Apple reportedly is planning to set up a premium version of a service on Apple TV that would let subscribers skip ads. The company apparently plans to compensate content providers for lost ad revenue; it's not clear whether it would do so out of its own pocket or by passing on the cost to subscribers. This might further complicate Apple's long-drawn-out negotiations with content providers. "I'm not sure what the business sense of this is at all," said Michael McGuire, a vice president of research at Gartner. "I'm confused."

Fewer people are upgrading their smartphones — a trend that could make it harder for companies from AT&T Inc. to Apple Inc.to keep up the pace of revenue growth.

The rates at which American cellphone users have traded in their devices for more advanced models have declined over the last few years, according to analysts at UBS AG. They turned negative last year, when about 68 million people upgraded their phones in the U.S., down more than 9 percent from a year earlier.

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Some unverified news out of China this morning points to new iPhone 5S production shots and specs which don’t seem out of the realm of possibility. The production shots above claim to be of the iPhone 5S, but with the case expected to be identical to the 5, it is hard to tell the difference.

Specs for the iPhone 5S from this same leak include NFC reader (which was taken out of the iPhone 5 late in production we’ve heard), a Fingerprint Reader (...

Mobile is still blowing up, and games are still dominating mobile usage and revenue, according to gaming-focused investment bank Digi-Capital. But in a new report, the bank said investors burned by Zynga’s IPO are not taking the bait.

“In our experience, we haven’t seen a market as large, growing as fast as mobile apps/games,” Digi-Capital managing director Tim Merel said. “We think this could be the highest-growth large technology market today. Yet capital markets aren’t taking advantage of the opportunity.”

The reason? Merel blames the “social games investment bubble in 2011″ — culminating in Zynga’s lackluster IPO in December of that year — which raked in about $1 billion in venture investments, out of a record $2 billion invested in games that year. Game investments by VCs sharply dropped post...

Acer America today announced that its Acer Aspire Z3-605 Series all-in-one desktops are now available for consumers in the United States. The new 23-inch all-in-one includes two 3W front-facing Harman Kardon speakers, in addition to up to a Core i5 processor. The unit can be configured with as much as 8GB DDR3 dual-channel memory, and a 1TB hard drive....  ...

Apple's exclusive licensing agreement of the Liquidmetal fabrication process and engineering staff in 2010 briefly sent ripples through the tech industry, until a lead executive revealed that it would take years and hundreds of millions of dollars before the material was ready for large-scale production. A patent awarded to Crucible Intellectual Property -- seemingly a joint venture between the two companies -- appears to be at least a portion of the method to generate large quantities of Liquidmetal, expected to be used in future iOS and other devices. Apple holds the exclusive license for th... ...

Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade II, a 3D hack-and-slash quest game for the iPad with bleeding-edge graphics, saw its downloads more than triple and added nearly six million new users to its base after it was temporarily made free as part of Apple's promotional celebration of the App Store's fifth anniversary. The company says it saw 1.7 million new downloads in just the first day of the promotion, during which Apple offered five games and five non-game apps for free, with prices normally set between $1 and $20. Infinity Blade II normally costs $7.... ...

Yahoo-owned Tumblr on Tuesday released a security update for its iPhone and iPad apps to resolve an issue that in some cases would allow user passwords to be compromised.   ...

Tumblr has just released an important security update for its universal iOS app. In a blog post, the company says that the update addresses an issues that allows passwords to be compromised in certain circumstances. Because of this, Tumblr is also urging anyone who used the vulnerable version of the app to change their password immediately.

We have just released a very important security update for our iPhone and iPad apps addressing an issue that allowed passwords to be compromised in certain circumstances¹. Please download the update now.

If you’ve been using these apps, you should also update your password on Tumblr and anywhere else you may have been using the same password. It’s also good practice to use different passwords across different services by using an app like ...

Apple executives seem to have a thing for referring to the Apple TV as nothing more than an interesting hobby. That little hobby, however, seems to be attracting more and more users with each passing quarter.

During Apple's 2012 holiday quarter, for example, the company sold more than 2 million Apple TV units, representing a nearly 43% sales increase compared to the 2011 holiday quarter. Cumulatively, Tim Cook revealed during this year's All Things D conference that Apple has, to-date, sold over 13 million Apple TV units. Even more impressive is that Cook noted that "about half of those" sales took place in 2013.

Suffice it to say, Apple TV may still only be a hobby in Apple's eyes, but sales of the device seem to accelerating with each passing year.

That said, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the Apple TV, in 2012, commanded...

In line with last week’s expectations of an updated Google Maps app, Google has begun rolling out version 2.0 of Google Maps for iOS today. Most notably, the new application includes support for the large touch screens found on the iPad and iPad mini.

Additionally, like with the recent update to the Android version, enhanced navigation with incident reports and live traffic updates are included.

Also new is an Explore function to browse popular places such as restaurants, shopping, playing, and sleeping. This feature is integrated with Zagat ratings and deals via Google Offers.

The 2.0 update also includes indoor mapping functionality for malls, transit...

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it will launch a new series of SD memory cards offering the worldís fastest data write speed. The latest edition to its line-up of Exceria memory cards feature a high peak data rate, and are designed to utilize read and write speeds of new digital cameras and other applications requiring large data transfers performed rapidly....  ...

There aren't a lot of cutting edge apps for gay dating. The most popular one is Grindr, but that app is largely used to find men who want to hook up than be your long-term boyfriend. What if you want more than just another hook up? Why can't there be a grown up alternative to Grindr? There is, and it's called Mister.

With a user base of 1 million there are plenty of other men looking for love on Mister's network, and their new app makes finding the one easier than ever.

Mister is designed to take gay dating apps beyond the limit of hookup culture and truly help each user focus on a well-rounded image of the men they're looking for. Unlike Grindr, which limits you to 130 characters in your profile, Mister provides 3,000 characters to present an image of who you truly are. Instead of the one picture Grindr allows, Mister allows you to post 25...

The business both Steve Jobs and current CEO of Apple Tim Cook refer to as a "hobby" is the dominant player in the nascent-but-growing "Streaming IP Device" market, according to a new report. Apple TV's 56 percent share -- a figure that represents the more than 13 million units sold through Q1 2013 -- is greater than all other competitors in the space combined. While brands like Roku, WD TV, Boxee and Google TV may get more headlines, all but Roku and TiVo have negligible market share in a field that is growing rapidly -- as more consumers become "cable cutters" and use alternatives such as Ne... ...

Malware gets nasty about your surfing habits, Apple may want its own answer to Kinect, and the sounds of endangered species are the new hot sounds to listen to on your iPod. The remainders for Tuesday, July 16, 2013 will let the boogie flow.

New OS X malware holds Macs for ransom, demands $300 fine to the FBI for ‘viewing or distributing’ porn (The Next Web)

A piece of malware targeting Safari users on OS X claims that the user is being fined by the FBI for “viewing or distributing” pornography. Oh, man, that crazy dude in Florida is going to have a field day with this.

Apple reportedly in...

Ransomware targeting Apple's Safari browser on Macs has been found in the wild by MalwareBytes. The ransomware is exploiting Javascript to hijack a browser window with a fake FBI-branded accusation that the user is distributing child porn and an offer to let bygones be bygones for a mere US$300.

A new iOS companion app that allows users that control Airfoil on their Mac.

∞ Read this on The Loop

StackSocial's 2013 summer Mac bundle is available for a few more days. This is a great deal if you don't have Parallels, and not a bad deal at all if you don't have 2 or 3 of the applications included in the bundle from StackSocial. Here's what's included in the Mac bundle:

• Parallels 8 - An excellent virtual machine for running Windows, Linux or just about any other desktop OS on your Mac.
• Snagit - If you need to record video of your desktop, or take pictures of elements and annotate them, Snagit is hands-down one of the best tools out there.
• Typinator - Do you keep typing the same stuff over and over again? Typinator takes care of this for you and includes some handy autocorrect to boot.
• WinZip Mac - Compression utilities are still useful, and WinZip includes...

Apple on Tuesday unveiled Logic Pro X, an update to its Logic Pro line of music-mixing software complete with a new interface along with creative tools for musicians and an expanded collection of instruments and effects. Particularly notable about the new release is Logic Remote, a new feature that offers iPad integration, giving musicians the flexibility to create and mix their music from anywhere in the room.

A new piece of digitally signed spyware for Mac OS X uses a special Unicode character in its file name to hide its real file extension from users and trick them into installing it.

There’s no indication how widespread this is, or even if anyone besides the researcher has even downloaded it.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Yahoo is just starting the analyst call of its Q2 earnings, which were pretty lackluster. But CEO Marissa Mayer, who is awfully good at this kind of thing, has ginned up the excitement nonetheless, deciding to now broadcast the event live over the Internet via video, rather than over a more typical audio link.

2:01 pm: Woah! Although I have been watching television since Richard Nixon was president, this video earnings call idea is pretty cool. Why has it not been done before? (It will be done again next week, as Netflix CEO Reed Hasting grabs his 15 minutes.)

Thus, as soon as the legal disclaimer was over, it was Mayer and CFO Ken Goldman sitting at a news desk, in a sort of “Good Afternoon, Yahoo!” situation.

Because it is...

Briefly from Eternal Storms Software is a Macintosh app that turns your still shots into a video. The end result is called a still motion video. The Briefly demo on the site is impressive, but unlike most demos, I think anyone could create similar movies.

The iOS version of Briefly is under development and I think it will be a winner. As a Macintosh app, not so much, at least for my needs. Don't get me wrong, Briefly works wonders and does it well. It just has so few features that I couldn't do quite what I wanted. Your experience may be different.

Briefly is definitely one of the easiest and quickest...

Jim and Dan talk about Logic Pro X, Apple TV and ad skipping, insta-deleting iOS apps, the coming public freak-out about iOS 7, releasing beta software as production-ready, Smoke on The Water, and more.

Sponsored by Host Gator (use code DANSENTME for 30% off), Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), and Squarespace (use code DANSENTME7 for 10% off).

∞ Read this on The Loop

Malwarebytes Unpacked is reporting that cyber-criminals looking to make a quick buck have begun targeting unsuspecting OS X users by hijacking their web browser and posting a warning message purporting to be from the FBI.

The fake message casts a wide net and alerts users that their computer has been locked down because they've either downloaded copyrighted content, viewed illegal pornographic content, or have unknowingly fallen prey to malware.

The "FBI Notice" then informs users that they can unlock their computer for US$300, payable, of course, via a GreenDot MoneyPak card. The report notes that the ransomeware appears when a user queries a search engine using popular search terms.

Even if users recognize the alert as being nothing more than an underhanded scam (the shady URL pictured above certainly gives it away), attempting to exit the "FBI...

Microsoft has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to personally intervene in its effort to secure permission to release information about how it handles and has responded in the past to requests for customer data from government agencies.

In a letter released by the software giant moments ago, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith argued that the company has a constitutional right to disclose the information, but its request is languishing before several different agencies. It asked Holder, the highest law enforcement official in the country, to cut through the red tape. “In my opinion, these issues are languishing amidst discussions among multiple parts of the Government, the Constitution itself is suffering, and it will take the personal involvement of you or the President to set things right,” Smith...

To help celebrate 5 years of the App Store, Apple recently launched an iTunes promotion wherein a number of popular iOS apps were made available as free downloads. One such app was Infinity Blade II, an extremely popular and critically acclaimed gaming title which normally sells for US$6.99.

If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that people love 'free'. To that extent, AllThingsD reports that Infinity Blade II saw an absolutely huge influx of new users thanks to Apple's App Store promotion.

The action-RPG sword-fighting game added 5.7 million new players in seven days. Laura Mustard, publicist for the game's developer, Chair Entertainment, said 1.7 million downloads occurred on Monday, the first day of the promotion.

Those new downloads, three times what the iOS-exclusive IB2 gets in a normal week, amount to a short-term spike that could...

This week in the MacNN forums, members discuss the reliability of the Hierarchical File System used by Apple after "besson3c" reported some troubling errors with Time Machine. Yesterday, one Mac Elite turned to the forums looking for a solution for a problem with saving files from a Mac to a Windows server....   ...

Today at Apple's online store, find reduced prices on refurbished Mac mini and iMac models. The refurbished Mac mini with a 2.3GHz Intel quad-core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard dive has been lowered by $120 to $679. For $979 is the refurbished 21.5-inch iMac with a 2.5GHz Intel quad-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive....   ...

This week OfficeDepot.com has the Acer Iconia 8.1-inch Windows 8 Tablet for the reduced price of $299.99, a savings of $80 off the original price of $379.99. That makes this the lowest price we have seen on this tablet by about $60. Free delivery is available and sales tax applies for residents of most states. The Acer Iconia Tablet features a 1.5GHz Intel Atom processor, 32GB of Solid State storage, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator and a variety of connectivity options including micro-USB and microHDMI. A one year limited warranty is included from Acer....  ...

TV ads: They’re loud, they’re intrusive, and, in this age of on-demand streaming from Netflix and its competitors, they’re increasingly anachronistic. And yet, the television industry has been sticking to its guns with a vehemence that would make Charlton Heston proud.

Apple may be looking for a way around that status quo, if a story from former Wall Street Journal writer Jessica Lessin is any indication: Cupertino has reportedly proposed to television companies a system whereby users of a hypothetical Apple television service would be able to skip ads, while the networks would be recompensed for those missed commercials.

Rumors and whispers of Apple’s forays into the deep end of the television pool have persisted for years now, but little progress seems to be made—publicly, at least. The ad-skipping plan is the latest in a long line of rumored back-...

The multitouch feature in your Mac's laptop or your Magic Trackpad makes it easy to perform tasks that otherwise might include several taps, clicks or swipes. For example, you can look up the definition of words in documents and on webpages with a simple gesture, no need to use Spotlight or launch the Dictionary app.

Summer time! Well, at least here in the northern hemisphere. Summer means travel for many and the iPhone is among the best travel gadgets you can own. It's a navigation device, communication tool, camera, concierge and so much more.

In this post, your favorite TUAW writers share what's in their travel folders. Some may be familiar, some hidden gems. Here are the apps that we always pack (all prices are USD).

Dave Caolo

I do love to travel. I even get excited to visit a new corner store. When I'm out and about, I use the following apps:

MotionX GPS Drive ($0.99 + optional in-app purchases for voice navigation)

MotionX has been my favorite turn-by-turn navigation app for a long time. It has never given me bum directions (though it occasionally takes me "the long way around"), is inexpensive and includes niceties like customizable voices, traffic alerts, speed alerts and...

As the Apple TV continues to receive new channels, Frost & Sullivan’s “Analysis of the Global Consumer Video Devices Market” has the “hobby” device taking the lion’s share of the IP Streaming Devices market in 2012.

Roku took about a fifth of the marketshare and TiVo was down to just 6.5%. Notably, Google TV must have been placed into the “Others” slice of the pie.

Apple’s executives are quick to reiterate their view of the Apple TV as a “hobby device”, even as the content library begins to grow. The $99 device now has Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go,...

This is definitely not safe for work or children, but I laughed all the way through.

In 2012, Apple accounted for 56 percent of sales in the consumer streaming video device market with Apple TV, despite "relatively narrow content access," with Roku coming in second with a 21 percent share.   ...

First off, apologies for the delay in getting the Rumor Roundup out this week. I had a death in the family; my iPhone 4S prematurely kicked the bucket. It's been living on borrowed time since a bad motorcycle accident last November; I'd hoped it would last until Apple launched the iPhone 5S or whatever it ends up being called, but it was not meant to be.

Therefore, the time I'd normally have spent chugging vodka martinis while writing the Roundup was instead frittered away on wrestling with iCloud while I tried to get it to properly restore a backup to my shiny new iPhone 5.

Having just spent way too much money on a new iPhone 5, I'm certain the iPhone 5S will be on store shelves within mere weeks. You can take that one to the bank.

Apple...

Apple has released Logic Pro X, the most advanced version of its professional recording studio for the Mac. Featuring a modern new design, Logic Pro X comes with new plug-ins, sounds, and tools that keep the music-making process flowing. New features include Drummer, a virtual session player that jams along with your songs, and Flex Pitch, which allows you to fine-tune the pitch of your audio tracks. Also new is Logic Remote, an app that lets you control Logic Pro X wirelessly from your iPad. “Logic Pro X is our most powerful version yet, with advanced tools and a modern new interface designed to streamline the process of creating professional quality music,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. Wayne Sermon, guitarist of the Platinum-selling band Imagine Dragons, said, “We love the new design, and the creative features of Logic Pro X have already been inspiring us to write new material while we’re on tour.”

I hear people calling Apple products some really weird things, and now I’m sharing the list with you.

Hackers have found a way to use some basic JavaScript code to trick unsuspecting Mac users into paying US$300 for surfing the Web. The threat tricks users into thinking they have been viewing or distributing pornographic content by hijacking Safari and displaying a warning that appears to come from the FBI.

The Mac Observer Spin:
This isn't malware, or a vulnerability in JavaScript. Instead, it's simple social engineering that tricks people into thinking they did something wrong and must now pay a $300 fine.

I'm always looking for new ways to keep a workout fresh -- a new routine or an interesting challenge that'll make my running less boring. One app that added some spice to my exercise routine is MileKeeper, a mileage tracker that shows your distance on a virtual route.

MileKeeper ships with several virtual routes including the Great Wall of China, the Tour de France and the English Channel swim. As you log your miles, the app will track your progress through your chosen route. So, every mile you run is a mile that you swim the English Channel. MileKeeper supports Facebook Friends and lets you invite others to join you in your virtual route either as a competitor or a relay partner.

I love the idea behind MileKeeper, and its execution is wonderfully done. The app lets you pick a virtual route, select an exercise activity and go. It works in GPS mode and will automatically track your distance and update your progress along your...

The Duracell SnapBattery for iPhone 5 combined with the Duracell Powermat with wireless charging make for a powerful duo and are easy to use on several levels.

Apple's iPad will serve as the official scoring and record recording device used by officials during the 2013 Little League Baseball and Softball World Series, replacing the traditional pen-and-paper method currently in use..   ...

An anonymous reader writes "A new piece of malware is targeting OS X to extort money from victims by accusing them of illegally accessing pornography. Ransomware typically uses claims of breaking the law and names law enforcement (such as the CIA or FBI) to scare victims, but it is usually aimed at Windows users, not Mac users. The security firm Malwarebytes first spotted this latest threat, noting that criminals have ported the ransomware scheme to OS X and are even exploiting a Safari-specific feature. The ransomware page in question gets pushed onto unsuspecting users browsing high-trafficked sites as well as when searching for popular keywords."

...

A new piece of digitally signed spyware for Mac OS X uses a special Unicode character in its file name to hide its real file extension from users and trick them into installing it.

The malware, which has been dubbed Janicab.A, is written in Python and is packaged as a stand-alone Mac application using the py2app utility, researchers from security firm F-Secure said Monday in a blog post.

It is distributed as a file called “RecentNews.?fdp.app” where the “?” is actually the right-to-left override (RLO) character known as U+202E in the Unicode encoding standard.

Unicode supports characters from most languages, including those written from right to left like Arabic and Hebrew. The special RLO character tells software that the text following it should be displayed from right to left.

...

Computerworld is reporting that Apple and Samsung are headed to the U.S. Court of Appeals where Apple will try and convince the court to issue an injunction regarding infringing Samsung products that relate back to last summer's Apple/Samsung case in California.

Apple and Samsung will appear before the court on August 9th and each side will present a 15-minute oral argument.

If you recall, Apple last summer was on the winning end of a $1.05 billion judgement against Samsung, a figure that was subsequently reduced by $450 million on account of jury miscalculations.

Judge Lucy Koh, who oversaw the California case, considered but ultimately opted not to issue an injunction for the Samsung products that were found...

Apple and Samsung are scheduled to appear in U.S. Federal Appeals Court on August 9 over a product ban Apple wants to see enforced. The ban includes 13 Samsung Android-based devices that were included in a sales injunction that Judge Lucy Koh denied.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Apple may have won its patent infringement case, but so far Samsung has done a great job of keeping anything else from happening. Apple needs to get the remedy portion of its case moving again, and that makes August 9 an important date for the company.

Griffin today announced the release of its PowerDock 5 ($100), a device charger that can hold up to five iOS devices at once. First seen at CES 2013, PowerDock 5 takes up about as much desk space as an iPad, featuring five USB charging ports and a clear…

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 and subject to change).

Deals from Dealnews

• StackSocial: [Mac Software] Parallels Mac Bundle downloads for $50: Parallels Desktop, WinZip Mac, more
• Rue La La: [Office Furniture] Home Office Furniture at Rue La La: Up to 48% off, deals from $45 + $10 s&h
• MegaMacs: [Keyboards] Used Apple Aluminum Keyboard w...

Following in the footsteps of T-Mobile, AT&T announced today that it is adding an upgrade option for customers who want a new smartphone or tablet each year. The yearly upgrade plan is called AT&T Next and allows customers to buy a device with monthly installments. After 12 payments, customers can trade in the device and upgrade to a new one with a new installment plan. Customers can also cancel at any time and pay off the balance that is owed on a device.

AT&T Next is available for any smartphone or tablet in AT&T's lineup, including the iPhone and iPad. Monthly pricing for these iOS devices were not announced, but AT&T did say the installment payments...