Apple is allegedly preparing to release a Retina-equipped iPad mini and a thinner 9.7-inch iPad later this year, unnamed sources have told Bloomberg. The claims mesh with other reports and analyst predictions surrounding the next-generation Mini, as the current model falls behind the pixel density of competing devices such as Google's new Nexus 7 tablet....
  ...

Garmin is just beginning to ship the company's first HUD (head up display) unit for in-car use with Garmin and Navigon apps. The U.S. $129.99 device (on summer sale) sits on your dash, and can project navigation information on your windshield using a supplied transparent film or a built-in reflector.

DESIGN

The unit plugs into a 12 volt supply in your car with an included cable and then connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth. The HUD notifies the driver of upcoming turns with an arrow in the appropriate direction and the distance until the turn. It also gives you your estimated time of arrival at your destination, along with your current speed and the speed limit on the road you are on if it is in the Garmin or Navigon databases (...

Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, longtime close friend of Steve Jobs, and former Apple Director, shared with CBS’s Charlie Rose what he believes post-Jobs Apple will look like. As quoted by AllThingsD:

“Well, we already know,” Ellison told Rose. “We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.”

Ellison’s quote seems to be referring to Apple’s history with Steve Jobs (the time in which the company launched the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, for example) in comparison to Apple’s darker years with leadership from the likes of John Sculley and Gil Amelio.

Now, with Steve Jobs’s hand-picked successor Tim Cook and the rest of the leadership team with Jony Ive, Craig Federighi, and Eddy Cue at...

Steve Sande is normally our Pad & Quill guru, but when the new Cartella Linen came along, he had one sent out to me for a test drive.

Design

I took a look at the leather-bound Cartella nearly a year ago with my smaller MacBook Air, and the larger linen-bound one is much the same. Instead of covered in leather, it features American Buckram cloth that's used in binding books. You have your choice of red or black.

As with previous models, the interior tray is made of Baltic Birch, with cutouts to hold the MacBook Air in place and rubber bumpers to create a tight fit. The ports are easily accessed, and a slash pocket can hold papers. A thick elastic band secures the case.

Like all their cases, the Cartella Linen is handmade in Minneapolis.

Many people are wondering what the post-Steve-Jobs Apple will look like, but Larry Ellison said he already knows.

Speaking with Charlie Rose in an interview for “CBS This Morning,” the Oracle CEO (and close Jobs friend) implied that Apple without Jobs won’t be that different from what happened last time Jobs left the company.

“Well, we already know,” Ellison told Rose. “We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.”

Needless to say, I’m sure that Tim Cook and Jony Ive don’t think of themselves as John Scully and Gil Amelio. But the question of what the new Apple is to become certainly remains an open one.

Ellison and Pixar’s Ed Catmull...

As parts releases have suggested, Bloomberg reports that Apple will release a thinner full-sized iPad in the final three months of this year -- this would suggest that the iPad would be released at a separate media event from the one supposedly scheduled for September 10th when the next iPhone is expected to be released.

Bloomberg also says Apple will release a Retina-equipped iPad mini in the same time-frame, similar to previous reports.

Mockup of fifth-generation iPad next to...

Developers are welcomed back into Apple’s fold, Steve Jobs once considered going consumer-only, and one Scandinavian country says no-no to 3D flyovers. The remainders for Monday, August 12, 2013 are transmitted exclusively in Norse code.

All Apple Developer Services Back Online after Hack, Apple Offers Free Month Extension (MacRumors)

Apple has finally returned all of its developer systems to active duty, as well as offering registered developers an additional month of membership, gratis. Unfortunately, that extra month was the one you just had where all the servers were down. Better luck next time!

Apple’s evolving view of “pro” (Ken Segall’s Observatory)

...

Australian writer Sonny Dickson has shared some images of what he claims are the volume buttons for Apple’s upcoming low-cost plastic-shelled iPhone, dubbed the "iPhone 5C." The buttons are shown in bright shades of green, yellow, red, and blue, matching previous descriptions of the device.

The pill-shaped button design, which deviates from the round volume buttons found in the iPhone 5, matches up with design drawings leaked in June. Based on those drawings and other component leaks, MacRumors released...

Bloomberg has corroborated multiple reports regarding Apple’s next iPad and iPhone models.

• Thinner full-sized iPad planned. We first reported that the next full-sized iPad would be thinner, lighter and similar in design to the iPad mini. WSJ reiterated it this morning.

Apple also plans to introduce a new iPad mini, the first with a high-resolution screen, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the development is private. The new iPad models are set to be introduced in the last three months of the year, one of the people said.

• iPad mini with sharper display planned, as reported...

The slim Harpoon Daypack from ECBC carries your gear in a compact, easily portable package. The black version with red accent stitching I tested includes water-resistant YKK zippers with rubber coated metal pull tabs. The durable 840D HD nylon construction and its seams are finished well, and no stray threads appeared during use. The Harpoon also comes in grey.

The back panel on the backpack strap side includes medium filled protective material, and the inside is divided into pockets for your devices. The Harpoon Daypack includes a laptop pocket with a small overflap suitable for any sized MacBook. In front of the laptop sleeve lies a pocket with a velcro closure for an iPad or other tablet.

Another zippered net pocket above the tablet sleeve holds cables, chargers, or any other small miscellaneous items.

A three-quarter outer zipper compartment also includes a...

Apple's marimba-based "Tri-tone" alert sound is ubiquitous. It's the default sound for incoming text messages on the iPhone, but it wasn't actually created inside Apple. A programmer and musician named Kelly Jacklin posted a blog entry that describes how he created the sound for the makers of SoundJam when they wanted an alert to let you know your CD had finished burning.

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 round up 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, Google+.

Today’s Featured deals...

Apple is extending the number of eligible countries in its USB adapter takeback program. The program began in China August 9th, and is coming to the US on August 16th. Now also joining on the 16th will be Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK....
   ...

A set of images leaked on Monday claim to show off a new device from Sony aimed at turning smartphones like the iPhone into something approaching a full-fledged camera.
   ...

Steve Jobs was named a Disney Legend on Sunday. The award ceremony included emotional speeches from Disney CEO Bob Iger, who presented the award, and John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, who accepted the award for Mr. Jobs, who died in 2011. Both speeches include interesting anecdotes about their relationships with Steve Jobs, but it's the raw emotion that choked us up. GL keeping a dry eye through the whole thing. Mr. Lasseter's story included the moment when Steve Jobs sat down to tell him Apple asked him to come back as CEO. This is super cool.

Much respect.

Facebook is this week updating its mobile apps with several features. Among these is previously-anticipated OpenTable integration, which will allow North American users to make reservations via a restaurant's profile page. When making a reservation, people will be able to pick from a selection of available times, and specify their party's size....
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One week after the Obama administration's veto of an import ban affecting Apple helped to send the company's stock up $6.9 billion, news of an import ban affecting Samsung has again helped Apple's market value gain ground, this time by almost twice as much.
  ...

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle Earth rejoice -- Feral Interactive will be shipping a Mac port of Snowblind Studios' The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (US$30) on August 29.

Don't be surprised if you don't recall any of the events that take place in the title, which is an action role playing game set in northern Middle Earth. About the only mention of the war in the trilogy came from Gandalf the White, saying "With his far-reaching right hand, Sauron might have done great evil in the North. Yet all that has been averted because a handful of heroes stood in his path."

That small band of heroes consists of Eradin the Ranger, Andriel the Elf, and Farin the Dwarf, who take on the forces of Sauron in the game. LOTR:WITN is playable in both single-player and co-op multiplayer modes, and requires at least OS X 10.7.5 (be sure to check the system requirements before purchase).

[via...

As part of a semi-annual valuation, investment firm Needham & Co. has cut its price target for Apple stock from $710 to $595. Analyst Charlie Wolf cites a "more hostile competitive environment" since the last valuation in February, along with a shift in shopping habits, both of which are reflected in the fall of the Mac, iPad, and iPhone operating segments. "The largest percentage decline -- 42.3% -- was in the Mac segment as the negative impact of tablets on PC sales became increasingly apparent in the first half of the calendar year," he writes. "The iPad experienced the next largest decl...
 ...

Did you know that Apple and five major publishers were under antitrust investigation in Europe as well as in the United States? Things worked out a bit differently there, with Apple and the publishers offering legally binding commitments to changes in their business practices.

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.

Investment firm Needham & Company cut its price target for shares of Apple from $710 to $595 on Monday, citing growing competition in both of the company's key markets: phones and tablets.
  ...

Mellel is the leading word processor for OS X, and has been widely considered the industry standard since its inception. Mellel focuses on writers and scholars for technical writing and multilingual word processing. It offers special tools to help you write and organize long documents easily. If you need multilingual support or are writing bi-directional text, Mellel is just the thing for you: Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Syriac never looked better on a Mac. Even if you don't need all the bells and whistles, Mellel is still the right choice for you: clean, stable, and easy to use.

Version 3.2.3:

Note: The version available for download is 3.2.3. The version available in the Mac App Store is 3.2.2.

• Fixed a bug that caused Mellel to fail opening non-Mellel documents under Leopard (rtf, doc, opml, etc).
• Fixed an issue that caused the app to crash when exporting to PDF when the document contained malformed...

According to a new report from App Store analytics firm Distimo, Apple's App Store revenue still tops Google Play revenue despite the latter’s increase in growth over the past six months.

While Apple's App Store revenue increased 15% over the course of the last six months, Google Play revenue increased 67%. In July alone, Google Play saw 11% growth, compared to the App Store's 3%.

A similar report from App Annie two weeks ago confirmed that App Store revenue remains 2.3 higher than Google Play revenue even though Google Play downloads eclipsed App Store downloads during the second quarter of 2013.

The majority of the App Store's revenue comes from the United States, followed by Japan and the United Kingdom. Though some countries like Russia spent more on...

More details about a lens with a built-in camera from Sony have appeared in new leaks. The "Lens Camera" initially uncovered in mid-July is shown in new images attached via a clip-on mount to a smartphone, and will apparently be a massive upgrade to the image quality of the camera sensor typically associated with mobile devices....
  ...

An updated version of the CBS Sports iOS app, which offers full support for the iPad, has been launched in the App Store. iPad users running iOS 6.0 or later can now access all of the on-demand and live content offered within the app, all within an interface designed for the larger screen. Live content is dependant on timing, offering NCAA basketball from January to April, the PGA Tour between May and August, and SEC football from September to December. CBS Sports is a free download from the App Store....
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Phil Zimmermann is a legend in the world of online privacy, having invented PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) in 1991 to create a way of creating cryptographic privacy and authentication to keep digital communications -- and entire computers -- safe from prying eyes. Zimmermann was in the news last Friday when a company he founded -- Silent Circle -- decided to shut down and delete all email messages on its servers rather than have the US government force them to hand over customer data. One fascinating item in the Forbes article about the Silent Circle email shutdown was Zimmermann's admission that he doesn't use email much anymore because "PGP doesn't run very well on a Mac these days."

PGP Corporation was purchased by...

Last month a report from often reliable sources claimed that Sony was readying a new Carl Zeiss camera lens with a 20.2 MP sensor that would attach onto a smartphone and connect over WiFi or NFC. Today, SonyAlphaRumors is back with more details on the new products and this time has high-quality images of the upcoming “Lens-camera” accessory with what appear to be leaked press shots.

What you see on these images are the DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100 lenses. Actually these are not normal lenses! They have built-in sensor, Bionz processor, Wifi/NFC wireless connection and SD card slot. These lenses have no LCD screen and no usual camera controls. You will be able to control them through your smart phone or tablet.

...

When Apple released Final Cut Pro X, a debate raged concerning whether or not Apple was devoting enough resources towards its pro users. While Final Cut Pro X has improved in many ways since it first launched, many video professionals felt that the original offering was a step backwards in functionality.

The notion that Apple developed Final Cut Pro X for the mainstream market at the expense of professional video editors underscores a larger question regarding Apple's commitment to the pro market altogether.

To that end, long-time Chiat/Day advertising director Ken Segall recently penned a blogpost tackling that very question and addressing Apple's "evolving" view of the pro market.

Interestingly, Segall relays that Steve Jobs once...

The Flex Pocket Charger from PhoneSuit gives users a small, 2.8 ounce iPhone or iPod battery that fits easily in any pocket. It has a native Lighting connector, but a 30-pin to Lightning adapter can be used.  It has a capacity of 2600 mAh, enough to charge an iPhone 5 almost twice and offers charging passthrough.

Skype users that own the newest iPad can now take advantage of its HD front camera, as the app saw an update today, and meanwhile the CBS Sports app has added the ability for viewers to stream live video of events.
  ...

The iPhone Apple Store app has been updated over-the-air today to offer a free iBook download to customers. The book is Away in My Airplane by Margaret Wise Brown. According to a note sent to Apple retail employees today, the free book download is meant for employees to have context when discussing and pushing the iBooks app and iBookstore to customers.

As...

Customizing your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to reflect your personality is an easy way to make your device clearly your own. You can even set different images for your Home and Lock screens, and it's easy to do. Read on to learn how.

Initial production of the iPhone 5S may reach only 3 to 4 million units in the current quarter, compared an earlier plan for 10 million, industry sources claim. The issue is said to be the phone's fingerprint sensor; while it was reportedly going to start production at TSMC in May, and then head to packaging at Xintec, Apple has allegedly need further work on integrating the part with iOS 7. Xintec, meanwhile, is said to be returning low yields....
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KeynotePro has introduced two new themes -- Brighton and District for Keynote -- as well as expanded support for iOS devices.  

Brighton (pictured) is described as a "curvaceous, deco-evoking Motion-Enhanced theme featuring a sea-side palette." District is a "modern, print-inspired geometric design including two distinct palettes."

iOS device support has been expanded with an iOS Quick-Launch feature on Keynotepro.com . It enables many of the most popular KeynotePro themes to be opened directly within Keynote for iOS without needing to first apply the theme on a Mac.

read more

Awem has released Golden Trails 3: The Guardian’s Creed for Mac. It's a hidden object game with the Templar setting that continues the Golden Trails series

Here's how the game is described: "What can the walls tell you? 18th century France still keeps the secrets of the Order of Knights Templar. Search for the truth together with brave Jacque in this hidden object game full of unexpected twists.

read more

This week, Adam made an appearance on the Tech Night Owl podcast to discuss the Apple ebook verdict. Blogger Shawn Blanc released an ebook of his own, called “Delight Is in the Details” — it’s worth a look for anyone who creates. President Obama wanted you to be delighted with NSA surveillance, and is promising to change the program to be more transparent. Ken Segall, a longtime Apple advisor, explains how Apple is changing the professional market to be more accessible. Meanwhile, leading ebook vendors are arguing against being forced to make their devices more accessible. A service long known for accessibility — Instapaper — now has a new beta Web app. Amazon has long been portrayed as the anti-Apple, but analyst Horace Dediu shows why the two have more in common than you might think. The patent troll Lodsys has dismissed a lawsuit against a developer, the mystery of why Xerox copiers were switching up numbers has been solved, and we delve into how much your favorite tech...

Notable software releases this week include Skype 6.7 and Downcast 1.0.1.

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.

The bustle and background noise in coffee shops can help stimulate your creativity, so the team at Coffitivity made a website that lets you hear that ambient noise even when you can't leave your desk. Now they've brought that experience out of the browser and into native apps for the Mac, iPhone and iPad. The apps include three different tracks:  Morning Murmur, Lunchtime Lounge, and University Undertones. The iOS version includes an option to play music along with your coffeeshop sounds directly in the app, too. Coffitivity for the Mac is available through the Mac App Store, and the iPhone and iPad version is available through the App Store. Both are priced at US$1.99.

On Monday, shareware developer Maintain released version 6.6.1 of CocktailCocktail (Mountain Lion Edition), the popular shareware utility program that allows for additional Mac OS X system tests. The new version, a 5.5 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and features:
- Improvements on the “Clear user caches” procedure.

- Added ability to change Launchpad background effect (Interface – Misc).

- Added ability to change Launchpad background blur radius (Interface – Misc).

- Added ability to refresh Launchpad contents (Interface – Misc).

- Added ability to remove all apps from Launchpad (Interface – Misc)....

In our reports posted in April and June of this year we pointed to Apple having initial problems finding a coating material that wouldn't interfere with their upcoming iPhone fingerprint sensor. The glitch was noted as being serious enough that it could cause the technology to be delayed. Today, a new report confirms that while Apple will launch their next iPhone with fingerprint technology, the initial shipments for September could be slower than usual before ramping up in time for the holiday season.

The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in with what “remedies” it wants to see applied to Apple after the company’s loss in the ebook price-fixing suit. In this segment of Tech Night Owl Live with Gene Steinberg, Adam Engst explains the case briefly and then analyzes why the proposed remedies don’t make any sense.

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.

Over the weekend, AllThingsD reported that Apple will hold an iPhone-focused media event on September 10, introducing its next-generation iPhone 5S and perhaps a lower-cost "iPhone 5C".

AllThingsD has an excellent track record with such reports, suggesting that the event will indeed take place on that date, but in case there was any doubt, The Loop's Jim Dalrymple is now confirming the report with a simple "Yep" post.

Dalrymple is well connected at Apple and has on many occasions either confirmed or refuted other reports and rumors in simple one-word posts with 100% accuracy. Such reports are generally taken as coming directly from Apple but delivered through an unofficial channel.

Official media invitations for the event should appear roughly a week before...

Apple’s fifth-generation iPad will use a film-based touch panel like the iPad mini, according to The Wall Street Journal. The film-based touch panel sits on top of the iPad’s glass display, and is both lighter and thinner than the glass-based touch panel used in the current iteration of the…

From AllThingsD

Apple is expected to unveil its next iPhone at a special event on Sept. 10

Yep

Trading of shares of Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry were halted Monday morning as the firm convened a special committee to explore strategic alternatives, fanning talk of a possible bid to go private in order to fix its problems while out of the public eye.
  ...

A rumor surfaced back kin May that Apple was working on a new 12.9" iPad for 2014. The larger tablet could be a better fit for the educational market and/or as part of a new notebook-tablet hybrid product. Today, a new rumor report suggests that the slowdown in Apple's 9.7 iPad model may force Apple to enlarge the iPad to ...

Overhauls the search feature and fixes some bugs. (Free, 40.6 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.

Are you a professional user who feels abandoned by Apple? Ken Seagall, a long-time adviser to Apple, argues that Apple isn’t leaving pros behind, but is instead changing its professional tools to be accessible to more users. Seagall reveals that, at one point, Steve Jobs considered killing Apple’s professional products due to them requiring a lot of resources for a small, niche market — as opposed to the consumer market, which is larger and less demanding. While Seagall acknowledges that Apple will drive away some pros, he believes the company will succeed in advancing the market and empowering more users.

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...

Further evidence has emerged for suggestions that the iPhone 5S could have dual-LED flash in the form of photos of what French leak site NWE claims are part of the rear shell. The slot for the flash has room for two LEDs rather than one.

While it’s possible this is simply to double the power of the flash, analyst Ming...

After almost a month of limited availability, Apple’s developer services are now fully restored.

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.

Update: The iPhone version of Skype just received the same update with HD video calling support on iPhone 5.

Today Skype updated its iPad app with the ability to make HD quality video calls in addition to several other performance improvements. It’s a feature that’s been available on other platforms for quite sometime,...

Last weekend at the D23 Expo -- a convention held by Disney for fans -- Steve Jobs was posthumously awarded the Disney Legends award, as noted by MacRumors. The Disney Legends award is given to individuals who make significant contributions to the Walt Disney Company. Jobs was awarded the honor due to his role in building Pixar into an animation powerhouse, which he later sold to Disney, and for his work as a member of the Disney board of directors.

Jobs' award was accepted by Pixar founder John Lasseter who gave an emotional speech about the man who saw value in the then fledgling animation company. In his speech, Lasseter recounted a talk he and Jobs had during a particularly troubled time when they were making the first Toy Story:

"We were having dinner one day, in the middle of the...

CBS has updated it’s ‘CBS Sports’ iOS app today with full support for tablet users, allowing iPad users on iOS 6.0 and up to access all of the on-demand and live content that the app previously only offered to iPhone users. The updated app...

On August 12, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for "Live Listen." With Apple's iPhone event quickly approaching, ...

Image: nexcesscdn.net

The WSJ seems to have confirmed what we were all expecting: the next iPad will essentially be a scaled-up iPad Mini.

The same touch-panel technology that made the iPad mini thin and light will likely feature in the next iPad, which is currently being produced by Apple Inc.’s Asian suppliers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

We’d previously expected the iPad 5 to have the same thin bezel design as the Mini, and now the WSJ reports that it will also use the same film-based touch panel,...

An anonymous reader writes "In a fascinating post from Kelly Jacklin, the long time Apple software engineer details how he helped create the default text alert sound on the iPhone — a sound otherwise known as 'Tri-tone.' The history of the the pleasant text alert sound that we've all come to know and love stretches all the way back to 1998, nearly 10 years before the iPhone ever hit store shelves." Here's Jacklin's post.

...

Dialogue is a new app in the Mac OS X App Store that lets you place and answer smartphone calls on your Mac. So why do you need to take calls on your Mac when an iPhone is already super portable? Sometimes your iPhone is stuck in a pocket or inside a backpack, bag or purse. I mean, not my purse -- I never put my iPhone in my purse. Still, the phone isn't always handy. Often I'll leave it charging somewhere out of reach, if not in the next room. Dialogue uses a Bluetooth connection to let you route calls through your Mac.

Semiconductor revenue worldwide will see improved growth this year of 6.9% and reaching US$320 billion according to the mid-year 2013 update of the "Semiconductor Applications Forecaster" (SAF) from International Data Corporation (IDC).

The SAF also forecasts that semiconductor revenues will grow 2.9% year over year in 2014 to $329 billion and log a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2% from 2012-2017, reaching $366 billion in 2017, according to the research group (www.idc.com).

read more

Pantheon's Multidev is designed to cut website management costs by letting teams instantly provision unlimited development environments in the cloud.

Multidev does for a company’s website what software-defined data centers do for its infrastructure. Each member of a team can fork the entire stack of services that power a site on demand, developing in tandem on a single platform. As a result, large websites launch faster and cost less to manage over time.

read more

Jumsoft (www.jumsoft.com) has rolled out the first batch of fresh designs for its new Toolbox for iWork collection. The update consists of eight new themes of data visualization elements and 10 sets of badges, as well as extra slide sizes in the Layouts for Keynote designs.

The editable designs are designed for illustrating presentations, websites, text documents, and various other types of content. Toolbox for iWork incorporates 13 sets of templates and illustrations for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

read more

Following a report late last month that appeared to show plastic retail packaging representing the rumored low-cost iPhone, Japanese blog Mac Otakara is reporting that "iPhone 5C" will indeed be the name of the device. The "C" designation would presumably refer to the various color options available on the rumored lower-cost device.

The blog is also reporting more details on the iPhone 5S, including claims that the phone will be available in a gold color option, and that the camera on the phone will remain at 8 megapixels, but will feature a wider f/2.0 aperture to capture more light while taking photos. Also, the report says that the iPhone 5S will run on Apple's custom A7 processor, and that the rectangular mark on the home button of the phone will be removed, something that may be consistent with a report earlier from yesterday saying that the device would feature...

All-new dial-in experience! See below -- do not call into Talkshoe, we won't be there. Be sure to set up Fuze Meeting before the show if you want to join in live.

It's Sunday, and it's time for the TUAW talkcast! Late this week, AllThingsD let loose the calendar darts and aimed at early September. The site is reporting a Sept. 10 announcement date for the next iPhone product (corroborated by iMore, although we're still waiting for the traditional "Yep" from Jim Dalrymple).

There's also the little matter of a...

Many Californians were jolted out of bed on Monday to an unusual siren sound emanating from their smartphone, followed by an Amber Alert about a suspected kidnapper.

While the mobile phone warning was new to those in the Golden State, the Emergency Alert System has been running for about a year now (as faithful AllThingsD readers already knew), having served up weather-related alerts for Hurricane Sandy and other East Coast storms as well as various regional Amber Alerts.

AllThingsD’s Ina Fried explained the system in an interview with Southern California Public Radio. And, for those who missed it, law...

Product:

The Twelve South HiRise, which was announced last week, is an aluminum stand and docking/charging station for Apple devices that include a Lightning dock connector. The HiRise supports the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod touch, seventh-generation iPod nano, and the iPad mini (the 4th-generation iPad is too large). Unlike the typical iOS Device dock, the HiRise, as the product name...

One of Pixar’s early employees, John Lasseter, accepted a Disney Legends award for Steve Jobs. The awarded was accepted and presented yesterday at Disney’s D23 conference. The Disney Legends award is granted to key people in the growth and success of Disney. As Pixar’s creator and a former Disney Director, Jobs certainly made a positive impact on Disney. Lasseter’s speech recounts several encounters and experiences that he shared with Jobs over the course of their time together. A video from another angle is below:

For more information about AAPL Company, ...

Apple will unveil its next-generation iPhone at a September 10 event, according to a report from AllThingsD—a publication that is frequently fed accurate advance details on upcoming product releases by Apple. AllThingsD says that the event will focus on the “update it has in store for the current iPhone,”…

Apple told developers Saturday morning that all services at the company's Developer Connection were back online. Apple pulled those services three weeks ago after a security breach, and slowly brought those services back online. With Saturday's letter to developers, all services have been restored.

When Apple launches its next-generation iPhone, the handset will likely carry a fingerprint sensor embedded into a slightly convex home button made out of sapphire, a major change to current designs.
  ...

Apple is planning to hold an iPhone-related press event on September 10th, sources say. The people haven't revealed any other details about the event, but AllThingsD suggests that OS X Mavericks -- which is almost complete, and due this fall -- won't be getting a formal launch at the same time. There also haven't been any hints that the iWatch or a TV set will make a debut....
  ...

Apple will unveil its next iPhone on September 10, reports AllThingsD, citing sources with knowledge of the event.

Though the date of the event has been revealed, it is unclear whether the event will focus singularly on the upcoming iPhone 5 or if it will include Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone, possibly dubbed the iPhone "5C".

Rendering of low cost iPhone
Apple’s iPhone 5S is expected to include a fingerprint sensor, an upgraded 12-megapixel camera, and iOS 7. It is likely that iOS 7 will become publicly available after the announcement or when the phone debuts.

Though OS X Mavericks is also scheduled to be released in the fall, AllThingsD does not expect the software to be debuted at the September 10 iPhone event.

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According to a report by AllThingsD, Apple will debut its latest iPhone lineup during a special event on September 10th, just a month from today. The report doesn’t specify as to which models will be announced at the event, but if rumors are to be believed, we may see the highly anticipated iPhone 5S as well as a new, low-cost iPhone 5C.

There’s been much speculation as to when exactly Apple will unveil its latest lineup as the company has been unusually quiet about new products over the last year. Many are also wondering whether or not Apple will break its traditional iPhone lineup (introducing a new iPhone and shuffling older models down to lower price...

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After dealing with various outages for more than three weeks, Apple finally announced any developer services still down at its Developer Center are running again. And for users' trouble, Apple is extending every membership by one month.

The downtime came after an "intruder" accessed the development site's servers on July 18. Apple acknowledged the issue on July 21 and at the time could not "rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or e-mail addresses may have been accessed." That notice led...

Apple said Saturday that it has restored the last of the developer services that had been out of commission following a hacking incident last month.

The company, which has been gradually bringing back various services, said on Saturday it will extend all developer memberships by one month.

“We are pleased to let you know that all our developer program services are now online,” Apple said in an e-mail to developers. “Your patience during this time was sincerely appreciated.”

It apologized to developers who...

The developer portal went down July 18 due to a security breach, and after some time released a statement regarding the security situation. In an interesting turn, the person responsible went public, and 25 year-old Ibrahim Balic explained that he had not only posted a bug, but then use the exploit, which apparently prompted Apple to close everything down until a fix was applied.

Since then Apple has been putting services back online a few at a time. As TechCrunch reports, it started "...with certificates, identifiers and profiles, as...

I'm always on the lookout for innovative photography apps and vividHDR certainly qualifies. It's a universal app that sells for US $1.99. Unlike many apps that take 2 exposures for HDR (High Dynamic Range imaging), vividHDR takes 3. It shows you a split screen of the normally exposed image, alongside the HDR tone-mapped photo. Unlike some apps that can give you 'overcooked' results, you can get natural looking photos from this app, with better shadow detail and more realistic colors.

The app offers settings for Natural, Lively and Dramatic photos. Saturation and contrast increase with each step away from Natural. You can also select 'custom', and process the images any of the 3 ways before you save them.

The app provides good exposure control, ghost removal and image alignment, which is important if you are hand holding your iPhone or iPad.

The GUI takes some getting used to. I expected...

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com

In case you missed anything, here’s a quick roundup of some of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

1. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million, saying that to chart a future for the iconic newspaper, “We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment.” AllThingsD‘s co-executive editor Kara Swisher had more than a few thoughts about how to do that, having started her career in the Post’s mailroom: “Fusing the old-media storytelling and news-integrity values that I learned at the Post with the Internet values of speed and personality [...] is critical,” she wrote in an open...

Roku has added a new feature to its iOS app that will make the streaming service more attractive to users trying to pick between it and an Apple TV. Version 2.3 updates the Play on Roku service, giving users the ability to stream videos directly from an iOS device to their television.

Play on Roku debuted last September and allowed users to stream pictures and music from their tablet and smartphone to their TV set, but was sorely lacking video support. The move brings Roku closer in line with the functionality of Apple TV, though there are a few important differences.

The Roku service still doesn't allow users to stream TV shows or movies they've synced with their iOS devices or allow third-party video apps to be streamed to the box. Roku's new iOS features work on Roku 3, Roku 2, Roku HD, and Roku Streaming Stick. You can find the app update in the...

Vietnamese website Tinhte, which has a solid track record of getting its hands on pre-release Apple products and accurate mock ups,today posted what it claims are mock ups of two next-generation iPhones. One is the full-fledged “iPhone 5S” upgrade, while the other claims to show the much rumored low-cost “iPhone 5C” that we’ve been hearing a lot about recently. It’s worth noting that Tinhte says the source of the images,...

After over three weeks of at least partial downtime, Apple has informed developers that all of their developer services are now online. Apple is giving all developers an extension to their developer memberships by one month.We are pleased to let you know that all our developer program services are now online. Your patience during this time was sincerely appreciated.

We understand that the downtime was significant and apologize for any issues it may have caused in your app development. To help offset this disruption, we are extending the membership of all developer teams by one month. If you need any further assistance, please contact us.Apple's developer center originally went offline abruptly on July 18th. It was later revealed that the...

Would you believe that after releasing two totally obnoxious, over-the-top Amateur Surgeon games, Adult Swim's newly released Amateur Surgeon 3 is a tasteful, realistic look at the medical practice? No? Ok, good -- because it's really, really not -- but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Amateur Surgeon 3 lets you poke around inside the bodies of a whole cast of characters and creatures, each with their own medical ailment. Using the touchscreen, you'll need to cut out organs, yank broken bits of glass and other objects from within bodies and of course sew up wounds and clean up your work at the end.

But this is an Adult Swim game, so there's absolutely nothing realistic about this experience whatsoever. You often cut up your patients with a pizza cutter, cauterize wounds by burning them with a Bic lighter and can use special "tag team" powers -- like bringing your dog into the operation so he can lick the...

iOS 7 will give iPhones and iPads a rather drastic makeover when it launches publicly later this year. While we already know that the next version of OS X, Mavericks, doesn't offer the same visual refresh, that didn't stop designer Stu Crew from doing Apple's work for it. The new OS X concept, which Crew has named "Ivericks," employs the same simplistic, modern design principles as iOS 7 to create a rather appealing product.

Gone are the beveled windows and faux 3D buttons and in their place are narrow lines and a minimalist aesthetic that seems very much like it could have come straight from Cupertino. My own personal favorite touch is the completely revamped calculator, which takes obvious cues from the calculator app in iOS 7, and still looks gorgeous. Take a look at the full set of concept renders on Crew's blog.

[via...

Delicious Library allows you to import, browse, and share all your books, movies, music, and video games with Delicious Library.

Run your very own library from your home or office using our impossibly simple interface. Delicious Library's digital shelves act as a visual card-catalog.

A scan of a barcode is all Delicious Library needs to add an item to your digital shelves, downloading tons of info from the Internet like the author, release date, current value, description, and even a high-resolution picture of the cover. Import your entire library using our exclusive full-speed iSight video barcode scanner, our Flic Wireless Laser Bar Code Scanner, or (the slow way) entering the titles by hand. Once you have all of your items in your Mac, you can browse though your digital shelves, check stuff out to friends using Apple's built-in Address Book and calendar, and find new items to read, watch, and play using Library's recommendations.

Quickly...

TUAW fans know that I'm a big weather fanatic, and my home state -- Colorado -- offers a wide range of weather conditions to keep residents on their toes. One app that has become a favorite of mine very quickly is RadarScope (US$9.99).

The app was created by Base Velocity LLC, which also offers the RadarScope TV app ($499.99) for TV meteorologists to use for professional broadcast use. RadarScope is definitely aimed at a much broader audience, but does a lot of the same things that its professional counterpart does.

RadarScope is described as "a specialized display utility for weather enthusiasts and meteorologists that allows you to view NEXRAD Level 3 and super resolution radar data along with Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood Warnings, and predicted storm tracks issued by the National Weather Service."

T-Mobile announced on Friday that it will be pulling Apple's iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 from its "zero-down" promotion, while AT&T revealed a price cut to iPhones purchased through its "Next" subscription plan.
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Today's Dollar Store accessory find is a stylus-slash-pen that, according to the rather prominent advertising on the box is "compatible with cell phones, tablets".

It is neither a great pen nor a great stylus, but (and this is important, given the one dollar price point) it is a good one of both.

I was surprised that this particular model has a rather nice grip area for the pen and how well the stylus, which is located in the "eraser" area, worked. You twist the bottom to open the pen, which in the case of this unit had a nice satisfying click.

It's not an unusual layout for pen/stylii, and you can find comparable setups on Amazon for under ten dollars. What is unusual is the stylus tip itself, which is soft -- rather like a little deflatable balloon -- instead of being a solid hard surface.

I found that approach to feel odd in my hands, but...

As mentioned earlier, it's a triple witching day for Apple's legal and intellectual property teams, with multiple decisions expected. The US ITC ruling on Apple's patent case against Samsung, where Apple had claimed infringement of multiple patents, has arrived: the commission found that the Korean electronics giant did indeed infringe on two patents, while no violation was found on four others. The infringement remedy is an import ban covering the affected devices.

The infringed patents in this case are the '949 patent ("Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics") and...

In a blog post on Friday, former Apple ad consultant Ken Segall reveals Steve Jobs once considered killing off the company's professional product offerings, including the Mac Pro and software like Final Cut Pro.
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Judge Denise Cote has denied an Apple request to temporarily stay her ruling stemming from a trial over e-book price fixing, the Associated Press reports. Had the stay gone through, it would've given Apple time to appeal settlement terms proposed by the US Department of Justice. In July, Cote found that Apple had conspired with five major book publishers -- Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster -- to artificially inflate e-book prices and undermine Amazon, which in 2009 was selling Kindle titles at a standard price of just $10....
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The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that Samsung infringed two smartphone patents held by Apple and that therefore some of its phones should be blocked from importation to the United States.

The Friday ruling is the latest step in a multinational fight between the world’s two top smartphone makers that has been going on for two years.

ITC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender recommended in December 2012 that some Samsung smartphones be banned from importation to the U.S. because they infringed on four Apple patents. A month after that ruling, the ITC said it would review the decision, and Friday’s announcement is the result of that review.

It confirmed Samsung infringement of two Apple patents: U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949, which covers a touchscreen and user interface, and U.S. Patent No. 7,912,501 that covers detecting when a headset is connected. But it said Samsung didn’t infringe the other patents in question.

Ken Segall, the creative director behind the Think Different campaign and author of Insanely Simple, a book about his experiences creating advertising for Apple, writes in a blog post about Apple's "evolving view of 'Pro'" that Steve Jobs once considered killing Apple's entire line of Pro products.
Would Apple ever even think about saying goodbye to the pro market?

I hope you’re sitting down for this, but Steve Jobs did in fact once consider that very option.

This was back in the days when iMac had established itself as a global bestseller. During one of the agency’s regular meetings with Steve, he shared that he was considering killing the pro products.

His rationale was as you might expect: consumer products have an unlimited upside, while pro products are...

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs once consider eliminating all of the company's professional-oriented products, according to former Apple advertising consultant Ken Segall. The moment is said to have come shortly after the iMac became a bestseller and revived Apple's fortunes. Jobs mentioned the prospect during a meeting, arguing that while consumer product sales are unlimited, pro offerings target a niche audience while still devouring significant corporate resources. The CEO ultimately decided against the move for unmentioned reasons....
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At the end of July, T-Mobile USA kicked off a new promotion that would allow customers to purchase an iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S at $0 down at pay for the phone over 24 months for $27 each month (for iPhone 5). Today, the promotion has ended, according to TmoNews and confirmation provided to AllThingsD. The offer, interestingly, is still available for iPhone 4 and other smartphones. T-Mobile customers who want an iPhone 5 will now have to pay the older price down of $145.99 and monthly payments of $21. The old price officially goes into effect August 10th (tomorrow).

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The industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) today announced the ratification of its revision 3.2 specification. The latest specification includes SATA Express, a new specification that enables the coexistence of SATA and PCIe storage devices, as well as enhancements in power management, new SATA form-factors, and optimizations for solid state hybrid drives....
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Legal observers have noted that Samsung appears to have gotten the worst of questioning in Friday's hearings with Apple at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which could mean that the Cupertino company may be able to get the better of its rival in the coming months.
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Kid in Story Book Maker by Locomotive Labs is an iPad app for children and adults to use together to create a story. More than just a plain-text page turner, Kid in Story Book Maker allows you to insert the image of the child into the story and to record voice-over narration for each page. It's your own personal story book maker that can be used for creative storytelling or more focused instruction by educators and speech language pathologists (SLPs).

The central purpose of Kid in Story Book Maker is the ability to create a personalized story. The developers have created tutorial videos to walk you through the steps, and the process is relatively easy. Templates make it simple for you to get started, but at this time there are not many choices. The developers at Locomotive Labs invite users to share their original stories, so hopefully the Kid in Story template library will...