Apple is reportedly testing new iPhones with screens ranging from 4.8 to 6 inches, according to The Wall Street Journal. Suppliers say Apple has tested larger iPhone screens recently, and the company has been “particularly interested” in testing a 4.8-inch screen. As the report notes, Apple eventually adopted a…

Apple Inc. responded swiftly to a new report of labor abuses in its supply chain in China, saying that it is already on-site investigating the factory in question. China Labor Watch issued a report on Thursday alleging a wide variety of abuses at a factory operated by Jabil Circuit.

There's something your MacBook Air or Pro probably doesn't have, and that's a carbon fiber case. That's because I haven't seen one on the market, but an enterprising young man from Dallas named Chetan Raj wants to change that. He's launched a Kickstarter project for carbon fiber cases that are custom made for Apple's full range of laptops. On the outside the case is shiny, reflective carbon fiber, and on the inside it will be held snugly in place by a foam lining that also serves to distribute the force of any impact evenly across your laptop. Mr. Raj needs funding to make it happen, however, so check out the video below and consider backing the project! There's also a ton of information on the project's Kickstarter page.

Carrier China Telecom briefly indicated that it was accepting reservations for Apple’s iPhone 5S and 5C. The message, which referenced sales of both new phones, was posted on a microblogging website and has been removed. It’s possible Apple could launch both devices in China earlier than usual, coinciding with an…

Hard Candy Cases is the latest company to unveil new cases for Apple’s upcoming iPhones, debuting its HarvestCraft Slider ($40) for iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. The slider cases come in three different color combinations per base color package. Availability is listed…

With Apple's formally announced media event on September 10, the expectation is that Apple will be announcing one or more new iPhones.  Here's a handy guide to help you determine if your current iPhone is eligible for an upgrade with AT&T.

Ten One Design has released a set of new interchangeable magnetic tips for its Pogo Connect stylus for iPad, selling four different packages. Ten One Design’s R1 ($10) is built for note-taking, with a thin profile. The R2 ($10) is a bit thicker, and the R3 ($10) is…

Reportedly involved in producing the iPhone 5C, Apple supplier Jabil Circuit has been accused of numerous labor violations by China Labor Watch. The watchdog group has alleged that Jabil Circuit’s factory in Wuxi, China has engaged in infringements including millions of dollars in unpaid overtime wages, more than 100…

Adobe has expanded its Creative Cloud offerings by adding a new subscription bundle geared towards photographers. The US$9.99 a month bundle includes Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, a Behance membership, and 20GB of online storage.

The Mac Observer Spin:
It's good to see Adobe responding to user feedback. The $9.99 a month Photoshop subscription bundle is a great start, so now how about showing InDesign users some love?

Samsung's Galaxy Gear, the smartwatch that has been rumored for about half as long as Apple's iWatch. The company announced it today, and the biggest thing Bryan Chaffin gets from it is that it should have been called the Galaxy Fear.

New Trent’s iPad mini Airbender case features a fully functional keyboard, full cover protection, and it is water resistant. The iPad mini can be tilted at any angle. The keyboard separates if needed for standalone use and yet still affords good protection. The price is excellent.

LYNKtec has released a new Artist Paintbrush Tip for the TruGlide Pro stylus.  This is a replaceable tip for the original Pro stylus barrel.  It's not pressure sensitive, and it doesn't afford finer lines when drawing. Instead, it simulates the traditional soft brush experience that artists appreciate.

VMWare announced the immediate availability of its Fusion 6 and Fusion 6 Professional virtualization apps for the Mac on Wednesday. The apps let Mac users run several versions of Windows, Linux, and other operating systems in OS X, and the new version 6 includes support for the soon to be released OS X Mavericks as well as Windows 8.1.

The Mac Observer Spin:
With Parallels Desktop 9 out, Fusion 6 had to be close behind. With both system virtualization apps available we're excited to see how they stack up against each other.

Not sure if iMessage is down for just you, or if it's everyone? Or maybe you want to know if iCloud's Photo Stream service or Siri is working right now. No problem. Apple's System Status Web page lists the current status of its online services and stores so you can tell at a glance what should and shouldn't be functional right now.

Jawbone has introduced Mini Jambox ($180), the newest and smallest addition to its line of Jambox Bluetooth speakers. Made from a single piece of aluminum with three drivers inside, Mini Jambox weighs 9 ounces, is just over six inches long, and slightly less than an inch deep. Using Bluetooth…

A leaked internal document from Telus appears to reveal that the Canadian carrier will discontinue the 32GB and 64GB iPhone 5 models on Sept. 28. The document hints—but doesn’t confirm—that Apple will discontinue those models, while continuing to sell the 16GB…

Apple followed up its invitations to a September media event with updates for its iOS versions of iPhoto, GarageBand, and iMovie on Tuesday. Apple's release notes are slim, but considering the likelihood that we'll get iOS 7 very soon, could include compatibility fixes for the OS upgrade for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Dave & John cruise right out of the Labor Day weekend and into your podcast stream with this week's episode of Mac Geek Gab. Topics are decided by you, and this week your questions (and their answers!) included how to create your own personal cloud on your Mac, pesky web page loading in Safari, iTunes rentals that won't start mid-flight, and more. They also continue the conversation about email encryption and answer your questions about WiFi extensions, always a popular topic this time of year. Download, press play, and enjoy!

Apple has released minor updates to its iLife apps for iOS — iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband. The heavily skeuomorphic apps are all described by Apple as receiving compatibility and stability fixes, without additional details, and continue to run without obvious changes on iOS 6 and iOS 7. While these behind-the-scenes…

ArtRage for iPad ($5) from Ambient Design Ltd. has updated to version 1.6. The updated art studio app has enhanced stylus support, as the app now supports the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus and TenOne Pogo Connect Stylus, in addition to the original Adonit Jot Touch. Tap and hold color…

Apple made it official on Tuesday, sending out invitations for a media event for September 10th. The invitation invokes both iOS 7 and Apple's rumored multi-color iPhone 5C, and teases, "This should brighten everyone's day."

A German Appeals Court has given back some of iCloud's functionality in the country by lifting an injunction blocking the email push delivery feature. The injunction was part of a Motorola patent infringement lawsuit that alleged the email push notification feature Apple offers iOS users relied on technologies that weren't properly licensed.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Losses like this have to sting in Google's executive offices. The price of owning Motorola Mobility keeps going up and so far there hasn't been a big payoff for that investment in the patent wars.

Following numerous leaks of rear shells and other small components, leaks of complete and boxed iPhone 5C units have hit the web. A photo of iPhone 5Cs in packaging comes from iapps.im, appearing to show a red iPhone 5C inside a plastic box. The packages appear to match those…

Microsoft is buying Nokia's cell phone business for about US$5 billion and tossing in another $2.2 billion to license the company's patents. The deal throws together two big time companies that are struggling to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung, brings Nokia CEO Stephen Elop -- a former Microsoft executive -- back into the fold, and shows Microsoft is serious about playing in the smartphone game. All this as current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced he will step down within 12 months, although now it's looking like that may come much sooner than he thought.

It's been rumored for weeks and tested in some stores, but on Friday Apple officially launched its in-store trade in program for used iPhones. Under the program called "iPhone Reuse and Recycling Program," Apple will offer an in-store credit for used iPhones good towards the purchase of a new one. Bryan Chaffin walks you through it.

A settlement notice has gone out to customers of Apple iBooks who purchased books from Macmillan and Penguin. A $162.25 million settlement fund has been established by the publishers for minor payments to victims of ebook price collusion.

The Sunfire backpack from Altego is big and roomy. It is designed for Apple products and can easily hold all sizes of Apple laptops, even the 17 inch ones, and there is plenty of space left over for the rest of your Apple gear.

Macmillan and Penguin — two publishers that agreed to settle in the Apple e-book price-fixing case — now have a website detailing the distribution of a $162.25 million settlement fund. Customers eligible to receive a settlement payment are already being contacted. U.S. customers who purchased one or more e-books…

Have a Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and want to easily share files between all of your devices? DeskConnect from Ari Weinstein and Ben Feldman has you covered. Think iOS 7's AirDrop sharing feature, but right now and without the requirement for the still unreleased iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. You can choose which iOS devices you want to send files to through a drop down menu on your Mac, and you can send webpage links, travel directions, and more. iOS devices can send all kinds of content back, too, such as clipboard contents, photos, and files. Both are free, and available through Apple's App Store and Mac App Store.

Parallels Desktop 9, released this week, brings a ton of useful new features that help integrate OS X and Windows even further. But what about performance? Is this year's upgrade worth it for those who need to run Windows as fast as possible? Check out our Parallels 9 benchmarks to find out!

A bug inside Apple's Core Text rendering framework has been discovered (via Hacker News), a bug that can crash apps in OS X and iOS. The issue was reported to Apple and has reportedly been fixed in iOS 7 and Mavericks, but it currently affects both iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Bryan Chaffin and Adam Christianson explain.

Parallels has released Desktop 9, the latest version of its virtualization software for OS X. Notable are: significant speed improvements, cloud support, an improved experience with Windows 8 and Linux as guest OSes, and support for OS X Mavericks and Windows 8.1.

Apple TV is experiencing an unusual outage that is preventing users from accessing the TV Shows features of the devices. As of this writing, the TV Shows icon has been missing for over an hour. A number of users have tweeted…

Algoriddim’s djay 2 has been updated for both iPhone ($2) and iPad ($10) to version 2.0.2. Both versions have added support for the Pioneer DDJ-WeGO2 DJ controller, improved syncing with tapped BPM, an improved “analyze library,” and improved sampler button mapping for supported DJ controllers. The iPhone version…

Even if you can't make it to Apple's iTunes Festival in London, you can still get a taste of what's in store because the company is offering six free songs from artists that will be performing during the month-long event. To get the songs, you need to launch the Apple Store app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and then tap Stores. From there just tap 30 nights of music. The list of songs includes Trying To Be Cool by Phoenix, Workin' Woman Blues by Valerie June, 2013 by Primal Crawl, My Love Took Me DOwn To The River To Silence Me by Little Green Cars, Chain My Name by Poliça, and The Curse by Agnes Obel. The free song offer is good until the end of October. If you don't have the Apple Store app, it's a free download at the App Store.

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It's sponsor time here at TMO again and I am thrilled to welcome back Smile in that capacity. Smile makes several of my favorite, can't-live-a-day-on-a-Mac-without products, and PDFpen is one of them. Read on for some examples of how I use it each day.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is on a 12-month plan to step down, which opens up new doors for the company. Jeff and Bryan offer their take on what that future may hold for Microsoft, plus they have something to say about Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch and the company's jump into the wearable tech market ahead of Apple.

Check out John Leake's mini Mac, a 1/3 scale working computer that looks like the original Macintosh and runs Mac OS via the vMac emulator (on an SD card, no less). Mr. Leake built the case by hand from Sintra Board using an X-Acto knife, and he included an HDMI out, two USB ports, and an Ethernet cable on the back of the thing. It's powered by the Raspberry Pi Linux boardJohn Leake is the co-host of the RetroMacCast podcast, and he posted several pictures of the completed project on that site. The attention to detail is amazing, and I salute Mr. Leake for the ability and tenacity to make something so incredibly cool.

Apple will soon launch its AppleCare+ extended warranty program in Europe, according to a French report. AppleCare+ was introduced for the iPhone in the U.S. in 2011, and later expanded to include the iPad in addition to launching in Canada and Japan. Despite rumours of a U.K. launch last…

CableJive has released a new version of dockBoss air ($35), an adapter that lets users wirelessly stream audio from a device to a 30-pin audio dock. Unlike the recently released dockBoss 5, the new dockBoss air uses Bluetooth for wireless audio streaming, allowing for audio control from up…

Just how durable is the soon to be announced gold iPhone 5S? Apparently durable enough to hold its own against coins in your pocket, but watch out for knives. Jailbreak Nation got its hands on what appears to be a legit gold iPhone back and captured their abuse on video.

The Mac Observer Spin:
The gold iPhone 5S scratch test is pretty impressive. Hopefully it means the black iPhone 5S will come with a more durable finish, too.

Developers are resourceful people, and when presented with a problem that seems unsolvable they'll work even harder to find a solution. That's exactly what The Omni Group did to overcome the lack of upgrade pricing on Apple's Mac App Store. Their new tool, called OmniKeyMaster, lets users who buy Omni apps through the Mac App Store take advantage of upgrade pricing, but there is a tradeoff. It also shows Apple still has some work to do before the Mac App Store is a perfect solution for developers.

Syncing files between your Mac and iPhone or iPad isn't always the easiest task to manage, so BitTorrent decided to help out with its brand new BitTorrent Sync for iOS. The app lets you sync any file between your own devices without requiring cloud-based servers, can share files between iOS devices, supports encrypted file transfers, uses QR codes to share folders, and more. BitTorrent Sync is a handy tool for moving your own files to and from your iOS devices, and it works for sharing files with friends and coworkers on your local network, too. BitTorrent Sync is free and is available at Apple's iTunes-based App Store.