BlackBerry's CEO seems to think the tablet market is a dead end despite the iPad's success, Microsoft can't seem to find its target audience for commercials, and Jeff and Bryan disagree on what they think Apple's iPhone strategy will be. All that, and it's poke-Bryan-with-a-stick week.

Nate the greatest writes "Remember last year when Apple received a patent on the faux page curl in iBooks? Lots of people laughed at the idea that Apple could patent the page turn, but not Samsung. The gadget maker has just filed for their own page turn patent. The paperwork explains in great detail what the page turn looks like, how the software would work, and what on screen gestures could be used to turn the page."

...

TechCrunch Disrupt is all about startups and one of the hottest areas of innovation is apps. Not surprisingly, there was an abundance of companies showcasing new and exciting titles on the conference floor. Thanks to the footwork of our own Mike Rose, we were able to hand-picked several standout iOS apps that were on display. Keep an eye on these companies below -- they may be small now, but they could be the next Instapaper.

Mapp2link

Mapp2link combines location awareness with messaging to help you connect with nearby LinkedIn contacts. The app uses push notifications so you'll always know when a contact is in your vicinity....

As rumored yesterday, President Obama has nominated former wireless lobbyist Tom Wheeler to replace outgoing FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. An acting chair has also been named to serve until the Congressional approval process is complete -- Mignon Clyburn, four-year veteran of the agency will stand as head of the agency in the interim....  ...

Peter Molyneux's 22Cans studio put out Curiosity on iOS last year, as a sort of a social game-slash-experiment. The idea was that hundreds of thousands of people would be able to download the app, and then use it chip away (by tapping) on a virtual cube, unearthing layer after layer of virtual cubes, with only one person getting the chance to eventually tap on the center. Originally, the project was scheduled to end sometime next year, but that's become too long for 22Cans: The company has decided to update the app down to the last 50 layers.

"I think six months is a long time for this to go on," Molyneux has told Wired. "We're on the cusp of it being forgotten about." That's certainly true -- the iOS market moves quickly, and Curiosity never really did catch players' attention the way 22Cans hoped it...

The now-official merger of T-Mobile and MetroPCS into T-Mobile US will not immediately change options for no-contract MetroPCS customers in the way of being able to upgrade to an iPhone under their present arrangements, CEO John Legere said in an interview. While not closing the door on either changes to MetroPCS policies or a no-contract iPhone option in the future, Legere said that MetroPCS' nine million customers will not see iPhones offered anytime soon. He also mentioned that the company is discussing the matter with Apple.... ...

According to preliminary data from IDC, worldwide tablet shipments continue to surge, growing 142.4% year over year in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), Tablet shipments totaled 49.2 million units in 1Q13, surpassing that of the entire first half of 2012. IDC's stats show once again that Apple's iPad is the number one tablet brand in the world.  ...

Here’s an unexpected twist in the growing trend at companies that support employees who bring their own devices to the office: By 2017, more than half of companies will require their employees to supply their own devices on the job.

The finding comes in a new report from Gartner containing the results of a survey of CIOs around the world. So it’s not for nothing that Gartner calls these BYOD strategies “the most radical change to the economics and culture of client computing” in a decade.

When you think about it, BYOD amounts to a pretty fundamental shift in the way companies handle the knotty questions around supplying employees the tools they need to get the job done. For years, standard operating procedure at pretty much every...

FileWave has released version 6.0 of its Systems Management Suite with new features and updates for deploying, managing and maintaining a diverse environment of devices and operating systems, including OS X, iOS, Windows and Linux.

read more

Willie Nelson auditions to be Gandalf.

A widely publicized study that reported that voice assistants like Apple's Siri aren't any safer than manually texting while driving failed to test Siri as it was actually designed to be used in its distracted driving experiment.  ...

Printing often isn’t easy for iOS users—especially in large organizations. Luckily, Massachusetts-based Ecamm has just released Printopia Pro, an enterprise-class version of its extremely popular Printopia utility, which allows iOS apps to print to any printer without the need for special iOS software.

Like its consumer-level counterpart, Printopia Pro runs on a Mac and acts as an AirPrint server, allowing iOS devices to connect to it and send documents as if they were dealing with a real printer. It also circumvents the need to buy a printer model that supports Apple’s AirPrint—most of which are aimed at the consumer market, rather than SMB or enterprise.

Printopia Pro adds a number of features designed for corporate users to the mix, such as additional...

John Paczkowski quoting a source on AllThingsD:

“Yes, yes — it’s essentially a repeat of the iPhone/Leopard scenario,” one source said, referring to Apple’s 2007 decision to pull engineers from OS X 10.5 to work on iPhone. “Not as much of a fire drill, though. It will ship on time.”

Yep.

In March we reported that US Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte has ordered Apple and Amazon to convene on March 21 with their respective legal teams to settle the former's trademark infringement suit against the latter over its use of the term "app store." If not, the trial will begin in August. Well it's May and so off to court they go as there's been no news of a settlement. At one point Nokia and Microsoft were opposing the same trademark as well. Back in 2011 RIM made it known that they were opposed to Apple's WebKit Trademark and lost. And over the years the Android crowd have screamed bloody murder over various trademarks that Apple has tried to trademark, ranting that Apple had no right to trademark simple English words. Well, what will these very same Androiders now say when they discover that their beloved Google is doing the very same thing?...

SpamSieve gives you back your inbox by bringing powerful Bayesian spam filtering to popular e-mail clients.

It learns what your spam looks like, so it can block nearly all of it. It looks at your address book and learns what your good messages look like, so it won't confuse them with spam. Other spam filters get worse over time as spammers adapt to their rules; SpamSieve actually gets better over time as you train it with more messages. SpamSieve doesn't delete any messages--it only marks them in your e-mail client--so you'll never lose any mail. SpamSieve works with any number of mail accounts, of whatever types are supported by your e-mail software (e.g. POP, IMAP, Exchange, Hotmail, AOL).

Version 2.9.7:

• Improved compatibility with pre-release versions of Mac OS X.
• Made various changes to improve SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy.
• SpamSieve no longer links against AppleScriptKit. This removes some GUI scripting...

Many airlines have embraced the iPad as a way to replace the 40-pound flight bags containing charts and manuals, but until now there's been little talk about how those tablet deployments are going. At the Tablet Strategy conference in New York yesterday, American Airlines VP of Airline Operations Technology Patrick O'Keefe discussed how the airline is aggressively moving ahead with adoption of tablets and the benefits that are already becoming apparent.

All of American's 8,600 pilots will have iPads by the end of May, each device containing over 3,000 pages of material that used to be printed out and manually updated. Now the charts and manuals are digitally updated, saving flight crews a lot of busy work. But the biggest win for American is in terms of crew safety, as O'Keefe noted that "We've reduced the single biggest source of pilot injuries,...

Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. are bringing the smartphone wars to the Pentagon.

The Department of Defense is expected in coming weeks to grant two separate, security approvals for Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, along with iPhones and iPads running Apple’s latest operating system, according to people familiar with the matter — moves that would boost the number of U.S. government agencies allowed to use those devices.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Eastman Kodak has filed its latest plan to exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy that gives ownership of the venerable company to unsecured creditors and bond holders. Second-lien note holders will receive 85 percent of common stock in the company, worth nearly $374.85 million. Unsecured creditors will be awarded the remaining 15 percent of shares....  ...

Though Apple is allegedly reassigning personnel to expedite development of iOS 7, the next-generation mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad will still meet the company's internal deadlines, according to a new report.  ...

The U.S. Department of Defense is readying a new government approval for iOS devices to be used by military agencies for nonclassified communications. This is apparently a separate approval from the "commercial mobile device implementation plan" that the DoD announced a few months ago.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the certification would not only allow more widespread use of iPhones and iPads across the military, but would signal to other security conscious companies like banks and law firms that these devices are safe to use.
Separately, DISA is expected to rule that Apple's latest...

The iPhone and iPad have already been cleared for use by a number of US government agencies, and in February the US Defense Department confirmed plans to open its networks to 100,000 new devices from Apple and Google by February of next year. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports the DoD is about to grant two more important security approvals that could increase the number of agencies allowed to deploy iPhone, iPads, and Samsung Galaxy devices:

The Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA, the agency that sanctions commercial technology for Pentagon use, is set to rule that Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones, preloaded with Samsung’s Knox security software, conforms with the Pentagon’s so-called Security Technology Implementation Guide,...

Apple's iPad fell to 39.6 percent of total worldwide tablet shipments in the first quarter of calendar 2013, according to the latest market data from research firm IDC.   ...

It was first reported by iFans last September that Apple's A6 processor for the iPhone 5 sported 1G of RAM from Samsung. In a new report published in Asia today we read that that there may be a dramatic leap of RAM coming to the next iPhone, if Apple continues to use Samsung as a supplier, that is.  ...

How small can a movie be? If you take time out of the mix and go for actual size, that would be atoms, which is exactly where IBM went. Engineers at Big Blue went down to the atomic scale and produced a stop motion animation called "A Boy and His Atom" comprised solely of atoms. The painstaking process resulted in a minute and a half long movie, and while it won't win an academy award, it's still amazingly cool. IBM also put together a 5 minute behind the scenes video showing how "A Boy and His Atom" was made that's worth watching, too.

A new report urges web users to be cautious in their surfing habits, as more than a hundred websites have been compromised by phishers looking to steal visitors' Apple IDs.   ...

After 13 years, long-time Mac tipster Miraz Jordan is moving on to other projects and is selling her MacTips.info Web site, complete with nearly 1,000 Mac-related tips. If you’ve been looking for a content business...

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

Apple's total iPad shipments were 19.5 million units from January to March, and the iPad mini accounted for 12.5 million units, according to "DigiTimes" (http://tinyurl.com/d85pwgs). This shows that "the 7- to 8-inch segment has already become the mainstream of the market," the article adds.

read more

Twitter for iOS received an update today that brings location-based trends to your iPhone or iPad, first reported by AllThingsD.

See what’s happening near you or around the world by viewing Trends in hundreds of locations.

Also:
• Invite friends to join Twitter from within the app
• Improved playback of Vine videos
• Replies to retweeted Tweets now include both the author and person who retweeted the Tweet
• Enjoy a smoother experience due to bug fixes and other improvements.

iOS 7 is so significant a re-imagining of Apple’s mobile operating system that the company is mustering additional engineering resources to get it out the door in time for a preview at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

Sources who declined to be named because they are forbidden to talk publicly about Apple’s plans tell AllThingsD that the company has been “borrowing” engineers from the OS X 10.9 team as part of an effort to double down on iOS 7. “Yes, yes – it’s essentially a repeat of the iPhone/Leopard scenario,” one source said, referring to Apple’s 2007 decision to pull engineers from OS X 10.5 to work on iPhone. “Not as much of a fire drill, though. It will ship on time.”

News of Apple’s iOS 7 scramble was
first...

Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding that Apple's share of the market continues to slide as competitors begin to gain footholds in the market, although the firm notes that Apple did exceed expectations. Apple held a 39.6% share of the market for quarter, compared to 43.6% in the previous quarter and a 58.2% share in the year-ago quarter.

Worldwide Tablet Shipments in 1Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)Apple outperformed IDC's most recent projections for the quarter, shipping 19.5 million units compared to a forecast of 18.7 million units. The company, which historically has experienced a steep drop off in first quarter shipments (following strong holiday sales in the fourth quarter), saw some...

Much respect.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Seriously?

∞ Read this on The Loop

After hearing about these new certifications for a good 3 or 4 years, I’m stoked that Tech2000 has now made the new Advanced OS X Certification exams available. Currently, there are three exams:

• OS X Directory Services Specialist Certification Exam
• OS X Deployment Specialist Certification Exam
• OS X Mobile Device and Profile Specialist Certification Exam

These exams are a more modern rendition of what Apple Training would be providing if they still did any courses beyond the OS X Server ACTC. Basically, you can think of it as though the previous Security or Xsan exams were swapped out with Mobile Devices, which makes sense given the changing climate of things.

Now, these are not Apple exams. But I don’t really think it matters too much whether there’s an Apple logo on them or not. At the end of the day if you do this kind of stuff then it’s nice to have a 3rd party option available if you so choose to go down that route!

The...

MacRumors is pleased to announce the Fourth Annual MacRumors Blood Drive, running for the month of May 2013. Our goal is to increase the number of life-saving donations in real-world communities by encouraging everyone in our online community to step forward. While most blood drives are specific to a geographic location and a specific collection center, our blood drive is online and worldwide.

We ask that you:

1. Donate blood or platelets at any hospital or other donation center near you. Join the bone marrow registry in your country. Sign up for the organ donor registry in your state, province, or country.

2. Post in the MacRumors 2013 Blood Drive! thread. Show us your bandage/plaster after donating blood or tell us your story of registering as a bone marrow or organ donor. Let us thank you and help us thank other users...

The Versastand from Ergotech provides a sturdy desktop stand for your iPad that provides 360 degree rotation when needed, and then folds to 1.5-in thick for portability. This one is a winner on many levels.

As highlighted by The Next Web, security firm Trend Micro yesterday outlined a new phishing scam that has seen the perpetrators compromise over 100 sites in their attempts to gain access to users' Apple ID accounts. While Apple IDs are relatively popular targets for phishing scams, Trend Micro's analysis offers some interesting detail on the approaches used by the criminals.We’ve identified a total of 110 compromised sites, all of hosted at the IP address 70.86.13.17, which is registered to an ISP in the Houston area. Almost all of these sites have not been cleaned. [...]

We’ve seen attacks targeting not only American users, but also British and French users. Some versions of this...

JAMF Software just recently released Casper Suite 8.7 along with their new education-aimed tool Casper Focus.  I had a chance to play around with it and test it out the past two days, so you can decide if this is something worth pursuing for yourselves.

What does it do?

To put it simply, Casper Focus allows a teacher to force specific supervised devices to all lock into a specific app.  The teacher can select any app that’s in the Mobile App Catalog (even if it isn’t installed on the teacher’s iPad, or the specific student iPads, or wasn’t deployed via JSS / Self-service).  The teacher can enable / disable this lock to a specific app with the push of a button (or two), and it’s a very simple interface.

There’s also the ability to clear the passcodes if the student puts on a passcode lock and forgets it, but that’s probably not the main feature people care about.

What does it...

It's no secret that apps on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch can track your location, but you may not realize Mac apps can do the same, too. You can, however, control which apps know where you are on both platforms, and it's easy to do.

Once again I'd like to thank Smile for sponsoring us here at TMO, and this week I get to tell you about PDFPenPro 6. You've likely previously read my stuff about PDFPen, and PDFPenPro builds on that with a few key features, including document permission settings and a new automatic form field creation tool.

Update: Talking to AllThingsD, T-Mobile CEO John Legere says an iPhone on MetroPCS is a possibility but “not imminent.”

“The answer to that is not ‘No,’” Legere said, but added, “It’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.” “It’s also something that involves Apple…. we’ve started those dialogues with our partners.”

We already knew that both company’s boards had approved the merger of T-mobile USA and MetroPCS, but today the No. 4 and No. 5 U.S. carriers have officially announced the merger is now complete. Starting today the two companies will become one and begin trading under the ticker “TMUS” on the New York Stock Exchange:...

Gear4, the U.K.-based brand behind Apple accessories such as AlarmDock Halo 2 and Renew SleepClock, has gone bankrupt and cut most of its U.K. workforce, but has effectively been re-formed as a new entity in Hong Kong. Disruptive Hong Kong bought the rights of all designs, brands, and…

Amazon announced today that it is updating its Kindle mobile apps, starting with an update to the Kindle iOS app,to include new accessibility features for the blind and visually impaired. The updated app now includes VoiceOver support and new accessibility features, the addition of the Hiragino Mincho ProN (Serif) font selection for Japan, and an enhancement to the app’s ‘Before you go’ feature that now offers “the ability to download a free sample and email yourself a reminder about recommended books.”

A full list of new accessibility features available in today’s...

A leading protection plan company serving millions of customers in the US and Britain announced their latest "Breakability Score" which ranks today’s top devices based on how prone they are to break due to accidents. Evaluating key elements such as front and back panel design, edge construction and materials, size, weight, friction quotient, water resistance and grip-ability, the Breakability Score fills in the missing gap left by traditional device reviews: it tests devices in everyday danger situations brought on by our lifestyles and habits. The latest Breakability Test Scores between the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5 showed that the S4 was the clear loser....

Famed Apple product designer Jony Ive has his hands deep into iOS 7 following the departure of former iOS software head Scott Forstall, leading to potential delays as he revamps the look and feel of the software. That's according to a new report at Bloomberg, which cites sources claiming that Ive is working to rid iOS of the skeuomorphism that came from Forstall's influence in order to impose a "flatter design that’s more unified and less cluttered."

As a result of this makeover, however, Apple's iOS teams are reportedly running a bit behind schedule. Engineers are "racing" to get iOS 7 to at least a demo stage before the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference and, according to...

It’s available now for download.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Google has added Google Now to its Google Search app for iOS. This provides local traffic information, weather data and more. Unfortunately, this also keeps GPS on permanently on an iOS device, depleting its battery.



After installing the new Google Search app, I had noticed that my iPhone's Location Services icon was on permanently. I quit all apps that could be using GPS or location services, but it was still visible. I restarted the phone, and it was still visible. It turns out that it was Google Now, and I resolved the issue by deleting the Google Search app.



You can also just turn off Google Now, in the Google Search app's settings. (See this screenshot by Dave Hamilton.) If you want to use Google Now, be aware that it will drain your battery, and remember to turn it off...

The mighty OS X 10.8.4 update is being worked on, much like a zesty-but-complicated stew.

Per 9to5Mac, Apple on tuesday seeded build 12E40 of OS X 10.8.4 maintenance update to developers, the new build arriving about a week after the previous one.

The build comes with no known issues and once again asks testers to focus on Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers and Safari.

If you’ve gotten your hands on the build and have any feedback, please let us know in the...

It seems that just when Path was emerging from one privacy PR nightmare, another one landed on its doorstep. The day after the company reached 10 million users, The Verge related the story of digital marketer Stephen Kenwright who had an unpleasant experience with the app.

Kenwright downloaded the app to his phone, tried it, then removed it. The next morning, he discovered that despite the app being removed, a good many of his contacts had gotten robocalls and texts saying that...

Apple's Jonathan Ive is reworking so much in iOS for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that he has apparently been pulling resources from the OS X team to keep development on track. Sources claim he's been stripping the skeuomorphic design elements from iOS in favor of a flatter interface look, and is looking at some app changes big enough that they may not be ready in time to ship with the release of iOS 7 later this year.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Mr. Ive doesn't like the skeuomorphic look that Scott Forstall loved. Even if the look isn't completely stripped from iOS 7, we're still expecting to see major changes.

...

Monotype Imaging Holdings -- a provider of typefaces, technology and expertise for creative applications and consumer devices -- has enhanced its Fonts.com Web Fonts service to provide greater flexibility and choice to creative professionals. The new Master subscription plan brings together the company’s Web font solution with unlimited access to more than 7,000 desktop fonts.

read more

By switching from heavy 40-pound flight bags to Apple's iPad, American Airlines expects to address a relatively common issue among commercial airline pilots: back injuries.   ...

John Moltz:

At the risk of sounding like your prototypical hipster, today’s rumors just aren’t as good as they used to be. The devices that we hear whispers about now — a smartwatch, a television, a cheaper iPhone—seem lackluster compared to the rumored products of days past—products that, when they actually appeared, changed entire industries.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Over the past several months, rumors of Jony Ive's influence on iOS 7 as part of his new role overseeing user interface design in addition to hardware have surfaced, indicating that Ive is pushing to adopt a "flatter" design that will modernize the look of iOS.

In a lengthy report, Bloomberg now notes that this major effort to remake iOS puts Apple at risk of delaying the launch of iOS 7. While a public launch is said to currently remain on schedule for "as soon as September", Apple's internal deadlines have been pushed back as Apple's software teams race to complete their work and ready a preview for next month's Worldwide Developers Conference.Ive, 46, has begun revamping iPhone and iPad applications, shunning realistic images, such as wood...

T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS have now completed their merger, and are now one company. The formation of the new entity, known as T-Mobile US and trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TMUS, comes one week after MetroPCS shareholders voted to approve the merger after some improvements, a process which started in October last year....  ...

The Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog has announced the lineup for its 11th All Things D conference happening next month, and the lead draw is going to be none other than Apple's CEO. Yes, an interview with Tim Cook will headline the show. He appeared at the conference last year to talk about Apple's present and future, and he's planning to do the same again next month.

New products will definitely be a subject -- Apple hasn't revealed anything new in quite a while, so the second half of the year seems destined to be a big one for Apple reveals. And it'll be nice to just hear what Cook has to say -- these talks are generally pretty open, and Cook always reveals one or two good tidbits about what life is like on the Apple campus lately....

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the featured speaker on the first night of AllThingsD's D11 conference on May 28 in San Francisco. This marks the second year Mr. Cook will be interviewed during the event, and last year he offered frank answers when asked about Apple philosphies and plans.

Tim Cook plans to return to D: All Things Digital when the 11th conference kicks off in late May.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Not much news coming out of a new Bloomberg piece today on Sir Jonathan Ive’s new software design role. Earlier this week, 9to5Mac first reported on some big upcoming changes to iOS spearheaded by Ive based on multiple sources who have seen or been briefed on the new “flatter” OS. While echoing most of what we already reported, Bloomberg adds that Ive’s new role will provide potential delays for iOS 7:

The introduction of new features, along with an emphasis on cooperation and deliberation, comes at a cost for Cupertino, California-based Apple. Engineers are racing to finish iOS 7, the next version of the mobile software, in time for a June preview at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. While the company still expects to release iOS 7 on time as...

After nearly nine months of research and development, bluetooth lighting startup BlueBulb is finally ready to ship a small batch of initial units to customers in a bid to bring remotely-controlled, multi-color lighting into the mainstream.  ...

Installing printers via lpadmin on OS X can be a pain, especially if you do not know the names of the specific options you need for the printer (Duplex, Finisher, etc).  You can dig through the .ppd if you’d like, but this is not as helpful as you might hope.  

Joel Bruner has a post that outlines how to get the available options for your printer using the lpoptions command.

About Nate Walck

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

By Rick Sutcliffe

A sudden spate of email from last October last week should have been a clue that not all was well with the Spy's own company virtual server, where he has most of his mail accounts and the billing system for Arjay Web Services (WebNameHost and WebNameSource). Unfortunately, he failed to investigate until the following day, after customers complained about receiving bills they had already paid, even having their accounts suspended (all they on his big dedicated production server).

read more

Organizations should keep in mind that gamification is about more than just the underlying technology, says Ovum (www.ovum.com). By also considering the strategic, organizational, cultural, and psychological aspects of reasonably priced and low-risk gamification applications, businesses can improve productivity.

In new research by Ovum, the global analyst firm shows how enterprises and the public sector can effectively apply gamification for maximum advantage, and recommends that organizations should begin exploring gamification for either customer- or employee-facing uses.

read more

Alien Skin Software's Exposure 5, the latest version of its flagship photography effects software, is a fine tool for digital photographers. It lets you achieve accurate film simulation, using a wide range of creative effects.

Exposure 5 brings many of the creative tools of traditional film photography to the world of digital, such as the look of discontinued films, darkroom tricks, and trendy lo-fi camera quirks. Popular classic films like Kodachrome, Polaroid and even Panatomic-X are accurately simulated.

read more

TUAW notes that low-cost European airline Easyjet is now offering boarding passes in Passbook. While this is commonplace for US airlines, Passbook adoption in Europe has been very much slower, with just a handful of companies supporting it at present.

Boarding passes are loaded into Passbook via the free Easyjet app.

//

The first stage of Apple’s plan to spend $100 billion in share buy-backs and increased dividends was completed yesterday as Apple sold $17 billion’s worth of corporate bonds – the world’s largest corporate debt sale.

Although Apple has a cash balance of $145b, much of this money is held in overseas subsidiaries, and Apple would have to pay tax on it to bring it back to the USA. It is cheaper for it to borrow the money instead …

//

Unsurprisingly, demand was high, with the Financial Times reporting that demand for the bond reached $52b.

“Investors...

The Uncovermac line of products was created after this company's Amsterdam-based masterminds realized that the MacBook’s screen has a whole light panel behind it. They started designing the Uncovers, each of which offers glowing pieces of art—from flames to radioactivity symbols and more—to replace the Apple logo on your laptop. Prices start at €249, or around $325 in U.S. dollars. (Hat tip to Engadget.)

Michael Copeland, two weeks ago writing for Wired:

Marc Andreessen has a thought exercise for you.

Let’s say we all grew up in tech world where we only used
tablets and smartphones. Then one day, someone comes up to you
with a 27-inch display hooked up to a notebook. You could have
everything you have on your tablets and smartphones, and then
some. Except you don’t have to download anything or update it.
Everything is the latest and greatest, and just one click away. If
you are a software developer, there are no gatekeepers telling you
if your latest creation is approved, or when you can add the
latest flourish.

“We would be like, wow, that’s great,” Andreessen says from
his office at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. “It’s
why in the long run the mobile web is going to dominate native
...

Q:

You recently mentioned the HTC One as being priced at $200. I’ve just been on the phone with my carrier T-Mobile, which offers me the HTC One for $100 down and $20 a month for 24 months. They explain they “no longer offer discounted phones” under their new world order or whatever. Can you explain?

A:

In the U.S., carriers traditionally subsidize the price of mobile phones and then make back the money by requiring buyers to sign a two-year contract, so they don’t defect before the carrier has made back the subsidy from them. Under this formula, the HTC One is indeed $200 at AT&T.

But T-Mobile recently announced a new approach under which it won’t subsidize the phones, but will charge something close to what the phone maker charges it, spread out in monthly payments. In return, it won’t require a two-year service contract. In the case of the HTC One and some other high-end...

[ See post to watch video ]

Welcome to my spring laptop buyer’s guide. It should be an easy time for laptop buyers, now that we’re six months past the introduction of Microsoft’s redesigned Windows 8 operating system and laptop makers have had time to get into a new groove. Alas, I’m sorry to report, it’s still pretty confusing and frustrating to buy a new laptop, and it might be best, if you can, to wait until the fall.

After the big buildup in October around Windows 8, laptop makers stumbled. They continued to offer mostly nontouchscreen models, though the new Windows was designed for touch. And the touchscreen models they built were clustered around $1,000, far more than consumers are used to paying for Windows laptops. Plus, Windows 8 itself proved confusing, because it combines two interfaces — the tabletlike “Start Screen” and the traditional Windows desktop.

Two touchscreen models: The Acer Aspire S7, top, and an Asus S200 series model, middle. Bottom,...

This is cool.

∞ Read this on The Loop

GDC is the Game Developers' Conference that happens every year up in San Francisco, and the company also hosts a number of other GDC events all over the world. Usually, they do GDC Online in Austin, TX every fall, but that conference has recently been changed into two different conferences, both of which are set to take place later this year in Los Angeles. One half of the conference will be called GDC Next, and will focus on the future of gaming development, featuring things like the new Ouya console, cloud gaming, and next generation platforms. And the other half is now called the App Developers' Conference, and will focus on not just game development, but mobile app development as well.

Both shows are being held in Los Angeles on November 5-7, 2013, and both shows are now open for submissions for panels and talks. ADC is obviously looking for app makers who...

Some day, when people ask Apple why it offered up a multi-billion dollar bond, it’ll tell people it was young and needed the money. Of course, if you believe one competitor’s CEO, that’s because Cupertino’s tablet business is going belly up sooner rather than later. And it’s time for the latest edition of “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Sponsored Tweeting!” The remainders for Tuesday, April 30, 2013 have a nasty habit of surviving.

Apple wows market with record $17 billion bond deal (Reuters)

Apple’s making the largest non-bank bond deal in history, putting up $17 billion for sale in order to fuel its ambitious share repurchase...

Outside the United States, Passbook-supported apps are a rarity. That's why it's especially exciting that uber-popular European discount airline easyJet has just added Passbook support to their iPhone app.

The move comes days after easyJet announced that it is eliminating check-in desks at airports. Now all easyJet passengers will be required to print or download their boarding passes before they leave home.

But that shouldn't be much of a hassle for iPhone owners. With version 2.0 of the free easyJet mobile app, fliers can download and store boarding passes in their Passbook. Currently easyJet is trialing mobile check-in and boarding passes at six airports: Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nice, Southend and...

Let's offer a salute to clever game developers, especially Patrick and Daniel Klug, the cofounders of GreenheartGames. When they released Game Developer Tycoon for Mac, Windows, and Linux, they decided to put a cracked version of the game for pirates to steal on bittorrent, but they did so with a twist: players playing the cracked version of the game will find that piracy drives them bankrupt.

Jack Lumber is an excellent game that arrived on iOS last year. It's reminiscient of Fruit Ninja, in that you drag your finger around the screen to chop through wood, though I think it's an improvement on Halfbrick's formula -- it's got a more complex meta game, and the mechanic is a little deeper as well (the action slows down when your finger touches the screen, allowing for different types of cuts and slashes). Jack Lumber is still available on iOS, but just in case you'd rather use a mouse than your finger, the game has just arrived on Steam as well.

The Steam version will work on your Mac, or on PC or Linux as well, and it's SteamPlay-enabled, so if you buy for one platform you own them all. Currently, the game is on sale for just $5.02, and...

Shares of Apple Inc. continued their rally on Tuesday, rising more than 2.9 percent, helped in part by news the company successfully completed a US$17 billion bond sale. Apple plans to use the money to finance a larger dividend for shareholders and an aggressive stock buyback plan.

It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps like FocusTwist, Circles and Delicious Scanner landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of other standout apps from the past few weeks!

iOS Apps

iLuv Drawing Vehicles HD [iPad; Category: Education; $1.99] Perfect way to introduce drawing skills to kids who love cars, trucks, planes and trains!

My Agenda [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $0.99] An...

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.

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Daily Update for April 30, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:15:00 EST. Please see our...

ASR has some hidden documentation that reveals a few command line options which were previously unknown to most.

A post on jamfnation led to some discussion on ##osx-server about an undocumented ASR command.  Rich Trouton blogged about how to view these commands using a very interesting method.  If you discover what some of these new-to-us commands do, feel free to comment here or over on Rich’s blog with what you discover.

Thanks goes to the great bunch of admins on ##osx-server for this discovery.

About Nate Walck

Nate is a Macintosh Systems Engineer at Tamman Technologies, Inc in Philadelphia, PA. He is the...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been confirmed to appear at the D11: All Things Digital conference in May, following up on his debut in 2012 by kicking off this year's proceedings with an opening night interview.   ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the opening night speaker at the 11th D: All Things Digital conference next month. Last year, Cook joined hosts Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg for a 100-minute session that covered a wide variety of topics.

There’s lots to talk about, from the explosive growth of the mobile market to intense competition from a range of rivals, most especially Google’s Android, as well as innovative offerings from Korea’s Samsung. It will also be interesting to talk about the changes at Apple under Cook’s leadership, who took over from the late co-founder and industry legend Steve Jobs, as well inquiring about what new products are in the pipeline and how the company is faring in an increasingly high-pressure market.Tim Cook makes very few public...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be interviewed on opening-night of AllThingsD‘s D11 conference in May. Cook’s interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg will be his second as the Apple CEO spoke at the conference last year as well. The conference runs in California from May 28th until May 30th. (Image via ATD).

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I am living goddamn proof of this people.

∞ Read this on The Loop

The popular Nest Thermostat has updated its internal software to version 3.5, and pushed out a new iOS app to control it. Most people should have had their thermostats updated automatically at some point yesterday. The software is being billed as summer enhancements to the thermostat aimed at better handling of high temperatures.

Gallery: Nest updates iOS app

The new software allows the thermostat to make sure that sun shining on the hardware does not create false indoor temperature readings. The thermostat also has enhanced fan controls. The auto-...

When Apple was awarded a US$1.05 billion judgement against Samsung last Summer, you might have assumed that Samsung would promptly cut Apple a check and focus on any number of their other ongoing legal entanglements with Apple.

Oh, if only things were that simple.

Back in March, US District Judge Lucy Koh found that the jury, in calculating Apple's damages award, had made a number of mistakes.

The Verge noted at the time:

Koh found two main errors in the way the jury calculated the damages awarded to Apple. They used Samsung's profits to determine the amount the company owed for infringing some of Apple's utility patents - a practice only appropriate when calculating damages owed when design patents have been...

A week after seeding build 12E36 to developers on April 23, Apple has just pushed out OS X 10.8.4 beta build 12E40 to developers. Apple is once again asking developers to focus on WiFi performance, Graphics, and Safari. We’ll update this post if developers have anything new to report. Thanks, Anonymous!

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Apple has erected special displays promoting the iPhone 5 outside of its first Berlin Apple Store, scheduled to open May 3rd, notes German site ApfelPage. The displays -- featuring mock, oversized white iPhones -- are unusual for an Apple Store, but may be necessary to help draw attention to the outlet. Although the building the store is housed in has an elaborate facade, the only other signs of Apple's presence are two small logos by the doorways....  ...

Richard Williams is an Oscar-winning animator, with an extensive history in the film business. His well-reviewed Animator's Survival Kit (US$22 on Amazon) is currently in its second edition. For a mere $959.50, you can pick up a 16-DVD boxed set showcasing all the material covered in the book.

Now, the survival kit series has finally arrived on the iPad. For $34.99, you can pick up an app that teaches core principles of animation combining both text and video into a single product.

At 882 MB, this is a big app, offering a hybrid of written explanation and interactive experience. In many ways, this app feels like an iBook -- embedded videos, the integrated sliding table of contents, but it's presented with a...

Spanish tennis player David Ferrer sent a tweet out to his more than 350,000 followers noting his pleasure with using Samsung’s new Galaxy S4, but accidentally sent the message from his iPhone.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

∞ Read this on The Loop

Today a number of reports are flowing in claiming that social network app Path is sending spam messages to people listed in the user’s address book. The issue apparently isn’t new with some Android users on Reddit experiencing the spam a few months back, while a growing number of users on Twitter today have complained of their contacts receiving both spam text messages and calls. The messages, as pictured right, say the user has photos to share on Path and urges the recipient to downed the free Path app.

However, Path confirmed to The Verge that the issue is actually a feature of the app that sends messages to a user’s Facebook friends during sign-up:

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Vine, the micro-filmmaking cousin of Twitter, has just been updated to version 1.1 with a few important new features. The biggest addition is the ability to use the front-facing camera on your iPhone, making it easier than ever to switch angles on the fly. No longer will you have to restart filming a video because you were trying to film your own face and accidentally aimed over your shoulder.

Version 1.1 also brings user mentions to posts, similar to how you add friends on Twitter. Simply add an @ -- either manually or via the new "mention" button -- and type in their name like you would in Twitter. People search has been improved as well, adding the ability to look up other users by their Twitter handles. The new app is available for download right now.

In the interest of science I tested the new forward facing camera feature while writing this post. Here is the...

Apple Inc wowed the debt markets on Tuesday with the largest non-bank bond deal in history, offering a whopping $17 billion for sale as the U.S. computer giant switches strategy to placate restless shareholders.

Sources said investors could barely submit orders fast enough to get in on the deal from Apple, the only major tech company without a single penny of debt on its books.

No debt and they still had to placate shareholders.

∞ Read this on The Loop

This week in the MacNN forums, members discuss the most recent Flash update in the thread titled "Adobe Flash 11.7.7 update requires download?" which was started by "Hawkeye_a" who found it strange, especially after the recent malware scares. Yesterday "ibook_steve" reported that his Finder is showing that he has more free space on their hard drive than he does in reality....   ...

There are times when the iPad or iPhone user needs a stylus. And because stylus technology has come a long way in terms of the design, craftsmanship and the nib material, they're even more fun to use. The LYNKtec TruGlide Pro, with a 5 mm microfiber tip, is the best pure stylus John Martellaro has ever used. Here's his review.

Find bargain prices on refurbished Mac mini models today at Apple's online store. The refurbished Mac mini with OS X Server, an Intel quad-core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and dual 500GB hard drives has been reduced by $240 to $759. For $889 is the refurbished Mac mini with OS X Server, a 2.0GHz Intel quad-core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and dual 750GB hard drives....   ...

Apple has won a pair of new patents from the US Patent and Trademark Office, says AppleInsider. One, Method and system for facilitating contacting people using electronic devices, describes a software system in which a person can be automatically informed of the best way to contact someone, and on the receiving side, pick what the best contact method for a given time is. In an example provided by Apple, the contacting party might want to talk to someone who's currently driving, but email or a text message might be more appropriate.... ...

Spanish tennis player David Ferrer sent a tweet out to his more than 350,000 followers noting his pleasure with using Samsung's new Galaxy S4, but accidentally sent the message from his iPhone.   ...

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins wants the world to know that he's a visionary. By 2018, he sees a future that's so advanced it's gone all the way back to 2009 because by then this whole tablet thing will have gone the way of the dodo.