Apple on Thursday delivered a promised fix for the lock-screen bypass vulnerability discovered in its iOS 7 operating system last week. Included in iOS 7.0.2, it shores up a security flaw that, if exploited, could have given attackers access to an iPhone’s stored photos — and the email and Web services accounts used to share them.

Another week, another iOS update: Apple’s pushed out iOS 7.0.2, which it recommends for all users. The update fixes a few security vulnerabilities and a bug. (iOS 7.0.1 came out last week, but it specifically fixed issues with the iPhone 5c and 5s.)

Among the security flaws in question is one reported on last week, where a little bit of manual dexterity lets you bypass the lock code on the homescreen. Version 7.0.2 also patches another bug, which allowed a user to make phone calls to any number from the Emergency call screen. In addition, the update brings back a Greek keyboard option for passcode entry.

iOS 7.0.2 is a free download and is available by going to Settings > General...

After investor Carl Icahn made a big splash by purchasing about US$2 billion worth of Apple Stock last month, he said via Twitter that he was going to have dinner with Tim Cook to discuss the "magnitude" of Apple's share buyback program. CNBC is reporting that the two will be meeting Monday in New York City, although it may not be over dinner.

Icahn isn't a "top ten" shareholder in the company, but his stake -- and influence -- is still impressive enough that Cook wants to meet with him.

For more on the "date" and other breathless banter by CNBC's morning team, check out the video embed below.

It's a date! Carl Icahn and Tim Cook to meet next Monday originally appeared on ...

With the new iPhone 5s and 5c rolling in and many users wanting to upgrade to the new devices, it might be wise to increase the value of your phone by unlocking it. Chronic Unlocks, the go-to company for unlocking iPhones (and various Nokias, LGs, BlackBerrys and other smartphones), offers a quick, reliable, and low-cost unlocking service.

An unlocked phone means that the device is no-longer connected to the carrier for which you purchased the device. You can then put in any SIM-card and use the phone worldwide. With international pre-paid SIM-cards and an unlocked phone, you do not have to worry about international roaming charges. For those in the U.S., unlocking an AT...

Genius has announced the Energy Mouse, a device that serves as both a power bank and a fully functional mouse in one package. With this device, business people, travelers and students can recharge their electronic devices, such as smartphones, when on-the-go, and negates the need to carry a separate power bank.

The Energy Mouse is equipped with a 2700mAh battery, and a separate battery reserve is used to power the mouse. The built-in lithium-ion battery can be charged with the included USB cable.

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Two more app channels have been silently added to the Apple TV. The first is Major League Soccer, which includes the ability to watch matches live in addition to pre-recorded features. Live games do, however, require a subscription plan, with options beginning at $15 per month. Subscriptions can be bought through an Apple TV or at the league's website....
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Apple on Thursday released iOS 7.0.2, a security and maintenance update for its mobile operating system that addresses bugs related to secure lockscreen password entry.
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Apple has just released iOS 7.0.2, a minor new update delivering several changes including a fix for a lock screen passcode vulnerability. The new version arrives as Build 11A501 for all devices.- Fixes bugs that could allow someone to bypass the Lock screen passcode
- Reintroduces a Greek keyboard option for passcode entry
The release follows the launch of iOS 7 on Wednesday, September 18. That day also saw a special release of iOS 7.0.1 specifically for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, which launched on Friday, September 20.

Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• L.A. School District Halting Home Use of Issued iPads After Students Bypass Content Restrictions
•...

Apple has released iOS 7.0.2 over-the-air for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This is a bug fix release that focuses on rectifying an issue that could allow users to bypass the passcode unlock on the Lock screen. Another fix in this release is to re-add the Greek keyboard options for pass codes.

iOS 7.0.2 brings iOS 7 parity across all supported devices. Alongside the launch of the new iPhones, Apple released iOS 7.0.1, but this release was exclusive to the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Today’s over-the-air update requires a WiFi connection to download and install, and the file size ranges from between 17MB and 20MB depending on which device you are using.

Apple...

An over-the-air update for Apple TV has added two new channels to the device — Major League Soccer and Disney Junior. MLS has experienced a recent spike in popularity, and the new channel will let users watch live games and highlights. Disney…

The addition of Control Center to Apple's iOS platform opens up new possibilities with regard to ease of operation on iPhones, iPods, and iPads, but it also makes it more necessary for iOS users to better understand the security implications that accompany that increased accessibility.
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VideoLAN has released a major update of VLC, its open-source, multi-platform media playback software. Version 2.1 -- codenamed Rincewind -- is the first to support 4K "Ultra HD" video, and has been given quicker video decoding and a rewritten audio system, the latter with improvements like higher fidelity, new effects, and better volume and device management. OpenGL output has been ported to OpenGL ES, which should make it easier to port to iOS and Android, and MKV playback has received faster seek performance and enhanced subtitle metadata support....
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As usual, the actions of a few are why the rest of us can't have anything nice... The Los Angeles Unified School District recently began rolling out a plan that would eventually provide iPads to every student in the LAUSD. However, within a week of handing out the first units, 300 students had figured out how to bypass school district restrictions that blocked sites including YouTube and Facebook.

The district has now put an end to home use of the devices, and district sources say the misbehavior may delay the rollout of the full program. The restrictions were put into place to keep students from accessing a number of sites and services, including Pandora and Twitter. Those restrictions -- tied to a student profile on the iPad -- were also in place for off-campus use,...

May the force be with you

Angry Birds Star Wars II is out. Should we tell you about other apps, or do you already know how you're spending all your waking hours this week?

Angry Birds Star Wars II

The original version of Angry Birds Star Wars had a profound effect on my then 4-year-old son. He started singing the Star Wars theme all the time. I’d wake up to hear him launching himself from his bed at an imaginary pile of space pigs. His birthday cake? An Angry Birds Death Star. Which is why I’m begging you: Let’s keep the arrival of Angry Birds Star Wars II, a $1 app for iPhone and iPad, to ourselves. OK?

FIFA 14

As with EA Sports’s other games, FIFA 14, the latest version of the popular futbol game, arrives on iPad and iPhone in “freemium”...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will meet with controversial billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Monday, according to CNBC. CNBC’s report speculates that Icahn — who made a large Apple investment in August — may consider adding to his stake in the company; he frequently takes positions in companies…

In the first two days after iOS 7 was released, the adoption rate quickly jumped to 32% which was a historic record for Apple. After a week, the adoption rate of iOS 7 has leapt to

Apple CEO Tim Cook and influential investor Carl Icahn have set a September 30th date in New York City for their long-planned meeting, according to CNBC. The pair are expected to talk primarily about Icahn's push for an expanded buyback of Apple stocks. The company is already in the middle of a buyback plan that will cost it $60 billion by the end of 2015....
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Leading up to Apple’s rumored October iPad event, Youtube user UnboxTherapy has posted what he claims to be the next generation Smart Cover for the upcoming iPad 5.

Although design-wise, the cover appears to be similar to the current 9.7″ iPad Smart Covers, upon closer inspection, the dimensions are smaller than that of the current cover, and fit perfectly onto leaked parts from the iPad 5,...

On Monday, Sept. 30, MobileMe members will lose the 20GB bonus iCloud space. Symantec is inviting MobileMe users to move their storage to Norton Zone, Symantec’s cloud file-sharing service to receive 50GB of free storage.
 
To take advantage of the offer, MobileMe users should complete the following steps:

° Forward Norton the email from MobileMe that informed you the product is being cancelled. Send it to nortonzone@symantec.com, as well as provide the email address to use for your Norton Zone account.

° Sign up for Norton Zone 5GB free account at https://www.nortonzone.com/ .

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When Apple announced on Monday that it had sold a record 9 million iPhones during the launch weekend for the new iPhone 5s and 5c, it also said that around 200 million iOS devices have been updated to iOS 7 since the update was released less than a week before on Sept.18. Apple said it was the “fastest software upgrade in history”, but didn’t compare iOS 7 adoption to previous releases.

Mobile app marketing platform Fiksu has been tracking millions of iPhones hourly since the launch of iOS 7 and it’s latest numbers show iOS 7 adoption is much higher than previous releases. Fiksu has iOS 7 usage at almost 58 percent just 7 days after release, compared to under 47 percent iOS 6 had in the same...

The built-in compass feature in iOS isn't anything new, but in iOS 7 it does have a handy new feature: a digital level. The level is great for doing exactly what its name implies, and it'll help you take more accurate compass readings, too.

An Apple TV content update supplied on Thursday has added video from Major League Soccer, as well as the Disney Junior channel.
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Standing desks are old news. How about a desk that breathes?

That’s the idea behind the Stir Kinetic Desk, a new adjustable standing desk dreamed up by a former Apple iPod engineer.

The desk has a small touchscreen on the lower left-hand side of the desktop. Tap it twice, and the desk rises. Tap the screen again, and it sinks to sitting mode. A thermal sensor detects your presence.

Pressing a button on the desk cues up “active mode,” which every so often reminds you to get up and slave away while standing, not sitting. It does this by breathing. It is seriously called Whisper Breath, not to be confused with Whispersync, Amazon’s content-syncing feature. The desk rises and falls just slightly, as a nudge to stand up.

And the Stir is also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-connected, so it has the potential to sync with health and wellness apps like Fitbit.

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The Tokyo District Court has ordered Apple to pay $3 million in damages to a Japanese inventor, Norihiko Saito. Saito first filed a lawsuit against Apple five years ago, alleging that the clickwheel found on the Classic and some older iPods violates a patent of his. He originally called for 10 billion yen in damages, or about $101 million, based on the strength of iPod sales at the time....
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The first three apps to support the iPhone 5s’s M7 motion co-processor — Strava Run (free), MotionX-24/7 ($3), and Argus (free)—are now available in the App Store. All of the apps are fitness-based, though features differ from app to app. Due to these apps now using the…

As the iPhone's popularity continues to soar, Apple's mobile handset revenues alone place the business among the largest in the world, exceeding companies like Microsoft, Intel and Coca-Cola.
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BlackBerry lost an ally in the United States on Thursday when T-Mobile revealed it won't sell the company's smartphones any more. The news follows BlackBerry's own announcement that it plans to stop offering consumer-oriented products to focus instead on the business market -- and it underscores the company's inability to compete in a market dominated by Apple's iPhone and Google Android-based smartphones.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will meet with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in New York City on Monday to discuss Icahn potentially adding to his stake in Apple, according to a new report.
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On September 26, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of 23 patent applications from Apple covering a wide array of technologies. Some days there just isn't a big knock-out patent to get excited about covering a new concept or design. Instead, we find a lot of smaller inventions that will contribute to future products in minor or major ways. In this report we cover a wide array of technologies relating to Apple's Maps, iDevice finishing processes, iTravel, how to convert a movie rental into a purchase and much more.

Nest has announced that it will be releasing an API for its Nest Learning Thermostat. The new API was first announced at the CEDIA Expo in Denver, Colorado and later confirmed in a blog posting on Nest's site:

What if Auto-Away could turn off your lights? What if your dryer knew not to run when energy prices were high? What if your robot vacuum knew when you were gone and cleaned up before you got home?

Starting today, we're looking for partners to bring this vision to life.

The Nest Developer Program will offer a real-time Web API for the Nest Learning Thermostat in early 2014. The API is not only launching so other apps can integrate with the Nest thermostat, but also so the device can talk to other smart home systems, such as those that control lighting. Developers who want to get in on the API can register their interest...

Photo: Huffington Post

CNBC has tweeted that Tim Cook and Carl Icahn are to meet in NY on Monday.

Carl Icahn and Apple’s Tim Cook to meet Monday in New York City. (via @davidfaber)

— CNBC (@CNBC) September 26, 2013

There’s no more information than that, but Icahn is known to favour further expansion of Apple’s...

iOS 7's new design seemed to cause some spacing issues in Messages, especially on the iPhone. Where you formerly could see the full names of the people you texted, iOS 7 shows only a first name, or perhaps a first name and last initial. When you know as many Dans as I do—even as many Dan M.'s as I do—that just won't do.

There's a fix, though the setting isn't where you might expect.

In the Settings app, tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars. and then scroll way down to the Contacts section. Under that header, tap on Short Name. For my purposes, I turned off both Short Name and Prefer Nicknames. Now, Messages shows the full names of the contacts I'm sending messages to, shortening the button labels at the top as necessary to make everything fit.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 won’t work outside of its geographical region. Just like your old DVD player. What a piece of shit.

∞ Read this on The Loop

VideoLAN has released version 2.1 of its popular open source video player, VLC. The update — codenamed “Ricewind” — brings new audio processing to the app, to improve both processing performance and audio fidelity. There is full support for surround sound outputs in addition to new effects and many new supported metadata formats for audio.

On the video side, the app has ported the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES, making ports to iOS and Android much easier. Notably, VideoLAN says that VLC is now ready for Ultra-HD content (otherwise known as 4K). The app update has also focused heavily on improving MKV compatibility, including better seek performance and subtitle metadata support.

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KGI’s Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with an excellent track record, has disputed an earlier suggestion by web analytics company Localytics that the iPhone 5s is outselling the 5c three-to-one, suggesting that actual sales are closer to 50/50 – with 5c sales actually likely to be somewhat higher.

KGI estimates that the 9M initial sales comprised 3.5-4.5M iPhone 5s, and 4.5-5.5M iPhone 5c.

The confidential briefing document points out that analytics data is based on activation (or, more specifically, use of the phone to browse the web and run certain apps), which is not the same as...

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (that is the name of the band) won this year’s Polaris Prize, given to the best full-length Canadian album for the album Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!. The album is brilliant, one of my absolute favorites, and you can listen to it in the embed below.

But what makes the linked article so worth reading is the band’s response to the folks who gave them the prize. Take a look.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Skype for Mac has been updated, fixing an annoying bug where chat messages would sometimes fail to appear, and screen-sharing now providing the option to share an individual window, rather than the entire screen or a fiddly hand-drawn area. The full change-log can be found on the Skype blog. The latest version can be downloaded here.

Skype for iPad & iPhone was updated last month, with HD video calls and improved call quality.

Continue...

After Apple topped analyst expectations by selling more than 9 million iPhones in its opening launch weekend, it didn't take long for the Apple haters and naysayers to scramble for some negative spin: iPhone buyers are just cult fanatics or iRobots, destined to buy the latest incremental update again and again until the rest of the world wakes up and realizes that Apple is just another fading tech company with no real innovation left. All this got me thinking: The new iPhone 5s and 5c are both innovative and incremental.

Tired of your network's signal petering out before it reaches the outer limits of your home or office. Enter TP-LINK's TL-WA850RE 300Mbps Universal Wireless N Range Extender, which expands the WiFi coverage of your existing network by up to 40%.

The device's miniature size and AC plug wall-mounted design is designed to make it easy to deploy around your home or office. Placing the Universal Range Extender between your main router and the area where additional WiFi coverage is needed will yield the best results.

read more

This is the complete text of Businessweek’s interview with Jonathan Ive and Craig Federighi, parts of which appeared last week. Every bit as revealing as the Cook interview. I get a real sense of the excitement these two have working with each other. Clearly, they love what they are doing. This from Ive:

I have always found—and I know the ID team has always found—that the discoveries you make when you are lucky enough to sit next to somebody who represents a completely different expertise, those discoveries can be really profound, and they’re really exciting.

Federighi on process:

We would prototype. We would review how it felt. Did it really work in the way we hoped it did once it was in our hands? We would get versions of it that we would live on, and then we would get together and we’d say, “I’m using it and I like this, but this bit is not coming together quite the way we wished,” and we’d iterate. So a lot of those conversations are just driven by...

Conan mocked the gold iPhone 5s when it was originally unveiled, with ‘Raffi’ taking center stage in the video. Now, Raffi is back in Conan’s amusing take on the gold iPhone 5s shortages. As well as being highly entertaining, the parody does highlight a real problem with iPhone availability. Shipping times for the gold iPhone consistently stretch into the holidays at T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint in the US, with similar delays mirrored around the world.

But Raffi’s got you covered…

...

On September 26, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new iBook autographing system and more specifically to techniques and systems for embedding autographs in electronic books. Book signing is the affixing of a signature to the title page or flyleaf of a book by its author. A book signing is an event, usually at a bookstore or library where an author sits and signs books for a period. Book signing is popular because an author's signature increases the value of books for collectors. The author may add a short message to the reader, called a dedication, to each book, which may be personalized with the recipient's name upon request. Book signings provide more than a just a chance to obtain signatures. Authors and bookstores are benefited by the fact that many copies of the book being promoted are sold. Signings also increase public goodwill and allow authors to connect with their fans. For fans, signings give them a...

Google has updated its social network to improve the way it handles RAW images. Changes to its RAW-to-JPEG conversion system, credited to Nik Photography, will mean that the converted images shown on Google+ will now match the RAW file more closely in terms of color and hue, while still keeping the uploaded RAW files untouched....
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AT&T has made a number of announcements, for both its wireless network and devices offered through it. The carrier has expanded its wireless-based home phone service into more markets, rolled its 4G LTE coverage into more areas, and has become the exclusive US carrier of the Kickstarter-funded Pebble smartwatch....
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A peculiar Apple invention landed on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's desk on Thursday, describing a method in which an author or artist can digitally autograph a fan's ebook or other digital media using a special app.
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Not noticed immediately -- but apparently at the same time as it introduced new Haswell-powered iMacs -- Apple has quietly raised the price on Mac mini systems in a variety of non-US markets for no clear reason. Though the adjustment may possibly be to bring prices in line with currency changes in other countries, the costs have been hiked higher in every region where the changes have taken place....
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While the numbers from Apple's first weekend of new iPhone sales were very impressive, others also saw a significant rise in business as a side effect. While many older iPhone owners traded in their handsets towards a newer iPhone, consumer electronics recycler Gazelle also reported a 210 percent jump in users trading in Samsung phones over the iPhone launch weekend as part of an overall 400 percent rise in trade-ins from last year....
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In-the-know blogger Mark Gurman is reporting that Eddy Cue, Apple Senior VP of Internet Services, recently sent out an email to Apple employees informing them of a new employee-only section on iTunes.

Cue's letter, obtained by Gurman, describes the new iTunes section thusly:

Team, One of the things that makes Apple special is that every person here, no matter where they are or what they do, shares the same deep passion for creativity and innovation. We see this passion most noticeably in the products we make and in the experiences we create for our customers. But it's in other places, too.

For instance, in addition to their work here at Apple, many employees have helped create some amazing books, songs, movies and TV shows on iTunes. In celebration of their achievements, as well as the creative pursuits of everybody at Apple, we're...

There are many calling the iPhone 5s merely an iterative update to the iPhone 5, in particular, because it continues with the chassis design and display from the now superseded model. To do so is selling the iPhone 5s short, and is probably a flat out fallacy. If the case design had changed, or Apple had shifted to a larger display, it seems some people may have then viewed it as a completely new ......
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OmniGraffle Pro helps you draw beautiful diagrams, family trees, flow charts, org charts, layouts, and (mathematically speaking) any other directed or non-directed graphs. We've had people use Graffle to plan plotlines for a story, make an overview of an operating system, show the evolution of computers, and even show how diseases can spread in a closed population. If you want to organize your thoughts, your projects, or even your friends graphically using boxes and lines, OmniGraffle is your tool.

OmiGraffle Professional has all of the great features in 6.0, plus a powerful toolset for advanced document creation and editing options. For the pro user who's looking for an in-depth diagramming application that's still priced below the competition, you've come to the right place.

Version 6.0:

• OmniGraffle 6 offers a complete User Interface redesign from the ground up.
• The application now runs in a Sandboxed environment.
• ...

Nest Labs CEO and former Apple executive Tony Fadell announced on Wednesday that his company will be launching an application programming interface (API) that developers can use to integrate their apps with the Nest Learning Thermostat and future smart home devices.
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VLC Media Player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, OGG, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Version 2.1.0:

• The licenses of numerous modules have changed from GPLv2+ to LGPLv2.1+
• Discontinued support for PowerPC-based Macs; VLC now requires OS X 10.6 or later. Moreover, the official builds will be 64-bit only
• The --with-tuning and --without-tuning options are removed; to tune compilation for a specific processor type, set CFLAGS manually 3rd party libraries (contrib):
• /extras/contrib has been replaced by a cleaner build system in /contrib Core:
• Audio core rewrite, supporting higher samplerates, better volume management, better device selection, new channel layouts and new output capabilities...

...
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If you've purchased AppleCare+ for your iPad, iPod, or iPhone, you can now get repairs and replacements while you're traveling abroad -- as long as Apple sells AppleCare+ in the country you are in. AppleCare+ for iOS devices extends the limited warranty on those devices to two years from the original purchase date. It also allows the owner up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage, with each incident costing an additional service fee of US$29-79 per device for repair or replacement, depending on what iOS device you have.

The news that AppleCare+ now covers owners abroad is sure to be welcome by many frequent travelers. However, do note that your device will not be covered by AppleCare+ in a country that does not sell that device (even if AppleCare+ is sold in that country). An example of when something like this may occur is if you are visiting Brazil with a CDMA iPhone 5. CDMA iPhones are not sold in...

Samsung announced a gold Galaxy S4, promising everyone who is somehow unaware of Apple's gold iPhone 5s "a style that's uniquely yours." The company made the announcement via its SamsungMobileME Twitter account, and it included a picture (below) that lets us know "Elegance is a touch of gold."

Apple's trademark battle with Brazilian firm Gradiente (and its parent company IGB Electrônica) took an interesting turn on Wednesday when an appeals judge granted joint custody over the use of "IPHONE" in that country. What makes it interesting is the reasoning the judge offered in his ruling.

LensTutorial is a free iOS app that demonstrates in a clever interactive way how your camera and lenses work together to create the precise photo you are looking for. While not designed for the iPhone's camera, where most settings are automatic and there is no optical zoom, there seems to a lot of interest in apps for photographers who want to move beyond the iPhone camera, as good as it is.

The app lets you select your camera by brand and model, and then shows you the effect of aperture, zoom and distance. The on-screen display is designed to emulate the markings on a lens, so it is easy to transfer what you learn in the app to your actual camera. Seasoned photographers know these things, but it is a mystery to many novices so the app really has some merit. You'll see depth of field, field of view, and the effects of zooming. More than 3400 cameras are supported, and the app supports a standard...

If you're a small business owner, chances are you try to collect a mailing list of customers who are open to getting newsletters and announcements from you. In order to make such newsletters appealing on a mobile device, you previously needed to hire a graphic designer and/or coder to create a nice HTML-5 compatible newsletter that looks good in any email client, on any sized screen's device (that is, unless you happen to possess these skills yourself). But that's all changed with the release of Equinux's Mail Designer Pro.

Mail Designer Pro allows virtually anyone to quickly, easily, and beautifully create rich HTML-5 newsletters that look amazing in anyone's inbox. When you launch the app, you can select from over 25 completely customizable templates in categories like Diner, Fashion, Jewelry, Travel, and more. Select a template and you are then taken to the main page layout windows where you can...

Alongside the new iMacs, Apple has silently raised the prices of all Mac mini models in both Australia and Brazil. In Australia, the prices were formerly A$699 and A$899 for the standard configurations, and the Mac mini Server model was priced at A$ 1,099.00. Now, the machines are priced at A$749, A$999, and A$1249, respectively.

Here are the new prices in Brazil (up R$ 300, 400, and 500 respectively):

The prices for the Mac mini have also been raised in Portugal and Malaysia, multiple tipsters have noticed.

These are notable price increases, but it is unclear if there is reasoning for the change beyond standard currency fluctuations....

There are several reasons why a monitor may not show output at its native resolution.

A screenshot from one of the Icefog command and control servers accessed by Kaspersky Lab researchers. Kaspersky Lab

Researchers from Russia-based Kaspersky Lab have uncovered a gang of hackers for hire who specialize in surgical strikes that quickly infiltrate suppliers to Western companies, steal highly sensitive data, and then vanish.

Icefog, as the group of "cyber mercenaries" has been dubbed, is made up of six to 10 members who are able to infect both Windows and Mac computers with advanced malware that's extremely hard to detect, Kaspersky researchers revealed in a report published Wednesday.

That's a tiny membership compared with other gangs engaged in advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks that siphon gigabytes or even terabytes of sensitive data out of...

Pending update from Apple should fix HDMI, Bluetooth, hard-drive sleep, and FaceTime HD camera issues in the latest OS X release.

From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s featured deals...

Run Printopia on your Mac to share its printers to any capable iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Printopia will also add virtual printers, allowing you to save print-outs to your Mac and send to apps.

Wireless Printing To Your Mac's Printers

Whether you have an inkjet printer plugged into your Mac, a laser printer plugged into your router or even a network printer, if your Mac can print to it, Printopia will share it. Printopia even supports many password-protected printers.

Easy, Instant Set-up

Ecamm puts ease of use first. Double-click to install Printopia, and within seconds see most any connected printers on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. You'll also see Printopia's "Send To Mac" and "Send To Dropbox on Mac" virtual printers. That's it!

Serious Security For Privacy and Peace of Mind

With the addition of password protection for your printers, Printopia is a great...

Today, Google announced that its Google Shopping Express service -- which will run to select area stores, take care of your shopping list, and then deliver the items to your doorstep -- is now available to virtually all of San Francisco as well as a huge chunk of the peninsula all the way down to, and including, San Jose. You pay a small fee for your delivery depending on how large your order is, but overall it seems like a very convenient service... even if you work at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.

Based on Google's current coverage area for the service, only part of Cupertino is eligible for delivery, but after searching for Apple's address -- 1 Infinite Loop -- we discovered that it is indeed...

Get in-depth guidance on developing for iOS 7, learn practical coding tips and tricks, and get valuable one-on-one assistance in the labs. Apply now to attend in a city near you. Submissions will be accepted until 10 AM PDT on Friday, September 27th. Learn more.

Even though the new iMac was just released on Tuesday, there's already an system update available specifically for the new machine.

The iMac (late 2013) EFI Update 2.1 is for iMac users who also use Boot Camp to run Windows 7 or 8. The updater fixes a problem where a black screen appears when you have both an external optical drive and a USB thumb drive connected to the iMac while installing Windows 7 or 8. The update also makes the iMac boot into OS X by default if you've installed Windows 8.

If you happen to have a brand new iMac, congrats! And always back up your data before installing the update.

TUAW reader Aaron G pointed out an interesting Apple knowledge base article to us this morning. According to the post, a 3rd generation Apple TV running Apple TV software 6.0 or later can be easily set up by using an iOS device running iOS 7. It's as easy as touching the device to the Apple TV.

Once the Apple TV is connected to your TV and showing the setup screen, you just unlock the iOS 7 device, making sure that Bluetooth is enabled and you're connected to the Wi-Fi network that you want the Apple TV to be connected to. You then touch the iOS device to the Apple TV, after which prompts appear on both the iOS device and Apple TV.

After entering your Apple ID and password on the iOS device and answering two simple questions, the configuration of the Apple TV takes place. It's connected to your Wi-Fi network, activated, and is set up with your iTunes Store account.

It's a fast and easy way to set up the current...

Apple announced back in April that it would be hitting the road this fall with Tech Talks, a likely response to the overwhelming interest in WWDC 2013 which sold out in mere minutes.

Apple touts the benefits of its Tech Talk event as follows:

Get in-depth guidance about developing for iOS 7, learn practical coding tips and obtain valuable one-on-one programming and design assistance in our lab.

As expected, the Tech Talks tour will be hitting big cities across the world. There are two parts to the Tech Talks, an App Developer track and a Game Developer track. Note that developers can attend either track, but not both.

You can head over here to Apple's developer page to apply, and if WWDC 2013 is any indication, you'll want to apply ASAP!

The blurb regarding the App Developer track reads:

Reimagine...

Originally teased earlier this year, Apple has today formally announced its 2013 series of Tech Talks, themed around iOS 7. The events start in San Francisco on October 8th, and will come to a close in London on December 18th. Other destination cities in the interim will include New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Berlin....
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Have you ever wondered how much data you should get with your carrier? Do you barely use your data plan but pay for a huge one anyways? Or do you go over data each month with your data plan and have no idea why? New in the iOS 7 Settings application is the ability to track cellular data usage per each app you have installed on your device.

In iOS 6, it shows you how much data you use, but it did not define or described what made up that number. To monitor and track your cellular data usage in iOS 7, first go into Settings.

Then tap on Cellular. If you scroll down a little bit at first you will see your total history. It will show your Call Time and total Cellular Data Usage, just like it did in iOS 6.

If you scroll down further, you will get an alphabetical list of all the apps...

iMac (late 2013) EFI Update is recommended for iMac (late 2013) models. This update addresses an issue which may cause a black screen to appear when installing Windows 7 or Windows 8 using Boot Camp Assistant if both an external optical drive and USB thumb drive are connected to the system. This update also ensures that the system will boot by default into OS X after installation of Windows 8.

• OS X 10.8.4 and later
• Late 2013 iMac

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Apple released the iPhone 5s over the weekend, and Bryan Chaffin and surprise cohost Dave Hamilton get down and dirty with it. They also dig into Touch ID, Apple's fingerprint-based biometric authentication system that is part of the iPhone 5s. A workaround has been found, but should you be worried? They walk you through the pertinent information.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

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Daily Update for September 25, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our...

Yes, you read that headline correctly. A startup is taking pre-orders for the BluFit water bottle (US$59) and you'll never need to guess how many ounces or liters of water you've sucked down during the day.

This latest innovation in the world of connected fitness tools is currently grabbing pledges on Indiegogo, and early supporters can nab one of the bottles for $49. Now why would you buy a $50 or $60 water bottle? Well, that app takes a lot of different data into account -- weight, age, temperature, and humidity -- to determine how much you should be drinking. You can set and monitor personal goals, and adjust your sipping based on how active you are during a day.

In the meantime, you'll get colorful alerts from the bottle's sleeve, which has LED lights built into it. The bottle has a Bluetooth LE chip inside of it that takes info from the built-in water flow...

You're on a cruise liner that's lost power and your iPhone battery is dead. Or you're without power in your home after a natural disaster, your iPhone battery is depleted, but there is local cell service. This calls for an iPhone case that can charge your battery manually with hand power.  Just squeeze the handle repeatedly. That's exactly how the Mipwr Dynamo will work if the Kickstarter campaign is a go.   You'll get 30 seconds of talk/text for 1 minute of pumping. The unit will also will include an emergency 400 mAh battery. For iPhone 5/5s.

Spotify is a streaming music service that gives you on-demand access to millions of songs.

Whether you like driving rock, silky R&B, or grandiose classical music, Spotify's massive catalogue puts all you favorites within your reach. No streaming service offers a larger, more varied catalogue.

The music you love, whenever you want it

• You're the DJ. Add stars to your favorite tracks, and create playlists. Spotify lets you keep your favorites close at hand.
• Endless discovery. With built-in Related Artist suggestions, Spotify will help you discover your new favorite artists, albums, and tracks.
• Make it social. Follow your favorite artists, share musical recommendations with friends, and more.

Version 0.9.4.169.:

• A new app for messages
• When re-starting Spotify your last playlist position will now be...

Earlier in the month, Microsoft -- which would love for you to pick up one of their new second-generation Surface 2 tablets -- began offering iPad owners a paltry US$200 or more for a trade-in in hopes that you'd actually fall for the ploy, grab the cash, and buy one of their beleaguered tablets. Now Forbes is reporting that Microsoft will be offering you a minimum of $200 for your iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 at some of the US and Canadian Microsoft Stores.

In this case, the trade-in promotion is part of the #timetoswitch campaign, and Microsoft is hoping that you'll ditch your nice and relatively new iPhone for a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone 5s or 5c. Not that Microsoft seems desperate or anything, but they also have an online campaign that...

A court has ruled that Apple is allowed to use the iPhone trademark in Brazil. Brazilian company IGB Electronica SA previously had exclusive rights to the “IPHONE” name. Both companies can now legally use the iPhone name in Brazil, but Judge Eduardo de Brito Fernandes said Apple’s iPhone is…

For some users, there's a new, odd looking bar at the top of the iOS 7 Lock Screen. What is that exactly?

Apple has won the right to legally use the "iPhone" name in Brazil after a judge ruled in favor of the Cupertino company in an ongoing lawsuit with IGB Electronica, reports BNAmericas (via CNET). IGB Electronica, a Brazilian cell phone company, originally filed for the iPhone trademark in 2000 but did not use the name until December of 2012 when it released a line of IPHONE Android phones.

Following the launch of the Android IPHONEs, Brazil's Institute for Industrial Property ruled that IGB had...

Image via AP

Today, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Services has launched a new iTunes section accessibly solely to Apple employees. The new section is designed to highlight media (such as books, songs, TV shows, and movies) worked on by Apple employees. Cue introduced the new initiative to employees via email:

Team,

One of the things that makes Apple special is that every person here, no matter where they are or what they do, shares the same deep passion for creativity and innovation. We see this passion most noticeably in the products we make and in the experiences we create for our customers. But it’s in other places, too.

For instance, in addition to their work here at Apple, many employees have helped create some amazing books, songs, movies and TV shows on iTunes. In celebration of their achievements, as well as the...

Update 9/26: The Mailbox team has added JavaScript filtering to its servers, which should prevent the flaw in question.

An Italian computer engineer has reportedly discovered that the popular Mailbox iOS app, which was acquired by Dropbox earlier this year, suffers from a potentially serious vulnerability that may allow malicious e-mails to wreak all sorts of havoc on your device. Macworld has confirmed that the flaw occurs in the latest version of Mailbox (1.6.2) currently available from the App Store.

According to Novara-based Michele Spagnuolo, the flaw allows JavaScript code to be embedded and executed from...

In April 2013, when WWDC sold out in a matter of minutes, Apple said that they would hold tech talks later in the year. Apple has now sent out the details for these events, with a clear focus on getting developers up to speed with iOS 7.

The talks are going to be held in San Francisco, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Berlin and London. Unusually, Apple is holding two events in each country this year, one for app development and one dedicated to game development. Topics revolve around the new API’s in iOS 7, to further encourage developer adoption of the new technologies. THe talks are being held across October, November and December.

Registered developers must apply if...

Back in April after tickets to its Worldwide Developers Conference sold out in just two minutes, Apple announced that it would be launching a series of Tech Talks later in the year, taking seminars and hands-on help to a number of cities around the world.

Apple has now announced the schedule for the Tech Talks, which will focus on iOS 7 with two types of programs: one for general app developers and one for developers focused on games.Get in-depth guidance about developing for iOS 7, learn practical coding tips and tricks, and obtain valuable one-on-one programming and design assistance in our lab. Choose which day is best for you — app developer day or game developer day.The tour schedule includes:

App Developer Days...

Apple has officially announced the grand opening of two new Apple stores this weekend. The first store in located in the Potomac Town Center shopping plaza in Woodbridge, Virginia. It opens at 10AM this Saturday, September 28th. The second grand opening takes place in Canada at the Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, British Columbia. It also opens its doors for the first time at 10AM local time this Saturday, September 28th.

While neither store is a flagship, Apple usually has some goodies to give away to the first guests that go through the doors. Also, if you are in either locale and waiting to get your hands on a new iPhone, it may be possible that they will be in stock at these two stores--at least at opening--since Apple would likely want their two newest stores to be fully stocked with products.

...

Following their joint top level conversation and subsequent Interview with Tim Cook, Businessweek posts an in-depth interview with Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive and  SVP Software Engineering Craig Federighi.

It gives a nice insight into the collaborative process at Apple between industrial design and software teams which have always been close but took on a new closeness to develop iOS 7 and the new iPhones.  Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:

What’s Apple’s mission?

Ive: This is probably a clumsy definition, but I think we try to...

solareagle writes "The BBC reports that an Alaskan airport says it has had to place barricades across one of its taxiways after an Apple Maps flaw resulted in iPhone users driving across a runway. The airport said it had complained to the phone-maker through the local attorney general's office. 'We asked them to disable the map for Fairbanks until they could correct it, thinking it would be better to have nothing show up than to take the chance that one more person would do this,' Melissa Osborn, chief of operations at the airport, told the Alaska Dispatch newspaper. The airport said it had been told the problem would be fixed by Wednesday. However the BBC still experienced the issue when it tested the app, asking for directions to the site from a property to the east of the airport. By contrast the Google Maps app provided a different, longer route which takes drivers to the property's car park."

...

Online retail giant Amazon quietly unveiled new versions of its Kindle Fire line of devices this week, showing off a tweaked form factor and a novel on-screen helpdesk feature that could differentiate the company's lineup from Android tablets and Apple's iPad.
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With the iPhone 5s, Apple has gotten back into the dock game, but it’s now competing with Twelve South’s attractive HiRise. Josh Centers looks at both docks — which will reign supreme with his iPhone 5? When you play the game of docks you win… or you waste your money.

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.

China’s smartphone market will experience a massive growth spurt over the next year — one that bodes well for all handset makers that cater to it, but particularly for Apple.

Research firm IDC expects Apple’s share of the smartphone market in China to double from this year to the next. The reason: The debut of the company’s latest iPhones and the expected signing of a long-rumored deal with China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile carrier with its 700 million subscribers.

As I’ve noted before, China Mobile is the largest wireless carrier in the world, and as such one of the few remaining carriers that can really move the needle on iPhone sales.

Approximately 180 million China Mobile customers use the company’s 3G network, and according to ISI analyst Brian Marshall, that’s a decent proxy for assessing the new addressable market that a deal with the carrier would...

French authorities are probing Apple Inc.’s contracts with mobile operators in France, according to a person familiar with the matter, the latest move by European governments to ramp up pressure on largely U.S.-based tech firms.

An administrative authority that falls under the French finance ministry is investigating the terms of contracts between cellphone suppliers and French phone operators for the sale of devices such as the iPhone, the person said, just days after two new models of the device went on sale, leading to long lines and heavy demand among French consumers.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Last fall, Apple had a lot of products to introduce: a new iPhone, two new iPads, three new iPods, and a few new Macs. Apple ended up dividing those new devices into two events: an iPhone + iPod event and an iPad + Mac event.

Without much occurring during the first half of this year, and even with the new iPhones launching this month, Apple still has a significant amount of products to still announce this year. Let’s take a look at what’s coming:

• Redesigned full-sized iPad (64-bit, looks like a larger iPad mini, likely no Touch ID)
• iPad mini with Retina display (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions have been in testing...

iFixit has already disassembled the new iMacs that were released yesterday. The teardown didn't reveal too many changes from the previous version, though there are a few new features worth mentioning.

Both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models include the new 802.11ac wireless standard, while the 27-inch model includes the new PCIe-based flash storage that was originally introduced in the MacBook Air back in June.

The 21.5-inch model has a few differences from its larger sibling, according to iFixit. It now includes a new empty PCIe SSD slot so users can upgrade the base model...

BeautiFun Games has released Nihilumbra for Mac OS X. It costs US$9.99. A demo is available for download.

Here's how the game is described: "Discover the beautiful world of Nihilumbra and join Born on his adventure to find himself whilst trying to escape from his inevitable curse. Born was created from the absolute nothingness: The Void. But somehow he separates himself from the black emptiness and appears in the world. This is where his long odyssey begins, in which he will learn how to use the colors around him to gain powerful abilities and transform the world.

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newMacgadets has introduced the iPad Mini Security Kit. Constructed from aircraft quality aluminum, it's an US$39.95 anti-theft solution.

The iPad Mini Security Kit sports specially designed aluminum security brackets, with rubber inserts, that secure to the outer-edges of the iPad mini providing a tight grip. In the rear, a Torx T-25 tamper-proof screws connect the brackets and provides an anchor for the 6.5-foot security cable. The assembled weight of the brackets is less than 3 ounces.

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An e-mail app recently acquired by Dropbox contains a security bug that opens iPhone and iPad users to a series of potentially serious attacks, a security researcher warned.

In a blog post published Wednesday, Michael Spagnuolo of Italy said that Mailbox for iOS will execute any JavaScript code embedded in the body of an HTML-formatted e-mail. A video shows how the bug can be exploited to open iOS apps without user prompting, simply by viewing a booby-trapped message. His post said the damage could be much more severe.

"This is bad for security and privacy, because it allows advanced spam techniques, tracking of user actions, hijacking the user by just opening an e-mail, and, using an [exploitation] framework, potentially much worse things."

...

Zevrix Solutions has released BatchOutput PDF 2.0.7, a new version of its solution for printing multiple PDF documents on Mac OS X. The upgrade lets users reprint jobs directly from BatchOutput PDF saving the time of locating the files again on the system.

Designed as a tool for printers, publishers, ad agencies, as well as users of other trades, BatchOutput PDF allows users to batch print PDF files with the click of a button. With version 2.0, users can now define print presets for various output settings and assign a hot folder to each preset.

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