Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has voiced a seemingly pessimistic outlook for Apple's prospects without the ongoing leadership of Steve Jobs, according to an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning. When asked to comment on Apple's future under new leadership, Ellison says "well we already know" and references the company's troubled history between Jobs' resignation in the '80s and his return in the late '90s....
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In response to concern over the safety of unofficial USB charging accessories, Apple announced last week that it would be hosting a takeback program in certain retail locations to allow customers to trade in third party chargers for a discount on the real deal. Now, as 9to5Mac reports, the company is expanding its offerings beyond the U.S. and China, which were the only two territories originally announced alongside the program.

For every discounted USB power adapter you hope to purchase, you'll need to trade in one unauthorized adapter. Here is the current list of countries participating in the trade-in program, along with the corresponding price of the discounted USB...

Apple is allegedly preparing to release a Retina-equipped iPad mini and a thinner 9.7-inch iPad later this year, unnamed sources have told Bloomberg. The claims mesh with other reports and analyst predictions surrounding the next-generation Mini, as the current model falls behind the pixel density of competing devices such as Google's new Nexus 7 tablet....
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Garmin is just beginning to ship the company's first HUD (head up display) unit for in-car use with Garmin and Navigon apps. The U.S. $129.99 device (on summer sale) sits on your dash, and can project navigation information on your windshield using a supplied transparent film or a built-in reflector.

DESIGN

The unit plugs into a 12 volt supply in your car with an included cable and then connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth. The HUD notifies the driver of upcoming turns with an arrow in the appropriate direction and the distance until the turn. It also gives you your estimated time of arrival at your destination, along with your current speed and the speed limit on the road you are on if it is in the Garmin or Navigon databases (...

Apple has run into trouble in Norway completing its 3D "Flyover" views in Apple Maps. The government of Norway is denying Apple permission to photograph the capitol of Oslo over security concerns, a problem not faced by competitors like Google that rely on satellite imagery.

Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, longtime close friend of Steve Jobs, and former Apple Director, shared with CBS’s Charlie Rose what he believes post-Jobs Apple will look like. As quoted by AllThingsD:

“Well, we already know,” Ellison told Rose. “We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.”

Ellison’s quote seems to be referring to Apple’s history with Steve Jobs (the time in which the company launched the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, for example) in comparison to Apple’s darker years with leadership from the likes of John Sculley and Gil Amelio.

Now, with Steve Jobs’s hand-picked successor Tim Cook and the rest of the leadership team with Jony Ive, Craig Federighi, and Eddy Cue at...

Steve Sande is normally our Pad & Quill guru, but when the new Cartella Linen came along, he had one sent out to me for a test drive.

Design

I took a look at the leather-bound Cartella nearly a year ago with my smaller MacBook Air, and the larger linen-bound one is much the same. Instead of covered in leather, it features American Buckram cloth that's used in binding books. You have your choice of red or black.

As with previous models, the interior tray is made of Baltic Birch, with cutouts to hold the MacBook Air in place and rubber bumpers to create a tight fit. The ports are easily accessed, and a slash pocket can hold papers. A thick elastic band secures the case.

Like all their cases, the Cartella Linen is handmade in Minneapolis.

Many people are wondering what the post-Steve-Jobs Apple will look like, but Larry Ellison said he already knows.

Speaking with Charlie Rose in an interview for “CBS This Morning,” the Oracle CEO (and close Jobs friend) implied that Apple without Jobs won’t be that different from what happened last time Jobs left the company.

“Well, we already know,” Ellison told Rose. “We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.”

Needless to say, I’m sure that Tim Cook and Jony Ive don’t think of themselves as John Scully and Gil Amelio. But the question of what the new Apple is to become certainly remains an open one.

Ellison and Pixar’s Ed Catmull...

The Path (free, with many in-app purchases for stickers and whatnot) social network has opened the doors to 13 new API partners that will now sport a "Share on Path" button in their apps. Path's integration initially started with Nike, giving users a way to share their runs and fitness levels through Path.

VP of business development for Path Matt Van Horn told our sister site TechCrunch that the company curated the list of partners to fit its goal of being a more personal and almost private social network. The company found that users felt more comfortable sharing the Nike fitness information with their smaller friend group on Path than they did sharing the same data on Facebook or Twitter.

The range of new partners is quite broad, including social video network Viddy...

A set of images hit the Web on Monday claiming to show the so-called "iPhone 5C's" physical control buttons in a number of different colors.
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Bloomberg has corroborated multiple reports regarding Apple’s next iPad and iPhone models.

• Thinner full-sized iPad planned. We first reported that the next full-sized iPad would be thinner, lighter and similar in design to the iPad mini. WSJ reiterated it this morning.

Apple also plans to introduce a new iPad mini, the first with a high-resolution screen, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the development is private. The new iPad models are set to be introduced in the last three months of the year, one of the people said.

• iPad mini with sharper display planned, as reported...

The slim Harpoon Daypack from ECBC carries your gear in a compact, easily portable package. The black version with red accent stitching I tested includes water-resistant YKK zippers with rubber coated metal pull tabs. The durable 840D HD nylon construction and its seams are finished well, and no stray threads appeared during use. The Harpoon also comes in grey.

The back panel on the backpack strap side includes medium filled protective material, and the inside is divided into pockets for your devices. The Harpoon Daypack includes a laptop pocket with a small overflap suitable for any sized MacBook. In front of the laptop sleeve lies a pocket with a velcro closure for an iPad or other tablet.

Another zippered net pocket above the tablet sleeve holds cables, chargers, or any other small miscellaneous items.

A three-quarter outer zipper compartment also includes a...

Apple's marimba-based "Tri-tone" alert sound is ubiquitous. It's the default sound for incoming text messages on the iPhone, but it wasn't actually created inside Apple. A programmer and musician named Kelly Jacklin posted a blog entry that describes how he created the sound for the makers of SoundJam when they wanted an alert to let you know your CD had finished burning.

From 9to5Toys.com:

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

Today’s Featured deals...

Apple is extending the number of eligible countries in its USB adapter takeback program. The program began in China August 9th, and is coming to the US on August 16th. Now also joining on the 16th will be Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK....
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A set of images leaked on Monday claim to show off a new device from Sony aimed at turning smartphones like the iPhone into something approaching a full-fledged camera.
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Steve Jobs was named a Disney Legend on Sunday. The award ceremony included emotional speeches from Disney CEO Bob Iger, who presented the award, and John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, who accepted the award for Mr. Jobs, who died in 2011. Both speeches include interesting anecdotes about their relationships with Steve Jobs, but it's the raw emotion that choked us up. GL keeping a dry eye through the whole thing. Mr. Lasseter's story included the moment when Steve Jobs sat down to tell him Apple asked him to come back as CEO. This is super cool.

Much respect.

Facebook is this week updating its mobile apps with several features. Among these is previously-anticipated OpenTable integration, which will allow North American users to make reservations via a restaurant's profile page. When making a reservation, people will be able to pick from a selection of available times, and specify their party's size....
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One week after the Obama administration's veto of an import ban affecting Apple helped to send the company's stock up $6.9 billion, news of an import ban affecting Samsung has again helped Apple's market value gain ground, this time by almost twice as much.
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Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle Earth rejoice -- Feral Interactive will be shipping a Mac port of Snowblind Studios' The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (US$30) on August 29.

Don't be surprised if you don't recall any of the events that take place in the title, which is an action role playing game set in northern Middle Earth. About the only mention of the war in the trilogy came from Gandalf the White, saying "With his far-reaching right hand, Sauron might have done great evil in the North. Yet all that has been averted because a handful of heroes stood in his path."

That small band of heroes consists of Eradin the Ranger, Andriel the Elf, and Farin the Dwarf, who take on the forces of Sauron in the game. LOTR:WITN is playable in both single-player and co-op multiplayer modes, and requires at least OS X 10.7.5 (be sure to check the system requirements before purchase).

[via...

As part of a semi-annual valuation, investment firm Needham & Co. has cut its price target for Apple stock from $710 to $595. Analyst Charlie Wolf cites a "more hostile competitive environment" since the last valuation in February, along with a shift in shopping habits, both of which are reflected in the fall of the Mac, iPad, and iPhone operating segments. "The largest percentage decline -- 42.3% -- was in the Mac segment as the negative impact of tablets on PC sales became increasingly apparent in the first half of the calendar year," he writes. "The iPad experienced the next largest decl...
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Did you know that Apple and five major publishers were under antitrust investigation in Europe as well as in the United States? Things worked out a bit differently there, with Apple and the publishers offering legally binding commitments to changes in their business practices.

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.

Investment firm Needham & Company cut its price target for shares of Apple from $710 to $595 on Monday, citing growing competition in both of the company's key markets: phones and tablets.
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Remember Wally? It is an attachable leather wallet for the iPhone 5 that came out earlier this year and was a real hit on Kickstarter. Now the team at Distil Union in beautiful Charleston, SC, have decided that they'd like to protect your iPhone 5 a bit more and today they're introducing the Wally Case for iPhone 5 (US$40 pre-order on Kickstarter).

What's different? The original Wally stuck to the back of your iPhone 5 with a nano-suction material, but didn't offer any protection to the sides of the phone. Wally Case takes a polycarbonate frame with a scratch-resistant coating, and then adds that luxurious Argentinian vegetable-tanned leather wallet with the convenient pull-tab...

More details about a lens with a built-in camera from Sony have appeared in new leaks. The "Lens Camera" initially uncovered in mid-July is shown in new images attached via a clip-on mount to a smartphone, and will apparently be a massive upgrade to the image quality of the camera sensor typically associated with mobile devices....
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An updated version of the CBS Sports iOS app, which offers full support for the iPad, has been launched in the App Store. iPad users running iOS 6.0 or later can now access all of the on-demand and live content offered within the app, all within an interface designed for the larger screen. Live content is dependant on timing, offering NCAA basketball from January to April, the PGA Tour between May and August, and SEC football from September to December. CBS Sports is a free download from the App Store....
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Phil Zimmermann is a legend in the world of online privacy, having invented PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) in 1991 to create a way of creating cryptographic privacy and authentication to keep digital communications -- and entire computers -- safe from prying eyes. Zimmermann was in the news last Friday when a company he founded -- Silent Circle -- decided to shut down and delete all email messages on its servers rather than have the US government force them to hand over customer data. One fascinating item in the Forbes article about the Silent Circle email shutdown was Zimmermann's admission that he doesn't use email much anymore because "PGP doesn't run very well on a Mac these days."

PGP Corporation was purchased by...

A newly-leaked top-rear panel for the iPhone 5S appears to support the notion that the device will have a dual-LED flash. While similar to an equivalent part for the iPhone 5, the 5S component has an elongated, pill-shaped hole near the ones for the lens and rear microphone. The leak may represent the first physical evidence that Apple is upgrading to a dual-LED format....
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iDraw is a powerful yet easy-to-use graphic design and illustration app created specifically for Mac OS X. It’s designed to be lightweight, modern, and fast. It can import and edit a variety of formats — including PDF, SVG, EPS, and AI files — and the latest update now adds the ability to also import/export Photoshop PSD files. An iPad version of iDraw is also available, and documents can be shared between Mac and iPad using iCloud. iDraw is available on the Mac App Store for only $24.99.

Skype users that own the newest iPad can now take advantage of its HD front camera, as the app saw an update today, and meanwhile the CBS Sports app has added the ability for viewers to stream live video of events.
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The iPhone Apple Store app has been updated over-the-air today to offer a free iBook download to customers. The book is Away in My Airplane by Margaret Wise Brown. According to a note sent to Apple retail employees today, the free book download is meant for employees to have context when discussing and pushing the iBooks app and iBookstore to customers.

As...

Customizing your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to reflect your personality is an easy way to make your device clearly your own. You can even set different images for your Home and Lock screens, and it's easy to do. Read on to learn how.

Initial production of the iPhone 5S may reach only 3 to 4 million units in the current quarter, compared an earlier plan for 10 million, industry sources claim. The issue is said to be the phone's fingerprint sensor; while it was reportedly going to start production at TSMC in May, and then head to packaging at Xintec, Apple has allegedly need further work on integrating the part with iOS 7. Xintec, meanwhile, is said to be returning low yields....
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As we get closer to the end of our streamed ebook, “Take Control of Your Digital Photos,” Jeff Carlson turns his attention to ensuring that all your work applying keywords and other metadata doesn’t go down the drain with a crashed hard disk. In this chapter, Jeff provides recommendations for backing up and archiving your photos at a variety of levels, since they’re are likely among the most important data you have.

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.

This week, Adam made an appearance on the Tech Night Owl podcast to discuss the Apple ebook verdict. Blogger Shawn Blanc released an ebook of his own, called “Delight Is in the Details” — it’s worth a look for anyone who creates. President Obama wanted you to be delighted with NSA surveillance, and is promising to change the program to be more transparent. Ken Segall, a longtime Apple advisor, explains how Apple is changing the professional market to be more accessible. Meanwhile, leading ebook vendors are arguing against being forced to make their devices more accessible. A service long known for accessibility — Instapaper — now has a new beta Web app. Amazon has long been portrayed as the anti-Apple, but analyst Horace Dediu shows why the two have more in common than you might think. The patent troll Lodsys has dismissed a lawsuit against a developer, the mystery of why Xerox copiers were switching up numbers has been solved, and we delve into how much your favorite tech...

Notable software releases this week include Skype 6.7 and Downcast 1.0.1.

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.

The bustle and background noise in coffee shops can help stimulate your creativity, so the team at Coffitivity made a website that lets you hear that ambient noise even when you can't leave your desk. Now they've brought that experience out of the browser and into native apps for the Mac, iPhone and iPad. The apps include three different tracks:  Morning Murmur, Lunchtime Lounge, and University Undertones. The iOS version includes an option to play music along with your coffeeshop sounds directly in the app, too. Coffitivity for the Mac is available through the Mac App Store, and the iPhone and iPad version is available through the App Store. Both are priced at US$1.99.

On Monday, shareware developer Maintain released version 6.6.1 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:
- Improvements on the “Clear user caches” procedure.

- Added ability to change Launchpad background effect (Interface – Misc).

- Added ability to change Launchpad background blur radius (Interface – Misc).

- Added ability to refresh Launchpad contents (Interface – Misc).

- Added ability to remove all apps from Launchpad (Interface – Misc)....

The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in with what “remedies” it wants to see applied to Apple after the company’s loss in the ebook price-fixing suit. In this segment of Tech Night Owl Live with Gene Steinberg, Adam Engst explains the case briefly and then analyzes why the proposed remedies don’t make any sense.

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.

Following reports that Apple is planning an iPhone-related media event on September 10, The Loop's Jim Dalrymple has come out with a "yep." Even though Apple hasn't officially announced anything yet, his one word response is as good as a confirmation, so it's time to circle the date on your calendar.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Looks like September will be a busy month for Apple. New iPhone announcements means iOS 7 can't be far away.

Breaking Bad, the hit TV show on AMC starring Bryan Cranston, officially returned last night for the highly anticipated second half of season 5. However, some iTunes users are realizing that the Season Pass they purchased for the first half of the season doesn’t grant them access to the second half.

The discrepancy comes from the fact that AMC has always promoted the fifth season as one season split into two parts. The first 8 episodes aired starting back in July 2012 and appeared on iTunes as “Season 5″. Some users that purchased a season pass then expected that it would include the last half of the season that kicked off last night. Unfortunately, when the second half of the season hit iTunes, it was...

Blogger Shawn Blanc has released his first book, “Delight Is in the Details,” about how to create work that delights your audience, whether you’re a designer, developer, or writer. The $29 package includes an ebook in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats, an audiobook version, and individual interviews with creators such as Federico Viticci of MacStories, developer Marco Arment, and designer Jory Raphael. After reading it and listening to some of the interviews, I can say that it’s a great source of advice and inspiration for anyone who creates products. You can also purchase the ebook alone for $20, but I recommend spending the extra $9 for the interviews.

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...

Another US regional wireless carrier is set to offer the iPhone this week. As of August 16th, Cincinnati Bell will offer Apple's iPhone 5 to customers. Cincinnati Bell is a 140-year-old telephone company in Ohio, and interestingly, it illustrates the dilemma many smaller regional carriers face when considering the iPhone. As the Cincinnati Enquirer explains:

Cincinnati Bell plans to start carrying Apple's iPhone 5 this month, which will be the first time the company has offered the popular phone. Why the company's opted against carrying the iPhone until now vividly illustrates its wireless dilemma: Apple can force carriers to buy a certain number of iPhones, and those carriers must eat the cost of any unsold iPhones. Carriers also typically subsidize the cost of the $600 iPhones, which they sell for about $200.

In order to afford the cost of the...

Overhauls the search feature and fixes some bugs. (Free, 40.6 MB)

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

Are you a professional user who feels abandoned by Apple? Ken Seagall, a long-time adviser to Apple, argues that Apple isn’t leaving pros behind, but is instead changing its professional tools to be accessible to more users. Seagall reveals that, at one point, Steve Jobs considered killing Apple’s professional products due to them requiring a lot of resources for a small, niche market — as opposed to the consumer market, which is larger and less demanding. While Seagall acknowledges that Apple will drive away some pros, he believes the company will succeed in advancing the market and empowering more users.

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...

We’re at last seeing the first fruits of Betaworks’ acquisition of Instapaper, the read-it-later service started by Marco Arment. Betaworks has unveiled a redesigned Web site for the service, sporting a new, more modern look. The company is encouraging users to give it a look and offer feedback. One feature that remains notably absent is the capability to sort saved articles into folders.

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.

Update: The iPhone version of Skype just received the same update with HD video calling support on iPhone 5.

Today Skype updated its iPad app with the ability to make HD quality video calls in addition to several other performance improvements. It’s a feature that’s been available on other platforms for quite sometime,...