alphadogg writes "The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference sold out in just two minutes today, blowing away last year's record of two hours. Tickets went on sale today at 10 a.m. PDT, as was announced yesterday, when Apple said its event would be held June 10-14 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Apple WWDC runs neck-and-neck with the annual Google I/O event in the race for hottest tech show. The Google event, slated for May 15-17 at Moscone Center, sold out in 45 minutes this year. While transferring tickets for WWDC is generally not allowed, an ambitious eBay seller is attempting to get $10K for the $1,600 ticket."

...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has offered up a coffee meeting for a charity auction benefitting the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. Estimated to go for US$50,000, the auction earned 54 bids in just the first few hours and is sitting at $190,000 as of this writing.

Originally slated for launch next month, the Leap Motion controller will now see public release at the end of July, with the company saying a larger and longer beta testing period is needed to ensure a quality product.  ...

The shipping date for the Leap Motion 3D Motion Controller has been delayed from May 13th until July 22, says the company's CEO. Michael Buckwald revealed the information during a conference call earlier today. "There's nothing catastrophically wrong," he explained, "we're very proud of the product Ö if we'd tried very hard we would have been able to ship the product [on the original date] but we wouldn't have had the time to do the iteration and testing that we would want to do otherwise."...  ...

@bsetter iPad is in the works and desktop is on our roadmap!—
Mailbox (@mailbox) April 25, 2013

After some controversy for the popular Mailbox iOS app earlier this week, some good news for Mailbox users comes today in the form of confirmation of new features and an iPad app coming soon.

As noted in the tweets above and below, the Mailbox devs have publicly confirmed in a number of recent tweets that and iPad version of the app is currently “in the works” and expected to launch soon. We also learn that desktop and Android versions of the app are on the company’s roadmap, while iCloud support, landscape typing, alias support, and “Send as” features are also on the list for future updates:

@...

Though a minor update for some users, Apple’s Apple Store app (free) has been updated to version 2.6 — the app now lets users receive notifications noting when they’re eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone. Sega’s unpredictable history of…

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has ordered T-Mobile to change “deceptive advertising” that promised no contracts for customers, notably coinciding with the carrier’s long-awaited announcement of iPhone availability. The Attorney General’s Office said the company “failed to disclose that customers who purchase a phone using the 24-month payment…

We went hands on with the Leap Motion controller a couple times already and we were quite looking forward to the potential for gesture controlled apps that it offers devs. Back in February the company announced that it would be ready to ship the device by May 19 with pre-orders available through BestBuy, but today Leap Motion announced its gesture controller would be pushed back over two months until July 22nd.

Leap said the decision behind the delay is to allow more time for testing (via TNW):

“There’s nothing catastrophically wrong,” Buckwald added, “we’re very proud of the product...

Fotopedia Reporter is a unique, free iPad app that I would describe as a socially aware, digital coffee table book that lets you see and share photos that tell stories. The stories can be travel photos, landscapes, a restaurant visit, or a dive trip. Anything that would be of interest to others that you know or don't know.

To help you get started, the app provides some attractive designs. Your creation can be shared on Facebook or Twitter, or you can email a web link and it can be viewed in a browser. You can view others' projects and leave comments. Of course, you don't have to be a contributor, you can just browse the many stories and photos submitted.

One question I had to the developers was the issue of rights. The answer is that people who publish photos choose their license type (all rights reserved, creative commons or public domain) and the poster retains the rights. The...

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 April 25, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:45:00 EST. Please see our...

T-Mobile's newly-launched "Uncarrier" plans are seeing some resistance from judicial channels. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has demanded T-Mobile correct "deceptive advertising" that promised customers no annual contracts not requiring the user to "serve a two-year sentence," despite having what the office calls hidden charges for early termination of a new device plan that amounts to the same two-year contractual obligation.... ...

Google has released a beta Office Viewer extension for the Mac and Windows editions of Chrome. The add-on requires either the Chrome 27 beta or the latest Canary release, but enables viewing Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files within Chrome instead of separately. To protect against trojan attacks the extension is sandboxed, limiting the reach of any malicious code hackers might insert into a document....  ...

As expected, WWDC 2013 tickets sold out in record time. If you are one of the many disappointed developers locked out of Apple's premier developer event yet again, take heart. The folks behind Appsterdam and a number of other developer events are organizing AltWWDC this year, a free 5-day event that will be held in San Francisco June 10 - 14, 2013.

Appsterdam's Mike Lee, TUAW editor-in-chief Victor Agreda, our very own wizard Brett Terpstra, Brent Simmons, Saul Mora, and Steve "Scotty" Scott are among the confirmed speakers at the event, which is sponsored by 360|Conferences, Hidden Memory and Server Density.

Read the press release below for...

WWDC sold out in just minutes this year. As iOS developer Josh Avant put it, "Next year, tickets are going to sell out before they even go on sale."

Many developers were greeted by server errors, failed purchases, and the "Sorry, tickets are sold out" banner.

Others like Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software were able to place an order. In the end Jalkut decided to cancel his ticket, stating, he was "[v]ery conflicted, but it ended up feeling too exclusive for me."

In a move that was seen as a boost to fairness, developers were given a day's warning about sale time. This enabled people around the globe to set their alarms and schedule their visit to Apple's developer site.

Unfortunately,...

In a sign that perhaps, on occasion, pigs do fly, Twitter has announced an update to its official OS X client, Twitter for Mac, bringing it to version 2.2.

The new release comes with a number of new features, including a slightly tweaked user interface, support for Macs with Retina displays, and the ability for users to upload and share photos along with their tweets. The app now also supports fourteen new languages, including Italian, French, German, Dutch, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and more.

The good news doesn’t stop there, though: It seems that this is more than just a one-time event. Twitter developer Ben Sandofsky has announced—in a tweet, of course—that he will now be working on the company’s OS X client full-time,...

What if you could just swipe sideways to switch between apps on your iPad?  Well, you can!  John Martellaro shows you how to perform this most innocent of finger gestures.

Yet another malware variant is being sent to Uyghur activists via e-mail spam; however, for updated systems the threat is nonexistent.

WWDC tickets went on sale today, and the event sold out within minutes. This year, Apple developers were prepared to buy their tickets as the company pre-announced the ticket sales one day in advance. In previous years, the conference was announced and tickets went on sale at the same time.

If you didn't get a ticket this year, Apple is streaming the video from the sessions during the event. You won't get the full experience of being at the conference, but you will get a lot of the important parts. WWDC 2013 will be held from June 10 to 14 in San Francisco.

WWDC 2013 now sold out originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013...

Like any good Apple project, it appears that the Apple "Campus 2" building project in Cupertino, California has undergone some revisions to make it perfect. The spaceship-like building is expected to be finished in 2016, about a year later than originally planned and US$2 billion over the original budget.

The revised plans were published today on Electronista and include a host of changes: 240 more parking spaces (bringing the total to 10,980 spaces), four new public art installations, and more bike and walking paths along the private roads around the main building.

But the biggest change is to what is known as the Tantau Development, a separate set of buildings that were going to be built along North Tantau Avenue that would house about...

6Wunderkinder today introduced a new Pro option in its popular to do app, Wunderlist. The new Wunderlist Pro moves the task manager towards small business use by adding features that focus on team collaboration.

Wunderlist Pro now lets users share their workloads by assigning tasks to colleagues and friends. Both parties will be able to update the task and track it as it moves towards completion. Users can also break down a task into subtasks and add as many subtasks as they need, now that subtasks are unlimited.

Wunderlist is available for free from the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. Customers can upgrade to the Pro version via an in-app purchase. Wunderlist Pro...

After years without an update, Twitter has updated its official Mac app with Retina display support and much more:

Today we’re announcing a few improvements to Twitter for Mac:

• Photos: It’s easier than ever to share photos. Simply click the camera icon in the lower-left corner of the Tweet compose box, and choose a photo to share. If you prefer, you can still drag and drop photos from the desktop.
• Retina display support: Now Twitter is even more vibrant and detailed on the highest resolution Mac notebooks. With this update, Tweets will be clearer and sharper, creating a more vivid...

Tickets for Apple's 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference went on sale at 10AM pacific time, and within two minutes were completely sold out. That's the fastest the event has sold out, beating last year's two hour selling frenzy.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Wow, that was fast. At this rate, WWDC 2014 will sell out before Apple even has tickets available for sale. And if you need proof developers are still very interested in the OS X and iOS platforms, they managed to pack plenty of evidence into a two minute window.

I refreshed the page and they were already sold out. It couldn’t have any more than two or three minutes.

∞ Read this on The Loop

That was quick…

//

Apple recently filed two patents that feature portable devices communicating with vehicles through Bluetooth. The first patent, titled “Method for locating a vehicle,” would let iOS device users locating their vehicle using wireless connections. More specifically, this system would let a device like an iPhone communicate with a system…

Nokia is expected to unveil its response to Apple's iPhone 5 at a newly announced Lumia smartphone media event set for May 14 in London.   ...

6 Wunderkinder, the developers behind the ‘Wunderlist’ to-do app that’s currently home to over 4 million users, today announced a new “Pro” version of the cross platform productivity app. Launching today on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and on the web, the new pro version comes with the introduction of the developer’s first premium model that will see users pay $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year) to get access to new team oriented collaboration features:

• Assigning – now you can add an extra level of accountability and assign tasks to your colleagues

and friends.
• Unlimited subtasks – sometimes the task on hand is so big that you need to break it down into

small manageable subtasks. Now you can add as little or as many needed to get the job done.
• Backgrounds – Wunderlist Pro subscribers will have access to eight new backgrounds – from a minimal dark wood and soothing sands to vibrant florals and the...

It's a big day for football fans who are gearing up for the 2013 NFL draft. The first round picks start tonight, Thursday, April 25, at 8:00 pm ET, followed by the second and third round on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Use one or all of these iOS apps below to bone up on the draft picks as well as follow the NFL draft live for the next few days.

Draftpedia [iPhone; Free]

Draftpedia offers comprehensive draft information for the NFL and NBA that extends back to 1970 for the NFL and 1969 for the NBA. It's a wealth of sports draft information right at your fingertips.

2013 Draft HQ - Pro Football [iOS Universal; US$2.99]

2013 Draft HQ - Pro Football is your one-stop shop for information about the draft. Follow news on the top players and...

In celebration of its 23rd anniversary, Mariner software is currently offering a 50 percent discount on all...   ...

One day, your iPhone WILL talk to and control your car.

Per the United States Patent and Trademark Office (1, 2...

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• GamersGate: [PC Games] GamersGate Spring Sale: Up to 90% off game downloads for PC or Mac
• TigerDirect: [USB Flash Drives] Centon 64GB USB Flash Drive, security software for $0 after rebate + $4 s&h
• Adorama: [Laser Printers] Dell WiFi Monochrome Laser Printer for $50 + free...

You’re gonna either love or hate this.

Per CNET, Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro is the “best performing” Windows laptop.

The MacBook Pro won out over established PC makers like Dell, Acer, and Lenovo, according to Soluto, which was quick to explain its finding.

A main factor in this machine’s metrics is the fact that every Windows installation on it is clean. With PC manufacturers loading so much crapware on new laptops, this is a bit of an unfair competition. But, on the other hand, PC makers should look at this data and aspire to ship PCs that perform just as well as a...

Apple has been ordered to pay three Chinese writers a total exceeding $118,000 for infringing their copyrights. The writers, including a popular author Mai Jia, discovered that their books were being sold in the App Store without their permission. While Judge Feng Gang said Apple has a duty to determine…

Don’t knock a useful update.

On Thursday, Dropbox released version 2.0.8 of its cloud-based storage client for Mac OS X. The new version, a 29.1 megabyte download (via MacUpdate), which adds the following fixes and changes:
- Fixed a bug where quitting Dropbox doesn’t dismiss the tray popup.

- Fixed a bug where Dropbox would steal focus on startup.

- Recently changed files now appear earlier when starting Dropbox.

- User-interface polish.

Dropbox 2.0.8 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run.

If you’ve tried the new beta...

On Thursday, software company Delicious Monster released version 3.0 of the shareware favorite, Delicious Library. Delicious Monster allows Macs with webcams to scan the bar codes of any book, movie, music CD or video game, then creates an archive based on background information from the Internet. Additional features help keep the library organized and reseller’s tools allow for items to be quickly posted for sale online.

The new version, an 81 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

Major New Features:
- Fully 3D cover view.

- All items are drawn in full 3D [industry first], with multiple light sources and normal, reflection, and environment maps.

- Books...

Patently Apple spotted two car-related Apple patent applications, one allowing an iPhone to act as a smart-key, the other helping you locate your car when parked in a large car-park.

The smart-key idea uses a Bluetooth connection from the phone to unlock the car, which could be done either manually or via a proximity rule, unlocking your car as you approach it …

//

But it goes much further than this, offering similar functionality to Ford’s MyKey parental control system - allowing access to...

Beijing's No. 2 Intermediate People's Court has fined Apple over 730,000 yuan, or about $118,000, for infringing on the copyrights of three Chinese writers, reports say. The judge in the case, Feng Gang, states in his ruling that although the writers' books were uploaded for sale on iTunes by third parties, Apple has the duty of checking whether those books are in line with Chinese law. "The writers involved this time include Mai Jia, whose books are often on bestseller lists across the country," Feng writes. "In this way, Apple has the capability to know the uploaded books on its online st... ...

That has to hurt.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Delicious Monster is known for Delicious Library, a comprehensive inventory app that lets you track items from every nook and cranny of your life. The OS X app was updated today to version 3.0, and the changes that Delicious Monster made to Delicious Library are impressive.

First and foremost is an improved UI that not only looks better, but has nice touches like the book icons, which vary their thickness based on the number pages in the book. The bookshelf now has crown molding as well as improved lighting and reflections to make it more realistic. Items on your bookshelf now have a 3D look and even pivot to follow your mouse cursor.

New features are abundant in Delicious Library 3 and include a recommendations engine, a wishlist pane and smart shelves that let you create rules to easily populate any shelf. There's also a global search function that supports voice search and shows results from your collections and...

From 9to5Toys.com:

Ahead of the official May 3rd...

Image: Engadget

China Daily (via ZDNet) reports that Apple has been ordered by a court to pay 730,000 Yuan ($118,000) to three Chinese authors as their books were apparently uploaded to the iTunes Store without permission.

The uploads appear to have been made by third-parties rather than by Apple directly, and it’s unclear who did upload them, but the court ruled that Apple has a duty to ensure that uploads don’t breach copyright.

The fine is of course small-beer to Apple, but does form further bad PR in the country after previous...

Famed iPhone jailbreaker Comex, whose real name is Nicholas Allegra, tweeted on Tuesday that he will be joining Google as an intern in the coming weeks.

Allegra originally made a name for himself when he released a jailbreak tool dubbed JailBreakMe. As the name implies, the tool enabled users to easily and quickly bypass Apple's iOS security measures.

Allegra's work eventually caught the attention of Apple who decided to hire the Brown University student as an intern in August of 2011.

Allegra lasted 14 months at Apple before being let go under somewhat murky circumstances in late 2012.

As for what Allegra will be up to over in Mountain View, well that's anybody's guess. It...

From 9to5Toys.com:

Firaxis and 2K Games have officially launched the critically acclaimed XCOM: Enemy Unknown on Mac today. Known as the Elite Edition, the Feral ported Mac version will come with the base game, the Slingshot Pack, the Elite Soldier Pack and the Second Wave update as well as some wallpapers and the soundtrack for $49.99.

The Slingshot and Elite Soldier DLC brings additional character customization as well as extra council missions and the “Shaojie Zhang”...

Hopper is a Mac app for deconstructing binaries for analysis and debugging. If you're not a developer it's probably not for you, but it's a cool tool nonetheless, built from scratch by a developer who built it himself. Once again a developer needed something, didn't like what was out there, and built what he needed then used Apple's storefront to sell it in case others needed the same thing. In fact, in this case there were only some Windows tools, clumsily ported to Mac in some cases so Vincent built Hopper to his standards.

Origin Stories: Hopper originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | ...

New figures compiled by Strategy Analytics shows that Windows 8 OEM's shipped a combined total of 3 million Windows tablets in calendar Q1 for 2013. The tablet market reached an all-time high of 40.6 million branded tablet shipments for the quarter, a 117 percent increase from the 18.7 million sold for the same period in 2012. Apple retained a dominant 48 percent share of the branded market with 19.5 million tablets sold, singlehandedly shipping more than the total number of branded tablets that shipped globally in Q1 2012.... ...

An Apple patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday suggests the company may be looking to build out its mapping service, as the filing describes a printing function not currently supported by the iOS-only feature.  ...

The most reliable Windows laptop is… the mid-2012 13: MacBook Pro running Boot Camp, according to a report by PC management firm Soluto. Over the course of a three-month study, the MacBook Pro bested models from Acer, Dell, and others thanks to its superior construction and lack of the commonly preinstalled Windows “crapware” (to quote the report). It is the second most expensive machine in the top 10, cheaper only than the 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display that ranked 6th in reliability.

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...

If you like TV, and you like the Internet, you've got some really good options for getting those two crazy kids to play nicely together. Even without a Smart TV in your living room, you can use an HDMI cable to connect your Mac or iPad directly to your big-screen HDTV (although that's a bit of a mobility buzzkill). It's easier to put something in the middle to handle that conversation, at least until Tim Cook and Jony Ive make all our big-screen dreams come true.

For most Apple-centric households, the natural middleman is the $99 Apple TV. Apple's "experiment" delivers 1080p content direct from iTunes, subscription goodies from Netflix or Hulu, sports from the NBA, MLB and NHL, free video from Vimeo and YouTube, and of course your photos, music and videos from household Macs. The relatively recent debut of AirPlay mirroring for Macs in OS X 10.8 means that your computer can...