Today Jackery -- a provider of rechargeable battery products for mobile devices -- announced the launch of their latest product, the Jackery Giant+. An upgraded release of the Giant, which is a battery which offers up to 220 hours of charging time for electronic devices, the Giant+ features up to 260 hours extra operational time for one's electronic device. Easily portable, the battery weighs 10.4 ounces and measures 4.3 x 3.1 x 0.8 inches. The Giant+ can charge two devices simultaneously, and retain a charge for up to six months in standby mode. Alongside the rest of the Jackery lineup, the J...
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It's always fun to take a look back at the websites of yesteryear just to get a bit of perspective, and there may be no better example of this than Apple's homepage from 2001. The highlight of the site is a fancy graphic showing off the then-new iBook. The laptop was capable of interfacing with a whole bunch of state-of-the-art devices such as CD players, digital cameras and camcorders, PDAs and Apple's own UFO-shaped AirPort.

Of course, today, all the tasks performed by those specialized devices can be accomplished with the iPhone in your pocket. Hell, even the iBook itself pales in comparison to your handy smartphone, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't want to still have one around, just for nostalgia's sake.

...

The number of iPhones that consumers traded in for cash payments during this September's iPhone launch jumped more than 50% at the nation?s leading consumer electronics trade-?in site despite a growing number of alternative programs such as Apple's.
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For the past year, three relatively low-profile but intriguing iPhone and iPad apps from developer Net Power & Light have graced the App Store: Together Talks, Together Justice and Together Learn are all built on the company's core Spin technology. Each app provides a collaborative video chat community around a specific content source; Talks aggregates TED talks, for example. But this week NP&L is doubling down on Spin with a standalone, user-driven free iOS app that's meant to give you a new way to connect with friends and family.

...

Apple and a host of other tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Reddit, have all signed their name to a letter expressing support for proposed bills that would enable them to reveal more details about government requests for information.

The bills in question include the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013 and the Surveillance Order Reporting act of 2013. Both bills would allow companies to release to the public statistical information about secretive government requests made to "Internet, telephone, and web-based service providers for information about their users and subscribers."

The letter, which also has support from a wide array of non-profit and trade organizations, reads in part:

Similarly, as we had previously requested, the House bill provides for reporting by companies on their receipt of...

Native Instruments today announced Maschine Studio and Maschine 2.0 ñ the new flagship groove production studio and next generation of Maschine software. Considerably bigger than the original hardware, Maschine Studio provides expanded tactile control and 
new hi-resolution color displays, setting a new precedent in intuitive, hands-on, computer-based beat production....
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Q:

I have an iPhone 4S and I upgraded to the iOS 7 operating system, but I really dislike it. Is there any way to get the old iOS 6 back?

A:

No, Apple typically doesn’t allow downgrades or reversals to an older operating system. For a brief period after the new OS appeared, there was a workaround to do it, but now you can’t.

Q:

I am concerned about the security implications of allowing Siri, the Notification Center and the new Control Center on the iPhone to be used even though my phone is locked. Is there a way to prevent that?

A:

Yes, in the Settings app in iOS 7, you can block all three features from use on the lock screen. For Notification Center and Control Center, go to their sections of the Settings app and turn off the switches that say “Access on Lock Screen.” For Siri, go to the General...

Apple is definitely on a high profile hiring spree of late. They began with Ex-Yves Saint Laurent CEO Paul Deneve to work on "Special Projects" and just hired Ben Shaffer from Nike's "innovation Kitchen" fame to join this group. Now enters cable industry vet and long-time CableLabs exec Jean-François Mulé who has recently joined Apple in the role of engineering director. It's interesting to note that CableLabs marketing slogan is "Revolutionizing Cable Technology." I would guess it's safe to say that Apple tapped Mulé for his expertise in revolutionizing the cable experience for an Apple TV related project - though time will tell.

The iPhone 5s and its M7 motion coprocessor are opening the doors to a new wave of fitness apps that take advantage of the low-power motion processing available with the motion chip. One of the first apps to use the data from the M7 is the Argus - Motion and Fitness Tracker from Azumio.

The big draw of Argus for many people will be the step tracking, which is pulled from the M7 on the iPhone 5s and from GPS with older devices. I've tested the Argus step data on the iPhone 5s, and it compares favorably with the data from the Fitbit Flex -- with one caveat. For the step tracking on the iPhone to be accurate, you have to always have your phone on your person, which can be a big problem for some folks.

Besides steps, Argus also tracks your weight, workouts, water consumption, coffee consumption, sleep and more. If there is a parameter that is now shown, you can search for it and...

It's no secret that Apple devotes a lot of attention to the design of its retail stores. From the type of wood that graces the tabletops to the design of the staircases within, nothing is overlooked.

One of Apple's most unique retail stores is its Shanghai location, notable for its impressive and elegant glass cylinder entryway. Now, AppleInsider reports that Apple has officially been granted a patent on the design.

Apple's US Patent No. 8,544,217 not only covers the design of the cylinder, but more specifically the type of glass and construction methods used to erect such a structure. Like the flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York, the Shanghai cylinder is made almost entirely out of huge monolithic glass slabs, with only connecting joints fashioned out of metal.

The...

Apple has hired Jean-François Mulé, the former Senior VP of Technology Development and longtime employee of CableLabs -- an R&D joint venture run by many of the biggest cable operators in the U.S. -- as an engineering director.

The hire was revealed on Mulé's LinkedIn page and first noted by Multichannel News. He has been working at Apple since September and says in his Apple job description that he is "challenged, inspired and part of something big".

He claims extensive experience in software development for cable applications like Internet data, IP voice and video, TV apps and more. From Multichannel News:...

Emily Books is an independent e-book publisher that runs its own e-bookstore with a special twist, offering readers a subscription model. For US$13.99 a month, or $159.99 a year, readers are provided with one e-book every month. If you pay all at once, you save around $7.89 a year. Now Emily Books is moving beyond the web and onto your iOS device with a new app, and it's bringing subscriptions with it.

The app is called Emily Books Reader and it mixes the subscription model of its online service with the added content of a digital magazine. Emily Books focuses largely on the works of female authors, with special attention paid to memoirs and transgressive fiction. Emily Books Reader couples each month's subscription selection with essays that deal with the book's subject and a Q&A with the author.

The iOS app...

As of 9PM local time in Germany, users in that country are finally -- after 19 months -- able to activate push email services from iCloud. The previous block was due to a patent dispute with Google-owned Motorola Mobility over a patent on a push-type messaging originally granted for beepers, and which has in the intervening months been found invalid for four separate reasons by a court in the UK, and later on in three different courts in Germany....
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MPlayerX (free) is one of those fabulous utilities like VLC, NicePlayer and MPEG Streamclip that seems to have ended up on my Mac as a must-have playback app. It offers an OS X wrapper around FFmpeg and MPlayer libraries. These enable it to handle a wide range of media codecs without requiring you to install extra packages.

The player provides tons of options aimed at the power user. I must be honest, though, and say that 99.999 percent of the time, I play a file, watch it and that's that.

If you want more features, the app lets you tweak playback speeds, video aspects, create loops and more. Say, for example, you are watching an out-of sync video, whose audio needs a tiny delay...

Andrew Cunningham

Apple has just released a minor update for some of its recent MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs that should address "rare issues" in which a laptop's battery abruptly stops working. The MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.8, the MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update 1.2, and the MacBook Air SMC Update 1.9 all share the same release notes:

This update addresses rare issues where the battery unexpectedly stops functioning, the system does not recognize the battery, or the system hangs when the battery charge reaches less than one percent.

The SMC update doesn't appear to have any impact on battery runtime, and this isn't an issue we've encountered in our own usage or on Apple's support boards before. If you've got one of the affected systems (a 2012 MacBook Pro, either the 13-inch or 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, or...

Here's a statistic for you: Apple holds 10 percent of all the non-financial corporate cash in the U.S. 10 percent. That's not bad for a company that is clearly on its death bed and can't figure out how to sell smartphones in a way that analysts and pundits can understand. Bryan Chaffin looks at the issue.

Today Ultimate Ears introduced a major upgrade to the Logitech UE Mobile Boombox with UE Mini Boom. The new speaker is a Bluetooth streamer, with range of up to 50 feet, and the ability to pair multiple devices together for simultaneous listening through the UE Mini Boom app for iOS and Android....
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From 9to5Toys.com:

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s featured deals:

SOLD OUT Beats by Dre urBeats earbud headphones w/ mic...

Yesterday's meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook was actually "a little testy," says investor Carl Icahn in a new CNBC interview. In a Twitter post today, Icahn had claimed that the meeting was "cordial." The pair are now said to have been joined by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and disputed whether or not shareholders should get involved in how Apple executives spend cash....
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Document storage service Scribd has launched a new ebook "all you can read" subscription service. For $9 per month, users have access to nearly the entire HarperCollins US collection of books, with sales available on all the rental titles. The cross-platform Scribd app on iOS and Android provides the gateway to the books and free Scribd-hosted content with the user being able to download up to 10 books for offline reading....
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The planned dinner between investor Carl Icahn and Apple CEO Tim Cook took place as scheduled last evening, and Icahn is reporting through Twitter that the dinner was "cordial" and that he pushed for Apple to bump its share buyback program up to US$150 billion.

Icahn believes that Apple's share price is "extremely undervalued" and that the company should spend more of its cash to bolster it by purchasing more shares at the current price. The continued discussions between Icahn and Apple will most likely come after the next quarterly earnings call, which should happen sometime in the third week of October.

Carl Icahn reportedly pushed Tim Cook for $150B Apple share buyback originally...

Gizmodo:

This video shows the culmination of the work being funded mainly through public donations, including the massive, yet-to-be-finished 564-foot tower at its center.

The Sagrada Familia is probably the most famous unfinished building in the world and its design is fascinating whether you like it or not. This video of the finished building shows even more radical changes in the future.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple is testing at least three iWatch designs based around flexible OLED displays, according to Korean publication The Chosun Ilbo. These include units with 1.3-, 1.4-, and 1.5-inch displays. The largest of those sizes would still be a tenth of an inch smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Gear....
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Did you buy a new MacBook recently? If so, Apple has something for you: System Management Controller (SMC) Updates. There are three separate updates, one each for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Retina MacBook Pro.

MacBook Air SMC Update v1.9 (1.09MB) is for MacBook Air laptops released in 2012 and 2013. It fixes a “rare” problem where the battery stops working, the battery is no longer recognized, or the system hangs when the battery has a charge that’s less than one percent.

MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7 (1MB) is for non-Retina MacBook Pro laptops released since 2012. Apple says that the update fixes a “rare” problem where a battery that has over 1000 chrage cycles shuts down or stops working.

The MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update v1.1...

GoPro on Tuesday announced the availability of its new Hero3+ line of cameras with lighter design, new video functions, better optics and longer battery life, as well as an update to the company's iOS app that allows for remote viewing and control.
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Apple released firmware updates for MacBook Pro (mid 2012) and MacBook Air (mid 2012 and mid 2013) to address an issue with battery performance.

As fallout from the "hack" enabling unrestricted use of school iPads, two Los Angeles high schools are pulling back the devices from the student body. Students at Westchester and Roosevelt high schools, and possibly other schools in the district, are begin forced to return the devices acquired in the billion-dollar deal to school administrators, with use prohibited until further notice. According to reports, about 70 percent of the 2,100 devices have been returned by the students....
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It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive TUAW Deals, a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked iOS and OS X selections.

TUAW's Daily Deals

Micro Drone [On sale for $49, down from $108]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a flippin' quadrocopter! This crazy maneuvering remote controlled Micro Drone can do it all! Fly up, down, laterally, diagonally, flip, and perform all sorts of other agile mid-air stunts.

Quad-rotor helicopters have long been considered a luxury toy due to their pricey nature but now you can grab this one for a fraction of the regular price.

Save 54% on the Micro Drone at TUAW Deals. Promotion is...

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo are among the companies that have signed a new Center for Democracy and Technology letter asking the US Congress to pass Rep. Zoe Lofgren's (D-CA) Surveillance Order Reporting Act of 2013, and Sen. Al Franken's (D-MN) Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013. The bills were first introduced in August, and would let companies be more precise about when and how often they receive national security-related requests and hand data over to the government....
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The boot drive's format and partition structure can be checked both in the OS X graphical interface and in the Terminal.

One big reason that investors like Facebook again: The company looks like it has figured out how to make money — a lot of money — on mobile.

One big reason Facebook looks like it has figured out mobile: App-install ads, which developers use to encourage Facebook users to download their software onto their phones.

Now Facebook is going back to the well, and will try to make even more money from app developers.

This time it is selling them ads that link directly from Facebook’s app to apps users have already installed, in hopes of driving usage and/or sales.

The idea: A music app like Spotify could...

For a long time, in Safari, on either a Mac or iOS device, we had a URL field and a search field. We were able to use the search field to search for text on a page being viewed.  Safari in iOS changes the methodology, and it's made even more confusing by Safari's Favorites Settings.   Here's how it works now.

An image of what might be Logitech's upcoming MFi (Made for iPhone) controller for the iPhone has been leaked on Twitter by @evleaks, who has been known to provide reliable images in the past.

The enclosure controller wraps around the iPhone, adding buttons and controls on either side of the phone and is similar to an earlier prototype that was leaked back in June. It also fits with teaser images that Logitech released a few weeks ago.

While the controller in the image is an enclosure model, other available models are said to be standalone controllers that will...

Yahoo! has added another layer of account security for users today in the form of second sign-in verification. The new system monitors and verifies what devices you use to sign into your Yahoo! account to prevent unauthorized users from accessing private into, such as your email. If you decide to set up this new security feature, you'll need to ensure your iOS mail app is also authorized to access your Yahoo! account using a special one-time password.

From within your Yahoo! web account you can generate a unique password that you then need to enter into your Yahoo! account on the iOS mail app. This will sync your account and verify that no other devices can access it without your permission.

[via MacRumors]

...

The New York Observer:

Colin Powell makes the case: pissing people off is both inevitable and necessary. This doesn’t mean that the goal is pissing people off. Pissing people off doesn’t mean you’re doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off.

Understand the difference.

I piss people off on a regular basis. It’s rarely my goal but I honestly don’t care if it happens. This article explains it well.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Golf apps are extremely popular on iOS. From games, to course directories, to tutorials, there's plenty to choose from. So I was interested when the folks behind GolFlix Pro asked me to look at their app, which uses videos to teach the fine points of golf as demonstrated by professionals.

The reality, sadly, did not meet my expectations. The US$4.99 app contains six videos, each two or three minutes long, that let you watch the swing of a small collection of PGA pros, including Correy Pavin, Se Ri Pak and Luke Donald. You see several swings, some in slow motion, and there are some brief comments by each pro. The app seemed light on content to me, so I asked a friend who is an excellent golfer to have a look.

"Ninety percent of the problems amateur golfers run into happen before they ever start the actual swing," he said. "For instance, is the club gripped properly? Hands in the right...

While he initially described dinner with Tim Cook as "cordial," Icahn later revealed in an interview that his talks with Apple's CEO about the use of the company's cash reserves were "a little testy" at times.
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Right now Apple's online store has a wide selection of refurbished MacBook Air models at reduced prices of up to $350 off. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air with a 1.7GHz Intel dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage has been reduced by $300 to $799. A $350 discount is offered on the refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8GHz Intel dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage, now $849....
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If you were wondering how to use the information collected by the M7 chip on the new iPhone, you can download a new app from David Smith that turns your iPhone into virtual Pedometer.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Extensis has released Universal Type Server 4, an upgrade to its font activation backend for publishing and illustration businesses. The new version includes plugins for the CC versions of Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InCopy. It also carries over the QuickComp feature from Suitcase Fusion 5, which lets people preview and compare multiple fonts simultaneously using templates for different publication types....
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Carl Icahn’s Monday dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook may have been a largely cordial affair, but it sounds like it did get a bit heated here and there.

In an interview with CNBC earlier today, the billionaire activist investor said that his exchange with Cook got “slightly huffy” at points, particularly when the conversation turned to how Apple’s board might respond to Icahn’s $150 billion stock buyback idea.

“The board is not appointed by God. They don’t have the divine right of kings,” Icahn said, adding that it’s a “no-brainer” for Apple to do a major buyback.

“I feel very strongly about this,” Icahn said. “I can’t promise you the stock will go up, and I can’t promise you they will do the buyback. But I can...

In April we pointed out that the Fair Trade Commission opened an investigation into Samsung's dirty trickster tactics of paying part-time workers to use multiple propaganda accounts on the internet to promote Samsung phones and attack products from its rivals. Now some great investigative reporting by Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo shows that Samsung may have "artificially boosted the ...

The BBC has added a long-requested feature to its iPlayer Radio app: podcast downloads. Version 1.2 allows users to download a podcast over WiFi and listen to it any time they want, even without an internet connection. The podcast download feature follows in the footsteps of a feature in the main BBC iPlayer app, which lets you download video content and watch it on a device without an internet connection.

"With over 3 million downloads and counting, the BBC iPlayer Radio app is evolving," James Simcock, executive producer of Mobile and Radio at the BBC said in a blog post. "Since we first launched the app, we've been listening closely to audience feedback with a view to make continuous improvements to the apps. I'm proud to say that we've now implemented the single most requested new feature -- podcast...

Apple's iTunes festival concluded Monday night with a performance by Katy Perry. The event took over The Roundhouse theater, an historic music venue in Camden Town, in North West London, where the entire month of September was dedicated to iTunes, the Festival, and Apple itself.

An early review of Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 noted that it "scores really, really well in benchmark tests," but also explained that edge is achieved through some phony doping that kicks in a steroid boost only when running synthetic benchmark apps.
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Hulu sales head JP Colaco, one of the video company’s key remaining early hires, is leaving the company.

Andy Forssell, the website’s acting CEO, announced the departure via a blog post yesterday, and said Colaco was leaving later this month to “pursue one of a few new startup opportunities he has in front of him.”

Hulu employees have been streaming out the door for the last year, as the company’s ownership structure and direction have been in flux.

Earlier this year, CEO Jason Kilar left the company to build his own startup; marketing head Pete Distad left for Apple a few months later.

Hulu’s...

Just days after halting home use of the devices, some of the Los Angeles schools that have already issued Apple's iPads to students are taking the tablets back "until further notice."
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That’s a good number of users running an unreleased operating system in just a short amount of time. Of course it’s coming soon.

For more information about iOS Devices continue reading at 9to5Mac.

What do you think? Discuss "Look how many Apple employees are reading 9to5Mac from iOS 7.0.3" with our community....

eMedia Music Corp., publisher of a series of music tutorial CD-ROMs and DVDs, in partnership with TrueFire, has released three new titles in the Guitar Lab line of guitar instruction DVDs: The 50 Modal Licks You Must Know, 50 Melodic Rock Licks You Must Know, and 50 Radio Rock Licks You Must Know DVDs.

read more

Like it did with its Galaxy S 4 smartphone, Samsung has once again been caught artificially increasing CPU speeds on its Galaxy Note 3 phone when benchmark apps are running, reports Ars Technica.

Samsung uses special code inside its operating system to identify benchmarking apps by name to boost CPU clock speeds and prevent CPU cores from entering low-power modes. As a result, Ars discovered, Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks report CPU performance roughly 20 percent faster than most apps will experience on the device.

The difference is remarkable. In Geekbench's multicore test, the Note 3's benchmark mode gives the device a 20 percent boost over its "natural" score. With the benchmark boosting logic stripped away, the Note 3 drops down...

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Apple Marketing SVP Phil Schiller has been known to take to Twitter in the past to voice his views on rival platforms, and today the Apple executive is once again taking a jab at Android through his Twitter account. Today, Schiller points us to some more Android “shenanigans” with a link to a story from ArsTechinca about inflated Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks.

Ars reports:

After a good bit of sleuthing, we can confidently say Samsung appears to be artificially boosting the US Note 3′s benchmark scores with a special, high-power CPU mode that kicks in when the device runs a large number of popular benchmarking apps. Samsung did something similar with the international Galaxy S 4′s GPU, but this is the first time we’ve seen the boost on a US device. We also found a way to disable this special CPU mode, so for the first time we can see just how much Samsung’s benchmark optimizations affect benchmark scores...

Drink (or not) and be merry!

This week's roundup of iOS accessories includes devices that help you track your drinking: One tells you if you're drinking too much, the other if you need to drink more. We've also got speakers and cables and docks and batteries...the usual mix.

Adonit

This company’s latest stylus offering takes writing seriously: Instead of the standard “fat nib” you find on most capacitative styluses, the $75 Jot Script Evernote Edition uses a 1.9mm, fine-point, “Pixelpoint” (Adonit’s name) tip designed specifically for handwriting—in a pen-like stylus designed specifically to feel like a ball-point pen.

If you’ve got a Bluetooth 4-equipped device, the stylus communicates directly with Jot-enabled apps to enable palm rejection and other nifty features. The company says the new stylus should ship in four to six weeks, though it's taking preorders now.

Audio Pro

The $800...

Apple has added Vevo and NHL channels to Apple TV in Germany. Users will find the channels have been automatically added to the home screen. Vevo requires users to sign up for a free account, while the NHL channel requires a subscription. U.S. Apple TV users received the Vevo channel…

Fitbit's Flex fitness tracking wristband is now available in pink to help promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The company said it will donate US$10 from the purchase of each pink Flex throughout October to the American Cancer Society. The Flex monitors the number of steps you take each day, how well you sleep, and syncs wirelessly to your iPhone or computer. You can pick one up in Apple's retail stores, or at the Fitbit website for $99.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent on the design of the glass cylinder over top its Pudong Apple Store in Shanghai. The cylinder is similar in concept to the cube over top the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City, but made even more complex by the need to curve the glass. To that end, Apple notes that it had to skip conventional glass laminate technology in favor of new construction techniques that could support a large weight load over long periods of time....
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Apple has reportedly begun seeding iOS 7.0.3 to some of its own employees and carrier partners, with a potential launch coming as soon as next week, according to BGR.According to our sources, Apple has seeded iOS 7.0.3 to employees and partners for final testing. We’re not sure exactly when the new software will be released to the public, but we believe it will be sometime next week. The build number of iOS 7.0.3 is 11B491.MacRumors has indeed been seeing visits from devices on Apple's networks running iOS 7.0.3, with the first visits coming on Friday, September 20 and increasing significantly last week.

Visits to macrumors.com from iOS 7.0.3 devices running on Apple's networks
Apple just released iOS 7.0.2 to the public last Thursday, bringing several fixes for issues related to...

MASCHINE STUDIO is the flagship music production system for tactile, creative beatmaking with an acclaimed sound library.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Users of Apple's former MobileMe service who move to iCloud, Apple's new service, will see, as Apple warned, a downgrade in storage.

Apple is no longer offering 20GB of storage as it did with MobileMe. iCloud only provides 5GB for free. The company does offer extra storage plans: an additional 10GB of storage for US$20/year, 20GB for $40/year, or 50GB for $100/year.

If you're currently over the free 5GB limit, such features as iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud, and iCloud Mail will quit working until you bring your account under the 5GB limit.

We all new this day was coming. Apple has sent out emails informing iCloud users their complimentary iCloud storage has expired. The complimentary iCloud storage was a free extra 20 GB of storage for MobileMe members. Now all those members will be downgraded to the free 5 GB of iCloud storage all iCloud members get. Here's the email I got from Apple earlier today:

Dear Michael Grothaus,

As a thank you for being a former MobileMe member, you received a 20 GB complimentary storage upgrade when you moved to iCloud. Your upgrade has expired.

Your iCloud storage has been automatically adjusted to the free 5 GB plan. You are currently using 4 GB of storage.

For more information, see this article.

The iCloud Team

To be sure, any free storage is a good deal. However, 5 GB seems a bit skimpy in an age where everything is moving to the cloud. But most other reputable...

Interesting but totally unsubstantiated claim by Anonymous.

…claims the group make concerning Touch ID seem to focus on Authentec director, Robert E Grady, who appears to have been a prominent figure within the George Bush administration and (Anonymous claim) was connected with The Carlyle Group, which Anonymous also claim is a majority shareholder in Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA contractor with which whistleblower Edward Snowden worked.

I’d like to think the government and NSA already have my fingerprints but they went out of business so NBD.

Related articles

• ...

Photo: Huffington Post

After taking an undisclosed “large position” in Apple last month, rumored to be in excess of $1B, prominent investor Carl Icahn said he thinks Apple and CEO Tim Cook should do a larger buyback. Now, following a scheduled meeting with Tim Cook in New York yesterday, Icahn says he “pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback” during a “cordial dinner”:

Had a cordial dinner with Tim last night. We pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback. We decided to continue dialogue in about three weeks.—
Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) October 01, 2013

While Apple announced earlier this year that it would return around $100 billion...

In keeping with warnings, Apple has today stripped former MobileMe subscribers of an earlier free upgrade to the 25GB iCloud tier. The upgrade was offered to help ease the transition to iCloud, since MobileMe was a paid-only service that included 20GB of data, or more under a family plan. iCloud has both free and paid tiers, but the free one only includes 5GB. The 25GB option normally costs $40 per year....
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Activist investor Carl Icahn has just issued a Tweet sharing that he had a "cordial" dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook last night where he pushed for an increased stock buyback of $150 billion. According to Icahn, the two will revisit the subject later this month.

The stock buyback portion of Apple's capital return program was originally set at $10 billion when it was announced in March 2012, but in April of this year the company announced a significant increase to $60 billion as Apple has sought to take advantage of a drop in the company's stock price to repurchase shares at relatively low prices. Icahn believes that Apple's stock remains undervalued, and thus is pushing...

With all that’s been written about The Beatles, I’m amazed that I’ve never encountered this story before. This is well written and really gives you a sense of what George was going through at the time, a time before The Beatles had broken through in the US.

George asked the salesperson if they carried any records by the Beatles and was met with a blank stare of complete unawareness and non-recognition. This introverted George slightly, along with the jarring moment when he saw England’s biggest rock star, Cliff Richard, in his recent move Summer Holiday being played as a second string feature at the local drive-in. These two incidents stayed with George, and when he reported back to the other Beatles upon his return to England, we wondered if they could make it in the States, and actually thought they would flop.

...

Addy is a startup that lets you embed your own customized turn-by-turn directions (Go about a mile, make a left at the pizza place with the green awning, my house is at the top of the hill, last house on the right) behind a custom URL.

For instance, if you were having people over to your home, an Addy could include details about nearby stores for food and drinks, a buzzer code, and parking instructions.

Good idea.

∞ Read this on The Loop

I’ve always been fascinated by Natural Language Processing (parsing language into a computer understandable form) and speech synthesis (turning raw text into an human sounding spoken voice). Siri is an example of both of these technologies at work.

This article and the video below does a terrific job filling in some of the blanks on how tech like Siri evolved over time and how it works.

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Paper by FiftyThree, the popular sketching and illustration app, today announced that it has teamed up with Moleskine to offer its users the ability to create and order customized 15-page Moleskin books directly from the app. The partnership with Moleskine means you’ll get a quality, hand-assembled 15-page foldout book on sustainable matte paper, but it also means you’ll have to hand over $40 USD in the process:

We believe we’ve built the easiest print-on-demand publishing with the same dedication to simplicity we put in Paper. Book is a new format, created by Moleskine exclusively for Paper, with pages designed to match the iPad’s 4:3 aspect ratio. There is no need to resize pages, and your journal’s cover art becomes...

Back in May, 2011, a number of small Apple developers using Apple’s in-app payment system received a legal complaint from Lodsys, threatening a lawsuit if the developer didn’t agree to license a specific Lodsys patent.

Within months, that brought a legal challenge by Apple, which saw a clear threat to its ecosystem. Apple had already paid to license Lodsys patents when they were in the hands of an earlier owner—Intellectual Ventures. So Apple went to court, arguing that Lodsys can’t demand additional payments by threatening iOS developers.

Now, after two years of litigation, it’s back to square one. The East Texas judge overseeing Lodsys’ systematic patent attack on app developers has refused to even consider Apple’s motion. Instead, he allowed the patent-holding company to settle all its cases—and then dismissed Apple’s motion as moot. By doing so, US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap—who has inherited the patent-happy East Texas court that once belonged to patent-troll...

After notifying former MobileMe customers of an impending iCloud storage downgrade in August, the complimentary 20 GB of iCloud storage Apple has offered to those customers for the past two years has now expired.

As noted in an Apple support document, affected members will be downgraded to the 5 GB storage plan that is offered free with iCloud. Apple also offers extra storage plans for iCloud users, with an additional 10 GB of storage for $20/year, 20 GB for $40/year, or 50 GB for $100/year.

Users who are currently over the free 5 GB limit following the expiration of the complimentary 20 GB will see such features as iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud, and iCloud Mail cease functioning until they bring their accounts under the lower 5 GB...

The Toronto Blue Jays' assistant general manager Jay Sartori is leaving the team to become the manager of the Sports section of Apple's App Store, according to SportsNet.ca. As Shi Davidi first reported:

The Toronto Blue Jays are on the lookout for a new assistant general manager with Jay Sartori set to leave his job next month after accepting an executive position with Apple Inc.

Sartori is taking over as the tech titan's manager of the App Store's sports and entertainment category, a departure from the arbitration, contract and collective bargaining agreement interpretation work he handled for the Blue Jays.

Apple has not made an official announcement about the hire (and, indeed, probably won't). However, it's likely Sartori will act in an editorial/curation role, seeking out the best apps to...

Americans are storming an online marketplace, but this time for health insurance, not iPhones. If you currently lack health insurance, check out healthcare.gov to see what’s available.

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After issuing two reminders to former MobileMe customers that they would lose their free iCloud upgrade from 5GB to 25GB, Apple today reduced the storage limits as planned. Customers who have more than 5GB, and who haven’t bought a paid storage plan, will find that iCloud is no longer working.

If you exceed your storage plan on September 30, 2013, iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud, and iCloud Mail will temporarily stop working. To continue using these...

Chronos has announced Business Card Shop 5, an update to its business card software for OS X (10.4 or higher). The new version makes it easier to share cards, edit individual faces of double-sided and folding cards, and browse templates, according to the folks at Chronos.

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With QuarkXPress, you can communicate in all the ways you need to -- and always look professional -- in print and digital media, all in a single tool. Features include:

• Easy to Use -- QuarkXPress is a powerful and full-featured tool that makes it easy to develop your ideas into gorgeous layouts.
• Powerful Design Tools -- QuarkXPress provides an arsenal of design tools that let you turn even the most elaborate visions into reality.
• Precision Typography -- Typography is an art form, and QuarkXPress provides the tools you need to create powerful works of typographical art. If you're a perfectionist, QuarkXPress provides all of the tools you need to reach perfection. If you're not, QuarkXPress provides presets and default behaviors that make your work look professional even when you're not paying attention to the details.
• Digital Publishing: Web, SWF (Flash®), e-books, and...

The recently launched iPhone 5c is not expected to have an effect on overall smartphone adoption rate in emerging markets, while Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia provides a reason for cautious optimism, according to a new research note by Pyramid Research (www.pyramidresearch.com).

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If you don’t have a HostName set on your computer then Open Directory backups are likely to fail using Time Machine. How did you promote to an Open Directory Master if you don’t have functional backups you may ask? Let’s not worry about that for now. Instead, let’s turn our attention to /var/backups. You see, if you enable Time Machine on an OS X Server, you’ll get a ServerBackup_OpenDirectoryMaster.sparseimage in that folder, which contains your Open Directory backups and gets picked up by our pal Time Machine.

You can manually run a backup using the opendirectorybackup script at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/libexec/server_backup/opendirec torybackup. This could be automated, using expect to send a password, but for now, we’ll run it manually and get this error while running:

2013-09-27 19:13:23 +0000 Error in backing up computer password -25300
2013-09-27 19:13:23 +0000 Error: Unable to create archive image as keychain could not be read...

AllThingsD has confirmed our suspicion that it was a software glitch that allowed iPhone upgraders to keep their unlimited data plans.

There is, however, good news for those lucky enough to have upgraded their phones before the glitch was caught:

[Verizon] said it would honor the unlimited plans of those customers who managed to upgrade while Verizon was working to fix its software.

Continue reading more about iOS Devices,...

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a newly granted patent for Apple Inc. today relating to their Shanghai Store's Glass Panel Design. In 2010 Apple launched a major effort to expand sales in China by opening a new store in Shanghai as noted in our graphic above. Today, Apple was also granted two design patents.

Enterprise and educational institutions have a new tool in Casper 9.1 for identifying iOS 7 devices under Apple’s new Activation Lock management. This tool becomes increasingly important if employees or students are allowed to use their personal Apple IDs with their devices because only they can return the device in an unmanaged state.

Apple introduced “Find My iPhone” in iOS 3 allowing users to track their own devices or others with their owners’ permission. Since that time Apple has added remote lock to prevent use of a lost device and remote erase to wipe data from the device when the owner can’t recover it.

With iOS 7 Activation Lock is automatically enabled when remotely locking or erasing a device, making using or selling it difficult without first entering the password for the Apple ID that locked it and then...

According to multiple reports on Apple's Support Communities webpage, iPhone owners who recently upgraded to iOS 7 are experiencing issues with iMessage, though a simple software reset may resolve the problem, at least temporarily.
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Native Instruments today released new versions of both the 4+1 channel DJ system Traktor Kontrol S4 and its 2+1 channel counterpart, Traktor Kontrol S2. The S4 and S2 combine a premium DJ mixing interface, built-in 24 bit/96 kHz sound card, and an intuitive interface engineered for control of Traktor software. Both all-in-one DJ systems now offer an improved look and feel, with added control over the latest Traktor Pro 2 features....
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Over the weekend, Verizon experienced a "software issue" that involved some customer's orders of upgraded smartphones. A number of buyers who were upgrading devices were able to maintain an unlimited monthly data feature while paying a subsidized price, which the company had previously eradicated. Verizon is honoring the unlimited-data grandfathering on the approved orders, however, as well as offering the phones at the subsidized price....
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Grand Theft Auto V does a great job of skewering modern tech culture, as well as Apple itself, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the "iFruit" smartphones that are seen in the game. Now, with the help of a handy skin from Mobile Fun, you can turn your iPhone 4, 4s, 5 or 5s into an iFruit too.

The covering is pretty basic, with the key changes being the name "iFruit" replacing the "iPhone" moniker on your smartphone's backside, along with the fruit bowl logo. The skin is made of vinyl and retails for a reasonable US$12.99.

[via Inventor Spot]

You can now turn your...

The assistant general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays is leaving the organization to join Apple as an executive with responsibility for managing the Sports and Entertainment sections of the App Store, according to reports. Jay Sartori has been with the team since 2010 and will be leaving next month for the new job. His exact duties at Apple haven't been revealed, but the company has been working closely with Major League Baseball to enhance its apps' integration with other Apple technologies....
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Apple has hired Toronto Blue Jays assistant GM Jay Sartori to manage a sports section of the App Store, according to a number of reports dating back three days (via MG Siegler). Sartori a numbers guy who can effortlessly crunch statistics according to a bio from 2011, but he also has some experience in software development. He previously created some stats software for the MLB commissioner and has a background in finance and management information systems…

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Back in July, we featured the Muku Shuttr in our weekly crowdfunding roundup. Since then, the Kickstarter project went on to gain over 2500 backers and end with $94k in funding – well over the $10k goal. With the devices shipping out to backers starting next month, we took some time to review the device and speak with Kevin Keung, the head of Muku Labs.

Setting up the device

The device has two switches: one for turning the device on and off and the other for switching between iOS and Android compatibility. They’re easy to maneuver, but sadly there is no indication as to which is for on/off and which is for iOS/...

A new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech that gathers the averages for June, July and now August is painting two pictures: one of the areas where iOS and Android are growing, and another showing that Android growth in developed markets such as North America and Europe to be levelling off or falling. The report covers most of the summer, and thus reflects some dropping demand for the iPhone in light of the expected refresh -- but trend lines for both Apple and Android are becoming clear....
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Apple is pulling from the Toronto Blue Jays' bench to secure a new executive, as reports have the baseball team's assistant general manager Jay Sartori leaving to take over management of part of the App Store.
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One of the unsung heroes among the built-in apps on iOS devices is Reminders. Reminders are different from calendar events. Calendars mark your appointments, while reminders tell you what you have to do.

In this short video, I'll show you how to create a new reminder list, enter a reminder, set a deadline or prioritize a reminder, and show items as completed. We'll also cover deleting reminders and creating then with Siri.

As with all of our video tips, this one can be expanded to full screen for more detail.

iOS 7 video tip: Using Reminders originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | ...

Display manufacturer Viewsonic is refreshing its entertainment line of monitors today with the launch of its new VESA-mountable VX52 series, which includes the 24-inch (23.6-inch viewable) VX2452mhand 22-inch (21.5-inch viewable) VX2252mh. The VX52 series features Full HD resolution and ClearMotiv II technology that delivers 2ms response times for what the company says are blur-free images....
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In iOS Safari, at first, it's perhaps counter-intuitive how to move a folder of bookmarks.  However, once you get the hang of it, it's easy.  Here's how to do it.

From 9to5Toys.com:

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s featured deals:

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Software developers Raskin and Paddle have collaborated in their release of a Mac OS X app bundle, titled "Cheaper by the Dozen". From illustration technology to network management to social media consolidation and more, the $35 bundle features productivity-oriented software, both previously-released and debuting as standalone software for the first time, such as Marked 2. Available until October 10, the "Cheaper by the Dozen" Mac Bundle can be purchased from Paddle....
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Apple licensed US Patent #772,078 from original owner Intellectual Ventures to allow for in-app purchases of iOS apps. The patent, now owned by Lodsys, covers "Methods and systems for gathering information from units of a commodity across a network." Lodsys started suing iOS developers for patent infringement and Apple filed a motion to intervene in patent infringement lawsuits in 2011.

Patent trolls -- also known as Patent Assertion Entities ("PAEs") -- are "firms with a business model based primarily on purchasing patents and then attempting to generate revenue by asserting the intellectual property against persons who are already practicing the...

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.

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Daily Update for September 30, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:15:00 EST. Please see our...

I've long suffered Apple's attempts at cloud services. While iTools hardly counts, my accounts (and usernames) do go back that far, and along the way I've made aliases (remember .mac?), and obtained a confusing .mac/MobileMe login split personality, ultimately ignoring an @icloud account name. When iCloud debuted, loyal buffoons like me were "gifted" a 20 GB storage plan on top of the paltry 5 GB given for free to all iCloud users.

Tomorrow that freebie expires, and if you're using more than 5 GB here's what Apple says will happen:

If the storage you're using in iCloud exceeds the total storage available, iCloud Backup, Documents in the...