We’re taking a brief break from building an email issue of TidBITS next week in honor of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, so look for the next issue in your mailbox on 3 June 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 long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Two readers ask Nancy Carroll Gravley questions about the Dock and Passwords.

Rain is again seeping into the underground store of Apple's iconic Fifth Avenue NYC store, disrupting operations as staff move electronics out of harm's way and move receptacles to catch leaking water coming into the store. Recent heavy rains early in May damaged the store, flooding the below-ground level after a slow leak turned into a full-fledged pouring incursion. The problem is thought to be a drainage issue....  ...

Starting this Sunday, electronics retailer Best Buy will be offering $50 off the purchase of any new iPhone model with a service contract, marking a rare discount opportunity for Apple's smartphone lineup.   ...

Weather woes continue at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City, as rain is once again seeping into the retail location, and now Apple's SoHo location is said to have been suffering from the same problem.   ...

Moshi has announced that it will be releasing a second generation of its Codex MacBook cases later this summer. Designed in variants for the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro, the updated Codex case features a new binding for added durability and is now fully approved by the TSA. Other features include full access to all ports, a water-resistant coating, and soft interiors for protection from shocks and scratches. Codex will be available in both Steel Black and Brushed Titanium for the 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro for $75. It will be available in Steel Black for the 11-i... ...

Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple could face a difficult time winning its court case against the U.S. Department of Justice over e-book pricing, according to the federal judge overseeing the trial. 'I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books,' U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said during a May 23 pretrial hearing, according to Reuters, 'and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that.' Apple's legal counsel is a bit perturbed over her comments. 'We strongly disagree with the court's preliminary statements about the case today,' Apple lawyer Orin Snyder wrote in a statement also reprinted by Reuters. The Justice Department has asserted that Apple, along with those publishers, conspired to raise retail e-book prices in tandem 'and eliminate price competition, substantially increasing prices paid by...

Logitech has announced a new iPad keyboard designed specifically for classroom use. Featuring a spill-resistant design and full sized keys, the Wired Keyboard for iPad requires users to simply plug in either the Lighting or 30-pin connector to begin typing. In addition to the standard QWERTY keys, the keyboard also offers several shortcuts for quick access to function such as copy and paste, Siri, and app switching. The Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad with the Lightning Connector is expected to be available in the US in August 2013, while the 30-pin model is planned to launch in October 2013.... ...

AllThingsD is reporting that Best Buy plans to begin a monthlong iPhone sale on Sunday. iPhone prices will drop by US$50 when bought in conjunction with a two-year contract from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. All current models of the iPhone -- iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 -- are included.

This coming Monday in the United States is Memorial Day, and the weekend prior is a big shoppers' weekend. Best Buy is also offering discounts on several popular Android handsets, but those discounts are expected to expire on June 1. There's no word on why Best Buy's iPhone sale will carry on for an entire month, but it could be that the company is trying to move inventory before any potential iPhone announcements this summer.

Best Buy to begin month-long iPhone sale on Sunday...

Apple has dropped its prices on refurbished fourth-generation iPads and iPad minis in its online store. Refurbished fourth-generation iPads are now $419, $499, and $579 for Wi-Fi 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models, and $529, $609, and $689 for corresponding Wi-Fi + Cellular models. Refurbished iPad…

Here’s an amusing little image for your Friday: the screenshot above is a clip from Apple’s newest “Music Every Day” ad, which was posted on their YouTube channel last night.

If you pay attention at around 0:30 in the commercial, you’ll see what would almost appear to be someone wearing a large, wrist-device while listening to music on their iPhone.

While obviously Apple wouldn’t leak a real product through their advertisements, we can’t help but think that this is perhaps a subtle troll on Apple’s part.

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Like music? Like making it? Discovering new artists? Figuring out who the heck is singing that song on the TV commercial? We’ve got you covered in this week’s roundup of new and updated iOS apps.

The Doors

Father! Yes son? I want to buy the $5 The Doors app for iPad, which features more than 700 images and over 100 music and sound clips featuring Oliver Stone’s favorite band. There are also a half-dozen short films—we call them videos now—featuring some of the band’s most beloved songs. C’mon baby, take a chance with us.

Guitar! by Smule

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A report in The New York Times on Steve Jobs' widow and anonymous charitable giving in Silicon Valley has revealed that Steve Jobs was more involved in philanthropic causes than previously believed. Mostly through the efforts of his wife, Laureen Powell-Jobs, Jobs funneled money through her charitable LLC in order to give money to causes selectively and anonymously. Powell-Jobs is well-known for her involvement in various causes....  ...

Smule may be only 5 years old, but the California development firm started in part by Jeff Smith and Stanford Assistant Professor Dr. Ge Wang has had an amazing impact on the world. The company shared some stats with Evolver.fm that are incredible -- Smule's apps have been downloaded over 100 million times, are used by 15 million people a month and that audience has recorded over 1 billion songs.

Sure, those songs may be amateur auto-tuned, auto-rapped or karaoke trash, but the statistics -- and Smule's bottom line -- prove that the company is on to something. While such venerable music gaming titles as Rock Band and Guitar Hero have seen better days, Smule's apps are all about actually making music, and that seems to make a difference to app consumers.

Smule pulled in US$12.6 million in revenues last year, and is expected to...

Marvel Unlimited promises to be the Netflix of comics, but does its app live up to its promise?

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.

Verizon this week launched a new iPhone application for its subscribers that gives access to the carrier's cloud-based syncing and backup service.   ...

From 9to5Toys.com:

Apple this morning dropped prices across the board on iPads in its refurbished section of the online Apple Store as noted by MacRumors. We’ve recently seen quite a bit of iPad price reductions at 9to5Toys, some even steeper than this. For instance, Walmart has a new iPad mini for $80 off and refurb iPad Mini 16GB for $250. The new Apple Store prices:

iPad mini

- 16 GB Wi-Fi: $279, down from $299 previously...

Currently WalMart.com has the refurbished 7th generation 16GB iPod nano for only $89.99 with $3.97 for shipping. That's $50 less than the MSRP, and $35 less than the lowest price we've seen on this iPod anywhere else. Sales tax applies for residents of most states. The iPod nano features 16GB of storage space, 2.5-inch Multi-Touch display, Bluetooth, built-in Nike+ support, and built-in battery that provides up to 30 hours of music playback....  ...

Following up on an announcement made at the end of April, Verizon has begun rolling out its Verizon Cloud storage solution to iOS devices today. Verizon Cloud offers Verizon users a free 500 MB of cloud storage to backup their photos, videos, contacts, music, call logs and text messages. Users who want more storage can buy it at a monthly fee of US$2.99/month for 25 GB, $5.99/month for 75 GB, and $9.99/month for 125 GB.

The Verizon Cloud service lets users stream music and sync data between devices, including photos, videos and documents. Users can also access their files via the web and desktop applications. On the iPhone users can manage their Verizon Cloud account through the free Verizon Cloud app.

...

It’s a slow process, but it’s hopefully getting better and more accurate.

Per 9to5Mac, Apple’s iOS 6 Maps application apparently now offers improved support for San Bernardino, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario and Moreno Valley and other areas in California. With the additions, Maps offers nearly unbroken Flyover coverage of cities from San Bernardino to the Pacific Ocean…

As with the previous expansion of the flyover feature in Paris and...

A rear-facing mic might be in the next-gen iPad’s future.

Per Macotakara and AppleInsider, the fifth-generation iPad is expected to ship after Apple’s anticipated “iPhone 5S.” Reports have pegged Apple’s next iPhone for launch around September, which would be around a year after the iPhone 5 went on sale.

According to author Danbo’s sources, the next 9.7-inch iPad will gain a rear microphone next to the camera, much like Apple added to the iPhone 5...

Never doubt a steadily-updated program.

On Friday, Dropbox released version 2.0.21 of its cloud-based storage client for Mac OS X. The new version, a 29.3 megabyte download (via MacUpdate), which adds the following fixes and changes:

Fixed:
- Fix Windows installer sometimes failing to install properly.

New:
- A new tray popup that combines the old tray menu features with a timeline of the most important sharing events in your Dropbox.

- Notifications menu is only enabled on OSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and above, and on Windows XP and above...

The new iOS 7 is reportedly dropping heavy textures and adding black and white elements, with sources calling the new iOS “black, white, and flat all over.” A new report from 9to5Mac offers more details about iOS 7, about a month after a previous report noted the new…

Earlier this month we heard that Apple submitted to the courts that it engaged in “contentious negotiations”– and not a pricing conspiracy– at a time when publishers were already considering methods of getting Amazon to increase pricing. According to the latest comments from a judge in the high-profile eBook pricing case, Apple might not be able to prove its case when it goes to trial early next month.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote believes that the U.S Justice Department will indeed be able to prove a pricing conspiracy took place (via Bloomberg):

“I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that...

A 73-year-old Japanese artist uses Excel to produce beautiful traditional artwork.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple on Thursday evening began running a new iPhone 5 ad titled "Music Every Day." The ad shows iPhone users in a variety of environments using music on the iPhone for inspiration, fun, work, and as a means to bond with friends.

"Every day," the narration reads, "more people enjoy their music on the iPhone than any other phone."

The ad is a cousin of sorts to Apple's most recent ad, appropriately dubbed "Photos Every Day."

Apple runs new iPhone ad, dubbed "Music Every Day" originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 May 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

...

Digg will not be releasing a separate app for its Google Reader replacement, instead rolling it into the existing Digg app for iOS. Development of the Digg Reader, which would offer much of Google Reader's functionality along with an API, has also shifted onto production servers, and is said to be close to its goal of launching by the end of June....  ...

Harry McCracken tries to explain a bit about the mobile market for people who think this is a repeat of the PC business in the 90s.

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From 9to5Toys.com:

Update: The deal is now live.  Head over to Best Buy to save $50 on any iPhone with a 2 year contract.

Beginning this Sunday, Best Buy will be extending a $50 discount on...

Will we see an iWatch in 2014? Ming-Chi Kuo thinks so. In a research note this week, the KGI Securities analyst predicted that Apple had too much on its plate in 2013 to introduce a smartwatch, but is readying the device for next year. The company's entry into the wearable computer market will be a device that attaches to the wrist, Kuo said, but it will not be positioned as a watch or as a device that displays information from other Apple products.

Adds reminders capability with in-app and email due-date notifications. (Free, 40.8 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.

In a potential major setback for Apple Inc., a federal judge who will preside over a coming antitrust trial that will determine whether it engaged in a conspiracy to raise prices for e-books said on Thursday that the government is likely able to prove its case against the computer maker.

The Justice Department sued Apple and five major publishers, alleging they colluded to raise the price of e-books in response to discount pricing by Amazon.com Inc. The publishers have all entered into settlements with the Justice Department and in a separate lawsuit by a group of state attorneys general.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Best Buy is planning to cut $50 off the iPhone in a four-week promotion that kicks off on Sunday.

The price cut applies to the purchase of the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 in conjunction with a two-year contract with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint.

The company is also doing some shorter-term promotions over Memorial Day, cutting the price on several popular, but older, Android models. From May 26 to June 1, Best Buy is selling Samsung’s Galaxy S III for $49 on AT&T or Sprint, a $50 price cut. Meanwhile it is offering the HTC Droid DNA for Verizon for $49 ($150 savings) and the HTC One X on AT&T for free (a $100 price cut.)

The moves come as Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 is now available for a variety of carriers and with Apple’s iPhones getting a bit longer in the tooth. Discounts on the iPhone are infrequent, but not unheard of, particularly in the weeks and months leading up to a...

Enterprise-oriented cloud storage firm Box has acquired Folders, an iOS app used to manage files from cloud storage services. The purchase, for an undisclosed amount, will see the technology behind the app rolled into Box's own iOS app, with Folders developer Martin Destagnol being drafted in to help with its integration....  ...

The recent celebration of iTunes tenth anniversary provided an opportunity to remember that it debuted before the iPod and was initially positioned as a way to get Macs to play well with the CD burners that had come to the iMac as well as to early MP3 players from rivals. Before and (mostly) after the iPod, it's surprising to see not only how many different companies sought success in the portable media player category, but the diversity and depth of their approaches. While some achieved a degree of success and implemented a few things that were ahead of Apple, none came close to matching Apple's success.

This column will focus on how PC companies approached the portable media player market while the next Reality Absorption Field will look at how competitors from other industries fared.

Dell and Gateway

Prior to the arrival of Microsoft's Zune, Dell was...

Nokia on Thursday said it has filed additional cases in its patent dispute with Taiwanese phone maker HTC.

The new actions, which include a second complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission and a federal suit in Southern California, come on top of existing legal actions that date back to last year.

“We began actions against HTC in 2012 to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies,” Nokia said. “Since then, despite the German courts confirming infringements of Nokia patents in HTC products, HTC has shown no intention to end its practices, instead it has tried to shift responsibility to its suppliers. We have therefore taken these further steps to hold HTC accountable for its actions.”

An HTC representative was not immediately available for comment...

The deceptively simple iPhone ad Apple rolled out last month has garnered all sorts of praise. Totally justified!

So you can see why they’d try a new one, using the exact same format, music and spec-less pitch. The only difference is that this time, instead of focusing on the notion that iPhones = cameras, Apple is reminding you that iPhones also = personal stereos.

So why don’t I like this one quite as much as the first?

My gut: Because when you take a picture, you’re probably doing it with the hope of sharing it with someone.

And while Apple makes a point of showing some scenarios where the iPhone brings music to more than one person, it is honest about the primary use case: Just, you, your phone and some ear buds, sealed off from the rest of the world.

Honest. But not as much fun.

(Bonus content for hardcore Apple tea leaf readers: Note that...

Apple has just posted a new iPhone 5 ad to their YouTube channel, detailing many of the ways people use their iPhone to listen to music. The ad is reminiscent of the “Photos Every Day” ad that debuted a few weeks ago.

Like the previous photo-centric commercial, this ad is mostly void of a voiceover, simply showing a wide variety of iPhone users, and how they enjoy their music. Both of these ads take a different direction than previous iPhone commercials, highlighting not apps, but rather features of the device.

The minute long spot ends with the line “Everyday, more people enjoy their music on the iPhone than any other phone.”

//

...

Frozen Synapse has been a successful title on Steam for a while now -- it's a turn-based strategy game, with twist being that you're a sort of tactical AI, running these battles on simulations and hardware rather than in real life. As a result, the big draw of Frozen Synapse is that while, like many other tactical strategy games, you are guiding a series of soldiers around turn by turn, these turns are actually simulated, and you can test them out and repeat them as many times as you like before playing out the "prime" sequence, and running the real thing.

The pacing of the game is pretty perfect, then. Frozen Synapse has now been ported to the iPad, and the touchscreen gives you a whole lot of flexibility over what commands you can give your little soldiers: Just double tap on the screen to set up waypoints for them, and then you can drag...

Judge Denise Cote said on Thursday that she expects the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will be able to prove that Apple conspired with publishers in the run-up to the release of the iPad. The judge issued a "tentative view" that effect to attorney representing the DOJ and Apple to that effect, adding that the opinion is based on reading through some of the evidence.

The Mac Observer Spin:
This case drives us nuts. On the one hand, Apple mostly likely did act as ringleader in getting the publishers to shift to the agency model for pricing. At the same time, before Apple did so, Amazon had monopoly power in this market and was dumping books to gain that power and shut down competitors.

If you've been waiting for Ultima Forever, the new iOS version of Ultima from EA, then it's here for you (kind of). The app has been spotted over on the Canadian App Store, and if you have an account over there, you can go and download it right now. The Canadian App Store is often used as a beta testing ground for iOS apps, especially by EA, so the company is likely testing out the game and its services before releasing it worldwide soon (probably in the next few weeks). So it's not completely done yet, but if you want to go get it, you can.

To switch your iTunes install over to Canada, you just need to go down and click on little flag located on the bottom right of each App Store page in iTunes. You can switch your client to any of the world's regions there, and I believe that you can download apps for free from any of those regions (including Ultima Forever).

You can also...

With WWDC just around the corner, time is running low. Have you ordered new business cards for the event? If you're looking for something a little more interesting than a plain white rectangle, there are lots of options out there.

Moo is well known for their rounded-corner high-quality cardstock business card line. I know several TUAWians swear by them.

Want something with a little more texture? How about wooden business cards? Vendor Cards of Wood sells 100 cards from $35, with discounts at higher quantities.

Maybe you want to break out of the box with custom shapes? Taste of Ink studios offers custom die cut business cards with spot gloss,...

While supplies last, save 40% off over 40 iPhone 5 and iPhone 4/4S cases and chargers as well as Samsung S III cases at Kensington.com. Use coupon code 'SAVE40%' at checkout to receive this exclusive discount.    

The Loop Magazine Issue 2 is now available for download from Apple’s Newsstand.

There’s a great line-up of writers in this issue including Joe King, the co-founder of Denver-based rock band They Fray, UI expert Matt Gemmell, iMore Editor-in-Chief Rene Ritchie, Peter Cohen, Stephen Hackett, and The Next Web’s Managing Editor Matthew Panzarino.

You can download The Loop Magazine from the App

∞ Read this on The Loop

If you were worried Apple might not have a keynote at WWDC this year, you can finally relax. But don’t get too relaxed: Comixology’s pulling controversial comics again, and iPhone repair costs are up, up, up. The remainders for Thursday, May 23, 2013 are powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive.

Apple’s WWDC Keynote Scheduled for Monday, June 10 (AllThingsD)

Phew. For a minute, I was really worried that they might decide to hold it a week later, just to mess with people.

ComiXology pulls 56 digital comics from iOS app [Updated] (ComicBookResources)

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Microsoft is taking pot shots at Apple's iPad in its efforts to promote moribund sales of Windows 8 tablets. In a new series of commercials, the Redmond, WA company harnesses Siri to disparage iPad's one-app-at-a-time nature, and compares specs to show an Asus device is thinner and weighs less than iPad.