of the company leaving it between two sets of investors.
Conservative investors, who like slow-growing stocks with high dividends, are constitutionally uncomfortable with the volatility inherent in the tech world. And technology investors, who are happy taking that kind of risk, want to see substantial growth. Apple, notwithstanding the fact that it’s one of the most valuable companies in the world, is falling through the capital-markets cracks.
Apple always used to be the company which surprised and delighted investors and customers alike. Its...

Panasonic has revealed a pair of new cameras in the Lumix line. The Lumix DMC-LF1 is a 12-megapixel compact camera with built-in Wi-Fi and NFC, while the Lumix DMC-G6 is a 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds shooter capable of a high-speed burst mode at 7 frames per second, and a half-second booting time....  ...

Marco ArmentApple’s not going to launch a five-inch iPhone until its good and ready. And until it does, it would like everyone to know that the current crop of five-inch smartphones, phablets and whatnot is substandard.
Asked during Apple’s second-quarter earnings call if his views on five-inch phone market had changed since the company last reported financials, CEO Tim Cook said that they really haven’t. The reason? The five-inch smartphones Apple’s rivals are currently peddling are compromised by poor displays.
“We always strive to create the very best display for our customers,” Cook said. “Some customers value large screen size. But others value factors like resolution, color quality, white balance, brightness, reflectivity, screen longevity, power...

Developer Tapbots on Tuesday released a version update for its popular Twitter client Tweetbot, introducing an all-new feature called "media timeline" that limits a user's feed to those tweets with embedded photos and video.  ...

Samsung's latest mobile flagship is a good performer with a massive amount of new software, but reviewers found the sum of the handset's parts didn't add up to the great leap forward many had hoped for.  ...

Sony today introduced the Cyber-shot HX50V, a powerful new compact-form camera featuring 30x optical zoom coupled with a 20.4MP Exmor R CMOS image sensor. The device measures 4.4 inches wide, by 2.6 inches high, and 1.2 inches thick with a weight of 9.6 ounces, making it the smallest and lightest camera with 30x optical zoom capability, according to the company....  ...

There's good news, bad news, and the best news on this one, and I'll give you the good news first. Firaxis' Haunted Hallow appeared on the App Store this morning, which means the game is just about ready for prime time. The free-to-play strategy title was one of my favorite games I got to see at GDC a few months ago. It's a board game, basically, in that you move various monsters around a board trying to claim and conquer space as best you can, though there's a fun house-building mechanic as well, in the way you choose which monsters to summon and fight for you. Firaxis, the creators of Civilization and the recent hit XCOM: Enemy Unknown, are some of the most experienced strategy developers out there, and Haunted Hallow is a free-to-play gift from them straight to the App Store, so it'...

Glassdoor is a site that allows employees of various corporations to rate how they think they're management is doing anonymously, and the company has shared some info with TUAW that it says comes out of Apple's campus in Cupertino. The site works kind of like Yelp for employees, as users can come along and leave ratings and reviews for their own company. But presumably this information came from anyone who works for Apple, not just the employees that work directly with CEO Tim Cook in California.

And what's the word? In short, they love him. Cook has never had anything less than a 92% approval rating since this time last year, and his current approval rating sites at 93% among employees leaving reviews on Glassdoor. During his time overseeing the company, Steve Jobs held a 97% approval rating, and Cook is a few points below that, but still...

Storage solutions manufacturer Akitio today announced the release of the company's new 256GB one-bay, bus-powered "Neutrino" Thunderbolt storage solution. Akitio's new larger-capacity device is a follow-up to the company's successful 120GB SSD solution, which was previously launched in 2012....  ...

Gadget and computing accessory manufacturer Belkin has announced the new NetCam HD Wi-Fi Camera. The new wireless networking camera provides users with instantaneous access via a smartphone or tablet to pets, children and other family members at home in 720p high-definition (HD) video resolution with accompanying digital audio.  ...  ...