This is cool. It shows you one word at a time, so you can increase your speed over time.

∞ Read this on The Loop

This is so cute. I love my Border Collies.

Demand for the iPhone 5s appears to be outstripping supply, as shipping times for the high-end iPhone have slipped to seven to ten business days at Apple's online store, while the gold model appears to be completely out of stock.
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With the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c having now officially launched in nearly all of Apple's first-wave locations, Apple has issued a brief statement citing "incredible" demand for the new devices and acknowledging shortages of iPhone 5s models, reports 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,” an Apple representative told AllThingsD.
Shipping estimates for online orders of the iPhone 5s opened at 7-10 business days in many countries, and while the device launched with 1-3 business day shipping in the United States, estimates quickly slipped to a minimum of 7-10 business days and even "October" in the case of the gold models...

The iPhone advances in ticks and tocks, new designs alternating with more subtle advancements. I haven’t decided whether the iPhone 5s is a tick or a tock. It most definitely looks like last year’s model but there is also most definitely more to it than meets the eye. (And besides, which one is tick and which one is tock?)

I’ve just gotten my hands on the iPhone 5s, and will be spending the weekend with it as I prepare my review. Now, based on a bit more time than I spent with one in a crowded room last week, here are some of my first impressions of Apple’s new top-of-the-line iPhone.

All that glitters

Image: Robert CardinBehold the gold.

I’ve been carrying an iPhone 5 in my pocket for the last year, and the iPhone 5s feels exactly the same. Same...

iLounge has posted an unboxing gallery for Apple’s new iPhone 5s and space gray iPod touch. In a full photo gallery, we take a closer look at both devices, along with comparison photos. More pictures will be added as the day…

Apple said that Friday that it is sold out of some iPhone 5s models amid what it described as “incredible” demand.

“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,” an Apple representative told AllThingsD.

As previously noted, availability for the gold iPhone 5s is now listed as “October” with 7-to-10 day wait times quoted for the silver and gray models.

Carrier sources told AllThingsD earlier this week that they expected the 5s to be in extremely short supply with one carrier source describing their inventory situation as “grotesquely unavailable.”

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....
  ...

Apple has already asked suppliers to ramp up production of the gold-colored iPhone 5s by one-third, according to the Wall Street Journal. The gold iPhone 5s has already seen heavy demand, which Apple doesn’t have the available stock to meet at this point. Within a half hour of the…

As expected, the gold iPhone 5s is proving to be a hot commodity.

With stores on the West Coast not yet open, Apple has already pushed out availability on its website for the gold iPhone 5s until sometime in October, for all capacities and carriers.

The silver and gray models of the iPhone 5s are currently listed as having a seven-to-10-day wait time. Carrier sources said earlier this week that they expected very limited stocks of the iPhone 5s.

Meanwhile, those wanting an iPhone 5c can currently order one and get it in one to three business days, for all colors and carriers.

Both the iPhone 5s and 5c went on sale Friday. Apple offered...

Now that iOS 7 is in the wild I'm getting some interesting questions, like one from a friend who discovered the parallax motion effect that moves the background behind the Home screen icons triggers their migraines. How do you fix that, they asked. Simple: enable Reduce Motion.

Taste the rainbow

Given the debut of Apple's new iPhone models, you might expect that this week’s roundup of iPhone protection would be full of cases for those new phones. You would be correct.

Ballistic

The Aspira (iPhone 5c; $35) combines reinforced corner protection with a flashy design that plays nice with the iPhone 5c’s own colorful appearance.

The case comes in white/charcoal, black/grey, lime/black, or pink/black, and it sports a raised lip on the front to keep your screen safe during falls.

Blue Flame

The Pack (all iPhone models; $100) is a slick backpack that covers all your bases—at least as far as electronics are concerned—with specialized pockets for a smartphone, tablet, and laptop.

...

In earlier versions of iOS, the system would notify users of available App Store updates with a badge on the icon (seen above).

You had to open up the App Store, press the Update button, then press Update All. It was rather annoying to keep up with all the apps that needed updating. Sometimes by the time you finished updating, more apps would need updating.

Now with iOS 7, the apps will now automatically update. To make sure that the apps are set to automatically update, go into Settings and scroll until you see iTunes and App Store.

Tap on iTunes & App Store. Then scroll all the way down towards the bottom until see Automatic Downloads.

To...

The fingerprint sensor comes with a new cable, which can be easy to break if you're not careful. iFixit

Some advance reviews of Apple's iPhone 5S have already showed up, but as of yet few have dared to physically pull apart the new iPhone to see what makes it tick. The folks over at iFixit have gotten their hands on one of those rare gold iPhones you're all trying to buy, sacrificing it in the name of Knowledge.

What iFixit discovered was a mix of old and new, much in keeping with the new-stuff-inside, similar-stuff-outside approach that Apple usually takes with its "S" phones. The 4-inch 1136×640 display is identical to last year's (excepting the normal variance you can get from phone-to-phone depending on where Apple sourced the panel) and like the iPhone 5, it integrates the glass layer, the capacitive touch...

The iPhone 5s repair experts at iFixyouri sent along this one, above ^.

‘Android Authority’ seemed to enjoy themselves a little too much in theirs…

We’ll update with more as they come in.

Visit 9to5Mac to find more special coverage of AAPL Company.

What do you think? Discuss "Here come the iPhone 5s and 5c ‘drop tests’ [video]" with our community.

...

Three hours before the store is scheduled to open, a line of more that 150 hopeful iPhone buyers stretched down the street and around the block.
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Back in June, at WWDC, Apple first announced iOS 7, detailing a host of new technologies. Hidden among them, with the barest of mentions, was the iBeacon.

Think of an iBeacon as a tiny radio you can put almost anywhere. When your iPhone or other iOS device gets within range (a few dozen feet or so), it detects the iBeacon and can estimate how far away it is. Each iBeacon has its own identifier, too, so if your iPhone is within range of more than one iBeacon, it can tell them apart.

One company that is hard at work making their own brand of iBeacon sensor is estimote. From their web site:

Simply stick our tiny sensors in any physical place — such as your retail store — and your app users will benefit from personalized micro-location based notifications and actions when they walk in to your venue or interact with your products.

...

In iOS 6, you could tap the Edit button in Messages to delete or forward one or more messages from a text/iMessage conversation. There's no Edit button in iOS 7's version of Messages.

Here's the work around: Tap and hold on any speech bubble in your conversation. A popover menu appears. Tap on the More button, and now you're in editing mode. You can check as many messages as you'd like with the round checkboxes (checkcircles?) that appear, and then tap either the trash can icon at the bottom left, or the forward button at the bottom right.

There's also a Delete All button at the upper left to wipe out the entire conversation history from this editing mode.

MojoKid writes "News of a proven security vulnerability involving Apple iOS 7 has started making the rounds. The exploit specifically involves the lockscreen, the most common piece of security that stops an unauthorized individual from gaining access to anything important on your phone. The 'hack,' if you want to call it that, is simple: Swipe up on the lock screen to enter the control center, and then open the alarm clock. From there, hold the phone's sleep button to bring up a prompt that will ask you if you wish to shut down, but instead of doing that, hit the cancel option, and then tap the home button to access the phone's multi-tasking screen. With access to this multi-tasking screen, anyone could try opening up what you've already had open on your phone. If you had Twitter open, for example, this person might be able to pick up where you left off and post on your behalf. Or, they could access the camera — and of course, every single photo stored on the phone." The new iPhone...

Daniel Rachel just released the book Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters.

Inspired by Paul Zollo’s seminal Songwriters on Songwriting, Rachel has managed to bring together a truly impressive ensemble of British tunesmiths, including Ray Davies, Jarvis Cocker, Mick Jones, Robin Gibb (why the hell not!) and Johnny Marr, among others. The results are hugely enjoyable, and the mind veritably boggles imagining the kind of cajoling and legwork Rachel must have put in to coax this rich and eclectic ensemble out of their country piles—not least the notoriously taciturn, the notoriously notorious Jimmy Page…

I love interviews where musicians talk about their craft (as opposed to their personal lives). Really looking forward to getting my copy. Follow the link above to get to an excerpt of the Jimmy Page interview.

Here’s a tasty bit of Page playing Chopin. The audio is a little out of sync (I think they captured the echo), but yum,...

Siri's got some new tricks up her…um, his…uh…its sleeve for iOS 7. Now you can search Twitter (using people's names or hashtags!), play iTunes Radio, and even say things like "turn on Private Browsing," and if Siri can't do it, it'll teach you how. In this tip, Melissa Holt will discuss her favorite new ways to harass Apple's voice assistant. 

Apple's servers were working overtime Wednesday as the new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 7, became available for download by the public. iOS 7 has a number of new features that should appeal to consumers who are fans of Apple's iPhone, iPod and iPad, but it also contains features to bolster the company's already strong position in the enterprise. The most obvious change in the software is its new flat interface. It will be jarring to old timers accustomed to icons that emulate analog objects.

GameCase is an upcoming iOS game controller that harnesses the power of iOS 7 and Apple's new MFi controller framework. It's not available yet, but you can sign up to be notified for when it is at gamecase.com.

read more

Users booting up their newly released iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c on Friday will be prompted to install a minor operating system update, intended to squash a few minor bugs Apple discovered with its latest handsets.
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With supplies of the iPhone 5s very constrained, this unboxing video is as close as many are likely to get to their new iPhone 5s, at least for the next ten days or so.

It doesn’t show anything new, of course, but if you really want to be removing your shiny new iPhone from its box today, at least you can experience it vicariously.

Visit 9to5Mac to find more special coverage of iOS...

Park Associates (www.parksassociates.com) has announced results of a 2013 survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households, which shows 44% currently have a subscription to some kind of online video service, such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, or Amazon. Younger consumers are more likely to subscribe to OTT (over-the-top) video services, and 8% of consumers 18-24 have never subscribed to a pay-TV service.

read more

Remember those promises we were made, about a paperless world? Everything electronic, everything online? Since the world was failing to deliver, I decided a couple of years ago to do an experiment to find out whether it is possible to live a truly paperless life.

Two years later, the bad news is that you can’t entirely avoid the stuff. There are a few documents the government insists I keep in paper form: my passport and driving licence, for example. There are documents that still arrive in paper form, and documents I have to supply in paper form.

The good news is that you can get very, very close. Here’s how I made it work … 

The Apple iPhone 5s is the seventh-generation iPhone and there can be little doubt that is the best iPhone yet. Despite revolutionizing the contemporary smartphone with the original iPhone, Apple has been facing increasingly vocal criticism that it has not been innovative enough with the subsequent generations. The brand new iPhone 5s has not been immune to this criticism, in large part because it continues with fundamentally the same design as its predecessor. However, if you are willing to look past this, you will find plenty of innovation that will keep Apple at the forefront of the smartp...
 ...

Following sales opening in Australia, Asia, and Europe, Apple has started selling the iPhone 5s through its online store in the United States, hours before its expected retail release. While the iPhone 5c has been available to pre-order through the store since the 13th of September, and is also currently available to buy, this is the first time that the iPhone 5s is being sold through Apple itself....
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Apple is asking its supply chain to increase production of gold iPhone 5s models by one-third amid strong launch-day demand, reports The Wall Street Journal.Apple Inc. 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 constraints manufacturing the new iPhone.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
All iPhone 5s models have been seeing lengthy shipping estimates at or soon after the start of online orders, but gold models have been in the shortest supply, with the U.S. online store seeing shipping estimates rapidly slip to "October".

In-store supplies of gold models have also been limited, with some carrier partners and third-party retailers having no supply of gold models. Even Apple'...

The WSJ reports that Apple has instructed suppliers to increase production of the gold model of the iPhone 5s by one-third after seeing high demand for the color. Availability for the gold model was into October within 30 minutes of orders opening on Apple Store sites around the world, with retail stores also reportedly selling out quickly and carriers getting few in the first place … ...

Continuing its worldwide rollout of the iPhone 5s and 5c, Apple has taken down the U.S. Online Apple Store to prepare for sales of the device, slated to start at midnight Pacific time.
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Applestarted taking orders for its flagship iPhone 5s in the U.S. and Canada at midnight Pacific Time after the phone launched earlier today in 8 other countries around the world. Most locales have seen tight supplies of all capacities and colors, with the gold model said to be particularly difficult to come by.

The iPhone 5s is available directly from Apple via the Apple Online Store and the Apple Store iOS App [Direct Link], with the iOS app historically more resilient against traffic surges than the online store.

In the U.S., Apple is selling the 16GB iPhone 5s on most...

Get those fingers ready to hit refresh and those credit cards out as the Apple Store is down. The next time it comes back up, you'll be furiously clicking and typing your way to a new iPhone 5s. Don't forget -- the store will come back online for iPhone 5s orders at 12:01 Pacific Time, 1:01 Mountain Time, 2:01 Central Time and 3:01 Eastern Time.

The Apple Store is down, down, down! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 20 Sep 2013 00:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | ...

The U.S. Apple Store has gone offline in preparation of the launch of online sales for the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5s is Apple's new top-end iPhone which incorporates the faster A7 processor, camera improvements and a fingerprint sensor.

Southpoint Mall in Durham, NC
Lines have started to form at stores across the country. While the the LA Times claims that lines are "noticeably shorter or nonexistent" as compared to previous launches, CNet reports there were healthy lines internationally.

Supply for the new iPhone appears to be tight with international stores selling out relatively quickly....

iFixit is quick to get their hands on the iPhone 5s and start to tear that beautiful piece of hardware down to its screws and rails. This time around, iFixit is not the first to crack open the iPhone 5s. Australian iPhone repair company iExperts can claim that honor as it already showcased the innards earlier today. iFixit, though, has a way with words, which makes the teardown as entertaining as it is informative.

Some highlights of the teardown include the confirmation of AuthenTec as the company behind the fingerprint sensor, which was expected since Apple acquired the biometric hardware company last year. The sensor uses a CMOS chip and requires 5 to ten images to create a complete profile of your...

Shadow Puppet is a free, universal iOS app that lets you select photos on your iDevice, put them in any order you like, then narrate the slide show while you highlight something in the photo with an animated icon, or zoom and move the photo.

When you are done, you can share your work via email, SMS, Twitter or Facebook. No player is required. The slideshow is created on a private web page, so it can be viewed on any device.

I tried the app and found it very easy to use. You have to create an account if you want to share your photos (note: your email info is not sold to third parties). After your slideshows are uploaded they are instantly available, and the audio and video play back smoothly and in reasonable quality.

I could see many uses for this app, demonstrating how to do something or sharing vacation pictures while on your trip. It's easy enough for a child to use, and the app is...

The UK's low cost mobile carrier Three has just announced that it will begin selling the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c with unlimited 4G data on Friday, September 20. The iPhone 5s will be available starting at £99 and the iPhone 5c will be available starting at £49 on a 24-month contract from Three stores. As all of Three's mobile plans come with unlimited data, that means owners who buy the latest iPhones through Three can enjoy surfing the web to their heart's content when they're out and about.

Do keep in mind though that Three has not rolled out its 4G plan yet, so iPhone 5s and 5c owners will be browsing on 3G until the 4G rollout begins in London and a few other cities in the UK in December. You can check out the full PR release below.

Show full PR text

Three today announced it will offer iPhone 5s, the most forward-thinking smartphone in the world, and iPhone 5c, the most colourful iPhone yet,...

It seems Apple included a bit of a networking surprise in iOS 7. According to a logs captured from an iOS device while connecting to Apple’s Siri servers, the latest version of the mobile operating system includes support for a new technology called multipath TCP. Multipath TCP allows devices to transmit data over multiple connection types at once, such as LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Essentially, this allows devices to maintain their connection to the Internet or another device even if one of the connections fails. Say for example you were on a weak Wi-Fi network that kept cutting out while attempting to watch a YouTube video. On most Internet-connected devices, that video would stop loading when your connection died, and even if it quickly reestablish a connection by finding...

The release of iOS 7 has brought many wanted and desperately needed features to the waiting hands of iPhone fans. But the most exciting part of iOS 7 for me wasn't the new Control Center or enhanced iCloud options; it was the redesigned Photos app. The iPhone has a wonderful camera. It's a trusty alternative to having to carry around a point and shoot.

Thanks to its remarkable picture quality and the myriad of apps and filters available for use, it's easy to end up with more photos than you know what to do with. Thankfully the Photos app for iOS 7 takes into account that when you're having fun taking photos, your brain isn't focused on organization. The app has been redesigned to naturally group your photos into collections organized by time period.

When you select a collection, say the photos taken June 27 - September 19, 2012, your photos are further broken...

Perhaps Apple's getting a sweet bit of revenge for the unjustified criticism of iOS 7 over the last day, or maybe there's just a person in the Apple Support department who has a really good sense of humor. Regardless of the source of the fun, somebody slipped in a humorous screenshot on knowledge base article HT5858, titled "iOS: Understanding Control Center".

As you can see in the image above, RIck Astley's "classic" tune "Never Gonna Give You Up" is playing on the iPhone belonging to the wag who wrote the KB piece. And that, my friends, is a classic rickroll.

Apple rickrolls the world with iOS 7 knowledge base article originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Sep...

Looking back, I should have known that I would end up working in science and technology. As a kid, I loved exploring how things worked -- from mixing different colors and type of soaps in the sink to taking apart our radio. My favorite Christmas gift was the chemistry set shown above. Look how thrilled I was to be mixing chemicals in my living room!

Most of my youth was non-tech oriented. We had a single TV with a rotary dial, but I didn't watch a lot of it. I was more into sports and spent hours outside shooting hoops. It wasn't until I got into college at Loyola College in Maryland that my interest in technology began. I entered school as a Biology major and had my first encounter with a Mac. It was an Apple Mac II, though I don't recall the exact model.

The Mac II sat in the school's computer lab, and it was required by my Latin class because one of the language apps was Mac-only. As...

As has become typical of every major Apple product launch, the new iPhone 5s is being torn down just hours after it officially went on sale in Australia, offering some of the first looks at the phone's innards.
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So, let's say you have a bunch of iOS devices. How do you update them all to iOS 7 at one time? With Configurator and a big honking USB hub, is how. Yesterday while at Tekserve I got to see the beauty pictured above, a 40-port USB hub that costs more than most iPhones. A limitation in the USB spec prevents charging iPads requiring a certain wattage, but otherwise this sucker was able to update a lot of devices all at once thanks to the miracle of technology.

Also, if you've ever seen groups of iPads in close proximity all clearly operating from the same image (like, say at the Delta terminal at LGA in New York) you'll probably find one of these guys hiding in the furniture somewhere.

How do you update a few dozen iDevices at once? originally appeared on...

I had a lot of fun joining John Gruber on The Talk Show this week where we discussed the iPhone 5s and 5c, among other things.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Sales of the iPhone have begun in eastern Australia, with customers lining up to be among the first in the world to buy one of the new iPhone models at retail. As expected, interest is high in the new iPhone 5s -- however, our reporter in line in Penrith (a city not far from Sydney) reports that while stores have "plenty" of the silver and "Space Gray" models on hand, the prized "gold" model is in short supply, with the Penrith Apple Store having 50 or fewer units on hand, while well over 200 potential customers lined up prior to opening....
 ...

As online sales for the iPhone 5s begin to go live in Australia, Asia, and now the UK, lines outside of Apple stores around the world are starting to grow in anticipation the September 20th, 8AM retail launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c. Shipping times for the...

With Apple making its iWork for iOS suite free with the purchase of a new iOS device, the mobile office wars are heating up as more and more people turn to their phones to conduct business. Not to be outdone, Google announced today that it is making its previously paid-for Quickoffice iOS app free for everyone. Announcing the move in a blog post, Google said:

Everyone likes free stuff, which is why starting today we're making Quickoffice available for free, for everyone. With Quickoffice, you can edit Microsoft(R) Office documents across your devices, giving you the freedom to work with anyone no matter what hardware or software they're using. Quickoffice also integrates seamlessly with Google Drive storage so you can safely access your files from anywhere. And while the easiest thing to do is simply convert...

One of the biggest complaints I've heard from people who have made the upgrade to iOS 7 is that they can't read Apple's new favorite typeface -- Helvetica Neue Ultra Light. There's a simple way to make almost everything on your iOS device more readable, and that is to use the Accessibility settings to enable bold text. The result? Well, see for yourself. The image at top left is the "normal" text setting, while the one at right has bold text enabled.

Enabling this readability trick is quite easy: just use Settings > General > Accessibility and toggle Bold Text on. Your device will restart, and once that's done you'll be able to actually read text without straining your eyes.

Here's a video showing how to enable bold text in iOS 7 (note that you can go full-screen for full effect). Enjoy!

iOS 7 video tip: Making text more readable...

Per Forbes and AllThingsD, the first iOS 7 security bug has appeared and may be worth noting. The bug is currently found in the iOS 7 Lock screen and Control Center implementation that could allow a person to bypass the device’s passcode and access the photo library. This bug is more of a potential security issue as it requires users to both be running their camera app (so it shows up in multitasking) and...

Online sales of the iPhone 5s have kicked off in several different countries, and a number of iPhone 5s models, the gold in particular, seem to be in short supply all around the world.

As the Apple Stores in France, Germany, and the U.K. come back online, it is clear that the shortages extend to European customers as well. Immediately after coming back up, the U.K. Apple Store displayed shipping times of 7–10 days for all colors and capacities, as did both of the online stores for France and Germany.

In Australia and China,...

What can one say about dollar store headphones. Seriously?

They cost a dollar and noise comes out of them.

Honestly, if you are in a bind -- say your real headset has died and every other store in the city has been closed and there's about to be a power outage and your iPhone with its remaining batteries is going to be the only entertainment you have for the next 72 hours -- then these "stereo" (sometimes) headphones will be... fine.

Okay, maybe by "fine," I overstate the case a tiny bit. Let me try again.

In testing, I found that sound came out of them, often on both sides. They weren't horribly uncomfortable. And for some reason, they optimistically include extra ear puffs -- not as if the headphones would ever last long enough for them to be used.

And that's about all you can say about the dollar store headphones.

Dollar Store Accessories: Headphones...

The Aussies completed an initial teardown of the iPhone 5s and there are some impressive components inside.

Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Australia-based tech shop iExperts, the guys at iExperts were able to remove the standard pentalobe screws holding the handset together, then used a suction cup to remove the screen. The team noticed that there’s a special cable that connects the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5s to the charging port assembly —...

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 19, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Sep 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our...

Public folders in OS X are shared by default, and can sometimes be a potential security problem, but can easily be disabled or better secured if needed.

Jackbox Games announced today its official launch of YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Party for iOS. A multiplayer version of the interactive trivia franchise, YDKJ Party allows an iOS device or Apple TV to serve as the primary display while other mobile devices, running the free JackPad app, turn users' iOS or Android devices into game controllers, allowing up to four additional players to participate. The new app has launched with a free trial episode, and 30 additional 11-question episodes available as in-app purchases. YDKJ Party and other YDKJ app products are available for download on iTunes....
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As noted by BusinessInsider, a number of security researchers and other hackers have come together to offer rewards to the first person that can “reliably and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5s” through bypassing the new TouchID fingerprint sensor feature. They aren’t looking for a software hack, however, but instead want hackers to break into the device by lifting prints, “like from a beer mug.”

It’s not exactly a legit contest, as the creators of the site are only claiming responsibility for their own bounty offers. Their bounties come out to around just $200 of the approximately $20k in pledges listed on the site.

In order to collect, you’ll have to have video proof of the process. The site’s creator explained in the “terms and conditions,” which is actually just a series of tweets:

All I ask is a video of the process from print, lift, reproduction and successful unlock with...

Apple's online storefronts recently went down in Europe in preparation of what is expected to be a deluge of orders for the company's new iPhone models, or more specifically the iPhone 5s.
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Shorty after Apple released iOS 7, we began hearing reports that it's buggy on the iPad 2. Everything from crashing apps to general wonkiness seemed to be troubling some users. With that in mind, I updated my own iPad 2 to iOS 7 try it out. Here are my first impressions of Apple's new mobile operating system on an older piece of hardware.

Installation

Installation was a breeze. After backing up my iPad, the process unfolded as expected. It's noteworthy that iTunes would not execute the installation until a full backup was complete. It failed at first as I had to free up some space on my MacBook Air's drive. Once that was done, it went swimmingly.

Issues

The only issue I've encountered is with responsiveness. Tapping a folder to open it sometimes takes half a beat. Likewise, scrolling through thumbnails of running apps via multitasking isn't as smooth as it is...

Luxi is a new, small diffusion dome that fits over your iPhone’s front-facing camera. When attached and used with a light meter app, it can help you determine the best settings for your DSLR or other camera.

Incident light meters, like Luxi, measure the amount of light falling on the subject you are photographing, not the light reflected by the subject. Their readings are independent of the subject's reflectance and can't be "fooled" by tricky lighting situations like back-lit subjects (e.g. sunset portraits).

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Zevrix Solutions (http://zevrix.com) has announced Output Factory 1.4.11, an update to its professional output automation solution for Adobe InDesign. The new version lets users save output page range within individual workflows and improves reliability of exporting to EPS and SWF formats.

With Output Factory, users can output hundreds of documents or just single files with full control over batch printing, layer versioning, automatic preflighting, file delivery, and more. All they need to do is select the desired InDesign files and adjust workflow settings.

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In anticipation of Apple's worldwide iPhone launch this Friday, Apple executives have been hitting the interview circuit. Earlier today we pointed to a Businessweek interview with Tim Cook, Craig Federighi and Jony Ive; and now comes yet another chat with Apple's higher ups courtesy of USA Today.

In detailing why iOS 7 does away with the skeuomorphism so favored by Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall, Jony Ive explains:

When we sat down last November (to work on iOS 7), we understood that people had already become comfortable with touching glass, they didn't need physical buttons, they understood the benefits," says Ive. "So there was an incredible liberty in not having to reference the physical world so literally. We were trying to create an environment that was less specific. It got design out of the way."

On the same note, Craig Federighi explains that graphical...

You can see the apps that were running using this bug, but you can't actually open any app that isn't normally accessible via the Control Center. Andrew Cunningham

New software comes with new features, but in the case of iOS 7, it also comes with new bugs. Forbes reports that a bug in the new Control Center feature can allow an attacker with physical access to your device full access to your Photos app even if you've protected your phone with a passcode. After following the steps to reproduce the bug, the attacker can open the Camera app from the multitasking window and then open the Photos app from there...

Apple on Thursday started putting up window dressing at one of its Australian retail outlets ahead of the iPhone launch on Friday, with the colorful 5c taking space to one side of the store's door, while the other is dedicated to the high-end 5s.
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When you try to create a new Apple Account (Apple ID) with iTunes or when you try to view existing account information, this alert may appear:
"Could not complete your iTunes Store request. The store may be busy. Check your Internet connection or try again later."

The "Secure our Smartphones" joint effort between the San Francisco district attorney and the New York Attorney general has noted the introduction of Apple's "Activation Lock" feature in iOS 7 and fingerprint identification in the iPhone 5s, calling Activation Lock "an important first step towards ending the global epidemic of smartphone theft."...
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This is remarkable craftsmanship. I want one.

A security hole in iOS 7 has been reported in which Apple's Control Center, along with some quick finger work, can be used to bypass a passcode protected lock screen on an iPhone or iPad running iOS 7, grating access to Mail, Photos and Twitter, and more.
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Pandora investors used to be skittish types. They sold their stock whenever anyone murmured about the prospects of a rival Web radio service from Apple. And that happened a lot last year.

But things are different in 2013. Pandora stock has been on a tear, even when it became clear that iTunes Radio was a go, for real.

And now that iTunes Radio really is real, with yesterday’s debut of iOS7, Pandora investors are even more confident.

Today the stock hit a record high of $27.50, before closing at $27.35. Perspective: As recently as last fall, the stock was barely...

Google today has made its acquired QuickOffice suite free for both the iOS and Android. The package allows users to modify Microsoft Office documents on a wide array of mobile devices. The offering is integrated with the recently upgraded Google Drive, with users signing into Google Drive through the QuickOffice app being granted 10GB of extra storage for two years....
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When Apple introduced the iPhone 5c, analysts and pundits were taken aback that the device was not as cheap as they were anticipating. How, they pondered, would Apple be able to increase marketshare without a more affordable device aimed at emerging markets?

The result? A huge sell-off in Apple shares.

As is typically the case with respect to Apple-related panic, however, the reality is much less alarming than the hysteria would have you believe.

AllThingsD, for example, recently pointed out that both China Telecom and China Unicom are offering substantial subsidies for Apple's newest iPhones.

At 4,488 yuan - about $730 - the off-contract price of Apple's new iPhone 5c may well be too heady for China, the world's most populous mobile phone market. But the carriers distributing the device there are offering plenty...

On Thursday, iOS devices gained yet one more way to manage your financial details, thanks to the release of an official client for Google’s Wallet service.

Available as a free download from the App Store, the app clocks in at a little over 8MB, and requires iOS 6.0 or above. Unfortunately, it doesn't come as a universal binary, which means that, if you want to access Wallet on an iPad, you are forced to either use its iPhone emulator or rely on the service's Web-based interface.

No NFC? No problem

Although Google Wallet has been available on the Web since 2011, a client for iOS has been a long time coming, due in no small part to the fact that the search giant originally intended to only provide the service through devices capable of supporting near-field...

Carriers and US retailers will have little to no gold or white/silver versions of the iPhone 5s in stores for tomorrow's launch, chain sources say. All of the units in stock at the moment are said to be "space gray," despite the gold option being one of the 5s' selling points. Warehouses are reportedly getting in a few white units, but even fewer gold ones, and in neither case are the numbers enough for a wide rollout....
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We've been hearing rumors about an NFC-enabled iPhone and/or iPad for years now, and the song is always the same: "Sources say the next iDevice will have NFC, and it's about time!" Yet here we sit, with a pair of new iPhones just a day from launch, and no NFC in sight.

If there's anything the iPhone 5s and AirDrop should tell us, it's that we should stop expecting an Apple smartphone or tablet with near-field communication, at least for a while.

NFC speaks two languages

It's important to separate the two primary uses for NFC: Sharing and payments.

• NFC mobile sharing is useful for everything from virtually handing documents to a coworker, to (apparently) getting naughty videos from your spouse before a business trip. This is an NFC feature that can be used by the widest range of people, and all that is needed is two individuals with compatible devices.
• NFC payments...

Google has made its Quickoffice suite free on iOS for users with Google accounts, and Disney has released an iPad companion app for its Disney Infinity console game.
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A teardown of the iPhone 5s and 5c was done by iExperts, an Australian phone repair site. Both the iPhone 5s and 5c have more compact logic boards than the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5s has an extra cable connecting the Touch ID sensor to the charging port assembly.…

iOS 7 dramatically changes the look and feel compared to iOS 6. At first, we're not quite sure about our feelings. However, in time, important design elements surface in our consciousness. John Martellaro shares how all this affected his perspective on iOS 7 for the better.

Amazon continued to extend its reach across the assorted mobile platforms on Thursday, announcing that its GameCircle and Whispersync game-synching technologies were now available to developers programming for Apple's iOS.
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Target will be price-matching Walmart for the 16GB iPhone 5c at the smartphone's launch tomorrow. Walmart's already-discounted price of $79 for the iPhone 5c, when bought with a two-year contract, will be equaled by Target. Participants of Target's REDcard scheme will be able to get an extra 5-percent off, making the iPhone 5c cost $75.05....
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Google today made its QuickOffice suite for both iOS and Android free to use with a Google Account. QuickOffice is a cross-platform document editor that can manage and edit Microsoft Office documents. The app is downloadable for free on both iTunes and Google play for no charge. Better yet, Google says that those who login to the updated app by September 26th will receive a 10GB storage boost in Google Drive for the next two years.

Continue...

France plans to push for new Europe-wide regulations and tax rules on U.S. Internet giants when European Union leaders meet next month to discuss the bloc’s digital challenges.

According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, France is calling on the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to draw up proposals by spring 2014 aimed at “establishing a tax regime for digital companies that ensures that the profits they make on the European market are subject to taxation and that the revenues are shared between the Member States, linking the tax base to the place where the profits are made.”

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Apple rolled out iOS 7 yesterday to the public, and app developers were ready with their iOS 7 compatible apps. Yesterday, we looked at notable iOS app updates, and today, it is time to look at the new apps that debuted alongside iOS 7 . Here is a list of new apps that hit App Store just in time for iOS 7.

• La Luna: The Story Project [iPad; Category: Entertainment; $3.99] Pixar's Academy Award-nominated short film comes to life in a new interactive storybook experience for your iPad.

• Disney Infinity: Toy Box [iPad; Category: Games; Free] Captain Jack Sparrow in a sports car...

A pair of prosecutors, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, have been pressing Apple for months over a rash of thefts of mobile devices, including iPhones and iPads. Gascón in particular had been pushing for a 'kill switch' that could permanently disable stolen iOS devices.

Today, Gascón and Schneiderman praised Apple's release of the Activation Lock feature in iOS 7, calling it the "world's first attempt to implement a technological solution to the global smartphone theft epidemic".
"After months of pressure from a global coalition of elected officials and law enforcement agencies, we are pleased that Apple is set to release a new mobile operating...

judgecorp writes "There's more than $13,000 pledged for a crowdfunded bounty for bypassing an iPhone 5S's fingerprint reader. The bounty, set up by a security expert and an exploit reseller requires entrants to lift prints 'like from a beer mug.' It has a website — IsTouchIDHackedYet — and payments are pledged by tweets using #IsTouchIDHackedYet. One drawback: the scheme appears to rely on trust that sponsors will actually pay up." Other prizes include whiskey, books, and a bottle of wine.

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While some frustrated potential iOS 7 upgraders are cursing Apple this fine September day, prosecutors in San Francisco and New York are giving iOS 7 rave reviews thanks to the inclusion of Activation Lock in Apple's new mobile operating system.

San Francisco DA George Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued a joint statement yesterday praising Apple for taking "an important first step towards ending the global epidemic of smartphone theft."

Activation Lock works with an Apple ID and Find My iPhone to ensure that a device cannot be erased or reactivated without an Apple ID password. The prosecutors urged consumers to enable device passcodes or use Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, but note that those steps alone don't keep thieves from stealing smartphones. They believe that the long-term use of Activation Lock by a majority of iPhone...

An early teardown of the iPhone 5s and 5c, conducted by iExperts in Australia, has a exposed a few notable details about the hardware. It confirms for instance that the 5s has a new connector for the Touch ID fingerprint sensor assembly, and that while the 5s has a 5.92Whr battery, the 5c uses a 5.73Whr part. The original iPhone 5 battery was rated at 5.45Whr. At least in the phones iExperts received the new batteries are stamped "Apple Japan," hinting at possible suppliers....
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The Omni Group has released updated versions of OmniOutliner for iPad, OmniPlan for iPad, and OmniFocus for iPhone in the App Store. All of the updates have been redesigned with iOS 7 in mind, offering both new interfaces and support for iOS 7's new background app refresh support. OmniFocus 2 for iPhone features a new home screen that provides users with more information than previous versions, while OmniOutliner 2 for iPad has gained a redesigned Doc Picker and support for organizing files by folder. Finally, OmniPlan 2 has been updated with a few features that were previously only in the des...
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One of the big questions we're hearing from people who are making the jump to iOS 7 is "How the heck do I shut down apps that are running in the background?" In the past, you'd double-tap the home button and get a display of app icons on your screen, then tap the red "X" on those icons to shut them down.

With iOS 7, it's done with a swipe. Double-tap the home button and you see all of the apps that are currently chugging away on your device. To shut one of them down, just swipe it up and off of your screen. Want to do two of them at once? Flick 'em both off the screen with a two-finger gesture.

Since a video is worth a thousand words, here's a short clip showing you exactly how to do it -- note that you can resize this video to full-screen to see it more clearly. Be sure to send this to all of your friends who are asking the same question, OK?

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If you are a a developer and want to cross platform your game play, Amazon today announced that it had made its (not a copy of GameCenter) GameCircle available to iOS developers.

Amazon GameCircle and Whispersync for Games is live on iOS and Android!  You can store game data in the AWS Cloud so players don’t lose their game progress, high scores, or achievements when switching between devices.  We know programming for multiple platforms is standard practice for many developers—iOS support has been a frequent feature request—so we’re excited to make GameCircle available on a whole new class of devices. GameCircle and Whispersync are free for you and your players.  Plus, when you integrate GameCircle achievements, you automatically get access to Achievement Reports as well. These reports help you get a better understanding of...

Google has finally released a Google Wallet app (App Store) for iOS devices, enabling iPhone and iPad users to store and manage credit and debit cards, loyalty programs and promotional offers. The iOS title serves the same basic function as its Android counterpart, except for the tap-to-pay feature that requires NFC hardware unavailable on Apple's mobile devices....
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If you are like me, you have your eyes set on a Gold (or white) iPhone 5s because BLING! But if you are planning to go camp out in from of a non-Apple retail establishment tomorrow, you are going to have a bad time.

Every carrier source we’ve talked to and every US retail outlet we’ve heard from has told us that they are only getting in Space Grey iPhone 5s devices for sale. That’s not to say some stock might arrive late tonight and throughout the day tomorrow.

Further up the line, we’re hearing that a few white/silver and even fewer gold iPhone 5s deliveries are trickling in the warehouses but hardly enough for wide dispersal by retail stores. Perhaps a few high profile flagship stores will have stock on hand but as we’ve been told by one...

While the iPhone 5c will begin selling in stores tomorrow starting at $99 on contract through most retailers, we’ve just learned that Target will be matching the $79 offer that Walmart recently announced for preorders of the iPhone 5c. It will also throw in an extra 5% off for those with a Target REDcard.

Target will begin selling the iPhone 5s in its stores tomorrow as well (as will Apple and many other retail stores), but it doesn’t seem to be matching the $189 offer Walmart announced for that device.

Preorders for the $79 iPhone 5c are available starting today through Target Mobile centers. Like Walmart, it will still be charging the full $199 for the 32GB model of the 5c. 

The iPhone 5s is also set to make...

Google Wallet for Apple’s iPhone is finally here, Google announced today, and it has a lot in common with the new Android version that launched earlier this week.

It allows users to transfer money to friends, store all of their loyalty cards, and clip and save discount offers.

But the one capability that Google Wallet got a lot of attention for early on isn’t making its way to the iPhone app: Making a payment in-store with the tap of the phone. Those payments happen through Near Field Communication technology, which Apple has long resisted adding to its iPhone.

In an...

Phiaton has announced two new headphones — the Chord MS 530 ($349) and Fusion MS 430 ($179). The Chord MS 530 headphones use Bluetooth 4.0, and two Bluetooth-enabled devices can be connected at the same time. A 40mm titanium driver powers the sound, which benefits from active noise…

The iPhone 5s has just gone on sale in Australia. However, as has been noted several times, supply of the 5s is extremely constrained. As a result, Apple is already quoting 7-10 day shipping estimates for the device. The prolonged availability applies to all models and all colors. 5s cases are similarly low in supply, to a similar extent, quoting 3-5 day shipping times.

Supply issues seem to apply to all countries. In the UK, O2 has announced that they will have no 5s’ in stock, but will order it for when it becomes available. Via CZ on Twitter, for the Apple Store in Hong Kong, the 5s has already lapsed into October for shipping.

@markgurman...

With Apple's official Australian launch for the iPhone 5s just a short time away, evidence of significant shortages of gold models is beginning to surface, with one Twitter user at the Doncaster retail store sharing word from store staff that they have no gold models on launch day and may not have any for up to three weeks.

In a similar vein, it appears that the Apple Store iOS app has begun taking orders for the iPhone 5s in Australia, with Sonny Dickson sharing a screenshot showing that the gold 64GB iPhone 5s debuted with a shipping estimate of 7-10 business days.

It is unclear if the dearth of gold models will extend to other first-wave markets, but signs are increasingly pointing to the new color being very difficult to find at launch.

Update: The...

With Australia, alongside other countries in Asia included in the initial September 20 iPhone launch, the first to get their hands on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, a repair company in the country has just posted the first teardown of the two new iPhones. The iExperts Team out of Australia has taken apart both devices, revealing new components but not yet giving us a look at what we expect will be a Samsung made A7 chip.

The first thing noticed in the teardown was a new connector for the TouchID fingerprint sensor assembly. Lining up with leaks leading up to the launch of the iPhones, it also found a 5.92Whr battery in the 5s (up from 5....