Las Vegas! is a popular dice game that Ravensburger put together last year. It's not exactly the most complicated board game on the block (you roll dice, and then can place them into certain numbered slots that represent stakes in money-making casinos), but it's fun for families especially, and provides a nice relatively casual mix of luck and skill.

Perhaps because the game is so approachable, the German company Ravensburger has elected to bring an iOS version out to iPhone and iPad, and you can now pick it up on the App Store for $2.99. Just like the real world game, the iOS version is fun but simple -- you select your players (or you can play online via Game Center), you roll the dice, and then you try to lay them out in casinos wherever you think they'll earn you the most money. Play goes on like this for four rounds, at which point...

A new reliability report from Rescuecom shows Apple placing in second place, beaten by Samsung by a wide margin. The new report for the first quarter of 2013, which now takes into account tablets as well as computers, also puts Apple ahead of Lenovo, Asus, Toshiba, HP, Dell, and Acer, with both Sony and Panasonic dropping out of the rankings entirely....  ...

Philips Monitors's brand licensing partner, EPI, has announced three new extended resolution Philips displays that offer multiple simultaneous inputs, allowing users to see more and do more on one screen.

The US$799 P-Line 27-inch Quad HD Monitor (272P4QPJKEB) is designed for professionals who require a display with image definition and greater content density within the conventional 16:9 screen shape. The $699 P-line 29-inch UltraWide Monitor (298P4QJEB) is also aimed at the professional user, but provides an expanded UltraWide 21:9 screen space with an ergonomically adjustable stand .

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A fellow gets thirsty.

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Samsung's Galaxy S4 infringes on 5 Apple patents, according to a court filing by Apple.

Apple wants to add the new Galaxy S4 to an ongoing case involving Apple and Samsung being heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division, according to a filing with that court on Tuesday.

Samsung's newest flagship smartphone was launched in March and went on sale in the U.S. in late April.

"Apple obtained the Galaxy S4 on April 27 and immediately began its infringement analysis, including Samsungs customizations of the Android Jelly Bean platform, covering the eight asserted patents," Apple stated in the filing, adding that it tested S4's sold by AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. "That analysis revealed that the Galaxy S4 infringes five of Apples asserted patents in the same ways as Samsungs already accused products," it...

I must admit, I missed this part of the Senate hearings yesterday, but I think Cook brought up some good points.

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TUAW has covered the alternative energy accessories from Etón before: the BoostTurbine is an excellent way to charge up an iPhone or iPad when the power is out, the FRX3 acts as an emergency radio and has both solar cells and a hand crank for providing a charge to your iPhone when you need it, and the Mobius solar case for iPhone is a smart way to top off your phone. Now the company has announced the Rugged Rukus (US$99.99), an "all-terrain, solar-powered, wireless speaker."

Designed to work with any of your Bluetooth-equipped goodies, the wedge-shaped Rugged Rukus sports a 20-square-...

During its Google I/O keynote earlier this month, Google announced that it would be bringing conversational, Google-Now like voice search to the desktop. Using a UI similar to voice search and Google Now in its mobile apps, Google would soon allow Chrome users to search and drill down further into results using only their voice.

Today, Google appears to have finally started rolling out the feature for Chrome users on the stable and beta channels of Chrome...

Though they weren't grilled before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday like Apple, Google and Yahoo rely on Irish subsidiaries to avoid taxes on billions of dollars in income, and they go one step further than Apple by utilizing offshore accounts.  ...

The Apple Store was briefly down as Apple updated the homepage with a special Father’s Day gift promotion and updated the page to a new squarer & cleaner look – more possible evidence of Jony Ive’s growing design influence …

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The page leads with the iPad and iPad Mini, highlighting the free engraving option, as well as suggesting a range of alternative gift suggestions ranging from the $79.95 iGrill cooking thermometer to $399.95 GoPro HD Hero 3 Black. The homepage has a link to shipping deadlines for a range of products to reach buyers in time for Father’s Day on June 16th.

The redesign has replaced rounded corners with square ones, more of a...

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company's tax policies in Congress Tuesday, after the Senate released a report that condemned it for tax policies that used global subsidiaries to avoid paying billions in U.S. taxes. The report alleged that Apple dodged paying taxes on as much as $44 billion in foreign income from 2009 to 2012. The company reportedly used subsidiaries to get around certain tax responsibility. When the senators spoke in percentages, Cook spoke dollars and cents.

bCODA, a manufacturer of wireless accessories and devices, has announced the availability of its new smartphone app for the JAK streaming USB product. The free app is used in conjunction with the JAK to wirelessly stream content from a smartphone or tablet to an audio/video system, PC or a mobile entertainment system via Wi-Fi.

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Image: Wall Street Journal

Yesterday’s Senate subcommittee hearing, in which Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked to explain alleged tax avoidance measures, turned into something of a damp squib, each side effectively stating their respective positions rather than engaging in any head-to-head debate …

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Senator Carl Levin, Chair of The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, gave a lengthy introductory speech which merely repeated the claims already made, and Cook responded with a pretty general statement saying little more than Apple complied with the law and did not use any tax gimmicks. Cook did take the opportunity to argue for tax reform, proposing both lower domestic corporation tax rates and a special...

Avenza Systems -- producers of MAPublisher and MAPublisher LabelPro cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator as well as MAPdataUSA, MAPdataCanada and MAPdataWorld royalty-free GIS data sets -- has released Geographic Imager 4.2, which adds support for new formats.

This includes writing to the DEM TIFF format that saves raw DEM values and exporting web tiles to Google Maps or Microsoft Bing Maps format. In addition, there are a number of new features and enhancements.

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Powerocks says its US$34.99 Tarot is the world’s thinnest portable power bank. It’s designed to fit in a wallet, pocket, or small purse to provide an emergency charge for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

It's very useful when you're running low on juice. the Powerock device is available for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPod, HTC, Blackberry and other smart phones.

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Labels & Addresses is a home and office tool for printing all sorts of labels, envelopes, inventory labels, and price tags. Merge-printing capability makes the program a great tool for holiday seasons by helping users to design and print multiple greeting envelopes and postcards with automatically substitutable addresses and postal barcodes.

Quick video tour of Labels & Addresses available.

Key features:

• Change text content of a label from external list at printing;
• Address merge printing makes it possible to automatically substitute addresses and postal barcodes for every label or envelope being printed;
• Automatically create and print numerous barcodes from an external data list;
• Import address information from Apple Address Book, Numbers, MS Excel, MS Entourage, Now Contact, FileMaker, vCards...

As anyone who has read TUAW over the past few weeks can tell there's no shortage of IPad keyboards on the market these days. All of them tend to use Bluetooth to connect to the iPad, which is fine -- except when you're a school teacher or IT person who needs to figure out which keyboard is paired with a particular iPad. So that students can simply grab a keyboard, plug it in, and start typing away, Logitech has announced the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad (US$59.99, available later this year).

The keyboard will come in two flavors; a Lightning-equipped model that will be shipping in August, and a 30-pin connector version that is expected in October. Since it's designed to be used by students of all ages, the Wired Keyboard has a spill-resistant design and is expected to put up with the pounding of over 5 million keystrokes.

There are shortcut keys for the regular iPad functions, such as Siri, app switching, and...

We know that Bluetooth keyboards are usually the go to solution for a bringing a traditional typing experience on the iPad. We’ve reviewed plenty from Logitech in the past that we highly recommend, but today the company launched what it says is a better solution for iPad keyboards in the classroom. Logitech says having to connect multiple iPads to Bluetooth keyboards in classrooms is a big hassle for teachers, and to combat that it is introducing a plug-and-play, wired keyboard in both Lightning and 30-pin variants:

“Schools are increasingly purchasing iPads for use in the classroom,” said Mike Culver, vice president and general manager of mobility at Logitech. “While tablets are enabling new ways of teaching and...

The Apple Store is down! The average Store downtime is about 2 hours and 52 minutes.

What to do next?

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Open the alarm page in your browser to know exactly when the Apple Store comes back online
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Please feel free to share this information with your friends :-)

Flickr Pro users have been informed by Yahoo about the future of the once-premium accounts. As long as the user's account is kept in good standing, customers paying $25 per year for unlimited storage will be allowed to keep the plan indefinitely, with no plans for the Pro benefits to be purged....  ...

Unity has announced that its mobile game development tools are now free to use for smaller developers. The Unity platform is popular amongst iOS and Android developers, but its creator previously charged $800 to publish a game to the App Store or Google Play. Under the new rules, that barrier has been lifted....  ...

When Jony Ive took over the role of leadership for Apple’s Human Interface in October of last year, many speculated that the style of Apple’s design language across iOS and Mac OS X would also shift towards a flatter, more clean style. This speculation was fueled mainly by Ive’s feelings towards skeuomorphism and his minimalist design aesthetic.

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In April, we reported that iOS 7 would have a fresh, yet familiar interface, embracing a flatter style thanks to Jony Ive’s new leadership...

Unity has announced that it's making its mobile game development tools free to use for most independent and small studios. Unity has always been a popular engine both for mobile game development and for cross-platform game creation, but up until now, you had to pay about $800 to actually publish Unity-created apps on the iOS or Android stores. Those basic add-ons have now been made free, so anyone can now download Unity, and then use it to publish an app for iOS or Android without paying a fee for the engine.

Unity still has pro versions available for sale to both iOS and Android developers, and anyone making over $100,000 per year with their releases is required by Unity to go ahead and purchase a pro license. So there are still some limits on exactly how this all works, and if your iPhone app does hit it big, Unity still would like its due. But starting off...

Apple remains in first place on an annual BrandZ ranking of the world's most valuable brands, notes MarketingWeek. Apple's brand is estimated to be worth $185.071 billion, putting it well ahead of next-closest rivals Google ($113.669 billion) and IBM ($112.536 billion). Other companies in the top 10 include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Microsoft, Marlboro, Visa, and China Mobile....  ...

Wal-Mart-owned video-on-demand service Vudu has updated its iOS apps to allow movie downloads for offline viewing. The Android phone version of the app has had this feature for awhile, but Android tablets are still unable to download and view their Vudu/Ultraviolet collection on their tablets.

Other additions to the update include a reworked player to make the app easier to use, as well as support for closed captions on the iPhone. It's worth noting that the Flixter iOS app already allowed for Ultraviolet downloads. Ultraviolet is a digital rights authentication service that allows DVD and Blu-ray buyers to redeem unique download codes for digital viewing later.

You can find the updated app for free in the iTunes store now.

Vudu adds ability to download...

Video-on-demand service Vudu on Monday rolled out a major update to its Vudu Player iOS app, granting users the ability to download movies and TV shows directly onto an Apple device for offline viewing.   ...

Those of us who use Google's Chrome browser for OS X are familiar with how Chrome web apps can be installed and launched from within the browser. Now it appears that Google is working on a way to bring those Chrome apps even closer to the heart of your Mac by creating a Chrome apps launcher for OS X.

Google engineer François Beaufort detailed the plans in a Google+ post, noting that OS X users can actually try out a beta of the Chrome OS app launcher right now. To do so, you need to install the most recent build of Chromium, then set the --show-app-list switch through the CLI.

After performing that magic, launch Chromium and click its Dock icon to display a grid of your Chrome apps, ready to launch (see image above). Put this on your MacBook...

Apple’s executives speak before congress, Ireland doesn’t think it has a taxation problem, and iOS 7 looks to share and share alike. The remainders for Tuesday, May 21, 2013 are certain.

Tim Cook’s Opening Statement Before The Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations (Apple)

In case you missed Tuesday’s riveting Senate subcommittee action, you can now read the opening remarks from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer on Apple’s site. But that does mean you’ll miss out on the full effect of the Tim Cook appearing before the body in a purple velour track suit.

Ireland says not to blame for Apple’s low tax rate (Yahoo Finance)

...

Smith Micro has launched Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014, updates of the developer's core 3D rendering and animation tools. Both apps have gained a number of new features, such as subdivision surfaces, which let users set subdivision levels for props, figures, or body parts using Pixar's OpenSubdiv library. The technology should improve aspects like bending accuracy and object smoothness....  ...

Google is looking to bring a version of its Chrome OS app launcher to the Mac, possibly as an add-on to the Chrome browser, allowing users to access a slew of Web apps normally available only from within the   ...

Starting this year, IBM's Watson intelligent agent technology will debut as a customer service assistant. Customers of Australia's ANZ Bank, Celcom, The Royal Bank of Canada, and Nielsen can query the system for general questions related to accounts with the companies. IBM claims to have the technology ready for deployment and integrated into consumer apps for computers and smartphones in the second half of 2013....  ...

Beethoven's 9th Symphony (free plus in-app purchases) is an epic iPad app that lets you explore one of the greatest symphonies ever written in a unique, compelling way. Classical music lovers will definitely want to check it out.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony uses every trick in the multimedia tool box. For starters, you can listen to 4 different performances of the work, taken from the well-known DGG catalog. As you listen, follow along with the the score in real time. The original manuscript displays each page as the music plays but with modern notation.

An interesting feature called the "BeatMap" offers an overhead view of the orchestra, complete with symbols of the various instruments that glow as they are played.

The app also features several interviews, both contemporary and historic, with notable people like Leonard...

Apple is aiming to integrate Flickr and Vimeo into iOS 7, a source tells 9to5Mac. The integration is expected to work in much the same way as Facebook and Twitter support does in iOS 6, allowing single sign-ins via the Settings menu. In the case of Flickr, at least, signing in may not only add another option to iOS' built-in sharing menus, but also simplify apps with their own hooks for the service, such as Instagram. Flickr is already integrated into OS X Mountain Lion and the iOS edition of iPhoto....  ...

Squarespace provides everything you need to create an exceptional website for you or your business, all within a single platform. Start with beautifully designed templates, an easy-to-use interface, and a free domain name – all backed up with award-winning 24/7 customer support.

Add your own content, customize the style, and you’ll have a website that looks great on any device.

Try Squarespace for free at squarespace.com.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Steve Wilhite, the inventor of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), received a Webby Award for lifetime achievement. He reiterates that he intended it to be pronounced like “jif.”

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.

ABC Aquarium ($3) by Peapod Labs is yet another release in the company’s ABC family of universal iOS education apps. Each app has brought a new theme, complete with an alphabet’s worth of new photographs, videos, and simple rub-on-the-picture activities, plus small user interface improvements. Aquarium leverages all of…

Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley on the belief that Yahoo bought his Tumblr blog:

In the meantime, whatever I want: mine. You want to talk excitement? That’s excitement. I just Amazon Primed a fucking speedboat.

LOL!

∞ Read this on The Loop

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for May 21, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our...

In a brief sidetrack during his Senate testimony today, Apple CEO Tim Cook voiced his opinion on US intellectual property law. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) asked Cook about the IP benefits of running a company in the US versus other countries, but appears to have been surprised when Cook took a critical tone. "I actually think that we require much more work on IP in this country," he said....  ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Chris Foresman

There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International (AOI), which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world.

AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday.

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), who...

On Tuesday, software company Delicious Monster released version 3.0.2 of the shareware favorite, Delicious Library. Delicious Monster allows Macs with webcams to scan the bar codes of any book, movie, music CD or video game, then creates an archive based on background information from the Internet. Additional features help keep the library organized and reseller’s tools allow for items to be quickly posted for sale online.

The new version, an 80.3 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
- Items without a cover show title and creator on shelf.

- Synopses can be added and edited. Custom synopses imported from Delicious Library 2 now display.

- Many changes to make...

Mark Crump at GigaOm has an interesting piece on how the iPad is becoming an important tool for music bands. Crump is an amateur musician whose band is rehearsing for a gig. What's interesting is Crump's realization that the iPad is almost all his band needs at rehearsal.

Crump explains how his iPad fits into band rehearses. First, he chooses the songs in the Music player app and sends his friends links to the songs on YouTube. Next he'll use the AmpliTube app (free) to load up his selected song from the iPad's music app and play along with it via a Fender Squire USB guitar. To chart the songs during rehearsal, Crump uses Apple's Pages app (US$9.99). He...

A new and interesting e-book trend has emerged showing that e-books are still not the preferred choice for books in Canada. While the Canadian market for ebooks remains steady, the reality is that they've already plateaued. The stats show that paperback books comprised 58% of all purchases in 2012. Hardcover made up 24% and ebooks came in at a miserable15%. And within that dismal figure, Apple's iPad ...

Apple is reportedly planning an “increased presence of third-party social networks” in iOS 7, and more specifically, a deeper integration of photo and video sharing services Flickr and Vimeo. According to a 9to5Mac report, users will be able to sign into Flickr or Vimeo using iOS 7’s Settings application.…

Three Apple executives, CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and head of tax operations Phillip A. Bullock, appeared in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation earlier today, testifying about Apple's tax policies.

MacRumors has a rough transcript of the hearing, while the full event is viewable on C-SPAN. The full hearing was quite long, but here are some selected excerpts from our transcript.

At the beginning of the hearing, Senators are allowed to make whatever opening statements they wish. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) gave a spirited defense of Apple, saying he was "offended" by the hearing.
"Tell me a politician who is up here and doesn't try to minimize his taxes… Tell me what Apple has done is illegal. I am offended...

There may be some life in Flickr (and its current owner, Yahoo) after all…

Per Mac|Life, the Flickr Blog announced Monday that the cloud photo service would be making a big change, effective immediately, combining 1TB of free storage with a beautiful new look and feel for the web app.

“At Flickr, we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality,” the blog post reads. “No limited pixels...

Blendoku is based on a crazy idea, made even crazier by the fact that it works. I am just plain terrible at colors. When I was working retail, I spent an entire day learning to lay out merchandise according to color. I was so bad at it, the trainer sent me right back to customer service. That's the very skill set that Blendoku tests, yet I still enjoy playing it.

You're presented with several different colors which must be sorted by shade, lightness, or various other qualities. Some levels are simple, with just a strip of various colors going back and forth, but some are very complicated, with multiple colors mixing up in different ways. The game works well. Moving the colors around is intuitive, and the fun, simple aesthetic allows you to focus on the puzzle.

Blendoku was a surprise. If someone asked me if I'd like a game about lining up color combinations, I don't think I would have said yes....

Peter Lewis of Stairways Software has updated the Keyboard Maestro macro utility to version 6, adding a slew of new features, including the capability to automate Web pages, trigger macros when USB devices are connected or disconnected, step through macros one action at a time, sync macros between Macs, and much more.

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.

In front of the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated the company’s claim that Apple uses no gimmicks to avoid paying U.S. taxes. “We pay all the taxes we owe. Every single dollar,” Cook said. Under the country’s current tax system, Cook argued that it…

Microsoft today released details on its next generation console at an event hosted at its Redmond campus in Washington. Called the Xbox One, the new console is designed to be the ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system with a heavy focus on both gaming and interactive television watching.

The Xbox One recognizes individual users and presents a customized home screen filled with content like TV and movies, games, and music, along with a new Trending section that displays friend activity and a live TV system.

Xbox One utilizes voice commands, motion control via the Kinect, and a new feature called Instant Switching to allow Xbox users to switch from gaming to TV to other types of entertainment with quick commands that work as fast as swapping channels on the TV. Home screen sharing, called Snap Mode, allows users to display multiple items on the television screen. The Xbox One's comprehensive voice commands,...

The Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai is often referred to as "the world's only 7-Star hotel." And now you can see why. The hotel has announced that it will be giving 24-carat gold-plated iPads to guests at check-in. The iPad will act as a "virtual concierge" for the hotel's guests, with information like maps, housekeeping services, spa services, and more.

Guests will be required to give the iPads back when they check out, unless they choose to purchase it (there's no word on the cost). The gold-plated iPad isn't the only Apple product that the Burj Al Arab's guests can enjoy: each of its 202 rooms has an iMac as well.

"The world's only 7-Star hotel" is giving 24k gold-plated iPads to guests originally appeared on ...

Native Instruments has introduced Abbey Road 50s Drummer, a new Kontakt instrument featuring the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s.

The kits provide the distinctive drum sound of the era. Recorded with both state-of-the-art and period equipment at Abbey Road Studios in London, 50s Drummer also includes a groove library, mixer presets, and a new set of brush articulations, delivering the authentic feel of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, and jazz from the 1950s.

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We’ve touched on this before, but worth repeating again: Your phones and tablets are amazing multimedia devices. But just because they’re mobile doesn’t mean you’re using them on the go.

Here’s the latest reminder, via the broadband usage report Sandvine put out earlier this month. The Internet services company says that mobile devices now account for 20 percent of traffic on home broadband networks. That’s up from 9 percent a year ago.

If you own an iPhone, or an Android tablet, or whatever, you know exactly why this is: You spend a lot of time with these things on the couch, or at the kitchen table, or wherever. (Remember how Steve Jobs demo’d the iPad, after all — on that comfy leather chair)

And a lot of that time you are watching or listening to something — Sandvine says that 25 percent of all audio and video...

Microsoft has revealed its latest iteration of its Xbox game console at a media event. The Xbox One, codenamed Durango during its development, is billed as an all-in-one system for the living room, with a greater focus on allowing users to watch live television and other media, along with heavier Kinect integration, Skype calling, and gaming improvements....  ...

At Apple's online store, take advantage of low prices on refurbished MacBook Air models. Save $300 on the 13.3-inch MacBook Air with a 1.7GHz Intel dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage, now $1,099. For $1,059 is the refurbished 11.6-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8GHz Intel dual-core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage....   ...

Apple is some good company.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Environmental activist group, Friends of the Earth HK, claims Apple's Causeway flagship store in Hong Kong is a major contributor to light pollution in the area. Apple reportedly runs about 500 lamps and spotlights over night, and the light spills outside of the store into the Hong Kong streets. According to a report in M.I.C. Gadget, Friends of the Earth HK says light from the store can be seen as far as 700 meters away.

Hong Kong is known for its colorful and illuminated skyline, but all these lights may be having a negative effect on residents. A recent study suggests that parts of Hong Kong have light levels that are 1,200 times higher than international standards. This nighttime brightness is affecting the...

As I mentioned in my review of a couple of wood cases, I’m not normally a case kind of guy. I’ve never quite seen the point of paying a premium for something beautifully designed and then hiding it away inside a case.

However, a cycling holiday from the Netherlands to Denmark in which my iPhone would be used for both photos and video suggested that at least a temporary change of policy might be in order. Videoing while cycling always carries the risk of an unintended phone-road interface, and using it with the screen on a lot during some long days might also be pushing the battery-life …

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The Otterbox Defender iON case seemed tailor-made for the job. Otterbox Defender cases are rigid plastic cases housed in a silicone skin, designed to offer a reasonably high level of impact protection. The Defender iON goes one better, housing a 1450mAH battery inside the...

While Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI) are accusing Apple of using shelters in other countries to avoid paying U.S. taxes, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is accusing the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of bullying Apple. Senator Paul's comments came on Tuesday during a subcommittee hearing into corporate tax practices in Washington DC.

The Mac Observer Spin:
If Apple is complying with the law, but you think the company should pay more taxes, it's time to change the law. Assuming Apple is in the right and hasn't violated any tax codes, Congress needs to look to itself for change and not big corporations.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) has today released its annual rankings of customer satisfaction for mobile phones in the United States. While Apple had the highest customer satisfaction index score for the second year in a row, its score has fallen slightly while competitors like Motorola Mobility, Nokia, and Samsung have all gained in score.

Apple is still at the top of the list when it comes to smartphone satisfaction, but this year's ranking of 81 (out of 100) is two percent below its 2012 ranking of 83. Motorola phones came in second after Apple, hitting a ranking of 77 after a 5% gain year over year.

Nokia remained high on the list with a 1% gain giving it a score of 76, and Samsung experienced the most growth at 7%, bringing it to a score of 76. HTC and LG both saw drops in...

This morning, AT&T sent out a message to Oklahoma customers affected by yesterday's tornado devastation noting that those in the affected areas will have all voice, data and text overages waived through June 30.

The company also reminded AT&T Wireless customers across the country that they can support disaster relief efforts by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999. That text message sends a donation of $10 to the American Red Cross and is charged on the customer's monthly bill.

Bryan Gonterman, State President for AT&T Oklahoma, said in a statement that "Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area Monday.

We are coordinating with local authorities and bringing in additional resources. We recommend text messaging for communications with family, friends and loved ones given heavy call volumes."

...

Appearing before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook defended his company as a proud American business that pays more in taxes than any other U.S. corporation.   ...

This article explains how to configure an Open Directory server and OS X client to use SSL encryption for Open Directory binding.

New internal drawing order and menu scanning technique improves speed in looking up keyboard shortcuts. (€19.99 new, free update, 2.6 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 Apple has “sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” as Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) of The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims, the company didn’t find it in Ireland. Because according to the Irish government, Ireland is “a highly tax compliant country.” And if it’s allegedly being used as a tax haven by companies like Apple, it’s because loopholes in US tax law allow it to.

“[These] are not issues that arise from the Irish taxation system,” Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said Tuesday, responding to a U.S. Senate investigation that alleges Apple dodged taxes on tens of billions of dollars in profits held in Irish subsidiaries...

Football fans rejoice (that's soccer for you in America)! Sky Sports has released an update to its popular iPad app that offers a new feature called Sky Sports 360. It lets you switch between over 20 camera angles during a replay. The app also allows you to choose to view the replays at normal speed or in slow motion. Announcing the new feature, David Gibbs, Director of Sky Sports Digital Media, told Sky Sports:

"This is great news for the Sky Sports for iPad app, which keeps getting better and better. This is about putting the technology into the hands of the viewer and allowing them to recapture the big moments in the final. It's the first time we've offered this through our app and it's another example of our investment in the Sky...

Gus Mueller gives us a list of four points when we’ll know that Apple got iCloud right.

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CS Odessa has unveiled a new set of tools and features for ConceptDraw Project to give users more control over project views and resource-allocation. ConceptDraw Project 6.4 is being enhanced with the addition of new resource types, custom filter tools, and a new set of printing options.

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HGST says it's offering the highest storage density (MB/mm3) of any hard disk drive (HDD) today. The new Travelstar 5K1500 is the industry's first 9.5mm, 1.5TB mobile hard drive and features the industry's highest capacity in a standard 9.5mm design, the company says.

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This is an excellent deal for any iOS owners who are fans of football and video games. EA is releasing the 25th iteration of the Madden football games this year, called Madden 25. And in that box, which costs a standard $60, there will be a deal with DirecTV and the NFL to set up streaming to your television, your PC and consoles, or any mobile devices you have. The NFL has been stepping up on streaming game coverage to iOS over the last year or so, and usually services like that can cost a couple of hundred dollars.

To get the deal, you'll have to preorder the Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 (which costs $100)...

This could prove useful.

Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog and The Verge, wireless carrier AT&T has indicated that all iPhone subscribers will be able to use FaceTime via a cellular connection by the end of 2013, as stated below:

“For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those...

The US Senate investigation, results of which were disclosed Monday, found that Apple employs a group of affiliate companies outside the United States to avoid paying taxes. The subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and other panel members could hold up Apple as an example of a powerful company using its privileged position to avoid taxes while ordinary Americans must pay them.

Once again, the strength of Apple's products has led to the Cupertino company being honored as the most valuable brand in the world, topping not only tech rivals like Google and Microsoft, but also giants of industry like McDonald's and Coca-Cola.   ...

Before either Apple CEO Tim Cook or Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer took the stand to testify on behalf of Apple to defend the company’s tax practices, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky lashed out on Senator John McCain and Senator Carl Levin for the “spectacle of dragging in here executives from Apple using the brute force of government to bully a great success story.”

Senator Paul, a notable Tea Party leader and son of Representative Ron Paul, is often outspoken on issues of tax reform and made no effort to align for his Republican colleague Senator John McCain.

Chairman Levin didn’t hesitate to bring the narrative against Apple and its tax practices back to the center stage soon after Senator Paul’s comments.

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“Apple has done more to enrich people’s lives than politicians will ever do,” Senator Paul voiced on Twitter after his monologue.

“If there is anyone to blame here it is not Apple, it is Congress and the tax code it created.”

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The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims Apple has avoided paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes by using offshore entities. “Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” subcommittee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement. “Apple sought the Holy…

Here is Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer.

Touch Arcade recently had a chat with CCP, the Icelandic developer behind the popular MMO EVE Online, and while there aren't any announcements yet, it certainly sounds like they're gearing up for some iOS apps, or even maybe a client for the game itself. EVE's been on the Mac for a while now, and there have been some third-party attempts at bringing parts of the game to iOS. But CCP has just released a companion game called Dust 514 on the PS3, and that means it's probably time they start thinking about tying in iOS and other popular mobile platforms as well.

There's an app called Neocom coming from CCP to the PS Vita, and executive producer John Lander calls that app...

Zagg, a company that makes high quality keyboard cases for iPads that we’ve reviewed in the past, today introduced two brand new keyboard cover and folio designs for iPad mini. Zagg says both products are ultra-thin Bluetooth keyboards that take advantage of “a unique, patent-pending hinge system that enhances the iPad mini user experience with a full...

Update: Live coverage of the Senate hearing on Apple’s offshore tax practices is above.

As things heat up in the row on alleged tax avoidance by Apple, Ireland has denied a claim made by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that it had agreed a special deal with the company to allow it to pay corporation tax of just 2% on its Irish earnings.

The denial was made to Yahoo! Finance reporter Conor Humphries:

According to the congressional report, Ireland had also agreed a special 2 percent rate for Apple’s Irish taxable profits...

There have been plenty of hints over the past months that indicate that Apple’s incoming next round of MacBook Air/Pros would contain 802.11AC Gigabit wifi chips, not the least of which was code we found referencing ’802.11AC‘ in 10.8.4 Betas.

TonyMacx86, found some interesting parts on Chinese VR-Zone today that could be the next 802.11AC boards in Macs, widely expected to be announced at WWDC next month. The Broadcom BCM94360CD PCI-E mini custom combo WLAN+Bluetooth...

Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, joined the team at The Mac Show to talk about Apple's tax payment practices and the U.S. Senate hearing where CEO Tim Cook will be testifying.

Have you ever heard the saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?" Apparently none of the rumor blogs have, because they keep publishing the same sketchy rumors from the same terrible sources. Many of these sources (*coughDigitimes* *coughPeterMisekcoughcough*) have proven to be wrong so often that they've been publicly lambasted by numerous actual news outlets... but for some reason, "sources from the Far East" and "analysts" still account for two out of the three legs on the rumor blogs' increasingly shaky table.

Despite 'mounting' pressure, Apple not seen releasing 'iPhablet' until middle of next year (BGR)

This is a perfect example of a rumor with a truly terrible source. Here's your homework assignment, BGR: tell us the last time "analyst" Peter Misek made a prediction about Apple that actually turned out to be...

Google is still axing services, and this time it's Google Checkout that's on the execution block. The Internet search giant warned retailers they have until November to find a replacement for the feature, although some users can move to Google Wallet.

The Mac Observer Spin:
This time Google already has an alternative in place for the service it's killing, but considering the number of services the company has killed off over the past few months, that probably isn't instilling much confidence in users.

Apple remains the most valuable brand in the world, in an annual ranking by market intelligence company Millward Brown, reported in Marketing Week.

The Millward Brown Brandz rankings take into account both financial strength and brand equity, a measure of the value consumers place in a brand. Despite Apple’s share-price woes, the brand is regarded by consumers as the ‘gold standard’, says the report …

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“What we see with the most popular or powerful brands is that brand lasts a lot longer, is...

mspohr writes with news that Apple might be in a bit of hot water over its policy of offshoring revenues to favorable tax jurisdictions. Only they take it a step further, from the article: "Apple relied on a 'complex web of offshore entities' and U.S. tax loopholes to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on $44 billion in offshore income over the past four years ... The maker of iPhones and iPads used at least three foreign subsidiaries that it claims are not 'tax resident in any nation' to help it avoid paying billions in 'otherwise taxable offshore income,' the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a statement yesterday."

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With the iPhone and iPad driving increasingly more of Apple’s profits, the Mac is no longer the defining theme of the company’s financial story that it once was. Which is why new data suggesting domestic Mac sales for the month of April didn’t grow at all is actually reasonably good news for Apple.

According to NPD, Mac sales for the month of April in North America were flat year-over-year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who reported the data, says that’s a “neutral to slight positive” data point for Apple, relative to expectations for its Mac business.

Why neutral? Munster’s own forecast calls for worldwide Mac sales for the June quarter to decline about 5 percent year over year. And last quarter supply issues hampered sales of Apple’s newer Macs. So if NPD is seeing flat sales for April, that potentially bodes well for the current quarter.

Level Mac sales aren’t great, but they’re...

Reggie Ashworth (www.reggieashworth.com) has announced AppDelete 4.0.7, a new version of his application deletion utility. The upgrade sports an upgraded user interface and more.

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KeyCue helps you to use your OS X applications more effectively. Just hold down the Command key for a while - KeyCue comes to help and shows a table of all currently available keyboard shortcuts. When you have found the desired shortcut in the KeyCue table, just type it and continue working as usual. The KeyCue window will disappear automatically.

You no longer need to memorize and remember key combinations, just press the Command key and KeyCue tells you what you want to know. Over time, you will automatically remember frequently used shortcuts and become a power user of your favorite applications, working much more efficiently.

Version 6.5:

• Check for Updates is now accessible via KeyCue's menu bar icon.
• New internal drawing order avoids partially clipped submenu frames.
• Avoids beeps when dismissing the shortcut table with the Esc key.
• Improved diagnostic messages when KeyCue detects applications with...

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's future Magic Mouse that will utilize a new force sensor. Our report also covers and 4 new design patents covering Apple's Smart Cover and more.

HoudahSpot is a flexible file-search tool based on Apple's powerful Spotlight engine.

• Keep frequently used files within reach
• Retrieve the files you didn't know you still had
• Don't waste time filing. Save time finding

What a pity, the "Finder" name is already taken.
This application would have deserved the appellation!

HoudahSpot unleashes the power of Spotlight. It makes good on the promise of quickly finding the files you search for.

• Create detailed queries to pinpoint the exact file you want to get to
• Narrow down searches. Step by step, zero in on files
• Save active queries as documents for direct access to your favorite files
• Set up templates for frequently performed searches
• Tag files for easy retrieval
• Do some housekeeping: Have HoudahSpot find music files not yet in your Music folder. Drag them to where they belong

View Magazine is a nicely put-together coffee table ebook for the iPad or iPhone that contains photos that are interesting and certainly not run-of-the-mill sunsets and flowers. A variety of photographers have combined to submit some of their favorite work, and they offer some commentary about the images.

There are shots of urban landscapes, people, and nature images, but none are what I would call the standard 'pretty pictures'. That said, the images are striking, and the thoughts behind the images are often illuminating. You won't like everything you see, but there is plenty to choose from.

VIEW Magazine used to require a paid subscription, but it has just gone free, and you can manually download an issue or set it up for automatic downloading to Apple's Newsstand app.

I found the content stimulating and interesting. Any image can be shared to Facebook or via email. You scroll...

Welcome South Australia to the Apple Store family.  The Rundle Place Centre Apple Store will open at 10am local time on Saturday May 25th.

An anonymous tipster from the area sent in the above image which is supposed to be the store before opening.

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A new Senate report (PDF from The New York Times) shows that Apple has been employing potentially sketchy business methods to avoid heavier tax burdens. According to the investigation, the company did dodged billions in potential taxes on $44 billion in foreign income during the past four years.

Some of the interesting bits from the Senate's report: three Apple subsidiaries in Ireland claim no responsibility to pay income taxes to any country. Apple Operations International, one of the Ireland three, reported $30 billion in income during 2009 to 2012 despite having no employees and not filing income taxes anywhere within the last five years. Apple did not violate any laws during this time according to the Senate investigation.

As...

It isn’t quite Stanford 2005, but the Corning stories and others are amusing.

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Yahoo, which had dropped off the important BrandZ Top 100 ranking several years ago, scratched its way on again this year at No. 92.

The Silicon Valley Internet giant had last been on the key list of brands in 2009, when it had a brand value of $7.9 billion. It now has a brand value of $9.8 billion, which is still down from its $11.4 billion in 2008.

And that’s tiny in comparison to Apple, which remains No. 1 on the list, with a brand value of $185.1 billion. Google ranked as No. 2, with a brand value of $113.7 billion.

Apple rival Samsung’s brand value rose by by 51 percent to $21.4 billion, clocking in at the No. 30 spot.

In tech, Amazon’s brand value was $45.7 billion, rising 34 percent to No. 14. IBM is No. 3 with a brand value of $112 billion.

And more: Microsoft (No. 7, $69.8 billion, down 9 percent); Facebook (No. 31, $21.3 billion, down 36 percent); and eBay (No....

In a statement provided to The Verge, AT&T has indicated that all iPhone subscribers will be able to use FaceTime via a cellular connection by the end of 2013.

For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we'll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers. Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by year end. Today, all of our customers can use any mobile...

Apple has been making moves over the last year to expand its market share in India after its net profit for their India devision increased 431 percent year to year. Tripling the amount of franchise stores in the country? Check. Trade-in incentives? Check. Now the incentives are continuing with expansions for college students and American Express customers.

The first incentive is designed to draw students into picking up an iPhone. Currently non-student residents who trade-in their smartphones for an iPhone get 7,000 rupees (US$130). Students, however, get 7,777 rupees (around $144) for their trade-in.

Apple's other new incentive is targeted at American Express owners and offers 10% cash back towards the purchase of an iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 before June 10th. The maximum refund...