Fortune today released its annual "Fortune 500" list, a high-profile ranking of the largest companies in the United States ranked by revenue. In the new rankings, Apple has risen to #6 from its #17 spot in last year's rankings.Apple is bigger than ever -- the company cracked the Fortune 10 this year. But it’s a high-pressure job, being king of the hill. At Apple's press event this past October, it maintained more than disrupted with its software upgrades and iPad mini announcement. Also, this past year has seen a lot of CEO Tim Cook having to apologize -- once in September for the failure of Apple’s maps app, and then to Chinese consumers this April for slow repair services -- this in a market that Cook said this past January would be Apple'...

One person’s price war is another person’s savings.

Per AppleInsider, Apple and Best Buy have again teamed for a week-long MacBook Pro sale, not only helping the Mac maker push units in an unfavorable climate for the PC market, but also helping to driving down prices for consumers even further at competing resellers.

Best Buy’s MacBook Pro sale took particular aim at the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros, and initially prompted Amazon to follow suit by offering the 2.5GHz 13″ MacBook Pro (8GB,128GB) for US$1,349.00 this weekend before selling out and diverting its inventory draw from...

I can't find a hint for this on the site, and it's probably not new, but I only just stumbled on this. The Finder toolbar, by default, has Previous and Next buttons that let you navigate back and forth in folders. If you click the Previous button, you'll go back, one window at a time, to all the folders you've visited in that Finder window. But if you click and hold that button, you'll see a list of all the folders you've visited, and can jump to any of them by selecting one. This is a good way to get to a folder you've used but that's far from where you are in the file system.

Fortune is out today with its annual FORTUNE 500 list ranking the largest corporations in the U.S. by revenue for fiscal 2012 (before expenditures). This year Apple, for the first time, has finally cracked the top 10 of Fortune’s list rising from its 17th place position last year to No. 6 on this year’s list. It’s still well behind Wal-Mart at No.1, as well as Exxon Mobil, which Apple happened to briefly surpass Apple’s market cap back in January to become the world’s most valuable company.

As for tech companies on the list, Facebook just barely made the Fortune 500 for the time this year coming it at number 482, while others include AT&T at No. 11, HP at...

In a bit of a confusing sequence of events, CNET reports on claims from NPD DisplaySearch analysts who see Apple having two Retina iPad mini devices in the pipeline, including an initial launch in the third quarter of this year followed by a second update in the first quarter of next year."We see two refreshes coming. One in the second half of this year, then one in Q1 [first quarter] of 2014," analyst Richard Shim told CNET late Sunday night.

"The Q1 [2014] device will have a Retina display plus an updated processor," Shim added.CNET's report had initially cited Shim as saying that the Retina display would not appear until the early 2014 model, but less than two hours later the report was revised to state that the 2013 model will also have a Retina display. The new quotes from Shim do not actually refute the original claim, but based on CNET's reporting it...

Popular author and columnist Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus is hitting the road for a multi-user group tour that includes appearances in Hershey, King of Prussia, and Princeton. Bob will be talking about cool things he likes for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, and may mention a few he hates, as well.

On Monday, Logitech released version 3.7 of its Control Center software. The update, a 19 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes for the driver software:
- Updated logo.

- Stability improvements.

Logitech Control Center 3.7 is available for free and requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run.

If you’ve tried the new drivers and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

According to a new Chinese report this morning, Apple's noisy supply chain is at it again. The new report claims that supply chain manufacturers have begun to receive component parts for the new iPhone, supposedly named the 5S. The supply chain sources claim that it usually takes two months for the production process to reach the assembly stage for Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) which would translate to assembling the next iPhone beginning in early July.

The New York Times reports that Google and its Motorola Mobility unit have been found to be abusing their patent dominance in 3G wireless networking technology by the European Commission. The ruling, which comes in the form of a preliminary finding that could lead to formal antitrust charges but has yet to do so, addresses Motorola's efforts to bar European sales of Apple's 3G mobile devices over infringement of "standards essential" patents that Motorola is required to license under reasonable terms.

Apple did briefly pull a number of devices from its German online store in February 2012, but they quickly returned...

This past week, Path made headlines when it was reported that the popular messaging and photo sharing app was aggressively 'recruiting' new users by sending out sign-up invitations via text, and in some cases phone, to users' contact lists.

The reason behind the application's ostensibly strange behavior is that the default setting is such that the app reaches out to a user's Facebook friends and asks them to try out Path. Consequently, if users want to avoid spamming their friends, they have to pro-actively toggle the option off.

As one might expect, Path wasn't entirely apologetic, noting that the process is meant to simplify the friend-finding process, adding that the app "is really best with friends" and that...

Frustrated with your iPad’s lack of Office and no physical keyboard? Probably not but that doesn’t stop Bill Gates from believing it.

Serving as the lone hero for Microsoft’s compromise PC-tablet (the Surface Pro even has a fan, you know, like a PC), the Microsoft co-founder cited users’ growing frustration with the software and hardware limitations of the iPad as we move further into the post-PC reality.

The problem with this notion, as we all know, is that no shortage of keyboard cases for the iPad exists and productivity users...

Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates (http://www.winograd.com) has updated TinyBooks Pro, its Mac accounting and bookkeeping program, to version 8.0.3. The upgrade includes improvements in the Professional Invoice Printer and the Professional Check Printer windows. It also sports more logical tab-ordering, and new pop-up menus allowing instant access to previously saved invoice or check templates.

read more

The European Union isn't pleased with Motorola's stance on standard essential patents and has gone so far as to call the company's injunction against Apple as abusive act, and that Apple should be allowed to license the patents in question under reasonable terms. In a statement from the European Commission, which is investigating Motorola's actions, officials called the actions "an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules."

The Mac Observer Spin:
Today's statements aren't a final ruling in the Motorola investigation, but they do offer a good idea as to what may be in store for the company. The agency clearly isn't pleased with the way Motorola is dealing with its standard essential patents, and could dole out some pretty harsh penalties as a consequence.

...

As if we needed someone to tell us that the ongoing patent lawsuits between Apple and Motorola in Germany were getting a little out of control… Today the European Commission has finally stepped up calling Motorola’s enforcement of an injunction against Apple with mobile standard essential patents “abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.” The EU Commission, however, does note that the statement of objections sent to Motorola does not reflect the final outcome of its investigation into its use of standard essential patents (SEPs):

The Motorola Mobility SEPs in question relate to the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute’s (ETSI) GPRS standard, part of the GSM standard, which is a key industry standard for mobile and wireless communications. When this standard was adopted in Europe, Motorola Mobility gave a commitment that it would license the patents which it had declared...

Let's open this week's roundup with an examination of the state of the Apple rumor scene.

The sad state of Apple rumors (Macworld)

This past week, Macworld published an article lamenting the current state of Apple rumors. Macworld's take is that the Big Three Devices have already launched -- Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad. What we're left with is scraps of rumors regarding iterative upgrades to these devices, or products like the rumored smartwatch and HDTV that don't seem to rev Macworld's engine.

Macworld is right about one thing: Apple rumors are in a truly sad state. But it has less to do with the devices (real or imagined) under discussion and more to do with universally terrible sourcing and a pervasive lack of critical thinking skills when evaluating what those terrible sources have to say.

Any industry that wilfully publishes every last scrap of...

Ever have your Mac tell you that your startup disk is so full that you can't run any more applications or really do anything? That happened to Sarah, and we help guide her through diagnosing and solving this problem... and we might even learn some troubleshooting tricks along the way!

Mac Geek Gab listener Joe prefers to archive copies of his email messages for reference, but doesn't always want to keep the associated email attachments which are often unnecessary and take up valuable drive space. We show him how to use a little-know feature of Mail to remove attachments from email messages.

XenSource has some pretty good GUI tools. There’s XenCenter and the xsconsole, both of which are pretty adequate in a free sense and get pretty darn interesting when you actually pay Citrix. But today I want to take a little look under the hood of XenSource. I had previously written about Xen. But note that this is a different beast.

Before I get started talking about how to do some tasks in XenSource, I first want to throw out there a few terms. The first, is virtual machine. This is exactly what it sounds like, an operating system that runs on a virtual host rather than a physical hosts. So take that Dell PowerEdge that’s about 9 years old that you just use to access your Golden Girls collection on the NT server you used napster to steal it on and virtualize it. Sweet, now your mp3s can still run too!

The next term is hypervisor. This is just a really, really dumb physical machine that is super beefy...

The National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan sued Apple in 2012 claiming that Siri used on iDevices allegedly infringed on their patents. The University has now filed a second patent infringement lawsuit against Apple claiming ...   ...

MYStuff Pro will help you inventory your home, business, or your collections, track warranties, and organize files associated with these records. Whether you're inventorying your whole home or just want to manage your wine cellar, MYStuff helps you Mind Your Stuff.

• NEW Barcode scanner using your iSight or other webcam
• NEW Built-in Web browser that lets you shop online then save Web receipts (or how-to's) direct to a new Record
• NEW Smart folders
• NEW Tags and labels
• NEW Insurance information with coverage alerts
• NEW Custom fields
• NEW Multiple currency support
• NEW Vendor and manufacturer information (website, address, phone numbers, etc.)
• NEW Built-in searching for and saving of images and owner manuals online using manufacturer and model...

Motorola has been issued a formal warning by the European Commission for potential FRAND patent abuse against Apple in a case underway in Germany. The EU Commission has formed a preliminary view that Google-owned company's case against Apple violates the EU's antitrust rules and that is misuse ëcould ultimately harm consumers.' The development is a major blow to Google, which purchased Motorola for $12 billion in large part to use Motorola's patents as a defense against Apple's legal attacks on its Android partners.... ...

The Mac Observer's Managing Editor Jeff Gamet joined The BIG Show from the British Tech Network to talk about the 20 year anniversary of the World Wide Web, what the world thinks of Google Glass, and what a new FCC chairman could mean for the recording industry.

Motorola Mobility abuses its dominant position in the E.U. by seeking and enforcing an injunction against Apple in Germany on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents (SEPs), the European Commission said in a preliminary antitrust review of the case on Monday.

The Commission opened the investigation into Motorola Mobility in April 2012, about a month before Google's acquisition of the company closed, to scrutinize whether it abuses its patents that are deemed essential to an industry standard to get a sales ban on products of the infringing party.. Such conduct may be abusive if the potential licensee is willing to enter into a licence on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, the Commission said in a news release.

Motorola Mobility has asserted a...

International Data Corporation (IDC) has published the "Worldwide Gaming-Optimized Handheld, Smartphone, and Tablet Gaming 2013–2017 Forecast" (http://tinyurl.com/aoc5y6l), a \report on the current state and future direction of smartphone, tablet, and gaming-optimized handheld (GOH) hardware and software.

The forecast details the outlook for Apple, Google/Android, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and a wide range of game developers and publishers from a mobile and portable gaming perspective through 2017.

read more

Denon has revealed the latest additions to its networked AV receiver lineup, designed to suit users with a range of budgets. The new INCOMMAND models also all support Apple's lossless AirPlay wireless standard, which adds streaming support for the full range of Apple iOS devices and Macs. Three of the four new models also offer support for the new 4K Ultra HD standard....  ...

For all the talk over the last few years that Apple was being abusive with its patents and stopping innovation, The European Commission has found that Motorola/Google has in fact been the offender of such behavior. Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia stated in an official statement that "The protection of intellectual property is a cornerstone of innovation and growth. But so is competition. I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer – not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice." Finally, the hypocrites have been found to be abusive with their intellectual property to hurt competition, and specifically Apple....

A couple of anniversaries to read more about this week, including the World Wide Web celebrating its 20th year in the public domain and science-fiction publisher Tor marking its first year of DRM-free ebooks.

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.

There’s no picture of the moment when everything changed for Kevin Systrom. But if there were, it would look something like this: A lanky, very tall, dark-haired man in his late 20s sits on a bench at the Caltrain commuter station in Palo Alto, California. A sepia tone and weathered patina might underscore the mood of weighty contemplation.

It was early April of last year, and Systrom was waiting for his business partner, Mike Krieger, to arrive from San Francisco. Systrom had just left Mark Zuckerberg’s nearby house and was still digesting the offer that the Facebook founder and CEO had made him: To buy Instagram, the photo-sharing app that Systrom and Krieger had launched just 18 months before. The price Zuckerberg offered was $1 billion — $300 million in cash and the rest in Facebook stock, an especially
generous-seeming deal, on the eve of his company’s much-anticipated initial public offering...

Reduces power usage for MacBook Pro models with dual GPUs, plus links Notification Center alerts directly to messages. ($9.95 new, free update, 21.5 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.

Join your two favorite geeks for this festival of questions, answers, tips and tricks! And the best part is... it happens every week! You don't need to wait a year for this party to get started each time! This week your geeks answer questions about network switches, securely storing data in the cloud, managing Apple's new two-step authentication and much, much more. Download today (it's free!) and enjoy.

With its Retina display, unmatched ecosystem of HD video content, and AirPlay streaming capabilities, the iPad is undeniably one of the best experiences for watching video on a mobile device. The one glaring omission from Apple’s recipe for the perfect mobile video experience, however, is the absence of quality, front-facing speakers. The result is a sound experience that doesn’t quite live up to HD content on the iPad’s best in class Retina display. With several newer devices (see: Galaxy Tab 2, HTC One) adding front-facing, stereo speakers, audio performance is clearly one area Apple is falling behind, and its competitors have certainly taken note.

At CES we first got a look at Belkin’s solution to the problem:...

Samsung doesn't like the trend that's putting Apple's iPhone back on top last quarter and so their marketing attack dogs thought it was time for another Galaxy vs. iPhone ad. The trouble with their ad is that it could be shooting themselves in the foot. Making executives look stupid for the sake of gaining jobless grads is a dumb idea. But hey, this is Samsung who thought that the ditsy housewife stereotype was their target market last quarter. The only ditsy ones here appear to be Samsung's own marketing team.

Over the last six months, Apple earned $22 billion on revenues of over $98 billion, while selling 85 million iPhones and 42 million iPads globally. The profits Apple is now earning in mobile dwarf the best mobile profit performance records set by Nokia in 2008 by more than a factor of three. Why are Apple's competitors not beating back its advances?   ...

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

1. Sources say Apple is pulling engineers from the next version of Max OS X and assigning them to its mobile OS in order to get a preview ready in time for next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
2. By 2017, more than half of companies will require their employees to supply their own devices on the job, according to a new Gartner report.
3. A California court has ruled in Facebook’s favor vs. “typosquatters” who benefitted from registering domain names with misspellings like “gacebook” and “...

This week we discovered that Mozilla is working on high-end gaming for the Firefox browser. Our report provides you with a few photos and a link to a game-demo to try out on your Mac, and hopefully your 27" iMac in full screen. And while high-end gaming is a positive experience, there's also a downside when it comes to the digital revolution, especially for the iPhone and other smartphones. Our report presents you with one tale about the dark side of download madness that one psychotherapist frames as being the equivalent to cocaine addiction. ...

Sandro Cuccia continues his exploration of free apps preinstalled by Apple. This time it's the newest version of the previously maligned Notes app. Now, Notes comes to Mountain Lion. Its key feature: iCloud integration for syncing to iOS devices. Guess what…it works. Notes is sure to be a bonus enhancement to everyone's workflow.

The Dinosaur Patterns (iPad mini; $51) is just one of the myriad custom-printed cases available on this build-to-order website.

The snap-on-shell cases are made from a durable plastic material with a glossy coat, and they can be customized with images and text of your choosing.

Two analysts from Wall Street investment bankers JP Morgan have produced an analysis of possible scenarios for the rumored (but not announced) "low cost" iPhone model expected to debut later this year, aimed at the large worldwide "prepaid" market. Based both on research of existing entries in that market space as well as Apple traditions, Gokul Hariharan and Mark Moskowitz believe that when Apple does bring out the device, it will not be a cheap "bargain" iPhone but instead a "mid-range" entry that should cost between $350 and $400.... ...

In the ever-more-complicated legal wrangles between Apple and Google (through its subsidiary Motorola), Apple has won the right to proceed with an attempt to appeal a case between Apple and Motorola in which the iPhone maker was suing Motorola for failing to adhere to FRAND guidelines, while Motorola was suing Apple for alleged infringement of standards-essential patents (SEPs) it holds. Rather than rule on the merits of each company's argument, US District Court Judge Barbara Crabb surprisingly dismissed both complaints outright.... ...

Back at GDC earlier this year, I was invited to what I was told was a very limited meeting with Zynga. The company, which of course made its name with social Facebook games and recently has been trying to pivot to mobile platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. Most of Zynga's games tend towards the casual (simply because Farmville is the company's biggest hit, and that's where their success lies).

But at GDC, they wanted to show me something different. It was a "midcore" game, they said -- a game that had the complexity of a hardcore title, but was accessible enough for iOS' large audience to enjoy and rally around. The game was being put together by a developer named A Bit Lucky, which had already built out a few social titles already, and it was going to be a "multiplayer online battle arena" title -- a MOBA game, very similar to the extremely popular League of Legends. The game they showed me was...

Boy, Business Insider's Jay Yarow doesn't mince his words; he really doesn't like Google Glass and goes out of his way to slap it around. In short, Yarow points out that Google Glass has terrible battery life, it's disorienting, it doesn't work in a brightly lit environments, you can't tweak any settings, the voice controls are buggy, it doesn't fold like normal glasses so storing it is awkward and the list goes on and on.

T-Mobile on Thursday gave iPhone users on its network a new means of accessing on-demand and live video content with the debut of the T-Mobile TV app in Apple's App Store.   ...

Though the combined sales of Android smartphones continues to best Apple as a platform, Google's mobile OS continued to lose marketshare in the US in the latest quarterly comScore survey, as Apple solidified its position as market leader despite the lack of any new iPhone model in since before the holidays. Apple's share of the US smartphone market is now 39 percent, up 2.7 percent since December. Though Samsung was able to increase its US share slightly, the other three major Android vendors all lost ground in the most recent quarter.... ...

Are you a man? Then you'll want to take a look as the apps Vern Seward has lined up in this week's Free on iTunes. iPedia Wiki, Uncrate, and WhatKnot.

136.7 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the three month period ended in March, and nearly 40 percent of them used iPhones.

According to the latest metrics from comScore, Apple was the top smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. during the quarter, capturing a 39 percent share of the market, up from 36.3 percent in the prior quarter. With a 21.7 percent share, up slightly from the 21 percent it posted in December, Samsung placed second in comScore’s rankings.

Bringing up the rear: HTC, Motorola and LG, which all claimed less than 10 percent shares after quarter-to-quarter declines.

On the smartphone platform side of the business, Google claimed the top ranking despite a decline in market share from 53.4 percent to 52 percent. Apple placed second with a share that rose to 39...

Market research firm comScore on Friday released a new study that shows Apple is leading the smartphone market in the U.S. The study focused on a three month average ending March 2013.

Germany turned out in force for the opening of the first Apple Store in Berlin on Friday. RuptlyTV posted a video of the opening and the huge crowds, while ifoAppleStore.com tweeted that employees handed out 4,500 shirts commemorating the event. It looks like it was a fun day and we wish we could have been there.  [Via Fortune]

Yesterday I reported on the clever economics behind Apple's US$17 billion bond deal, specifically pointing out that the interest Apple will owe on each share it repurchases will be less than the dividend it would have otherwise been responsible for.

Going a bit further, Businessweek did some calculations surrounding Apple's $17 billion bond deal and deduced that the company is avoiding a $9.2 billion tax hit by borrowing the money as opposed to using its own cash pile.

Specifically, if Apple wanted to raise $17 billion by using its foreign stash of cash, it would have had to repatriate upwards of $26.15 billion. With a 35% corporate tax rate, Apple would have owed about $9.15 billion in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Instead, Businessweek notes...

Apple's iPhone took U.S. subscriber share from Android in the March quarter, according to new data from comScore. iPhone users accounted for 39 percent of smartphone subscribers during the period, up from 36.4 percent in the December quarter. Google's Android remained the top platform during the same period, but saw its share decline to 52 percent from 53.4 percent in the December quarter.

Considering that most of today's computer and mobile device parts are made in China, it comes as no surprise that Apple is quick to file design patents for their computer parts in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Today we learn that China's Hong Kong IP Office has granted Apple ten design patents covering components such as the Retina iPad display, the MacBook Pro's cooling fan and much more.  ...

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As of March, Apple boosted its share of the U.S. smartphone market to 39 percent, according to the most recent statistics from market research firm comScore, with a three-month percentage growth outperforming Samsung by a factor of four.  ...

Samsung has a new legal argument in its ongoing litigation with Apple over the sale of certain Android based smartphones in the US. While the basis of Apple's case is patent infringement claims, Samsung is now arguing that allowing Apple a permanent injunction would "intimidate and confuse" customers.

The drive of Samsung's case, according to an examination by FOSS Patents, is that the injunction "would not stop any ongoing infringement, for Samsung has either discontinued the accused products or designed around any infringing features in ones that it still sells."

Apple won a massive US$1.05 billion award for damages in the case this past August, however at the end of April it was announced the companies would be...

.

In a conversation with a Google employee who is working on the Glass project, Frederic Lardinois was informed that they are adding more-complete iPhone compatibility to Glass “very soon”:

 Glass, the Google employee told me, will soon be able to handle these features independent of the device the user has paired it to (and maybe even independent of the Glass companion app).

While Glass will happily work with any iPhone over Bluetooth or use any Wi-Fi connection to get online, iPhone users are currently unable to get turn-by-turn directions through Glass – one of its killer features. Those direction are pretty useful while you are navigating a new city and they do show off the power of location-based apps on Glass, but the software will currently balk if you ask it to give you directions while it’s connected to an iPhone.

For...

I've always been a sucker for soundscapes -- those looping sound effect CD's that whisk you away to the beach, or a rainforest or whatever. As I have a hard time "shutting down" my brain, these sounds give me something to get lost in and focus on, helping relax me. I think it's the same way for a lot of people, but when I introduce them to Naturespace's audio by way of their app, they are blown away. Naturespace captures incredible 3D audio and puts a vast library of it at your fingertips.

If you've never tried the app, I highly recommend you download it. The free samples which come with it are enough to get you started, but since the App Store's debut the Naturespace team has consistently grown the in-app purchase content. There's now a dizzying array of sounds, from the real to the...

Samsung has some advice for buyers of the 16-gigabyte model of its new Galaxy S4 stung by its low storage space: if that's not enough storage for you, that's why we put in a microSD card slot.   ...

There are only six known working Apple I computers in the world, and one of these units will go on sale later this month. According to a report in Computerworld, German auction house Breker will be auctioning off the machine that was owned by Fred Hatfield.

The Apple-1 includes the original manual, a letter signed by Steve Jobs and a circuit board that bears the name "Woz" on the back. The vintage computer is expected to fetch up to US$392,000 when it hits the auction block on May 25. You can check out the Apple-1 in the video below and hop over to Breker's website for the detailed photos of this classic machine.

[...

rjupstate writes "The Pentagon is quickly moving to approve the latest devices and platforms from BlackBerry, Samsung, and Apple. That's good news for two of those companies. It's not-so-good news for BlackBerry. 'The Pentagon currently has about 600,000 smartphone users – almost all using BlackBerrys – but ultimately aims to have as many as 8m smartphones and tablets, under the terms of a scheme made public last November.' 'In its effort to expand into the high security government niche, one that BlackBerry has enjoyed near singular control of for years, Samsung recently created a government advisory board made up of Samsung executives and security experts from various U.S. and foreign government security agencies. ... In the end, the program will likely elevate that status of both Apple and Samsung within military and civilian government agencies in the U.S. and other western countries.'"

...

A warning delivered by the Google Safe Browsing service. The link reported as malicious was embedded in a game available in Apple's iOS App Store.

At first blush, it looked serious: a Web link to a known source of malware buried deep inside of a highly rated app that has been available for months in Apple's iOS App Store. For years, antivirus programs have recognized the China-based address—x.asom.cn—as a supplier of malicious code targeting Windows users. Were the people behind the operation expanding their campaign to snare iPhone and iPad users?

Although Macworld writer Lex Friedman said the link was likely harmless, I wasn't so sure. As he pointed out, an iOS app from antivirus provider Bitdefender warned that the Simply Find It app, last updated in October, contained malware classified as...

This weeks deals from DealNN include bargain prices on iMacs, printers, monitors and more. Currently MacConnection.com has the 21.5-inch iMac for $1,279, which is $220 off the MSRP and the lowest price we have seen on this iMac by about $90. Free shipping is included, but sales tax applies for residents of New York state. The 21.5-inch iMac features a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Included are an Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard, Magic Mouse, and one-year warranty on parts and labor from Apple....  ...

TextExpander by Smile is an essential tool for folks who type as often as we do. It lets you create short key combinations that trigger -- and are replaced by -- larger strings of text. For example, I have TextExpander covert "actk" to "Apple CEO Tim Cook." It saves time.

Macworld editor Dan Miller has made a video demonstrating his top five TextExpander snippets. I always appreciate the chance to peer over the virtual shoulder of someone who knows how to use a tool really well. Dan's video is a great example of that. Go and learn something new!

Macworld shares five nice TextExpander snippets originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 May 2013 14:00:00...

T-Mobile has released an iPhone version of its T-Mobile TV app. The app has been available for Android since 2010, but T-Mobile only started selling the iPhone in April. The app comes with 30 days of free access to content like the Associated Press and Fox News, but the bulk of content is behind a subscription paywall....   ...

If you are tired of the look of your Apple keyboard, an elegant wooden touch might be the answer.

As the teams battle away on the Clash of the Coders, ideas are quickly becoming reality as developers are hard at work on their projects.

Some projects are, admittedly, utilitarian. Now is a great opportunity for devs to create in-house tools for use during the rest of the year. In a shop that caters to Android as well as iOS development, tracking and managing dozens of Android variations can prove a big challenge, as BNR works to create apps for many-shaped phones and tablets.

Other projects are all about the fun. One team is building a giant joystick, another electronically scrubbing already-started crosswords from the backs of those on-line airline magazines.

One of my favorite projects, however, is less technological than inspirational. The Carter Center has been monitoring the eradication of the...

According to a new report from media research firm TDG (via GigaOM) 14% of households with broadband internet owned an Apple TV, Roku box, or similar streaming platform during a study in 2012.

While that sounds like an impressive number, Smart TVs have been slowly taking over the connected TV market. 25% of households owned a smart TV that comes equipped with apps, such as those offered by manufacturers like Samsung and LG.

Smart TV adoption grew from 12% in 2011 to 25% in 2012, while connected set top box adoption grew just two percentage points year over year. While not all Smart TV owners use the "smart" capabilities, 69% of users surveyed connected their Smart TVs to the Internet, indicating that roughly two thirds of Smart TV owners take advantage of the TV's...

Subscribers to the tablet editions of Hearst Magazines publications have finally broken past the 1 million mark, says company head David Carey. The executive at one point said the company would have 1 million subscribers by the end of 2012, but ended up with a figure closer to 900,000. "I'm glad we got there," Carey remarks. "We were just 90 days late."...  ...

Samsung and BlackBerry are good enough for government work.

Late Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense granted security approvals to BlackBerry’s new BlackBerry 10 devices — the Z10 and Q10, and to a version of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 that’s outfitted with Knox, the company’s new security software.

Though DOD approval won’t result in immediate product orders for either company, it does clear the way for orders to be placed in the future. Good news, since the Pentagon currently has some 600,000 mobile device users. More important, however, are the implications of the agency’s endorsement.

Certification by the Pentagon is the gold standard in mobile device security. And it opens the door to all sorts of lucrative contracts from government customers and those from highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance.

So, truly a significant milestone for BlackBerry and Samsung...

Apple surprised many last year when it priced the iPad mini at $329 ? more than $100 higher than the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. But the same premium approach will probably be used to successfully introduce a more affordable iPhone, a new analysis concludes.  ...

Verizon has updated the iOS and Android versions of My FiOS, an app supporting the company's fiber service. Both apps have integrated important FiOS TV functions, namely TV listings, DVR scheduling, and a remote control. Previously the app's video functions were limited to watching video on demand....  ...

Pyle has released a new Bluetooth wireless-based music interface that can convert any 30-pin speaker dock into a wireless audio device. The BlueReach can connect with any Bluetooth-enabled tablet, phone, or MP3 player and offers wireless audio streaming at distances up to 33 feet. Additionally, the device also includes a 3.5mm input allowing for direct audio input on any 30-pin speaker dock. The BlueReach can be purchased online from Pyle's webstore for $67....  ...

The latest version of YouTube Capture lets users preview their edited videos in HD, choose to upload videos only when the device has access to Wi-Fi, and is simply faster, starting up more quickly than its predecessors.

Like Facebook and Angry Birds? How about putting the two together, which is exactly what Rovio did with its new Angry Birds Friends for iOS. The game lets you team up with your friends to fling birds and blow up pigs, just like in other games in the Angry Birds franchise. You can challenge your friends to games, participate in tournaments with new levels every week, and if you're playing Angry Birds online, your games will stay in sync. Angry Birds Friends is free and available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch at Apple's App Store.

Maybe there’s some life in the ol’ girl we call “Blockbuster” after all…

Per AppleInsider, Dish Network released Blockbuster On Demand for iOS, an Apple device-ready version of the app that has been available on Android, PC, Mac, TVs and set-top boxes since January.

After filing for bankruptcy in 2010 and being acquired by Dish in 2011, Blockbuster launched a streaming on demand service in 2012, but until today had not offered an app for Apple’s iOS device lineup.

Working in much the same way as the company’s services on other platforms, Blockbuster On Demand streams “thousands” of movies in HD and full...

You have to see this video.

∞ Read this on The Loop

U.S. Cellular announced that it will “begin offering Apple products later this year” during a release of its quarterly revenue results. Though no specific products were mentioned in the announcement, the iPhone will likely be offered, as U.S. Cellular notes, “By further strengthening our device portfolio, we’ll give consumers…

On Friday, shareware developer Maintain released version 6.4 of CocktailCocktail (Mountain Lion Edition), the popular shareware utility program that allows for additional Mac OS X system tests. The new version, a 5.5 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and features:
- Added ability to change standby delay (Disks – Sleep)* – *Specifies the delay (in minutes) before writing the hibernation image to disk and powering off memory for standby. This setting is only available on compatible computers.

- Added ability to disable shadow in window captures (Interface – General).

- Added ability to show Debug menu in App Store, Photo...

The Jawbone UP fitness tracker is a lot more useful now that Jawbone has opened the API to third-party developers. One of the most exciting companies tapping into the UP platform is online automation tool, IFTTT. In the article below, I will talk a little bit about connecting your UP to IFTTT and then list some of my favorite recipes.

IFTTT is an automation tool that allows you to setup tasks that happen at a certain time or in response to a certain event. It uses a trigger event ("If this happens") to initiate an action ("then do that"). Within the IFTTT framework, you create what are called recipes to select the trigger event and its resulting action. For example, you can create a recipe that uses a date/time trigger to send you an email at the same time each day.

IFTTT is extremely useful because it ties into services, called channels, like Dropbox,...

U.S. Cellular has reversed its stance that it wouldn't carry Apple's iPhone, and has said that it will be on board later this year. The carrier had previously called Apple's terms unacceptable, choosing to pass on offering the popular combination smartphone and iPod to its subscribers.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Good news for T-Mobile. Now the company can say it wasn't the last to get the iPhone.

Attention to all U.S. iPhone owners: HTC wants your business. If you switch and buy their new HTC One smartphone by Sunday May fifth, HTC will reimburse you ...  ...

YouTube vs. TV? YouTube says the battle — if there ever was one — is over.

In a flashy presentation to advertisers Wednesday night, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to forecast that Internet video will displace television watching. Instead he declared: “That’s already happened.”

I agree that habits are changing and there is a huge shift coming, but I don’t believe YouTube has won.

∞ Read this on The Loop

AllThingsD shares details on a new report from J.P. Morgan analysts Gokul Hariharan and Mark Moskowitz, who unsurprisingly argue that Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone will still be a "mid-end" device rather than competing against the true low end of the smartphone market. The analysts point to Apple's previous introductions of the iPod nano and iPad mini as cheaper versions of their parent products that were still significantly more expensive than low-end competitors due to Apple's refusal to sacrifice quality for the sake of price.

Echoing some previous rumors, Hariharan and Moskowitz suggest that Apple's lower-cost iPhone is likely to cost $350-$400 without subsidies, significantly cheaper than the iPhone 5 that starts at $650...

The SmartFlex Shine (iPhone 5; $35) features a raised edge to help protect your screen from falls and scratches, and a low profile that adds minimal bulk to your device.

The case’s exterior is coated with a special metallic finish and features a glossy veneer for a unique look that is available in white, green, or pink

Verizon has just pushed out a nice update to its My FiOS app for Verizon FiOS customers that brings more integration of TV functions to the app. Version 3.3.2.8 of the app now includes the ability to view FiOS TV and VOD listings, set parental controls, and access remote control options for functions such as scheduling DVR recordings & more.

The update also includes Voice Assistant feature for the Verizon support tool and  the ability to opt-in to push notifications “for billing alerts, service outages, etc.”

What’s New in Version 3.3.2.8

Bug fixes
Integration of FiOS TV functions (TV Listings, DVR scheduling and Remote Control)
Enhanced Verizon Support tool – including Voice...

Triage is for people who struggle to stay on top of their inbox. It doesn’t try to replace your desktop mail client, but lets you use your downtime to quickly remove the noise and stress.

I tested Triage and loved it. It was released while I was traveling, so I didn’t get a chance to post about it. It’s a brilliant idea to help you keep on top of your email quickly and easily.

∞ Read this on The Loop

As part of its quarterly earnings release today, U.S. Cellular announced that it will begin carrying Apple products later this year, although the carrier offered no additional details on its plans."We have a number of strategies in progress to increase loyalty and attract more customers, including our announcement today that we will begin offering Apple products later this year. By further strengthening our device portfolio, we'll give consumers another great reason to switch to U.S. Cellular, and enable our existing customers to choose from an even wider variety of iconic smartphones, and enjoy the outstanding U.S. Cellular customer experiences they deserve. Our smartphone penetration is currently 43 percent of core market customers and growing quickly. We believe there will be strong, ongoing demand for smartphones and data products and services from our customers, and we have...

In Celebration of *Day Against DRM* Save 50% on 5000+ Ebooks & Videos at O’Reilly (including mine). And save 60% on orders over $100, so feel free to order multiple copies of my book!

Having the ability to download files at your convenience, store them on all your devices, or share them with a friend or colleague as you would a print book is liberating, and is how it should be. This is a critical moment in the fight against DRM. A proposal currently being considered by the W3C would weave DRM into HTML5 — in other words, into the very fabric of the Web.

Ebooks from oreilly.com are DRM-free. You get free lifetime access, multiple file formats, free updates.

Use discount code: DRM2013 – Deal expires May 3, 2012 at 11:59pm PT and cannot be combined with other offers. Similar Articles:

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Laird Plc, an electrical component maker, says revenue from its largest customer -- "widely assumed to be Apple -- fell 17% in the first quarter from a year earlier, contributing to a 2% fall in overall revenue, according to "Reuters" (http://tinyurl.com/cycxvng).

The company makes electromagnetic shielding and heat control components for wireless devices. Laird told "Reuters" it expects another quarter of declining revenue before growth resumes in the second half of the year as customers and the company itself launch new products.

U.S. Cellular, the sixth-largest wireless provider in America, announced on Friday that it will begin carrying Apple products later this year.   ...

Maintain has released Cocktail 6.4 (Mountain Lion Edition), the latest maintenance update for users running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Cocktail is a general purpose utility for OS X that lets users clean, repair and optimize their Mac. This version adds ability to change standby delay and ability to disable shadow in window captures. It also adds compatibility with the latest versions of supported web browsers and contains improvements on the clear system caches procedure.

read more

Apple has been pushing for a permanent injunction blocking the sale of certain Samsung Android-based smartphones and tablets in the United States over patent infringement claims, but Samsung thinks that's a bad idea. The electronics maker told a Federal Appeals Court that granting Apple a permanent injunction would only serve to confuse and intimidate the buying public.

By issuing bonds to finance its stock buyback, Apple will avoid paying $9.2 billion in taxes to the U.S. government, making its decision to take on debt a "no-brainer."   ...

The Pentagon's push toward a platform-agnostic Department of Defense moved forward today, as BlackBerry 10 devices and a number of Samsung's Galaxy handsets were approved for DoD use, even as Apple's iOS devices still await approval.  ...

According to a new DigiTimes report this morning, new rumors have surfaced that Apple is on tap to test market a new low-cost iPhone later this year. The report states that "Apple plans to launch an inexpensive model targeting emerging markets with initial quarterly shipments of only 2.5-3.0 million units to test market response." Although this rumor sounds interesting, it doesn't sound like it's a move that Apple would ever make.  ...

From 9to5Google:

Earlier this week we told you that the Defense Department was nearing a decision on approving the three major mobile platforms through new security approvals that would allow widespread use of devices by government agencies and the DoD networks. While the department is yet to grant approval to Apple’s iOS 6 for for nonclassified communications by military agencies, today the Wall Street Journal provides an update noting that both Samsung’s Knox security software and BlackBerry 10 have now received the approvals ahead of Apple:

RIM announced late Thursday...

calibre is a one-stop solution to all your e-book needs. It is free, open source and cross-platform in design and works well on Linux, OS X, and Windows. calibre is meant to be a complete e-library solution and thus includes library management, format conversion, news feeds to ebook conversion, as well as e-book reader sync features and an integrated e-book viewer.

Version 0.9.29:

New Features

• Bulk metadata download: Allow reviewing of the downloaded metadata before it is applied
• FB2 Output: Write ISBN, pubdate, tags and publisher metadata when creating fb2 files. Closes tickets: 1174047

Bug Fixes

• When reading metadata from EPUB 3 files, use the first element rather than the last. Closes tickets: 1175184
• Fix regression causing the search query parser to not parse search string containing newlines/tabs instead of spaces correctly. Closes tickets: 1174629...

According to a new DigiTimes report, Apple is expected to contract TSMC to manufacture all the application processors (APs) used in the 2014 model of its iPhone slated to launch in the second half of the year.   ...