Apps can make or break a platform, and Apple's unified approached to iOS makes it a far better operating system to develop for. Charlotte Henry explains why that's a big advantage for Apple over Google's Android OS.

On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new flexible display invention. Apple has filed a number of flex display based patents over the last year including one for advanced concepts and features, another relating to the a next generation Smart Cover and yet another relating to unique functionality beyond the gimmickry of flex screen designs. Today's patent extends on the latter patent in that it ties a flex screen directly to an application such as Apple's GarageBand. In the future ...

Apple quietly added a lower capacity iPod touch to its lineup on Thursday with the introduction of a 16GB model to sit along side its 32GB and 64GB models. The 16GB version doesn't, however, include a rear-facing camera, but does have a front-facing camera for FaceTime video chats.

A new video shows a hands-on session with a case purportedly designed for Apple's next-generation full-size iPad, suggesting once again it will feature a smaller width thanks to thinner bezels, but also revealing that the device's height may also be slightly reduced.  ...

Across multiple genres, it’s fairly common for mobile games to start out as “premium” (as in, paid), and then become “free to play” once their audiences get big enough to sustain them through in-app purchases alone.

Here’s an exception that proves the rule: A made-for-kids tablet game called SuperFugu that’s doing the reverse, by going from free to paid. And the reasoning is the same — they’re changing business models precisely because in-app purchases are so potentially lucrative.

“The freemium model, which promotes marketing to children and creates an environment where kids are constantly asking for money for upgrades, actually isn’t the most ideal,” said Michelle Kim, a spokesperson for SuperFugu’s creators WemoLab.

The game is a hybrid of an educational aquarium and an underwater action/“running”-type game. The original conceit was that players could use virtual currency to buy new species of fish for the...

The worldwide personal and entry-level storage (PELS) market grew 73.4% year over year with 20.2 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), according to the IDC research group (www.idc.com).

Shipment value experienced growth of 54.1% year over year to $1.8 billion. This is the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in worldwide shipment value.

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Without a press release, Apple has quietly released an unusually stripped-down 16GB version of the fifth-generation iPod touch, eliminating the rear iSight camera and loop wrist strap found in the previously-released 32GB and 64GB models. The new 16GB iPod touch retains the other specifications of the late 2012…

Apple will never offer Blu-ray support for the Mac, so MCE Technologies has filled the need with its internal drive for the iMac and Mac mini that plays Blu-ray movies with the included Mac Blu-ray Player software.

read more

On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals Apple's gaze detection technology. It should be noted that Apple's current patent is a divisional patent which means that Apple is breaking this aspect of their 2008 parent patent out as an individual patent. Technically, Apple had this technology in a patent prior to any other competitor including Samsung which actually implemented it first in their Galaxy S4 smartphone earlier this year. Apple also added gaze technologies to a January patent in context to an HDTV related patent and the likes of Sony and BlackBerry are working on similar features. Today, when you put your iPhone to your face the display is turned off. This is one of the technologies found in Apple's gaze detection patent. In the future, gaze technology will be able to stop a video when you look away or ...

While Apple has been the subject of incessant queries wondering when it will follow Samsung and Google's Motorola subsidiary in making a big screen iPhone, both Android licensees are now planning new phones with screens closer in size to iPhone 5.  ...

The US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application that could lead to devices that use flexible displays which users can depress as a mode of input, adding another dimension to UI interaction.  ...

Late Wednesday night, Apple quietly removed the fourth-generation iPod touch from their online store, replacing it instead with a modified version of the current generation. The new model features only a few differences from the fifth-gen, but the omissions are significant.

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The updated music player features a 4-inch Retina display like that found on the current model as well as a dual-core A5 processor, but lacks the rear-facing iSight and loop attachment.  Aside from those changes, the new model is identical to the fifth-generation. Unlike the larger models, the 16 GB iPod touch is only available in one color option: black and silver, as seen above.

The 32 GB and 64 GB models remain untouched, suggesting a possibility that Apple is phasing out the...

Apple on Wednesday added a new iPod touch model to its lineup of iOS devices, with the $229 camera- and wrist-strap-less version being sold as a stripped-down iteration of the company's high-end media player.  ...

Apple on Wednesday announced some of the acts slated to perform at the annual iTunes Festival in London, with Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars and Jack Johnson headlining the concert series scheduled for September.  ...

Apple today announced that it will once again hold its monthlong iTunes Festival in London this year, with 30 nights of concerts at The Roundhouse during the month of September. The full schedule of performances is yet to be announced, but Apple has revealed that the lineup will include Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson and Jessie J.“This year’s iTunes Festival is the best ever with an incredible lineup of global superstars and stellar emerging artists,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Music fans around the world are going to love watching this incredible month of music, whether in London at the Roundhouse or on their iOS device. We’re honored so many renowned artists are part of this...

Apple may be turning to another of its partners and away from Foxconn as the primary supplier of some future Apple products, if a report from the Wall Street Journal is correct. The paper reports that Taiwan-based Pegatron, which has a history with Apple that goes back to the original iBooks, has won the contract to be the primary supplier of a future "low-cost" iPhone model that has been rumored for months. The company already produces most of the iPad minis, and recently announced it was hiring an additional 40,000 workers for an unnamed project.... ...

Clash of Clans is one of the freemium sim titles making lots of money on the App Store, and so it's no surprise that the market has been flooded with clones lately; games where you build up a town Farmville-style, and then send troops from that town out into the world to complete quests. Solara is one of these: You use gold earned by building shops in town to create more buildings and unlock heroes, and then you can use those heroes to defeat monsters and earn more gold. But what sets Solara off from the rest of games like this on the App Store is its design and charm. This isn't just a generic freemium title. First time iOS developer Esper Labs has put plenty of heart into the different facilities you build and the heroes you level up, and that extra effort makes the game's familiar cycle shine.

Unfortunately, Solara still...

Tim Cook's hiring of former EPA chief Lisa Jackson to be the new face of environmental responsibility at Apple has won praise from Greenpeace -- a group normally known for being critical of Apple's environmental policies -- and has been followed-up with a statement from Jackson herself on her new role at the Cupertino electronics giant, reports AppleInsider. Jackson told Politico via email -- written on her iPhone -- that she is "thrilled" to be joining the Apple team, while Greenpeace praised the hire as "a bold move."... ...

CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Mo Rocca recently sat down with USA Today to talk about his iPhone's importance to him. I'll let the video speak for itself (especially when he's talking about using the iPhone to groom his hair), but one thing I did find genuinely intriguing is that he is an iOS user who needs to constantly close apps by bringing up the multitasking bar and tapping the red minus button -- even though iOS is built so you should never need to close open apps. Does that make him an ultimate techie or obsessive-compulsive? With humorists you never know.

Video: Mo Rocca's iPhone is his second-most important accessory originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple...

Now that USB 3.0 has become mainstream in the Mac market, we're hearing about a lot more USB 3.0-based drives and accessories. Of course, once you've run out of ports on your Mac, you either need to swap devices or get yourself a hub. Satechi, the company that wowed us with a 10-port USB 3.0 hub earlier this year, has just announced the 7-port USB 3.0 Premium Aluminum Hub (US$69.99, specially priced now for $54.99).

Made from aluminum and echoing the design of Apple's Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, the hub is perfect for any of your favorite Macs, from the thin MacBook Air to the latest iMac. It's powered through an included wall adapter, and comes with either white or black trim. Best of all,...

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• Rakuten Shopping: [Keyboards] Mobee Inductive Charger for Apple Keyboard, Trackpad for $9 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] Together 3 for Mac downloads for $20
• MacGameStore.com: [Mac Games] Feral Games 6-Game Bundle for Mac for $20
• ...

At least a dozen former AMD graphics specialists have changed their online profiles to reflect that they are now working for Apple at the Orlando Design Center in Florida, suggesting that work on graphics acceleration on Apple's Ax processor line is being quietly built up, and may reflect an overall increased interest by Apple to take more aspects of the processor in-house. Despite the addition of at least 12 engineers since the start of the year, Apple is still advertising for jobs with the Orlando center, as well as similar jobs in Cupertino.... ...

Mount Everest 3D is a free universal iOS app that brings you up close to the highest mountain in the world. 3D data gathered from satellites gives you the ability to explore the mountain with a touch interface. You can zoom, rotate, and follow the most popular routes up to the summit of Mount Everest. The app also shows weather in the area, details for hardy tourists, and a 2D view.

The app also has the inevitable in-app purchase, which lets you download maps and info for use without an Internet connection, but I think most people can get along without it. The on-board maps are US$5.99.

Gallery: Mount Everest 3D

...

At the D11 Conference, Jason Johnson and Yves Bahar have unveiled a new digital lock system for home doors called “August.” The iPhone app allows users to send virtual keys to doors to other users. The system installs as a deadbolt with two screws into modern doors. The company says that installation is seamless…

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A scenario demonstrated on stage includes a user with his phone in his pocket being able to open an authenticated door while his hands are full.

The iPhone app’s door-unlock-sending system allows users to choose timeframes in which the virtual key will work. The app can also share an enter/exit log with the home owner. The virtual keys are said to also be easily removable…

Battery life on the device is 6-12 months. A key can open the door if the battery runs out. The August is priced...

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.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for May 29, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 29 May 2013 18:45:00 EST. Please see our...

The OS X Forage (US$9.99) app provides a simple query and editing interface for SQLite databases. This app targets developers who use pre-built databases for iOS, OS X and Web deployment. It enables them to test and refine queries as well as to edit table data, and do so outside of the command line.

It's a pretty sweet little app. I was able to open, edit, and save updates to a variety of database files. Admittedly, my testing was fairly light, but it easily handled address book and photo databases from the iPhone, which are my primary area of testing, as well as several test databases provided by the developer.

Updates are handled as transactions. You can add and change data but the changes aren't stored until you specifically hit the Save Changes button (you see it at the bottom of the table editor, next to the row add and delete buttons).

Visual updates (they're subtle -- you may have...

A veteran Apple expert lays out the likely WWDC announcements, the ITC finds itself rethinking a decision, and Apple’s about to get even more environmentally friendly. What’s good for the environment is good for the remainders for Wednesday, May 29, 2013.

WWDC Expectations (The Loop)

Jim Dalrymple lays out his predictions for June’s Worldwide Developers Conference, saying he expects no new iOS hardware and that anybody who says the keynote is a bust because of that is “stupid.”

Yep.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At the Wall Street Jourmal D11 conference, ABC Television president Anne Sweeney and online television streaming service Aereo CEO Barry Diller were interviewed separately, with vastly differing opinions on the recently expanded startup which has seen its share of lawsuits both instigated by and delivered unto it. The ABC president called Aereo "wrong," adding that she believes that "it is illegal, and it is opportunistic piracy" despite no court yet agreeing with her sentiment....  ...

I met with the German company Innogames a few years ago at GDC, where the company told me it was eventually planning to bring out some of its browser-based strategy titles to iOS. I haven't heard much from Innogames since, until today: The company has announced that its next mobile title will be a client for Grepolis, one of the most popular games in the lineup. Grepolis is enormously popular overseas, especially among European gamers (the title claims over 20 million registered users), and in addition to Innogames' other mobile-enabled title, Tribal Wars, it should significantly grow the company's audience on iOS.

There's already an app from Innogames called the Grepolis Toolbox available on the App Store, but it's...

We already knew that EA had plans to bring its Real Racing 3 franchise to the Middle East when it released the teaser for the Dubai Autodrome above. Today the update has officially landed in the App Store and also brings some other goodies to the extremely popular racing franchise.

On top of 6 track layouts for both day and twilight racing at the Dubai Autodrome, the game also now features Lexus vehicles including the Lexus IS-F and Lexus LFA. Other additions include the Dodge Charger RT and Dodge Charger SRT8, as well as 50+ new events to explore.

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I don't know about you, but after watching/listening/suffering through all 81 minutes of Tim Cook's AllThingsD D11 talk with hosts Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, I feel like I have a hangover. Unsurprisingly, Cook didn't open the kimono to reveal secret new products that are waiting in the wings, and the hosts and audience seemed to take delight in pointing out the parade of new devices or technologies announced by Google and other competitors.

Today on TUAW TV Live, my co-host Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd and I will talk about the usual -- new products, fun stuff that's come out this week -- and then rehash the D11 frat party. To join us, just click this link to jump over to http://tuaw.com/tuawtvlive, where you'll find our HD livestream and chat tool. Be sure to bookmark that page on your browser...

Apple has hired at least a dozen former AMD graphics engineers for its Orlando offices in recent months, according to a MacRumors review of employees' LinkedIn profiles.

The majority of hires, which include a graphics architect, hardware engineer and others, occurred in January of this year.

AMD laid off a number of employees last year in a corporate reorganization, and fired more in January. It seems likely that Apple hired a number of the laid off Orlando AMD engineers for a new team it's building in the region.

The company has also posted new job listings for Site...

A new video features Mayo Clinic, which is using iPhone and iPad to transform how they care for patients. Practitioners say it’s helping patients and saving time. The clinic, known worldwide for its healthcare innovations, has developed a host of custom in-house apps, including one to give physicians instant access to patient records on an iOS device. Another app lets patients securely access their records and exchange messages with their providers. “For patients dealing with any health issue, information is power,” says Mayo’s Dr. Brad Leibovich. “The more we can empower them to understand what’s going on with them, the better they’ll feel and the better their outcomes will be.”

AT&T may drive you nuts at times, but they DO work on having a decent network…

Per AppleInsider, AT&T has announced its continued expansion of its 4G LTE network for customers in Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. This latest rollout is part of a larger effort on the part of AT&T to expand its network to 79 new markets over the course of the summer.

AT&T’s 4G LTE network provides data speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G. In recent tests, PC World found AT&T’s network, which covers 288 million people across the United States, to be the fastest among all providers in terms of download speeds.

The markets now able to access 4G LTE connections are as follows:
- Asheville, N.C....

Apple is reported to be bolstering ties with partner supplier Pegatron, while at the same time lessening its reliance on manufacturing monolith Foxconn, which up to now has been responsible for producing a bulk of the Cupertino company's devices.  ...

ForkLift is a powerful file manager and ferociously fast FTP client clothed in a clean and versatile UI that offers the combination of absolute simplicity and raw power expected from a well-executed Mac software.

ForkLift will connect to any remote server FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDAV, the SMB, NIS and AFP shares on your local network, or your Bluetooth mobile phone- pretty much anything you can plug into or hook up to a Mac. ForkLift also carries a complete toolbox for managing your files, including Folder Synchronization, Batch Renaming, Archive handling, Application deleter, editing files over remote connections and many more. All these power features are packaged into a Finder-like, dual-pane interface that delivers superior workflow while remaining absolutely familiar to use, along with QuickLook, Spotlight search and all.

Features:

• ForkLift 2.5 requires OS X 10.7 Lion or later
• Completely re-built from...

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Apple’s continuous shifts and expansion of its Asia-based product suppliers. For several years, Foxconn has been known as the de facto Apple manufacturing partner for iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs. However, over the past few years, Apple has begun manufacturing certain products at Tawain-based Pegatron. Today’s report positions Apple’s move to diversify its production manufacturing partners as one to reduce risk and to provide greater supply chain balance.

But under current Chief Executive Tim Cook, Apple is dividing its weight more equally with a relatively unknown supplier,...

Trent Reznor recently spilled the beans on the first new Nine Inch Nails album in five years.

∞ Read this on The Loop

During yesterday's All Things D kickoff interview, Walt Mossberg asked Tim Cook why Apple hasn't yet released different iPhone models for a range of demographics and regions. If a varied product lineup worked so successfully for the iPod, Mossberg wondered, why not implement a similar strategy for the iPhone.

In short, amidst a sea of increasingly popular Android handsets with large screens, Mossberg wanted to know why Apple has continued to stick with a one-size-fits-all iPhone strategy.

Cook first responded that while Apple hasn't yet released an iPhone with a bigger screen, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't in the future.

Cook continued:

It takes a lot of work, a lot of really detailed work to do a phone right when you manage the hardware the software and the services around it. We've chosen to put our energies into...

Incorrect serial numbers from a repair may prevent some programs and features from working.

Om Malik:

In the case of S4, when I used the device for the first time, I encountered three screens asking me to either sign-in or sign-up: Google, Samsung and AT&T. The phone is packed with Google Apps (good), Samsung Apps (meh!) and AT&T apps (why.)

∞ Read this on The Loop

When he's not hanging around with rock stars (like Guns 'n Roses guitarist Slash, at left above) or controlling the Northern Hemisphere's supply of Heineken, Jim Dalrymple (right) is talking about Apple and those other things at The Loop. Jim's been an industry insider for quite some time, so when he talks, smart people tend to listen. Today Jim did all of us in the Apple blogosphere a favor by outlining what he feels are reasonable expectations for what we'll hear and see during the WWDC 2013 keynote.

Some of the highlights from his prognostications include:

• "The important thing to remember about WWDC is that it is a developer conference. It's not a place where Apple is going to show off the newest iPhone or iPad," followed by the admonition to bloggers that "If you are going to write an article that Apple will release the new iPhone or iPad at...

Apple isn't the only company grappling with its relationship to Samsung as both a smartphone component supplier and handset competitor. HTC recently complained that Samsung has "strategically declined" to provide it with crucial parts for years.  ...

Google on Wednesday announced a sizable reworking of the interface behind its Gmail web client, one that introduces a new tabbed inbox interface that will soon make its way from the web to iPads and iPhones.   ...

Google is slowly rolling out an updated Gmail interface to the web and its mobile apps, according to an official blog post. The interface divides a person's inbox into five customizable categories; Primary, for instance, gathers together high-priority emails, while Social can be used to handle messages from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Messages can be dragged-and-dropped between tabs, and people can choose to use any combination of categories or none at all....  ...

In Dan’s absence – Jim is joined by Myke Hurley – to discuss Tim Cook at the D11 conference and WWDC Expectations.

Special guest Myke Hurley.

Sponsored by Mailchimp and Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME5 for 30% off).

∞ Read this on The Loop

We've reviewed quite a few pieces of Olloclip hardware in the past. The company makes the 3-in-1 iPhone camera lens that snaps onto the device and provides a wide angle, macro, and fish-eye lens. Today the company has branched into new territory by releasing its first iOS app, simply called Olloclip. The app is a companion app for the Olloclip lens that allows the user to enhance photos and even fix distortions in photos taken with the Olloclip lens. Here are its key features:

• Mesh Editor Tool - Conversion lenses can add an interesting curvature to your photos. Once the photo has been taken, use the Mesh Editor tool to adjust this effect.
• Video Mode - This mode allows you to shoot comfortably and easily while using your olloclip to transform your field of view.
• Normal Mode - Maximize...

Learning a new language can be tedious, but you can liven up your lessons with Learn Spanish with JamTok! from TicTokLabs. The app focuses on vocabulary and uses music as the cornerstone of each lesson. Learn Spanish with JamTok! features popular music from artists like Carlos Santana, Bruno Mars, Nickelback, Madonna, and more.

The JamTok! Spanish app allows you to pick a song and learn its lyrics in Spanish. A handy slider lets you swing the lyrics in favor of Spanish or English, so you can adjust the difficulty based on your skill level. Vocabulary words are highlighted in yellow along with an image of the word. After working your way through a song, the app prompts you to practice the words that you learned while singing the song. These mini-games follow along with the song and require you to tap on vocabulary words to identify their meaning. It's a...

Satechi's new aluminium USB 3.0 hub sports seven ports in a sleek body designed to look great along side your MacBook Pro, iMac, or Mac mini. It includes its own power supply, comes with white or black face trim around the ports, angles the USB ports so it's easy to add and remove devices, and is backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices. It's available now for US$54.99 as an introductory special, but will eventually jump up to $69.99.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple will pay US$53 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleges the company unfairly denied warranty coverage to iPhone and iPod owners because of faulty water damage indicator tapes in the devices.

Like many companies, Apple uses water damage indicator tape inside its devices so it can tell if the device has been submerged in water. The tape, made by 3M, changes color when it comes into contact with liquid. However, the plaintiffs in the case successfully argued that the tape Apple used could change color while exposed to humidity or moisture in the air.

Though Apple has denied any wrongdoing and the court has yet to improve the settlement offer, users of affected units can expect up to a US$300 compensation per device. It's unknown if that compensation will come in the form of a check or a credit for a new device...

A spokesperson for Connected Data told The Mac Observer that the company will be supporting owners of its Transporter product whatever happens with its merger with Drobo. The two companies announced the merger on Tuesday, but terms of the deal and what form the merged company will take have not been disclosed.

Satechi’s new USB hub delivers all the features you could ask for in a compact USB hub: beautiful design, plenty of ports, and USB 3 support.

The hub expands a single USB port into 7 different USB ports for various devices like iPhones, iPads, digital cameras, external hard drives and almost any other device you can imagine.

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With our expensive MacBooks only featuring two USB ports these days, a compact USB hub with that many ports is welcomed with open arms. Satechi’s USB hub supports data transfer rates up to 5...

The International Trade Commission said late Tuesday it would take a second look at an ITC judge's decision that Samsung had infringed one Apple patent for a text-selection feature in its smartphones and tablets, reports "Reuters" (http://tinyurl.com/o234kxb)

The ITC panel will also look at the judge's decision, made in March, that the South Korean company, which supplies some Apple chips, did not infringe a second patent which detects if a microphone or other device is plugged into its microphone jack, reports "Reuters." A final decision is due on Aug. 1.

read more

If you're an iPhone owner, chances are you spend 55% more time on it than your Android-owning friends use their devices. That's according to a report from Experien. While the average Android user spends 49 minutes on their phone each day, the average iPhone user spends a whopping 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The report also says that iPhone and Android users use their phones in different ways. iPhone users spend only 22% of their time talking on the device, while Android users spend 28% of their time talking. But iPhone owners spend much more time using social network apps, emailing, texting, and taking pictures than Android users do.

The report also notes some interesting stats about platform-agnostic smartphone usage. The average daily usage time is 58 minutes. 26% of that is spent talking, 20% texting, 16...

Max Seelemann is an Apple developer and founder of The Soulmen, now famous for the Ulysses series of apps for writers. In this interview, Mr. Seelemann explains how Apple's iCloud APIs, designed for simple use, often fail when developers have even modest file issues to deal with.

Apple has updated its official iTunes Movie Trailers app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with some nice enhancements for video playback and movie ticket purchasing integration:

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Apple now allows users to manually select between SD and HD video playback (which could help depending on your internet connection), and the update also promises to make playback begin more quickly.

Perhaps most notably, the new app update integrates Fandango for movie ticket purchasing. Apple...

Twitter has updated its application for the iPhone and iPod touch with a refreshed user-interface for the Tweets timeline.

Additionally, the updated application features a new Tweet composer interface that actually allows users to preview what a posted Tweet will look like in the timeline. Also notable is the new ability to receive notifications when friends join Twitter.

Improvements and fixes for the Lists functionality are also...

Google has released an update to its Google+ app that sees a number of new features. Most significantly, the update offers a number of automatic photo editing tools. Now users can simply tap an Auto Enhance button to automatically touch up their photos in the app. Another button called Auto Highlight allows the app to select the best photo out of a series of photos. The featured called Auto Awesome takes multiple photos and combines them into one, while Auto Backup allows you to automatically upload any photos you've taken to Google+.

The update also sees the removal of Hangouts. Instead users are offered a button that takes them to the dedicated Hangouts iOS app. Here's a full rundown of all the new features:

- New Google+ Photos features keep photos organized and looking their best
* Make your photos look even better with Auto Enhance
* Browse highlights from all your photos
*...

If you are tired of hunt-and-peck typing, you should learn how to touch type. The App Store offers a free program called Typist that will do just that. It won't relieve the tedium of learning touch typing, because there are no entertaining games or letters to shoot from the sky. This is a basic "type what you see on screen" program that follows the traditional way to learn touch typing.

Typist 2.3 works fine in the two systems in which I tested it: Mac OSX 10.6.8 and OS X 10.8.3. It is just so quiet that it's unnerving. You hear nothing, unless you make a mistake, and then you hear a typewriter-type sound to notify you. You are then given the lesson again, unless you choose to use the odd interface to pick another lesson. You must finish the whole lesson correctly to move on uninterrupted. The screen shot below shows you the basic screen in which you choose lessons.

If you don't...

Streaming music service Rdio has launched a redesigned version of its Mac client. The updated software takes after the current iOS app, adopting a minimalist interface. In the Now Playing view, clicking a list icon at the bottom right of the screen will bring up album art and the current playlist; an enlarged, blurred-out version of the album serves as a background....  ...

As expected from a previous leak earlier this month, Google just announced on its official Gmail blog that it’s rolling out a brand new UI for Gmail on both the web and mobile that brings a new Categories based UI for easier organization of emails. The screenshots below line up with the images that we posted last week showing new customizable Categories that users can assign to manage emails according to content. For example: ‘Social’ for emails related to social networks, ‘Promotions’ for promotional material, ‘Notifications’ for reservations, bills, etc, and ‘Forums’ for mailing lists and forums.

On the desktop...

Back in April we noted that the International Trade Commission had handed down a preliminary ruling that Samsung infringed an Apple patent related to a text-selection feature in a number of its Galaxy devices and other smartphones. Today, Reuters reports that an ITC trade panel will now reconsider the decision in a review of the previous ruling ahead of a final decision in the patent battle:

The International Trade Commission said late Tuesday it would take a second look at an ITC judge’s decision that Samsung had infringed one Apple patent for a text-selection feature in its smartphones and tablets.

...

It’s good to see Adobe communicating openly about what’s going on with Creative Cloud.

∞ Read this on The Loop

ZAGG has released the Origin, a two-in-one sound system that combines a desktop speaker and portable speaker into one unit.

The Origin’s travel-size speaker offers crisp, high-fidelity sound on-the-go, and works with any Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, tablet, or device, including Mac OS X, Windows, iOS and Android, according to Kent Wuthrich, executive vice president of marketing for ZAGG. The portable speaker connects magnetically to the larger desktop speaker where sound output is transferred.

read more

Apple takes the environment seriously and have for many years. Moves like this solidify their lead in the environmental space.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Our staff has been pushing out articles about Tim Cook's D11 appearance last night, and now the complete video is available courtesy of AllThingsD. The 1 hour 21 minute video is fascinating, not for any announcements that were made or not made by Cook, but for the constant pressure from hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher to get him to spill the beans.

For details, check out the following posts:

Executive change-up at Apple has been great; Jony has been "really key" to iOS 7 design

Apple has already acquired nine companies in 2013

More breakout posts will be forthcoming later today.

Full video from Tim Cook's D11 appearance...

Payment service Payleven is bringing its chip-and-PIN card reader to European Apple Stores, says The Next Web. The reader pairs with an iPhone, iPad, or Android device via Bluetooth, and lets retailers read chipped credit cards from companies like Visa and MasterCard. Unlike the US, Europe has largely abandoned cards with magnetic strips....  ...

Lisa Jackson, who previously managed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama, has a new job answering to CEO Tim Cook at Apple. Mr. Cook made the announcement during an interview at the AllThingsD D11 Conference Tuesday evening.

You know that pixel count you love on your iPhone 5?

It could double with the next generation of the iPhone.

Per Weiphone and Unwired View, Apple is planning to increase the resolution of a future iPhone model to 1.5 million pixels — double that of the pixel count on the current iPhone 5.

The details come from a report...

"We have some incredible plans that we have been working on for a while," Apple CEO Tim Cook said at his AllThingsD conference talk.

Some of those plans could still involve a TV. Cook reiterated the market is of "great interest" to Apple and that the current experience is outdated. Cook also declared Google Glass to be a niche product, while adding (in a possible iWatch hint) the broader wearable computing market is a very interesting area.

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Amazon is announcing today the roll out of a new service called “Login with Amazon” t0 allow developers to easily offer an Amazon sign-in option in their apps, games, and websites. Amazon says in a trial with Zappos.com customers chose to sign in using the Login with Amazon service about 40 percent of the time, while a trial with Woot found customers using Amazon sign in “had the highest rate of order conversion”:

“Login with Amazon enables app developers and website owners to leverage Amazon’s trusted sign-in solution, allowing them to focus on providing a great experience for their customers,” said Michael Carr, Amazon Vice President, eCommerce Services. “Amazon customers now have a hassle-free way to quickly and securely sign-in to apps, games and websites, without having to remember yet another password.”

Amazon is making the service available...

Watch for yourself.

We don’t yet know what the next iOS app from Second Gear will be—because the company isn’t saying. But we do now know how we’ll find out about the app, which the company says will be released in early June. The developers this week unveiled Pit Pass, a clever means by which it will first inform customers about its new app via Passbook.

From Second Gear’s Pit Pass website, you can provide a few details (your name, email address, and desired username), and then click on the Get Your Pit Pass button. At that point, the website offers up a card for Passbook, which you can add from your Mac (since Passbook syncs via iCloud), or add directly from your iPhone.

When you view the pass right now, there’s not much there there: The Passbook card includes a link to Elements for...

If you were looking for hints as to upcoming Apple products, this might be one of them.

Per 9to5Mac, during his recent interview at the AllThingsD D11 Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook has for the first time talked at length about his view on wearable technologies as competitors like Google and others push ahead with Glass and other wearable projects. While noting that broad range appeal with a product like Google Glass is “tough to see,” Cook said he thinks “the wrist is interesting” while calling the form factor “somewhat natural” compared to head mounted products.

“Nike Fuel Band well made for the...

A bug fix ne’er goes unappreciated.

On Friday, Dropbox released version 2.0.22 of its cloud-based storage client for Mac OS X. The new version, a 29.3 megabyte download (via MacUpdate), which adds the following fixes and changes:

- Fixed a bug that might prevent Dropbox from auto-updating.

Dropbox 2.0.22 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run.

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

Rdio today launched a revamp of its Mac app, giving it the same minimalist user-interface as the iOS version, with album art taking center stage …

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The big new feature is the now-playing view. Click the little three line list icon at bottom right and the whole app becomes a giant album cover, along with a listing of the tracks on the current album (or playlist). At the bottom of that list you can see what’s coming up next in your queue. (Via CoM)

Rdio is a Spotify competitor without the ad-supported free subscription tier. You pay either $4.99/month for desktop and web access, or $9.99/month to add mobile streaming too, with family packages also...

Basil Salad Software has introduced Scuttlebutt Pro 1.0, a new Yammer client designed specifically for Mac enthusiasts. It requires Mac OS X 10.8.3 and higher, a Yammer account, and an Internet connection.

Written with the Mac power users in mind, Scuttlebutt Pro supports Yammer external networks and allows simultaneous log-ins using multiple Yammer accounts. The client allows people from different locations and time zones to share workplace-sensitive information.

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With all of us collecting more and more stuff (i.e. data!), having some sort of centralized, network-accessible storage is becoming common and even necessary in our homes. To that end, Dave Hamilton sets about answering the question of which NAS to get and, more importantly, how you can choose what's best for you.

Feral Interactive has announced that a Mac port of Creative Assembly's Napoleon: Total War - Gold Edition will launch on July 3rd. Players assume control of France, Austria, Prussia, Russia, or Great Britain during the Napoleonic era. Politics, economics, and research are controlled from a turn-based strategic map, while land and sea battles are fought in a real-time 3D view. The single-player battles and campaign are complemented by several multiplayer modes, including drop-in battles and full campaign sessions....  ...

After months of negotiations, Facebook is no longer in talks to acquire Waze, the Israel-based social mapping and navigation startup, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The two companies had been in discussion for a potential acquisition, with a price tag that could have reached up to $1 billion.

But the talks dissolved in recent days, according to sources, due in part to conflicts over whether or not the Waze team — which is predominantly based in Israel — would move over to the United States and fold itself into Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, among other reasons.

Reps from both Facebook and Waze declined to comment.

Waze’s mobile application seemed like a...

When Realmac Software created Clear a little over a year ago, the big attraction was the ability to perform most to-do list tasks with a single swipe or two. Today the company has introduced Analog Camera for iPhone (US$0.99 introductory price), an app that brings much of the same ease of use to applying photo effects to your iPhone images and then sharing them with others.

Realmac decided not to pack as many filters and effects into the app as possible, and instead focused on making sure that the app was fast and fun to use. I think they've accomplished that goal with Analog Camera, as it is an app you'll want to use for those photos you capture with your iPhone.

Like my favorite "pro" iPhone camera app, Camera+, Analog...

New smartphone usage data shows that iPhone owners spend an additional 26 minutes per day on Apple's handset more than the average Android device user.   ...

The Wall Street Journal has posted a complete video (below) of Apple CEO Tim Cook's talk at D11. During the discussion with journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Cook talked about a variety of topics, covering everything from the environment, iOS 7, and wearable devices to Apple TV sales. The video is an hour and 20 minutes long....  ...

Launching today in the iOS App Store, Realmac's Analog Camera is a clean, no-frills photo app that borrows design and usability features from the developer's popular to-do list title Clear.   ...

Hours after Apple CEO Tim Cook's talk with AllThingsD's Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, AllThingsD has posted the full video of the interview online. The 81-minute video contains the full interview in addition to the Q&A session that followed. MacRumors provided live updates of the event. Last year it took several weeks for the full video to find its way online.

Steve Jobs was a regular participant of the D conference, having been interviewed on the stage and even appearing alongside Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Cook has carried on that tradition by serving as the opening session interview for the past two years.

Among the topics discussed by Cook yesterday:

-...

According to Korea's ETNews, Apple is working on a new 12.9" iPad ...

iPhone owners spend 50 percent more time using their phones than Android owners, according to new data from Experian, which sampled 12,770 American smartphone owners.

iPhone users spend an hour and fifteen minutes using their phones per day, a full 26 minutes more than the typical Android phone owner. Additionally, iPhone and Android smartphone owners use their phones in markedly different ways. For instance, 28% of the time that Android users spend using their phones is dedicated to talking, whereas iPhone users spend only 22% of their smartphone time talking on the device. Android owners also devote a greater share of time visiting websites on their phone than iPhone owners. On the other hand, iPhone owners spend a...

The full discussion with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the D11 conference is now available for all to stream online in its entirety.   ...

Does the iPhone need yet another photo filter app? Realmac Software’s Analog Camera makes a persuasive argument for why it should take over from similar apps.

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.

Zevrix Solutions (http://zevrix.com) has announced Output Factory 1.3.19, an update to its professional output automation solution for Adobe InDesign. The new version lets users apply specific HTML export settings across batches of InDesign documents in addition to the option to export each file with its current HTML settings.

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ABI Research’s (www.abiresearch.com) latest mobile Internet pricing tracker reinforces the notion that there are essentially five mobile Internet pricing models in operation: the Tiered Usage Pricing Plan; the All You Can Eat Data Plan; the Unlimited Plan with Speed Restriction; the Data Surfing Time Plan; and the Multi-device Shared Plan.

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The full 1h 21m video of Tim Cook’s D11 interview is now up.

For those with less time, you can read Mark Gurman’s live blog of the event, as well as our highlights and excerpts …

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• We have no religious issue with doing Android apps, but we won’t do Chat heads on iOS

• One iPhone, market share and discussing wearables

• Tim Cook teases Jony Ive’s overhaul of iOS 7

• ...

The Google+ app for iOS has received some updates, including some that were shown off at the Google I/O developer event. Photo editing features, such as Auto Engance and Auto Highlight, are included, along with automated hashtags, the ability to edit comments, and minor changes to the update stream, according to The Next Web. The refreshed Hangouts have been removed from the Google+ app and made into its own standalone messaging app....  ...

ABC News

This evening at AllThingsD's 11th annual conference (which is billed as D11), executive producers of the conference Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg hosted a chat with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. Cook was tight-lipped about a lot of his company's future plans, but he did have some interesting tidbits to offer, which could give some insight into Apple's future products. Apple's own WWDC conference will be held in two weeks in San Francisco.

This year the Apple CEO was grilled yet again on the conference stage by veteran reporters Swisher and Mossberg, and this time around it was all about Apple's ability to handle competitors, especially Google in its various forms. Besides the questions about Android and Samsung, Swisher and Mossberg asked Cook about his take on Google...

Wearable computing could be as big a branch of the technology tree as iPhones and iPads, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Speaking Tuesday night at this year's D conference, Mr. Cook said that he was "extremely interested" in wearables, but he dismissed "glasses"—i.e. Google Glass—as a niche product and said that other forms of wearables offered more promises.

Speaking at All Things D's D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook has credited the company's senior vice president of industrial design, Jonathan Ive, with helping drive iOS development. Although Ive is better known for his work on physical hardware, Cook acknowledges that the designer has played a "key" role in the design process for iOS 7 by blending hardware, software and services....  ...

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to defend Apple’s utterly legal tax practices. Onstage at our D11 conference tonight, Cook said he viewed that appearance as “an opportunity, not a pain in the ass.” In the video below, he explains why and talks about Apple’s call for a major overhaul of corporate tax code.

[ See post to watch video ]

RELATED POSTS:

• Liveblog: Apple Has More Game-Changing Tech in the Works, Says CEO Tim Cook
• Apple’s Tim Cook Has a “Grand Vision” for Television — And Still Won’t Talk About It
• ...

Tim Cook noted during his interview at the D11 conference tonight that “Apple has no religious issue porting an iOS app to Android,” but was careful to point out that they would only do so “if it made sense.”

When asked about Facebook’s Android home screen replacement and whether such access would ever be available to developers on Apple’s platform, Cook noted that there are plans to allow deeper access to iOS, but such changes will only be allowed if they don’t impact the customer’s experience. Kara Swisher specifically asked about the possibility of Chat Heads becoming part of iOS, but Cook was quick to shoot the idea down:

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Walt: Facebook Home? Takes over Android. It hasn’t done very well. It’s an interesting idea. Your keyboard and your recognition, predictive typing has not kept pace with what has occurred on the Android/...