Apple has sent an email to developers letting them know the ongoing status of restoring the developer's site after a hacking attempt led to the company taking the site down in July. In the email, Apple said that most of the developer services are back online, with the majority of the rest to come this week:

We plan to reinstate most of the remaining services this week: Xcode automatic configuration as well as access to license agreements, TSIs, program enrollments, and renewals in Member Center.

Apple is still extending the developer memberships that expired during the time the service has been online and will keep affected apps listed in both the Mac and iOS App Stores.

Apple issues update on...

Android’s critics often talk about how fragmented its ecosystem is, but the developers of the OpenSignal app have finally given the fragmentation life with a variety of visualizations. In Apple news, the Obama administration has saved older iOS devices from a Samsung-initiated import ban, and Apple is giving away free content in its Apple Store app. We also bring you the story of the classic educational game The Oregon Trail, Josh Centers appeared on MacVoices to tell the story of how he joined TidBITS, your Xerox WorkCentre copier could be mixing up its numbers, and Amazon has found a clever workaround for Apple’s in-app purchasing restrictions.

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...

Notable software releases this week include OpenOffice 4.0, Growl 2.1, Airfoil 4.8, Typinator 5.6, ReadKit 2.2.1, and Final Cut Pro X 10.0.9.

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.

Until this Friday (8/9/2013) enter to win a pair of Wicked Audio Evac headphones from Electronista.    

Roughly two weeks after it first acknowledged the problem, Apple has restored many of the services that were taken offline when its developer site servers were accessed by an "intruder" on July 18. Developers can once again access iOS and OS X betas, view prerelease documentation, download certificates, and watch videos from Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) sessions just as they could before the security breach. Apple today sent out an update via e-mail to registered developers regarding the remaining services.

"We plan to reinstate most of the remaining services this week: Xcode automatic configuration as well as access to license agreements, TSIs, program enrollments, and renewals in Member Center," the company said. The message went on to reiterate that the ...

Following Google’s release of an official AdSense Android app on Google Play last week, today the company has released an iOS version of the app. Much like the Android version, this is the first official AdSense...

Here's a neat phrase that instantly identifies any story which follows it as pure, grade-A compost: "seemingly conirmed." Two examples:

Low-cost iPhone seemingly confirmed as plastic-bodied and not yet in mass production from Pegatron working conditions report (9to5 Mac)

Between the poor working conditions reported there and this leak, I bet Apple is really regretting its production contract with Pegatron right now. Unless of course the single worker interviewed for this portion of the report is completely making everything up. Nah, that would never happen. All Apple news that comes out of the Far East is inevitably 100 percent accurate, after all.

New iPhone with biometric fingerprint sensor seemingly confirmed by iOS leak (9to5 Mac)

"It seems pretty clear that Apple is preparing a new...

As Samsung has lost over a billion dollars in market value, the South Korean government has shown concern that the company's patent rights may be negatively affected following a presidential veto in its U.S.-based intellectual property dispute with Apple.  ...

Apple on Monday told developers that it had reinstated a number of developer services that had been taken down after a hacking incident last month. Apple said most of the remaining elements should be back up later this week.

Several of us around the TUAW newsroom love Feedly -- it's a free, cloud-based RSS aggregation tool that stepped into the void that the loss of Google Reader created. In order to finance further development of this powerful tool, Feedly today announced an early lifetime edition version of Feedly Pro.

While general availability of Feedly Pro won't occur until "this fall," the Feedly team is making a lifetime edition available for US$99 starting today. That $99 provides early access to the app, and you will never have to pay the $5 monthly ($45 annual) subscription for the Pro version. Access to the lifetime edition is limited to the first 5,000 respondents.

So what does Feedly Pro have that the existing version doesn't? Article search, so that you can search within your feeds. Security, thanks to https. One-click save of any Feedly Pro article to your Evernote account. Most...

I love the Custom Shop gear that IK Multimedia put together for AmpliTube. New models come from Dr. Z Amplification, Fulltone and Z.Vex Effects.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Just over a week after Apple began bringing its Developer Center back online after being down for eight days, the company has emailed developers with an update on its progress. Apple has brought a majority of its developer services back online and plans to reinstate most of the remaining services by the end of this week.

Still down are Xcode automatic configuration as well as access to license agreements, Technical Support Incidents, program enrollments, and renewals in Member Center.

The company notes that if membership were set to expire during the downtime, it has been automatically extended and no App Store sales have been affected.
Apple Developer Update: Aug 5, 2013

We sincerely appreciate your patience as we work to bring our developer program services back online, and we want to give you an update on our progress....

It’s Apple’s jobs page that tends to point to where things are going.

Per AppleInsider, Apple is actively recruiting for scores of new full time jobs related to Maps. The company also plans to enlist the support of its installed base of 400 million iOS users with an opt-in invitation to “Help Improve Maps” in iOS 7.

Part of the initial setup of iOS 7 includes an option to “Help Improve Maps,” which as Apple explains, ties into Frequent Locations, a new feature of iOS 7.

Frequent Locations remembers places you’ve been, similar to the...

Apple has been slowly restoring their Developer Center, and today the company has sent out an email update to developers regarding the restorations to take place this week:

We sincerely appreciate your patience as we work to bring our developer program services back online, and we want to give you an update on our progress. The majority of our developer services are currently online, including Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Dev Centers, software downloads, Videos, Apple Developer Forums, iTunes Connect, Bug Reporter, App Store Resource Center, and access to pre-release documentation.

We plan to reinstate most of the remaining services this week: Xcode automatic configuration as well as access to license agreements, TSIs, program enrollments, and renewals in Member Center. You can check the availability of these systems on our...

Native Instruments has released Drum Lab, an instrument that combines "advanced drum layering techniques with an intuitive workflow designed for fast results."

Drum Lab combines the organic, expressive sound of acoustic drums with the weight and punch of electronic samples, according to the folks at Native Instruments. An included groove library provides over 900 patterns for fast groove production.

Drum Lab is available now from the NI Online Shop for US$99. For more info go to www.native-instruments.com/drumlab .

If you (or your kids) grew up playing The Oregon Trail, a game that pitted a band of settlers against the dangers of nature as they journeyed from Missouri to Oregon, Mental Floss has the fascinating story of the game, which was conceived as a way to teach history. Though it was popularized on the Apple ][, the original game was actually played on a teletype, where students would have to type “bang” quickly and accurately to hunt game.

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.

Our Managing Editor, Josh Centers, joined MacVoices host Chuck Joiner to discuss his work at TidBITS. Josh talks about his break into tech writing, what he and Adam argue about, scientifically testing trash bags, and how to set up a home office.

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.

Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2013, finding that Apple's share of the market has fallen to under a third. According to IDC's numbers, Apple held a 32.4% share of the market for quarter, compared to 39.6% in the previous quarter and a 60.3% share in the year-ago quarter.

While other top tablet manufacturers saw their shipments rise by 100-300% over the second quarter of 2012, the lack of a new iPad launch from Apple in the March-April timeframe resulted in a 14% drop in Apple's numbers. Still, other top vendors saw their shipments drop sequentially, with IDC attributing those drops to a lack of a general boost in tablet interest that accompanies iPad launches.

Worldwide Tablet Shipments in 2Q13...

Apple has created a simple way to report iMessage spammers until you can block them entirely in iOS 7.

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.

Matt Gemmell:

We act as if we take concentration for granted, yet everyone has had trouble keeping their mind on the task at hand. We litter our menubars with icons, keep notifications enabled, and run our email programs, chat apps and social media clients all day. Something’s got to give, and invariably it’s our creative output.

This is why I like the Notification Center so much. It’s not perfect, but it does allow me to see at a glance what’s coming in and if I need to deal with it without leaving the project I’m working on.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple may be planning to shift some of its iMac production from Quanta to Pegatron, a report claims. Quanta currently manufactures several Mac lines, including the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Some suppliers have allegedly been sending iMac components to Pegatron however, in spite of the firm normally only handling iPhone and iPad work for Apple. Even then, most iPhones and iPads are assembled by Foxconn....  ...

Customers who may be eligible to participate in the liquid sensor settlement class action involving certain iPhones and iPods are now receiving legal notices via email. A customer may be eligible if Apple denied warranty coverage because the company said a device had been damaged by liquid. The $53…

I was asked the other day what I use in my studio for mixing, so I thought I’d post a link. My Adam’s are the A5 and are a bit older than the ones on company page, but the A5X is the closest thing to what I have. I love them.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Photo: tractoroutdoor.com

The WSJ reports that more than a billion dollars were wiped off Samsung’s market value today following President Obama’s veto of the decision to ban the import of iPhone 4 and 3G iPad 2 devices into the USA. The fall represented 0.9 percent of the company’s market cap.

While a Presidential veto over-rules the original ITC ruling, the Financial Times reports that Samsung is...

Patent disputes in the U.S. could change "significantly," with the International Trade Commission (ITC) playing a less important role, following a veto from President Barack Obama's administration in the ongoing Apple-Samsung litigation, notes "AppleInsider" (www.appleinsider.com).

read more

A 21-year-old woman from Brisbane, Australia was scammed into buying a pair of apples in place of the iPhones she was expecting, regional police say. The person recently placed an ad on classifieds site Gumtree, saying she was interested in buying a few iPhones. She was then contacted by another woman, who said she had a pair of iPhones to sell....  ...

Apple can continue to sell the AT&T iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, and the first- and second-generation 3G iPads in the U.S. after the Obama administration overturned an import ban on the devices, Bloomberg reports. The import ban, which was to start today, came about after the…

Last week we revealed a scathing report from China Labor Watch (CLW) who published an investigative report detailing the labor violations of three factories of Pegatron Group, a major supplier to Apple for their new mid-level report. Pegatron was accused of labor violations in order to increase their competitive edge with Apple. Today another report has surfaced detailing Chinese regulators who are now actively scrutinizing two of Apple's suppliers Foxconn and Unimicron for pumping large amounts of toxic heavy metals into nearby rivers. The allegations of such activity were reported on by five non-profit environmental groups.

Craig Hockenberry asked developers if they were actively working on an update for their app to add iOS 7 features and compatibility—95% answered yes. What’s more, 52% of developers are going to require iOS 7 for their app. In other words, they are dropping support for all other operating systems.

I’ve been asked a lot about this strategy over the years and I’m in favor of it. Developers should offer their customers the latest and greatest as soon as they can. The only thing that would hold back a developer from doing that is the adoption rate of the operating system. Judging from the fast adoption rate of Apple’s operating systems, that doesn’t appear to be an issue.

∞ Read this on The Loop

DigiTimes is reporting today that Pegatron may be picking up contracts for production of upcoming iMacs with “upstream supply chain players revealing they sent iMac components to Pegatron recently.” Both Pegatron and Apple’s current partner for Mac production, Quanta, aren’t commenting on the rumor, but perhaps Apple could be looking to add additional partners to produce its next round of iMacs after experiencing significant delays following the launch of its latest iMac refresh.

While Quanta produces the majority of Apples Mac lineups, Pegatron is already an Apple manufacturing partner for iOS devices. However, last month the company came under fire when a report...

Patent disputes in the U.S. could change significantly, with the International Trade Commission playing a less important role, following a veto from President Barack Obama's administration in the ongoing Apple-Samsung litigation.  ...

iPhone and iPod touch owners that were denied warranty repairs over internal moisture sensors that falsely registered water damage are a step closer to collecting their share in Apple's US$53 million class action lawsuit settlement. The settlement is still awaiting final court approval, but a website is up and running where device owners can add their names to the list of eligible participants ready to collect up to $300.

The Mac Observer Spin:
The $53 million settlement in moisture sensor lawsuit against Apple hasn't been approved yet, but there isn't any reason at this point to expect a court rejection. iPhone and iPod touch owners that were denied warranty repairs because of faulty sensors will finally be able to recoup some of their out of pocket expenses and the attorneys that handled the case will get enough cash to buy themselves a nice pile of iPhones, too.

...

In a recent Macworld Podcast, I mentioned that it was possible to use an old iPod classic as a bootable drive for emergency troubleshooting use. Reader Kirk Aplin followed up for details. He writes:

I was intrigued by your tip for using old iPods in this week’s Macworld podcast. Have you written exactly how to do that somewhere?

Not in many years. It’s a technique I routinely showed off in the pre-iOS days when giving one of my “iPod Tips and Tricks” sessions. The gist is that a bootable iPod can be a very helpful tool when your Mac is refusing to start up or is generally misbehaving, and you’d like to boot it from another drive and use troubleshooting tools on the iPod to diagnose (and, you hope, repair) your Mac.

Sure, there’s a catch

The warnings of old are just as valid today. First of all, the iPod classic is not vented, so if you run the...

Photo: appadvice.com

A piece on political news site Politico suggests that Apple’s position of trying to remain aloof from political lobbying and defending lawsuits on principle rather than pragmatism may now be proving a luxury it can no longer afford.

The company marches to its own iTunes, spending little on lobbying, rarely joining trade associations and, in a pattern that’s become more pronounced this summer, refusing to negotiate or settle in many lawsuits.

Experts say Apple’s tried-and-true approach is starting to backfire, as the company has already taken at least one big hit in a high-profile e-books trial …

Apple was the only one of the six defendants in the ebook price-fixing case not to settle – and the result looks...

Most iDevice users will never need to know their device's UDID, or even what it is. But for developers, software testers, and some users with provisioned apps, it's a critical piece of information. Here's how to find it, even when your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is locked and unable to activate.

The Obama administration’s decision to overturn an international trade ruling against Apple Inc. — the first such veto in more than 25 years — promises to upend long-running battles over intellectual property in the smartphone market and change the strategies some of the world’s biggest technology companies use to defend their inventions.

Increasingly, those companies have been using patents to try to hobble rivals in a mobile-device market expected to top $400 billion this year. In 2012, the number of patent cases filed in the U.S. jumped nearly 30 percent from a year earlier to 5,189, according to consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Sonnet's Presto Gigabit USB 3.0, an USB 3.0-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter, provides users with an easy way to add Gigabit Ethernet-wired networking connectivity to Mac and Windows computers with USB 3.0 ports. Plus, it's backward-compatible with USB 2.0.

The Presto Gigabit USB 3.0 adapter supports 1000/100/10BaseT auto negotiation and full/half duplex communication, enabling it to connect with most networks. It also supports jumbo packet transfers (compared to 1,500-byte standard packets) to provide higher performance and reduced overhead when transferring large files.

read more

MOSO has announced version 1.3.5 of the Xmplify XML Editor (http://xmplifyapp.com). It's a XML editor built specifically for Mac OS X 10.6 and higher and provides a fully XML-aware editing environment with DTD and XML Schema-based auto-completion. Version 1.3.5 includes a new Resources window, plus fixes and other improvements.

Xmplify is available for US$59; both volume and educational discounts are available. Version 1.3.5 is a free upgrade for Xmplify 1.x users.

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts that cumulative online ID and authentication shipments into the banking market vertical will total 1.6 billion in 2018; an increase of 945% when compared to 2012.

Cumulative shipments include secure USB tokens, standalone OTP generators, portable smart card readers, and mobile device software applications. Of the 2018 shipment total ABI Research forecasts that mobile software applications will account for 81% of the total 2018, which only accounted for a mere 22% in 2012.

read more

The experience of a Brisbane woman provides a handy reminder to exercise caution when buying gadgetry via classified ad sites.

The Herald Sun (via Gizmodo) reports that the 21-year-old paid AUS$1500 (US$1335) for what she thought were two seemingly-new iPhones, boxed and sealed, without checking inside. Once she got home, she unsealed the two boxes to find each did indeed contain an apple – unfortunately it was the fruit rather than the phone.

The two women arranged to meet at Sunnybank McDonald’s where the transaction took place. The woman paid $1500 and was handed two iPhone boxes that looked new but she did not...

RSS reader Feedly is introducing a paid version of its service to its users. The Google Reader replacement has added in a number of enhancements to its premium service, with priority technical support in the Pro edition being accompanied by integration with Evernote, and the ability to search within RSS feeds for specific articles....  ...

While the settlement was announced back in May, Apple customers are just now receiving email notifications about the upcoming cash payout from the class action settlement regarding Apple denying warranty covered for an iOS device because of supposed liquid damage.

More details can be found on the settlement’s website.

Claim #: 22276002301

You May Be Entitled to a Cash Payment from a Class Action Settlement Fund
if Apple Denied Warranty Coverage for Your iPhone or iPod touch
Because Apple Stated Your Device Had Been Damaged by Liquid
The United States District Court, Northern District of California, authorized this notice.
The Court will have a hearing to consider whether to approve the settlement, so that benefits may be...

Adds capabilities to run scripts as actions and control notifications via rules using AppleScript. ($3.99 new, free update, 6.8 MB)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Adds capability to insert picture files into plain text expansions. (€24.99 new, free update, 5.4 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.

All-new dial-in experience! See below -- do not call into Talkshoe, we won't be there. Be sure to set up Fuze Meeting before the show if you want to join in live.

It's Sunday, and it's time for the TUAW talkcast! As the dog days of summer settle in, we tend to relax a little bit on the show; bring an icy beverage, laze around the backyard, that sort of thing. Tonight, you bring your topics and we'll talk! Feel revved up by the veto of the ITC ban on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 imports? Got a hankering to chat about Bob Mansfield's new skunkworks role? Call in and let's dish -- what more could you ask? Join us at 10 pm ET, and we'll have a grand old time.

Reminder on new-style talkcasting: With some help from the fine folks at Fuze, we're using a new system to record the show. This should let...

There's the question in notebook case design of striking the right balance between portability and protection. That attempt at harmony is more than evident with WaterField's CitySlicker case for the MacBook Air. The CitySlicker shows just how hard it is, though, to really hit the right form fact ......   ...

Apple reduced its total channel inventory by a whopping $1 billion last quarter. That aggressive cut may help explain recent temporary stock-outs of low-volume products, such as Macs and accessories, as the company adopts what is said to be a more conservative approach amidst a shrinking PC market.  ...

OsiriX is an image processing software dedicated to DICOM images (".dcm" / ".DCM" extension) produced by medical equipment (MRI, CT, PET, PET-CT, ...) and confocal microscopy (LSM and BioRAD-PIC format). It can also read many other file formats: TIFF (8,16, 32 bits), JPEG, PDF, AVI, MPEG and Quicktime. It is fully compliant with the DICOM standard for image comunication and image file formats. OsiriX is able to receive images transferred by DICOM communication protocol from any PACS or medical imaging modality (STORE SCP - Service Class Provider, STORE SCU - Service Class User, and Query/Retrieve).

OsiriX has been specifically designed for navigation and visualization of multimodality and multidimensional images: 2D Viewer, 3D Viewer, 4D Viewer (3D series with temporal dimension, for example: Cardiac-CT) and 5D Viewer (3D series with temporal and functional dimensions, for example: Cardiac-PET-CT). The 3D Viewer offers all modern rendering modes:...

In case you missed anything, here’s a quick roundup of some of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

1. Starbucks said it would bring wireless cell phone charging to 10 of its coffee shops in Silicon Valley. The initiative could translate into a big win for Starbucks’ charging partner, the Power Matters Alliance.
2. On Sunday, Apple’s senior vice president of technologies Bob Mansfield disappeared from the company’s web site. Why? Because he’s no longer a member of Apple’s executive team, and the reasons for the move are murky, at best.
3. In other Apple news, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that Apple’s...

The Obama administration has vetoed a sales an import ban on some models of Apple's iPhone 4 and iPad 2 that had been scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, August 4th. On Saturday, White House Trade Representative Michael Froman overturned the U.S. International Trade Commission's ban citing concerns that the patent in question was a standards-essential patent (SEP).

Simply put, it’s too complicated for us to even consider an Android app for the first version; we’ll continue to support those viewers with mobile web.

Just take a look at the different sizes of Android tablets they would have to support—that’s a nightmare.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Image by CNET

Following the decision from the Obama administration from earlier today to veto an ITC product ban on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, first-generation 3G iPad, and 3G-capable iPad 2, both Apple and Samsung have responded.

Apple has praised the decision:

We applaud the Administration for standing up for innovation in this landmark case. Samsung was wrong to abuse...

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, on Saturday the Obama administration vetoed the US International Trade Commission's import ban on older models of Apple's iPads and iPhones. The ITC ordered the ban after it found the Apple devices infringed a Samsung patent. The ban, had it been enforced, would have blocked importation of the GSM-compatible iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

In his letter to the Chairman of the ITC, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman focused on the issue of the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing of standards-essential patents (SEPs). He writes that "licensing SEPs on FRAND terms is an important element of the Administration's policy of promoting innovation and economic progress."

Apple contacted...

App Store developers overwhelmingly see iOS 7 as important to support, with 95 percent saying they are actively updating their existing apps to support Apple's new software, and 52 percent likely to require iOS 7 in order to work.  ...

The Obama administration on Saturday issued a veto on a proposed potential ban on a number of Apple products in the United States, including some iPhones and iPad devices.

“After extensive consultations with the agencies of the Trade Policy Staff Committee and the Trade Policy Review Group…I have decided to disapprove the USITC’s determination to issue an exclusion order and cease and desist order in this investigation,” a letter from the U.S. Government to United States International Trade Commission Chairman Irving A. Williamson said.

The President’s veto comes in response to a ruling made by the USITC in June, granting the South Korean electronics giant Samsung’s request for import ban on older iPhones and iPads,...

President Obama and Vice President Biden with an iPhone

United States President Barack Obama and his administration have issued a veto on a potential ban for iPhone 4 and 3G-capable iPad 2 models in the United States. The news comes by way of a notice from the U.S. Government. The official ruling comes from Michael Froman, a trade representative for the United States:

In addition, on January 8, 2013, the Department of Justice and United States Patent and Trademark Office issued an important Policy Statement entitled “Policy Statement on Remedies for Standard-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary FRAND Commitments” (“Policy Statement”).2 The Policy Statement makes clear...

As someone who uses a lot of different software and tends to find a lot of 'edge cases' I often find myself emailing software developers or filling out support tickets to either ask a question or report a problem. I know it would be helpful to include information about my Mac (both the hardware and the operating system) as well as precise information about the version of the software that I'm using.

But, to be honest, I'm often too lazy to include it.

Instead I tell them that I'm using the "latest version" of Mac OS X and the "latest version" of their software. But am I? Not too long ago I realized I was running 10.8.2 on a Mac that I thought was up to date. Or what if the developer comes across my email again in a month and can't remember what version was current then? They might think "Oh, well I think I fixed that since then" but if they have the exact version number for their app, they could find out much more easily.

Which is so say: sometimes...

Apple gives iCloud users 5 GB of iCloud storage space.  At first, 5 GB does not seem like a lot of storage space, however it is. For a majority of users it is plenty. For others, it isn’t. This storage space is for backups, documents and data, and email only if you are using a @mac.com, @me.com, or @icloud.com address…

To look at your iCloud settings to see what you are syncing and backing up, on your iOS device, open up settings, then tap on iCloud. In terms of storage space, if you have Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Safari, Notes, Passbook (on iPhone) and Photo Stream turned on, these items do not take up any of the 5 GB of storage space....

You may remember this 14-year-old playing Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption earlier this year.

The popular iOS podcast client is now available on the Mac. How does it stack up with its arch-rival, Instacast?

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.

As we all await the new and exciting features coming in iOS 7, Sandro Cuccia brings us up-to-speed on how to search effectively on iPhone or iPad using Spotlight.

If you enjoyed this week's roundup of iPhone cases, check out the previous edition, Oh boy!

Max (short for Maximilian) the pug knows he's the most important thing in owner Jyri Jokirinta's life, so he gets a little bit jealous when Jokrinta pays more attention his iPad than to Max.

Gallery: Max the Pug isn't happy with the iPad

As Jokrinta notes:

"When this picture was taken Max got wild. My wife took the picture and tried to catch the moment when Max was jumping over my tummy while I was browsing my Facebook....

While an anticipated spin-off to the "Infinity Blade" franchise was officially cancelled in July, new evidence suggests iOS developer ChAIR may be actively working on an as-yet-unannounced third installment of the successful gaming series.  ...

Since 2010, iPhone users have had a feature -- Find My iPhone -- that allowed them to track the location of their phone should it ever get lost or stolen. I remember this feature came out in 2010 because I had just purchased a very expensive Droid X and, upon promptly losing it, was informed by everyone I knew with an iPhone about their nifty app. Now, in 2013, Android users will finally be given the opportunity to have this delightful feature that iOS users take for granted.

Android's development team announced in a blog post today that the new Android Device Manager will be available later this month as long as your device uses Android 2.2 Froyo or higher. Thankfully that covers most Android users. Given the uneven way updates are handled between different carriers, sometimes Android users have...

When Apple executive Bob Mansfield left the company's executive team unexpectedly at the end of July, we wondered what his next move would be. 9to5Mac is reporting that Mansfield left his leadership capacity to refocus his efforts on chipset design for future products.

Mansfield's new position is in a "special projects" capacity under the supervision of CEO Tim Cook. His old job as Senior Vice President of Technologies will be split into two positions, Hardware and Operations, with Dan Riccio and Jeff Williams heading those jobs respectively.

This shuffling of responsibility will allow Mansfield to focus on chip development without the distractions of management responsibilities. Rumors started...

Wholly owned Apple subsidiary FileMaker Inc., makers of database programs FileMaker and the now-defunct Bento, reportedly conducted a round of layoffs on Thursday as the company restructures and consolidates its workforce.  ...

Reference books (and apps) don't have to be boring. Vern Seward proves it with three free iOS reference apps in this week's Free on iTunes. DataFinder, Atlas by Collins, Abraham Lincoln Interactive Biography.

A lot of iPad accessory manufacturers are getting into the external battery pack market, not surprising when you consider how much usage the average iPad gets on a daily basis. The latest in the parade of power-packed iPad cases is from Innovative Technology in the form of the Justin Case Ultra-Slim Power Case for iPad (US$89.99 but available for less from many retailers).

Design

Like many of the similar products on the market, the Justin Case features a folio-type case with a slot to hold a 2nd through 4th-generation iPad in place. Inside the location where a keyboard would be found in a keyboard case is a 11,600 mAh rechargeable battery. That's enough to give a 2nd-generation iPad or iPad mini two charges, a 3rd-generation iPad a single recharge, and a 4th-generation model only .8 of a full charge. But hook up your iPhone (3GS, 4...

As part of its new iPad in education initiative, Apple on Thursday revised the iTunes Store's terms and conditions to allow children under the age of 13 to open and manage their own accounts, as long as the Apple ID was requested by an "approved educational institution."  ...

Did you ever wish you could use your iPhone camera to take images at rapid fire speeds and save the best ones? SnappyCam Pro does just that. The app is US$0.99 for a limited time.

The app's developers claim it will shoot up to 20 full resolution pictures in one second when run on an iPhone 5. That's very fast. Rather than take time to save to your camera roll, the app presents a display of your images, and you can select the ones you want to save. GPS data is included, and all the other metadata the iPhone provides is tagged to each photo.

This is a great way to get decent sports, pet or kids photos. The app is working within the Apple SDK, so it doesn't break anything, but it fine tunes and speeds up the taking of images to a degree that just hasn't been seen before.

Gallery: SnappyCam Pro...

In the latest development in the Time Warner Cable and CBS licensing disagreement, Time Warner Cable has yet again discontinued CBS-owned programming in New York City, with other venues to follow. Channels affected by the negotiation failure are local CBS stations, Showtime, The Movie Channel (TMC), Flix, and the Smithsonian channel. Areas likely to see the programming cut are Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and Pittsburgh....  ...

The U.S. Justice Department and 33 states' attorneys general have proposed remedies against Apple for its conviction on e-book price-fixing that could dry up a large portion of the company's revenue stream while benefiting Amazon and, possibly, Google. The proposed final judgment seeks to have Apple terminate contracts with the five codefendant publishers in the case; hobble its ability to enter contracts for any and all content; and require Apple to hire a full-time internal antitrust compliance officer.

While Bob Mansfield looks after Apple's special projects, two senior VPs -- Hardware leader Dan Riccio and Operations head Jeff Williams -- are handling his former duties as senior VP of Technologies, sources say. Riccio's tasks now include overseeing antenna design for mobile and the Wi-Fi components in all of Apple's major products. The situation is a reversal of the one that brought Mansfield out of his recent retirement, in which he was asked to transition wireless teams over to Riccio....  ...

From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Also check out the latest...

Two weeks ago 9to5Mac reported that Apple had recently hired several scientists and executives from multiple sensor developers such as AccuVein, C8 MediSensors and Senseonics. The report speculates that Apple has interest in sensors that could measure glucose and other body information that could be a part of a fitness application. An Application that could very possibly be associated with a future wearable computer device like the one Apple recently filed a patent for. New technology has recently come to light in Japan that could be of benefit to Apple's project and we'll show you how.

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.

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Daily Update for August 2, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 02 Aug 2013 16:45:00 EST. Please see our...

Apple has lashed out at the Department of Justice's proposed terms for settling the case the latter brought over e-book price fixing. In court documents, Apple calls the terms a "draconian and punitive intrusion" into its business, with penalties "wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm."...  ...

Yesterday "Waragainstsleep" was looking for the best way to have a server automatically unmount one USB drive at a certain time each day and mount the other one so a user can swap them. One confused Junior Member is trying to determine why it is that, after launching FireFox, they are being prompted for a username and password....   ...

BuyDig.com has reduced the price on the Sony NEX-3NL 16MP digital camera from $500 down to $375. That $124 price break wins it the title of lowest price by $68. Free shipping is available, but sales tax applies for New York residents. The Sony NEX-3NL features interchangeable lenses, 16MP resolution, motorized zooming, full 1080p HD video, built-in flash, and compact design. A one-year warranty is included from Sony....  ...

Apple has responded to the U.S. Department of Justice’s proposed restrictions to remedy the company’s e-book price fixing, calling the proposal “a draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple’s business.” The company argues in its opposing brief that the restrictions proposed today could cost both dollars and “lost opportunities for…

For about eight months now, the position of Senior VP of Retail at Apple has remained vacant. Back in October of 2012, Apple unceremoniously dismissed John Browett from the position after just seven months on the job. Reports at the time indicated that Browett never quite meshed with the culture at Apple and his efforts to focus more on the bottom line than on customer satisfaction were never well received.

Discussing his time at Apple this past March , Browett remarked:

Apple is a truly fantastic business. The people are great; they've got great products; it's got a great culture and I loved working there; it's a fantastic business. The issue there was that I just didn't fit within the way they run the business. It was one of those things where you're rejected for fit rather than...

The latest edition of iLounge Weekly, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes early next week. iLounge Weekly is a summary of the week’s best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies.…

Yesterday, August 1, 2013 was the day that the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) was supposed to make a decision on Apple's complaint against Samsung. According to Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents, the ITC gave notice yesterday that it is postponing that decision by eight days until August 9, 2013.

Not to be confused with the possible ban on importation older Apple iPhones and iPads due to infringement by Apple of some Samsung technical patents, this ruling was to determine possible sanctions against Samsung after Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender found in October 2012 that Samsung had infringed on three Apple technical patents and one design patent. Additional violations by Android's text selection feature were found after the ITC had remanded some issues to Judge Pender.

August 9 is going to be an important day for Apple. Not only will the ITC announce...

If you like free stuff—and who doesn’t?!—you may want to take another look at the Apple Store app for iPhone, through which the Cupertino company will treat you to a nice gift.

After a recent update to the Apple Store app, the company now uses it to promote content across its various properties—including, of course, the App Store. Case in point, if you open the app before August 27, you will be able to get a copy of Large Animal Games’s Color Zen, which normally retails for $1, for the cool price of zero instead.

To be fair, at the time of this writing the functionality that makes the free download possible isn’t working for me, or several members of the Macworld staff, but the hiccup is likely temporary and will likely be addressed soon.

This kind of cross-promotion makes great sense for Apple;...

Following the Department of Justice's release of a proposed remedy to address Apple's e-book price fixing, Apple has filed its own brief (via The Next Web) that calls the plan a "draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple's business, wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm."Plaintiffs propose a sweeping and unprecedented injunction as a tool to empower the Government to regulate Apple’s businesses and potentially affect Apple’s business relationships with thousands of partners across several markets.

Plaintiffs’ overreaching proposal would establish a vague new compliance regime—applicable only to Apple—with intrusive oversight...

Apple Inc. has responded to the U.S. Department of Justice's proposed antitrust remedy, calling it draconian, unprecedented, punitive, and overreaching. The DOJ proposed on Friday morning a sweeping series of remedies to correct price fixing behavior Apple was convicted of engaging in.

Easily one of the funniest bits on TV.

Lumosity is an iOS app that promises to make you smarter while you have fun. But does it work? Josh Centers explores the app and the science behind it, but isn’t sure if he has become more intelligent in the process.

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.

Finally striking a deal with Apple may just have kept T-Mobile from losing nearly half a million customers over the last quarter, according to a new report that examined the impact of the iPhone on America's fourth-largest carrier.  ...

The Department of Justice’s proposed remedies in its ebook price fixing case against Apple havent changed much since the agency first filed suit, nor has the company’s dim view of them.

Responding to the announcement Friday of the restrictions the DOJ wants to place on its ebook and digital content businesses in a brief opposing injunctive relief, Apple slammed them as unwarranted, overreaching and at times unconstitutional.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction.

“Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction is a draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple’s business, wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm. Plaintiffs propose a sweeping and unprecedented injunction as a tool to empower the Government to regulate Apple’s businesses and...

In a piece called Objectively Stylish, the New York Times announced that it has codified Objective C style conventions and posted a style guide to GitHub.

They write, "The iOS team has been working on our style guide for over a year and we finally decided that it's time to share it with the Objective-C community."

The Times style guide repository offers extremely minimal starting points. It's more a jumping off of style discussion rather than a final product, despite that year of development.

Unfortunately, while the guide lays out rules it offers very little discussion of motivation, and more than a few guidelines seem more grounded in personal habit than expressive maximization or general principle.

That's not necessarily a bad thing -- having a fixed design document helps guide code inspection. It's just...

D-Link has started shipping the DGL-5500, a new gaming-oriented router. The model uses dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, in theory supporting speeds up to 867Mbps. The router's distinguishing feature, though, is Qualcomm's StreamBoost, which automatically shapes traffic to prioritize bandwidth where it's needed. The StreamBoost interface can also show how much bandwidth apps and devices are consuming....  ...

Bioshock Infinite will be available on Mac as of the 29th August, some 5 months after it was first released on PC and consoles. That may sound like a long time for Mac gamers to wait, but that's much better than the more than 2 years after the official release date it took for Bioshock 2 to arrive on Mac OS X.

Ported by Aspyr, the same outfit that brought Borderlands, Civilization and Call of Duty to Mac gamers, Bioshock Infinite will be available through the Mac App Store, Steam and Asypr's own GameAgent. The list price is US$59.99, though where you purchase could determine how much bang for buck you get. Purchasing through Steam will get you Steam Play, meaning you get a copy for both Mac and PC,...

Google today announced on its Official Android Blog that it’s launching a brand new tool called ‘Android Device Manager’ that will let users easily locate and remotely wipe misplaced or stolen devices. Anyone familiar with the Find My iPhone feature that Apple has made available to iOS device users will already be quite familiar with how the software works.

Much like Apple’s service, Android Device Manager will let users locate their device on a Map in real-time, as well as remotely wipe the device of all data if happens to get into the wrong hands. You’ll also be able to make your device ring at maximum volume if you happen to misplace it in a nearby location.

If you ended up dropping your phone between those couch cushions, Android Device Manager lets you quickly ring your phone at maximum volume so you can find it, even it’s been silenced. And in the event that your...

bsk_cw writes "This article takes a long look at four major consumer tech ecosystems — Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft — and examine how well (or badly) they're serving up their media. The authors talk about how each company approaches gaming, music, video, books, etc., and how each integrates all its parts into some kind of whole. The conclusion? That none of the four can be said to be the best in all things, but they're certainly trying."

...

Several more alleged parts for the iPhone 5S have leaked, reports say. Most of them have been seen in previous leaks, but the collection includes flex cables for Wi-Fi, a speaker, a vibrator, a Home button, a front-facing camera, a power button, and a dock connector. Also mentioned are a nano-SIM tray and a "speaker button;" the last item presumably refers to volume control....  ...