One of the weaknesses of mobile web browsers is the lack of a simple way to view a website's source information. Sure you could wait until you got home to examine how a site is built, but we live in the future. Waiting till we get home is very 2012. That's where Snoopy comes in.

Snoopy is a bookmarklet that allows you to quickly view source, giving you a look at the doctype, the JS libraries the page uses, what analytics are used, a look at the raw source of the page and a number of other finer details.

There are a few ways to get Snoopy to work in Mobile Safari. The simplest method is to simply drag the bookmarklet from the page, here, up to your bookmarks bar. Turn on iCloud or use an iTunes bookmark sync to your iDevice to have the link show up in your mobile bookmarks.

If you use Google Chrome, simply save the bookmarklet...

Great quote. I actually stopped and thought about this one for a few minutes.

∞ Read this on The Loop

The "twin" problems developers targeting children with in-app purchases and parents who give children their iTunes password -- failing to grasp that it is tied to their credit card on file -- has yet again resulted in an excessive bill tied to in-app game purchases. In the latest case, a British six-year-old twin boy and girl were able to buy $1,590 worth of virtual pets and clothing across two different games. The father has called for tougher legislation for in-game app purchases....
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Flutter, the startup that created a gestured-based music controller for iTunes and Spotify, has been acquired by Google according to a splash page on the company’s website. The Flutter app used a computer’s webcam to detect hand gestures for starting, stopping, or switching songs on iOS, OS X, and Windows. Aside from iTunes and Spotify, Flutter is compatible with a variety other apps, including Quicktime Player, Rdio, and even Google Chrome.

Based on the existing Chrome integration (which allows for control of Netflix, YouTube, ...

Top Movies - A Zoomable Timeline of Movies is a free app that will appeal to movie fans. When you open it, you see posters for the top movies of the decade. Pinching zooms you in to see top films of a particular year, and zooming in all the way will show you films by actual release date. Tap a film poster and you'll either get a link to the Internet Movie Database, or you'll get to the iTunes Store where you can check out a preview or buy the movie.

The database goes all the way back to 1915, where you'll find Birth of A Nation, and yes, you can get that from iTunes.

While I liked the app, I have a couple of issues. What defines a top movie? Box office or popularity? Also, the app is inconsistent. Sometimes it goes to the App Store; sometimes to IMDb; but never...

Apple reportedly has pledged to fix a bug in iOS 7 that has been plaguing some users. This will be the second fix since the iOS 7 was released Sept. 18. The first was issued Sept. 20 to resolve a problem with the iPhone 5s fingerprint scanner. At least 16 iOS 7 problems have surfaced so far, including a bug that lets anyone bypass the iPhone's lockscreen, glitchy media controls, users receiving other people's messages or contacts, and complaints that the user interface causes motion sickness.

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:

• OtterBox iPhone 5 Defender Series case in multiple colors...

Anand Lal Shimpi and Brian Klug uncover just how bad companies are cheating in benchmark tests. Personally, I’m shocked that such reputable companies would do this. What’s next, are they going to rip off Apple’s UI?

∞ Read this on The Loop

In an interesting interview with Entertainment Weekly, Apple's Eddy Cue took some time to discuss Apple's iTunes Festival and the company's ambitions with respect to iTunes Radio, Apple's take on Pandora.

How do you gauge the success of something like the iTunes Festival? Is it audience reach? The level of artist that you get year after year?

You can't measure it through the sale of a product or song or any of that. It works by the fact that that we have all of these customers in the U.K. that want to come to it-with the 20 million ticket requests that we've had, the millions of people that watch it on their iOS devices, on Apple TV, and the Web. And that's always been growing on a year-to-year basis.

Notably, Cue explains that artists aren't paid for their performances at the festival. That, however, clearly hasn't stopped A-list performers from taking the...

Several of Apple's online services were briefly impacted by outages earlier today, according to Apple's System Status page. The worst affected the iTunes Store, the iBookstore, and the Mac and iOS App Stores between 1:28 and 2:57PM Eastern time, preventing some people from making any purchases. During the same time period, people may have been unable to use iTunes in the Cloud or iTunes Match, or restore purchases from an iCloud backup....
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Valve's Steam service runs sales on its plethora of titles quite frequently, but unfortunately not every game is available on Steam -- that's where the Not On Steam Sale comes in. Offering a total of 35 indie titles (many of them playable on Mac), the sale is a great way to stock up on a whole bunch of great games you may never have heard of.

The Not On Steam Sale is being hosted by Flippfly, the same folks behind the indie title Race the Sun. The sale ends a week from today, so if you're in the market for some quirky gaming on the cheap, be sure to swipe your credit card before it ends.

[via Joystiq]

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for October 2, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 Oct 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our...

David Schuetz, an Apple TV hobbyist, has been exploring some interesting behavior on pre-iOS 7 Apple TVs. After a bit of hacking, he discovered a way to enable an Add Site feature. This feature opens the possibility of adding custom sites to the Apple TV menu, letting him hook up a Raspberry Pi media server to his ATV. [The iOS 7-equivalent build of the Apple TV OS, released in September, is version number 6, as the ATV is a version number behind the iPhone and iPad. This hack works on v5.x and earlier-build Apple TVs. -Ed.]

He wrote up the details of his discovery on his company website and posted a Github repository containing a talk he recently gave on the subject. Although Schuetz points out the hack does not require a jailbreak, this approach is not suitable for either the weak of...

Martin Hajek has done it again. This time, he's pondered a possible Apple iPad mini strategy. "The question that I asked myself is: will Apple follow a similar s and c strategy for the iPad mini as it has for the iPhone 5s and 5c?" And then, in his brilliant way, Mr. Hajek has rendered some examples. Perhaps the addition of these colors, including gold, plus the TouchID will soon have ecstatic customers wound around the block on launch day. It could happen.

Apple’s fifth-generation iPad and second-generation iPad mini will both have 8MP cameras with larger apertures, according to KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo expects both devices to launch this year. Another report from earlier today expressed doubt that the second-generation iPad mini would launch this year — and if it…

With the announcement of the new iPads approaching later this month, rumors surrounding the new full-sized iPad have centered around a thinner, lighter design, but it’s been unclear if the new tablet will sport the Touch ID fingerprint authentication system from the iPhone 5s. I’ve heard that Apple’s most recent internal next-generation iPad prototypes have lacked Touch ID sensors, so it’s unclear if it will make the cut for this year. There are a few reasons why Touch ID wouldn’t make sense on an iPad this year:

• Exclusivity to iPhone 5s could help with sales for Apple’s flagship phone. Notice the iPhone 5c doesn’t have it.
• Supplies for Sapphire Crystal are obviously...

Some users may be experiencing difficulty making purchases on the iTunes Store, according to Apple’s system status page. We’ve heard mentions of issues beginning this morning, and Apple reports trouble starting around 1:30 PM EST. Game Center and FaceTime also experienced issues this afternoon, though the former may be somewhat difficult to notice.

.@MileyCyrus knocked us out with "Wrecking Ball." Listen to First Play: Miley Cyrus, Bangerz. #iTunesRadio (US only) tw.itunes.com/fCo—
  (@iTunes) October 02, 2013

Apple’s iMessage service has been suffering turbulence for days now, which is not reflected on the system status page as it may be limited to iOS 7 users. Apple told the WSJ it is...

Promotional material for a future Fitbit device has surfaced, showing the company as creating another wrist-based fitness tracker. The Force, mimicking much of the style of the Fitbit Flex, appears not to stray too far from the path of its predecessor, but this time the tracking watch will have an altimeter and an updated display....
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The New York Times on Monday published a fascinating article detailing how smartphones like the iPhone are opening up whole new avenues of opportunities for the visually impaired.

In one profile, the Times details how the iPhone has helped Luis Perez, who is close to being fully blind, take professional photographs. In assistive mode, for example, Perez's iPhone will tell him aloud how many heads are detected in a photo, thereby ensuring that everyone who should be in the photo is, in fact, in the photo.

The iPhone of course isn't the only smartphone that helps the visually impaired, but Apple has for years demonstrated a consistent focus on making its products and features more accessible to the masses.

The Times adds:

Apple's assistive technologies also include VoiceOver, which the company says is the world's...

The latest firmware updates fix improper battery function in Apple's laptops.

With the perspective of several weeks of usage by tens of millions of users, we look at four notable hassles we and other iOS 7 users have experienced, including crashes under low battery, iMessage not sending messages, Siri failing to respond, and some subtle audio-playing bugs and design problems.

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.

Apple is distributing new pre-release builds of iTunes, Safari, Java, and the OS X 10.8.5 Supplemental Update amongst employees, a report says. The Supplemental Update is said to have reached build 12F45, as opposed to the 12F42 code seen during an initial leak. Safari 6.1 is meanwhile up to build 537A134....
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One of my favorite things in the world, Cinefex magazine, has funded the digitization of its older magazines to its iPad app thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that has become the fourth most-funded publishing project on the site to date.

Cinefex, for those who don't know, is a magazine that takes a behind-the-scenes look at special effects work for Hollywood movies. Back in my film school days, I would get an issue when I could afford it, and pore over the photos and text, which took me backstage to some of the world's most talented artists, designers, animators and more.

Much of what Cinefex documented shows the evolution of effects work as well, not to mention rare glimpses into what made some of our favorite movies work. The photo of the Stay-Puft...

Having trouble with the date and time picker in iOS 7’s Clock app? It’s not you — the “hit areas” are indeed smaller, making it harder to use. Developer Sean Woodhouse deconstructs the picker in this blog post, comparing it to the iOS 6 version that may be clunkier, but is kinder to the fingers.

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.

Apple has released a slew of SMC Firmware Updates for all of its MacBook computers. The updates are for all MacBook models between mid-2012 and mid-2013, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Pro with Retina display and fixes significant battery issues many users were experiencing.

MacBook Pro's SMC Firmware Update 1.8

This update is recommended for MacBook Pro (mid 2012) models.

This update addresses rare issues where the battery unexpectedly stops functioning or the system hangs when the battery charge reaches less than one percent.

MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update 1.2

This update is recommended for 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (late 2012) models, and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (mid 2012) models.

This update addresses rare issues where the battery unexpectedly stops functioning or the system hangs when the battery charge...

If you've been waiting to grab the newest iPhone 5c and 5s, you may want to think about getting one now -- from Virgin Mobile. That's because the carrier is offering the unlocked 16 GB models of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c for US$100 less than Apple's normal retail price, notes AppleInsider.

The 16 GB iPhone 5s normally costs $650 unlocked from Apple, but customers can snap it up for only $550 at Virgin Mobile. Likewise, the 16 GB iPhone 5c normally costs $550 unlocked from Apple, but it's currently $450 at Virgin Mobile. The new iPhones went on sale for the first time at Virgin Mobile yesterday. There's no word from the company if the prices on these 16 GB iPhones are an introductory price or the standard price--but either way, they're a great deal.

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Today, Apple has begun seeding new versions of OS X Mountain Lion, iTunes, Safari and Java to Apple employees. The new OS X build is version 10.8.5, and it is a supplemental update to the version that was publicly released last month. Last week, we noted that Apple was preparing this new version with bug fixes for MacBook Airs, USB, and HDMI, and today’s new seed is a higher build number (12F45 versus 12F42). This indicates that Apple is making progress on the release and that the launch is nearing for customers…

In addition to...

German iCloud users can now receive push email notifications again, Apple has confirmed. The feature was restored last night after a delay of more than 19 months, caused by a dispute with Google’s Motorola Mobility which forced Apple to deactivate the notifications. Apple reportedly had to post a $132…

With rumors of an October Apple even to introduce new iPad models circulating, one report claims we may not see a Retina Display version of the iPad mini until next year. The reasoning for skipping a 2013 release is that display supplies may not be available in high enough quantities to meet Apple's needs.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Unless Apple can get iPad mini-sized Retina Displays in sufficient quantities, which doesn't seem likely based on today's report, it really may be 2014 before the company releases the next version. The full-size iPad, however, is ripe for an update and that most likely will come this month.

A senior vice president for Apple supplier Qualcomm says the 64-bit A7 chip in Apple's iPhone 5s is more a marketing gimmick than a development that will lead to real consumer benefits, but at the same time appeared to hint that the chip maker is planning a future 64-bit processor of its own.
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Apple is working on a solution for a known iOS 7 glitch that is disrupting iMessage, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some users have found that iMessages appear to go through, only to later discover that the message has not actually been delivered. “We are aware of an issue…

Author Tom Clancy has passed away at age 66.

Sam Radford talks about Apple’s 5GB of iCloud storage space and how the company has to increase the limit. I agree with Sam. Years ago 5GB was a lot of space, but if Apple wants users to utilize iCloud and all of its services, they are going to have to increase the limits.

∞ Read this on The Loop

CableLabs senior vice president of Technology Development Jean-François Mulé has a new gig working for Apple on an mystery project he called "something big." Mr. Mulé started working for Apple in September, and his experience in the cable television industry could be a hint that the iPhone and iPad maker has big plans for its Apple TV set top box.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Apple has been snatching up some serious talent this year. The company's competition in the mobile space, wearable technolog market, and home entertainment have plenty of reasons to step up their games or risk getting bowled over and left behind.

As is typically the case with any major iOS update, the release of iOS 7 has brought with it a small number of bugs. One such bug is a glitch in iMessage wherein some users aren't receiving iMessages sent to them while others are finding that they can't send iMessages at all. While restarting a troubled iOS device seems to alleviate the issue for some, this solution reportedly doesn't do the trick for everyone.

To that end, Apple late on Tuesday night confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that it is aware of the issue and plans to implement a fix in an upcoming software update.

"We are aware of an issue that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users, and we will have a fix available in an upcoming software update," Apple said in a statement. "In the meantime, we encourage any users having problems to...

Part of me marvels at the coolness of this water slide. But the other side of me is just plain scared.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue says that Cupertino will lean on the newly-launched iTunes Radio to enhance discoverability for albums that make their streaming debut on the iTunes Store.
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German iCloud users may use push again, reports FOSS Patents. Push iCloud email went live again at 9PM local time in Germany last night, more than 19 months after Google's Motorola used a patent the company held to bar Apple from offering its iCloud users in the country the popular feature.

Google's patent was found to be invalid on four previous occasions, but the company still insisted on moving forwards with the infringement case against Apple in Germany, for which Apple had to put up a US$132 million bond. Ultimately, this will come back to bite Google in the end however, as Florian Mueller explains:

But, very disappointingly, Google again and again refused to stipulate to the only appropriate thing to do under the circumstances: an unconditional stay of the enforcement of this injunction. For a company that has criticized assertions of "bogus patents", this behavior is,...

Jawbone has put its Mini Jambox portable Bluetooth speaker, revealed by the company last month, on sale in the United States. The speaker, capable of connecting to an accompanying iOS and Android mobile app that collects playlists from iTunes, Rdio and Spotify for playback, is available to buy for $180 through Jawbone's website....
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From 9to5Toys.com:

We knew Virgin Mobile was launching the iPhone 5s and 5c today, but we weren’t expecting a $100-off starting price. That’s what’s on offer today from the Sprint subsidiary (Sprint will also knock off $100 the subsidized plans if you are a new customer – so much for loyalty benefits).

Virgin’s plans are the least expensive out there, especially considering they include unlimited data and start at $30/month.

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Apple has begun training its AppleCare support staff on its upcoming OS X Mavericks, according to several sources. These sources say that training has begun today, and support staff will be required to learn about the operating system’s new features, installation process, and troubleshooting options for at least six hours over the course of the next few weeks…

Training on new Finder enhancements

The training is said to be similar in secrecy and style to the iOS...

Of the $1.48 trillion in cash held by U.S. non-financial companies as of June 30, Apple's $147 billion in reserves accounted for 10 percent of all companies, new data shows.
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The ongoing battle between Apple and Samsung may be more commonly fought in the courtroom than on social media, but Apple on Tuesday apparently made an exception following the publication of a report suggesting that Samsung may be artificially boosting the benchmark scores of its new Galaxy Note 3. "Shenanigans" tweeted Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, along with a link to the story in question.

Reuters is reporting that problems with the rumored retina display for the iPad Mini 2 mean that it will be available only in limited quantities when it launches this year, with full-scale production pushed into 2014.

Apple Inc will be unable to widely roll out a new version of the iPad Mini with a high-resolution “retina” display this month, people who work in the company’s supply chain said [...]

Given the time required to ramp up screen production, a retina display-equipped iPad Mini would not be available in large volumes until early next year, the sources said.

The delays are said to be due to the display suppliers – believed to be Samsung, LG and Sharp – having difficulties meeting the strict power-saving specifications...

Apple Inc. said it’s aware of a glitch in iOS 7 that is disrupting some iMessage texts and is working on a fix to quell mounting complaints after the company released the biggest overhaul of its iPhone operating system in years.

Annoyed iOS users took to Twitter and Apple’s message boards to report problems sending messages through iMessage, which provides free texting between users of Apple devices. It also converts those messages into SMS texts for non-iOS users.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Tim Cook says TV continues to be an area of great interest to Apple and the company has a “grand vision” for it. Could its latest hire be part of a move to realize it?

Last month, Apple hired cable television industry veteran Jean-François Mulé away from CableLabs, a sort of think tank for the cable TV industry. The company gave him the title of engineering director and assigned him to an undisclosed project that Mulé enthusiastically describes on his LinkedIn page as “something big.”

Just what that means, if it means anything, is hard to say. But given his background and expertise in cable engineering — Mulé spent the last two years as SVP of technology development at CableLabs — it seems likely that he will be involved somehow in the...

Andrew Cunningham

A small number of users have been noticing issues with Apple's iMessage service since the iOS 7 update was released last month. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the company acknowledged that there was a problem and said that it would be fixed in an upcoming software update.

“We are aware of an issue that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users, and we will have a fix available in an upcoming software update,” Apple said. “In the meantime, we encourage any users having problems to reference our troubleshooting documents or contact AppleCare to help resolve their issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes impacted users.”

We haven't had any iMessage issues with our own iDevices since updating to iOS 7, but according to several posts on the Apple...

Apple on Tuesday said it was aware of an issue a number of iPhone users have been experiencing with iMessage since upgrading to iOS 7, noting that a fix is coming soon to patch the problem.
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