Always fascinating to see things like this.

Even if it were, I don’t see why anyone would want to buy this tablet. The screen is so bad that I can’t recommend the device to anyone. Even if you truly must have an 8-inch Windows tablet for some reason, you shouldn’t buy the W3. You should just wait and hope that something better comes along.

∞ Read this on The Loop

One of the most rumored features of the next iPhone is that it will have a fingerprint sensor in the device. This rumor gained more credence when Apple introduced iCloud Keychain in iOS 7, which lets users store credit card information and passwords in their iCloud account. Combined with iCloud Keychain, a fingerprint sensor on iOS devices, MacBooks, and even mice, would allow a user to securely and quickly enter their password or other sensitive information like credit card details and usernames, with just the touch of a button.

Of course some people dismiss that Apple would add a fingerprint sensor on the next iPhone, as a traditional fingerprint sensor may skew the look of the device. But a new patent filing from Apple today suggests that Apple could keep the iPhone aesthetically pleasing by...

MuseMini has released the US$129.99 DBoom, a personalized bluetooth portable speaker that features Near Field Communication (NFC), customizable skins to add individuality to each speaker, daisy-chain capabilities to pair with any audio device, and a 12-plus hour battery life.

read more

A new kickstarter project:

“Of Beards and Men” is a labor of love for graphic designer and photographer Joseph D.R. OLeary. Over the past 18 months, he’s photographed 130+ bearded men. Each portrait is an exploration into that man’s passions, personality and unique individuality.

Why wasn’t I photographed?

∞ Read this on The Loop

When Apple goes buying components, it at least drops a hint as to what’s coming up in the product line.

Per 9to5Mac and DigiTimes, Apple has apparently been purchasing 55 and 65-inch Ultra HD TV panels from LG.

Apple has been rumored several times to be building a full fledged HDTV to go along with the much expected revamped AppleTV service coming in the the near future. The latest from the usual lineup of analysts points to a launch as early as...

The struggle for third place in the smartphone operating system wars may be settling, as Nokia's newly revealed financial figures show its Lumia line shipping more units last quarter than all of BlackBerry's phones.  ...

Many people have asked about the integration between the two apps. Dan Allen gives a short demo.

Verizon has posted rising revenues and a higher profit in its most recent quarterly results, along with an increase in its customers. The carrier gained one million net wireless subscribers in the quarter, with 941,000 opting for contracts, an improvement from the 677,000 it added to its roster in the previous quarter alone....  ...

Path Finder is a file browser that combines the familiar Finder interface with the powerful utilities and innovative features.

Just a small selection of the Path Finder 6 feature set:

• Dual pane file browser
• Tabs to quickly manage multiple locations on your hard drive in one window
• Reorder how your files are listed to suit your personal preferences
• View invisible files and navigate inside of Mac OS X packages quickly and easily
• Access your frequently used folders, files, and applications with the Shelf, and save multiple Shelf setups to suit different activities
• Pause drag-and-drop operations by putting files into the Drop Stack for future use
• Create and convert disk images
• Access the OS X command line
• Much, much more!

Version 6.3:

• Fix to file-comparison-tool selection.
• Shared servers now show in the "Connect to Server" panel....

On July 18, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two patent applications from Apple that reveal the details behind their "Book Proofer" and Social "Game Center" applications.

Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft are part of an alliance of technology companies and civil liberties groups demanding increased transparency around U.S. government surveillance efforts, reports "AllThingsD" (http://tinyurl.com/ncmfseu)

read more

Apple, along with other tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, will reportedly publish a letter asking for increased transparency in U.S. government surveillance. The letter will ask government leaders to let service providers report on national security-related information requests with more detail. Faced with accusations of surreptitious data…

Joining similar offerings from rivals AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon on Thursday unveiled its new Edge smartphone upgrade program, offering subscribers the ability to upgrade to a new handset after six months.   ...

Apple’s rumored smart watch will focus on fitness, according to a new 9to5Mac report. Likely to be a wearable computer on the wrist, the “iWatch” is being developed by a team reportedly led by Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield, Vice President Kevin Lynch, and senior hardware director James Foster.…

When Apple reports earnings next week, its fiscal third-quarter financials could include a surprise: Better-than-expected iPhone sales.

This according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, who says her supply-chain checks suggest that iPhone shipments for the period could surpass consensus estimates of 26.5 million.

By how much? Plenty. Huberty says her data indicates iPhone shipments for the period of somewhere between 29 million and 32 million units. If accurate, those are strong numbers — though it should be noted that Huberty figures that they’re largely driven by demand for legacy iPhones. That said, they’ll still have significant impact on Apple’s financials — again, if they prove accurate.

Say’s Huberty, “Even if we assume all iPhones above our 26 million model are the cheapest iPhone 4 at a $50 discount, the higher shipments imply total revenue north of $36 billion....

The leaked plan we reported on Monday has been confirmed: Verizon is joining the ‘hang onto your early adopters by letting them upgrade handsets every six months’ club, closely following T-Mobile’s lead. AtD explained how it works:

With Verizon Edge, you pay the full retail price of a phone, along with a month-to-month service plan. The cost of the handset is divided into 24 monthly installments, and the first payment is due at the point of sale.

If, after six months, you decide you want to upgrade your phone, you can do so, as long as you’ve paid...

Cloud allows you to share images, links, music, videos and files. Here is how it works: choose a file, drag it to the menubar and let us take care of the rest. We provide you with a short link automatically copied to your clipboard that you can use to share your upload with co-workers and friends.

Version 1.5.5:

• Fixed small app icon
• Fixed menu-bar upload bug on Retina

OS X 10.6 or later

Download Now

Apple Configurator brings two key features. First, when Supervision is applied, one is able to pull back App ‘codes’ redeemed to devices when it is decided the App should be used on another iPad or simply be removed so as not to distract the current user. The other is when you move to the ‘Assign’ stage, it can become a multi-user device, which helps firewall off multiple users data from each other or facilitate handouts to Apps that support document transfer within Configurator. These are somewhat specialized use cases, so many use it for the basic setup functionality which can be found in other tools, but in a less-optimized workflow than Configurator provides.

Supervised iPads get people a lot of the way toward their common goals, so they sometimes find that Assignment isn’t as necessary. Perhaps they use Google Apps with Drive, or have a webclip they deploy to point folks to a site, and then fill out forms as a way of working on documents or collaborating. This still...

Apple has allegedly hired a number of experts in the field non-intrusive medical sensors, ranging from vein mapping to glucose tracking, potentially revealing some of the company's interests in developing a wrist-worn smart accessory.  ...

Following a report from earlier this week describing how Apple has approached cable companies and networks with a proposal to allow viewers to pay to skip over ads, The New York Times weighs in with a broader look at Apple's strategy for taking over the living room. The report highlights how Apple has chosen to cooperate with content providers rather than attempt to replace traditional cable companies, a strategy that is likely to make it significantly easier for Apple to establish itself in the market.

Of particular interest is a forthcoming deal to bring a Time Warner Cable app to the...

The list of vendors opting out of Windows RT has added one more major manufacturer with news that Lenovo has dropped its IdeaPad Yoga 11. Windows RT has been plagued by a poor user reception with manufacturers either scrapping plans for Windows RT devices, slashing prices on models , or even cutting devices from their lineup altogether. Although Microsoft includes Office apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for free on Window RT devices, its inability to run legacy applications in desktop model, the conspicuous absence of Outlook and lack of Windows 8 ëmoderní apps has dampened... ...

Apple’s Tim Cook, Bob Mansfield, Kevin Lynch

Apple has begun assembling a team of hardware and software engineering, medical sensor, manufacturing, and fitness experts, indicating the company is moving forward with a project to build a fitness-oriented, sensor-laden wearable computer, according to our sources.

Over the past half-decade-or-so, Apple has experimented with and shelved numerous wearable computer designs. Internal prototypes have included designs that could clip onto different pieces of clothing (like an iPod shuffle/nano) in addition to devices that could wrap around a wrist.

Based on comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook and numerous reports, the wrist is the part of the body in which top Apple executives are currently targeting…

...

OS X is great at running lots apps at once, many of which can interact with one another. Of course we have Exposé to handle switching between windows, but what happens if you don't want to switch to another window, but rather maintain the focus of your current window while doing something in another. Michael Johnston has some tips on working with background windows, and he's happy to share.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Maintenance release to the free text editor that mirrors many of the fixes in BBEdit 10.5.5. (Free, 9.8 MB)

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.

If you use ESXi/vSphere, then you may know how handy templates can be for rolling out new services, test boxes and the like.  Apparently you can makes templates for vSphere that have never been booted (zero chance of cruft to mess with your testing).  Check out Mads’ blog for details on how to accomplish this.

About Nate Walck

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

...

Cocoatech has released Path Finder 6.3, an enhanced version of
their file browser and management app for Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8. This iteration sports improvements, bug fixes and feature additions.

Path Finder 6.3 is available as a direct download from Cocoatech's website (www.cocoatech.com/) for US$39.95. A free, fully functional, 30-day trial version is also available for download. Owners of Path Finder 5 may upgrade to Path Finder 6.3 for $19.95.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total US$3.7 trillion in 2013, a 2% increase from 2012 spending of $3.6 trillion, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Last quarter, the research group's forecast for 2013 IT spending growth in U.S. dollars was 4.1%.

read more

On July 18, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals the technology behind their new fingerprint sensor which will be used in a future fingerprint scanner for the iPhone and possibly other iDevices and Macs. The technology revealed is from Apple's acquired AuthenTec. Apple's interest in fingerprint scanners for the iPhone and Mac first surfaced in a 2009 patent application. Apple's project was then advanced in 2012 illustrating that a fingerprint scanner could be combined ...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published one of the first AuthenTec patent applications assigned to Apple, with the property describing an advanced method of fingerprint identification that can be embedded into a mobile device's display.  ...

Agenda from savvy apps is a super calendaring app, and Agenda 4 ($1.99) offers great improvements. In fact, savvy apps considers it a whole new app. There's certainly a lot of good stuff here, such as new views, impressive sharing options, UI changes and a lot more. Here's my look at Agenda 4 for iPhone.

New views

There's so much that's new with this app that I've got to just pick a place to start and jump right in. Agenda 4 offers two new views, for a total of five. My favorite, pictured above, lets you see the date, month and current appointments all at once. To use it, simply grab the bumpy "handle" on the right and slide it up. I think it's very handsome and useful. I don't have to squint to see the day's date on that tiny calendar, and every color-coded event is clearly legible. I've been using...

It's pretty obvious when you are using your iPhone to take a picture. You have to hold the phone in front of your face to focus it correctly and, unless you have it silenced, the camera app makes that recognizable shutter sound when you snap a picture. If you want to be a bit more covert with your photo-taking, you should check out SneakyPix from Skidmore Apps.

SneakyPix is a camera app that hides the fact that you are taking a picture. It automatically takes photos or videos while you pretend to be talking on the phone. It even displays a fake calling screen so the casual onlooker will think you are on a call.

To use SneakyPix, you have to silence your phone and remember to turn off the flash in the camera app. If you forget this second item, your cover will be blown when your flash starts firing while you are on your fake call. With SneakyPix you have the option to take pictures every few...

These days, you can walk into any of the big national mobile carriers and walk out with an iPhone. But, as Fortune reports, things are quite different in Russia. The country's three largest wireless companies - MTS, VimpelCom (through its Beeline brand), and MegaFon - now refuse to stock the devices, instead pointing customers to comparable Android or Windows Phone handsets.

So is this some sort of anti-Apple conspiracy? Not quite - It's all about dollars and cents. Under the country's mobile phone licensing guidelines, carriers cannot offer the same type of subsidized pricing that the U.S. and Europe are used to. Combine that with steep import charges and taxes and the iPhone quickly becomes extremely unaffordable.

Even if you don't take carrier subsidization into account, Apple's smartphone costs quite...

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

Deals from Dealnews

• StackSocial: [Mac Software] Parallels Mac Bundle downloads for $50: Parallels Desktop, WinZip Mac, more
• eBay: [Headphones] Vivitar Noise Isolating Earbuds 5-Pack for $5 + free shipping
• MegaMacs: [Keyboards] Used Apple Aluminum Keyboard w/ Numeric Keypad for $25 + $11 s&h...

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and 59 other tech companies, investors, non-profits and trade organizations have formed an alliance asking the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for greater transparency in U.S. surveillance operations.

Logic Pro X, the latest version of Apple's professional recording software, has hit stores with a smorgasbord of new features and options. At $200 the software is decidedly less expensive than its competitor Pro Tools, making it a great budget choice for cash strapped music producers.

However new software has a learning curve, especially complicated software like a multitrack recording program with programable instruments, pitch editing, and other tools you wont know how to use your first time at bat. Thankfully macProVideo.com has posted an exclusive set of online courses for Logic Pro X consisting of videos that allow you to see every step of the process.

Courses are available in Logic Remote, ...

The NSA’s $2b data centre in Bluffdale, Utah (source: businessweek.com)

After having their reputation damaged by the National Security Agency controversy earlier this year, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and many more are joining forces to demand more transparency regarding NSA requests and surveillance (via AllThingsD).

The 63 companies, investors, and non-profit organizations are pleading with the U.S. government to allow Internet, phone, and other service providers to share the requests that they receive for user data, including:

• The number of government requests for information about their users
• The number of individuals,...

Logitech has announced another in a series of Apple-compatible accessories, this time a pair of Bluetooth speakers that will compliment any MacBook or iPad. The Logitech Bluetooth Speakers Z600 (US$149.99) are currently available for pre-order on the Logitech website, and will be widely available in the US and Europe in August.

The speakers resemble stretched power plant cooling towers, which sounds weird but actually looks good. On the back of one of the "towers" you can find controls, and both speakers are connected to the power adapter and each other by specially designed lie-flat cables. The circular top of one speaker acts as a touch-sensitive volume control, and up to three devices can be paired to the speakers at any time.

If you happen to be one of those folks who has an old Mac that you purchased in the pre-Bluetooth years, don't worry. The Bluetooth...

Kirk McElhearn makes an interesting case for Apple leading the way to DRM-free books. I especially like the part about Steve Jobs’ open letter to music companies back in the day.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Following hot on the heels of today's update to Google Maps, Google has updated Chrome for iOS. The updated app features a number of enhancements including the option to open links to YouTube, Maps, G+ and Drive in those apps instead of in the Chrome browser; fullscreen support for the iPad; and enhancements to voice search. Here are the full release notes:

o. Interoperability with other Google Apps
◦ Option to open links for YouTube, Maps, G+ and Drive in the app instead of the browser.
o. Enhancements to voice search
◦ Text-to-speech for all variations of English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Japanese, and Korean.
◦ Toolbar controls are always available when using voice search
o. Fullscreen on iPad
o. Data cost savings
◦ Reduce data usage and speed up...

A PC built with the specific purpose of running Pro Tools. I can’t help thinking the new Mac Pro will eat this thing for lunch.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft are part of a broad alliance of technology companies and civil liberties groups that will tomorrow demand dramatically increased transparency around U.S. government surveillance efforts.

In a letter to be published Thursday, the alliance — whose members include 63 companies, investors, non-profits and trade organizations — will call upon President Obama and congressional leaders to allow Internet, telephone, and Web-based service providers to report national security-related requests for information with greater specificity. Specifically, they ask that they are allowed to regularly report:

• The number of government requests for information about their users
• The number of individuals, accounts, or devices for which information was requested
• The number of requests that sought communications content, basic subscriber information, and/or other information.

The coalition also asks that the government begin issuing...

The last thing students want to think about in July is their rapidly dwindling freedom from the shackles of those hallowed halls, but it’s time to start thinking ahead to the fall semester.

Apple on Tuesday launched the latest incarnation of its annual back to school promotion. When customers purchase a Mac for college, they’ll receive a $100 App Store Gift Card, alongside the usual educational pricing discounts—up to $200—that the company offers.

As with last year, customers can also pick up a $50 gift card when they buy an iPad, and, for the first time, the iPhone is included in the promotion as well. Like its tablet sibling, the smartphone will come with a $50 gift card to spend in the App Store. The downside to purchasing an iOS device, however, is that...

The Wall Street Journal has a report out this morning titled "Smartphone Upgrades Slow as 'Wow' Factor Fades." The report states that "the rates at which American cellphone users have traded in their devices for more advanced models have declined over the last few years. Last year the decline was 9% and industry analysts see this trend continuing this year. The report goes on to state that consumers are looking for 'Wow' features to motivate them to upgrade. The PC sector is likewise under the same pressure with sales rapidly in decline. In the bigger picture, the tech industry as a whole is in the middle of a massive shift from a central home computer to the ubiquitous computer era. While change of this magnitude takes time to work its way to market, it seems that we're about to see yet another wave of exciting innovation come our way in 2014.

Oh no! Another Weather app. Actually, I'm thrilled at all the competition. WeatherPro has a great deal of information, far more than I see in most other weather apps. It is also very graphical in its approach, and a quick glance will show you a lot about the area your are interested in. WeahterPro for iPhone is on sale for US$1.99 (regular $3.99), and the iPad version is $2.99 (normally $4.99).

Of course WeatherPro has a 7-day forecast, with dynamic short term forecasts, 2 million reporting locations from almost anywhere in the world, alerts and warning for extreme weather, sunrise and sunset time (a detail many apps leave out), animated radar and satellite maps that are zoomable, iCloud sync if you are running the app on multiple iOS devices, no limit to the number of locations you can display, and the ability to use GPS to figure out your current location so you don't have to look it up.

...

This week on TUAW TV Live, I will be joined by the other doctor from the cast of regulars Dr. Allgood. We will be talking about Logic Pro X, Final Cut X and Aperture also know as Apple Pro Apps.

To join in to watch the live feed and participate in the chat, just click here. You'll join us on the AOL On Network. If you can't watch the entire show today, come back to this page within 24 hours to see the video or visit http://tuaw.com/tuawtvlive to see the latest show. Past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

...

...

We in the tech press tend to think of the summer as a slower time for technology news. This week seems to be the exception, thanks to three interesting Apple stories that crossed our desk. I'm joined by senior writer Lex Friedman to discuss these happenings in the world of Apple.

Download Episode #364
Show Notes

Apple released Logic Pro X, priced at $200 for new customers, while existing owners of the app get it for the discounted price of … $200. Contributor Marco Tabini wondered whether Apple is killing paid upgrades.

We also discuss the ongoing rumors suggesting that...

OS X has a built-in screen capture function, but it is pretty limited. For example, Command-Shift-4 lets you define a rectangle to capture. Command-Shift-4 followed by the spacebar will capture a window. You can also capture your entire desktop with Command-Shift-3, and other commands will save the result to your clipboard.

Sometimes, those basic features are not enough. Apple bundles a utility called Grab with OS X that adds more features, but it still falls short for many users. Enter Screenshot FX, a very handy US$1.99 utility (on sale now) that lets you capture irregular objects by clicking on points and then dragging those points to create a curve.

...

The screen sizes are different, and sometimes the stuff on the screen is different, too. But beyond that, watching video on the Web is the same as watching it on TV: You pick a thing to watch, click a button and then watch the thing.

But what would happen if you kept playing with the video while you were watching it? That is, leaning in instead of leaning back?

We saw one version of this idea last month, when TouchCast launched its interactive iPad app. You can see another one right now over at ESPN.com, where the sports site is featuring an interactive interview with Jon Hamm.

The idea, for anyone who doesn’t want to click over or is using a mobile device: ESPN host Stuart Scott chats up the “Mad Men” star, who is hosting the...

All three major Russian phone carriers have stopped selling the iPhone at their stores, leaving people to buy from Apple directly, Svyaznoy outlets, or else the black/gray market, says Fortune. The last holdout was VimpleCom, whose Beeline brand severed its ties with Apple last week, replacing the iPhone 5 in its lineup with the Samsung Galaxy S4. Beeline blames the switch on "draconian [Apple] contracts" and "harsh conditions...especially in the marketing department." Previously, MTS CEO Andrei Dubovskov stated that "Apple wants operators to pay them huge money subsidizing iPhones and thei... ...

As long as you’re in the App Store updating to the latest version of Google Maps, you might as well stick around for the new iteration of Chrome for iOS while you’re at it. The search giant’s mobile browser has even more features to recommend it now.

While there are some small but significant improvements, in the form of an accessible history (better late than never), better voice search and text-to-speech capabilities, and a fullscreen mode on the iPad, a couple of the enhancements are of particular interest.

A new option now lets you choose to have links to specific Google services—currently Google Maps, YouTube, Google+ and Google Drive—open in those apps, if they’re installed, rather than in the browser. You can even choose to enable that support on an app-by-app...

Is it worth paying a monthly fee to upgrade your smartphone or tablet more often? Maybe. Josh Centers analyzes what the new T-Mobile and AT&T plans mean for Apple users.

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.

“My view is it’s working very well.”

WTF?

∞ Read this on The Loop

Users aren't the only ones to benefit from the latest release of Google Maps for iOS. Today Google released the 1.4 version of its ​Google Maps SDK for iOS.

The update allows developers to take advantage of several new features of Google Maps, including adding indoor floor plan maps or integrating Street View into their apps, and taking advantage of the new look of Google Maps.

Developers are urged to read the latest release notes of the Google Maps SDK to find out about all the goodies, but those who would like a quick overview can check out the...

Google on Wednesday updated its Chrome browser for iPhone and iPad, giving users the ability to open links by default in the company's other native apps, such as Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube.  ...

If Compressor 4 isn't performing as expected, try these basic troubleshooting steps to attempt to isolate and resolve the issue. Note that these steps are not intended to address a specific issue and are not comprehensive.

After several months as an alpha release, BitTorrent brings new features to its decentralized file synchronization service.

Mac DVDRipper Pro is the DVD backup solution that lets you protect your DVDs from scratches, save your batteries by reading your movies from your hard disk, manage your collection with just a few clicks, time-shift your rental, backup your DVD collection, and much more!

Mac DVDRipper Pro allows you to copy all your DVDs on your Mac so you can easily view them without having to spend your battery on spinning you optical drive.

Mac DVDRipper Pro analyzes the DVD and uses intelligent algorithms to ensure proper rips. It is the best at what it does, at an unbeatable price!

You can try it for free before buying, Mac DVDRipper Pro will work without any limitations for your first 5 rips.

When using the disc image mode, you can also burn directly to another DVD from the application.

Version 4.0.8:

• Fixed a bug where auto-start would not cancel when clicking 'Select With Player'
• Fixed an issue converting...

Apple has seen a "sharp" fall in its India sales of the iPhone during the first three months of 2013, reports "The Times of India" (http://tinyurl.com/mzy3fab).

read more

Yesterday, we noted that the high-profile mobile game Infinity Blade 2 added 5.7 million players in a week, thanks to an Apple App Store promotion that offered paid games for free. Today, indie studio Frogmind, whose first game, Badland, was also free during the promotion, told AllThingsD that it saw an even bigger lift: Downloads of the game, normally $3.99, jumped from 280,000 to 7,400,000 in a week. Co-founder Johannes Vuorinen said the “eerie sidescroller” was the No. 1 free iPhone game during the promotion.

While Apple has yet to employ the unique amorphous alloy known as Liquidmetal in any of its products in a meaningful way, a newly granted patent details a way to mass produce the material in thin sheets.  ...

Logitech, which makes a number of the best Bluetooth speakers on the market for your iOS devices and other high quality audio products, today announced a new set of Bluetooth speakers made specifically to match the sleek exterior of your aluminum...

Bare Bone Software has released updates for two of its desktop apps, TextWrangler 4.5.3 and BBEdit 10.5.5. Both updates are focused maintenance releases that include fixes for numerous reported issues. Now, when starting either application from somewhere other than the default Applications folder, users will be asked if they want to relocate the software to /Applications. Additionally, when starting either app. holding down Command, Control, and Shift will give users the option to discard and existing auto-save state. Some cosmetic changes have also been made to the Line Numbers bar and Cursor... ...

BitTorrent Sync allows you to sync unlimited files between your own devices, or share a folder with friends and family to automatically sync anything.

File transfers are encrypted. Your information is never stored on a server in the cloud and your data is protected by private keys.

BitTorrent Sync is specifically designed to handle large files, so feel free to sync original, high quality, uncompressed files.

Version 1.1.42:

• SyncArchive is renamed to .SyncArchive
  
• Fixed few crashes

Little League Baseball and Softball has announced that it will use 35 iPads to be the official scorekeepers of the 2013 Little League Baseball and Softball World Series. The iPads will be running an app called GameChanger, which allows scorekeepers to track scores and stats for baseball, softball, and basketball.

Announcing the iPad's use and the latest World Series, Little League Baseball and Softball said:

"With 2.4 million Little Leaguers(R) around the world, modern technology is a great asset in communicating with all our players, coaches, families, volunteers and fans," said Stephen D. Keener, Little League Baseball and Softball President and CEO. "Utilizing GameChanger for scorekeeping and live game updates, will bring the Little League experience to life to an online and mobile audience like never before."

Evidence continues to mount that the market for high-end smartphones in the U.S. may have reached a saturation point, meaning that a mid-range iPhone offering from Apple could be the best way for the Cupertino company to ensure future growth.  ...

Logitech has introduced the Logitech Bluetooth Speakers Z600, a designed pair of wireless stereo speakers designed to complement the sleek looks of Macs and other computers.

With these speakers you can stream music and other audio from your computer, smartphone or tablet. Three devices can be active at the same time.
 

read more

You may not love it, but your workplace does and Microsoft finally released a native version for iOS.

Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Microsoft has released two different native versions of its Outlook Web Application for iOS, one for iPhone and one for iPad. OWA for iOS connects to the email, calendar, and contacts of Office 365 of business subscribers giving them complete access to their Outlook on the go. Beyond those basic tools the app features push notifications and a powerful voice search that can access your contacts or bring up your calendar.

iOS for iPhone and...

With Apple’s Q3 2013 financial call set to take place later this month on July 23rd and Wall Street expecting near zero revenue growth, today we get a look at what analysts are expecting for iPad sales. With no major product announcements since the  introduction of iPad mini and iPad 4 last fall (and only a minor upgrade with the 128GB iPad 4 in January), it’s not all that surprising the consensus from 48 analysts polled by Fortune is that Apple will experience a big drop in growth year-over-year for iPad during the June quarter.

The average estimate of 18.1 million iPad units during...

New Trent has released the Airbender Mini for the iPad mini. The shock and splash resistant case features a rubberized exterior with plugs to cover all openings, offering full-body protection to the iPad Mini without hindering usability. 

read more

The upcoming ChargeLight USB device at BiteMyApple.co combines a LED flashlight with a portable battery pack. It's compatible with the iPhone, iPad, Android devices and more. 

The ChargeLight can charge any USB device anytime, anywhere. It can purportedly last more than a year without ever being recharged. LED lights display the battery level so you will always know when you have power. When the time comes to juice it up, you can either recharge it on the included dock or with a USB adaptor. The user can also use the dock as a charging hub for multiple devices at the same time.  


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If you’re headed to Russia and need to pick up an iPhone, your options may have become a bit more limited, comrade.

According to Fortune, three major Russian wireless providers have stopped carrying Apple’s iPhone, with the largest telecom, MTS, dropping the handset due to the high subsidy costs associated with being an Apple partner carrier.

As reported last week, Russia’s largest provider by subscribership, MTS, announced that it would be dropping the iPhone from its lineup, saying subsidies and marketing costs were to blame.

“Apple wants operators to pay them huge money, subsidizing iPhones and their promotion in Russia...

NO COMPROMISES!

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We have just released a very important security update for our iPhone and iPad apps addressing an issue that allowed passwords to be compromised in certain circumstances¹. Please download the update now.

If you’ve been using these apps, you should also update your password on Tumblr and anywhere else you may have been using the same password.

That doesn’t sound good.

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iFrogz has launched the Coda Forte wireless Bluetooth headphones. The integrated rechargeable batteries of the headset purportedly deliver 10-12 hours of continuous audio on a single charge.

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A report out of China is claiming to have access to both specifications and production photos of the iPhone 5S, typically expected to ship this September. The former allegedly include an NFC reader, a fingerprint sensor, a 4-inch 1136x640 IGZO display, and a 12-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash. Inside the the phone is predicted to have 2GB of RAM, and a slightly improved processor -- while the main CPU is expected to remain dual-core, graphics are forecast to switch from a tri-core PowerVR SGX543MP3 architecture to the quad-core SGX554MP4.... ...

While there have been plenty of third party options available for connecting iOS users to their Outlook accounts there has never been an official app from Microsoft. It's an oversight that has finally been corrected with the Outlook Web App (OWA) for iOS.

The app is being released in two different native versions, one for iPhone and one for iPad. OWA for iOS connects to the email, calendar, and contacts of Office 365 of business subscribers giving them complete access to their Outlook on the go. Beyond those basic tools the app features push notifications and a powerful voice search that can access your contacts or bring up your calendar.

Head of to iTunes for the iPhone and iPad versions.

Microsoft Outlook app hits iOS originally appeared on...

TextWrangler is the powerful general purpose text editor, and Unix and server administrator's tool. Oh, and also, like the best things in life, it's free. TextWrangler is the "little brother" to BBEdit, a leading professional HTML and text editor.

Features include:

• General Purpose Text Editor
• Programmer's Text Editor
• Unix And Server Administrator's Tool
• Powerful Text Transformer And Manipulator
• Good Mac OS Citizen
• Powerfully Useful Tool
• Product developed in the best traditions of Bare Bones Software, with high performance, ease of use, a rich feature set, and the ability to read its own release notes

Version 4.5.3:

This release consists entirely of fixes for reported issues, and contains no new features.

Changes

• When starting the application from somewhere other than /...

Back in 2010, Apple signed an agreement with Caltech spinoff Liquidmetal Technologies, giving Apple exclusive access to the firm's unique metal alloys for consumer electronics applications. Liquidmetal's "amorphous metal alloys", sometimes referred to as "metallic glass" due to their non-crystalline molecular structures, offer several advantages over many other metals, including superior strength and durability. Apple had quietly tested Liquidmetal by using it in the SIM card eject tool for the iPhone 3G, but the material has yet to make any additional appearances in Apple's products.

The agreement between Apple and Liquidmetal funneled the covered intellectual property through a subsidiary known as...

The arrival of Google Maps for iPhone late last year was heralded with much fanfare, due in large part to Apple’s own underwhelming Maps. But one shortcoming in Google’s offering was the lack of any support for the iPad. Earlier this year, at its annual I/O developer conference, Google demoed an update that included support for Apple’s tablet, which it said would arrive later this summer—and, judging by the sweltering heat I’m sitting in, the company hit its mark.

The update, which drops for both iPhones and iPads on Wednesday, brings most of the same improvements that rolled out to Android...

Google has released version 2.0 of its popular free Google Maps app for iOS today. The update most notably includes an all-new interface for iPad users, which has been absent from the app since its release late last year. Navigation has been enhanced to include live traffic updates and…

Everybody loves a fun auto-correct snapshot, and while some of the more popular examples floating around the web do seem a little bit too hilarious to actually be real, you'd be surprised as to what iOS will come up with when it thinks your spelling is in need of a little guidance.

As a personal example, a friend recently wanted to invite me to a local spot called "Melrose Diner." Instead, I received a invite via text to a place comically called the "Metrosexual Diner." A few seconds later, I received an invite to a place called the "Meal Rose Diner."

Funny stuff. Auto-correct had struck again.

So while auto-correct in iOS will do its darndest to either correct a misspelling or, at the very least, give you something to laugh about, there are a slew of words that iOS will simply not auto-correct, no matter how close the typed word is to the real thing.

What's more, there are a number of misspelled words that Apple will not even proffer complete...

You may have heard that the Tumblr app inadvertently transmitted passwords in the clear on Wi-Fi networks, but what else might be at risk? Over at PCWorld, Eric Geier performed an experiment to see what he could intercept over an unsecured Wi-Fi network at a coffee shop. Using a Windows laptop with a wireless network analyzer and a rooted Android phone, he was able to see the Web pages other connected users were viewing, as well as email and unsecure logins. Geier offers a number of tips to improve Wi-Fi security while in public, including always using SSL connections to Web sites, when available.

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...

Tumblr has released an emergency update for its iOS app to fix a bug that allowed people to sniff out passwords. Tumblr was notified of the security vulnerability today. The company says that if you have been using its iOS apps you should also update your Tumblr password and your password on any sites that you use the same password for. From the company's blog:

Important security update for iPhone/iPad users

We have just released a very important security update for our iPhone and iPad apps addressing an issue that allowed passwords to be compromised in certain circumstances¹. Please download the update now.

If you've been using these apps, you should also update your password on Tumblr and anywhere else you may have been using the same password. It's also good practice to use different passwords across different services by using an app like 1Password...

The latest security breach comes from Tumblr, whose iOS app was apparently transmitting passwords in clear text, such that they could be sniffed by attackers on the same Wi-Fi network. Be sure to download a new version of the app and change your password!

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.

Social network and infrastructure service App.net has released a new tool called PourOver that enables you to publish RSS feeds on App.net. PourOver will be especially appreciated by bloggers who wish to send new post links to App.net automatically. The open-source syndication tool supports Pubsubhubbub for real-time publishing and flow control to space out posts.

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.

Potential upside in Apple's recently concluded June quarter could be driven by greater-than-expected iPhone shipments, with one analyst predicting that the company beat projections and shipped at least 29 million iPhones.  ...

Three major Russian wireless providers have stopped carrying the iPhone, with the largest telecom, MTS, dropping the handset due to the high subsidy costs associated with being an Apple partner carrier, notes "AppleInsider" (http://tinyurl.com/jw8tlel).

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As anticipated, Google today rolled out version 2.0 of Google Maps for iOS. The update is available now for download on the App Store and includes a number of compelling features that make it well worth checking out.

First, the update brings with it enhanced navigation features, including live traffic reports and the ability to tap on a road and view incident details. One navigation feature which is currently Android-only but will reportedly be coming to iOS soon is dynamic re-routing wherein Google alerts users en route to a particular destination if a new, speedier route becomes available.

Some other new navigation features include indoor maps with accompanying walking directions for malls, transit stations, airports and more.

Google Maps 2.0 also introduces an Explore feature which Google describes as "a new way to browse and discover popular local places to eat, drink. shop, play...

The US$99.95 Withings Pulse, available now, is a pocket-sized activity tracking tool designed to help users achieve personal health and fitness goals. For the first time ever seen on an activity tracker, the Pulse adds heart rate measurement and automatic run detection to the tracking of steps taken, distance covered, elevation, calories burned, and quality of sleep.

The device syncs via Bluetooth Smart with the free Withings Health Mate app where all the data is collected and displayed in real time. The app is iOS compatible and available for download at the Apple App Store.

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Need to point out visual errors in iOS, or just want to get a chance to play with iOS7? Josh Centers tells you why you want to check out Bugshot.

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.

Lightworks has released Lightworks Author 9, its rendering software for Mac OS X and Windows.

New features offer users more post-processing control, with layer export capabilities accelerating time-consuming post-production tasks. Improvements to Image-Based Lighting in Author 9 allow for faster realtime modeling.

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Logitech has rolled out its latest set of Bluetooth stereo speakers, the Z600. The speakers have been targeted at MacBook Air and Ultrabook users, although they will work with any Bluetooth A2DP-enabled device including smartphones and tablets. The new speakers utilize Logitechís easy-switching technology, allowing users to pair up to three devices at the same time ñ users just need to press pause on the device streaming music, and play on one of the other paired devices....  ...

Micro-blogging service Tumblr, owned by Yahoo, admitted on Tuesday that a bug in the iOS version of the app transmitted passwords in an unencrypted fashion, meaning they could have been compromised if anyone was "sniffing" Wi-Fi network traffic. The company recommended that users change their password "on Tumblr and anywhere els you may have been using the same password" and reminded users that a better practice is to use different passwords for different services through a strong password generator and management program like Keychain or 1Password. An update has been issued that fixes the pro... ...