Today the European Patent Office published Apple's trademark filing for 'Designed by Apple in California' which was officially filed for yesterday. Apple's trademark first appeared during a promotional video of a TV ad shown to their developers ...

Thanks to the massive popularity of the iPhone and iPad, Apple has become one of the five largest makers of processors for mobile devices by revenue in the world, according to new data.
   ...

Pfeiffer Consulting recently put iOS 7 through its paces, comparing it to a number of other mobile OS' to gauge which OS has a step up on the competition when it comes to the user experience.

The operating systems involved in the study included iOS 7, iOS 6, Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10. Now seeing as how there are innumerable versions of Android out there, the study focused on Samsung's implementation of Android since it's currently the most popular Android handset maker.

The study focused on four variables: cognitive load, efficiency, customization and user experience friction. Each variable was afforded equal weight. Also note that the tests were measured from the viewpoint of an average, non-technical user.

When the dust settled, iOS 7 reigned supreme with a 73.25 score followed closely by iOS 6 with a score of 70. Next came Android,...

Time, extended

This week’s iPhone-case roundup is all about power and pockets, with a few accessories that protect your phone while giving its battery life a boost, and others that give you additional carrying options when you want to travel light.

Adopted

The Forged (iPhone 5 and 5s; $50) uses four different materials to provide the ultimate protection: The metal trim is pressure-fused to a high-gloss hardshell, which is joined with a rubber interior lining and special button protectors. The combination keeps your handset safe from all sides and gives it a unique, high-class look.

The case comes in white/gold, brown/copper, aqua/silver, green/silver, or black/silver.

Findables

The FlexWrap (iPhone 5 and 5s; $30) features an ultra-light, impact-...

Images emerged on Friday of a custom aluminum desk co-designed by Apple's Jony Ive for Bono's Product(RED) charity auction, showing that Ive's minimalist aesthetic carries through even in furniture design.
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BrainDistrict has updated its 3D modelling and rendering software RaySupreme. Version 1.5 provides users with improved rendering speeds and text-to-3D creation. Its text-to-3D feature enables users to create 3D objects and scenes by typing text descriptions. Other changes include new object display properties, instancing tools, a script-based plugin system, editing tools, and compositing features. Bug fixes are also featured in the latest update. Available for OS X, Windows and Linux, RaySupreme 1.5 can be purchased online for $40....
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This week in the MacNN forums, a frustrated "angelmb" took to the forums posting the thread titled "my iTunes can't download nor update apps" when they were trying to figure out why Apps could not be downloaded or updated. Yesterday Moderator "andi*pandi" started a thread titled "iPhoto 11 will not email photos" while looking for help in trying to get iPhoto 11 to connect to Mail....
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Target is joining the list of US retailers cutting the price of the iPhone 5c. Beginning October 13th, the phone will slide from $80 to $50 at the company's stores. People with a REDcard will be eligible for an extra 5 percent discount....
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It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive TUAW Deals, a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked iOS and OS X selections.

TUAW's Daily Deals

The Air-Fi Runaway Headphone Collection [On sale for $49.99, down from $100]

We often underestimate the experience of having wireless headphones, but once you try the Air-Fi Runaway Bluetooth headphones, you'll understand the hype.

With the extra soft padding you won't want to take them off and the delightful listening experience + long battery life will further justify snagging these for 50% off.

Save 50% on The Air-Fi Runaway Headphone Collection at TUAW Deals.

Deals from...

The Maps app in iOS 7 will do its best to get you from place to place with its built-in navigation feature, and it can show you driving or walking directions. Maps assumes you're in your car, but what if you usually walk? No problem; just change the default from driving directions to walking. Read on to learn how.

Well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities has slashed his projected iPhone 5c shipments for the just-concluded September quarter by 33 percent, as price cuts for the new mid-range plastic handset continue at major U.S. retailers.
  ...

Last week we posted a report titled "Oh, Big Surprise: A Wave of Android Smartphones with Fingerprint Scanners Arriving in 2014," where we quoted the president of the FIDO Alliance saying that "Since the iPhone 5S adopted fingerprint sensors, Android-based handset makers have been taking account the possibility of fingerprint functions." He went on to predict a huge wave of new Android smartphones coming to market in 2014 that would incorporate fingerprint scanners. Today we learn of one fingerprint sensor manufacturer who is expecting sales to leap 200 times in 2014 as Android smartphone OEM's try to match Apple's hot Touch ID feature. Our report also briefly re-examines Samsung's blame-game that their fingerprint sensor partner failed to pass the reliability test.

Image: abcnews.com

KGI’s Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with a solid track-record, and the man who came closest (almost) to calling opening weekend sales of the iPhone, now believes Apple shipped ‘just’ 11.4M iPhone 5c handsets in September, rather than the 17M he had earlier forecast, reports Business Insider.

Kuo is now estimating Apple shipped 11.4 million 5Cs in the September quarter, a 33% drop from his original estimate. He also says he expects 5C sales to be just 10.4 million units for the December quarter, a 10% sequential drop...

Recur! The Reverse To-Do List is list maker app that turns things around by keeping track of the things you've done instead of the things you need to do.

Created by the developer behind CARROT, Recur! lets you create a to-do list for the things that you've done. You can track anything from exercises to the number of books you've read. The app is basic in its features and allows you to add to the counter every time you complete a task. There is no history tracking for each task, so you can only see the timestamp from when you last completed a task. You can also set an alarm to remind you to do the task again.

Recur! integrates into the CARROT To-do list, which is handy for those who use that app to track their to-do list. Recur!, though, is not CARROT enabled and does not have the personality of its list-tracing cousin.

...

With rumors of an Apple smartwatch running hot and heavy, analysts are offering thier take on just what might be up -- or at the end of -- the company's sleeve. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White thinks the mythical watch isn't about being a smartwatch at all, and instead is a wrist top remote for managing music, TV, home automation, and more.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Apple may or may not be working on a smartwatch. It may or may not be a home automation remote control. What we really know for sure right now is that analysts are all frantically trying to figure out just what Apple is working on, and that Samsung jumped the gun with a weak entrance into the smartwatch market in hopes of beating Apple.

Apps are crashing on the iPhone 5s at twice the rate they are on the iPhone 5 and 5c, according to data from app tracking firm Crittercism. Whereas the 5 and 5c have have a crash rate just under 1 percent, the 5s has been tracked at roughly 2 percent. Crittercism suggests, though, that some issues are natural with new hardware and software, and it's expected that they will eventually be resolved....
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Luisa Pereira is a research fellow at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, a programmer, and a musician. Combining her love of programming and music, Luisa crafted a set of devices to generate music based on 300 year old composition theory.

Fantastic stuff. Follow the headline link for the details. One of her inventions, the Counterpointer, takes a melody set by the user and layers in automatically generated counter-melodies. Watch the Counterpointer video below and you’ll get the idea. Lovely.

∞ Read this on The Loop

iOS 7 has taken top billing in Pfeiffer Consulting’s annual Mobile OS User Experience Benchmarks, scoring just over 73 percent against 57 percent for Android and 47 percent for Windows Phone.

The study attempts to calculate an objective rating for the usability of a mobile OS by a typical, non-technical user by measuring four elements:

• Cognitive load
• Efficiency
• Customization
• User experience friction … 

The methodology is not without its controversy (see the discussion in the...

Kirk McElhearn talks you through the details of your iCloud backup. Well worth a read.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Barence writes "Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth claims Apple will follow Ubuntu's lead and converge the iPhone and MacBook product lines. Speaking to PC Pro to mark the upcoming launch of Ubuntu 13.10, Shuttleworth said that the failed Ubuntu Edge smartphone — an attempt to bridge mobile and desktop computing devices — had set an example that others will follow. 'We've seen a very interested ripple go through the industry, and an uptick in interest in convergence,' Shuttleworth added. 'People are saying yes, mobile processors are catching up with the desktop. When Apple announced the iPhone 5s, it called the processor "desktop-class," and I don't think that was an accident – it was sending what we think is a very clear signal that it will converge the iPhone and the MacBook Air.'"

...

The following shell script will delete all printers.
Make sure the file is executable after you create it (chmod ugo+x /path/to/delPrinters.sh).

#!/bin/sh

for printer in `lpstat -p | awk '{print $2}'`
do
echo Deleting $printer
lpadmin -x $printer
done

In my house, we make a lot of movies. We are always on the lookout for clever techniques we can incorporate into our own projects. Here are two videos I just love and wanted to share.

This first one seems impossible and real. But it can’t be real, can it?

This second video shows you some tricks you can use to make movies like the first one (be sure to follow the headline link for a bit more background). Watching this second one inspires me, makes me think I could make the first one with some clever editing. Great stuff!

3 Tricks For Your Impossibly Small Film Crew from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

...

While gold and silver models of the iPhone 5s have seen very tight supplies since the device's launch last month, a number of potential customers have noted that availability of even the more plentiful space gray models has been declining. Using Apple's in-store pickup availability system, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been tracking supplies of the various models and has quantified a significant decline in iPhone 5s availability over the past two weeks.Supply of the iPhone 5S has declined in the US from 27% of total SKU's available two weeks ago to 6% over the past week, based on our checks of 60 Apple stores. Separately, the percent of stores that had at least one SKU declined from 90% two weeks ago to 40% over the past week.
Munster believes that the decline is a positive sign for demand in the U.S., but also attributes some of the increased shortages...

U.S. District Court Judge Sue Robinson handed Google a big win this week when she dismissed the class action lawsuit alleging the Internet search giant was bypassing Safari's privacy settings. According to the Judge, Google did actually did circumvent the browser privacy settings, but that the plaintiffs didn't show they had been harmed by the action.

There are some commands where you just have to wonder why. Sure, I see what this command does, but why bother? Well, I’m not going to say that xsanadmin is one of those commands, but I’m not going to say that it isn’t. At first glance, you might think that the list, stop, start and other verbs look promising. Like maybe you can actually administer a volume from a much simpler to use command line interface. However, if you want a quick and dirty of what xsanadmin does, look no further than just running the command without any verbs or operators:

xsanadmin

The result is help information from the serveradmin command:

Usage: serveradmin [-dhvx] [list | start | stop | status | fullstatus | settings | command] [ [ = ]]
-h, --help display this message
-v, --version display version info
-d, --debug print command
-x, --xml print output as XML plist
Examples:
serveradmin list
--Lists all services
serveradmin start afp...

Apps running on the iPhone 5s crash twice as often as the same apps on other models, according to data released by app performance monitoring company Crittercism (via AtD).

The usual rate for app crashes on iPhones is a little under 1 percent, while the rate on the iPhone 5s is closer to 2 percent.

Levy said that perhaps the reason that the iPhone 5s is seeing more crashes than the equally new iPhone 5c is that, while developers were able to check their apps for compatibility with iOS 7 during several months of beta testing, the new hardware wasn’t available ahead of time. The iPhone 5s packs a new 64-bit A7 chip and an M7 coprocessor, while the 5c is nearly identical internally to the iPhone 5 [...]

“The...

Apple's new 64-bit iOS 7 and A7 processor found in the iPhone 5s apparently have a few bugs that still need to be ironed out, as a new study reveals that applications are twice as likely to crash on the iPhone 5s than they are on the 32-bit iPhone 5.
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Jonathan Ive you know. One of his best friends, Marc Newson, might not be quite as familiar a name to you. Newson is also a world-class designer. The two are collaborating for the first time for an auction to benefit Bono’s Product (Red) anti-H.I.V. campaign. Vanity Fair interviewed them both.

In an effort that is part connoisseurship, part creativity, and part curatorship, the two designers have assembled a group of more than 40 objects that will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on November 23 to benefit Product (Red), the eccentrically punctuated charity set up by Bono and Bobby Shriver in 2006 to support international efforts to fight the H.I.V. epidemic in Africa. Two one-of-a-kind pieces—a metal desk and a special Leica camera—were designed by Ive and Newson in collaboration, specially for the auction. Several others, like a customized Steinway grand piano and a Georg Jensen silver pitcher, are variations on existing objects that Ive and Newson both liked and got...

Whenever there is a new operating system, it’s not surprising to see apps crash at a somewhat higher rate, given all the changes.

But one of the interesting things in Apple’s latest iPhone transition is that apps appear to be crashing at a much higher rate on the new iPhone 5s as on either the iPhone 5c or the iPhone 5. In its look at hundreds of millions of app launches since the debut of the latest iPhones, Crittercism says that programs crash about two percent on the iPhone 5s, as compared to just under one percent on both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5.

“Anytime there is new hardware or software release, we see issues,” Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy said in an interview. “Inevitably, over time, those issues get resolved.”

Levy said that perhaps the...

Libratone's Loop is new, funky though pricey (US$499.95) stereo system that provides wireless audio streaming and works great with Apple products. It can be mounted to a wall or placed on a table or shelf thanks to its "kickstand" supports.


The Loop works works wirelessly with the iPad, iPhone, Androids, Macs or PCs, enabling sound through AirPlay or DNLA. The speaker also can be used without a Wi-Fi network router through Libratone’s patented PlayDirect technology.

read more

Home automation image: insideci.co.uk

There are a couple of analyst rumors doing the rounds at present that are best described as … questionable.

First, we have Brian White claim (via VentureBeat) that the key focus of the long-rumored iWatch is as a control for home automation systems.

As an Apple supplier, our contact offered insight into the “iWatch” and described this potential new device as much more than an extension of your iPhone but as a multi-purpose gateway in allowing consumers to control their home (i.e., heating/cooling, lights, audio, video, etc.)

You may recall that Mr White is a man who likes his remotes: he predicted back in April that the...

Eltima Software has announced Folx 3, an update of the download manager for Mac OS X. It's available in free and paid-for versions.

read more

BlackBerry’s mounting misfortune is its rivals’ gain. Not only are competing smartphone makers picking up market-share points from the foundering company, they’re poaching employees, as well.

On Sept. 26, not a week after BlackBerry preannounced a horrific shortfall in second-fiscal-quarter earnings, and plans to sack 4,500 employees, Apple invited a number of BlackBerry employees to a recruitment event in Cambridge, Ontario — a 15-minute drive from the Canadian company’s Waterloo headquarters.

“If you are interested in working on the world’s most advanced mobile devices and operating systems as well as alongside other amazing, talented and passionate engineers then Apple may have opportunities for you,” reads an invitation sent via LinkedIn to some BlackBerry employees.

Held at the Cambridge Hotel and...

In Settings, tap General, and then tap Software Update. Follow the onscreen instructions to download and install iOS 7.
After installation, the iOS 7 assistant will guide you through set up.
More: How to update your iPhone

To quickly open the Camera when your iPhone is locked, swipe  up.

My Photo Stream automatically pushes a copy of every photo you take or import to all your other devices over Wi-Fi.
If you didn’t turn on iCloud Photo Sharing at setup, go to Settings, tap iCloud then tap Photos. Turn on My Photo Stream. Turn on Photo Sharing to create shared photo streams.
More: iCloud Photo Sharing

Your iPhone music library displays all your iTunes Store music purchases, even if you haven't downloaded them. Tap  to download again for free.
Note: To view only music downloaded to iPhone in your library, go to Settings, tap Music, and turn off Show All Music.

When you’ve identified a location, tap  to share it. Choose whether to share the Selected Location or your Current Location.
Tap Message to include the location in a text or tap Mail to send an email.
You can also share with Facebook, Twitter or with another iPhone using AirDrop.

In Photos, go to an Album, Camera Roll, or photo collection and tap the photo you'd like to share. Tap , and choose if you’d like to share by Mail, Messages, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, iCloud, or AirDrop.
To share multiple photos, tap Select and tap each photo to include. Then tap . If you’re viewing Moments, tap Share.
Note: Your service provider may set a size limit on photos sent.

Touch and hold the photo or video, then tap Save Image. You'll also have the option to save all the images at one time.
Images and video are saved to the Camera Roll in the Photos app.

Do Not Disturb keeps calls, alerts, and other notifications from making sounds or lighting up when iPhone is locked.
Swipe up from the bottom edge of your iPhone screen—even when locked—to reveal Control Center.
Tap  to turn on Do Not Disturb.
Note: You can also turn on and adjust Do Not Disturb in Settings.

The much-rumored iWatch may be more than a simple iPhone companion and instead be a gateway device to allow customers to control various functions within their home, according to a new research note by Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White.
As an Apple supplier, our contact offered insight into the “iWatch” and described this potential new device as much more than an extension of your iPhone but as a multi-purpose gateway in allowing consumers to control their home (i.e., heating/cooling, lights, audio, video, etc.).This functionality would mirror the abilities of apps by Philips and Nest to power their Hue lightbulbs and Nest Thermostat, allowing users to control lighting and temperature from simple commands on their device. However, as those services require additional accessories it would likely mean Apple would have to manufacture these accessories...

Adoption of the Google TV platform trails Apple's Apple TV device by a wide margin, and now the search company may be ready to rebrand its television offerings under the Android name in an effort to spark consumer interest.
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Fans of Doctor Who are celebrating the recovery of nine previously-thought-lost 1960s episodes of the classic sci-fi fantasy show, with the recovered material already exclusively available on iTunes less than a day after the find was publicly announced. This is the first time that newly-rediscovered episodes of the pioneering BBC space drama have been made available in digital form before being broadcast or made available on DVD, and come just over a month ahead of the show's 50th birthday....
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A Delaware judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by users of Apple's Safari browser, finding that the plaintiffs could not prove that the search giant had caused any real harm when it circumvented Apple's security measures in order to store cookies in the browser.
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It's that time of year: a new Windows release is coming, with Mac virtualization application updates in tow. You'd think there's only so much you could do with a program that hosts another OS, but these new updates are surprising for their innovation. With the previous release of VMware Fusion 5 Professional, VMware started differentiating its products from Parallels by tapping its established, IT-oriented features. On the other hand, Parallels is pushing closer Mac integration and better 3D graphics support. The latest releases seem to be in much the same vein, but that's enough talking around these releases—let's dive in.

Test Hardware

17-inch MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Sandy Bridge
• 16GB RAM
• 1GB Radeon 6770M
• OS X 10.9 Mavericks builds 13A584 through golden master

13-inch mid-2011 MacBook Air 1.7GHz Core i5
• 4GB RAM
• Intel HD 3000 384MB graphics
• OS X 10.8.4

Since both VMware and...

The iPad can do a lot of what we traditionally use our computers for, so it stands to reason that some folks would see their tablet as a suitable stand-in for a new PC. According to sales data from Gartner, Apple's tablet may have utterly crushed the growth of PC shipments worldwide. The data -- which is presented in graph form, courtesy of Statista -- appears to indicate that consumers are going with tablets rather than full-fledged computers, as the PC market is actually shrinking.

However, there's likely a lot more to this than simply the release of Apple's now iconic tablet. Yes, the iPad has certainly replaced a few PCs out there, but devices like smartphones and other, non-iPad tablets have done so, too. Overall, portable devices are more capable now than ever before, and for individuals who only used their home computers for email or web...

US District Judge Sue Robinson from the Delaware federal court has dismissed a class-action suit against Google, ruling that the class could not prove that Google's cookie deposition policies actually generated any harm. The plaintiffs, users of Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Internet Explorer alleged that Google had bypassed the respective firms' browser settings on cookie usage, and as a result were served targeted advertisements based on ill-gotten data from searches and web browsing habits....
 ...

Western Digital today expanded its storage solution portfolio with the introduction of the new WD Sentinel DS5100 and WD Sentinel DS6100 (S-series) ultra-compact network storage plus servers. The WD Sentinel S-series features Intel Xeon processors and are pre-installed with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials....
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A new report out today by ABI Research notes that Apple's new iPhone's still don't support Verizon's SVLTE or SVDO wireless variants as their other phone partners do. Yet the only one complaining thus far publically is ABI – unless of course, they're airing Verizon's complaints for them. ABI was apparently on a mission to put the iPhone in a poor light which is rather odd for a research company.

OS X includes Terminal commands that can pipe and retrieve data from the clipboard.

Apple is striking while the iron is hot with a recruiting drive to hire some BlackBerry employees. Apple held a recruiting event at the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre on the outskirts of Ontario, where BlackBerry is based, coinciding with the very real crisis that BlackBerry finds itself in.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Apple design chief Jony Ive gave insight into the mindset that guides his design process, revealing what he described as a "fanatical" attention to detail.
  ...

Owners of the latest MacBook Air models, take note: Apple has just released an EFI firmware update that fixes those pesky problems when trying to use Windows 8 via Boot Camp. Here's what Apple says about the MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.7:

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

This update addresses an issue which may cause a black screen to appear when installing Windows 7 or Windows 8 using Boot Camp Assistant if both an external optical drive and USB thumb drive are connected to the system. This update also ensures that the system will boot by default into OS X after installation of Windows 8.

Owners of the latest MacBook Air can get the firmware update by running Software Update on their Mac or by downloading it directly here.

...

In September we posted a report titled "Samsung Fails to Deliver a Fingerprint Scanner for the Note 3," where we clearly reported that Samsung failed to deliver a fingerprint scanner that was highly anticipated. Later that month we posted a secondary report titled "Samsung and LG on the Run to Integrate Inferior Fingerprint Technology into their Somewhat Smartphones," where we noted that the swipe type of fingerprint scanner "has a lower recognition rate than the area type" of scanner. We further noted that "Android OEM's will now scramble to use technology from Korea's CrucialTec." Well, today the Korean press is confirming that very point. Samsung was so fit to be tied that Apple pulled off a gigantic innovative leap over them that they're now telling the press that it wasn't their fault that they're late in delivering a fingerprint scanner on the smartphones. Ha! – more Whining from Samsung.

OK, so that headline was bit ... link-baitish. But the real news is that storage accessory manufacturer LaCie and Porsche Design have teamed up to create a keychain flash drive that is both speedy and stylish. The LaCie Porsche Design USB Key (starting at US$29.99) is available starting today, and the company provided one for our review and testing.

Design

The key is lightweight (.3 oz, 8.5 gm) and tiny (2.1" x .5" x .15", 53 x 12 x 4 mm), while still retaining a feeling of solidity through the use of stainless steel in construction. It's available in both 16 GB ($29.99) and 32 GB ($49.99) models, and it's a bit surprising that the company didn't choose to offer a 64 GB model as well.

I used one of LaCie's USB keys on my keychain for about four years until it finally split in half this year. That model was made of two pieces of aluminum that were pressed together, and it always had a somewhat...

Apple has issued a new EFI firmware update for the MacBook Air, v2.7. The patch is aimed explicitly at 2013-model Airs, and copes with a bug that caused black screens to appear when trying to install Windows 7 or 8 using Boot Camp Assistant. The problem was triggered if both an external optical drive and a USB stick were connected at the same time. Simultaneously, Apple has tweaked the firmware to ensure a Mac will boot into OS X by default after Windows 8 is installed....
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As it stands today, there are 416 Apple retail stores around the world spread out across 13 countries. Soon, that number will be 14 with word that Turkey will be graced with its first Apple retail store in just a few months.

Set to open up at the Zorlu Center in Istanbul in January of 2014, the retail space will be 2,000 square meters which equates to about 21,000 square feet. The retail space will be located in the "most visible" portion of the shopping space and will be lodged between two other high end retailers: Burberry and Louis Vutton.

News of the impending Apple store in Instanbul first appeared in The Wall Street Journal early on Thursday and was...

Designers Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson talk about their trade in a new issue of Vanity Fair. The pair were recently involved in selecting or designing over 40 objects -- such as a custom Leica M camera -- for an upcoming auction benefiting Bono's Product (RED) charity. "We are both fanatical in terms of care and attention to things people don't see immediately," says Ive, better known as Apple's senior VP of design. "It's like finishing the back of a drawer. Nobody's going to see it, but you do it anyway. Products are a form of communication ó they demonstrate your value system, what you ca...
 ...

LivingPlug has released its latest electrical outlet accessory, the Inlet. Installed over a conventional home outlet, Inlet extends its utility with the inclusion of three tamper-resistant electrical outlets, as well as a 2.1a USB port for device charging. A 'UnPlug' button is also included, which allows users to stop energy loss from devices that are connected, but not in use. An optional anchor screw is included, for parents to secure the Inlet more permanently to the standard outlet so children cannot access the non-tamper resistant wall outlets underneath. Able to cover a duplex outlet ent...
 ...

Today, Apple has issued a firmware update (via MacRumors) for the latest MacBook Air models. The update focuses on fixes revolving Boot Camp and the installation of Windows:

This update addresses an issue which may cause a black screen to appear when installing Windows 7 or Windows 8 using Boot Camp Assistant if both an external optical drive and USB thumb drive are connected to the system.  This update also ensures that the system will boot by default into OS X after installation of Windows 8.

Earlier this month, Apple issued a pair of updates that focus on fixing...

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 October 10, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 10 Oct 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our...

Visitors to China are often perplexed to find that they can't access Twitter, Facebook or other sites. The reason isn't that they don't have access to cellular or WiFi networks; instead, it's state censorship and surveillance courtesy of the Golden Shield Project, aka "The Great Firewall of China." Roman Loyola at TechHive recently visited Beijing and used the trip as a research opportunity to see how visitors with iPhones can bypass the Great Firewall and tweet their trip to friends back home.

It turns out to be somewhat easy; you just need to have an unlocked GSM iPhone and then purchase a SIM card when you arrive in China. Before you leave, though, you also need to sign up for a virtual private network (VPN) service. Loyola highlights two in particular --...

Earlier this year, we reported that Apple is engaging in a push to hire talent to work on wearable devices (an “iWatch”). Since then, we noted that Apple hired two notable wearables specialists from Nike: Jay Blahnik (a consultant on the Fuel Band) and Ben Shaffer. Based on these hires, we believe that the iWatch will hit the market within the next couple of years.

iWatch concepts are constantly...

With over 9 million iPhones sold in just three days, and undoubtedly millions more since Apple first announced the impressive sales figure, there are likely many people experiencing iOS for the first time.

That being the case, here's a quick Calculator app tip that maybe even seasoned iOS users will find new and useful.

It's not readily apparent, but the Calculator app in iOS has a hidden gesture that enables you to delete numbers from an entry if you happen to input a number by accident.

As a quick example, let's say I'm trying to input the number 5,964 but accidentally type in 596,487.

Is all hope lost? Do I have to start over from scratch?

Not at all!

To erase a number, digit by digit, simply swipe to the right on the number display and the most recently entered digit will disappear. This handy trick is a lifesaver if you happen to...

Flickr (free) from Yahoo! updated to version 2.30.1503, enabling auto upload in iOS 7. Users can now automatically save their photos in Flickr’s 1TB-per-user storage space in full resolution. The app also now features auto straighten, letting users automatically straighten photos using the Flickr editor. Google sign-in issues have…

Bose invited us to New York City this week to preview their new ‘SoundTouch’ speakers and corresponding apps for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows.  We were recently turned from Bose haters to fans by Bose’s Soundlink Mini Portable Bluetooth Speaker so we took them up on the offer.

The knee-jerk thing to do is to compare the SoundTouch idea to Sonos/app because on the surface, Bose’s app...

Earlier this month we noted in a report that that IGZO displays used in Apple's current and future products will not only be brighter but could eventually reduce power consumption by 50% or more. Getting more life out of our mobile devices is important to all of us and it's a priority at Apple who is working to advance displays that could continue to provide a power savings.

If you are selling or donating your old Mac, be sure to secure your data and properly set it up for the new owners.

Bose is taking on Sonos by making a version of its SoundLink speakers that are designed for home use. The SoundTouch range of wireless home audio speakers consists of three speakers that all connect over an existing Wi-Fi network, and are able to pull audio from song libraries on the local network as well as over the Internet....
  ...

The nation?s largest electronics buy-back service saw nearly a twofold jump in the number of customers who locked in cash offers to sell their old iPads immediately after Apple leaked the Oct. 22 date for this year?s iPad introductions to a major media publication.
  ...

Apple's senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive and industrial designer Mark Newson have collaborated on more than 40 objects, such as the one-of-a-kind Lecia Rangefinder camera and the solid gold Apple EarPods, that will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York later this year to benefit Product (RED), Bono's charity that has a long running partnership with Apple.

The duo interviewed with Vanity Fair to talk about the collaborative design process and the exceptional amount of work that went into many of the products that will be up for auction.

Despite differences in aesthetic taste, Ive and Newson work well together due to an...

The first Turkish Apple Store will indeed open in January, says the Turkish edition of the Wall Street Journal. The outlet, still under construction, is situated between Burberry and Louis Vutton outlets on the grounds of Istanbul's new Zorlu Center. Apple's space is said to measure over 21,000 square feet, and include a cubic glass ceiling....
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The once-mighty have fallen. Nokia's Symbian smartphone OS was, not too many years ago, the platform of choice. Now, says Daniel Eran Dilger at AppleInsider, the company is being sold off for scrap. He relates how a Finnish journalist for Helsingin Sanomat wrote a letter to the company in 2008 noting that a recently acquired Nokia E51 smartphone was almost impossible to use compared to an iPod touch purchased after seeing a friend's device.

Journalist Lauri Malkavaara's missive to Nokia stated that "I ordered my own iPod touch, turned it on, and knew immediately how to use it. I have used the device now on a daily basis for over six months, and I have not even thought about any manuals. The logic of the device opens up right away. It is no wonder that it is a huge success all over the world."

Malkavaara then went on to describe...

T-mobile has announced that it will roll out free 2G data coverage in over 100 countries, reports AllThingsD. The move is in an effort to make the carrier more attractive to frequent travelers -- and address an issue common with US carriers: high data roaming charges. As AllThingsD reports:

"There's just so many pieces of data that suggest to us this is a huge issue and pain point, but also a huge opportunity," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in an interview, noting that Americans take 55 million international trips per year. However, he said, 40 percent of customers turn off their phones to avoid high charges, while many others get stuck with high bills when they return.

Under T-Mobile's new plans, which don't carry an extra fee, T-Mobile offers unlimited 2G data and texting in 100 countries, with voice calls in those same places costing 20 cents per minute...

Following the announcement of BlackBerry's layoffs that will see a loss of 40 percent of its staff, Apple has begun poaching BlackBerry talent via a recruitment drive near the BlackBerry offices in Ontario, reports the Financial Post.In the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre on Sept. 26, located in Cambridge, Ont. on the outskirts of the Kitchener-Waterloo region where BlackBerry was born, the iPhone maker invited local talent with the aim of luring them to their Silicon Valley operations.According to a LinkedIn invitation, the majority of positions open at Apple are located within Cupertino, California. Apple has said that it will provide both relocation and immigration assistance to any candidates that are hired, but it is unclear exactly what positions Apple is looking to fill.

Apple's attempt to snap up BlackBerry employees comes as the company...

Some carriers allow you to use iPhone to share an Internet connection. If you have this feature, it will appear in Settings, under Personal Hotspot or under Cellular > Set Up Personal Hotspot.
Devices can connect to your iPhone using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB.
Note: Personal Hotspot works only if iPhone is connected to the Internet over the cellular data network. Data charges may apply.

Go to Settings and tap Wi-Fi. Turn on Wi-Fi.
Your iPhone will automatically search for available Wi-Fi networks. Select the network you'd like to join, and enter the password if prompted.
When connected, a will appear by the network name and will appear at the top of your screen.
More: iOS: Connecting to Wi-Fi

To print a single photo to an AirPrint enabled printer, tap , then tap Print.
To print multiple photos while viewing a photo album, tap Select, and tap to select the photos you want to print. Tap , then tap Print.
More: AirPrint Basics

Apple's newly relocated retail store in Nanuet, N.Y., reopened Thursday morning, drawing a crowd of cheering enthusiasts who were there for the festivities.
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Swipe up from the bottom edge of any screen to reveal Control Center.
Tap to open the calculator. 

Swipe up from the bottom edge of any screen to reveal Control Center.
Tap to lock the screen in portrait orientation.

Swipe up from the bottom edge of any screen to reveal Control Center.
Tap to open the Clock app and see the timer. Scroll to set the timer for the right number of minutes. Tap Start.
You can also view World Clock times, set an alarm, and use the stopwatch from the Clock app.

Swipe up from the bottom edge of any screen to reveal Control Center.
Use the slider to adjust the volume. Tap to use the music controls.

Swipe up from the bottom edge of any screen to reveal Control Center.
Tap to turn on Airplane mode, which turns off cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and location services.
Tap again to turn off Airplane mode and enable those services.

In Settings, tap Notification Center.
Select which Notifications appear on your iPhone lock screen, and the specific items you’d like to see each day.
Scroll down to set notification options for your apps, including if you want to receive alerts and which kind.
Note: In some areas, you can turn on alerts in the Government Alerts list.

Swipe down from the top edge of any iPhone screen to open Notification Center. 
Tap Today to see a summary of what you need to know for the day, including Calendar events, weather, birthdays and more. 
Swipe left or right to see more.

...

Turn on AirDrop to receive items from another iOS 7 device that supports AirDrop.
Swipe up from the bottom edge of your screen to reveal Control Center and tap AirDrop. You can choose to receive items from Everyone or from Contacts Only (sign in to iCloud). If you tap Off, you won't be visible in AirDrop.
Note: Transfers are encrypted, and you’ll always be asked to accept AirDrop transfers.

Apple yesterday announced that both the iPhone 5s and 5c will be launching in more than 25 countries on Friday, October 25. Just one week later, more than a dozen additional countries will be getting the iPhone treatment as well.

You can check out a full list of those countries over here. While the list includes countries from all across the globe, from Albania to Moldova and everything in between, one country conspicuously missing from the iPhone launch festivities is Brazil.

That, however, may soon change.

ZDNet is reporting that the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) recently granted the requisite authorization for Apple to sell its new iPhone lineup in the country.

The new Apple...

To quickly view someone's contact info in Messages, tap Contact.

Tap to call that person or to use FaceTime
Tap to see the person’s complete contact info

If they're not already a contact, you can tap Create New Contact to add them.

To delete an app you downloaded from the App Store, touch and hold its icon on the Home screen until it starts to jiggle. Tap  to delete.
If you delete or drag all apps out of a folder, the folder is automatically deleted too. When finished, press the Home button.
Note: Deleting an app also deletes all of its data. You can redownload any app you’ve purchased from the App Store, free of charge. You can’t delete built-in apps.

To individually download and install app updates, tap Updates. Tap Update All to download and install all available updates at once, or just tap Update next to the individual app you want to update.
Note: Apps update automatically over Wi-Fi, unless you turn off the option in Settings > iTunes & App Store.

To view your iPhone settings for automatic downloads go to Settings and tap iTunes & App Store.
You can select the items you want to download automatically, including app updates.
If you’d like to use your cellular network for automatic updates, turn on Use Cellular Data.
Note: Using cellular data might result in additional charges from your carrier.

Acronis and Thursby Software have announced the delivery of what they describe as the first mobile file management solution to include Common Access Card and Personal Identity Verification authentication for federal government compliance with the HSPD-12 standard on mobile devices.

Based on the Acronis mobilEcho MFM solution and PKard from Thursby Software, the new offering enables federal organizations to improve mobile users' productivity, while maintaining complete control over data security and compliance, says Bill Thursby, president and founder of Thursby Software Systems.

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You've got the look!

This week's roundup of new and updated iOS apps includes new ways to make images—both still and video—look great. Now, everything you produce will have a professional sheen.

U-verse

Good news for subscribers to AT&T U-verse: Live TV is now available through the company’s iOS apps. This week’s update to the app—which already featured video-on-demand options—also features a number of bug fixes and a small update to the user interface. But it’s the ability to watch your favorite shows in real time on your iPad or iPhone that should geneate the most joy among the app’s users.

Cameo

Cameo for iPhone is kind of a cross between Vine and other, more extensive video-editing apps: You can only shoot six seconds of video at a time, but you can...

IK Multimedia is shipping the iRig BlueBoard, a wireless MIDI pedalboard for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac. It gives guitarists, bassists, vocalists and keyboard players hands-free wireless control of mobile and Mac music apps.

The iRig BlueBoard uses Bluetooth technology to transmit MIDI messages to control app and software functions and features. Musicians can use it to control parameters in their favorite music-making apps -- such as stompbox effects on/off, preset patch-switching on the fly, volume or wah control, or any other MIDI controllable function.

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