Even as Microsoft's Windows 8 reached a milestone in passing 100 million licenses sold, the software giant is preparing to rework its latest operating system in order to address the realities of a drastically changed computing market.  ...

Every now and then I see an Open Directory database that’s gotten corrupt for one reason or another. To be more specific, while I see Kerberos get wonky and password server issues from time to time, every now and then I see the actual LDAP database throw errors like this one, when checked with slapd:

/usr/libexec/slapd -Tt

Corruption usually looks a little something like this:

51890ba0 ldif_read_file: checksum error on "/var/db/openldap/openldap-data/cn.bdb"
51890ba0 bdb_monitor_db_open: monitoring disabled; configure monitor database to enable
config file testing succeeded

If the bdb (Berkeley Database) files can’t be read in properly then you can do a sanity check with slaptest to see if there are other issues as well:

slaptest -f /private/etc/openldap/slapd.conf -v

Provided that your problems are with the bdb files and not ldif files, which can easily be grabbed from another OD box, you can then recover the database using...

Viber, the company behind the extremely popular free messaging and VoIP mobile apps for iOS and Android, today took another step towards offering a true Skype alternative by releasing native desktop apps for both Mac and PC.

Not only do the new desktop apps sync and integrate seamlessly with the existing mobile apps, they are also Viber’s first apps to allow video calls. As part of the rollout of the new desktop apps, Viber officially moves into version 3.0 and with it brings new features to the iOS and Android apps including video messages, a revamped photo experience, and a new voice engine with support for eight new languages. With the updated mobile apps, you’ll also have the ability to transfer live calls between your iPhone and the Mac app.

...

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's granted patent relating to iTunes for iOS based devices and specifically the upgraded "Movie" section of iTunes. The second granted patent that we highlight is Apple's iDevice magnetometer that relates to their iOS "Maps" application. To top off our report we provide with a full listing of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today. ...

Charles Edge has an article posted about testing memory on Apple computers from the command line.  If you have wanted to run a quick and easy memtest without booting to diagnostic media, then this is the answer you have been looking for.

About Nate Walck

Nate is a Macintosh Systems Engineer at Tamman Technologies, Inc in Philadelphia, PA. He is runs afp548.com along with Sam Keeley and is one of the founding members of the ##osx-server IRC channel on freenode.net. He loves being involved in the Mac Admin community and using Open Source projects whenever possible, especially Munki, The Luggage and Puppet.

Mail |...

Scapple isn't a spelling mistake for that Pennsylvania Dutch concoction made with pork scraps, corn meal, flour and spices. In fact, scapple is actually a word meaning to work roughly, or shape without finishing. It's also the name of a dynamite new mind mapping program from Literature and Latte, the folks who brought the Mac world Scrivner. Mind mapping isn't exactly a new category of software and the folks at L&L aren't me-too types, so you know they wouldn't try this if they didn't think they could add value.

Global macroeconomic developments and technological advances, personal computers, and memory markets are expected to drive demand for the global semiconductor market at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 4.3% over hte next five years and reach an estimated US$394 billion in 2017, according to new data from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

read more

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of four newly granted design patents for Apple Inc. today. Three out of the four designs cover the iPad. More specifically, two of the iPad designs cover Apple's new iPad mini which was only introduced on October 23, 2012. So it's great to see that USPTO is getting faster at...  ...

If you’re a smartphone manufacturer who’s name isn’t Apple or Samsung, condlences on your March quarter. Because according to new research from Canaccord Genuity, it was a massive, will-crushing disappointment.

In the first quarter of the year, Apple captured 57 percent of global smartphone industry profits. That left 43 percent for the taking. And Samsung, says Canaccord Genuity, took all of it — leaving nothing for BlackBerry, Nokia, or anyone else competing for the currently mythical title of “third smartphone platform.”

Ugly news for would be smartphone players, but not quite as ugly as it could have been. For them, the first quarter of 2013 is actually an improvement over last quarter when Apple and Samsung captured 103 percent of handset industry profits — a milestone achievement made possible by only by their heroic operating loss sacrifice.

“Due to operating losses from smaller scale...

A bit of malware -- a Trojan horse file that tries to redirect to a website -- has been found inside an iOS app, but the code has turned out to be harmless. The app in question is called Simply Find It ($2) and comes from a legitimate developer that has produced a number of legitimate games -- suggesting that the malware was probably inserted into the app accidentally. The bigger issue (since there is no direct threat posed by the bad code) is how Apple's testing procedure missed it -- and how two well-known anti-malware scanners couldn't pick up on it either.... ...

Fortune magazine on Monday released its annual Fortune 500 list of America's top companies, as ranked by revenue, with Apple jumping 11 places from last year to pass giants in the automotive, healthcare and banking industries.  ...

Adobe's move into a subscription model with its rebranded "CC" suite doesn't mean it is entirely leaving behind users who haven't yet or opted not to join Creative Cloud, the company reports. In its press release heralding the improvements and features of its now fully-integrated Creative Cloud programs, Adobe added that it would continue to offer a non-CC version of Creative Suite 6 for the foreseeable future, and is obligated to support existing software for years to come. In addition, the Behance portfolio feature is available to non-Cloud users as well.... ...

If you have a gaming controller lying around, chances are you can use it with your Mac.

As Adobe finds its footing in a cloud-based world, it pulled a move that most likely will generate a backlash from the students and creative professionals that rely on its software.

Adobe announced that the Creative Suite software will be rebranded as Creative Cloud and confirmed it will no longer develop the Creative Suite line. Adobe CS6 will still be supported and available for purchase, but all future products will be provided through the subscription-only Creative Cloud service. As part of this announcement, Adobe demonstrated the first version of the new Adobe Photoshop CC.

The move shouldn't come as a huge surprise. The writing's been on the wall since the launch of the Creative Suite subscription service in 2011 and Creative Cloud in 2012....

David Ellefson and Chris Broderick give you some tips on playing guitar and bass. Ellefson is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Facebook has updated its Facebook Messenger for iPhone and iPod touch application to add the popular Stickers functionality. Stickers will roll out to users gradually and is already available in the standard Facebook for iOS app. Additionally, by popular request, the company has brought back swipe-to-delete functionality for conversations. The update also includes unspecified bug fixes. The...

Samsung is steadily improving its profitability in the smartphone area, but Apple continues to be the dominant player when it comes to making money on smartphones sales according to the latest report from Canaccord Genuity. Apple's lower profit margin on smartphones in the first calendar quarter of the year led to a significant drop in its share of smartphone profits but was enough to allow the iPhone maker to claim 57 percent of the entire industry's profits, with Samsung taking the remaining 43 percent.... ...

Last week we added Apple CEO Tim Cook and SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk to the speaker roster at our 11th D: All Things Digital conference, which takes place in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on May 28, 29 and 30.

Along with those important tech leaders, we also have onstage Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside, Pinterest CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann, GE CEO Jeff Immelt, new Google Android chief Sundar Pichai, Sony’s Kaz Hirai, the San Francisco 49ers’ Jed York and more.

And because we want to ratchet up the interviews to 11, we are now announcing a trio of top entertainment managers...

Adobe’s kicking Creative Suite 6 development to the curb to focus purely on Creative Cloud.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Adobe Systems has officially decided to pull the plug on most of their packaged-software business and double down on delivering its popular design tools through the online service ...

An anonymous reader writes "While Apple views the tablet and PC markets as two separate entities, Microsoft takes the opposing view. During a CNBC interview this morning, Gates continued to toe the party line insofar as he praised the benefits of Microsoft's tablets and Windows 8 while explaining that iPad users are frustrated because they have trouble typing and creating documents. 'With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to gain share in what has been dominated by the iPad-type device. But a lot of those users are frustrated, they can't type, they can't create documents. They don't have Office there. So we're providing them something with the benefits they've seen that have made that a big category, but without giving up what they expect in a PC.'"

...

Learn some additional steps to troubleshoot burning issues.
Using iTunes for Windows, you can easily "burn" audio, data, and MP3 CDs with most major disc drives, including:

CD-R
CD-RW
DVD-R/RW
DVD+R/RW

Here are a few tips you can try to solve common issues burning discs with iTunes for Windows.

Download and install the latest version of iTunes.
See "Can't burn a CD in iTunes for Windows" for basic troubleshooting steps. If you continue to have difficulty, then continue with the additional troubleshooting steps below.

Smithsonian Magazine spent some time tracing the origins of the QWERTY keyboard layout, including research that debunks the myth that it was invented to slow typists down. We've all heard that myth, but some Japanese researchers said that the QWERTY layout evolved from the needs of telegraph operators and the peculiarities of Morse Code. The article also talks about keyboard layouts for tablets and the KALQ keyboard. Cool stuff. The attribution path is a lengthy one: @LeoLaporte > Next Draft > The Atlantic.

Upgrade vendor MaxUpgrades has announced the availability of the SSD SATA module for iMac 2012 models, adapting the "blade" SSD slot to a normal SATA plug. The adapter and optional mount allows 2012 iMac users to use either a dual 2.5-inch SSD configuration, or a 2.5 SSD alongside the existing hard drive. The dual-SSD kit and bracket retails for $120. The package for a single 2.5-inch drive sells for $100....  ...

Adobe's popular Creative Suite got more than just a rebranding on Monday, as the company also revealed a number of new and advanced features for the rechristened Creative Cloud package.  ...

Verizon will launch a $100 discount on the iPhone 5 sometime in mid-May, evleaks claims. No other information on the sale is available, such as how long it might last and who will be eligible. The rumor may have some merit, however, as Verizon's competitors have made similar efforts....   ...

MyFitnessPal is a fitness platform that is part calorie counter, part fitness goal tracker and part exercise journal. It compiles a wealth of information about your fitness program and makes it accessible on the web and your iOS device. With Jawbone's recent update, you can now share some of that fitness data with the Jawbone UP system.

Jawbone UP and MyFitnessPal have a two-way relationship that shares meal data from MyFitnessPal and calorie counts from the UP. MyFitnessPal is meant to be the cornerstone of your daily exercise regime. You log each meal and workout and then track the amount of calories you need to consume to either lose weight, gain weight or remain steady. Meal and workout entry is made easy by the platform's large database of foods and activities.

When using MyFitnessPal with the UP, meal data that...

If your Mac's Wi-Fi connection is constantly changing to one you cannot access, a quick system preferences adjustment could do the trick.

According to sources close to the situation, well-known tech exec Jon Rubinstein will be joining the board of Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chipmaker that has gotten a big boost of late for its role in the explosion of mobile devices.

Rubinstein is an interesting and logical choice for Qualcomm, having been a high-profile player for a long time in the mobile space, beginning with his work on the iPod while at Apple. After he left his last job at Hewlett-Packard last year though, he’s been very low-key.

For Qualcomm, the selection of Rubinstein to join the board is also something to watch, as he is also the second exec from Silicon Valley to be tapped by the company recently. In March, Qualcomm hired tech investor Laurie Yoler as SVP of business development, making her “...

Apple is getting ready to retake control of the narrative, according to Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes. At the same time, that means that Apple lost control of that narrative in the first place, and Bryan Chaffin says that Apple can only blame itself.

Fitbit announced today it is now shipping its latest fitness tracking device that pairs with its popular iPhone app and its first ever wristband design. First shown off at CES, the Fitbit Flex is a $99 wristband appears to compete directly with the slightly more expensive Nike FuelBand and...

Those who want to charge an iPhone and an iPad,  on the go, at the same time with one charger should check out the Gum Max Duo from Just Mobile. It does both and fits in most pockets.

Intel has taken the wraps off its new, low-power, high-performance microarchitecture named Silvermont. The technology is aimed squarely at low-power requirements in market segments from smartphones to the data center.

read more

Creative software giant Adobe unveiled on Monday the company's new move into hardware for creatives, showing off its Project Mighty stylus and Napoleon ruler and hinting that more hardware products may be in the offing.  ...

"We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" alert appears during a Microsoft Windows 8 installation.
This can happen if any Thunderbolt or USB storage devices--other than the USB media that contains a Windows ISO installer--are connected to the computer during the install process.

Over the weekend, Cult of Mac ran a story about how new technologies are threatening to leave the iPhone behind. The premise there is that there is no longer room for vision, that a technology race determines the ultimate winner. John Martellaro weighs in with a rebuttal.

Judging from the huge crowds that attended the opening of the new Apple Store Kurfürstendamm in Berlin on Friday, the German capital was starving for an Apple Store of its own.

The Berlin store is the 11th Apple Store in Germany, but the first in Berlin. The video below shows the controlled chaos in the store as the throng is welcomed into the store at 5:00 PM local time by blue-shirted Apple employees.

ifoAppleStore's Gary Allen took a road trip for the store opening and tweeted that the 4,500 free t-shirts printed for the opening were completely gone by 8:50 PM. There was a live music performance by ...

Earlier today, Intel announced a number of new systems coming to market later this year.

At Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference, Adobe says it has accelerated its shift to the cloud with a major update to Adobe Creative Cloud, the company’s flagship offering for creative professionals. Adobe has also announced Photoshop CC.

read more

Adobe has officially dropped support for its CS6 suite today and made the announcement at its MAX 2013 conference that it is moving to updates for Creative Cloud members only going forward. We have already detailed a ton of new features coming to Photoshop, video apps such as Premiere and After Effects, and its brand new CC design tools including updates to Illustrator, InDesign, and new Kuler, and Adobe Ideas iOS apps.

Adobe also announced today that it is rolling out big updates for its design...

Apple has been cracking down on app discovery resources in recent months, removing high profile apps like AppGratis for violating guideline 2.25, which states the following: "Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected."

A report from AllThingsD in early April indicated that AppGratis' rejection from the App Store was just the first phase of a much wider crackdown, which was today confirmed by Pocketgamer after Apple began...

Over at Wired, writer Marcus Wohlson points out that the novelty of using an iPad or other mobile device as a cash register is beginning to disappear as that particular use case turns mainstream.

The act of handing your credit card to an iPad-toting store clerk or coffeeshop barista was unthinkable a few years ago and increasingly the norm in 2013. Wohlson brings up a recent study by UK industry firm Timetric that notes that between 2011 and 2012, the number of mobile point-of-sale systems used worldwide more than doubled.

While Timetric's researchers don't believe that the rate of uptake will be as high in the future, it is expected that the percentage of checkout counters using such system will increase from about one in five last year to almost half by 2017. Wohlson posits that the popularity of some systems...

Faced with a slow start for the Wii U, Nintendo has reportedly begun offering software to make it easy for developers to port their mobile applications from platforms like Apple's iOS to its new home gaming console.  ...

Apple is missing the opportunity to reach 2.8 billion wireless customers because of their stringent requirements around minimum purchases of iPhones and price subsidies, according to a report from Bloomberg.

In order to carry the iPhone, Apple has strict requirements for carriers. One such requirement relates to minimum purchase agreements, which regional U.S. postpaid carrier Cricket has had some trouble meeting this year.

Some smaller carriers, especially those in emerging markets, have difficulties paying the pricey subsidies that Apple's $600 iPhones require. The rumors about a cheaper, plastic iPhone could address some of...

As a part of today's major Adobe announcements, the company has gone into detail for the upgrades present in its design software. Illustrator CC features a new Touch Type tool, which lets people manipulate individual characters in text while still maintaining control over font and other edits. Multi-touch devices have been added as a form of input....  ...

One of the core pieces of today's Adobe announcements is Photoshop CC, its rebranded and updated photo-editing software. Among new features in the software is Smart Sharpen, which analyzes images and attempts to produce the best-possible sharpening, while minimizing any halos or noise. The process can be tuned as needed....   ...

Adobe isn’t just announcing big updates to Photoshop and its web & design products for Creative Cloud customers It’s also rolling out a ton of new features for its video products including Premiere, After Effects, Audition, Prelude, SpeedGrade, and Story Plus. Below the fold we have all the details on new features:

//

Premiere gets one of the most notable updates among all of Adobe’ brand new video Creative Cloud video apps that it showed off on stage at MAX 2013 today. Among the new features is “a redesigned Timeline, intuitive track targeting, and dozens of helpful new shortcuts. Dupe-detection markers, through-edit indicators, and clearer labels.” Adobe is also including a new “Link & Locate” feature to search for files that have been renamed, moved, or transcoded, Sync settings that most apps received today...

Adobe unveiled the next version of its popular graphic design, Web design, and video editing applications at Adobe MAX on Monday, and the collection is changing names from Creative Suite to Creative Cloud, hinting at a future where Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver are available only through subscriptions instead of traditional licensing. Adobe is also pushing the collaborative features of its apps through its purchase of Behance at the end of 2012.

Gmail for iOS was updated today to version 2.2.7182, and folks who use the app to grab their Gmail-flavored email are going to be happy.

First, there's now a way to sign out of individual accounts. In the past, signing out of one account was impossible -- you had to sign out of all of them at once. Now it's possible to tap and hold an account avatar in the app sidebar, which brings up a Sign Out button for that account.

The second big feature in this update is that you can now specify whether a link to Google Maps, YouTube and other Web links should open in Google's native apps (if they're installed) or a mobile web view. The options are enabled for the entire Gmail app, not just for individual accounts. If you prefer Chrome on iOS over Safari, you'll enjoy this feature (which can be turned off).

Finally, the Gmail app now provides search suggestions as you type. The...

Google just announced a nice little upgrade to Google Drive which allows you to share your Google Drive Files from your desktop on your Mac (or PC).  Once you click, you get the following message screen:

.

//

Adobe has decided to focus its resources on Creative Cloud and will not continue development on its Creative Suite software, reports The Next Web. While Creative Suite 6 will continue to be supported in regards to bug fixes, there will be no further updates and no Creative Suite 7.

Instead, the company has today announced several Creative Cloud apps at its Adobe MAX conference, including Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC, and Premiere Pro CC.

Each of the apps has seen notable upgrades, as detailed by The Next Web...

Dreamweaver, one of the first, and perhaps the most famous visual Web-design app, has evolved over time into a powerful development tool that can facilitate almost any kind of website or project. Today the app—alongside Flash Professional and the HTML5-oriented Edge Tools & Services suite—joins Adobe's new Creative Cloud Web-oriented lineup. The company's new cloud initiative, announced at the Adobe Max 2013 creative conference, offers enhancements to all the Web-design applications.

In Adobe's transition from licensed Creative Suite to Creative Cloud subscriptions,...

Merlin is the only native network-based collaborative Project Management solution for Mac OS X.

This version offers many features propelling Merlin to the top of Mac OS X professional project management software.

Here are some of the main highlights in Merlin 2:

• Merlin has now a Web module which is included in this version of Merlin. The following browsers are supported: Safari 3, Firefox 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 7.0
• Merlin now supports special OS X 10.7 features like full screen and restoring last edited files.
• Network-based Collaborative Project Management
  Collaborate with others on the same project file over the LAN or WAN with a single mouse click.
• Access Control for Users and User Groups
  Resources can be either single Users or grouped into Resource Groups both of which can be assigned to activities and/or given specific access rights.
• Dynamic Planning Mode
  Activities which haven't...

You can pre-order music and movies from the iTunes Store prior to their public release date. Pre-ordered items will download when they become available. 

Live from Adobe’s MAX 2013 Creativity Conference in LA, the company has just unveiled possibly the biggest update yet to its suite of web, design, and video products for Creative Cloud members. Today the company is announcing it is rebranding its Creative Cloud products to “CC” and introducing a ton of new features that will only be available to Creative Cloud members when they launch in June.

One of the biggest updates goes to Photoshop CC with a long list of highly requested new features including: All-new Smart Sharpen, Intelligent Upsampling, Camera Raw 8 and layer support, features from Photoshop Extended, and much more.

Enlarge a low-res image so it looks great in print, or start with a larger image and blow it up to poster or billboard size. New upsampling preserves detail and sharpness without introducing noise.

Other new features rolling out today include live previews up to a 100x faster...

With the announcement of fresh updates to its flagship publishing applications—InDesign and Illustrator—Adobe redirects its attention to its roots in the print and graphic design arena. Today, at its own Adobe Max Creativity Conference, the company is revealing more details about the new version of its desktop nonlinear editing and motion graphics programs. Here are some of the highlights. In a departure from the intense focus on the mobile market that marked last year’s CS6 release, Adobe says that at least 75 percent of all program updates to the debut release of Creative Cloud desktop apps were devoted to its traditional image editing and publishing software.

Both InDesign and Illustrator—part of the original Creative Suite—will receive a series of upgrades, including a dark interface, support for Mac Retina...

In conjunction with Apple's recently-announced countdown to 50 billion app downloads, the company last week issued an updated list charting the most popular iPhone and iPad apps of all-time. Per usual, the listing is broken up between free and paid apps. As one might expect, the list is extremely game heavy, with Rovio's Angry Birds making a number of appearances on both the paid and free list. It's also worth noting that a number of Apple's own applications make appearances on the list of most popular paid iPad titles.

So without further ado, let's take a look at the apps that iOS users simply haven't been able to get enough of over the past few years.

All-Time top 25 paid iPhone apps

1. Angry Birds
2. Fruit Ninja
3. Doodle Jump
4. Cut the...

Although Patently Apple was one of the first to report on an iPhone for emerging markets, a new report out today provides us with an understanding as to why an economical iPhone makes a lot of business sense.  ...

Google has launched an updated version of its Gmail app for iOS, introducing support for opening links in their respective apps. Available since 2011, the official Gmail app has also included support for opening links, however, prior to this update directed users to a browser for all links. YouTube, Google Maps and Chrome links all direct to their respective apps unless the setting is disabled within the app. Additionally, the update also adds support for signing out of a single account when multiple identities are active....  ...

Apple is becoming more strict about enforcing an App Store guideline against titles with app recommendation functions, says PocketGamer. One developer in particular comments that his app was rejected despite being tailored to conform to the guideline. "We thought that basing our recommendations on sharing was suitable for Apple, as it had previously stated that if you bake in social or local into your app discovery, you would be fine," the person says. "I think they aim to be the only provider of recommendations for apps, along with being the distributor."...  ...

With almost $145 billion in the bank, why is Apple borrowing money to buy back stock? And what does the share repurchase and increased dividend mean for Apple’s future? David Rabinowitz goes digging for some answers.

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.

Chief Apple rival Samsung is leaving no corner of the smartphone market unaddressed, as the tech giant revealed on Monday the Galaxy Core, which packs many of the features of its high end model into a lower-cost handset.  ...

Verizon is set to launch a new promotion taking $100 off the iPhone 5 later this month, according to evleaks.

Upcoming Verizon promotion: $100 off iPhone 5 beginning mid-month.—
@evleaks (@evleaks) May 06, 2013

We’re starting to see more competitive pricing between the carriers that that all the major companies and many smaller companies carry the the iPhone.

Sprint currently offers $100 off for new iPhone customers switching from other carriers while T-Mobile offers its iPhone 5 for $99 with a financing option.

//

...

Notes took a great leap forward with the introduction of iCloud and OS X Mountain Lion. Once a static app that sat on your iOS device, Notes now allows you to jot down quick messages and sync them across your Apple devices. In a post from this weekend, Sandro Cuccia of The Mac Observer takes a deep dive into the Notes app and discusses how it can be immensely useful.

Cuccia starts off with step-by-step instructions on how to enable iCloud syncing on all your devices. It's a simple, but critical step that ensures your notes are available on all your devices. The rest of his tutorial covers managing your notes, creating folders to organize notes and some basic text formatting tips. You...

Fortune has released this year’s Fortune 500, its annual ranking of America’s largest corporations, and Apple has cracked the top ten for the first time. Despite well-publicized issues that have deflated the company’s stock value, Apple rose to 6th on the list, up from last year’s rank of 17th.…

The idea that Apple is going to make a cheap iPhone just doesn't sit well with me because the low-end market is something the company has historically been willing to leave for its competitors to fight over. That said, Apple also has its own way of systematically working its way down the market ladder and eating into what little it previously left for its competition, and that could be the company's modus operandi for the smartphone market, too.

Macware has updated MacTuneUp, its Mac utility software, to version 7.0. The software discovers and fixes problems, restores hard disk space, maximizes Internet performance, securely erases files and folders, removes unwanted apps, guts unnecessary language files, makes Macs boot faster, and more.

Features of version 7.0 include:

° More in-depth and faster scanning of your Mac;
° Removal of unnecessary language files that come preloaded and take up hard drive space;
° A scheduling tool that allows for automatic cleaning of your system.

read more

Zakk is the man!

Apple and Samsung have once again accounted for all of the profits in the smartphone business, with the iPhone taking 57 percent of the market's value.   ...

Gmail for iOS received an update that includes the ability to open links in Gmail directly to YouTube, Google Maps, and Chrome, assuming the apps are installed.

The feature can be turned off if you prefer.

What’s New in Version 2.2.7182

- YouTube, Google Maps and Chrome links go directly to the app instead of the mobile web, if installed. You can turn this off using the in-app settings.

- Added support for signing out of a single account instead of having to sign out of all accounts at once.

The update is available now in the...

Fortune today released its annual "Fortune 500" list, a high-profile ranking of the largest companies in the United States ranked by revenue. In the new rankings, Apple has risen to #6 from its #17 spot in last year's rankings.Apple is bigger than ever -- the company cracked the Fortune 10 this year. But it’s a high-pressure job, being king of the hill. At Apple's press event this past October, it maintained more than disrupted with its software upgrades and iPad mini announcement. Also, this past year has seen a lot of CEO Tim Cook having to apologize -- once in September for the failure of Apple’s maps app, and then to Chinese consumers this April for slow repair services -- this in a market that Cook said this past January would be Apple'...

One person’s price war is another person’s savings.

Per AppleInsider, Apple and Best Buy have again teamed for a week-long MacBook Pro sale, not only helping the Mac maker push units in an unfavorable climate for the PC market, but also helping to driving down prices for consumers even further at competing resellers.

Best Buy’s MacBook Pro sale took particular aim at the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros, and initially prompted Amazon to follow suit by offering the 2.5GHz 13″ MacBook Pro (8GB,128GB) for US$1,349.00 this weekend before selling out and diverting its inventory draw from...

I can't find a hint for this on the site, and it's probably not new, but I only just stumbled on this. The Finder toolbar, by default, has Previous and Next buttons that let you navigate back and forth in folders. If you click the Previous button, you'll go back, one window at a time, to all the folders you've visited in that Finder window. But if you click and hold that button, you'll see a list of all the folders you've visited, and can jump to any of them by selecting one. This is a good way to get to a folder you've used but that's far from where you are in the file system.

Fortune is out today with its annual FORTUNE 500 list ranking the largest corporations in the U.S. by revenue for fiscal 2012 (before expenditures). This year Apple, for the first time, has finally cracked the top 10 of Fortune’s list rising from its 17th place position last year to No. 6 on this year’s list. It’s still well behind Wal-Mart at No.1, as well as Exxon Mobil, which Apple happened to briefly surpass Apple’s market cap back in January to become the world’s most valuable company.

As for tech companies on the list, Facebook just barely made the Fortune 500 for the time this year coming it at number 482, while others include AT&T at No. 11, HP at...

In a bit of a confusing sequence of events, CNET reports on claims from NPD DisplaySearch analysts who see Apple having two Retina iPad mini devices in the pipeline, including an initial launch in the third quarter of this year followed by a second update in the first quarter of next year."We see two refreshes coming. One in the second half of this year, then one in Q1 [first quarter] of 2014," analyst Richard Shim told CNET late Sunday night.

"The Q1 [2014] device will have a Retina display plus an updated processor," Shim added.CNET's report had initially cited Shim as saying that the Retina display would not appear until the early 2014 model, but less than two hours later the report was revised to state that the 2013 model will also have a Retina display. The new quotes from Shim do not actually refute the original claim, but based on CNET's reporting it...

Popular author and columnist Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus is hitting the road for a multi-user group tour that includes appearances in Hershey, King of Prussia, and Princeton. Bob will be talking about cool things he likes for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, and may mention a few he hates, as well.

On Monday, Logitech released version 3.7 of its Control Center software. The update, a 19 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes for the driver software:
- Updated logo.

- Stability improvements.

Logitech Control Center 3.7 is available for free and requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run.

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

According to a new Chinese report this morning, Apple's noisy supply chain is at it again. The new report claims that supply chain manufacturers have begun to receive component parts for the new iPhone, supposedly named the 5S. The supply chain sources claim that it usually takes two months for the production process to reach the assembly stage for Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) which would translate to assembling the next iPhone beginning in early July.

The New York Times reports that Google and its Motorola Mobility unit have been found to be abusing their patent dominance in 3G wireless networking technology by the European Commission. The ruling, which comes in the form of a preliminary finding that could lead to formal antitrust charges but has yet to do so, addresses Motorola's efforts to bar European sales of Apple's 3G mobile devices over infringement of "standards essential" patents that Motorola is required to license under reasonable terms.

Apple did briefly pull a number of devices from its German online store in February 2012, but they quickly returned...

This past week, Path made headlines when it was reported that the popular messaging and photo sharing app was aggressively 'recruiting' new users by sending out sign-up invitations via text, and in some cases phone, to users' contact lists.

The reason behind the application's ostensibly strange behavior is that the default setting is such that the app reaches out to a user's Facebook friends and asks them to try out Path. Consequently, if users want to avoid spamming their friends, they have to pro-actively toggle the option off.

As one might expect, Path wasn't entirely apologetic, noting that the process is meant to simplify the friend-finding process, adding that the app "is really best with friends" and that...

Frustrated with your iPad’s lack of Office and no physical keyboard? Probably not but that doesn’t stop Bill Gates from believing it.

Serving as the lone hero for Microsoft’s compromise PC-tablet (the Surface Pro even has a fan, you know, like a PC), the Microsoft co-founder cited users’ growing frustration with the software and hardware limitations of the iPad as we move further into the post-PC reality.

The problem with this notion, as we all know, is that no shortage of keyboard cases for the iPad exists and productivity users...

Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates (http://www.winograd.com) has updated TinyBooks Pro, its Mac accounting and bookkeeping program, to version 8.0.3. The upgrade includes improvements in the Professional Invoice Printer and the Professional Check Printer windows. It also sports more logical tab-ordering, and new pop-up menus allowing instant access to previously saved invoice or check templates.

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The European Union isn't pleased with Motorola's stance on standard essential patents and has gone so far as to call the company's injunction against Apple as abusive act, and that Apple should be allowed to license the patents in question under reasonable terms. In a statement from the European Commission, which is investigating Motorola's actions, officials called the actions "an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules."

The Mac Observer Spin:
Today's statements aren't a final ruling in the Motorola investigation, but they do offer a good idea as to what may be in store for the company. The agency clearly isn't pleased with the way Motorola is dealing with its standard essential patents, and could dole out some pretty harsh penalties as a consequence.

...

As if we needed someone to tell us that the ongoing patent lawsuits between Apple and Motorola in Germany were getting a little out of control… Today the European Commission has finally stepped up calling Motorola’s enforcement of an injunction against Apple with mobile standard essential patents “abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.” The EU Commission, however, does note that the statement of objections sent to Motorola does not reflect the final outcome of its investigation into its use of standard essential patents (SEPs):

The Motorola Mobility SEPs in question relate to the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute’s (ETSI) GPRS standard, part of the GSM standard, which is a key industry standard for mobile and wireless communications. When this standard was adopted in Europe, Motorola Mobility gave a commitment that it would license the patents which it had declared...

Let's open this week's roundup with an examination of the state of the Apple rumor scene.

The sad state of Apple rumors (Macworld)

This past week, Macworld published an article lamenting the current state of Apple rumors. Macworld's take is that the Big Three Devices have already launched -- Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad. What we're left with is scraps of rumors regarding iterative upgrades to these devices, or products like the rumored smartwatch and HDTV that don't seem to rev Macworld's engine.

Macworld is right about one thing: Apple rumors are in a truly sad state. But it has less to do with the devices (real or imagined) under discussion and more to do with universally terrible sourcing and a pervasive lack of critical thinking skills when evaluating what those terrible sources have to say.

Any industry that wilfully publishes every last scrap of...

Ever have your Mac tell you that your startup disk is so full that you can't run any more applications or really do anything? That happened to Sarah, and we help guide her through diagnosing and solving this problem... and we might even learn some troubleshooting tricks along the way!

Mac Geek Gab listener Joe prefers to archive copies of his email messages for reference, but doesn't always want to keep the associated email attachments which are often unnecessary and take up valuable drive space. We show him how to use a little-know feature of Mail to remove attachments from email messages.

XenSource has some pretty good GUI tools. There’s XenCenter and the xsconsole, both of which are pretty adequate in a free sense and get pretty darn interesting when you actually pay Citrix. But today I want to take a little look under the hood of XenSource. I had previously written about Xen. But note that this is a different beast.

Before I get started talking about how to do some tasks in XenSource, I first want to throw out there a few terms. The first, is virtual machine. This is exactly what it sounds like, an operating system that runs on a virtual host rather than a physical hosts. So take that Dell PowerEdge that’s about 9 years old that you just use to access your Golden Girls collection on the NT server you used napster to steal it on and virtualize it. Sweet, now your mp3s can still run too!

The next term is hypervisor. This is just a really, really dumb physical machine that is super beefy...

The National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan sued Apple in 2012 claiming that Siri used on iDevices allegedly infringed on their patents. The University has now filed a second patent infringement lawsuit against Apple claiming ...   ...

MYStuff Pro will help you inventory your home, business, or your collections, track warranties, and organize files associated with these records. Whether you're inventorying your whole home or just want to manage your wine cellar, MYStuff helps you Mind Your Stuff.

• NEW Barcode scanner using your iSight or other webcam
• NEW Built-in Web browser that lets you shop online then save Web receipts (or how-to's) direct to a new Record
• NEW Smart folders
• NEW Tags and labels
• NEW Insurance information with coverage alerts
• NEW Custom fields
• NEW Multiple currency support
• NEW Vendor and manufacturer information (website, address, phone numbers, etc.)
• NEW Built-in searching for and saving of images and owner manuals online using manufacturer and model...

Motorola has been issued a formal warning by the European Commission for potential FRAND patent abuse against Apple in a case underway in Germany. The EU Commission has formed a preliminary view that Google-owned company's case against Apple violates the EU's antitrust rules and that is misuse ëcould ultimately harm consumers.' The development is a major blow to Google, which purchased Motorola for $12 billion in large part to use Motorola's patents as a defense against Apple's legal attacks on its Android partners.... ...

The Mac Observer's Managing Editor Jeff Gamet joined The BIG Show from the British Tech Network to talk about the 20 year anniversary of the World Wide Web, what the world thinks of Google Glass, and what a new FCC chairman could mean for the recording industry.

Motorola Mobility abuses its dominant position in the E.U. by seeking and enforcing an injunction against Apple in Germany on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents (SEPs), the European Commission said in a preliminary antitrust review of the case on Monday.

The Commission opened the investigation into Motorola Mobility in April 2012, about a month before Google's acquisition of the company closed, to scrutinize whether it abuses its patents that are deemed essential to an industry standard to get a sales ban on products of the infringing party.. Such conduct may be abusive if the potential licensee is willing to enter into a licence on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, the Commission said in a news release.

Motorola Mobility has asserted a...

International Data Corporation (IDC) has published the "Worldwide Gaming-Optimized Handheld, Smartphone, and Tablet Gaming 2013–2017 Forecast" (http://tinyurl.com/aoc5y6l), a \report on the current state and future direction of smartphone, tablet, and gaming-optimized handheld (GOH) hardware and software.

The forecast details the outlook for Apple, Google/Android, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and a wide range of game developers and publishers from a mobile and portable gaming perspective through 2017.

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Denon has revealed the latest additions to its networked AV receiver lineup, designed to suit users with a range of budgets. The new INCOMMAND models also all support Apple's lossless AirPlay wireless standard, which adds streaming support for the full range of Apple iOS devices and Macs. Three of the four new models also offer support for the new 4K Ultra HD standard....  ...

For all the talk over the last few years that Apple was being abusive with its patents and stopping innovation, The European Commission has found that Motorola/Google has in fact been the offender of such behavior. Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia stated in an official statement that "The protection of intellectual property is a cornerstone of innovation and growth. But so is competition. I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer – not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice." Finally, the hypocrites have been found to be abusive with their intellectual property to hurt competition, and specifically Apple....

A couple of anniversaries to read more about this week, including the World Wide Web celebrating its 20th year in the public domain and science-fiction publisher Tor marking its first year of DRM-free ebooks.

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