While not mentioned during Apple's WWDC keynote, iOS 7 will support Hotspot 2.0, a relatively new Wi-Fi technology that allows compatible devices to seamlessly connect to compatible hotspots without user interaction. ...
| Read more »
While not mentioned during Apple's WWDC keynote, iOS 7 will support Hotspot 2.0, a relatively new Wi-Fi technology that allows compatible devices to seamlessly connect to compatible hotspots without user interaction. ...
| Read more »Reactions to yesterday’s iOS 7 reveal were largely positive, but one current of criticism kept flowing: that Apple may have relied a little too hard on copying other operating systems—in particular, Google’s Android (though the stark flatness of Windows Phone 8 got cited, too).
Let's leave aside the question of intention; certainly some iOS elements appear to be influenced by other mobile operating systems, which has been a natural part of OS design for decades. What the new iOS design does show is validation for the direction in which Android and Windows Phone 8 have been moving recently. Now, the three top mobile operating systems favor clean, simplified, visual interfaces.
Apple's choices may also come as a validation for Android engineers, who have had to deal with the legions of OEM interface layovers and fragmentation issues that plague the OS and undermine what they have attempted to standardize. For many—including me—stock Android is a favorite, and it...
In keeping with tradition, this year's WWDC keynote presented a massive amount of new information about the future of Apple's products. So much information is shared at WWDC that to catch it all, you've got to pay close attention to each and every slide available. One of this years quietest announcements was the inclusion of Hotspot 2.0 support for the upcoming iOS 7. It's okay if you missed it; no one commented on it, the news was simply included in a slide during the presentation.
So why does Hotspot 2.0 matter to you? In short it could help save heavy data users in metropolitan areas a lot of money. Hotspot 2.0 is form of public access Wi-Fi that automatically connects your phone to a Wi-Fi network when you enter its range. The project is an extension of the nonprofit Wi-Fi...
| Read more »After every Apple event, the company posts the video to their Apple Keynotes video podcast channel. While yesterday’s event was live streamed and the stream was available on Apple.com shortly thereafter, the video download allow for offline viewing.
Apple introduced iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks yesterday during the 2013 WWDC Keynote. We’re still finding new features like offline dictation and live feedback for the Mac and compiling them in this post. In addition, they teased a new Mac...
From 9to5Toys.com:
A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to roundup the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook
Today’s Featured deals:
...
One day after the latest MacBook Air model debuted, images of the 11-inch version with its bottom cover removed reveal that, just as the 2012 model, no changes were made to the laptop's interior layout. ...
| Read more »The American Civil Liberties Union, in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union, is suing the US government. The suit alleges that the National Security Agency's phone monitoring program violates the groups' first and fourth amendment Constitutional rights violating freedom of speech, freedom of press, as well as unreasonable search and seizure. Both groups are Verizon customers, and the belief is that the groups' rights are being violated by the sweeping nature of the monitoring program.... ...
| Read more »We haven't quite hit the stage where phones and tablets can roam from any public Wi-Fi network to another as easily as they hop from one cell tower to another. But an attempt to create a network of hotspots supporting seamless handoffs got some more support yesterday with Apple's announcement of iOS 7.
The new version of the operating system for iPhones and iPads will support the Wi-Fi Alliance's Hotspot 2.0 specification. Apple didn't talk about this during its Worldwide Developer Conference presentation, but the support for Hotspot 2.0 was confirmed on one of the slides shown during the presentation.
Hotspot 2.0 is the technology specification behind the Wi-Fi Alliance's Passpoint certification program. As we wrote last year, the goal of...
Developers are starting to play with the iOS 7 beta, with iTunes Radio being a popular destination both for trying the new feature and for listening to music while coding. Neil Hughes at Apple Insider notes that for the first time, you may see an "ad" on your lock screen when listening to iTunes Radio.
While you're listening to your favorite channel, it's possible to lock your iPhone display and the music keeps streaming. Upon waking the device, the album art from the tune currently playing is displayed on the lock screen. For those who aren't currently subscribers to iTunes Match, a link appears on that album art giving the user the opportunity to "Download on iTunes", basically a link to buy the song on iTunes.
iTunes Match subscribers only see the album art on the lock screen, but can purchase the streaming...
| Read more »Apple’s AirPort Utility (free) manages Wi-Fi networks and AirPort base stations — AirPort Express, Extreme, and Time Capsule — from an iOS device. The newly released version 1.3 lets users configure and manage the new AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule with 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
| Read more »9to5Mac has a brief news blurb up discussing a comment by Apple's Phil Schiller during yesterday's Mac Pro unveiling that might have become a bit lost in all the new cylinder-shaped noise:
The Final Cut Pro team is hard at work on a version of Final Cut Pro X that will support all the performance and graphic capabilities of this machine.
The Mac Pro's expansion ports. Six Thunderbolt 2 ports are at center. Apple
We know that the Mac Pro can have a pair of fast ATI GPUs (at least, fast for now) and that it has...
| 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 June 11, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our...
| Read more »Do you have an external hard drive formatted to NTFS that you would like to use with your Mac? You can do so without using any third-party software.
| Read more »You have lots to do each day, and that's what lists and To Do apps are for. But when you get that brilliant bolt from the blue, or two, it needs a special place to hibernate while you fill in the details. Vesper does that with grace, focus, and simplicity.
Apple yesterday introduced iOS 7, the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone launched back in 2007. The differences between iOS 7 and previous iterations of iOS are readily apparent and striking. Naturally, Apple's new flat-themed mobile OS has generated a lot of debate. While some think Apple is headed in the right direction, others think the OS lacks that unique Apple flair.
Interestingly enough, one person who can't wait to try out iOS 7 is Sundar Pichai, the head of Android development over at Google. If you recall, Pichai was chosen to succeed Andy Rubin this past March.
Excited to try out iOS7 beta, guess I need to register as a developer first:)
- sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) June 11, 2013
The controversy surrounding iOS 7 aside, it is somewhat refreshing to hear someone in Pichai's position express what appears to be...
| Read more »X-Doria announced a cool looking iPhone case on Tuesday called Shield. The multi-layered case offers protection from shocks, and it gives you access to all your buttons and the camera. It's made of polycarobonate, and it's priced at US$39.99.
In the technology world, being complacent is deadly. Something that’s groundbreaking, revolutionary, or classic is inevitably tired and creaky just a few years later. As Steve Jobs himself preached, staying relevant is always about moving forward. At Apple’s 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) we saw Apple itself take a revolutionary product that’s by many standards still the best in the industry, and change it into something new.
I’m not talking about iOS, although the rule applies there too—iOS 7 is the kind of move you’d expect for the company that replaced the iPod mini with the iPod nano.
I’m talking about tone, manner—the entire vibe—of Apple itself.
It was noticeable in the music Apple played before the keynote—hipper, younger, with fewer top-of-the-chart smashes and classic rock numbers. It was clear in the...
| Read more »It’s easy to tell what Apple thinks of iOS 7, with everyone from Tim Cook on down praising it as the biggest thing since the iPhone.
To get a reality check, we chatted just after the keynote finished with two prominent Apple developers: Evernote CEO Phil Libin and Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.
Both liked what they saw, but said they needed more details to really know what it means for them.
As for Libin, the one thing he’s certain of is that he is going to get the new Mac Pro that Apple premiered at the conference. Here are his answers to a few other questions.
Have they made life easier for you as a developer?
Libin: We’re never looking for our life to be made easier. I’ve never been this excited about just how much work is ahead of us...
Apple has made two of the videos from yesterday's WWDC 2013 keynote available on YouTube. The first is the video that launched the keynote event, titled "Intention".
The new advertisement that began showing last night, touting Apple's signature "Designed by Apple in California," is also available for online viewing. The narration with the ad is lyrical and makes the point that the company strives to create the best products it can.
This is it. This is what matters. The experience of a product. How will it make someone feel? Will it make life better? Does it deserve to exist? We spend a lot of time on a few great things, until every idea we touch enhances each life it touches. You may rarely look at it, but you'll always feel it...this is our signature, and it means everything.
The new ad is the next part of the current Apple campaign that started with the "...
| Read more »Apple's long-awaited "iRadio" is now an official service under the name iTunes Radio, available to test by developers who have access to the iOS 7 beta. ...
| Read more »Congrats to all the winners this year.
∞ Read this on The Loop
Once vocal critics of Apple's efforts to prevent mobile device theft, the Attorneys General of San Francisco and New York are now a bit more optimistic in the wake of the iPhone maker's unveiling of new a new anti-theft mechanism. ...
| Read more »Apple enjoys putting little details into its operating systems and apps that delight and amuse the person who takes the time to appreciate the work that went into it. One item noticed yesterday by the folks at 9to5Mac is that the new Maps icon in iOS 7 no longer shows 1 Infinite Loop, instead opting to provide directions around the future location of Apple Campus 2 -- the location where the "spaceship" headquarters will be completed in 2016.
The previous Maps icon was often seen as a bit of a joke, showing an abrupt left turn off of the bridge on De Anza Boulevard into the oncoming southbound traffic on I-280. Fortunately the icon designer took the time to prevent life-threatening accidents...
(image courtesy of 9to5Mac)...
| Read more »Just like the rest of iOS 7, Apple completely redesigned the camera app that it ships on all devices. Moving away from metaphors that resemble a real camera, Apple has reworked the interface and added new features, such as camera filters and a new square photo option.
Also noteworthy is the removal of shutter animation, which has been replaced by a stark fade animation when you snap a photo. Rather then describe it any further, take a look at the video above to get an idea of what you’ll see this fall when iOS 7 is released to the public.
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| Read more »With the announcements at WWDC yesterday, the forums are alive with discussions about the announcements made. Forum-goers quickly started debating the practicality of the upcoming Mac Pro in a thread started by Administrator "reader50" immediately following the unveiling of this latest model. In the thread titled "OS X Mavericks," members talk about their first impressions of the updated OS that will be available later this year.... ...
| Read more »Apple's online store currently has a wide selection of refurbished MacBook Air models priced as low as $749 -- starting with the 11.6-inch MBA with a 1.7GHz Intel dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of flash storage, which is $749 after a $250 discount. At the other end of the pricing scale is the 11.6-inch MacBook Air with a 2.0GHz Intel dual-core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage, now $1,199.... ...
| Read more »Right now at Amazon, save $270 on the 13.3-inch MacBook Air which was $1,199, but is now only $930. That's about $60 less than the lowest price we have seen anywhere else. Free shipping is included, but sales tax applies for residents of most states. This MBA features a 1.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage. A one-year warranty on parts and labor is included from Apple.... ...
| Read more »“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
– Steve Jobs, WWDC 1997
A refined version of OS X. A reimagining of iOS. New MacBook Airs. The Mac Pro recast as a diminutive onyx monolith. These were the big product announcements to come out of Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday. But there was one other, and while not hardware or software, it was equally important: A manifesto.
Presented in two videos that bookended the keynote address, it was at once a...
After years of speculation, Apple on Monday finally released iTunes Radio, Cupertino's take on a streaming music recommendation service.
iTunes Radio, of course, is entering a market already populated by some heavy-hitting competition, namely Pandora and Spotify. While Spotify is unique (and amazing) insofar as it allows users to stream specific songs on demand, Pandora's bread and butter is in furnishing users with new artist and song recommendations based on their musical tastes.
With Apple now entering the fray, some have postulated that Pandora will take a huge hit.
Pandora, however, doesn't see things that way.
Speaking to Mashable following Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote, Pandora corporate communications manager Amanda Livingood explained that iTunes Radio merely brings Apple up to...
| Read more »Apple and the creatives behind its memorable "1984" ad have embarked on a new direction in the company's marketing, but a new report says there's dissent in the Apple advertising camp over marketing chief Phillip Schiller's leadership style. ...
| Read more »Yesterday's announcement of iOS 7 brought a number of responses -- many negative, some positive -- about the new look and feel of the mobile operating system. Om Malik of GigaOM decided to gauge reaction to the changes that are coming this fall by asking his Twitter friends.
The negative side of the responses seemed to come mostly from designers:
@jbrewer -- "You gotta wonder if they took their phones outside and looked at all that thin-lined icon + transparency stuff in the sunlight"
@samin -- "An interesting observation: designers who have actually done any mobile OS design work really seem to dislike iOS 7."
@mg -- "Am I alone in thinking the iOS 7 home screen icons look ugly, poorly balanced, and of an...
| Read more »Google announced in a blog post today that it is acquiring social traffic company Waze. This announcement is not surprising as Google was rumored to be close to inking a deal with the Israeli startup. Google was one of many suitors reportedly courting Waze -- earlier rumors hinted at a potential deal with Apple, but that rumor was shot down. More recently, Facebook was supposedly looking to add the company to its coffers.
According to Google, Waze will remain in Israel and operate as an independent company for the time being. Google will eventually bring some of Waze's community-sourced traffic information to...
| Read more »Apple’s 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote was packed with announcements of serious import to developers in Apple’s ecosystem—chief among them, the debuts of the wholly-redesigned iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks.
Significant operating system overhauls can be a mixed blessing for developers: There are all sorts of new APIs (application programming interfaces) to master, and all kinds of new functionality to exploit—but that also means there’s an onslaught of new work to be done to update their apps. Macworld spoke with a variety of Mac and iOS developers to gauge their reactions to the WWDC announcements.
On iOS 7’s new look
iOS 7
“...
| Read more »For the month of June NextWorth will be offering a 20 percent bonus on all Apple device trade-ins. By entering the coupon code BONUS20, customers will instantly receive an extra 20 percent on the trade in value of any iPhone, iPod, or iPad, regardless of condition. NextWorth offers free, fully-insured UPS shipping service to all online customers, and provides the option to receive payment in the form of cash or a gift card.... ...
| Read more »As was mentioned in the WWDC 2013 keynote, the forthcoming iTunes Radio will feature a dedicated Twitter #music station. The Twitter #music station will allow users to listen to trending songs that are shared on Twitter with an option to buy the songs via the iTunes Music Store.
But as The Verge points out, iOS already has a dedicated Twitter #music app that is struggling to gain popularity. The agreement between Apple and Twitter to include a dedicated Twitter #music station obviously works out well for both companies. Apple gets access to social feeds from one of the most popular social networks ever, including increased revenue streams from users who buy tracks from the Twitter #music stream. But Twitter may be the...
| Read more »Following a quiet demonstration earlier this year at CES, Scosche officially announced its iOS-compatible smartRoll electronic gaming dice at E3. smartRoll is a pair of two Bluetooth Smart powered gaming dice with built-in accelerometers and motion sensors. Rolling the dice displays the results on an iOS device’s screen. LEDs…
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Come iOS 7, you’ll be seeing some changes with Siri.
Per Macworld, as part of the iOS 7 overhaul, Siri will receive a brand-new interface, voice monitoring, and a results panel that appears on the bottom of the screen. Siri’s slightly robotic diction is no more, replaced by smoother female (or male) voices. French and German will be supported at launch, with more languages coming soon.
During the WWDC keynote, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue noted that “Siri is getting a lot smarter,” with new support for listening to your voicemail, enabling and disabling services,...
Apple refreshed its MacBook Air line yesterday at WWDC, and Engadget got some hands-on time with the sleek and slim notebook. Besides taking some photos of Apple's ultraportable, they also put the hardware through its paces.
Early results from the benchmark testing suggest the new MacBook Air has a nice bump in performance over other Mac notebooks, especially in the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. Engadget recorded read speeds of 725.4 MB/s and write speeds of 433.4 MB/s, which is almost twice the speed of the current 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. That is surprisingly good for such a tiny machine.
Head over to...
| Read more »There was a vague feeling John Martellaro had when he first saw Apple's new Mac Pro. Deep in his subconscious, there was a memory of something familiar. He tells the story.
Yesterday’s unveiling of the all-new Mac Pro at Apple’s WWDC keynote certainly made up for the fact that we didn’t see any updates to Apple’s pro apps like we we’re hoping. However, you might have missed Phil Schiller’s rather quick confirmation that a new version of Final Cut Pro X is indeed coming later this year:
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“The Final Cut Pro team is hard at work on a version of Final Cut Pro X that will support all the performance and graphic capabilities of this machine” – Phil Schiller during Apple’s unveiling of the new Mac Pro at WWDC 2013.
Schiller didn’t go into specific features that we’ll be seeing in the new version, but support for the new Mac Pro means support for the machine’s dual workstation GPUs and AMD FirePro Graphics, something that many other pro apps will need to update in order to support. We also know the new Mac Pro...
The new Mac Pro, now Darth-ified.
Aurich Lawson / Lucasfilm / Apple
Hell finally froze over yesterday, so Apple announced a new Mac Pro at WWDC. At first glance, the new machine was as mysterious as it was terrifying to me and many other creative pros who have been waiting for ages for this thing to drop. But now that Apple has a full site page for the new machine and I’ve gotten some info from people familiar with its internals and with OS X 10.9, the Mac Pro has becomes less of a mystery.
But that’s also what’s freaking us out.
The design
At 6.6" × 9.9" for its cylindrical machined aluminum case, the new Mac Pro is tiny, and no other workstation-class Xeon desktop with a discrete workstation GPU—or two, in this case—looks anything like it. You get the feeling that the designers...
Google has confirmed it has closed a deal to purchase the social mapping startup Waze. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount that is speculated to be around $1.3 billion in cash, will allow Waze to enhance Google Maps with traffic updates and route adjustments, using information provided by the startup's 50 million users.... ...
| Read more »Waze ? a popular cross-platform, crowd-sourced traffic and navigation service ??has been acquired by Google, and will be integrated with its Maps service, the company announced on Tuesday. ...
| Read more »Apple's "Designed by Apple/Our Signature" TV ad is just the start of a new marketing campaign in association with long-time partner TBWAChiatDay, say sources. The people tell Bloomberg that the campaign will focus on the touted quality and reliability of Apple's products and hosted content, instead of just the products themselves. More such ads will reportedly follow in the next few months.... ...
| Read more »That beautiful image of a cresting wave that you've seen on banners and promo shots of OS X 10.9 Mavericks is meant to represent the surfing spot that the OS is named after. As with all OS X operating systems, Apple usually spotlights one wallpaper as the default desktop image for marketing material. This image is always included as a new wallpaper in the OS when it ships.
However, if you don't want to wait for OS X 10.9 Mavericks in the fall, you can download the wallpaper directly from Apple now. What's interesting about this wallpaper is that it comes in 5,120 x 2,880 resolution, which is higher than the resolution of any Mac currently on the market. Is this a sign of Retina display iMacs to come? Could be.Grab the OS X Mavericks wallpaper now originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple...
| Read more »On the heels of its iOS 7 coverage, Wired has taken the time to dive into the story about how the overhaul to Apple's iOS platform came to be. Instead of retreading the old route from Scott Forstall to Jony Ive, the magazine explores the psychological justification of skeuomorphism and how modern design, such as what Ive and Steve Jobs embraced, came to be. It looks at how Apple needs to go beyond from getting people used to the idea of a smartphones and touchscreens and head to the next level of design and interactivity. It's no longer showing off what your phone can do for you, but encouraging you to do more with your phone.Wired and the design behind the iOS 7 originally appeared on...
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A tweet by a German web design exec suggesting that the resolution of a piece of Mavericks wallpaper suggests a Retina iMac with a resolution of 5120×2880 pixels has been doing the rounds, spotted by bunch of publications.
The rationale is that the resolution is exactly twice that of the current-generation iMac, therefore suggesting a Retina iMac with double the resolution. The problem with this argument is that 5120×2880 pixel wallpaper images are not new to Mavericks. In fact, Apple has used them as far back as 2011, probably just for future-proofing purposes. There’s really no downside to including images which will display nicely on any larger monitors that come along …
What is more likely this year from Apple are 4K displays…
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Possibly in...
| Read more »FitnessKeeper has released the latest update for its RunKeeper- GPS Track Running Walking Cycling app, available on iTunes. RunKeeper tracks workout statistics such as pace, distance and time while exercising. Users are able to control their music and listen to built-in audio cues through headphones, as well as capture and save photos. Version 3.5 includes a revamped social experience, offering new options for interacting with friends directly within the app. Users can now follow all of their friends' activities and progress, including activity stats, photos and maps. New options for comparing... ...
| Read more »One outstanding question about OS X Mavericks is the minimum hardware requirements needed to run the operating system. There are a lot of older Core 2 Duo machines kicking around, and those owners are wondering it they still have the horsepower to run Mavericks. Apple hasn't released those details, but Apple Insider talked to OS X developers who have access to release notes and other details about OS X 10.9.
According to AI's sources, any Apple computer capable of running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be able to run Mavericks. This includes the following machines:
The most significant raw performance boost in Apple's updated MacBook Air lineup comes from new PCI Express flash memory, while Intel's latest Haswell processors are more focused on extending battery life than pushing horsepower. ...
| Read more »Yesterday at its WWDC keynote presentation, alongside the expected design overhaul in Apple’s upcoming iOS 7, the company briefly showed off a slightly new direction for its ad campaigns going forward. While it kicked off the presentation with a video describing its focus for the new simplified design elements in iOS 7 (below), Bloomberg reports that its latest ad (above), which just started appearing on TV last night, marks a new direction for Apple’s marketing efforts. It also claims that Apple’s meetings regarding the company’s marketing message have become less focused following Steve Jobs’ death now that Apple’s senior vice president of marketing Phillip Schiller is in charge:
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| Read more »The WWDC keynote may have dragged on for two hours, but there were many features and subtle details that weren’t mentioned by any of the Apple executives. We’ll be updating this post with all of the small features and details that have been discovered. If you find something that’s not on this list, feel free to ping @9to5mac or @swb1192, or leave a comment after the break.
Mavericks
- In Notification Center, the Facebook and Twitter share buttons now have a new roommate – Messages. Clicking on the Messages button brings up a Share sheet-style interface where you can type in the recipient’s name and message then shoot them a message without actually having to open the Messages app.
- LinkedIn integration has been added, but all of the Chinese websites (including mail.qq.com and 126.com) have been dropped from the English version of...
Apple execs talk up the new features in OS X Mavericks.
At yesterday's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote, Apple made some bold claims about the future of battery life in its laptops. A new 13-inch Macbook Air, for instance, should now run a full 12 hours on a single charge, up from 7 in the previous model. Assuming that testing bears out Apple's numbers, how did the company do it? The obvious part of the answer is "Haswell"—but that turns out to be only part of the story.
The power efficiency gains found in Intel's new Haswell CPUs should provide modest gains in battery life, and such gains were widely expected. Back in January, Intel claimed that the new Haswell CPUs featured the "largest generation-to-generation...
AMD has unveiled what it calls the world's first commercially available 5GHz CPU processor at the E3 gaming show. The FX-9590, an eight-core chip using the 'Piledriver' architecture that reaches 5GHz in turbo mode, is accompanied by the FX-9370, which also has eight cores and the same architecture, but is clocked at the slightly slower speed of 4.7GHz.... ...
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If you were considering snagging a brand new, just-released MacBook Air notebook, you’re going to like this.
Per 9to5Mac and French web site MacBidouille, Apple’s new Haswell-powered MacBook Airs produced SSD read and write speeds so fast in bench tests that they initially thought it must have been a bug in their test software. A second...
News about the new release of OS X, "Mavericks," is trickling out as developers and other WWDC attendees post information about it to the Internet. However, hidden a bit down in Apple's OS X Mavericks Technology Overview document is an interesting tidbit: SMB2 is replacing AFP as the default file sharing protocol for OS X.
AFP—Apple Filing Protocol—has a long pedigree that stretches all the way back to the Mac's early days (and even a bit before that). Contemporary AFP piggybacks on top of TCP/IP for transport, but it supports a few Mac-specific things that other network file protocols don't, like type and creator codes. These don't matter as much as they used to, but OS X's HFS+ file system supports a pretty rich amount of...
In response to an increase in iPhone thefts nationwide, and particularly in large U.S. cities, a number of lawmakers have proposed that smartphone manufacturers include a "kill switch" on mobile phones so that stolen devices can be de-activated from afar.
On Monday, Apple unveiled a new iOS 7 feature dubbed "Activation Lock" which may help in that regard. As Apple explained during its keynote yesterday, devices with Activation Lock enabled will preclude a thief from turning off the "Find my iPhone" feature without fist entering in the device owner's Apple ID and password. Adding an extra layer of deterrence, even if a thief wipes a device clean, he/she will not be able to reactivate the device without the original owner's credentials.
While Apple is confident that the feature will help lower the incidence of iPhone thefts, lawmakers who have been pushing for a kill switch appear to be cautiously optimistic.
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| Read more »Since a picture’s worth a thousand words, this one from Electronista regarding Apple’s upcoming Mac Pro computer says even more…
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
| Read more »Apple's new MacBook Airs have already been benchmarked, reports note. Geekbench 2 CPU performance recorded by Primate Labs shows that the new notebooks are only about 3 to 8 percent faster than their predecessors. Primate explains that Intel focused on reducing power consumption with its new Haswell processors, and that Apple went a step beyond, choosing processors with lower frequencies than before for the sake of vastly extending battery life.... ...
| Read more »OS X’s Software Update feature is your friend.
Per The Mac Observer, Apple released updates for the Mac, iPhone and iPad versions of AirPort Utility late on Monday following the release of the redesigned 802.11ac-compatible AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule Basestations. The update added support for the new wireless network routers.
AirPort Utility 6.3, a 20.64 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
- The ability to extend the Guest Wi-Fi network on a network that is configured with multiple AirPort Base Stations.
- The ability to add a WPS-capable Wi-Fi printer.
- Improved international support.
AirPort Utility 6.3 requires an Intel-based Mac...
Apple tweaked a lot of things for its forthcoming iOS 7 update, but there is one move in particular that has drawn cheers not only from the crowd of developers at WWDC, but from the halls of Congress: auto-updates for App Store software. ...
| Read more »iOS 7 apps will have to ask user permission before tapping into a microphone, users of the developer beta say. Short of a theoretical backdoor, the barrier should prevent apps from recording a person without their consent. If it follows in the steps of Apple's normal approach to privacy, users should only be asked once per app.... ...
| Read more »Over at Macworld, Serenity Caldwell explores 27 new features in iOS 7 that Apple glossed over during the WWDC keynote. Some of the more interesting tidbits are natural language calendar notifications, better Wi-Fi hotspot support, walking directions and a night mode in Maps, and Smart Mailboxes in Mail. One particularly interesting note is support for third-party game controllers, which could be a clue to Apple’s future TV and gaming plans. 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 »The new developer beta of iOS 7 with iTunes Radio includes a first for Apple: a direct link on the lock screen to the iTunes Store to purchase content. ...
| Read more »In a nice respite from all of the iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks news, RunKeeper (free) has announced a new update to version 3.5 with a social feed in the app.
What does this mean to RunKeeper users? Version 3.5 now lets you view your activities, milestones, and those of your RunKeeper buddies right in the phone.
Gallery: Runkeeper 3.5 Update
The latest update also...
| Read more »Apple dropped its cat-themed names for OS X with the introduction of OS X 10.9 on Monday and is now naming its operating systems after locations in California. OS X 10.9 is Mavericks, which isn't as high profile as other California spots such as San Francisco, or maybe the Golden Gate Bridge. So where exactly is Mavericks?
Apple’s new Haswell-powered MacBook Airs produced SSD read and write speeds so fast in benchtests by French site MacBidouille that they initially thought it must have been a bug in their test software. A second run in different software revealed that, no, the latest Airs really do offer read & write speeds higher than the maximum possible with SATA 3.
The secret, noted by AnandTech in its own tests, is that Apple is using the same PCIe-based SSDs in the latest MacBook Air as they announced for the new Mac Pro …
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On the storage front,...
| Read more »Apple has won a US patent on an accessory that adds tactile buttons to the display of a multi-touch device. AppleInsider notes that the accessory would use suction to stick to a screen, and feature buttons that deform and spring back as they're pushed. To actually register touch input, tiny rubber or metal pucks might be embedded into the buttons. Some buttons could be used as finger rests, and Apple also suggests that the patent could be applied to a joystick.... ...
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If you like what you’ve seen in Maverick and iOS 7 and are wondering whether your iDevices will be compatible, wonder no more. Gizmodo put together a run-down for both platforms. Though things are’t quite as straightforward as the above graphic suggests …
Let’s start with the good news: if your Mac is currently able to run Mountain Lion, it’ll likely also run Maverick since the specs appear to be identical. So that means all of the following Macs …
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- iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
- MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
-...
What better place than a room full of developers—people accustomed to harnessing as much computing power as they can get their hands on—to unveil a brand new Mac Pro? And so that’s just what Apple did on Monday, devoting a large portion of the 2013 WWDC keynote to a product we’ve long been hoping for—and even predicting. It’s a new Mac Pro, not at all like the old Mac Pro, and it’s coming later this year.
Jason SnellThe new Mac Pro on display at WWDC 2013.
I got a chance to get my hands on one, albeit briefly, on Monday afternoon. It’s a gorgeous piece of hardware, though it does somewhat resemble the wastebasket I have in my bedroom. The new Mac Pro is a black cylinder dense with high technology, from...
| Read more »So you watched our liveblog, marveled over the new Mac Pro, and debated the new iOS 7 and OS X with fellow nerds. You may even be thinking now's the time to get into iOS or OS X development after having seen all the new SDK offerings from Apple. And if you already have a paid developer account, but weren't able to make it out to WWDC this year, you may have already begun watching some WWDC session videos.
But what is it really like to attend the WWDC keynote? After all, half the reason...
The most striking things about iOS 7 are the rather dramatic changes that Apple has made to the visual appearance of the software that powers the iPhone and iPad.
But iOS 7 is a lot more than just a makeover. While Apple went into detail on roughly a dozen new features of iOS 7, there is a long list of changes big and small that will be part of the new phone operating system when it ships this fall.
The first category of additional changes: Things that just didn’t make the keynote cut.
Apple showed two slides worth of these at WWDC on Monday, with one detailing consumer features and the other going into new options for developers.
On the consumer side, that means things such as better mail search and improved download of TV shows. Businesses will also get some key improvements,...
Apple is set to relocate the last of its "mini" retail stores to a new location, while dramatically expanding its size, according to ifoAppleStore. The mini-store in question is the Oakridge Apple Store in San Jose, California. The store will move from its current location to a new spot just across from the food court in the mall. The revamped store will be 15 times larger than its current size. Once the move is complete, it will mark the end of the mini-stores, the first of which were opened in 2004. As ifoAppleStore notes:
The project signals the end of the mini-stores, which were intended to allow Apple to occupy smaller spaces, and yet generate almost the same amount of revenue. However, as the number of products has grown over the past eight years, and training and service have become more integral to the stores, the mini-...
| Read more »Apple released updates for the Mac, iPhone and iPad versions of AirPort Utility late on Monday following the release of the redesigned 802.11ac-compatible AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule Basestations. The update added support for the new wireless network routers.
An anonymous reader writes "Apple has always been extremely anti jailbreaking, but it might now have a good reason to plug up the exploits. As Hardware 2.0 argues, Apple's new iOS 7 Activation Lock anti-theft mechanism which renders stolen handsets useless (even after wiping) unless the owner's Apple ID is entered relies on having a secure, locked-down OS. Are the days of jailbreaking iOS coming to a close?" I can see a whole new variety of phone-based ransom-ware based on this capability, too. ...
| Read more »Want all of OS X 10.9's new features? As long as you're currently running 10.8, you'll be fine.
Following yesterday's announcement, Apple has posted a beta build of OS X 10.9 (codenamed "Mavericks") to its developer site so that said developers (and interested parties with a developer account) can download it and begin testing their applications. Historically, these early developer previews haven't looked or run exactly the same as the final versions of the software. However, the system requirements—and, thus, the list of Mac models that will be supported by the new release—tend to remain the same from the first beta to the final release (with very few exceptions).
Assuming that this continues to be true for OS X 10.9, one MacRumors forum poster has outed the system requirements for Mavericks. Breaking...
The Mac Observer's Managing Editor Jeff Gamet joined the British Tech Network's The BIG Show to talk about the NSA collecting cell phone records from service providers, and the White House plan to stop patent trolls.
Amid Monday's excitement, it was discovered that the blue-and-green ocean wave wallpaper image Apple released to promote its upcoming OS X Mavericks for Mac is fitted precisely for a 27-inch Retina Thunderbolt Display, or even a 27-inch Retina iMac. ...
| Read more »Apple's Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks wallpaper hints at an incoming Retina iMac and Retina Thunderbolt display. Ahead of the debut of the completely redesigned late-2012 iMac, there was speculation that Apple would bring a Retina-level display to the new iMac. While that did not eventuate, the latest wallpaper for the OS X Mavericks beta includes a version that is 5120x2880 ñ or, exactly double the resolution of the already better than full HD, 2560x1440 display on the current 27-inch iMac and Thunderbolt display.... ...
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In a further boost to privacy, it appears that apps will now have to request permission in order to access the microphone. This would prevent a rogue app recording you and sending the data off somewhere without your knowledge.
It’s likely that this will work in the same way as permission to use location data, each app only having to ask once.
(Thanks, @AndreyATGB.)
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In one of those small yet important changes, Apple has finally added a feature many have been requesting for a long time: call-blocking. The feature not only blocks phone calls from numbers you’ve blocked, but text messages and FaceTime calls too …
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Phone, FaceTime and Messages blocking to prevent specific people from being able to contact you.
So if you get nuisance calls from telemarketeers, or have an ex who just won’t take no for an answer, life is about to get quieter.
(Thanks, Berkmh.)
While Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference focuses on developers who create applications and services around Apple's products, the company always reveals something new for everyday consumers, too. At this year's keynote address, Apple delivered a little love for everyone: a new flat but astoundingly layered iOS 7; the next version of Mac OS X, aka "Mavericks"; new MacBook Airs with faster processors and improved battery life; a super sexy Mac Pro; iTunes Radio; and iWork in the cloud.
In a welcome move, Apple has at long last made it possible for apps to be transferred between developers without loss of reviews, rankings, or customers. This preserves much of the value of an app for acquisition. 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.
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There was a lot to digest in yesterday’s keynote, so if you just want to get a quick feel for how things will look on your Mac when you upgrade from Mountain Lion, here are a sprinkling of screenshots to provide a taster …
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Farewell skeuomorphic Calendar (above) and Notes:
In Safari, the curved-effect Top Sites has been replaced by a much plainer 2D one:
Mission Control loses the linen backdrop:
Launchpad folders are now semi-transparent:
System Preferences have lost the section labels (Personal, Hardware, and so on)...
Apple opened WWDC yesterday with a new clear manifesto. Both it in video form and the company’s new Ad are below. In them, Apple is telling the world what it is all about.
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| Read more »Excited to try out iOS7 beta, guess I need to register as a developer first:)— (@sundarpichai) June 11, 2013
Sundar Pinchai, the relatively new head of Android since Andy Rubin’s departure, doesn’t mince words when it comes to his interest in iOS7. The more pessimistic among us would say that he wants to copy all of the new features but he’s probably just curious like everyone else.
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Apple has announced the 11 winners of this year’s Apple Design Awards: WWF Together, Procreate, Badland, Yahoo! Weather, Letterpress, Ridiculous Fishing, Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders, Coda 2, Evernote, Finish, and moaic.io …
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The Apple Design Awards recognize apps that raise the bar in design, technology, and innovation.
The winners span the complete range of app types, from games through utilities to a coding tool. Links to the apps are provided on the awards page.
If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, you don’t have to wait for iOS 7 to get the 3D parallax effect – you can download 3DBoard from Cydia.
As you’d expect, it doesn’t look as polished as the iOS 7 effect, but if you just have to have the effect now …
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| Read more »Apple said on Tuesday that Bing would be the default search engine in the upcoming iOS 7.
It’s the latest prying apart of Google services from default placement on Apple devices, following YouTube and Google Maps.
Here’s what going on: If you ask Siri a question that it cannot answer with its pre-programmed system, the virtual personal assistant tries Web search.
Currently, Siri defaults to the user’s preferred Safari search engine, which is set by default to Google but can be changed to Yahoo or Bing.
But with the debut of iOS 7, Siri search will default to Bing instead. Not only will it use Microsoft’s search index to answer all queries that it can’t quickly answer on its own, it will skip the “would you like me to search the Web” interim step entirely.
Caveat: You...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday published an interesting Apple patent describing a system in which button-like structures can be attached to a multitouch display in order to create a tactile, clickable form of input. ...
| Read more »While Apple's latest 802.11ac-enabled AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi router isn't scheduled to hit store shelves for at least another day, an unboxing and first test has already been performed in Australia. ...
| Read more »According to the release notes accompanying Monday's OS X 10.9 Mavericks Developer Preview, the OS is compatible with all Macs able to run the current version of Apple's desktop operating system, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. ...
| Read more »Yesterday Apple announced two new Macs at WWDC: an all-new Mac Pro, and an updated MacBook Air. While the all-new Mac Pro isn't shipping until later this year, the new MacBook Air is available today and is already in peoples' hands. Results for the new MacBook Airs have started to appear in the Geekbench Browser.
Since Geekbench results are already available, we can find out how fast this year's MacBook Airs are compared to last year's MacBook Airs. I've gathered results from the Geekbench Browser for all five models and charted them below:
There's only a modest increase in performance between the 2013 MacBook Air and the 2012 MacBook Air. Depending on which models you compare, you can expect between a 3% and a 8% improvement in performance. However, last year...
| Read more »By: abstractrudeRadical new design and impressive system specs.No pricing or release date yet.
| Read more »The Apple Design Awards for 2013 for iOS apps have been announced through a web page and a a series of tweets from Apple's @AppStore account. Among the winners are cloud productivity tool Evernote, word game Letterpress and Yahoo Weather -- the latter largely upstaged earlier in the day by the new default weather app in iOS 7, which strongly resembles the Yahoo app in style and function. A number of other companies also won Apple Design Awards, as well as two student entries that won student ADAs.... ...
| Read more »During Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote on Monday, artificial intelligence and robotics firm Anki showed off a toy/video game hybrid that leverages the power of iOS and Apple's mobile devices to run a number of small, autonomous cars around a track. ...
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