Apple is working on a "new secret project," only its existence isn't really secret because it was Apple that told us. The company posted a job description for a UI designer in the world of "Maps" to help develop, "an advanced web platform upon which many of Apple's future services will be based."

Microsoft's slow response to the tablet era reminds one of the Kübler-Ross Five Stages of Grief. Denial has created a domino effect that's now starting to kick in. When will Microsoft skip to the "acceptance" phase?

Some cellular-enabled iPad owners may soon receive a check from Apple, as a proposed joint settlement with AT&T looks to bring an end to a long-running class action suit over the cell provider's promise and ultimate cancellation of unlimited data.
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Last week, Apple briefly allowed people who wanted to order a new iPhone 5s to purchase the device via its online store (or Apple Store app) and pick it up at their local Apple Retail Store. However, after just one day, the feature was retracted.

Apple did not reply to a request for comment regarding why the service was made available then quickly removed, but we speculate that it was due to two factors: a general lack of iPhone 5s supply and Apple’s want to save as much iPhone 5s inventory for customers that walk into...

If you've been following the various iterations of Cut the Rope over the past few years, you might have been wondering if developer ZeptoLab would ever treat us to a proper sequel. Well worry no more, as Cut the Rope 2 is now officially headed our way before the end of the year. According to a press release by ZeptoLab, the new title will "re-imagine the universe" of the previous titles, and yes, main character Om Nom is indeed featured prominently.

Along with the announcement of the sequel, the company revealed that the several versions of Cut the Rope have topped 400 million downloads worldwide. According to ZeptoLab's estimates, players are now cutting ropes at a whopping 42,000 per minute.

The company (curiously) didn't reveal what systems Cut the Rope 2 will debut for, but given that the original game made a name for itself on iOS, it's a good bet that iPhone and iPad owners will be able to cut the new ropes when...

You know how you see TUAW staffers on the ground at various conferences? Well here's another to add to the list: TUAW is once again sponsoring the MacTech Conference, and as in the past, you can find some of us in attendance. If you haven't checked out MacTech Conference 2013, this year's speaker lineup is (as usual) fantastic -- including keynote speaker Jacqui Cheng from Ars Technica, and an incredible cast of IT leaders, as well as developers from around the world. Not to brag, but I've made it on the speaker list too, so you can hear me talk about things in person instead of on a podcast!

This year's event has not only a new venue, but an expanded schedule, a wide array of pre-conference workshops, more sessions, more labs, more certifications and a new Vendor Forum.

Here are the two most important things to know...

Adonit has added the recently announced Jot Script Evernote Edition ($75) to its website. Jot Script Evernote Edition features a 1.9 mm tip, designed to feel like a real fine point pen. The stylus is part of an Evernote initiative to create a series of branded products in its…

A few Apple map related stories have popped up today starting with the departure of early Placebase founder– the mapping company Apple bought back in 2009–  Jaron Waldman. After Apple bought Placebase, Waldman started and lead the Apple Geo team behind the Apple Maps infrastructure and location services on iOS and Mac like MapKit and CoreLocation. He was at Apple up until last month and even filed for numerous Apple mapping patents, but recently left to work at a “new startup” according sources and verified by his LinkedIn page.

As Waldman is on his way out, the Apple Maps team today posted a job listing (via...

Has it been 20 years? Seems like yesterday. In 1993, Myst was a seemingly endless and epic adventure game, with immersive sound and beautifully rendered graphics. I remember eagerly getting my CD-ROM copy at my local computer store and losing myself for hours on the mysterious island of Myst.

Originally written for the Mac by Robyn and Rand Miller, the game evolved for just about every computer or gaming platform. It's now even available for iDevices.

In the original game, you clicked on objects with the mouse, and explored a world filled with beauty and some tough puzzles that, at first, seemed incomprehensible. In a way, it reminded me of an interactive version of The Prisoner TV show, which was also surreal and took place in "The Village" on an island in an unknown place. (There was a Prisoner...

Apple has recruited Ben Shaffer, formerly the studio director for Nike's Innovation Kitchen, a source says. The Innovation Kitchen is Nike's research and development department, the birthplace of products like the FuelBand wrist tracker and the lightweight Flyknit shoe. What Shaffer might be doing at Apple is unstated, but based on his background it's speculated that he may have been brought on for Apple's alleged iWatch project and/or future wearable technologies....
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Apple has hired Nike design director Ben Shaffer, according to a report. Shaffer was Studio Director of Nike’s research and development lab, and he played a key role in developing the company’s lightweight Flyknit shoe; some reports have suggested, perhaps erroneously, that he was involved in the FuelBand as…

Apple has hired Nike design director Ben Shaffer, according to a report. Shaffer was Studio Director of Nike’s research and development lab, and he played a key role in developing the company’s Fuel Band and lightweight Flyknit shoe. Shaffer’s hiring and Apple’s earlier hiring of another Nike Fuel Band…

The US Federal Trade Commission has announced that it is opening an investigation into patent assertion entities (PAEs), commonly referred to using the derisive term "patent trolls." The commission cautions that its initial move is limited to information gathering, focusing on approximately 25 companies whose primary business model involves purchasing patents and filing infringement lawsuits....
  ...

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's Daily Deals

Name Your Own Price Mac Bundle [On sale for $19, down from $119]

That's right. We've partnered with 10 of the world's finest Mac App developers to bring you the third-ever [we did the first two too ;)] Name Your Own Price Mac Bundle. You pay what you want for Airy, My LIving Desktop, & Compartments and if you pay more than the average price, you'll receive all the apps in the bundle. Support Non-Profits Making a Global Impact.

We've chosen three charities, Child's Play, World Wildlife Fund, and Creative Commons, that we believe make a significant positive impact across...

There are a lot of companies that want to sell movies on demand. Recently, John Martellaro realized that he and his wife, without fail, always select the Apple TV to watch the latest available movies. John explains why.

A new group of cross-platform trojans are masquerading as commercial apps, says security firm Intego. Codenamed OSX/Icefog.A on the Mac, the trojans -- concealed under app names like AppDelete, CleanMyMac, and Img2icna -- secretly copy a backdoor app to a computer when the main app is launched, and immediately try to contact a command-and-control server for instructions by the attacker. The backdoor app, named .launchd.app, incorporates a keylogger and is deliberately concealed during the installation process. It's immediately moved to a separate folder, for instance, and the Dock icon and...
 ...

When you download application installers and other files from the Internet, you may see a verification checksum associated with it. Here is how to use that number.

A German court has invalidated an Apple patent on a specific "rubber-banding" feature in iOS because it was demonstrated in Steve Jobs' iPhone introduction keynote in 2007, reports FOSS Patents.

In the United States, inventors are allowed a twelve-month grace period between any public demonstrations of a new technology and the filing of a patent. However, Europe has no such grace period and public demonstrations prior to the filing of a patent -- even by the inventor of the technology being patented -- can be used as prior art to invalidate a patent. A subtle demonstration of the rubber-banding technology is barely noticeable at 33:40 in this video.

In this case, Steve Jobs demonstrated the rubber-banding technology at the launch of the iPhone in January of 2007 and Apple applied for...

Earlier this week PDFpen launched a new iOS app that can be used to turn images of documents into searchable PDF files by using OCR. Scan+ can scan documents directly from the device's camera, or alternative be used to scan images stored in the photo library. Multiple images can also be combined into a single multi-page document and quickly sent to a number of cloud storage services, including Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive....
  ...

For app developers and bloggers, it's very instructive to have an idea of what has changed in the user interface of an app. App developers can look back and see how both the "look and feel" and steps required to perform a workflow have changed, while bloggers and other writers can use the information to update books or write posts about upgrades. Fortunately for both parties, there's a website called UX Archive run by two French developers (one of whom has moved to the Bay Area) and an American that plans to be an online museum of sorts, exhibiting the changes in app user interfaces and workflows over time.

The site neatly divides the screenshots by app and task, so you can narrow down a search to just one particular task -- like creating, deleting, recording, sharing or uploading -- in one specific app. While there aren't a tremendous number of apps and versions currently archived (I counted 60 apps, with only a few showing the...

Atlanta-based Delta Airlines will reportedly equip its pilots with Microsoft's Surface 2 tablet, rather than Apple's iPad, as the airline rolls out its electronic flight bag program in the coming years.
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The ballpark where your favorite team plays looms large overhead, and as you whip out your iPhone to make sure you’re not late, a notification appears: “Welcome!” A few feet closer to the stadium and your tickets to that night’s game pop up on your screen. Your phone knows where you are and it, like you, is primed for some baseball.

So how does it have all that information?

The At the Ballpark app will welcome you to the stadium when you arrive.

A little-known piece of technology baked into Apple’s iOS 7 lets app developers place physical touchstones called iBeacons around specific locations. Those beacons can prompt users to take an action or provide information when they are within the beacon’s radius. iBeacons use BLTE (Bluetooth low energy) technology for micro-location information. Instead of GPS, which knows where you are in the general...

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and AT&T announced the winners of the 2013 App Quest challenge this week. The challenge was designed to highlight the best mobile apps for the millions of MTA customers who tote up an impressive 2.6 billion trips each year on the MTA's buses, subways, and commuter rail trains.

Best Overall App went to the developers of Citymapper (free), which provides real-time information on subways, buses and even bicycle sharing in New York City and London. The developers won US$20,000 for the app, which provides not only transportation information but local weather, information on shutdowns and service disruptions, and can even tell passengers when to get off a bus.

The MTA fought third-party...

When attempting to restore your Apple TV in iTunes, you may see the following:

Apple TV doesn't appear in iTunes
An alert appears indicating Restore Error 1611 or Restore Error 1603

iOS 7's Control Center feature is great because it gives you quick access to the system settings you're most likely to use. If you use any apps that also rely on the up-from-the-bottom-of-the-screen gesture, however, that can actually be a pain. Luckily Apple thought of that, and the fix is easy.

The iPad has no Apple weather app, but concise weather info appears in the iOS 7 Notification Center’s Today view, if you enable Weather in Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Lock and unlock the iPad if it doesn’t show at first. Wacky!

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.

Back in June soon after Apple offered a sneak peek at the new Mac Pro, a Geekbench result from the new machine appeared revealing some performance information about the machine under its internal product code name of AAPLJ90,1. That machine was running a 12-core Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 at 2.7 GHz, representing what would be a high-end model of the machine.

Today, a new Geekbench result that appears to be a second legitimate Mac Pro has appeared, this time running a lower-end 8-core Intel Xeon E5-1680 v2 chip at 3.0 GHz. As with the previous Mac Pro seen on Geekbench, this new machine is running a custom internal build of OS X Mavericks, in this case Build 13A3010.

Exact Geekbench scores are not comparable...

Seemingly not a week goes by without hearing some new story about a patent troll mysteriously emerging out of the woodwork, with questionable second-hand patents in hand, and suing a smorgasbord of tech companies for patent infringement. While the Obama Administration has taken steps to potentially reduce the drain on the tech economy stemming from frivolous patent lawsuits, there's no denying that patent trolls are still able to earn ill-gotten fortunes in patent troll friendly courts around the country.

Now, Apple and 13 other companies recently signed their name to a letter sent to European officials expressing their concern that the patent troll problem may soon sprout up in Europe in light of plans to implement a unified patent system across most of Europe....

Two firms buoyed by the success of iOS devices ? Evernote and Adonit ? have teamed to make a premium stylus that will bring precision writing to the iPad.
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Virgin Mobile will carry Apple’s iPhone 5c and 5s starting Oct. 1. The carrier announced the news through its official Twitter account. Virgin Mobile didn’t start selling the iPhone 5 until June of this year. A number of regional carriers will also begin carrying the new iPhones…

Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart apparently invoked the wrath of Apple public relations Thursday night with a series of tweets about a shattered iPad. Stewart initially tweeted, “I just dropped my iPad on the ground and shattered two glass corners. What to do? does one call Apple to come and…

This is very smart.

In a bid to make the ballpark experience more engaging for fans, Major League Baseball plans to roll out Apple’s new iBeacons technology to deliver targeted information and offers based on a fan’s location within the park, according to a new report.

Plan on seeing this in place at the beginning of next season. Brilliant!

∞ Read this on The Loop

The Tokyo District Court ordered Apple to pay 330 million yen (about $3.35 million) to Norihiko Saito for infringing on the Japanese inventor’s click wheel controller patent. Saito’s company applied for the patent in 1998, before Apple used a click wheel in its iPod. Saito sought 10 billion yen in…

A Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee has voted to recommend letting airline passengers use smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and other electronic devices during takeoffs and landings, the Associated Press reports. The recommendation will be sent to the FAA, which has final say on whether the restrictions will be eased. However,…

Rumors of a narrower and thinner design for the fifth-generation iPad have been circulating for a number of months now, with Apple reportedly taking some design cues from the iPad mini in redesigning the full-size iPad with narrower side bezels, a thinner shell, and more rounded curves.

As long ago as last December, rumors indicated that the new iPad would shave off 4 mm in height, 17 mm in width, and 2 mm in thickness compared to the current design, and based on those rumors and leaked rear shell photos, we created renderings of what the device might look like fully assembled. A number of photo leaks of the rear shell and front panel of the device have continued to support the claims of the iPad mini-inspired redesign.

A case maker's...

Virgin Mobile will begin selling the iPhone 5c and 5s starting October 1—the earliest the company has ever begun sales during an iPhone’s product cycle.

The company made its announcement on Friday, just a week after the phones went on sale at major wireless carriers, and just three months after Virgin began selling the iPhone 5. Similarly, the company didn’t begin offering the iPhone 4 and 4s until June of 2012, just as the 5 was getting ready to market.

Virgin Mobile’s earlier arrival during this iPhone generation may signal changes to the pre-paid wireless market. In both of the previous years, the company followed Cricket in offering the phones with pre-paid plans—by just a month in 2012, but by a full nine months for...

The Omni Group has been hard at work on a new version of its vector-based diagraming application for the Mac, and that effort has paid off because OmniGraffle 6 is out and available. Version 6 added the ability to scale text along with shapes, nondestructive shape editing, a redesigned user interface, a new resource browser, resolution independent display support when designing charts or interfaces, the ability to export Graffles to Photoshop with layers, and more. OmniGraffle is priced at US$99.99 for the standard version, $199.99 for the professional version, and is available at the Omni Group website.

Some TUAW readers have been concerned that in the Messages app under iOS 7, all they see is a person's first name in the header. It turns out that there's a setting to help change that information so that you can see the full name, first name and last initial, nickname or some other choices. In this TUAW Video Tip, you'll see just how one setting controls how names are viewed on your device.

As with all of our videos, this one can be resized to full screen for easier viewing.

iOS 7 video tip: Short names and nicknames in Messages originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | ...

This is an interesting take on the Phone sales data.

If this single product were its own company in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, IPhone Inc. would outsell 474 of those companies—ranking between Wells Fargo (WFC) ($90.5 billion) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC) ($84.9 billion). The iPhone’s $88.4 billion in annualized revenue tops 21 of the 30 component companies in the Dow Jones industrial average—it would be the ninth-biggest stock in the Dow 30.

I’ve been an Apple fan since the Apple II days, have watched the company go through the wringer, teeter on the edge, bear a lot of trash talk. To watch this success unfold is incredibly gratifying to me. And, I’m sure, to the rest of the community.

I think this long time underdog status is part of the reason Apple fans are so enthusiastic about new product rollouts. Samsung can easily see the quality of the product, but I think they can’t see the beating heart underneath it all.

...

Staples’ U.S. website will sell iPads and iPods starting in October, according to a recent report. “Several versions” of the devices will be sold as soon as Oct. 1. Staples already sells the iPad in its Canadian online store. The report also notes Staples would like to sell the iPad…

Slow release ultra capacitor technology, assuming it successfully makes its way to market, should be a real boon for small devices. Filling an ultra capacitor with power is like filling a glass of water. Happens in seconds, not hours.

But using capacitors to provide a steady flow of energy is something new. Still, like other capacitors, the new ones can be recharged quickly. The remote control can recharge in five minutes and run for many hours, maybe even days, depending on how often it is used to change channels, Mr. Sund said. And unlike the lithium-ion batteries used in phones, laptops and, now cars, capacitors do not lose storage space with age.

Doesn’t seem to be any barriers for remote controls and cameras. Key is, can they make this technology small enough to squeeze into an iPhone, yet still have it carry enough power to be useful.

...

Grantland:

Twenty years ago, people talked about Myst the same way they talked about The Sopranos during its first season: as one of those rare works that irrevocably changed its medium. It certainly felt like nothing in gaming would or could be the same after it.

If you remember the game, you remember that feeling of landing on Myst Island for the first time, staggeringly bereft of information in a way that felt like some kind of reverse epiphany, left with no option but to start exploring.

People who had never gamed before in their lives bought new computers so they could play Myst.

I remember playing Myst and being dumbfounded, confused, exhilarated, frustrated and fascinated all at the same time.

...

BBC News:

In the early hours of the 26th of September in 1983, the Soviet Union’s early-warning systems detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. The protocol for the Soviet military would have been to retaliate with a nuclear attack of its own.

But duty officer Stanislav Petrov – whose job it was to register apparent enemy missile launches – decided not to report them to his superiors, and instead dismissed them as a false alarm.

His decision may have saved the world.

Chilling story and terrifying to think what might have happened.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Major League Baseball's iOS developer for the MLB app, Marc Abramson, has told Mashable that MLB will be using iOS 7's iBeacons protocol to turn the MLB.com At the Ballpark app into an interactive guide to stadiums. iBeacons are a new Core Location API in iOS 7 that allows any iOS device with a Bluetooth 4.0 chip (BLE) to know where it is in relation to other BLE devices. iBeacons pick up the micro-location of other iBeacon devices, thereby allowing an app on your phone to know where you are on a hyper-local level.

Mashable says MLB has been working closely with Apple on iBeacons integration since February. As Mashable reports:

By loading the free [MLB.com] app when you get off the subway and head towards the stadium, it immediately knows you are at Citi Field. It populates a ballpark guide with information specific to the stadium, so if you...

Following the emergence last week of new photos that appeared to show the rear shell of the next-generation iPad mini in Apple's new "Space Gray" color, new photos of an alleged "gold" model with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor have surfaced on Chinese website Zol.com.cn [Google Translate] (via Nowhereelse.fr) [Google Translation].

Specifically, the first photo of the device shows the lower half of the device from front, which appears to...

Today at Rakuten.com, check out the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 dual-core processor, two Thunderbolt ports, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of flash storage, and Retina display that's now priced at $1,849. With this deal customers get %15 off the original $2,199 list price, and save $70 when compared to the next best deal we have seen this model for. FREE shipping is included as well, and sales tax applies for residents of New York and California....
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iOS 6 introduced Do Not Disturb, but some of us were annoyed by its implementation: Though the feature silenced iOS notification sounds while your iPhone or iPad were sleeping, those noises still blasted out when the device was in use. If that's not what you want to have happen, iOS 7 has the solution.

Armed with this hint, Do Not Disturb will empower you to use your iOS device in a room with sleeping people, or in a meeting where you're supposed to be paying attention, without fear that a bleep or bloop will bother those around you.

Head over to the Settings app, and tap on Do Not Disturb. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and set Silence to Always, instead of Only While iPhone Is Locked. From now on, Do Not Disturb works regardless of whether your iPhone is awake and in use, whenever the mode is enabled.

In a bid to make the ballpark experience more engaging for fans, Major League Baseball plans to roll out Apple's new iBeacons technology to deliver targeted information and offers based on a fan's location within the park, according to a new report.
  ...

Netflix has announced that it is rolling out "Super HD" videos to all compatible devices, including the third-generation Apple TV. The Super HD higher bit rate stream applies less compression to the 1080p image, so the image looks crisper and sharper than a typical 1080p image. In a blog post announcing the move, Netflix said:

All Netflix members, regardless of their Internet service provider (ISP), now have access to the highest quality HD streams available on Netflix.

This means that the great TV shows and movies on Netflix will look even better on HD screens with a higher bit rate stream, Super HD, that applies less compression to the 1080p image.

We initially rolled out Super HD in January only through ISPs with a direct connection to Netflix. Based on the performance data we've seen, and in response to member requests, we are now expanding availability to give all...

The BBC has released a new version of its iPlayer Desktop for Mac and PC that offers improved downloads of BBC television programs. BBC iPlayer Downloads, which now no longer uses Adobe AIR nor offers Windows Media files for security and cost reasons, will let users download shows from the on-demand service for later viewing, with users able to cue a download of a show in the client using links on the iPlayer website itself. Existing BBC iPlayer downloads will continue to work until their scheduled expiry dates....
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As a result of a difference between jurisdictions in the U.S. and Germany, the Munich-based Bundespatentgericht (Federal Patent Court of Germany) has sided with Samsung and Google's Motorola Mobility in declaring an Apple iPhone patent, EP2059868 on a "portable electronic device for photo management" within Germany's borders, invalid, notes "FOSS Patents."

read more

It’s fair to say that everyone who is anyone in tech is trying to find a place in the budding market for wearable technology.

Google has its Glass eyewear and has also bought WIMM Labs, a smartwatch maker. Samsung, Sony and Qualcomm have launched smartwatches of their own. Apple hasn’t talked much, but is said to be working on a watch.

CEO Tim Cook did nothing to disabuse that notion during his appearance at our D11 conference in May.

“There’s lots of things to solve in this...

Steve Ballmer took the stage last night for his final annual employees meeting.

He departed to the strains of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” the song played at Microsoft’s first employee meeting in 1983, followed by “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the finale of “Dirty Dancing,” getting a standing ovation from the 13,000 or so Microsoft full-time employees in attendance.

“We have unbelievable potential in front of us, we have an unbelievable destiny,” said a visibly moved Ballmer, reusing a quote from the 1983 meeting. “Only our company and a handful of others are poised to write the future,” he continued. “We’re going to think big, we’re going to bet big.”

That’s just so Ballmer. I find his popularity mystifying. Watching the end of an era.

...

Chinese site DoNews has posted two photos of what it claims is a champagne-colored iPad Mini 2 with Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Concept photos and outright hoaxes are commonplace in the run-up to an anticipated product launch (we debunked one of these just yesterday), so there is no telling whether or not these are the real deal, but it’s obviously logical to expect Apple to release both the iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 in the same colour schemes as the iPhone 5s. It’s also pretty likely that both will be fitted with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor (shown below...

Cumulus comes with a number of commands installed in /usr/local/Cumulus_Workgroup_Server. The assets can be in a shared directory location, such as an NFS mount mapped to /cumulus or /Volumes/Cumulus. But in the /usr/local/Cumulus_Workgroup_Server directory there are a number of commands that can be pretty useful. For example, the stop-admin, stop-cumulus, start-cumulus and start-admin commands can be used to restart the Cumulus using a simple ARD template:

/usr/local/Cumulus_Workgroup_Server/stop-admin.sh
/usr/local/Cumulus_Workgroup_Server/stop-cumulus.sh
sleep 30
/usr/local/Cumulus_Workgroup_Server/start-cumulus.sh
/usr/local/Cumulus_Workgroup_Server/start-admin.sh

There are others, such as status.sh, which shows size of repository, PIDs, and the time running. The repair.sh can be used to repair the database and remove-admin.sh and remove-cumulus.sh can uninstall the admin console and cumulus servers respectively (danger, Will Robinson). The...

Each time Apple introduces a new iPhone model, we get many questions about compatiblity: Will the accessories you already own—cases, speakers, chargers, and the like—work with the new model? In some years, such as when Apple replaced the iPhone 4 with the iPhone 4S, there are few physical and electrical differences, so almost everything works. Other times, Apple changes both the size and the electronics of the phone: The iPhone 5, for example, had both a different shape and a completely different charge/sync connector.

This year, we get a little bit of both, as Apple has introduced both the iPhone 5s, which is nearly identical on the outside to last year’s model while being significantly upgraded on the inside, and the iPhone 5c, which uses a completely new exterior design while retaining the guts of the iPhone 5. How well will your current iOS accessories work with...

“We look at the markets and look for no-brainers and I think Apple is just a no-brainer. … It’s just extremely cheap.”

– Carl Icahn, Sept. 11, 2013

Looks like Carl Icahn’s meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook will occur before the month is out. Icahn, who recently purchased a stake in Apple valued at more than $1.5 billion, is scheduled to meet with Cook next week, sources tell AllThingsD, confirming news first reported by CNBC.

The meeting between the activist investor and the Apple CEO is scheduled for Monday. The topic of discussion: Apple’s share buyback program. Icahn has strong opinions on that subject. He believes Apple to be “extremely undervalued,” and has argued that the company should increase its...

Celebrity investor Carl Icahn made news when he bought over $1 billion of Apple stock earlier this year, but Icahn's investment pales in comparison to the company's own $60 billion stock buyback program, which gobbled up $16 billion in shares over the June quarter.
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In an ironic twist to Apple's ongoing worldwide legal battles, a German patent court on Thursday invalidated an Apple property asserted against Google and Samsung because a video of Steve Jobs presenting the feature onstage predates the filing, and is thus considered prior art in the country.
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Staples will be able to purchase iPads and iPod products from office-supply retail giant Staples through its online store as early as the beginning of October, sources familiar with the matter say. The agreement, following a deal earlier this year that let Staples sell Apple accessories for iPhones, iPods and other products was successful enough to warrant the expansion. The company hopes to begin selling iPads in stores directly in early 2014....
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The Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee has recommended that electronic device restrictions on commercial aircraft be relaxed. According to the committee, airline passengers should be permitted to use smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and other personal electronic devices during taxi, takeoff and landing.The 28-member committee agreed on the recommendations during a closed-door meeting, the officials said. The recommendations will be included in a report to be delivered to the FAA early next week, they said.Current rules prohibit the use of electronic devices such as the iPad or the iPhone below 10,000 feet, which means airline passengers are instructed to power off their devices as the plane ascends and descends. Pilots and crew, however, are allowed to use iPads during all phases of flight and many airlines have...

A committee created by the Federal Aviation Administration recommended earlier today that airline passengers be allowed to use specific types of consumer electronics during takeoff and landing. Under the panel’s advice, usage of devices like iPhones, iPods, and iPads would be allowed as long as those devices are switched to airplane mode, which disables internet and cellular connections to prevent calls and data transfers.

This doesn’t mean you’ll be able to use these deviecs on a plane anytime soon, but the recommendations have been passed to top FAA brass, who will now decide...

I just dropped my iPad on the ground and shattered two glass corners. What to do?does one call Apple to come and pick it up or do I take it?

—
Martha Stewart (@MarthaStewart) September 25, 2013

Amusing Twitter feed this evening from domestic entrepreneur Martha Stewart on the dropping of her iPad and the subsequent hushing she got from Apple PR. It appears that she got the iPad from Steve Jobs (so I’ll go ahead and assume it is a few years old) and I guess she expects Apple to pick it up and fix it.

Here’s what I’d do: I’d have one of my people take it to the Apple Store or ifixyouri.com and get it fixed. While they are out, have them get a new iPad...

With rare exceptions, I prefer not to write about Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects until there's a good possibility that the project will be funded. In the case of a new, truly universal dock created by Utah-based FŪZdesigns called the EverDock, the project is not only well past its funding goal of US$50,000 with 20 days to go, but the design looks so good I may end up backing it.

The idea is that too many times, smartphone owners purchase a dock only to have their needs change in a couple of years. For many iPhone and iPad owners, the advent of the Lightning cable made old docks obsolete, and there are people who switch from micro-USB-based Android phones to those Lightning-...

Adds a new file format with faster opening and saving of images, plus makes many improvements to effects. ($14.99 new, free update, 41.6 MB)

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Although the media tended to focus on the high demand for the groundbreaking iPhone 5s -- and early reports have claimed that the 5s outsold the colorful iPhone 5c by a factor of 3:1 -- a well-connected analyst told his clients he believes the ratio of sales between the 5s and 5c was closer to 1:1, with only a slight favoring of the higher-end model. Apple has not broken down sales by model, but reported that nine million new iPhones were sold over the opening weekend....
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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), a regulator in the United Kingdom, has asked app developers not to create products for children that heavily encourages in-app purchases. The report, stemming from an investigation that commenced in April, lists eight principles that developers should follow to avoid pressuring younger users into making such purchases....
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Apple and Staples have struck a deal for the United States office supply retail chain to sell both iPads and iPods beginning next month, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. This person says that several versions of both the iPad and iPod will be available via the Staples Online Store in the U.S. for the first time beginning as soon as October 1st. Staples currently sells the iPad via its website in Canada.

The source says that the recent Apple and Staples’ distribution deal for accessories, like Apple’s Magic Mouse, the Apple TV, keyboards, and AirPort wireless routers, was a testbed to see if Apple products...

Apple to date has helped raise more than US$65 million in the fight against AIDS through the (Product) RED initiative which was founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver back in 2006.

The news comes courtesy of a tweet from the official (Product) RED Twitter account.

Bono at #CGI2013 on @RED partners: "Apple is certainly leading the crew" Thank you Apple for raising over $65 million to fight AIDS.

- (RED) (@RED) September 26, 2013

TechCrunch adds:

(RED) announced early today that its partner Apple had helped it raise more than $65 million to finance programs which include prevention, treatment, counseling, HIV testing and care services. The announcement was made by U2 singer...

U2 frontman and (PRODUCT) RED founder Bono told the world on Thursday that, "Apple is certainly leading the crew" of corporations raising money for the charity group. At the Clinton Global Initiative 2013, Bono said that Apple is responsible for more than $65 million of the $215 million total raised by the organization.

In an email sent out to authors and publishers on Thursday, Apple announced a number of new features recently added to the iBookstore, including versioning support and increased pixel limits for book images.
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Originally introduced in January, Netflix has rolled out its Super HD video quality option to all devices and users. Originally, the ability was restricted to certain devices connected to only a few internet service providers, but now it is accessible to anyone with the right internet speed.

All Netflix members, regardless of their Internet service provider (ISP), now have access to the highest quality HD streams available on Netflix.

This means that the great TV shows and movies on Netflix will look even better on HD screens with a higher bit rate stream, Super HD, that applies less compression to the 1080p image.

We initially rolled out Super HD in January only through ISPs with a direct connection to Netflix. Based on the performance data we’ve seen, and in...

Do you like your racing games better when there's less actual racing and more white-knuckle crashes? Then you'll feel right at home with Truck Stop, an in-progress crash-em-up being worked on by a former member of Criterion Games, the same studio responsible for the highly popular Burnout franchise.

Some of the most fun you could have in the Burnout titles was in "Crash" mode, where you were tasked not with reaching a finish line, but with destroying as much of the game world as possible. Truck Stop appears to continue this tradition, and while the current, unfinished version of the game is only available for Windows, it is slated to hit Mac and Linux as it crashes it way toward a proper release. If you'd like to support the game's eventual launch on Steam, you can give it a "Yes" vote on Steam Greenlight now.

[via...

A Japanese court has ruled that the Click Wheel in Apple's iPod Classic infringes on a patent owned by Norihiko Saito and has ordered the company to pay Y330 million (about US$3,334,650) in damages. Mr. Saito filed his lawsuit against Apple in 2007 and was originally asking for Y10 billion (about $101,050,000) in damages -- a figure the court didn't agree with.

The Mac Observer Spin:
If Apple is infringing on the Japanese Click Wheel patent, the company needs to step up and make it right. Expecting Y10 billion in damages, however, may be high considering the technology is showing up in just the iPod Classic.

To date, our most comprehensive report on Liquidmetal was posted back in April 2013. Today, Patently Apple is the first to discover four new yet painfully detailed patents in Europe on this subject matter. These extremely difficult reads were more about the science behind liquidmetal than products and yet at the heart of each we were able to find a few interesting trickles of new thinking of how Apple could translate ...

Valve's ultra-convenient Steam Family Sharing program has just entered beta, with the first 1,000 participants receiving emails instructing them on how to get set up on the service. Steam Family Sharing allows up to 10 additional users to access any individual's Steam game library, though each game collection can only be accessed by a single user at a time.

If you're interested in participating in the Family Sharing program, all you need to do is join the Steam Family Sharing group on Steam. Additional users will be chosen to help test the program as Valve moves the feature through the beta phase, so good luck!

Steam Family Sharing program hits beta originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our...

2K Drive ($5) from 2K Sports has updated to version 1.6. The new British car pack brings four new cars from Land Rover, Vauxhall, and Jaguar to the game. New events have also been added to 2K Drive, and users who were completely unable to play the game before…

Square has sent an email out to its users noting that they may have to make some slight settings changes if they want to continue using the Square credit card reader on their iPhone. The changes come from a new security setting in iOS 7 in which the user needs to grant each app access to the microphone or else the app will not be able to use it -- or anything that's plugged into it, like the Square reader.

The email lays out the steps users must take to approve Square Register for microphone access:

When you update your Apple device to iOS 7, you may need to adjust your microphone in order to swipe payment cards with your card reader.

If you have already updated to iOS 7, please allow Square Register to access the microphone. Here's how:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Microphone
2. Turn on the Square Register slider...

Apple’s iCloud service has had its share of outages and issues, but the latest problem, while apparently limited to a subset of accounts, just might be the most frustrating yet for those affected.

Starting on or around September 18, some iCloud customers found that apps that use iCloud to sync data between devices could no longer do so—they either no longer sync or appear to have lost their data completely. The apps otherwise function normally, but simply don’t show any saved information or cannot update or sync existing info.

The issue doesn’t just affect third-party iOS apps—it also affects Apple’s own software, including some OS X apps. For example, some users are reporting that OS X apps that store documents in the cloud, such as TextEdit, Pages, and Preview, currently show no documents available when you choose File > Open and switch to iCloud view; similarly, iCloud-saved documents no longer appear in the File > Open Recent menu.

Apple’s...

We tend to think of using FaceTime for a face-to-face video and audio call to a smiling face. But did you know that iOS 7 introduces the ability to make audio calls only?  Here's how to do it.

Fast Company has spent months in behind-the-scenes research to bring you the never before heard history of the iPhone. In this article, an extract from the new book, Design Crazy, describes how the iPhone evolved from a Mac tablet (not unlike Microsoft’s Surface) to the sleek design we eventually saw. Only a select few Apple employees were allowed to see the actual iPhone interface, the rest had to test against an intentionally hideous decoy, until Scott Forstall convinced Steve Jobs otherwise.

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...

Omni Group has released OmniGraffle 6, an update of its graphing and diagramming software for the Mac. New in this version are integrated Inspector and Stencil windows with improved tools and steppers, and a dedicated Resource Browser, which collects stencils and templates. Shapes and text can now be scaled, and a resolution-independent Display Scale can be set for an Apple point, PostScript point, or pixel....
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Lodsys has become infamous for patent trolling small iOS developers, but they might have bit off more than they can chew when they set their sites on Martha Stewart. Yes, that Martha Stewart. While most app developers don’t have the resources to fight Lodsys in court, the powerful and popular ex-con is fighting back, asking a judge to not only declare that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s apps haven’t infringed on Lodsys patents, but to invalidate all Lodsys patents cited in the suit, which would put a swift end to its reign of terror. And that’s a good thing.

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...

Just for the hell of it, let's say that Apple's iPhone unit was a separate company. Businessweek has done a bit of speculation and determined that the iPhone unit would be the ninth largest company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average based on revenues. Those revenues, which currently reach over US$88 billion annually, are alone enough to beat out those of entire mega-corporations.

Think that consumer goods Procter & Gamble is huge? iPhone revenues just exceed that company's revenues (about $85 billion). Surely all of those huge aircraft rolling out of Boeing's plants have to be worth more than a pile of iPhones, right? Wrong. Boeing's revenues are less than those of the mythical iPhone-only company. And remember, Apple also has other product lines -- the iPad, Macs, and various services including iTunes -- that also contribute to the bottom line...

Google has introduced an updated search experience for mobile devices, along with several new features for its Knowledge Graph tool. An upcoming update to the company's iOS app will provide notifications across any devices, regardless of platform, enabling users to add a reminder from an iPad and then receive the alert later in the day on their Android smartphone....
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In this issue, Philip Michaels takes a humorous look at bad songs from otherwise great artists; Michael T. Rose looks at raising children in the modern day of TV; Marcus Mendes wonders why people aren’t as fanatic about what guitars people play as they are about what gadget you use; Chris Domico surveys friends and family to see what they do for backups; and Matt Dusenbury gives us a guide to coffee shop co-working.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has updated its iCloud Status page to allow users to check if iOS Device Activation servers are active. These are the servers that allow customers to start using iOS Devices and connect them to carrier networks.

We have noted activation server outages several times, and these outages could be some of the most frustrating ones for customers who purchase a new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Additionally, Photo Journals (Apple’s iPhoto for iOS cloud photo sharing feature) has disappeared from the Status Page, but the reason is currently unclear. The feature still functions normally in iPhoto.

...

I am happy to welcome Smile back as this week's sponsor here at TMO, and especially so this week because they've asked me to talk about their brand new product, PDFpen Scan+. Your iPhone's got a great camera, and it also has a really killer processor. Put those two things in the hands of the smart folks at Smile, and they turn out an app that will use the camera to scan documents and the processor to perform optical character recognition (OCR) on the text contained therein. The result can be a PDF with real text, not just a picture, or the raw text itself for you to edit.

Apple has released a minor iOS update, v7.0.2. The patch copes exclusively with lockscreen issues, above all one that let people bypass iOS' passcode protection. Apple also notes that it has restored a Greek keyboard option for entering passcodes....
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Google is celebrating its 15 birthday and today announced a number of improvements to search on mobile devices including an incoming Google Search app update for iPhone and iPad that will enable notifications for reminders & more across platforms:

With this update, you can get notifications across your devices. So if you tell your Nexus 7, “OK Google. Remind me to buy olive oil at Safeway,” when you walk into the store with your iPhone, you’ll get a reminder. We’ll also show you Google Now notifications so you’re not late to your cooking class.

You’ll start noticing many new improvements to search on Android and iOS today, but Google says the cross platform notifications will arrive within a couple weeks through an update to the Google Search iPhone and iPad app.

More on all of Google’s new features...

U2 frontman Bono's Product Red charity took to Twitter to announce that Apple has raised more than $65 million to benefit The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
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Evernote used its annual conference on Thursday to show off the usual array of updates to its signiture apps and services. But its most
significant announcements were a series of partnerships aimed at further bridging the digital and analog worlds.

The digital notetaking software maker partnered with 3M for a line Evernote-compatible Post-It notes and expanded a deal with notebook maker Moleskin. The company has already sold hundreds of thousands of the Moleskin notebooks, Evernote said. Now there will be a broader array of Moleskin products including lower-cost journals.

“We realized that paperless is not the goal,” CEO Phil Libin said, kicking off the company’s EC3 conference in San Francisco. “Great experience is the goal. We want to eliminate the stupid uses of paper.”

But there are lots of good and convenient uses for paper that Libin says Evernote is...

Apple has released iOS 7.0.2 for all iOS devices — unlike the previous iOS 7.0.1 update, which was only for the iPhone 5c and 5s. The release fixes bugs that could allow someone to bypass the Lock Screen passcode. Also included…

A new video shows what are allegedly redesigned Smart Covers for the fifth-generation iPad. To demonstrate this, two of the covers, obtained by Unbox Therapy, are attached to a leaked chassis for the fifth-gen tablet. The covers fit exactly, even though the chassis is narrower than the current fourth-gen iPad. Gray, black, red, pink, orange, blue, white, and green colors are reportedly in production....
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The fact that Apple is on the receiving end of more lawsuits than any other company in tech is hardly surprising. In contrast, the fact that patent disputes pertaining to the iPod are still being litigated is somewhat surprising.

Kyodo News is reporting that Apple recently found itself on the losing end of a $3 million judgement for patent infringement. Specifically, the Tokyo District Court found that the click wheel on Apple's now iconic iPod infringes upon patents owned by a man named Norihiko Saito.

Engadget adds:

Saito's damages come more than five years after he filed the patent lawsuit, during which time he demanded damages of ¥10 billion ($101 million), based partly on the number of iPods Apple had sold during that period. Fortunately for Apple, the final figure was substantially less...

TOLIS Group has released end-to-end solutions for the media and entertainment industry that provide a single source solution for the ingest, storage, management, and archival of media assets.

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