The growth of Bluetooth v4.0 (Smart and Smart Ready) devices has been phenomenal, from zero shipments in 2010 to over one billion shipments in 2013, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). This speaks to the desire for ultra-low power wireless technology across the industry.

read more

Software and Computer System Company has released an update for Performance Probe for the Mac OS X operating system.

Performance Probe is tool that allows a user to monitor the current effective loading of their systems. The update expands on the features and capabilities of the tool by offering dynamic memory, drive space, and virtual machine parameter monitoring. In addition, the company says the user interface has been improved.

read more

If you like "future proof" devices, you'll appreciate Sonnet's Echo Express SE II , the replacement for the Echo Express II Thunderbolt-to-PCIe expansion chassis. The new model adds enhanced capabilities and sells at a lower price.

Also, it also includes a coupon for a free upgrade to exchange to Thunderbolt 2 when it becomes available this fall. The new two-slot Thunderbolt 2-to-PCIe expansion chassis enables the use of a wide variety of high-performance PCI Express (PCIe) cards -- originally designed for use in desktop computers -- with any Mac computer with a Thunderbolt port.

read more

The Moto X has the upper hand on the new iPhones when it comes to durability, at least according to testing by gadget insurer SquareTrade.

Its testing showed both new iPhones underperforming the iPhone 5 model they replace.

“When it comes to breakability, Apple takes a step back with its latest offerings,” SquareTrade said in a report being released on Monday. “The iPhone 5S fared worse than its predecessor, the iPhone 5, in our slide test and the iPhone 5C suffered from increased smash-ability in our drop test as well as reduced grip-ability.”

The Moto X outpaced both new iPhones, while Apple’s new phones finished ahead of the Galaxy S4 which fared worst in the four-way comparison.

“We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents...

Sometimes you just have to convert an iconset file to an icns file. And who knew, Apple was kind enough to give us a command to do just that in OS X! To use the iconutil command, run it with the -c option which indicates that the file will be converted. The -o indicates the file to convert a file to. Let’s use the myfile.iconset as the source file and then mynewfile.icns as the target file. The command would be as follows:

iconutil -c myfile.iconset -o mynewfile.icns

TUAW readers of long standing, this post is for your friends and family who are asking you about iOS 7. Feel free to share it with them in person, on your social networks, or randomly in coffee shops and libraries. For more info, scroll to the bottom of the post.

Breathe in, breathe out. Namaste! Chances are, you're here because someone you know suggested you look us up regarding iOS 7, the new operating system for the iPhone and iPad. Thanks for reading; we're here to help. Most importantly, don't panic. We're going to run down some of the most commonly asked questions and essential tips...

Beethoven would have been a badass dubstep DJ.

Ahead of his conversation on stage at Apps World with Wired.co.uk's editor Nate Lanxon, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak spoke to us about his view on new iPhones, wearable technologies, the future of apps, and Google Glass.

Steve Wozniak "These young people with new ideas starting out—sometimes for the first time—are my favorite people in the world," Steve Wozniak tells Wired.co.uk. "It reminds me of when we started Apple."

Since doing so in the 1970s with Steve Jobs, Wozniak has turned much of his attention, time, and money to education and new businesses. Presently serving as chief scientist at flash storage company Fusion-io, he also readily invests in new technologies and applications. "The best things that capture your imagination are ones you hadn't thought of before, and that aren't talked about in the news all the time," says Wozniak.

...

Germany's Chaos Computing Club claim to have tricked Apple's new TouchID security feature this weekend. In a blog post on the breakthrough, the CCC writes they bypassed the fingerprint-reader by simply starting with "the fingerprint of the phone user photographed from a glass surface."

The entire process is documented by hacker Starbug in the video above, and the club outlines it in a how-to. For this particular initiative, the CCC started by photographing a fingerprint with 2400 dpi. Next the image was inverted and laser printed at 1200 dpi. To create the fingerprint mask Starbug finally used, latex milk was poured into the pattern, eventually lifted, breathed on (for moisture), and pushed onto the sensor to unlock the phone. In this sense, it's hard to definitively state the hackers "broke" the...

Following in the footsteps of most of the world, shipping times for orders placed this weekend for the iPhone 5s have fallen to October. Unlike the rest of the world, where ship times for the 5s began at 7-10 days, it was only 1-3 days in the US. However, those ship times slipped to 7-10 days as Friday's launches got underway, and now Apple's online store simply says "October" for any iPhone 5s orders placed this weekend.

Interest for the iPhone 5s has been incredibly strong since the phone went on sale. Part of that is because it's Apple's latest iPhone, but another reason could be because supplies are extremely limited, reportedly due to manufacturing bottlenecks. The iPhone 5c, which has been well received by critics and fans, still ships within 24 hours for orders placed in the US.

...

hypnosec writes with word that the Chaos Computer Club claims to have "managed to break Apple's TouchID using everyday material and methods available on the web. Explaining their method on their website, the CCC hackers have claimed that all they did was photograph a fingerprint from a glass surface, ramped up the resolution of the photographed fingerprint, inverted and printed it using thick toner settings, smeared pink latex milk or white woodglue onto the pattern, lifted the latex sheet, moistened it a little and then placed it on the iPhone 5S' fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone."

...

The Chaos Computer Club claims to be able to bypass Apple's new Touch ID fingerprint sensor using everyday items. The bypass is demonstrated in this short video:

The system is detailed in a how to which requires obtaining the original user's fingerprint: First, the fingerprint of the enroled user is photographed with 2400 dpi resolution. The resulting image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. Finally, pink latex milk or white woodglue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet. After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone. This process has been used with minor refinements and variations against the vast...

Apple on Saturday withdrew the latest software update for its Apple TV following reports that it rendered some devices on which it was installed unusable.

Evidently Apple TV 6.0, which debuted on Friday bringing a number of new features to the set-top box, has caused some trouble for a small number of users, deleting content and in some cases bricking the devices.

While the issue isn’t widespread, it has affected enough users that Apple yanked the update while it corrects it. An Apple customer support representative said the company is working on a...

Over the weekend BlackBerry released its BBM messenger app for iOS in some locales around the world. However, just hours later BlackBerry decided to pull it from available local App Stores and the Google Play store. This was done because an unreleased version of the Android version of BBM was leaked online, which caused security and operability issues to arise. Here's what the company said in a blog post announcing they've pulled the app:

Our teams continue to work around the clock to bring BBM to Android and iPhone, but only when it's ready and we know it will live up to your expectations of BBM. We are pausing the global roll-out of BBM for Android and iPhone. Customers who have already downloaded BBM for iPhone will be able to continue to use BBM. The unreleased Android app will be disabled, and customers who downloaded it...

Devices on Apple TV 5.3 are now “up to date” (thanks, @iPadMatt!)

After Apple TV 6.0 was released on Friday with iTunes Radio and other enhancements, there were many reports of botched updates that required the user to restore their Apple TV. In some particular instances, Apple TVs have also been permanently bricked or they lost the content on the device during the update. Other devices could not download any internet content even when an internet connection was connected.

Last night, Apple took down the on-device update, and now devices on Apple TV 5.3 are seeing no update available. Of note, the 6.0 firmware is still available as a download on Apple’s website. The update is still available for some Apple TV users, although...

Samsung sent out a film crew to film the excitement and anticipation of the crowds waiting for their new iPhones. The most telling part of the article was this quote:

“Other companies release new phones, but there’s not as much passion and heat [from buyers],” a Korea-based producer from Samsung Broadcasting Center/Cheil Worldwide, who asked not to be named, told CNET at the iPhone launch. “It’s only Apple. Why? We’re curious.”

Ask us, we’ll tell you.

∞ Read this on The Loop

This article has some excellent suggestions for steps you can take to improve your battery life under iOS 7. I’ve played around with these for a few days and can tell you that these have made a huge difference in my battery usage. The two changes I think made the most difference (your mileage may vary) for me were setting my brightness to 50% (still plenty bright) and reducing the motion of the user interface. With the latter, I do lose the parallax effect, which I do miss, so I’m going to turn that setting off so I get parallax back, see how that affects my battery life. Note that this is the same setting that addressed Shawn’s motion effects post from yesterday.

∞ Read this on The Loop

There’s a new rule in hockey that mandates a two minute penalty if a player takes off his own helmet prior to engaging in a fight. And then this happened.

Two players, Krys Barch and Brett Gallant, were about to get into a bit of a scrape-up, when they very purposely took each others helmets off. Really happened. I love hockey.

∞ Read this on The Loop

iOS7: It’s the LAW™

The New York City Police Department is apparently handing out the above fliers at subway exits encouraging people to upgrade to iOS 7 for its improved security featuring ‘Activation Lock’. According to another Twitter follower, they are also (comically) handing out the flyers at Apple Stores where people are walking out with new iPhone 5S/5Cs with iOS 7 installed.

Four uniformed NYPD officers were at my subway stop tonight asking me to upgrade to iOS 7. Not a joke! http://t.co/...

BlackBerry Messenger for iOS is now available to download. The BBM app from the troubled smartphone manufacturer, heading to Android in the near future, has appeared in a few regional versions of the App Store in Asia and New Zealand according to The Next Web, with other regions expected to go live soon after midnight in each area....
  ...

While Touch ID is designed to scan the fingerprints of your fingers (and thumbprints of your thumbs), some users of the iPhone 5s have discovered some other body parts that are supported by Touch ID. For instance, the video above shows a user registering their nipple for Touch ID. More videos and body parts below:

Another iPhone 5s user shows the functionality working with a toe in the video above.

Our friend @chronic notes that Touch ID can even work with a user’s nose, and a video that we found on YouTube (shown above) demonstrates this.

Finally, for those curious, even the paws of a cat can be programmed for Touch...

Quake is the successor to Doom, the smash-hit action game. In Quake, you're plunged into a brutal and terrifyingly realistic 3D environment where you'll need to rely on your agility, instincts, and a lot of weapons. Multiple players can connect via modem or network in either cooperative or deathmatch modes. If you have trouble with weird colors or incorrect textures in 1.09, throw away all the files inside the "glquake" folder in the "id1" folder to fix the problem.

Version 1.2.1:

• Fixed a compatibility issue with Microsoft mice.
• Fixed incorrect gamma if the gamma table is larger than 256 entries.

• OS X 10.6 or later
• Quake 1 (shareware or retail version)

Download Now

I managed to pick up an iPhone 5s yesterday and have been trying out its new features and enhancements. Here’s my review of the device after using it for 24 hours…

Design: As the name implies, the iPhone 5s is based directly on the design of the iPhone 5. It has the same shiny edges, metal back with glass top and bottom caps, and front that is dominated by the display. The only tell-tale signs that the 5s is not a 5 are the slightly tweaked Home button design, larger rear camera flash, and if you opt for one of the two new color options.

I chose the Space Gray version. Yes, I did not have much of a choice given the...

The New York Police Department has more of a relationship with Apple’s iPhone than merely performing crowd control at and around Apple stores on iPhone launch days like yesterday.

A new iPhone model also means a probable uptick in attempts to steal them. And since Friday’s launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c also happens to coincide with the launch of Apple’s iOS 7, which has some new security measures intended to deter theft, New York’s finest and other police agencies around the U.S. are making an effort to get people to download it.

The new feature is called Activation Lock (read the official information from Apple here) and basically what it does is force anyone who has the phone — including anyone who has stolen it — to enter an Apple ID and password before they can...

Apple CEO Tim Cook joined Twitter and sent out his first tweet on Friday, September 20th. That was enough to start the Twitter ball rolling, and he already has more than 187,000 followers.

The iPhone's touch screen has a much faster response time than its Android and Windows counterparts, according to a new set of TouchMark benchmarks from cloud streaming company Agawi.

Using a 240fps high frame rate camera along with a custom-built device called a Touchscope, Agawi measured the App Response Time (ART) of several different smartphones. The ART is the latency experienced between the time a user touches the device display to the device’s on-screen response.

Apple’s iPhone demonstrated a minimum app response time (MART) of 55 milliseconds, a much better performance than the Galaxy S4, which had a MART of 114ms. The Lumia 928 had a similar high MART time of 117ms, and the iPhone 5's closest competitor was the iPhone 4, with a MART of 85. The HTC One and the Moto X had the highest MART times, coming in at 121 and...

If you've loaded up iOS 7 on your iOS device this week and still feel a bit lost about all the new features, check out TUAW's guides to Apple's new operating system. If you have a request for us to explore a certain feature or any questions, feel free to ask in the comments:

iOS 7 Guides

Getting started

• iOS 7: Get your iPhone and iPad ready for the update
• iOS 7 Quick Guide: 5 must-know iOS 7 features

New and improved features

• iOS 7 AirDrop: Information sharing without a bump
• iOS 7 Control...

Following the release of Apple's new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, Cygnett, a mobile accessories company, has launched its latest line of cases to accommodate the new phones. The line designed for iPhone 5s includes the Workmate Utility, Urbanshield Carbon Fiber White and Alternate. For iPhone 5c, new cases include the Form and the Crystal....
  ...

How to start up a Boeing 737:

Not nearly as easy as strapping in and turning the key!

∞ Read this on The Loop

On September 21, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark filing for "iTunes Radio" which was originally filed for on September 17, 2013. Apple officially launched iTunes Radio with iOS 7 earlier this week while ...

This noble falcon yearns to become a hunter of drones. ahisgett

Andrew Cunningham brought us all the iOS 7 news you could want this week, from a gallery of comparison images in Death to textures: iOS 6 and iOS 7 compared in pictures, to an analysis of the new operating system on old hardware in New lease on life or death sentence? iOS 7 on the iPhone 4, to the actual review of iOS 7 itself, iOS 7, thoroughly reviewed. It was on this last article that many Ars readers left their first impressions of the new operating system. (And some just commented on the...

Previously, I discussed how to have your iOS device read text for you in iOS 6, and in iOS 7 it works pretty much the same way – but with some little differences.

As in iOS 6, there are two different ways to make text speakable on an iOS device. But before we do that and discuss how to do it, let’s first set up our iOS device so we can do it:

Open up Settings, tap on General, and tap on Accessibility.

...

Curtis Rush at the Toronto Star has done a fabulous job of doing absolutely nothing worthwhile. As John Gruber puts it, this article is “Mind-bogglingly misinformed.”

∞ Read this on The Loop

All iCloud account holders can take advantage of the web-based iCloud.com service to access their iCloud data any time from any Mac or Windows PC. The service was just upgraded and given a big makeover to coincide with the release of iOS 7. Sandro Cuccia provides an overview and shows you how to configure and use iCloud.com.

Stuff:

A major change in Apple’s iOS 7 update was its sleek, minimal aesthetic; however, the amount of motion now found within is anything but minimal.

The net result: “It feels to me like the whole screen is moving, and it generates a sort of motion sickness. I feel dizzy and can feel the very beginnings of nausea kicking in.”

It’s not as bad as full on motion sickness for me but I do find the animations to be annoying eye candy I wish I could toggle off.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Crystal hearts

After a week dominated by iPhone news, we're back with a new installment of our weekly iPad-case roundup. You'll find the usual mix of protective accessories for your favorite tablet, including one that has a heart of… crystal.

Arsenal Direct

Fans of the popular British soccer team Arsenal, you can now support your favorite players by purchasing the official Leather Case (iPad 2, 3, and 4; £30)!

The case features an embossed cannon branding, and the front cover flips around to double as a viewing stand in landscape orientation.

Bed Bath and Beyond

The retail giant’s name may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re looking for an iPad case, and yet you’ll find the Deos Leather and...

A prize of more than $19,000 (and counting) in cash, bitcoins, and booze is being offered to the first hacker to crack the fingerprint scanner on Apple's newly released iPhone 5S.

The contest is being run by a micro venture capital firm and a group of security researchers and requires the hacker who wins the prize to "reliably and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5s by lifting prints (like from a beer mug)," according to the website istouchidhackedyet.com.

Touch ID, the fingerprint scanner present on the more expensive of Apple's two new iPhones, is supposed to make users' personal details more secure and can also be used to make iTunes purchases. The scanner offers a 500 pixel-per-inch resolution and can read sub-epidermal skin layers, storing encrypted fingerprint data (although, crucially, not images of the prints themselves) locally...

One billion dollars in 3 days. Wow. For comparison, it took Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 16 days to hit $1B, back in January 2012. Then Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 hit $1B in 15 days this past December. 3 days is astonishing.

Grand Theft Auto has been keeping Take-Two afloat during the down times, as the series has an extremely long tail (the volume of sales over time following release). Not only does a new release spike revenues, but it also incentivizes gamers to investigate the back catalog (sometimes spurring purchases of already owned games on new platforms). GTA V will be even more significant should the title see staggered releases on PC and next-generation platforms (as I suspect it will). At this point, Call of Duty is going to have a nearly impossible time beating GTA’s sales this year, ending a four-year streak.

With numbers like these, it is no wonder that Apple has added...

ISPs monitoring traffic spikes noticed a huge one just minutes after the official release of iOS 7, with reports from some providers that data usage doubled compared to normal levels. Late on Friday, the new iOS version overtook iOS 6 as the most popular, less than 48 hours after the upgrade first became available. Analytics company Mixpanel estimates that more than 130 million users had updated their devices within the first 10 hours of availability, out of a potential iOS 7-eligible base of 415 million....
 ...

Just picked up your sweet new iPhone 5s? Then you'll need to know how to add in your spouse's fingerprint or additional digits of your own for easy unlocking. In this tip, Melissa Holt will tell us how to add them, and she promises to avoid gushing over the 5s as much as possible. We’ll believe that when we see it.

Our brains are pattern-making machines. When our patterns are disrupted, it takes some time to build new pathways and embrace the future. So it is with iOS 7, Apple's first major overhaul of its iPhone operating system (now iOS) since the iPhone debuted in 2007. I wrote up some very quick impressions as I used iOS 7 in New York, but here's what it's like a few days in.

Music

Music and sound has always been a part of the Apple experience. After a couple of days of using iTunes Radio I don't know if I will use my other music apps nearly as much. That's not to say Pandora, Slacker, TuneIn, Spotify, Rdio or other services don't have value. They absolutely do, but the integration, polish and choice available on iTunes Radio is going to quickly gain mind share in the market. Not to mention the audio quality is quite good and adding channels is easy. There are few commercials, and what little there are don't sound...

Another security flaw has been discovered in Apple's iOS 7, this time exploiting a bug in the emergency calling system that allows anyone to bypass an iPhone's passcode lock to make a phone call.
   ...

As anticipated, new buyers of the iPhone 5s and 5c are finding themselves prompted to download an iOS firmware update, v7.0.1, Apple officially states that the patch deals with "bug fixes and improvements," but it's believed to be focused on a problem involving the 5s' Touch ID sensor and iTunes purchases. It's unknown what if any changes the code makes for the 5c....
  ...

You know Aardman Animations, don't you? Cheese? Gromit? Were-Rabbits? They've teamed with the Science Museum and Brunel's s Great Britain to create Full Steam Ahead, a free educational app that teaches children about ship design.

In each stage of the app, you're presented with a basic design. It's up to you to iteratively improve that design -- whether for load bearing or stability, and so forth -- to learn about a basic underlying engineering concept.

It's a brilliant idea and beautifully presented, but it's one that's showing quite a lot of early instability. In my testing, it repeatedly crashed on a clean, rebooted iPad. I was able to re-launch and pick up my exploration, but the sheer number of crashes really got on my nerve.

Being a developer, I...

Find my iPhone in iOS 6 was great for locating your lost or stolen phone and for locking down your data, but it had a major flaw. A tech savvy thief could restore the phone, remove the SIM card and walk away scot free with your phone. Thanks to an enhancement to Find My iPhone called Activation Lock, a thief's ability to remove every trace of the previous owner from an iPhone is now limited. The stronger security offered by Activation Lock may be a deterrent for thieves looking for an easy grab and go sale.

Activation Lock improves Find My iPhone by preventing a person from disabling Find My iPhone without knowing both the Apple ID and the account password of the original owner. The person who has the iPhone also can't restore it nor reactivate it without these account credentials. They can only stare at the phone number and a custom message that asks the person with the phone to return it to its rightful owner.

To use Activation Lock, you must first turn on Find My...

Users from around the world are updating their devices to Apple's latest iOS 7, which was released on Wednesday, with nearly 32 percent of North American iOS web-based traffic coming from the new operating system.
  ...

The online ad network Chitika is running tabs on the adoption rate of Apple's new iOS 7 on iDevices. The latest tally is 32% of iOS devices are now running iOS 7. In perspective, Google reports ...

The introduction of automatic app updates in iOS 7 is terrific.  But there may be times when you don't want that to happen.  Here's an explanation of when you might want to turn it off and how to do it.

iOS 7 does a pretty good job taking just about any image you have and making it work with the new parallax background effect, moving your image behind your icons. But there are tricks to making it work well, and there are also some fantastic photographs out there on the internet. Combine it all together and you get FreeiOS7.com's collection of parallax wallpapers. They've sized them for both the iPhone and iPad, so head on over and check 'em out. Easiest is to do it from your iOS 7-based device, then save your favorite image(s) to your camera roll and... off you go!

No, this is not an April Fool's Day post. Tim Cook, Apple CEO and legendary operations guru, has joined Twitter. His twitter handle is @Tim_Cook.

While it was initially unclear if the account was one of many parody accounts that have been set up using Cook's name, Apple executive Phil Schiller re-tweeted a post from Cook, effectively verifying the authenticity of the account.

Cook's first tweet reads:

Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy customers reminds us of why we do what we do.

- Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 20, 2013

Cook's Twitter description reads: "CEO Apple, Fan of Auburn football and Duke basketball. Cupertino." You can tell Cook values greatness because he's not following Auburn basketball or Duke football. He knows how to pick his spots.

When I first took at look at Cook's Twitter account...

iTunes 11.1 introduced some huge changes, specifically with regards to podcasts. You may not realize it, but podcasts are now synced with your iOS devices (and Apple TVs updated to Version 6) and that means iTunes manages things VERY differently. From sorting to deleting, nearly all of it has changed. We'll be talking more about that on our upcoming Mac Geek Gab this Sunday, and likely writing some more tips, too, but for now there's a great post at Apple's Support Forums with some good tips to get you started. Hopefully this helps! 

It's been expected, but now an AppleTV update has arrived. The new 6.0 firmware adds support for iTunes Radio and purchases from the iTunes Music Store. In addition, updating adds podcast syncing, viewing of shared photo streams and AirPlay from iCloud. This update gets the AppleTV feature parity with iOS 7.

The new firmware also upgrades the AirPlay wireless streaming feature, so you can now play iTunes store purchased content on other AppleTVs.

The download and install was very slow for me today, likely because Apple servers are slammed with all the other updates people are doing with new iPhones and in upgrading devices to iOS 7.

Apple has been enhancing the AppleTV software recently, and has added new apps for Vevo, The Weather Channel, the Disney Channel and other content sources.

To get the update on your AppleTV, go to Settings > General and...

I am not a New Yorker; standing in lines make me want to start stabbing people. The last time I actually went to a for-real brick and mortar Apple store to purchase a for-real Apple product rather than ordering online like a sane person was back in 2007, when I spent a whole day camped out waiting for a first-generation iPhone. That was a miserable experience, and so was this morning's wait for an iPhone 5S. But it wasn't all bad, because I got to get up close and personal with the kind of people who want gold iPhones.

How the iPhone 5S Gold came to be.

Apple didn't provide Ars with advanced review hardware for either of the new iPhone models, and so both Ars Senior Product Specialist Andrew Cunningham and I found ourselves in line at our respective Apple stores on the morning of the iPhone 5S launch, waiting along with everyone else. Rather than kicking back and enjoying the new features, we'll be digging in over the weekend in order to bring you some...

It's difficult to look at just the proposed features of a new smartphone like Apple's iPhone 5s, announced on September 10, and make an accurate assessment of its prospects in the marketplace. Instead of analyzing features, we should look at technical currents.

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 September 20, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 20 Sep 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our...

Every single version of the iPhone to ever be released has been doomed. In fact, some of them were so doomed I'm surprised we even acknowledge their existence anymore. Apple needs to just give up before the company has to start selling coffee mugs from its headquarters just to turn a profit.

Wait, Apple already does that? My god, it's happening.

But don't take my word for it, let's look at all of the extremely well-thought-out arguments as to why each new iPhone was going to flop... until it didn't.

iPhone - 2007

• It doesn't do 3G - What is this, the dark ages?
• It's locked to AT&T - Wow, Apple, way to kill your not-even-good smartphone idea before it even got a chance.
• The camera sucks - No flash? Almost zero options? What a joke.
• No picture messaging - My brother needs to see this...

JAMF Software -- developers of the Casper Suite, a collection of client management applications for Mac OS X computers and iOS mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones -- has announced an update to introduce additional enterprise management and security capabilities and ensure compatibility with iOS 7.
 
In fact, it features same day support for iOS 7. The latest version of the Casper Suite also introduces new enterprise management capabilities, leveraging technologies introduced in iOS 7.
 

read more

Refurbished Mac Pro models are currently on sale at Apple's online store. The refurbished Mac Pro with a 2.8GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon processor, 3GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive is on sale for $1,819, which is $680 off the list price of $2,499. A $360 discount is offered on the refurbished Mac Pro with a 3.2GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon processor, 6GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, now $2,139....
   ...

At MacMall.com's September Blowout Sale, find price cuts of up to $649 off Apple computers. The 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro (model no. MD213LL/A) is priced at $1,480, which is already $520 off the list price of $1,999, and until September 30, buyers can save an additional $80 through a mail-in-rebate offer that drops the price further to $1,399. That combo of price cuts makes this the lowest price we've seen on this notebook by $100....
  ...

A few weeks ago, RHA announced its new MA750i headphones (US$129.95). Last week I received a sample unit and have been testing them since. Having previously been really impressed with the MA150 and MA450i earphones and the SA950i on-ear headphones, I had high expectations for the Glasgow-based company's new premium-range hardware. And I was not disappointed.

Design

From the onset of receiving the MA750 I could tell RHA has taken things to the next level. Even in the packaging a great amount of thought and detail has been applied. The box's window flap opens to reveal the immaculately-presented earphones. A magnet on the inside insures that it stays...

When rumors that Apple was planning to release a gold-colored iPhone began trickling in a few weeks ago, it was greeted with a lot of skepticism. Understandably, many felt that a gold iPhone would be gaudy, ostentatious, and downright obnoxious.

In truth, the aesthetic of the gold colored iPhone 5s is much more subtle, and dare I say, elegant. Consumers have taken notice as well, with reports that the device is already in extremely short supply.

Indeed, demand for the gold iPhone 5s is so great that Apple has reportedly reached out to its suppliers to if they can increase production by 33%.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Apple has asked its suppliers to increase production of the gold-colored iPhone 5S by an additional one-third after seeing strong demand, people familiar with the situation said. It isn't clear whether there are currently supply...

Apple CEO Tim Cook posted his first tweet on Friday after visiting the Palo Alto Apple Store to witness the launch of the new iPhones.

“Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today,” Cook tweeted. “Seeing so many happy customers reminds us of why we do what we do.”

Cook quickly amassed more than 14,000 followers for his @tim_cook account. So far, Cook is following about a dozen accounts, including the Auburn student newspaper, the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights, CNN host Anderson Cooper, and Apple colleagues Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue.

Espionage offers state of the art security for your Mac's confidential data.

Sometimes, encrypting your data isn't enough to protect it. That's why Espionage 3 goes beyond data encryption.

Features:

• Open Source for security professionals.
• Designed for plausible deniability. Multiple master passwords through Folder Sets. Want two versions of your email? Espionage can handle that.
• No need for FileVault means laptop theft-tracking apps like Undercover work.
• Super-computer defying encryption: AES-256 + scrypt.
• Silent. Espionage 3 doesn't make it easy for people to know what's encrypted.
• Folder Actions make it easy to encrypt your email. ...

After seeing Dave Caolo's post about his first impressions of iOS 7 on an iPad 2, it occurred to me that I ought to write up my feelings about the OS on an iPad mini. The device isn't equipped with a Retina display, but it is one of the devices that can take full advantage of the features of iOS 7. So how does iOS 7 stack up to its predecessor on the iPad mini? The quick answer: very well.

Why? Well, for some reason iOS 7 seems to scale to the smaller size of the iPad mini screen better than it does on a full-sized iPad. While the thin Helvetica Neue text almost seems to get lost on an Retina-display iPad, it's right at home on the smaller iPad mini display. As my middle-aged bifocal-equipped eyes are not as great as they used to be, I still used this video tip to set the system text on the iPad mini to bold...

Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy customers reminds us of why we do what we do.

—
Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 20, 2013

Other Apple executives have been on Twitter for a while, and today CEO Tim Cook sent out his first tweet mentioning that he visited retail stores in Palo Alto for the retail launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c. Cook has been a member of Twitter since July, but his account is not yet verified by Twitter. Apple marketing chief Philip Schiller retweeted Cook’s tweet earlier today proving that the account is indeed run by the Apple CEO.

Earlier today Cook, along with Apple executives Phil Schiller and Eddie Cue, made an appearance at Apple’s Palo Alto retail...

Learn how to identify your Apple TV Model.

Chipworks

A few hours after iFixit's high-level teardown of the iPhone 5S and 5C, Chipworks has started to tear down the individual components inside the phone to see what makes it tick.

Their first discovery involves what we've been wondering about the A7 since Apple first mentioned how similar it is in size to the previous A6: its manufacturing process. It turns out that Apple is indeed using Samsung's 28nm Hi K Metal Gate (HKMG) process to build the chip, a slight shrink from the previous 32nm HKMG process used in the A6, the A6X, and some A5 variants. For those who don't know, an upgraded manufacturing process can cram more transistors into a smaller amount of space, ultimately allowing the chips to fit into physically smaller phones...

 Learn how to use AirPlay to stream videos, music, and photos wirelessly from iTunes on your computer. 

Learn about features in Apple TV software updates.

It's a big day for Apple as iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s finally hit stores after months of buzz. People lined up early, stores were packed, and fans were excited. But just because the phone has launched doesn't mean Apple's executives are glued to their desks. Accordingly, CEO Tim Cook and vice presidents Eddy Cue, Katie Cotton, and Phil Schiller decided to hit the pavement along with their customers.

Cook was spotted at the Downtown Palo Alto Apple store by an ABC News reporter, talking to people waiting in line for the new phones.

#TimCook at Palo Alto store. He even took a picture with a customer with (what else?).. an iPhone. pic.twitter.com/mFav5en8HD

- Matt Keller (@MattKellerABC7)...

Senator Al Franken has sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking the executive to answer questions regarding the new iPhone 5s' fingerprint scanner. The Senator calls for specific details about how fingerprint data is obtained and stored, potential plans to provide access to the data for third-party apps, and how the company will respond to government requests for the identification data....
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Apple has released version 6.0 of its Apple TV software for 2nd and 3rd generation models. The update includes support for iTunes Radio, AirPlay from the Cloud and more.

Rovio's Angry Birds is not a new entry when it comes to the App Store, however, with every new release seems to find additional ways to innovate. After gaining the Star Wars licensing Rovio could have simply applied a skin to the game and called it a day, but instead chose to use the new world to further expand the game. Angry Birds Star Wars II follows in this pattern by introducing several new features, including the first opportunity to fling pigs at birds....
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Don’t panic: Apple didn’t forget to put its much-fussed-over M7 coprocessor into the iPhone 5s. Earlier today, iFixit was unable to locate the new chip, which Apple said is responsible for handling data from the smartphone’s many sensors, but further investigation by Chipworks has located the elusive piece of silicon.

The confusion apparently stemmed from the fact that the M7 isn’t physically branded as such. Rather, it’s labeled as the NXP LPC18A1, from a company called NXP Semiconductors; that firm specializes in, among other things, microcontrollers...

Feeling overwhelmed by all of the new features in iOS 7? We’ve sifted out seven great hidden tips that you’ll want to know.

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 released its anticipated software update to Apple TV today, adding support for iTunes Radio and AirPlaying content from iCloud ? like music from iTunes Match ??to another person's Apple TV.
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Apple gave its Apple TV set-top box an internal overhaul Friday, issuing a software update that adds a few new features to the device. Arriving two days after AllThingsD predicted it would, the new firmware brings with it a bunch of enhancements.

Among new features included in Apple TV 6.0: support for iTunes Radio and purchases from the iTunes Music Store, podcast syncing, the ability to view videos and photos from a shared photo stream and Airplay From iCloud, an upgrade to Apple’s Airplay wireless streaming software that allows people who have purchased content from Apple’s iTunes store to play that same content on other Apple TVs.

Developing …

NetworkWorld is reporting that Apple's iOS 7 may be the first instance of large-scale use of a new type of Internet protocol called multipath TCP, or MCTCP. Just what is MCTCP -- and what does it do -- you may ask? Here's what NetworkWorld's John Cox says:

Researchers have been working for years on creating "disruption tolerant" networks, which can automatically work around failures, sometimes multiple failures, and adapt to changing network conditions. Today TCP is a single path protocol: if that path should fail for any reason, the session ends, and the connection has to be re-established.

By contrast, MCTCP is a TCP extension that enables the simultaneous use of several IP addresses or interfaces. Existing applications - completely unmodified -- see what appears to be a standard TCP interface. But under the covers, MPTCP is spreading the connection's data across several subflows...

In a new Businessweek article Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior VP of Software Engineering, dismissed the line against them that its pace of innovation is off. Apple's Senior VP of Design Jony Ive and Federighi pointed out that it's not just about new features, but also the deep layers of integration that went into each one. Of the 5S’s fingerprint scanner, Ive said that "there were so many problems that had to be solved to enable one big idea." Today's market gurus, money exchangers and quick-buck thinkers will never appreciate that kind of dedication to ...

Chipworks is performing a more in-depth examination of the iPhone 5s than the one performed by iFixit last night.

Among its discoveries, Chipworks found that the A7 chip is manufactured by Samsung, a big win for that firm after rumors surfaced earlier this year that Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) might win the contract for the new chip. Code discovered in iOS 7 back in July did suggest that Samsung would...

Apple has indicated that it is already sold out of some iPhone 5s models, citing “incredible” demand for the new device, according to report this morning by AllThingsD. Although Apple typically does not provide specific sales information until after the initial launch weekend, it has revealed that it many…

Apple is seeing "incredible" demand for its new iPhones, according to an official statement. "Demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and we are currently sold out or have limited supply of certain iPhone 5s models in some stores," a PR representative says. The company has declined to go into any more detail, but typically reserves specific numbers until completed launch weekends, quarterly results calls, and major press events....
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Following last night's teardown of the iPhone 5s, iFixit has completed its iPhone 5c teardown. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 5c's dismantling has revealed numerous similarities with the iPhone 5, including nearly identical innards with matching A6 processors.

While the internals and form factor are largely the same, the iPhone 5c is slightly thicker and heavier than the iPhone 5 and due to its polycarbonate shell. The 5c also has a larger battery, measuring in at 1510 mAh compared to the 1440 mAh battery of the iPhone 5, and it shares camera parts with the iPhone 5s, though the latter has a larger aperture. iFixit found that the plastic shell was nearly impossible to bend, largely because of its heft – the rear case weighs in at 43.8 grams.

Hey, this iPhone 5s that I don't have is really great, so I thought I'd share some of the new features with you. First, let's watch my unboxing video:

Wasn't that great? Yes, since the order system coughed last night during my first try -- when it said the phone would ship in 1 to 3 days -- I have an imaginary iPhone, and the nonexistent box is just beautiful. Inside that gorgeous box is a gold, 32 GB iPhone 5s. It's the same size and weight as my iPhone 5, but wow -- that gold!

1) The first feature I'm not using today is the Touch ID fingerprint recognition system. Wow, what a great way to unlock your iPhone. If I had one, I'd just place my finger on this beautiful gold ring right here and bam! There's my home screen. It's so good to know that I won't have to tap that four-digit passcode into the phone again ... at least after October 8-10 when I actually have my iPhone...

Messages in iOS 7 are very economical in their presentation.  Not every message bubble is time stamped.  Here's a quick tip on how to reveal those times.

U.S. Senator Al Franken, who has questioned Apple and other technology companies several times in the past, just published a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook questioning the privacy implications of the TouchID fingerprint sensor feature included in Apple’s new iPhone 5s. In the letter (below), Franken says that “important questions remain about how this technology works, Apple’s future plans for this technology, and the legal protections that Apple will afford it,” and requests that Apple explain more in-depth how it’s storing fingerprint data:

It’s clear to me that Apple has worked hard to secure this technology and implement it responsibly. The iPhone...

There's a great line from the exceptionally addicting television series Breaking Bad where drug kingpin Gus Fring explains why he humbly runs a fast food chicken restaurant and even donates to police related causes.

"I hide in plain sight," he says.

So too does Apple's innovation hide from the critical eyes of analysts and investors who reacted to Apple's iPhone announcements with a collective sigh. For reasons that defy explanation, Apple alone is seemingly held up to a standard of innovation that no company could ever live up to.

So like clockwork, Apple's iPhone announcements last week were followed by the same tired arguments about how the company has lost its luster, and rather bizarrely, how the company needs to innovate faster.

While the flaws in these commonly levied assertions have been pointed out time and time again, Glen Fleishman recently...

The new iPhone 5S is out and normal folks are getting their fingerprints all over it—exactly what Apple intended with the inclusion of the fingerprint scanner. However, early reviews have included the occasional note that the fingerprint scanner's ability to enable iTunes purchases didn't quite work correctly—the iPhone 5S would prompt for a password instead of simply accepting the fingerprint.

To address this, Apple has issued an update to iOS 7 for the iPhone 5S (and also for the 5C, though it's unclear what else the update addresses). Several other outlets are reporting that the update is only 17.5MB, but when I checked via iTunes on my fresh-from-the-box iPhone 5S, I got a download that was 1.39GB in size.

We'll have our full iPhone 5s review up as soon as possible, along with video showing off how the new devices (and their new cameras) work.

Read on...

Everyone on Wall Street pretty much freaked last Monday when Apple didn't announce any pre-order numbers for the total units of iPhone 5c's sold. That's nothing new -- analysts on The Street are a jittery, throw-you-under-a-bus crowd. But the fact that Apple has remained silent is neither good nor bad. However, today that silence has been broken a little bit with the company telling AllThingsD:

"Demand for the new iPhones has been incredible and we are currently sold out or have limited supply of certain iPhone 5s models in some stores."

Will that assuage Wall Streets worries? Probably not. But I sense a well-deserved "I told you so" from Apple coming on when they do announce the new iPhone's sales launch numbers.

Apple: Demand for iPhone 5s and 5c has been "Incredible" originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog...

Apple's new iPhone 5c represents the first time the company has specifically updated and advertised its mid-range handset, giving the device a unique role in expanding expectations for the company's smartphone sales.
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Android Authority is in Hong Kong with both the iPhone 5s and 5c. Like it has done in the past, the blog put the two phones through their paces in a classic comparison drop test. Joshua Vergara dropped the phones from a chest-level height and sent them to the pavement in the front-first, back-first and side-first positions.

In the end, the iPhone 5s fared well in the tests with only minimal scratches and dings. The iPhone 5c passed with flying colors until a front-first drop shattered the screen. Bummer. You can check out the torture test in the video below.

iPhone 5s and 5c sorta, kinda pass chest-level drop tests originally appeared on TUAW -...

Facing what it described as “incredible” demand for its new iPhones — particularly the gold iPhone 5s — Apple is ramping up production of that handset. Sources close to the company tell AllThingsD that Apple has instructed its manufacturing partners to “significantly” boost production of the gold 5s. These same sources declined to provide a hard percentage increase for the production ramp, but The Wall Street Journal, which has heard similar claims, reports that it may be as large as an additional one-third. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Ask IT managers and CIOs serving large organizations "What keeps you up at night?" After they get over their cold sweats from considering public security breaches or datacenter meltdowns, they'll probably come around to the rapid, relentless pace of change in the technology ecosystems they're running.

Nowhere is that speedy spin cycle more frenetic than in mobile and portable computing, where the "consumerization of IT" driven by bring-your-own-device policies and the radical popularity of iOS and Android has completely overturned the pecking order (as recently as five years ago, Blackberry above all).

Apple's story for iOS in the enterprise has been one of incredibly fast uptake, especially considering the usual cycle for upgrades and new platform rollouts. In many ways, that rapid adoption was in spite of Apple's traditional arm's-length relationship with enterprise customers, compared to the tight ties with vendors like Dell and IBM. Over the iOS lifecycle,...

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has dropped a hint that Office apps may finally be headed to iOS and Android. Speaking to Wall Street analysts on Thursday, he noted that the company executives have their eyes "wide open" when considering the potential benefits of bringing products such as Office onto competing platforms....
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