Twitter has updated its #music iOS app with several new discovery features. Foremost is local library scanning, the results of which are used to suggest relevant artists. Users can now also listen to an artist's top tracks, similar acts, and even the bands that the artist follows on Twitter....
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Never knock updated printer drivers, as they are your friend.

On Friday, Apple released its Epson Printers Drivers 2.15 package. The update, a 1.2 gigabyte download, adds updated drivers for assorted Epson printers, scanners and multifunction devices.

The update requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later and can also be located, snagged and installed via Mac OS X’s Software Update feature.

If you’ve tried the new driver updates and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

Apple was dealt a significant win in its ongoing patent duel with Samsung on Friday when the U.S. International Trade Commission handed down a ruling that will likely see the ban of infringing products made by the South Korean company.
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A New York district court judge on Friday denied Apple's request to suspend a ruling that found the company guilty of e-book price fixing while it seeks an appeal.
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Photo: appadvice.com

According to the Associated Press, Apple’s request to suspend Judge Cote’s decision regarding the e-books antitrust case has been denied.

A judge on Friday refused a request by Apple to temporarily suspend her ruling that it violated antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to raise electronic book prices in 2010.

Judge Denise Cote, ruling from the bench in Manhattan federal court, declined to withdraw the effect of last month’s ruling while Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. appeals.

The future doesn’t look so bright for the iBookstores’ agency model, as it looks like the agreements with publishers will be ending very soon if things don’t turn around for Apple.

Today is a busy day for Apple’s...

Back in May, Korean site ETNews.com reported that Apple was looking at the possibility of launching a 12.9-inch iPad in early 2014 as a larger sibling to the original 9.7-inch iPad and the 7.9-inch iPad mini. The rumor, which included a claim that the device would be called the "iPad Maxi", was quickly brushed aside as a likely inaccurate claim, but late last month The Wall Street Journal brought fresh attention to the rumor with its own claims about Apple testing an iPad with a display "slightly less than 13 inches diagonally".

With the rumors sparking interest in what Apple might be able to do with a significantly larger iPad display, we commissioned CiccareseDesign to create...

Musician Chris Armstrong takes a look at how you can use an iPad and the Audiobus app to join multiple music apps together, something that’s generally not possible in iOS, and he offers recommendations for some of the best Audiobus-savvy music apps for the iPad.

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 first update for Downcast fixes a number of launch bugs. ($9.99 new, free update, 3.6 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.

For small workgroups of select individuals, GPGTools offers an easy way to secure communications with any e-mail account.

Did you know you can use iOS's Siri to send and reply to emails? You can, and in this column Nancy Carroll Gravley will show you just how easy it is. Siri can fill in the recipient, the subject line, and take dictation for what you want to say.  If you have more than one email address, she'll even ask you which one you want to use.

Readers ask about what is considered extreme heat output for Apple's MacBook systems, among other questions.

Apple fans beware! A new email phishing campaign dangling a bogus $200 Apple Store gift card as bait to snag unsuspecting victims is making the rounds, according to security firm Webroot.

The email that arrives (see image above) looks strikingly similar to those that are sent by Apple, using the Apple logo and similar type styles. As usual with phishing campaigns, this deal sounds too good to be true -- all you need to do is click a download link or open an attached file, and voila! A $200 gift card is yours! Well, not really -- instead, performing either task installs Java-based malware that can pull personal data from your computer. That data could be enough to make you the victim of identity theft if you fall for this deadly hook.

Apple never just randomly sends out gift cards. In cases where the company has provided gift cards to...

Epson Printer Drivers includes the latest printing and scanning software for OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8.

Click here for a list of supported Epson printers and scanners.

OS X 10.6 or later

Download Now

When his son Austin was born on Monday, Dallas Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr wasn't able to be there in person, so he turned to Apple's FaceTime video chat as the next-best option.
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British headphone specialist RHA announced earlier this week the upcoming launch of two premium in-ear headphones, offering what the company calls 'true-to-life' audio. The MA750i and the MA600i have a 3 button remote and microphone, compatible with Apple devices. RHA describes their headphones as having a 'aerophonic design', meaning that the shape of the headphone is designed to allow air flowing from the driver to be less obstructed than traditional headphones shapes, to encourage a smoother sound. The MA750i has a handmade 560.1 driver, and contains 303F grade stainless steel in its constr...
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Has the "What have you done for me lately?" mentality seeped into Apple's board room? According to a report from Fox Business News correspondent Charlie Gasparino, Apple's board of directors are concerned about Apple's pace of innovation.

Citing "reliable sources", Gasparino reported yesterday that the board is worried that Apple hasn't had a major product announcement in quite some time.

What we are able to confirm is that the board is worried about what is in the pipeline. Do they have the right stuff in the pipeline? Do they have innovative stuff in the pipeline? Do they have stuff to keep the momentum going?

While time will of course tell if Apple, under the helm of Tim Cook, can continue its impressive track record of innovation, it's important to remember that innovation isn't simply something you can turn on and off. Often times, a truly...

Twitter updated its Twitter #music iPhone app today with several new ways to discover new artists in addition to personalized recommendations based on the content in your iPhone’s music library.

Version 1.2 of the app now allows users to “listen to artist’s top tracks, similar artists, and the artists that your favorite artist follows on Twitter.” However, another interesting new feature will scan the device’s music library in order to serve up relevant recommendations based on your past listening habits.

Twitter is also making it easier to find artists that you like by making it easy to quickly access the artists that you’ve tweeted about in the past.

Personal recommendations based on...

A U.S. District Court judge made mistakes when she rejected Apple’s request for a sales injunction against rival Samsung Electronics in a multimillion-dollar patent infringement case, Apple’s lawyer argued before an appeals court Friday.

After a jury found in August 2012 that Samsung had infringed six Apple design and utility patents, Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California incorrectly held Apple’s patents to a “rigid” standard for determining whether to ban the sale of six Samsung smartphones, said Apple lawyer William Lee, arguing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Koh wrongly decided that each of the six patents in question needed to be the driving functionality for consumer interest in Apple’s products before she could issue a sales injunction, Lee said. That reasoning would make it difficult to issue an injunction in cases involving complex technology products, Apple's attorney told the appeals...

Yesterday, Google issued an update to its free Google Play Books app for iOS, adding not only the usual "stability and performance improvements" to the app, but also providing some important new features that should be helpful for students as the school year quickly approaches.

The app provides access to over 4 million books in the Google Play Book Store, with literally millions of those books available for free. New version 1.6.0 provides highlighting and note-taking for those books that are simply scans and not text files. There's a new sepia reading mode that's easier on the eyes. But the most important addition is support for rentals.

Google Play recently introduced a...

Samsung Wallet hit the Google Play Store on Thursday and bears a strong resemblance to the Passbook feature Apple includes on iOS. The app was announced in beta for developers back in February, but it has only just now made it to the Play Store. It is compatible with the Galaxy S3, S4, Note, and Note 2.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Camera maker Olympus is close to releasing an unannounced Compact System Camera, according to a leaked specifications list and diagram. Weighing 16 ounces, the Olympus EM-1 is said to have a 16-megapixel sensor with 81 autofocus points and a Micro Four Thirds mount, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, and a DSLR-style grip on the side....
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Aero (US$0.99) is a new weather app that's taken many design cues from the upcoming release of iOS 7, particularly the redesigned weather app that was demoed at Apple's last media event and is currently demoed on Apple's iOS 7 info page.

From the icon to the font to the live animations that illustrate whether it's snowing, raining or sunny, at a glance, you could be forgiven for thinking Aero is the new iOS 7 weather app. Even the menu and option buttons look and feel similar to what's expected from iOS 7. But on closer inspection, it soon becomes clear that, though heavily influenced, Aero is an independent weather app and not entirely a carbon copy.

In terms of forecasting the weather, Aero ticks all the boxes a standard weather app does. It's got five-day and hour-by-hour forecasts, humidity,...

The LA Times has a good breakdown of what's happening today. Today Apple has three coincidental rulings set to happen. The first is with the ITC, the same group who handed Apple a loss to Samsung, which was then vetoed by the president (something that hasn't happened in decades). In this case, the ITC will be ruling on four more patents which Apple claims Samsung violated. The Korean government said it will also be watching -- for favoritism.

Then there's a hearing related to the $1 billion judgement against Samsung for inringement. That settlement amount was later reduced to $450 million, but today's Washington, D.C...

Science is cool, and so is music. Put the two together and you get something even cooler: Symphony of Science. This amazingly cool website is loaded with high quality videos that mix clips from videos and documentaries on various topics with music to make compelling and entertaining educational clips. The site includes videos on Dinosaurs, the beginning of the Universe, the human brain, our global climate, stars, and more. The video remixes were made by John D. Boswell who has done similar projects for organizations such as NPR, and they're all worth checking out.

President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a number of other technology executives yesterday to discuss government surveillance, according to Politico. Thursday’s meeting was one of “a number of discussions” the Obama administration is holding on surveillance, which an aide said is part of the president’s…

A new app called KeyMe has launched that allows users to scan copies of their physical keys for safekeeping. Should those keys ever become lost, users can log into their app and order a duplicate key right away. The application also stores locksmith specific data should you lose your keys and want to have one duplicated at a locksmiths straight away.

Never get locked out again. KeyMe is a simple and secure way to store, copy, and share your keys.

Store Keys In The Cloud: Take a picture of your keys on your phone and create a digital version of your physical keychain. Access them from anywhere.

No More Lockouts: If you ever get locked out, a locksmith can make your key from scratch by viewing instructions we display on your phone. No more paying $200+ for a lockout.

Mail Order a Copy: Order copies on your phone and we'll send you brand new keys in the mail. Choose from a huge selection of key...

A repair firm, Macfixit Australia, is claiming to have obtained a front panel and digitizer assembly for the fifth-generation iPad. The parts have the same display area as the fourth-gen iPad, but appear to fall in line with recently-leaked rear shells, which use thinner side bezels taking after the iPad mini. There are also other, more technical differences....
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Today's a big day for Apple as the company heads for the courtroom in three separate cases, two pertaining to its ongoing patent fight against Samsung and another regarding the U.S. Justice Department's e-books antitrust suit, as noted by "AppleInsider" (http://tinyurl.com/lz97zeh).

Another hearing is with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where both parties will argue what actions, if any, should be taken as a result of 2012's "Apple v. Samsung" jury trial.

read more

Apple's Board of Directors has expressed concern about the company's "pace of innovation" according to a report (http://tinyurl.com/mtwjwjf) from Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino, as noted by "MacRumors" (www.macrumors.com).

read more

On Friday, version 6.7.59.373 of the Skype VoIP application was released. The new version, a 40 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes:

Improved:
- Search in Skype for Mac has been completely overhauled. Finding the right conversation is now faster than ever. From the toolbar, just enter a term in the search field and it will return a menu of the most relevant conversations. From the same menu, you can also use the Search Messages action item to explore your complete conversation history. Just double-click on a message to jump directly to it. Finally, adding a contact and calling phone numbers straight from search is more discoverable and easier than ever.

Resolved Issues:
- [Calling] Skype hangs when closing application during an active...

Macworld’s Jon Seff has some recommendations for apps that can help you get the most out of iTunes.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple is scheduled to appear in court on Friday for a hearing to review the proposed remedies in the U.S. Department of Justice ebook price fixing case, and the iPhone and iPad maker told the Judge overseeing the proceedings that she made mistakes in the way she handled the trial. According to Apple, Judge Denise Cote disregarded critical evidence that showed it didn't collude with book publishers to artificially control retail prices.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Regardless of how Judge Cote ultimately rules on the DOJ's proposed remedies, Apple is appealing the case which could see her verdict overturned. This case isn't wrapped up yet and depending on how the Appeals Court rules, could make its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Until then, any remedies the court imposes will be mostly symbolic since so much is dependent on what happens in Appeals Court.

...

If you enjoyed this week's roundup of iPhone cases, check out the previous edition, Split hearts.

Three of the biggest vendors of ebook readers, Amazon, Kobo, and Sony, are petitioning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a permanent exemption for ebook readers from federal accessibility laws. Federal law requires “advanced communication services,” to be fully accessible to the disabled. However, the companies are arguing that ebook readers shouldn’t fall into that category, since they are limited devices specifically designed to only display text. If you’d like to voice your opinion, the FCC is accepting comments on the petition through 3 September 2013.

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...

Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API let you embed Google Earth, a true 3D digital globe, into your Web pages. Using the API you can draw markers and lines, drape images over the terrain, add 3D models, or load KML files, allowing you to build sophisticated 3D map applications. If you have an existing Maps API site, you can 3D-enable your page with as little as one line of code.

How do I start?

• Check out some Google Earth Plug-in examples and visit the demo gallery.
• Sign up for a Google Maps API key.
• Read the Google Earth API Developer's Guide.
• Read the...

Google Earth gives you a wealth of imagery and geographic information. Explore destinations like Maui and Paris, or browse content from Wikipedia, National Geographic, and more.

Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

• Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you'll zoom right in.
• Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
• Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
• Save and share your searches and favorites.

Version 7.1.1.1888:

• The "Enable Controller" option is now default on. If you have an uncalibrated external controller (such as a gaming joystick) connected to your computer, this could result in the Earth spinning with arrows displaying to signify movement. As a workaround, we...

Many analysts have tried to portray Amazon and Apple as polar opposites, but analyst Horace Dediu argues that they’re more alike than different. Dediu argues that they’re both sought out for similar reasons, including convenience, ease of use, and controlled environments. While Amazon’s business is mostly low-margin, with little to no profit, Apple’s iTunes also makes little profit. Where the perception differs is that Amazon is seen as having few competitors, while Apple is seen as having infinite competitors. However, Deidu says that things aren’t what they seem, and Amazon’s position is more precarious than usually imagined.

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,...

To some, food is fuel, and eating is primarily a pragmatic affair; but for others, the culinary arts are a matter of discovery and pleasure worth seeking at every opportunity.

If you happen to belong to this second category, the folks behind a new free app called Tastemade (App Store link) have got your back.

Everyone is a critic

Tastemade is an app that essentially allows you to create your own TV show, featuring your favorite restaurants. You start by selecting an establishment through the built-in Foursquare-powered search, and then choose one of several video templates that the app provides.

From there, Tastemade guides you through steps required to record your masterpiece, suggesting both what to shoot and for how long. (The app might suggest you shoot several few-second-long clips of your entrée, or the restaurant’s décor, for...

Black Label Society has covered the Bill Withers R&B classic “Ain’t No Sunshine” for their upcoming double live album.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Lodsys, who has made a business out of suing iOS app developers, has dismissed its lawsuit against TMSOFT — perhaps most famous for its White Noise apps for iOS and Mac. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Lodsys can never again sue TMSOFT for patent violations. TMSOFT was assisted by the Public Patent Foundation (PPF), which represents small businesses from patent infringement litigation pro bono. Dan Ravicher of PPF said that he donated about $190,000 of his time to help TMSOFT defend itself — Lodsys only had to spend $450 to file the lawsuit. As part of the settlement, TMSOFT had to agree to never sue Lodsys over patents, dismiss all motions with prejudice — including motions to recover attorney fees, and to donate to a mutually agreeable charity — which Lodsys will match.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text...

Five major publishers may be collateral damage in the antitrust spat between Apple and the U.S. Department of Justice. In a court filing opposing the DoJ's proposed relief in the antitrust case it won against Apple, the publishers contend the proposal would punish them by killing the agency model for selling e-books. "The proposed provisions would have that effect by preventing Apple from entering into any agreements that limit its ability to discount e-books for five years," the publishers argue in their filing.

Skype allows you to talk to friends, family and co-workers across the Internet without the inconvenience of long distance telephone charges. Using peer-to-peer data transmission technology, Skype eliminates the central server as a middle manager.

Today, millions of individuals and businesses are taking advantage of Skype's diverse communication features:

• Free Skype-to-Skype
• Landline and cellphone calling
• SMS and instant messaging
• Voicemail
• Free video calls
• Call forwarding to your phone when you're offline

Skype-to-Skype calls, video calls and instant messaging are free, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world. Users can make phone calls and send SMS messages at great value Pay-As-You-Go rates, or make unlimited calls to certain countries with a subscription.

Version 6.7.59.373:

Improved:

• Search in Skype for Mac has been completely overhauled...

Are you familiar with Groovy? Do you know how to use it? Perhaps you should.

"Groovy" is flexible, highly productive, agile, dynamic language that runs on the rich framework of the Java Platform. Groovy preserves the Java semantics and extends the JDK to give you true dynamic language capabilities.

read more

Streaming media set-top box maker Roku updated its iOS app on Thursday with a thus-far exclusive feature: the app can now stream some video content wirelessly to various models of Roku set-top devices, expanding the company's "Play on Roku" feature which previously allowed only photos and music. The new function is limited to streaming only videos on the user's Camera Roll, and is thus intended to share self-shot videos by and large by transferring them wireless to an HDTV. Version 2.3 also includes bug fixes and performance enhancements....
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U.S. President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and other technology company executives today to discuss government surveillance, according to a report from Politico. Earlier this week, according to the report, the President and his staff began holding confidential meetings about surveillance tactics and topics such as the recent NSA-related controversies with company executives and other members of pertinent organizations.

Those invited were mostly senior executives, including Cook, Stephenson and Cerf, as well as representatives of groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and Gigi Sohn, the leader of Public Knowledge, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. Each declined comment for this story.

The report names AT&T CEO...

All the way back in January, we posted the first photographs of the back shell for the next-generation full-sized iPad with Retina Display. According to these photos, the next 9.7-inch iPad will look like a larger iPad mini, complete with thinner bezels. Since then, videos and some photos of the front panel and digitizer for the future product have also emerged.

Today, a series of new shots have emerged at repair shop...

Pioneer Electronics's Professional Sound and Visual Division today introduced a new line of active DJ speakers designed for audio feedback while practicing DJing skills. The new line of DJ speakers are offered in four models; S-DJ80X, S-DJ60X, S-DJ50X and S-DJ50X-W. They feature three types of inputs, built-in equalization, and enhanced sound quality over previous models....
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Tomorrow will mark a busy and important day on several legal fronts for Apple, as it awaits a much-watched International Trade Commission decision on its complaint against Samsung. In addition, two separate but important federal court hearings will be held on Friday; one related to another Apple-Samsung matter stemming from the first trial, and another where Apple will get to argue the deficiencies of the Department of Justice's proposed settlement over the e-book price-fixing case. Apple plans to appeal the DOJ verdict....
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The Macintosh port of Runic's dungeon crawler game Torchlight 2 has hit some snags. Responding to a query by gaming website Kotaku, the company states that "we encountered unexpected complexities in porting Torchlight 2 to the Mac, simultaneous with our scramble to ramp up on our next project and get it moving forward. The Mac platform still poses some challenges for us as a company (as anyone who waited for the Mac port of Torchlight can attest). As a result, while we are still pursuing it, we don't have a date or any real details to share on the Mac port of Torchlight 2 just yet. When we do...
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The Misfit Shine -- a crowdfunded fitness tracker that became a hit on Indiegogo -- almost looks like a Cupertino product already. As Mashable reports, the sleek little gadget is about to hit the shelves of your local Apple store, where it will undoubtedly fit right in.

The device itself is a competitor to products like Nike's FuelBand, the Jawbone UP, and FitBit, and works hand-in-hand with a companion app for iOS that displays your activity level and other statistics. What's more, the tiny aluminum accessory also works as a rather stylish watch. Interestingly, Misfit Wearables was co-founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley, so the familiar design philosophy at work on the Shine may not be a coincidence at all. The Shine is priced at $99USD.

Shine fitness accessory...

That’s pretty good.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Once in a while we'll pull out a special deal from our Deals page to highlight on the site. This time I wanted to call attention to the Mac Variety Bundle. This is over $300 of software for the low price of $39 -- quite a deal.

What's included? There are 8 applications, but I'd like to call out a couple I'm quite fond of. First is CrossOver Mac, which allows you to run Windows apps on your Mac without Windows. CrossOver is really cool, but if there are specific applications which you want to run head over to the compatibility search page and see if your Windows apps are supported. CrossOver has a great tech called CrossTie, which allows you to quickly install applications. CrossOver currently supports over 1,500 applications with CrossTie, so the odds are fairly good that installing Windows apps on your Mac will...

According to CEO John Legere, T-Mobile has its own messaging to thank for the surge in customers and customer retention it experienced last quarter, not the arrival of Apple's iPhone on its network.
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In an update to its iOS app on Thursday, Roku added the ability to stream content stored on an iPhone, iPad or iPod directly to a number of its set-top TV products.
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Over at the Economist, our own Glenn Fleishman has discovered why certain Xerox copiers were mixing up numbers on copies. The culprit turns out to be the JBIG2 compression algorithm, which is not enabled by default, and copiers display a clear warning if it is enabled. JBIG2 is a form of ultra-high compression that duplicates similar-looking areas. It’s popular among businesses with extreme bandwidth requirements, such as remote oil rigs, but should not be enabled unless absolutely necessary. Xerox is working on a patch that will allow system administrators to disable the feature entirely.

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,...

Takes is a free iPhone app that turns still images taken with the app into 'moving pictures' and then stitches them together into a video montage. The resulting movie can be up to a minute long, and then music can be added from your own library or an included library of clips.

The app recreates camera movement before and after the image was taken, and while the result is hard to describe, the image is composed of video clips captured while you were taking still photos. It's an interesting result, and many users are very happy with the final product. Behind the scenes, Takes is grabbing a short video when you snap a photo and the app monitors the sensors of the iPhone so it knows how the phone is moving. Algorithms in the software try to determine the perfect clip based on motion data and the length of time you pointed at a particular scene. It appears to find longer shots more interesting, probably because...

Vanity Fair has announced its launch of an iPhone app for its digital magazine subscription. Already implemented for iPad, Vanity Fair is the first publication to sort its mobile app's content by reading time. Users can now choose content to read based on length, and can select from "short", "medium", and "long" categories. Other sections include the "everything else" section, which comprises of miscellaneous short segments regularly featured in the magazine. Users can download the app from iTunes and access sample content for free. Subscriptions to Vogue's online publication are priced at $5...
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The Apple Board of Directors has concerns about the company's recent lack of innovation, says FOX Business News, and is reportedly leaning on chief executive Tim Cook to rectify the situation.
  ...

Apple's Board of Directors has expressed concern about the company's "pace of innovation" according to a report from Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino. The board is normally extremely secretive and, if accurate, this report is unlike anything we've heard from inside the company in recent years.
From what we understand, there is concern at the board level, sources are telling the Fox Business Network, about the pace of innovation over at Apple. What have they had lately? They had the iPad and a few other things, but they don't have anything innovating from what came from Steve Jobs and that concern is basically manifesting into pressure on Tim Cook to innovate, and to do something fast.

We should point out, this is an interesting boardroom drama. It does not mean that Tim Cook is out of a job or that there is a job search out there, we don't know that...

Xerox Star

There are few more enduring manifestations of user interface technology than that of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) Desktop. Pioneered by engineers at Xerox PARC, refined by Steve Jobs and Apple and brought to masses and ingrained into our daily lives by Microsoft Windows, it is almost the first thing that comes to mind when we think of using a computer. The natural feel of choosing icons with a gesture, as opposed to memorizing command lines, somewhat demystified computers. This made them accessible to a whole new group of users, and did away with the need for intensive training and education.

The desktop is perhaps the single most important development in productivity in the history of computing. Whether you use Windows, OSX, or perhaps one of the several flavors of Linux, the same basic principles apply. Point and click; or more...

Software and Computer System Company (SCSC) has released Performance Probe for Mac OS X. It's an operating system tool that allows a user to monitor the current effective loading of their systems.

There are three indicators on the application that correspond to I/O, memory, and CPU effectiveness. The displays show, for all practical purposes, the effective computing power that a user may have at a given instant.

read more

Fox Business News’ Charlie Gasparino, noting that his “sources are solid on this”, reports that Apple’s Board of Directors are concerned about Apple’s pace of innovation and the product pipeline coming from the company. From the video above, Gasparino states that this “does not mean that Tim Cook is out of a job or that there’s a job search inside Apple”, however, the Board is expressing deep concern about the lack of notable products coming out of Cupertino.

He also notes that “the stock price is down 35% from its all-time high” and no major, innovative products have been released to the public since Steve Jobs was at the helm. The iWatch is mentioned multiple times in the video as an upcoming breakthrough product, but it doesn’t seem like the Board – comprised of J. Crew’s Millard Drexler, Al Gore, Bill Campbell of Intuit, and...

We love the Internet. Most days, at least, and this is one of those days. Max Wohlleber posted a video to Vimeo with the caption, "How Jonathan Ive got inspired to create the iOS 7 color sheme [sic]" (as spotted on reddit), and we think it's both funny and insightful.  We won't spoil it, however, so just watch the video and tell us what you think.

Apple is currently hiring a team to help start a research and development facility in Taiwan, a local report says. The office will allegedly concentrate on new iPhones, but may handle other tasks as well. Although no listings have appeared on Apple's website, recruitment efforts are said to be focusing on management and engineering positions. Such secrecy would be consistent with Apple's past behavior, especially if the company is trying to poach from other technology firms....
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In light of the upcoming launch of iOS 7, designer Stu Crew and other designers have imagined what a version of the OS X operating system with iOS 7 design principles could look like. Crew’s design matches iOS 7 by removing the heavy, metaphoric textures from OS X. The image above showcases a look at a desktop with many of the apps, and you can see how Finder, Calculator, Contacts, and iTunes received inspiration from iOS 7.

With iOS 5, iOS 6 and OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, Apple moved to unify both the feature-sets and user-interfaces of its mobile and desktop operating systems. This fall, due to a leadership change at Apple, iOS and OS X will see different design philosophies. iOS 7 is “flat,” lacks heavy textures, while OS X retains its long-...

Apple appears to be experiencing another problem with its systems today, as a number of MacRumors readers have reported they are unable to activate their new iPhones. Other reports are showing up on Twitter as the problems continue.

An AT&T employee has told MacRumors that some Apple Retail Stores are sending customers to AT&T stores, but indicated that those locations are having similar activation issues.

There is no word yet on when users can expect the issue to be fully resolved, but a similar outage occurred two weeks ago.

Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• Rdio Updated with...

It's rare for individuals and companies to create one successful product after another, Steve Jobs and Apple being the notable exception. Today marks the official release of MixBit for iPhone, a free video app from Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the two founders of a little success called YouTube.

What makes MixBit different from the fairly recent video sharing apps like Vine and the updated Instagram? Well, while you can shoot video bits as short as one second long and up to 16 seconds long, you can also stitch up to 256 of those bits together to create an hour-long opus. [The MixBit approach is pretty different from the socially-minded CrowdFlik, but both do involve stitching short clips together to deliver a full video experience. -Ed.]

MixBit has a surprisingly iOS 7-like minimal interface, so it...

Just Mobile is an accessory design shop with a difference: they love to do most of their work in Jony Ive's favorite material, aluminum. Recently the company announced two new products: the AluDisc (US$69.95) for iMac and Thunderbolt Display and the AluPocket ($29.95) for iPhone. Both are solid additions to the award-winning lineup of Just Mobile products, and we'll be giving away one of each at the end of this review.

AluDisc

The idea of a 360° rotating turntable is nothing new -- Rain Design's i360 has been available for years. But Just Mobile has taken the idea to a much more stylish conclusion. The AluDisc is made from a single piece of aluminum with a radial finish that's quite attractive. It sits on a thin ball-bearing mount that...

People should expect to see T-Mobile USA supporting more Apple products in the near future, says the carrier's CEO, John Legere. "I think thereís a whole array of Apple products that we look forward to carrying," he tells AllThingsD. "We will expand what we offer from them."...
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Vevo is reportedly developing an specifically for Apple TV that will stream music videos to Apple's settop box. This would be a new service for Apple TV, as Vevo hasn't had a presence on the device and Apple hasn't announced that it would.

Elago is a design company based in California that makes accessories for mobile devices. Its P2 (US$49.99) and M2 ($29.99) stands are designed to accommodate the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone and iPod touch.

Design

Made from aluminum, the P2 (a slightly larger design for iPad) and M2 (for iPhone) are extremely solid and sturdy, though quite light. You'd be hard pressed to damage one in any way. I was actually a little more concerned that the stands themselves might scratch or damage a surface like a wooden table top if one of them was knocked over or dropped (or even my iDevice). However, the bases have rubber feet to prevent scratches, slipping and sliding.

Taking more than just a design cue from the...

Google today announced on its blog that it’s introducing an “updated ad experience” for Google Maps on iPhone, iPad, and Android that will display a small banner at the bottom of the screen when a user performs a search. Google used to display smaller banner ads that would pop up as an overlay on the map after searching for a location, but the new experience brings ads into the new bottom bar that Google introduced in its...

This could come in handy.

Per the cool cats at Engadget and The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Comcast has released a new cloud-based DVR app to the iTunes store.

The app actually showed up back in July but is only being spotted now. The reason for that is because the app is companion software to a Comcast service that has not rolled out to a large audience yet. That service is called “X2″ and combines a set-top box with cloud storage to allow...

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive TUAW Deals, a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked iOS and OS X selections.

TUAW Deals

xScan 3.2 [On sale for $9.99, down from $30]

xScan 3.2 has been specifically designed to help you monitor the behavior and health of your Mac in a simple and straightforward manner. This is the same software many professionals use to diagnose technical issues with Mac operating systems and now you can get it for a third of its original price.

Save 67% off xScan 3.2 at TUAW Deals. Requires OS X 10.6 or later. Available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Deals from Dealnews

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Aereo will soon offer streaming broadcast TV in Dallas, Miami and Houston, a novel iOS first-person shooter has just gotten its first global event, and Microsoft is now poking fun at the iPad mini in a new advertisement.
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Comcast has quietly snuck a new cloud-based DVR app into the iTunes store, according to Engadget. The app actually showed up back in July but is only being spotted now. The reason for that is because the app is companion software to a Comcast service that has not rolled out to a large audience yet. That service is called X2 and combines a set-top box with cloud storage to allow anyone to DVR their favorite shows and store them in the cloud.

Once the service rolls out, the Comcast Labs DVR app will allow users to access their cloud-based DVR (cDVR) programs when behind a Comcast modem. From the app's description:

The Comcast Labs DVR app enables advanced functionality associated with your new cDVR service.

This app is intended for customers of our new cDVR Service enabling our new best in class DVR service....

Speaking of Benedict Evans, here’s another great post looking at Amazon’s profits, or lack thereof.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Subscription music service Rdio announced today that it’s completely overhauling how stations work through the service.  While stations and the player get a refresh with new endless station types to pick from, the big new feature is something Rdio calls “You FM”:

You FM — A brand new, personalized, adjustable station that leverages Taste Profiling technology from...

Recently, TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers about how Apple's newly announced technologies (specifically Mavericks and iOS 7) will help them and their customers. In the weeks following the event, we'll bring you those videos on TUAW, MacTech and MacNews.

read more

The online file sharing and storage service Dropbox is killing support for an old and outdated version of its tool that lets apps tap into its features. That shouldn't be a big deal, but for iPhone and iPad developers that have older apps they'd like to update, they can't. Apple's App Store doesn't have a system in place so developers can release maintenance updates for apps they no longer sell, and that ultimately hurts customers.

Five major U.S. publishers objected to the Justice Department’s proposal to limit Apple Inc.’s influence in the electronic-books market, saying it would effectively alter their existing settlements with the U.S. government.

It’s like a giant soap opera.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Patent holding firm Lodsys has agreed to mutual charitable donations as settlement in its case against TMSOFT, a developer of various Mac and iOS apps. The person behind TMSOFT, Todd Moore, described the case as a "frivolous lawsuit" and notes that the case has been dismissed "with prejudice," preventing Lodsys from suing him again. He adds that he wasn't forced to sign a confidentiality agreement, but that he also isn't allowed to sue Lodsys, which could've been used to have courts rule the company's patents invalid....
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Up until now, those with an iPhone 5 or compatible iPad wanted 4G service in the UK could only get it from one provider: EE. But thankfully that will change at the end of the month, as O2 and Vodafone have announced they will be offering 4G service in the UK come August 29.

On O2, 4G will at first only be available in London, Leeds and Bradford, though the company plans additional city rollouts by the end of the year. O2 hasn't announced all of its pricing plans yet, but 4G plans are rumored to start around £26 a month. O2's 4G network actually won't work with the current iPhone 5 as it runs on the 800 megahertz spectrum, which Apple's handset does not support, but the CEO of O2's parent Company told the BBC that he would be shocked if Apple's next iPhone does not support this...

Following this morning’s T-Mobile announcement of a jump in customer base, thanks somewhat to Apple’s iPhone, T-Mobile CEO John Legere teased an expansion of what Apple products his company offers. In an interview with AllThingsD, Legere said the following:

“I think there’s a whole array of Apple products that we look forward to carrying,” Legere said. “We will expand what we offer from them.”

The first part of the quote seems to be referring to upcoming, rumored Apple product launches such as two new iPhone models. Apple is planning an “...

T-Mobile reported its Q2 2013 earnings results today and posted an increase of 1.1 million subscribers for the quarter. Impressively, 29% of T-Mobile's quarterly sales were attributable to the iPhone.

By way of comparison, the carrier lost 200,000 customers during the same quarter a year-ago.

The iPhone first arrived on T-Mobile in April of 2013 and was quick to make an impact. During the first three weeks of its availability, T-Mobile sold 500,000 units. T-Mobile CMO Mike Sievert even went so far as to call the launch "gangbusters".

For the entire quarter, T-Mobile sold 4.3 million smartphones, meaning that they sold 1.24 million iPhones altogether.

"T-Mobile's Un-carrier approach has clearly resonated with consumers," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a press...

OS X Mountain Lion may be a great operating system, but it still has a few annoyances. One of my pet peeves, for example is that the operating system takes the focus away from whatever window you're working in whenever it displays an alert dialog, and sometimes that means jumping you to a different screen if you're using Spaces. Head on over to the TMO Forums and let us know what about Mountain Lion annoys you.

Next Thursday, Apple will pay "shareholders of record" its quarterly dividend of $3.05 per share, but new investors needed to buy the company's stock by the market's close yesterday to qualify.
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Lodsys, an intellectual property owner infamous for filing patent infringement lawsuits against iOS app developers, has settled with one company in exchange for a charity donation.
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Through 15 August 2013, you can save 50% on the entire Take Control catalog of ebooks. It’s a great opportunity to pick up titles that you’ve been wanting to read or that might be useful to have on your virtual shelf for reference. As always, all ebooks are DRM-free and available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Apple has confirmed the existence of a "Frequent Locations" option in iOS 7 beta 5, reports say. Leaving it on allows an iPhone or iPad to "learn places you frequently visit in order to provide useful location-related information," according to descriptive text. People can moreover see a rough map of where they've been since installing iOS 7, and even how long and how often they've been to a particular place....
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After reading this review, I’m left with a “ho-hum” feeling.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Patently Apple provided some insight into an Apple patent application published today by the US Patent & Trademark Office for "audio hyperlinking." These hyperlinks can be audible or inaudible, and can be played back on podcasts, TV shows, or in-store speaker systems to send messages to apps on your iPhone.

As Apple notes in the application, hyperlinking has been limited to textual documents like web pages, and this process provides a way to allow hyperlinking of non-textual (video, audio) materials as well. As an example of how this could be used, imagine watching a recording of TUAW TV Live and having...

Developer Todd Moore of TMSoft on Thursday announced that Lodsys has dismissed its patent-infringement lawsuit against his company.

Lodsys, you’ll recall, has filed numerous such lawsuits against app makers, alleging that it holds patents that cover in-app purchasing and cross-app promotion—and that any app that attempt either approach must license Lodsys’s patents.

Apple licenses Lodsys’s patents and maintains that doing so covers third-party iOS developers; Lodsys disagrees. The patent-holding company has sued developers large and small, including The Walt Disney Company, TLA Systems (makers of PCalc...

Aereo has revealed the next three locations from the 21 US cities it hopes to launch in before the end of this year, following earlier launches and announcements covering Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and New York City. Miami, Fl will gain access to the controversial cloud-based DVR service on September 2nd, while Houston and Dallas, TX will receive it on September 16th and 23rd respectively....
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The iPhone 5C pictures have leaked.

This time by the dozen.

Per Boy Genius Report and Mac|Life, BGR snagged some “allegedly legitimate” high quality pictures of Apple’s upcoming “budget/plastic” iPhone handset. The full gallery is available here

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Mackie introduced a new line of mixers, new loudspeakers and studio monitors. I’ve been using 1640 Mackie mixers for years and they still work great in my studio. I also have a set of the Mackie SRM450 loudspeakers that I’ve been using for years and they have never failed me. I’ve never used their studio monitors, so I don’t know about those. However, considering I blew up my 8-inch studio monitors a month or so ago, I may give these a try at some point.

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