The U.S. Department of Justice has filed its response with the court to Apple's assertion that Judge Cote made errors during their ebook price fixing trial, and criticized publishers for backing the iPad and iPhone maker. The DOJ claimed that publishers have "banded together," just as they did to artificially force book prices up.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Both Apple and the DOJ are posturing ahead of their hearing today, which is business as usual. What's more important is how well they present their arguments to Judge Cote.

This afternoon, Apple and the DOJ will be in court to decide the fate of the agency model implementation in the iBookstore. The court has already ruled that Apple has been working with publishers to price-fix and raise the prices of ebooks, but now a punishment must be determined.

This morning, the DOJ responded to publishers’ concerns about the remedies and claimed that, since they are even responding together, they have shown once again how they are banded together (PDF of full response - via GigaOM):

Indeed, the very fact that the Publisher Defendants have banded together once again, this time to jointly oppose two provisions in the Proposed Final Judgment that they believe could result in lower...

The US Department of Justice has filed a response to the book publishing industry's defense of Apple in light of possible settlement terms that could impose strict restrictions on Apple, and which the publishers suggest might alter the terms of their own settlements over allegations of fixing e-book prices. DoJ attorney Lawrence Buterman contends that the unified defense shows that the publishers have "banded together once again," as they did when conspiring to inflate prices and undermine Amazon. The publishers' motion "only highlights why it is necessary to ensure that Apple (and hopefully...
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Executives at BlackBerry are reportedly considering taking their struggling company private, but a new analysis suggests the company could stay public ??if management were to accept the fact that it is now a smaller smartphone company.
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Aero (US$0.99) is a new weather app that's taken many design cues from the upcoming release of iOS 7, particularly the redesigned weather app that was demoed at Apple's last media event and is currently demoed on Apple's iOS 7 info page.

From the icon to the font to the live animations that illustrate whether it's snowing, raining or sunny, at a glance, you could be forgiven for thinking Aero is the new iOS 7 weather app. Even the menu and option buttons look and feel similar to what's expected from iOS 7. But on closer inspection, it soon becomes clear that, though heavily influenced, Aero is an independent weather app and not entirely a carbon copy.

In terms of forecasting the weather, Aero ticks all the boxes a standard weather app does. It's got five-day and hour-by-hour forecasts, humidity,...

The LA Times has a good breakdown of what's happening today. Today Apple has three coincidental rulings set to happen. The first is with the ITC, the same group who handed Apple a loss to Samsung, which was then vetoed by the president (something that hasn't happened in decades). In this case, the ITC will be ruling on four more patents which Apple claims Samsung violated. The Korean government said it will also be watching -- for favoritism.

Then there's a hearing related to the $1 billion judgement against Samsung for inringement. That settlement amount was later reduced to $450 million, but today's Washington, D.C...

Science is cool, and so is music. Put the two together and you get something even cooler: Symphony of Science. This amazingly cool website is loaded with high quality videos that mix clips from videos and documentaries on various topics with music to make compelling and entertaining educational clips. The site includes videos on Dinosaurs, the beginning of the Universe, the human brain, our global climate, stars, and more. The video remixes were made by John D. Boswell who has done similar projects for organizations such as NPR, and they're all worth checking out.

President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a number of other technology executives yesterday to discuss government surveillance, according to Politico. Thursday’s meeting was one of “a number of discussions” the Obama administration is holding on surveillance, which an aide said is part of the president’s…

A repair firm, Macfixit Australia, is claiming to have obtained a front panel and digitizer assembly for the fifth-generation iPad. The parts have the same display area as the fourth-gen iPad, but appear to fall in line with recently-leaked rear shells, which use thinner side bezels taking after the iPad mini. There are also other, more technical differences....
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On Friday, software giant Google released version 7.1.1.1888 of its popular Google Earth program. The new version, a 45 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

- The “Enable Controller” option is now default on. If you have an uncalibrated external controller (such as a gaming joystick) connected to your computer, this could result in the Earth spinning with arrows displaying to signify movement. As a workaround, we suggest the following:

Turning off “Enable Controller” in the “Navigation” tab of Options/Preferences

Unplugging your external controller, or

Recalibrating your external controller.

Google Earth 7.1.1.1888 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us...

On Friday, version 6.7.59.373 of the Skype VoIP application was released. The new version, a 40 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes:

Improved:
- Search in Skype for Mac has been completely overhauled. Finding the right conversation is now faster than ever. From the toolbar, just enter a term in the search field and it will return a menu of the most relevant conversations. From the same menu, you can also use the Search Messages action item to explore your complete conversation history. Just double-click on a message to jump directly to it. Finally, adding a contact and calling phone numbers straight from search is more discoverable and easier than ever.

Resolved Issues:
- [Calling] Skype hangs when closing application during an active...

Macworld’s Jon Seff has some recommendations for apps that can help you get the most out of iTunes.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Google yesterday announced that it has switched on "relevant ads" in Google Maps for iOS and Android. In a blog posting announcing the ads, Google said:

Relevant ads on the Google Maps app can now appear at the bottom of the screen after a user performs a search. They include a title, ad text, and a link to get directions. Users can tap or swipe upward to see more information - this is a new click type known as "Get location details" and results in a standard CPC charge.

When users click on an ad to get location details, they'll see additional information such as the business's address, phone number, photos, reviews and more. From here, there are a number of paid and free click actions they can take. Free actions include saving business information for later, sharing a business with a friend, or...

Three of the biggest vendors of ebook readers, Amazon, Kobo, and Sony, are petitioning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a permanent exemption for ebook readers from federal accessibility laws. Federal law requires “advanced communication services,” to be fully accessible to the disabled. However, the companies are arguing that ebook readers shouldn’t fall into that category, since they are limited devices specifically designed to only display text. If you’d like to voice your opinion, the FCC is accepting comments on the petition through 3 September 2013.

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...

Crayons are a standard part of any kid's art world, and with the Crayon Bandolier Belt they can keep theirs at the ready for spontaneous bursts of creativity. The bandolier includes 24 slots -- enough to hold all of the crayons it ships with -- and is made from washable fabric in case making art gets messy. It's priced at US$24.99 and is available at Think Geek. Our only disappointment is that it doesn't come in adult sizes.

If you're a film, animation, or Disney junkie, you're going to love the latest app Disney has released for iOS. Disney Animated explores the history and animation of all 53 animated Disney films. The app is a love letter to the company that was so important in the history of animation.

Users can explore every single Disney animated film from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to their latest upcoming film, called Frozen. For each film, users will find interactive pictures, animated clips with flipbook-style controls, animated timelines, and the ability to animate 3-D models of Disney characters.

The app also contains an unabridged version of the Principles of Animation chapter from The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston along with dozens of other goodies. From the release notes:

o. Reveal work-in-progress animation steps and visual effects...

The iPad is great for viewing photos, but it's terrible for managing them. One of the most tedious tasks is deleting large blocks of images from your camera roll. Instead of tapping each photo one-by-one, we show you how to use your Mac's Image Capture app to perform the task in just a few seconds.

Lodsys, who has made a business out of suing iOS app developers, has dismissed its lawsuit against TMSOFT — perhaps most famous for its White Noise apps for iOS and Mac. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Lodsys can never again sue TMSOFT for patent violations. TMSOFT was assisted by the Public Patent Foundation (PPF), which represents small businesses from patent infringement litigation pro bono. Dan Ravicher of PPF said that he donated about $190,000 of his time to help TMSOFT defend itself — Lodsys only had to spend $450 to file the lawsuit. As part of the settlement, TMSOFT had to agree to never sue Lodsys over patents, dismiss all motions with prejudice — including motions to recover attorney fees, and to donate to a mutually agreeable charity — which Lodsys will match.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text...

Five major publishers may be collateral damage in the antitrust spat between Apple and the U.S. Department of Justice. In a court filing opposing the DoJ's proposed relief in the antitrust case it won against Apple, the publishers contend the proposal would punish them by killing the agency model for selling e-books. "The proposed provisions would have that effect by preventing Apple from entering into any agreements that limit its ability to discount e-books for five years," the publishers argue in their filing.

If you use iTunes regularly, you probably have a litany of frustrations with the software, as well as a list of “I wish it did this” items. I know I do. Here are five tools that will help bend iTunes to your will.

1. TuneSpan

When you had only a bunch of albums encoded as 128-kbps MP3 files, your iTunes library was probably a very manageable size. But add in TV shows, movies, home videos, and Apple Lossless CD rips, and even the mightiest of hard drives can start to get cramped. My iTunes library, for example, has ballooned to 400GB. (Those darn 1080p videos of my kids take up a lot of room, let me tell you.)

TuneSpan lets you relocate ("span") iTunes video and music files across multiple hard drives.

So what’s the solution? You could buy a big external drive and...

Streaming media set-top box maker Roku updated its iOS app on Thursday with a thus-far exclusive feature: the app can now stream some video content wirelessly to various models of Roku set-top devices, expanding the company's "Play on Roku" feature which previously allowed only photos and music. The new function is limited to streaming only videos on the user's Camera Roll, and is thus intended to share self-shot videos by and large by transferring them wireless to an HDTV. Version 2.3 also includes bug fixes and performance enhancements....
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U.S. President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and other technology company executives today to discuss government surveillance, according to a report from Politico. Earlier this week, according to the report, the President and his staff began holding confidential meetings about surveillance tactics and topics such as the recent NSA-related controversies with company executives and other members of pertinent organizations.

Those invited were mostly senior executives, including Cook, Stephenson and Cerf, as well as representatives of groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and Gigi Sohn, the leader of Public Knowledge, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. Each declined comment for this story.

The report names AT&T CEO...

All the way back in January, we posted the first photographs of the back shell for the next-generation full-sized iPad with Retina Display. According to these photos, the next 9.7-inch iPad will look like a larger iPad mini, complete with thinner bezels. Since then, videos and some photos of the front panel and digitizer for the future product have also emerged.

Today, a series of new shots have emerged at repair shop...

The ongoing patent fight between Samsung and Apple will play out on two separate stages on Friday.

The U.S. International Trade Commission is set to rule on whether certain Samsung products infringe on Apple technology and, if so, whether to issue an exclusion order banning the import of those products.

Both Apple and Samsung have sued each other in multiple jurisdictions in many countries over various patent complaints. The ITC had earlier issued an order banning the import of some older iPhone and iPad products but the Obama Administration stepped in last weekend to veto that move.

Meanwhile, both companies are also due in federal court in Washington D.C. to argue over whether Apple should...

Butterfly Sky by Funday Factory was one of just a handful of apps that scored funding from the Kiip 2013 Build Fund, which gives indie developers with promising ideas the chance to create their apps. After playing severals hours of the game, I can safely say that the awarded funding was well spent.

You play as Brian, a small creature -- I hesitate to say "person" because Brian is really just a face with arms and legs -- who lives on the back of a cheerful whale. It's up to you to help feed the whale and continue your journey to new areas, but this whale is strange: he only eats butterflies.

The fun begins with your aquatic friend launching you high into the sky in search of his favorite food, and luckily the heavens are chock full of them. As you collect the butterflies you must bounce along floating clouds using your butt, with bonus points being awarded to...

Google on Thursday updated its iBooks-like Google Play Books port, bringing in-app rentals, highlighting and note taking for scanned books, as well as other features to the iOS title.
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While negotiations to restore CBS programming to Time Warner Cable are underway, reports indicate that they aren't going well. A CBS executive said today that the talks have "gone badly off course" and blamed Time Warner for forcing conditions on the broadcast agreement that would hamper CBS's efforts to work with streaming companies such as Netflix, Apple's iTunes, and Amazon....
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Today we’re introducing an updated ad experience we think is more attractive for users and more effective for advertisers.

Oh thank you, thank you Google, I really wanted ads in Google Maps.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Legendary Macintosh icon designer and member of the original Mac team Susan Kare has issued two new 32x32 icons, each one a "pixel portrait" of either Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs or his doppelgänger in the new independent biopic Jobs, Ashton Kutcher. The movie tie-in also offers larger icon portraits of the two men available from Kare's website, with the film itself opening in cinemas on August 16. Kare worked for both Apple and NeXT as a creative director throughout the 1980s....
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Here’s another name-brand service for Apple TV: Apple plans on bringing a new app from Vevo, the music video service, to its Web-to-TV box.

Vevo is building the app, after getting a go-ahead nod from Apple, and had planned on getting it on the device this month, according to people familiar with the project.

But the app will still need final approval from Apple, which has so far only brought a handful of outside programs to Apple TV.

The free app is supposed to feature a “lean-back” version of Vevo, with programmed channels, but will also feature on-demand programming. Advertising Age reported on the Vevo app earlier today.

Vevo already has apps on a variety of devices, including Apple’s other iOS gadgets, as well as the Xbox 360 and the Roku Web TV box.

Roku has what...

Over at The Economist, our own Glenn Fleishman has discovered why certain Xerox copiers were mixing up numbers on copies. The culprit turns out to be the JBIG2 compression algorithm, which is not enabled by default, and copiers display a clear warning if it is enabled. JBIG2 is a super-high form of compression, that duplicates areas that look similar. It’s popular among business with extreme bandwidth requirements, such as remote oil rigs, but should not be enabled unless absolutely necessary.

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...

Google announced back in July during its Google I/O keynote that it would be rolling out textbooks to Google Play Books sometime in August, and today the listings for textbooks have finally arrived in the store via an update to the iOS app. The textbooks get their own section in the Google Play Books store, and are currently only available to users in the US.

Google’s new textbooks are available to purchase, but some titles will offer a rental option that allows users to rent the book for a lower-cost over a six month period. Google is also providing free samples for the new textbooks. The service is currently available through the Google Play Books apps on Android,...

In an effort to further compete with the Apple TV, Roku has just updated its iOS app with a new AirPlay-like feature. Last fall, the app was updated with a new “Play on Roku” feature that let you beam music and photos to your TV, and now that feature has been further expanded upon to support videos.

The process for videos works just as it does for music and photos. Within the app, tap the Play on Roku button and then the video menu to select something to play.

The biggest downside to this feature, however, is that it only works with content you’ve shot with your iOS device, not videos/movies/TV stored in the actual Videos app like Apple’s AirPlay functionality.

The feature is supported on the Roku 2, Roku 3, Roku LT, Roku HD, and Streaming Stick and the update is ...

Next Media Animation of Taiwan has posted a video mocking mainland China's PR campaign against Apple.  NMA focuses on cultural and political commentary, especially relating to mainland China. In the written description of the video defending Apple (spotted by AppleInsider), NMA said, "China's state TV and press have lined up to wage a smear campaign against Apple, and have scare[d] customers to build support for domestic phone brands including Huawei, ZTE and Xiaomi." Calling the state media's reports on Apple "false," NMA also tied the campaign to the U.S. accusing Chinese companies of building back doors into their communications hardware and banning it from use in the U.S. (a connection I've suggested several times). Check out the video, which should be clear, even though it's narrated in Chinese. Note the awesome fake Apple Store that police ignore and the fake "iPhone 6" that looks like a Motorola DynaTAC. It's a clever bit of satire.

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Music video company Vevo is at work on a native Apple TV app, according to sources. The people say that the app will feature 24/7 music videos, as on Vevo TV, an existing service for the web and devices like the Xbox 360. The Apple TV app may additionally display ads formatted specifically for televisions....
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Xerox Star

There are few more enduring manifestations of user interface technology than that of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) Desktop. Pioneered by engineers at Xerox PARC, refined by Steve Jobs and Apple and brought to masses and ingrained into our daily lives by Microsoft Windows, it is almost the first thing that comes to mind when we think of using a computer. The natural feel of choosing icons with a gesture, as opposed to memorizing command lines, somewhat demystified computers. This made them accessible to a whole new group of users, and did away with the need for intensive training and education.

The desktop is perhaps the single most important development in productivity in the history of computing. Whether you use Windows, OSX, or perhaps one of the several flavors of Linux, the same basic principles apply. Point and click; or more...

Then there was the one about the TSA agent who stole an iPad and how ABC used Apple's Find My iPad (usually known as Find My iPhone) service to catch him. This story is almost a year old (spotted at reddit), but if you missed it then, you should watch it now. ABC News set up a sting with iPads and cash at airports with high incidents of missing item reports. Most of their sting plants made it through TSA and baggage screening just fine, but one iPad deliberately left behind at a checkpoint went missing. ABC News then used Find My iPad to track it down to...get this...a TSA agent's home. The agent panicked when confronted by the ABC reporter and produced the iPad. Better yet, he tried to blame it on his wife. Classy, sir.

Music video site Vevo is developing an Apple TV app that will play its 24/7 music video channel, according to AdAge. The app would play Vevo TV, a traditional music video channel that plays videos around the clock without letting viewers select which videos they want to watch. Vevo…

Apple has continued their global expansion of iTunes in the Cloud for Movies with the addition of eight new markets for the service. Movie fans in Japan, Austria, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Switzerland can now re-download they've previously purchased in iTunes from the cloud.

Since launching in 2011 as a music service iTunes in the Cloud has slowly expanded to cover new markets and services. In 2012 support was added for Movies, but the roll out to different markets around the world has been slow. For a complete list of countries where the service is currently not available head over to Apple Support.

Apple adds movies in the cloud for Japan, others originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on...

Shawn Blanc has a great article on how he recently self-published his new book, including the tools he used and the problems he ran into. Worth a read.

∞ Read this on The Loop

T-Mobile CEO John Legere downplayed the importance of Apple's iPhone in the company's outstanding second quarter results. He made sure to promise he would continue doing business with Apple, however, and hinted at an "array" of new products that were on the way.

It's rare for individuals and companies to create one successful product after another, Steve Jobs and Apple being the notable exception. Today marks the official release of MixBit for iPhone, a free video app from Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the two founders of a little success called YouTube.

What makes MixBit different from the fairly recent video sharing apps like Vine and the updated Instagram? Well, while you can shoot video bits as short as one second long and up to 16 seconds long, you can also stitch up to 256 of those bits together to create an hour-long opus. [The MixBit approach is pretty different from the socially-minded CrowdFlik, but both do involve stitching short clips together to deliver a full video experience. -Ed.]

MixBit has a surprisingly iOS 7-like minimal interface, so it...

Just Mobile is an accessory design shop with a difference: they love to do most of their work in Jony Ive's favorite material, aluminum. Recently the company announced two new products: the AluDisc (US$69.95) for iMac and Thunderbolt Display and the AluPocket ($29.95) for iPhone. Both are solid additions to the award-winning lineup of Just Mobile products, and we'll be giving away one of each at the end of this review.

AluDisc

The idea of a 360° rotating turntable is nothing new -- Rain Design's i360 has been available for years. But Just Mobile has taken the idea to a much more stylish conclusion. The AluDisc is made from a single piece of aluminum with a radial finish that's quite attractive. It sits on a thin ball-bearing mount that...

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.

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Daily Update for August 8, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our...

VEVO, the popular music video streaming service, is currently developing a new Apple TV application, according to AdAge. The VEVO TV app will, of course, stream content 24/7, and VEVO already has an app for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, Android, Microsoft devices, and the Roku.

Roku integration into the Apple TV would be as an “app” much like HBO, Hulu, ESPN, and YouTube. The rumored addition of VEVO comes at a time where Apple and Time Warner Cable are...

Inexpensive F-BOMB sensors that form CreepyDOL, a distributed network for stalking people using mobile Wi-Fi devices. Brendan O'Connor

You may not know it, but the smartphone in your pocket is spilling some of your deepest secrets to anyone who takes the time to listen. It knows what time you left the bar last night, the number of times per day you take a cappuccino break, even the dating website you use. And because the information is leaked in dribs and drabs, no one seems to notice. Until now.

Enter CreepyDOL, a low-cost, distributed network of Wi-Fi sensors that stalks people as they move about neighborhoods or even entire cities. At 4.5 inches by 3.5 inches by 1.25 inches, each node is small enough to be slipped into a wall socket at the near-by gym, cafe, or break room. And with the ability for each one to share the Internet traffic it collects with every other node, the system can assemble a...

Online music service Rdio has launched a series of station-related upgrades. Central to these is "You FM," a Pandora-like station which plays a listener's favorite tracks, along with related ones for variety. Similiarly, new Friend FM stations give people a sample of their friends' tastes....
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