AT&T has announced on its blog that it will eliminate its standard monthly voice and data plans for new customers, and instead offer Mobile Share plans. As AT&T explains:

Beginning Oct. 25, we're streamlining the plans we offer new customers. Our customers have expressed an overwhelming preference for simplified options that allow them to share data across multiple devices. New customers will have the choice of any of our Mobile Share plans, which start as low as $50 a month for a basic phone or $70 a month for a smartphone - both of which include unlimited talk and text and 300MB of data that can be shared. In 95 percent of the new customer scenarios, Mobile Share offers the same or better price with additional value.

It's important to note that if you are an existing AT&T customer, your plans...

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In ExtraBITS this week: T-Mobile cuts international roaming charges, lost Doctor Who episodes come to iTunes, and CloudPaint resurrects MacPaint for the Web.

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.

Notable software releases this week include KeyCue 7.0, Microsoft Office 2011 14.3.8, SpamSieve 2.9.9, and ClamXav 2.6.1.

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.

Earlier than...
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Some people love Apple's playful new iPhone case, while others experience Trypophobia at the sight of it. Meanwhile, a pair of developers decided to look at it from a whole new angle: backwards.

The devs at Bytesize noticed that if you put the new iPhone case on the wrong way -- that is, covering the screen with the small holes -- it resembles the old game Connect Four. So they decided to quickly code Flipcase, a free app which allows you to turn your iPhone and its case into a digital version of the classic tabletop game.

Flipcase is simple.Just tap one of the empty holes to fill it with a color. Your friend taps another hole to fill it with a different color...

Apple has sent out emails offering iTunes credit to certain customers who bought iPhoto, iMovie, or the iWork apps — Keynote, Pages, and Numbers — on Sept. 1 or later, before the company’s recent iPhone announcement. Those customers must have also purchased a new iOS device after Sept. 1. During…

Apple’s iPhone 5s is currently more than doubling the sales of iPhone 5c, according to a survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). Based on the survey, the iPhone 5s made up 64 percent of iPhone sales following its launch in September. The iPhone 5c accounted for 27 percent…

The parallax effect is the new "motion" wallpaper laying behind the app icons on iOS 7. The subtle effect is meant to give some depth to the flat design of iOS 7, though some have said it gives them motion sickness. However, if you like parallax and want to make your own wallpapers that work well with the effect, you may want to check out a great article by CNET's Jason Cipriani that describes the process.

Cipriani notes that photos depth and texture work best. If you pick a photo which has virtually no texture and is only a single color, don't expect to get much motion from your background.

Also, make photos at least 400 pixels wider and taller than your iOS device's screen resolution. This is because the wallpaper needs to shift in the background to give the appearance of motion. If your wallpaper is just limited to the iOS device's screen resolution it...

Following the recent release of 1Password 4 for Mac, AgileBits has updated the iOS version of 1Password to support the resurrected Wi-Fi Sync feature.

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.

A number of regional carriers in the U.S. previously announced October 1st availability of Apple’s new iPhone 5s and 5c, and today AT&T-owned prepaid carrier Cricket Wireless becomes the latest.

The carrier announced today that it will begin carrying both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c later this month on October 25:

Cricket Communications, Inc. today announced Cricket Wireless will offer iPhone 5s, the most forward thinking smartphone in the world, and iPhone 5c, the most colorful iPhone yet, to customers beginning on October 25, 2013. Customers may pre-register interest today at www....

If you’re holding off on upgrading to iOS 7, your iOS 6 device might be wasting significant amounts of space on the automatically downloaded update. Read on to learn why, and how you may be able to recover that space.

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.

With no word from Apple on the breakdown of its record-breaking iPhone sales between 5s and 5c (and no word expected during the company’s earnings call either), everyone is posting their estimates.

First to the punch was Localytics, who used iPhone connections to mobile and web apps to come up with an estimate of three to one in favor of the 5s. KGI’s Mingchi Kuo disagreed, using supply chain analysis to put the figures ...

The City Council of Cupertino is holding a vote this Tuesday, October 15, on whether or not to approve approve the building of Apple's Campus 2 "spaceship" headquarters. Before the vote, residents will be allowed to voice their opinions and, not wishing to leave anything to chance, Apple has sent its Cupertino neighbors the mailer below asking them to voice their support for the project to the council.

Apple doesn't make any grand economic promises about the campus, instead letting its stunning mockup imagery speak for itself and adds that Steve Jobs was the one to unveil Apple Campus 2 to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011. It's highly unlikely that the campus won't be approved, especially after the mailer shows residents what they'll be missing out on if it's not. Assuming it is approved on October 15, a second ratification vote in November will be required...

Photo: hindustantimes.com

Law360 (via BI)  reports that Apple is facing a second class action lawsuit filed on behalf of hourly-paid Apple Store employees who have to spend 10-15 minutes daily in unpaid time waiting in line to clock-in and for security checks when leaving the store.

Plaintiff and other Hourly Employees were and are required to wait in line for security checks for at least 10-15 minutes each day before leaving for their meal breaks and at the end of their shift after they had already clocked out. This daily 10-15 minute uncompensated waiting time during security checks was done in order to...

The newly released iPhone 5s is outselling its 2013 counterpart, the iPhone 5c, by a factor of more than two to one, though the iPhone 5c has carved out a respectable share of overall sales, according to new data.
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One of the amazing things about our new connected world of software development and easy access to consumers is how old-school games can find new life with entirely new audiences through iOS and OS X. Case in point? The Dragon's Lair 30th Anniversary app for iOS. Dragon's Lair is a really old arcade game. Seriously old, as in it was a laserdisc video game. I barely remember laserdiscs, and until recently, I had no idea the game spans three decades. I just vaguely remembered it from my youth -- more warm and fuzzy feelings than memory, really.

Apple has overhauled the way its various apps handle podcasts, leading to much confusion. Josh Centers brings some sense to the new status quo, at least to the extent that’s possible.

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.

If you’re impatiently waiting to see the new iPad 5 in the Apple Store, your wait is over – virtually, anyway. Martin Hajek has created some new renders that show the new slimmer-bezel iPad 5 in an Apple Store setting.

The iPad 5 is expected to have the same slim bezel design as the current iPad Mini, to be thinner and lighter than the current model, available in the same ...

Rather than make you sift through all of these projects, we’re rounding up the best or most notable projects from around the crowdfunding web and delivering them to you in a simple roundup. If there’s a project that you’ve backed – or even a project that you founded – be sure to leave a link below so it can be considered for the next roundup. Check out our complete list of roundups here.

• Multipath Router (Indiegogo project)
  Now that Siri on iOS 7 takes advantage of multipath, a smarter internet technology that can take advantage of all web connections at the same time, the technology has gotten a boost in exposure and consumer interest. Multipath Networks has come out with a new router that can take advantage of your regular DSL/cable connection and boost it using your...

Sony could be releasing a new full frame mirrorless camera in its Alpha range later this week, according to a rumor. The A7, partly shown in a low-resolution image, appears to have a similar basic body as the NEX-7, though it appears to have a raised section for a more central and higher viewfinder, along with a raised hot shoe....
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NYTimes.com:

Judge Allan H. Davis of Hancock County Probate Court, had declared Mr. Miller dead in 1994, several years after he mysteriously disappeared.

In fact, Mr. Miller, 61, had simply drifted away to work in Georgia and Florida, he told the judge on Monday in Findlay, Ohio. Now, he said, he wanted to apply for a driver’s license and needed to reactivate his Social Security number.

“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” Judge Davis told Mr. Miller.

Funny story but you’ve got to feel a little sorry for the guy.

∞ Read this on The Loop

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

1. Sources familiar with Apple’s plans told AllThingsD this week that the company’s fall iPad-update event will be held on October 22. Coincidentally (or not), that’s already a busy date, already allotted for a Nokia tablet event in Abu Dhabi and the start of Microsoft’s Surface 2 shipments.
2. Millions of people are familiar with Google’s products, but how do the company’s many employees get their work done? Liz Gannes got the inside scoop from Google’s chief information officer Ben Fried this week.
3. Last...

Dear Mr. Watterson is a documentary about one of my favorite comic strips of all time, Calvin & Hobbes. In theaters and available On Demand on November 15, 2013. Can’t wait.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple has an all-new-design 12-inch MacBook with a high-resolution display, and a new 9.7-inch sixth-generation iPad with an even higher pixel count than the current Retina display, both in the works for next year, according to well-connected insider Ming-Chi Kuo.
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TouchFire, makers of the TouchFire screen-top keyboard for the full-size iPad, are now back with a similar offering for the iPad mini. The company has reached its funding goal in a Kickstarter campaign for the iPad mini add-on, and the device will likely begin shipping to early supporters soon. In addition to a removable keyboard attachment for the iPad mini, TouchFire has branched off into a line of cases for full-size iPads and the iPad mini....
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theodp writes "The Mercury News has an exclusive sneak peek of Apple's planned headquarters in Cupertino, which Steve Jobs personally sought approval for in 2011. 'We found that rectangles or squares or long buildings or buildings with more than four stories would inhibit collaboration,' Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said, explaining the motivation behind the so-called Apple Ring. Nice, but if you wanted to hurt the feelings of the Design Gods at Apple, you could point out that, for all its $5 billion glory, what Apple calls 'the best office building ever' doesn't look all that different from an old-school $3.95 6250 BPI magnetic tape reel (still available on eBay, kids!)."

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Comet ISON has a split personality. Originally it was predicted by some astronomers that it might get bright enough to see during the day, but other astronomers have been saying it might not be spectacular and just run of the mill. Latest observations of the comet are encouraging for a good sky show. ISON is expected to be visible toward the end of November and into next year, and our friends behind the great astronomy app Distant Suns have come up with a free app to help you find ISON in your own local skies.

Comet Watch uses augmented reality and the compass and gyro of your iDevice to help you orient yourself to where the comet is, and make it easy to find it using your naked eye or...

This past June, Instagram rolled out a huge update to the popular photo sharing app. One of the big new features was support for video, a move which was likely in response to the popularity of Vine. One notable difference, though, is that videos on Instagram can be as long as 15 seconds, easily eclipsing the six second limit imposed on Vine.

In any event, an Instagram update yesterday removed the ability for users to disable auto-play on videos. Instead, videos will auto-play albeit on mute. Interestingly enough, Engadget points out that the update comes a few months before ads will begin appearing in users' photo streams.

Indeed, Instagram just a week ago noted that including both photo and video ads in user streams is part of their monetization strategy.

We have big ideas for the...

How may We Hate You?:

A guest calls from their room.

GUEST: Can you send someone to come get my bags?

CONCIERGE: I can’t do that, but I can connect you to the bellman.

GUEST: No, no. I need you to call them. I’ve been mean to them all week so they’re not going to help me.

This is a hilarious follow up to the “Thomas Cook dissatisfied vacationer complaints” we posted yesterday.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Is there a difference between iOS device data syncing via iCloud and iCloud backups? Or, are they the same? How does one manage all aspects of iOS backups to iCloud? Sandro Cuccia has the answers.

(full video below)

Yesterday, we saw Apple’s models for the new Campus 2 project. Today, Cupertino released this video of the council meeting where Apple presented. The Campus 2 video Apple produced looks like an Apple product video. I really like it, especially the Steve Jobs bits.

Apple also released an updated project plan including more solar roofing (below). 

PROPOSED PROJECT The proposed project is the redevelopment of the approximately 176-acre project site into a new campus for Apple, Inc. (Apple). Apple is a corporation, established in Cupertino in 1976, that designs and markets consumer...

When you have a MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air and an iPad, you have to make sure that they're constantly in use to maximize your investment. For TUAW reader Belle, that was a simple thing to accomplish as she has a couple of gorgeous feline friends who seem to enjoy the company of their human and the Apple products.

We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link.

Many thanks to Belle for sharing this photo with us.

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Almost simultaneously with an email announcement from Apple that it will be crediting recent buyers of the company's iOS "iLife" (iPhoto, iMovie) and "iWork" apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS) for part of their purchase price in light of making the suite free, the company's support boards report mysterious "Blue Screen of Death" type issues when using the apps on the iPhone 5s, most often when accessing the upgrade's new multitasking system. Users eligible for the refund will receive an email from Apple....
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Re-Compose's latest update to its music editing software, Liquid Notes, has its focus on user interface improvements. Released yesterday, its previous multi-function knob has been replaced by individual control elements for chord substitution, tension, and function. Other notable changes to Liquid Notes include more control while in track view, allowing for a high-level overview of one's musical arrangements on a single-instrument level. Ableton Live is now better supported, with the addition of a "multiple single-track import" feature to accommodate Live's lack of support for multi-channel MI...
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The latest edition of iLounge Weekly, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes early next week. iLounge Weekly is a summary of the week’s best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies.…

Learning a new language just got easier, more fun, and free. Vern Seward takes an exclusive look at Duolingo in this week's Free on iTunes.

A digital music news site was forced to take down a copy of an iTunes Radio contract it had been given and published -- opting to post the entire contract online rather than just discuss the portions it wanted to highlight, prompting a copyright claim from Apple. While some have claimed that Apple's beef was more about suppressing business details than protecting copyright, the site's tactics raise the question of whether its okay to break the law in the name of trying to garner hits....
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MojoKid writes "It's been a long time since many have seen a dreaded "blue screen of death" (BSoD), but it's back and in the in the most unlikeliest of places. Oddly enough, some Apple iPhone 5S owners are reporting BSoD errors, though they're a little different from the ones you may remember seeing on Windows desktops. Rather than spit out an obscure error code with a generic description, some iPhone 5S devices are suddenly turning blue before automatically restarting. The Numbers app in Apple's iWork suite, a free program with new iPhones, seems to be the primary cause, though BSoD behavior has also been observed in other applications, according to complaints in Apple's support forum."

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During Apple’s September event, the Tim Cook announced that all new iOS devices purchased after September 1st would be given the option to get iWork and most iLife apps for free. Some users who had purchased iOS devices after the first of the month, however, had already paid for those apps prior to the announcement, or paid for them after the announcement due to confusion about how to claim the free versions.

Today Apple began sending out emails to eligible users who paid for the apps informing them that their iTunes accounts would be credited for the software they should have gotten for free. The amount listed in the tips we’ve received varies from customer to customer, so it appears the credits are only for the apps that were paid for, not the total price of all five apps....

Teachers far and wide have already warmly embraced Apple's tablet for its wealth of educational possibilities, but a new VentureBeat article shows us a glimpse at how the iPad can be particularly beneficial for special needs students as well. Neil Virani, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, received a grant that helped him put an iPad into the hands of every one of his students, and it's paying off.

Virani uses the iPads to provide more flexibility in how he teaches. Using a wireless camera along with the TabCam app, he can carry out lessons anywhere and have the video streamed directly to each students' tablet. Using this, he can stream lessons from around his classroom or even outside, which...

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced the release of the business-class TS-x70 series Turbo NAS. Available in 4, 6 and 8-bay tower models, the TS-x70 series with scale-up support is engineered for the growing data needs of modern business environments, and can support up to 32TB of storage....
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iOS continues to grow as a game platform every day, with new titles and better-looking graphics constantly popping up. The latest beneficiaries of this growing game environment are Formula One fans thanks to the release of F1 Challenge, an officially licensed racing sim.

Featuring more than 90 challenges, each inspired by moments from the 2012 racing season, F1 Challenge offers racing fans plenty of content for its US$2.99 price tag. Racers can also compete in time trials, race events and short Grand Prix events featuring 12 cars at a time and more. The controls are even adjustable for both right- and left-handed players.

Players will be racing against the full lineup of drivers from the 2012 season, including Scuderia Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' Jenson Button and Lotus F1 Team's Kimi Räikkönen.

F1 Challenge is...

What are your plans this Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving weekend? How ‘bout taking a break from the festivities and updating the firmware on your MacBook Air? You can have a fun and productive weekend at the same time!

Apple on Thursday released the MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.7 for MacBook Air models released earlier this year. You’ll especially want to install this update if you are using Boot Camp and Windows on your laptop; it fixes a problem where a black screen appears when you have both an external optical drive and a USB thumb drive connected to the iMac while installing Windows 7 or 8. It also allows the MacBook Air to boot into OS X by default if you...

Once Rayman's mortal nemesis, the Rabbids will soon get their very own mobile adventure with Rabbids Big Bang, headed to iOS on October 17. According to a press release by developer Ubisoft (below), the game will span a total of 150 levels, offering outer space-flavored fun as the Rabbids pilot jetpacks to accomplish specific tasks.

Rabbids Big Bang will be the first proper Rabbids title to appear on iOS, with the only previous app, Rabbids Go Phone Again, being less of a game and more of a quirky virtual toybox. The game will sell for US$0.99 and will feature microtransactions, which likely means there will be a bounty of customization options and bonus items that you can pay to obtain without much effort.

Show full PR text

The San Jose Mercury News has posted a photo gallery of 23 shots of the architectural rendering of Apple's so-called "Spaceship HQ" the company is building in Cupertino.  Architectural rendering is a fancy name for a model, but this model is not only worthy of the world-class building it depicts, the photographs are fantastic. The model shows the building, which is still in the approval process, the grounds, the planned water features, the parking construct, and the houses that will be near to the new campus. We respect copyrights at The Mac Observer, so we'll tease you with a few thumbnails. If you want to see more, click through to the full gallery. There's a companion piece by Patrick May that describes his tour of the model from Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer.