Apple has reportedly bought HopStop, a mapping company with technology that provides users with the fastest routes for pedestrian trips on foot, bike and mass transit, including subways. HopStop provides routing directions in some 140 cities in the U.S., meaning that it could significantly boost Apple Maps in the U.S.

The Mac Observer Spin:
In other words, HopStop's technology and data could dramatically boost one of Apple Maps' biggest shortcomings, which is pedestrian and mass transit routing. In this area, Google has a clear lead on Apple, making HopStop a very strategic purchase for Apple.

Apple has added some additional information to the Developer Portal’s maintenance page stating that memberships that were supposed to expire during the unexpectedly-long downtime have been extended to accommodate for the issue and apps will remain on the store until the portal is available again and developers can properly renew their accounts:

We apologize that maintenance is taking longer than expected.
If your program membership was set to expire during this period, it has been extended and your app will remain on the App Store. If you have any other concerns about your account, please contact us...

Good news, note hoarders. Evernote has released a new major update that brings new Shortcut and Skitch features to the already powerful app. Shortcuts works as a sort of Favorites, giving users quick assess to their most commonly used tags, notebooks, and notes. Worry not multiple device users, your shortcuts sync across-platforms, meaning you'll never be without your list.

The second major feature is integration with Skitch, an already popular service owned by Evernote, used for marking up images and PDF files. Now you can annotate and doodle to your heart's content by simply pressing the Skitch icon in your menu bar. This feature requires that you already have the Skitch app installed on your iOS device.

Premium users also get a new Related Notes feature...

From 9to5Toys.com:

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

Also check out the latest...

Apple has acquired transit service HopStop.com to improve its mapping service, reports Bloomberg. News of the deal comes just hours after the reported purchase of Locationary, a company that focuses on location crowdsourcing.Apple Inc. (AAPL) agreed to buy online transit-navigation service HopStop.com Inc., people with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to improve mapping tools after a rocky debut for its directions software last year.According to its website, HopStop, which also has an iOS app, is a service that is designed to offer detailed subway, bus, train, taxi, walking and biking directions to more than 600 cities throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

The service’s App Store description also notes that it provides HopStop...

Looks like Apple’s recent purchase of crowdsourced location data company Locationary was part of a two-fer mapping acquisition. The company also acquired online transit-navigation appmaker HopStop. HopStop’s area of cartographic expertise: mass transit directions — something Apple’s mapping service doesn’t currently offer.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said, confirming the acquisition.

At last count, Hopstop had two million monthly active users and launched a Waze-like service for reporting real-time delays and other information.

Founded in...

Following this morning’s news that Apple has acquired Locationary, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is purchasing the mapping app ‘HopStop’.

New mapping software Apple debuted in September with the iPhone 5 has been faulted for getting users lost and for its lack of public transportation directions. HopStop shows users in more than 500 cities the fastest way to travel by foot, bike, subway and car.

With this purchase, along with the purchase of  including Placebase, ...

I recently ran into an interesting issue, with Apple Mail seeming to randomly crash.

While browsing Apple Mail and selecting certain e-mails, Apple Mail would ‘Unexpectedly Quit’. The mail messages that would cause these quits were seemingly random. None were from the same contact, they had no shared elements (attachments, subject line, invalid characters, etc.), there was nothing that would help to distinguish the cause of these crashes.

The only element that seemed to line up, was that there each had multiple recipients in the To: field, perhaps indicting a corrupted recipients file. To test this, I tried to open and review the previous recipients.

On selecting previous recipients, mail would become non-responsive and hang indefinitely. This appeared to indicate the cause of the unexpected quit was a corrupted MailRecents-V4.abcdmr.

...

Earth will get a very not too close closeup today from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now on the far side of the planet Saturn. The photo session will take place between 2:27 PM and 2:42 PDT. The Cassini mission. The earth will be seen from 900 miles away. It won't be a detailed image, but it is the longest range photo ever taken of the earth. This will likely be the one and only image the spacecraft takes of the earth.

You can follow along with a couple of iOS apps that will virtually take you there. First, SkySafari has just had an update to the iOS and Mac apps they offer. SkySafari's basic version will be free on the iTunes Store from July 19th through July 21st; it's normally U.S. $3.00 at the iTunes Store. With SkySafari,...

According to a new report this afternoon, Apple and Samsung have held a series of private negotiations about their numerous patent disputes since a court victory by Apple in one case last summer. The negotiations included face-to-face meetings in Seoul, South Korea, in December, one document states. The two companies even appeared to come close to a settlement in February before talks cooled off. There is no indication that the two sides are close to a settlement, but talks between the companies are still going on, the people familiar with the discussions said.

[Updated with news of membership extensions] Apple's Developer Center portal is in the middle of an extended maintenance outage, visitors note. Word of the downtime first emerged on Thursday; unusually, however, the Center is still closed as of mid-afternoon Eastern time on Friday. "This site is undergoing maintenance for an extended period today. Thanks for your patience," the website's placeholder message reads. A new more extended message has appeared on the site, assuring developers that any memberships that were near expiration will be automatically extended beyond the downtime.... ...

You have to hand it to Microsoft. The company isn't tucking its tablet tail between its legs or even bowing out of the tablet market gracefully. The day after Microsoft announced a US$900 million write down on unsold Surface inventory, the company released an iPad attack ad to hawk yet another price cut on the Surface RT.

Organizing your ideas and keeping them tidy can be a challenge. Sometimes you just have to try different apps and different methods until one sticks. If you are in the market for another idea organizer and want something different, you should check out Grid by Binary Thumb.

As its name implies, Grid uses a grid to organize your ideas, your tasks or pretty much anything you want. It reminds me a lot of the good old days when you would clear off the kitchen table, lay down a stack of colored index cards and arrange them until they were organized just right.

When Grid launches you are presented with an empty grid and are prompted to fill it in with blocks of text, photos, contacts or location information. You can create columns to help manage your tasks or add photos and texts to prototype the layout of a blog post. I used the map data along with a photo of my house to create a visual map that I sent to a friend who was visiting...

Where is the elusive degree symbol on the iOS keyboard? It's practically right in front of you, and Jared Apperson shows you where.

At first, some observers thought that Microsoft was on to something. Its Surface tablets, with attached keyboards, looked and worked nothing like a modern tablet. Perhaps Microsoft knew something important about business and steadfastly went its own way, refusing to copy Apple.  Now, the situation with Microsoft's tablets is coming into focus. Samsung and Apple are dueling for the tablet future and Microsoft has flubbed, badly, clinging to past glories.

Microsoft today released another anti-iPad commercial, this time focusing on the iPad's lack of a USB port while highlighting the Surface RT's keyboard and stand. The ad once again returns to using Siri's voice to point out the iPad's shortcomings.

"Oh dear, I need a little help here," says Siri as the Surface is propped up with its included kickstand. "I'm sorry, I don't have a USB port," Siri continues, before lamenting about the Surface keyboard. "Oh snap, you have a real keyboard too?"

Microsoft's newest ad comes just a day after the company announced that it was taking a $900 million charge “related to Surface RT inventory adjustments,” during its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report. As of Sunday, Microsoft discounted the price of its Surface RT by $150.

The 32GB version of the tablet now sells for $349 compared to $...

This week at Apple's online store, save on refurbished Apple displays, Mac Pros and more. The refurbished 27-inch Thunderbolt Display has been reduced by $200 from $999 down to $799. Also priced at $799 is the refurbished Apple LED Cinema Display. Pair either display with a refurbished Mac Pro with a 2.8GHz Intel quad-core Xeon processor, 3GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, now $1,819 after a $680 discount....  ...

It’s hard to ignore a Flash Player update.

On Friday, Adobe released Flash Player 11.8.800.115 for Mac OS X, an 18 megabyte download via MacUpdate. The new version adds the following fixes and changes:
- Sandboxing enhancements: This feature adds enhancements to the existing sandbox feature by better addressing application launches in protected mode.

- Recursive stop on MovieClip: For Flash Player, this feature allows a game developer to effectively pause/stop a running SWF without having to iterate through all of the objects on the DisplayList...

On Friday, Parallels released version 8.0.18608 of its Parallels Desktop virtualization software. The new update, a 336.7 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
- Install Windows 8.1 Preview using Express installation.

- Work with Ubuntu 13.04 in Coherence view mode.

- Resolves an issue with the Contact Card opening too slowly in Microsoft Outlook 2013.

- Resolves an issue with visual artifacts in Microsoft Outlook 2013.

- Smoother mouse scrolling in guest operating systems.

- Improved 3D graphics performance: playing World of Tanks, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and other games in a virtual machine became more stable.

- Resolves an issue with...

Apple and Samsung have been in settlement negotiations following Apple's victory in a patent lawsuit last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. This contradicts a report from last November that said Samsung was not interested in settling with Apple.

The talks included face-to-face meetings in Seoul and reportedly came close to a resolution in February, but have since "cooled off". The sides remain in discussions, according to The WSJ.

In the negotiations, described sparingly in heavily redacted documents from the U.S. International Trade Commission made public earlier this month and by people familiar with them, Samsung has pushed for a broad patent cross-licensing deal that could settle all outstanding litigation between the companies...

Among other options, Apple supports resetting a user account password at the login window using a valid Apple ID.

Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. have held a series of private negotiations about their numerous patent disputes since a court victory by Apple in one case last summer, according to legal documents and people familiar with the situation.

The negotiations included face-to-face meetings in Seoul, South Korea, in December, one document states. The two companies even appeared to come close to a settlement in February before talks cooled off.

There is no indication that the two sides are close to a settlement, but talks between the companies are still going on, the people familiar with the discussions said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Ahead of the launch of iTunes Radio this fall, Nielsen has published its findings on U.S. music sales for the first half of 2013. Amongst other things, the survey showed total streams of both audio and video music increased 24% to 51 billion streams versus the same time period last year.

With digital album sales rising only 6.3% and digital single-track sales actually down 2.3%, streaming music is clearly a major growth area for the music industry and with Apple launching iTunes Radio on millions of iOS devices this fall, it could give a further boost to the music streaming.

iTunes Radio will include Pandora-style genre- and artist-based channels,...

Save 10% with the promo code: macupdate10 ... Buy now!

ScreenFlow is powerful, easy-to-use screencasting software for the Mac. With ScreenFlow you can record the contents of your entire monitor while also capturing your video camera, microphone and your computer audio. The easy-to-use editing interface lets you creatively edit your video, and add additional images, text, music and transitions for a truly professional-looking video. The finished result is a QuickTime or Windows Media movie, ready for publishing to your Web site or blog or directly to YouTube or Vimeo. Use ScreenFlow to create high-quality software demos, tutorials, app previews, training, presentations and more.

Version 4.0.4:

• Fixed Chroma Key combined with Bump distortion filter causing green screen to flicker in playback and to export with bad frames
• Disabled the ability to...

Over the past several weeks, an increasing number of photo leaks of what has been claimed to be the rear shell of Apple's rumored upcoming lower-cost plastic iPhone have surfaced, showing a device just slightly larger than the iPhone 5 and carrying the same layout of physical features, albeit with simplified microphone and speaker grille designs along the bottom edge.

Japanese magazine Weekly ASCII now shares some new closeup photos [Google translation, via Macotakara] of a yellow version of this plastic rear shell, showing it in good detail while also placing it alongside...

As Apple prepares to launch iTunes Radio alongside iOS 7, new figures from Nielsen indicate that the music streaming industry has taken off, with more than 50 billion songs streamed in the first half of this year.  ...

Presenting at the ongoing G20 summit in Moscow, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has revealed a 40-page plan meant to undo tax avoidance schemes used by companies like Apple and Google. Multinational corporations will use strategies such as dumping patent rights into shell companies, or claiming interest deductions in one country without reporting taxable profits in another. The proposal would develop rules over the next two years to counter the schemes, and force companies to detail where they report their income.... ...

Agile Partners released SteadyTune for Mac today. It's a simple app that gives you a tuner for stringed instruments in your menubar, and it's an amazingly accurate alternative to the tuners built into apps like Logic Pro.

It uses a completely new algorithm from Agile Partners that provides a stable and accurate meter. You can define your instrument type and listen for all notes, or define a tuning to detect just certain pitches. It has presets for an array of instruments ranging from six and twelve-string guitars all the way through banjo, ukelele, violin and double bass.

The entire meter glows red and green as you near the perfect pitch, which makes it easy to use from a distance. SteadyTune can be configured to stay on top of other windows, and you can set the input device to listen on and define a hotkey to pop it up and hide it.

SteadyTune is just $4.99 US...

Parallels Desktop is simply the world's bestselling, top-rated, and most trusted solution for running Windows applications on your Mac. With Parallels Desktop for Mac, you can seamlessly run both Windows and Mac OS X applications side-by-side without rebooting. Drag-and-drop files between Windows and Mac applications, launch Windows applications from your Mac dock, and do much more with speed, control and confidence.

Seamless Simplicity Use Run Windows programs like they were native to your Mac. Setting up Parallels Desktop for Mac is simple and quick. Enjoy the best of both worlds - Windows and Mac OS X - on one seamless desktop.

Performance and Personalization Experience as much or as little Windows as you want. Multiple view modes make it possible for you to customize the level of integration between Mac and Windows without compromising performance.

Version 8.0.18608:

• Install Windows 8.1...

Hey, isn’t the music business supposed to be rebounding?

That’s presumably why SoftBank offered $8.5 billion for Universal Music — that’s $2 billion more than anyone thought the music label was worth — earlier this year.

And that’s presumably why Universal’s current owner, Vivendi, turned the Japanese telco down.

But someone forgot to tell U.S. music buyers about the recovery: Retail sales were down 4.6 percent in the first half of the year, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

For the last decade or so, whenever you wrote a story about the music industry’s never-ending slump, you would note that while sales of CDs were plummeting, digital sales...

Questimate! from Motion Math is a enjoyable estimation game in which you create off-the-wall questions and try to estimate their answers. It's a challenge you can play alone or against others in either pass-n-play mode or Gamecenter mode.

As its name implies, Questimate! is based on quests that are comprised of a series of questions. You are given three lives, which allows you to make three mistakes as you progress along a quest. It's a game of estimates so you don't have to be perfect, but you do have to answer most of the questions in a quest reasonably well if you want to win. The app includes a free intro quest, with additional quests available via an in-app purchase of coins.

When you start a new game, you are prompted to build a question by combining several phrases like "How many microwave...

A set of leaked documents appears to show that Apple will be releasing multiple models of its bestselling smartphone this year, with one aimed at the traditional iPhone audience and the other aiming possibly for the low-cost segment, though both devices are claimed to feature a full gigabyte of RAM.  ...

Josh Centers shares his home office setup — from the computer to the coffee — along with how to choose the best equipment at the best prices. His choices may not match what you would need, but his thinking is absolutely worth keeping in mind as you equip or update your own work environment.

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.

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 and subject to change).

Deals from Dealnews

• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] PhoneView 2 for Mac downloads for $15
• StackSocial: [Mac Software] Parallels Mac Bundle downloads for $50: Parallels Desktop, WinZip Mac, more
• Best Buy: [MacBook] Apple MacBook Laptops at Best Buy: Up...

With Apple's third fiscal quarter earnings report scheduled for next week, Verizon is giving us a hint at what we may be able to expect from iPhone sales, and the numbers look good. Verizon announced its second fiscal quarter numbers on Thursday with 3.9 million iPhones sold -- a 44 percent increase year-over-year.

With the perspective of a recent college graduate, David Rabinowitz looks back on the technology that populated his years in school, from learning to type in third grade to taking real-time class quizzes at the University of Virginia. He also looks at a technology he missed, the iPad, and talks with a pair of innovators who are building it into the everyday educational experience at their schools.

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 is looking to beef up its Maps and location services by acquiring location data company Locationary. The Canadian start-up uses crowdsourcing to create a database with up-to-date location data and local business information. Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling confirmed the acquisition to AllThingsD and added that "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Details on the terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Apple acquires Canadian location data company Locationary originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our...

An iPad mini with a Retina display should show up in 2013, despite recent claims to the contrary, say industry sources for DigiTimes. LG Display is reportedly "making new headway" with Retina technology for the Mini, and should have panels ready in time for an October product refresh. The company is expected to produce 2 to 3 million panels per month in the run up....  ...

I would do this. Gone!

Google's recent update for the Maps app introduced a variety of new features and improvements. One of those is the ability to save map data for offline access.



If you use Google Maps on a Wi-Fi only iPad, or if you'll be traveling somewhere where cellular data is spotty, knowing how to enable offline caching of map data is pretty important. CNet explained the trick recently.


First, you'll need to zoom in a bit; you can't cache a widely-zoomed-out map view. Then, when you're at the spot you'd like to cache, type OK maps into the search box, and then tap Search.


When you do that, a Google Maps icon will appear briefly, followed by a message indicating that your map data was...

Apple has reportedly acquired Locationary, a small Toronto-based company specializing in local data. Locationary’s technology and team were included in the acquisition, according to AllThingsD. The price of the acquisition is unknown at this time. The report describes Locationary as “a sort of Wikipedia for local business listings,”…

Daniel D’Addario for Salon:

But for a word that’s tossed around so frequently, its meaning seems to evaporate into air when grasped at. Trolling is bad. Trolling provokes a reaction, usually negative. Trolling is apparently quite easy to do. But, if only to better gird one’s own defenses against it — what is trolling?

We’ve all come across this on the Internet.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Yes, it was a huge miss. Microsoft's earnings per share expectations were $0.75 but came in at a painful $0.59 yesterday. While the shortfall was in-part due to the decline in their general PC business, the real kicker was the news about their new Surface Tablet.

Apple has signed on to an open letter asking for more transparency from the U.S. government’s national security requests. Joining Apple are AOL, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo, Wikimedia Foundation, Y Combinator, and many other groups. Notably absent from the list are any major telecom companies, which reportedly refused to sign the letter. The signing companies want permission to publicly report statistics on government requests related to the USA PATRIOT Act, FISA, and National Security Letter statutes. The letter is addressed to President Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and a variety of other prominent members of the House and Senate.

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...

The best part is that the game is on your iPhone, so if you want to play at your friend’s house, you just connect to the Apple TV and play.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple's iPhoto app has some very basic slideshow features built in. Sure, you can apply the Ken Burns effect all day long, and even save your slideshows as screen savers. But if you are bored by iPhoto's simple dissolves, pans and wipes, it's time to check out ScatterShow (US$29.99) from Smith Micro.

The OS X app (which can be purchased as a download or in a physical box) allows creation of some really unique arrangements and animations of slides, all of which can be set to music. The app includes a number of pre-set templates, or you can choose to start from scratch. Once you select a background from those provided by Smith Micro or have added your own, you're practically done making your slideshow. Images for the slideshow can be selected individually, or you can add a complete folder.

Each photo can be converted to black and white or retouched with a variety of filters. The app provides a simple way to...

Impressive.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Siri's an excellent personal assistant, and she's just a long home button press away. She can place a call for you, send a message, add items to your calendar, and more. And while I typically perform these actions for myself, there are times when it's more convenient for her to take care of a quick task for me while I give my attention to something else -- and you can make Siri do your bidding without pressing any buttons. Michael Johnston shows you how.

The Mac Observer Spin:

MacJournal is the world's most popular journaling software for the Mac. MacJournal 6 adds a calendar mode that show entries from any journal, geolocation, word count, and progress tracking, as well as additional blogging support. A Timeline mode has been added to give the journaler the ability to see their writing activity in chronological order. MacJournal 6 even introduces a feature for creating books from journals specially formatted for publishing. Add any kind of content, not just text. Drag PDFs, QuickTime movies, images, audio, and more. Record audio and video, even publish to a blog account on Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, Posterous, and Tumblr. Dropbox support added as well.

Version 6.0.7:

• Fixed issue dragging images from the Media browser
• Improved support for syncing with iOS devices
• Improved blogging support
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements

OS X 10.6.8 or later...

With smartphone thefts ever on the rise, Apple introduced a new feature in iOS 7 called "Activation Lock" which prevents thieves from turning off the "Find my iPhone" feature without first entering a user's iCloud credentials. As an added security layer, iOS 7 also prevents thieves from wiping a device without first providing a user's Apple ID and password.

The goal, of course, is to make iPhones a less appealing target for criminals.

In the wake of iOS 7 unveiling, top prosecutors in San Francisco and New York expressed cautious optimism that Apple's new "activation lock" security feature might serve as an effective crime deterrent.

Now CNET is reporting that both state and federal government agencies began testing the feature this week...

Don’t judge a book by its cover. This elderly lady visits the Coalition Drum Shop La Crosse, WI, sits down behind a Gretsch Catalina Birch kit and proceeds to TEAR SHIT UP.

Rovio, the maker of the now-ubiquitous Angry Birds series, has introduced a new cross-platform account that allows gamers to pick up where they left off, whether playing a title on Apple's iOS or Google's Android.  ...

Over 31% of mobile developers today are supporting Near Field Communications (NFC) in their mobile apps, but an additional 45% plan to support this technology in the next 12 months, according to Evans Data Corp's newly released "Mobile Development Survey."

read more

If you’ve ever been frustrated by having to recomplete levels in Angry Birds or The Croods when you download the game to a new device, Rovio has you covered.

After a limited trial back in May, Rovio has now announced that its account-synchronisation feature is being rolled-out globally across both iOS and Android devices. When you download a game to a new device, you just login with your Rovio account to continue right...

Your Mac's Contacts program keeps all sorts of info on you—where you live, what your email address is, maybe even who your spouse is or what your kids' names are. But what if you don't want everything on your vCard to be shared with the people you send it to? You can easily configure what you send and what you don't, and it's all here in this tip. If you're as paranoid as we are, you'll love this.

The CrystalCore TiltDock, a doc for smartphones and other devices, looks like it could have been created by the team at Apple. That's how impressive it is.

The CrystalCore TiltDock is designed to serve not only as a charging station, but also as a "home" for your smartphone, tablet or other device. It boasts a tilting backrest, which lets you set the angle of your device for FaceTime, texting or playing. Tilting goes upright to a 45-degree angle.

read more

Apple is no stranger to beefing up its mapping efforts through company purchases. We’ve counted at least three big map company purchases including Placebase, C3 and Poly9 that have helped Apple in its growing mapping and location services effort. As we know Apple is still a long way from mapping nirvana and as any Apple PR person will read from a boilerplate to you, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Today...

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Sport

Dear Tim, Larry, Steve, and Jeff,

Sorry to bother you during earnings season, but I wanted to lob in an idea from the cheap seats.

I’ve been watching closely as all of you have tinkered with television for the last few years. I can see the attraction: The TV Industrial Complex is a big, lucrative target. It hasn’t ever had real competition.

The problem: So far none of you guys have tried building something that could really shake things up.

Again, for good reason. The...

wiredmikey writes "Despite fevered arguments that iOS is more secure than Android, and that Android offers developers more options than iOS, a study has found that both platforms are equally as invasive and curious when it comes to collecting user data. Security firm BitDefender analyzed more than 522,000 apps over the past year and focused on the 'intrusive behaviors' the app developer may have included in the product, such as tracking location, reading contact lists, and leaking your email address or device ID. According to Catalin Cosi, iOS applications appear to be more focused on harvesting private data than the ones designed for Android. Cosi did acknowledge that Android apps state all the permissions needed at installation time and there is no way to change the settings afterwards, while iOS permissions are requested at run-time, as the specific resource is used, making iOS a little bit more secure in practice."

...

Adding to the mounting pile of iPad mini rumors, a report from the Far East on Friday claims Apple supplier LG is preparing to ship millions of panels bound for a rumored Retina display version of the device, suggesting the tablet may see a fourth quarter launch.  ...

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 July 18, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 18 Jul 2013 23:59:00 EST. Please see our...

You remember your first Mac desktop, but if you don't, Aakash Doshi's wonderfully nostalgic minimalist renders of each all-in-one Mac starting with the beloved 128K will surely jog your memory. The appropriately titled "History of Mac" project is still ongoing, but for the moment Doshi has drawn a total of 14 computers and posted his work on his Tumblr page.

The art is certainly lovely as a desktop background, but if you just can't live without a print of a Lisa or an iMac G3 on your wall, you're in luck: Doshi notes he is working on making History of Mac prints available for purchase.

Take a nostalgia trip with minimalist renders of old Macs originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 18 Jul 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our...

OnyX is a multifunctional utility for OS X. It allows you to verify the startup disk and the structure of its System files, to run miscellaneous tasks of system maintenance, to configure the hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, Spotlight, and of some of Apple's own applications, to delete caches, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, and more.

Version 2.7.2:

• Deleting the Fonts Cache improved
• Deleting the Applications Cache improved
• Deleting the temporary items improved
• New option: Turn On/Turn Off the startup sound
• New option: Show/hide Quartz Debug's hidden options
• New option: Show/hide the desktop icons
• New option: Modify the default save location of new documents
• Turn on Dashboard and its widgets option corrected
• Turn on Mission Control option corrected
• Bug when restoring default options corrected

Ma Ailun, the 23-year-old Chinese woman who was killed via electric shock when answering a call on her iPhone last week, was most likely using an unauthorized third party charger, reports the South China Morning Post.

Knockoff chargers often use low cost supplies and fail to meet standards for the adequate isolation of electrical input and output, making them more dangerous than brand name chargers that are subject to safety regulations.

The alleged phone and charger that were in use during the incident.According to Xiang Ligang, a telecommunications expert interviewed by CCTV, the charger Ma had been using may have been a "knockoff" - a fake.

"Knockoff chargers sometimes...

After a two and a half year absence, multi-format video player VLC is set to return to iOS. The new VLC app has already gone live in some regions, but should be in all stores, including the US store, by 11PM EST. Once the app goes live, you can download it here.

A version of VLC was removed from the App Store in January of 2011 because of complaints from one of VLC's lead contributors who alleged that version of VLC for iOS violated the GPL license. The new version of VLC, released today, is licensed under Mozilla Public License v2, which is applicable to apps distributed on the App Store.

Here's some of VLC iOS features:

• Wi-Fi Upload: Allows users to upload files directly to the iOS version of VLC through a web browser on the PC or Mac.
• Dropbox...

In a substantial upgrade to both free and premium level iPhone and iPad apps, note syncing service Evernote adds synced shortcuts, integration with Skitch for marking up images and PDFs, and a new related notes tool.  ...

Microsoft reported earnings on Thursday, and included in the bad news was the fact the company wrote down US$900 million related to its failed Surface tablet strategy. While Wall Street is focused most closely on the company's miss, it's the Surface debacle that is emblematic of Big Redmond's central problem, the lack of product vision, something I've been harping about for a while.

Newly-released sales figures of the iPhone on Verizon in the calendar second quarter of 2013 may foretell surprising success for Apple in its core iPhone business, says UBS analyst Maynard Um. The analysis, which relies on Verizon maintaining about the same average of total iPhone sales as it has for the past year and a half, projects that Apple may have sold as many as 34.7 million iPhones between April 1 and June 30 this year, what Apple calls its fiscal third quarter. Wall Street consensus on Apple's Q3 iPhone sales calls for only 26.5 million units sold.... ...

Evernote for iOS has been updated to Version 5.4 this evening, bringing Skitch integration and sync-able shortcuts to the universal app. The handy note-taking and document organization app is free in the App Store.

What’s new in Version 5.4:

- Add Shortcuts on your iOS device; sync to access them anywhere
- Mark up images, PDFs, and entire notes with Skitch integration
- See notes you recently viewed along the bottom of any note

Visit 9to5Mac to find more special coverage of Apps, Evernote, and Skitch.

What do you think? ...

Apple released AirPort Utility 6.3.1 on Thursday, an update that fixes an issue, "where AirPort base stations may not appear in AirPort Utility." The patch notes don't include any other specifics.

If you notice incorrect information about your Apple product or AppleCare agreement (such as the AppleCare Protection Plan) while using Apple's online tools, you can update your records.

Apple has issued a software update it says will fix the scattered issues that arose last month with the computer maker’s newest MacBook Air model.

The problems, which appeared not to be widespread among MacBook Air owners, had to do with the super-slim laptop’s ability to maintain a consistent Wi-Fi connection.

As I wrote last month, for some Air users the issues were fixed by updating the firmware on older models of at-home Wi-Fi routers, according to Apple forums. Others suggested the problems were in the software of the laptop.

“Updating the firmware and changing the router channel to WPA-2 has helped so now it only drops WiFi maybe once or twice a day instead of every 5 minutes,”...

While you can preview all of the stories from the most recent issue online, I made one article freely available for everyone to read. This issue I chose Patrick Rhone’s “Part of the Crowd.”

Enjoy.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has released the MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0 to address a number of issues the new Haswell MacBook Airs have had since their launch last month. According to the release notes:

This update is recommended for MacBook Air (mid 2013) models.

This update fixes an issue that in rare instances may cause an intermittent loss in wireless connectivity, an issue with Adobe Photoshop which may cause occasional screen flickering, and an issue which may cause audio volume to fluctuate during video playback.

Almost immediately after the new MacBook Air's release, screen flickering while in Photoshop was reported in user forums, followed shortly after by Wi-Fi connection issues, and then just last week, volume fluctuation issues. If this update does indeed fix all issues it will be a nice hat trick for Apple and their newest laptop, which has garnered rave reviews for its...

While the iWork for iCloud beta has been available for developers and those who logged in with the current beta software for about a month now, it looks like Apple has begun inviting non-developers to the online document editing program. Tipsters have sent us in emails from the company asking them to try out the services and send in feedback.

We’d like to invite you to be one of the first to try it, so we’re giving you early access to the iWork for iCloud beta. All you have to do is sign in to iCloud on a Mac or a PC using the current version of Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer. Then just click on Pages, Numbers, or Keynote and you’re off.

Users that have received the invitation don’t need to visit beta.icloud.com – they can just use the regular icloud....

New update promises to fix issues with Wi-Fi, screen flickering while using Adobe's Photoshop software, as well as an audio problem.

Originally posted at News - Apple

After introducing iWork for iCloud during its Worldwide Developers Conference and sending invites to registered developers soon after, Apple has begun inviting normal users to test the software according to a number of MacRumors tipsters.

The following invitation is being sent out to users who have been accepted into the iWork for iCloud beta:

We’ll soon be introducing a new and exciting feature to iCloud. It’s called iWork for iCloud and it’s a suite of apps — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — that make it easy for anyone with an iCloud account to create and edit great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right on the web.

We’d like to invite you to be one of the first to try it, so we’re giving you early access to the iWork for...

Apple just released a software update for the mid 2013 MacBook Air that addresses rare issues related to wifi connectivity, audio playback, and Photoshop:

This update fixes an issue that in rare instances may cause an intermittent loss in wireless connectivity, an issue with Adobe Photoshop which may cause occasional screen flickering, and an issue which may cause audio volume to fluctuate during video playback.

Last month, we reported that Apple started investigating reports of Wi-Fi issues on its new MacBook Air and some customers even received replacements.

The 3.35MB MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0 is available to download now.

For more news on...

Big box electronics retailer Best Buy on Thursday cut the price of select 13-inch MacBook Pro models for its Back-to-School promotion, offering a savings of $300 for students and $200 for regular customers during the ten-day sale.  ...

The world of Apple-themed drink coolers isn't exactly a bustling industry. In fact, I'm not sure I've actually seen one before today. Nevertheless, this adorably retro Mac-shapped box is called the MaCool and it's begging to hold your cold beverages.

The MaCool is the brainchild of Scott Sefan, a Mac fan from Florida who clearly thinks that taking an old Apple desktop to the beach is a fantastic idea. According to its Kickstarter page, the MaCool can hold up to 8 cans and ice, though in the product shots it appears as though a 12-pack would fit without issue. You can currently pre-order via the funding campaign for $39, though the price will jump to $59 after the "early adopter" pledge slots are filled.

Kickstart this retro Mac cooler, so you can have it before it's cool originally appeared on...

It’s only the middle of July, but Best Buy is already kicking off back-to-school season by reducing the price of two of its best-selling MacBook Pro models by $200. The 13.1-inch MacBook Pro with a 500 gigabyte hard drive and 4GB of memory now costs $1,000, while the 13.1-inch model with a 750GB hard drive and 8GB of memory is $1,300. Students who register on Best Buy’s Student Deals site with their “.edu” email address will get an additional $100 in savings. The MacBook promotion starts today, and will end July 27.

New Trent, a California-based designer of mobile accessories, released its Airbender Mini, a rugged case for the iPad Mini yesterday. Complete with an integrated screen protector, aluminum arm, and built-in Bluetooth keyboard, users can effectively use their iPad mini for watching movies, FaceTime chatting, gaming or checking e-mails while still protecting it. The Airbender Mini's body is hardshell, composed of polycarbonate thermoplastic. At 0.4 inches, the inset Bluetooth keyboard attaches via the durable aluminum arm, allowing the case to rotate 360 degrees for landscape or portrait viewing... ...

In a blog post put together by the mobile analytics firm Flurry, the company takes a look at pricing on the App Store and comes away with some interesting results.

By analyzing mobile analytics across 350,000 apps and covering a time-frame of four years, Flurry found that the percentage of apps available for free has risen steadily since 2010.

Today, 90% of apps are available for free while 6% are available for just $0.99. Compare that to 2011 when 80% of apps were free and 15% of apps were available for $0.99.

Flurry attributes the percentage increase of free apps to the fact that customers "want free content more than they want to avoid ads or to have the absolute highest quality content possible."

That sentiment undoubtedly rings true for many users. As a personal example, I'm still rockin' the free version of Words With Friends because the ads aren't...

Just like so many other things you can do on your Mac, Apple has given us more than one way to control the system volume. They also gave us a couple cool tricks for controlling exactly how you adjust the audio level. Want to learn how? Watch our Video Quick Tip to learn more.

Seriously, something has to be done with these clowns.

∞ Read this on The Loop

It'll be some time before Tim Cook is ready to step down as Apple's CEO, but John Martellaro, always thinking ahead, has some thoughts on the process for selecting the next Apple CEO. The analysis, in fact, applies to any corporation.

After kicking off at the end of June, the 2,000 mile Tour de France is coming to an end this weekend. These last few days of the tour will take the cyclists into beautiful Versailles and across the finish line in Paris on the Champs-Élysées. Use these five apps below to follow the leaders as they make their way through the final stages of the race.

TOUR DE FRANCE 2013, presented by ŠKODA [iOS Universal; Category: Sports; £0.69] Follow all the Tour de France action in the official Tour de France app. This app is available in select European countries. US customers should use the NBC app listed below. If you live in another country, check this list on the official Tour de France website for the local TV broadcasters which will be...

VLC will return to the iOS App Store on Friday, reports note. The v2.0 app has been completely rewritten, but should still be able to handle all of the media formats the previous version did. Several features have in fact been added, like Dropbox integration, the ability to download files from a webserver, and support for streaming over a network, including via iTunes filesharing. The app's developers are also promising touches such as video filters, AirPlay support, and new playback speed controls....  ...

In amateur art classes, artists are taught to keep three things in mind while designing: frame, positive and negative space. The frame is of course the border of the picture and positive space is the area occupied by the object drawn. Negative space is defined as the space that is around an object but inside the frame. Utilizing this space brings balance in the picture and harmony to its composition. The image created by the negative space may either be the subject of a picture or it may help that subject stand out.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Corrupt and new disks might not have a working Recovery partition, but there are still ways to access one and reinstall OS X, if needed.

Learn what to expect when using iWork for iCloud beta to open a document created in iWork on your Mac or iOS device.

While great for security, Gatekeeper may block some legitimate updates.

Verizon has joined the push to provide options for earlier upgrades, following on from similar plans revealed by AT&T and T-Mobile earlier this month. Verizon Edge will allow customers to upgrade their phone after six months of ownership, provided they pay a monthly fee and trade in their existing mobile device at the same time....  ...

Do-it-all video app VLC will return in a new iOS version on Friday, while RunKeeper has gotten a few new options to boost its utility, and cab-calling app Uber has gotten some new features.  ...

According to a new report from mobile analytics firm Flurry, free apps supported by ads and/or in-app purchases are becoming an increasingly popular choice for developers and consumers alike, with 90% of iOS apps now being offered for free. In 2012, that number was just 84%, marking a 6% increase over the past year.

Some might argue that this supports the idea that "content wants to be free". We don’t see it quite that way. Instead, we simply see this as the outcome of consumer choice: people want free content more than they want to avoid ads or to have the absolute highest quality content possible.Flurry also compared the pricing of both Android apps and iPhone and iPad apps, finding that iOS users are generally more willing to pay for content. The average Android app price as of April 2013 was $0.06, while the average iPhone app price was $0.19.

iPad apps have...

Verizon today announced its earnings for Q2 2013. As expected, the carrier reported strong results with $5.2 billion in profit and $29.79 billion in revenue. Verizon added 1 million new customers and now has 100.1 million retail connections. The carrier also confirmed it activated 7.5 M smartphones, over half of which were iPhones. This brings Verizon's quarterly iPhone activations to approximately 3.87 million units, which is up from the 2.7 million it activated in the same quarter last year. It is right on par with the 4 million activations it reported in the opening quarter of 2013.

[Via...