Apple may be planning to shift some of its iMac production from Quanta to Pegatron, a report claims. Quanta currently manufactures several Mac lines, including the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Some suppliers have allegedly been sending iMac components to Pegatron however, in spite of the firm normally only handling iPhone and iPad work for Apple. Even then, most iPhones and iPads are assembled by Foxconn....  ...

Users of the popular iOS app Catch Notes, take note (no pun intended): the note-taking and archiving service is shutting down as of August 30. The service allowed people to take notes via text, photos, or voice and share them with friends and colleagues. The company has not been specific about why it's shutting down but is urging users to download their data before it is deleted from Catch's servers on August 30. From an announcement on the company website:

Catch has made the difficult decision to take the company in a different direction. As such, we will be terminating service next month. We value our users and have greatly enjoyed providing Catch to millions of people over the last several years, but it is time for us to move on.

Catch will no longer be available after 30 August 2013. Please follow these directions to...

This is a great one.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Samsung's fight to block iPhone sales in the United States isn't dead yet, despite a veto on the ban from President Barak Obama. The electronics maker filed an appeal in July in hopes of overturning an ITC ruling that dropped three other patents from its case, and if it wins that appeal, the fight to block iPhone 4 sales will be back on -- a fight that's mostly symbolic at this point, but could have a big impact on Samsung's future patent infringement lawsuit strategies.

A 21-year-old woman from Brisbane, Australia was scammed into buying a pair of apples in place of the iPhones she was expecting, regional police say. The person recently placed an ad on classifieds site Gumtree, saying she was interested in buying a few iPhones. She was then contacted by another woman, who said she had a pair of iPhones to sell....  ...

I know it may seem odd for The New York Times to post a programming style guide, but the senior developer over there, Matthew Bischoff, is a smart guy.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Craig Hockenberry asked developers if they were actively working on an update for their app to add iOS 7 features and compatibility—95% answered yes. What’s more, 52% of developers are going to require iOS 7 for their app. In other words, they are dropping support for all other operating systems.

I’ve been asked a lot about this strategy over the years and I’m in favor of it. Developers should offer their customers the latest and greatest as soon as they can. The only thing that would hold back a developer from doing that is the adoption rate of the operating system. Judging from the fast adoption rate of Apple’s operating systems, that doesn’t appear to be an issue.

∞ Read this on The Loop

DigiTimes is reporting today that Pegatron may be picking up contracts for production of upcoming iMacs with “upstream supply chain players revealing they sent iMac components to Pegatron recently.” Both Pegatron and Apple’s current partner for Mac production, Quanta, aren’t commenting on the rumor, but perhaps Apple could be looking to add additional partners to produce its next round of iMacs after experiencing significant delays following the launch of its latest iMac refresh.

While Quanta produces the majority of Apples Mac lineups, Pegatron is already an Apple manufacturing partner for iOS devices. However, last month the company came under fire when a report...

Patent disputes in the U.S. could change significantly, with the International Trade Commission playing a less important role, following a veto from President Barack Obama's administration in the ongoing Apple-Samsung litigation.  ...

The short version of this post: Vox is a music player with a beautiful interface and an elegant feature set. I love it.

Vox 1.0 was released today after being in public beta for a while. It's a free music player for Mac that was originally created as a developer's side project. While it became quite popular, it never reached its full potential. That changes today.

I've been using the beta for a couple of weeks now, and I'm loving it as an iTunes alternative for my local music. I'm a heavy Spotify user, so Simplify is still always open as well, but Vox has completely replaced iTunes for playing music from my local library.

Vox handles all popular lossless and lossy formats:

• FLAC...

A contract dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable has prevented millions of customers not only from viewing CBS channels on their television set, but also through the network's official applications for iPad and iPhone.  ...

According to a report from German computer scientist D. Kriesel, some Xerox WorkCentre copiers and scanners may alter numbers that appear in scanned documents. Having analyzed the output of two such devices, the Xerox WorkCentre 7535 and 7556, Kriesel found that “patches of the pixel data are randomly replaced in a very subtle and dangerous way”: in particular, some numbers appearing in a document may be replaced by other numbers when it is scanned. These substitutions can be particularly troublesome for documents such as invoices, construction plans, and medical information. Kriesel suspects that the problem may be related to the JBIG2 compression algorithm employed during scanning, which can substitute one scanned region for other scanned regions that are visually similar. The substitution problem is particularly acute when documents are scanned at low-resolution. So far, no fix has been reported.

Read the full article at...

LG has rolled out three new additions to its IPS 21:9 UltraWide monitor lineup. All three models (29EA73, 29EB73 and 29MA73) are 29-inches wide and utilize IPS technology for wide viewing angles and color accuracy, while they all also use LED backlighting for consistent brightness and contrast. The displays are also Mac compatible with DisplayPort connectivity, while they also support smartphones over mobile high-definition link (MHL)....  ...

The Drowning is an evolutionary new first-person shooter iOS game. It boasts a graphically rich post-apocalyptic world where an ecological disaster has turned millions of people into naked-but-genderless zombie-like monsters with bald skullish heads and claw hands. They try to kill you. You try to survive by shooting them or bludgeoning them when they get too close, and you have to reload. Meanwhile, you scavenge around for weapons, parts of weapons, and survival gear. Sounds pretty normal for a FPS monster shoot 'em up game, right?

While efforts by Apple and Samsung to enforce their respective patent rights are often equated as back-and-forth arguments among twin giants who irrationally refuse to settle their legal disputes rather than innovate and compete in the market, there's a vast difference between the legitimacy of their respective intellectual property claims and what each company is demanding.  ...

You should definitely watch NFL games on a big high-def TV this fall.

But if you can’t get in front of one, you will want to use the NFL’s new mobile app, out today for iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry.

NFL Mobile does the work that was previously spread out among two apps– an NFL-built “cross carrier” app that provided scores, highlight clips, and other goodies; and a Verizon-made app that gave the telco’s subscribers the chance to watch live games.

Why are we writing about this? Because the backstory is interesting here: By consolidating the two apps, the NFL is also taking more control over its digital experience. Now, if you...

Major new update with new Sidebar user interface and improved compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. (Free, 163 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.

Adds integration with new Airfoil Remote iOS app. ($25 new, free update, 12.9 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.

Dave and John are back from their vacation week off, and boy howdy do they have a show for you! Your questions are answered, of course, and there are some great topics, including tips for copying large files in the Finder, how to make iTunes behave and honor changes you made on your iPhone or iPad, some great Cool Stuff Found (including one set of apps made by a Mac Geek Gab listener!), and a great, geeky discussion where John and Dave try to figure out how to get a USB device to make MIDI signals from your Mac! Download today and enjoy!

Recent Samsung ads for the Galaxy S4 have been used to highlight a unique feature of the phone that can automatically pause video when you turn your head away from your device. This has been an exclusive feature on the S4 for quite some time, but is now available to jailbroken iOS users through a new tweak called FaceHalt.

While early versions of FaceHalt seemed a bit buggy and unstable, the latest build works flawlessly on both the iPhone and iPad. The tweak works system-wide, from the YouTube app to the built-in Videos app, and all of the third-party apps tested. The biggest downside? You’ll actually have to watch those YouTube ads now.

FaceHalt is available on Cydia now for $1.99 on the BigBoss repo.

For more information about Apps continue reading at 9to5Mac.

...

Product: For the past week I’ve been using the Justin Case (Ultra-Slim) Rechargeable Power Case for the iPad. Essentially, the case is a folio-style cover for the iPad 2, 3, or 4 that includes a massive 11,600 mAh battery built into the cover which you can use to charge your iPad, iPhone, iPod, or pretty much any other portable device. The case also functions as a stand for your iPad.

Performance/Features: The Justin Case performs two functions, and thus needs to be evaluated from multiple angles. First, as an iPad case. The product is made of a soft, synthetic leather material. While it doesn’t feel...

US Trade Representative Michael Froman, on behalf of the Obama administration, has decided to invoke a Presidential veto of the recent ITC ruling against Apple that would have resulting in a sales ban on GSM iPhone 4 devices (and other models no longer being actively sold). The ruling, in which the ITC reversed its own prior judgements on whether a Standards Essential Patent (SEP) that is under dispute should ever qualify for a sales injunction, was widely criticized even by Apple's competitors as a poor decision that overstepped the ITC's boundaries.... ...

Macworld reports that Apple on Thursday made a slight adjustment to its iTunes Terms and Conditions. Under the new T&C, children under the age of 13 can now have their own iTunes account with access to applications and book services if their Apple ID was provided at the bequest of an educational institution.

iTunes accounts were previously limited to children aged 13 and up, but with the impending release of iOS 7, Apple noted that schools will now be able to "facilitate Apple obtaining verifiable parental consent for personal Apple IDs for students under age 13."

The new terms and conditions for iTunes now reads in part:

These App and Book Services are only available for individuals aged 13 years or...

Back in June, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued an import ban on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 3G due to patent violations. Now, the White House has exercised its privilege to overrule the ban. In his letter to the ITC (PDF), Ambassador Michael Froman said 'he was not making a decision about the merits of Samsung's case, or its right to seek compensation. Rather, he emphasized that because the patent in question was now a widely held technology standard, banning the products in question would be too disruptive to consumers and the economy.' This is the first time an ITC decision has been overruled since 1987.

...

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, on Saturday the Obama administration vetoed the US International Trade Commission's import ban on older models of Apple's iPads and iPhones. The ITC ordered the ban after it found the Apple devices infringed a Samsung patent. The ban, had it been enforced, would have blocked importation of the GSM-compatible iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

In his letter to the Chairman of the ITC, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman focused on the issue of the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing of standards-essential patents (SEPs). He writes that "licensing SEPs on FRAND terms is an important element of the Administration's policy of promoting innovation and economic progress."

Apple contacted...

App Store developers overwhelmingly see iOS 7 as important to support, with 95 percent saying they are actively updating their existing apps to support Apple's new software, and 52 percent likely to require iOS 7 in order to work.  ...

The Obama administration on Saturday issued a veto on a proposed potential ban on a number of Apple products in the United States, including some iPhones and iPad devices.

“After extensive consultations with the agencies of the Trade Policy Staff Committee and the Trade Policy Review Group…I have decided to disapprove the USITC’s determination to issue an exclusion order and cease and desist order in this investigation,” a letter from the U.S. Government to United States International Trade Commission Chairman Irving A. Williamson said.

The President’s veto comes in response to a ruling made by the USITC in June, granting the South Korean electronics giant Samsung’s request for import ban on older iPhones and iPads,...

President Obama and Vice President Biden with an iPhone

United States President Barack Obama and his administration have issued a veto on a potential ban for iPhone 4 and 3G-capable iPad 2 models in the United States. The news comes by way of a notice from the U.S. Government. The official ruling comes from Michael Froman, a trade representative for the United States:

In addition, on January 8, 2013, the Department of Justice and United States Patent and Trademark Office issued an important Policy Statement entitled “Policy Statement on Remedies for Standard-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary FRAND Commitments” (“Policy Statement”).2 The Policy Statement makes clear...

As someone who uses a lot of different software and tends to find a lot of 'edge cases' I often find myself emailing software developers or filling out support tickets to either ask a question or report a problem. I know it would be helpful to include information about my Mac (both the hardware and the operating system) as well as precise information about the version of the software that I'm using.

But, to be honest, I'm often too lazy to include it.

Instead I tell them that I'm using the "latest version" of Mac OS X and the "latest version" of their software. But am I? Not too long ago I realized I was running 10.8.2 on a Mac that I thought was up to date. Or what if the developer comes across my email again in a month and can't remember what version was current then? They might think "Oh, well I think I fixed that since then" but if they have the exact version number for their app, they could find out much more easily.

Which is so say: sometimes...

Following several photo leaks and reports, Macotakara has posted two videos that show purported shells for the upcoming fifth-generation iPad and low-cost, plastic iPhone. Above is the video of the iPad 5 shell, which shows thinner bezels and is in line with our exclusive photos from January. Below, is the video of what some are calling the “iPhone 5C.” These future products will likely hit the market this fall.

For more information about iOS Devices...

This is one of my favorite guitar apps for the iPhone and iPad, especially for high gain tones.

∞ Read this on The Loop

The Drowning is a first-person shooter set in a post apocalyptic world where grotesque creatures that used to be human now roam, and your objective is it take out these monsters while gathering supplies. It's a rather played out premise, but in truth the iPad doesn't exactly have a long list of enjoyable shooters, so I can't really hold the tried-and-true story approach against it.

The action plays out in arena style throwdowns where you face off against a timer and a horde of mutated creatures who want nothing more than to kill you. You are often given the option to either attack or defend a specific area, and depending on which mode you choose you'll either be protecting barriers to keep the monsters out or running about the small environments and popping headshots as they attempt to chase you down.

After each round you are rewarded with supplies and items based on your performance, and the...

Amanda Palmer composed a song to the UK Tabloid Daily Mail after they focused on a wardrobe malfunction instead of her music.

Max (short for Maximilian) the pug knows he's the most important thing in owner Jyri Jokirinta's life, so he gets a little bit jealous when Jokrinta pays more attention his iPad than to Max.

Gallery: Max the Pug isn't happy with the iPad

As Jokrinta notes:

"When this picture was taken Max got wild. My wife took the picture and tried to catch the moment when Max was jumping over my tummy while I was browsing my Facebook....

Screenshot Plus, a long-time "widget" for users that wanted more customization and control over the Mac's built-in screenshot abilities, is now available as a $2 app from the Mac App Store. The program "lives" in the menubar and allows users to change the format of screenshots, save them to specific folders, open them in specific programs, do timed screenshots and the usual screenshot features. The program's time function is particularly handy for capturing events that are difficult to arrange using the built-in functionality, such as a button press or picture with the cursor/pointer/arrow inc... ...

In an effort to further promote and support the iPad for students, the company is bending a rule that children under 13 can't have Apple ID accounts and allowing schools and "approved educational institutions" to create accounts for students under the age limit. Children between 13 and 18 are now requested to review the terms and conditions with parents or guardians when creating an account. In order for schools to implement Apple IDs for kids under 13, the institution must obtain the students' parent's consent.... ...

Effective immediately, electronics retailer Geeks.com is shutting down online ordering. In an email sent to customers today, the company is "turning off ordering on Geeks.com" and "will cease to sell and ship products immediately." The company is shutting down its online portal after 17 years of operation....   ...

Reference books (and apps) don't have to be boring. Vern Seward proves it with three free iOS reference apps in this week's Free on iTunes. DataFinder, Atlas by Collins, Abraham Lincoln Interactive Biography.

A lot of iPad accessory manufacturers are getting into the external battery pack market, not surprising when you consider how much usage the average iPad gets on a daily basis. The latest in the parade of power-packed iPad cases is from Innovative Technology in the form of the Justin Case Ultra-Slim Power Case for iPad (US$89.99 but available for less from many retailers).

Design

Like many of the similar products on the market, the Justin Case features a folio-type case with a slot to hold a 2nd through 4th-generation iPad in place. Inside the location where a keyboard would be found in a keyboard case is a 11,600 mAh rechargeable battery. That's enough to give a 2nd-generation iPad or iPad mini two charges, a 3rd-generation iPad a single recharge, and a 4th-generation model only .8 of a full charge. But hook up your iPhone (3GS, 4...

As part of its new iPad in education initiative, Apple on Thursday revised the iTunes Store's terms and conditions to allow children under the age of 13 to open and manage their own accounts, as long as the Apple ID was requested by an "approved educational institution."  ...

Did you ever wish you could use your iPhone camera to take images at rapid fire speeds and save the best ones? SnappyCam Pro does just that. The app is US$0.99 for a limited time.

The app's developers claim it will shoot up to 20 full resolution pictures in one second when run on an iPhone 5. That's very fast. Rather than take time to save to your camera roll, the app presents a display of your images, and you can select the ones you want to save. GPS data is included, and all the other metadata the iPhone provides is tagged to each photo.

This is a great way to get decent sports, pet or kids photos. The app is working within the Apple SDK, so it doesn't break anything, but it fine tunes and speeds up the taking of images to a degree that just hasn't been seen before.

Gallery: SnappyCam Pro...

In the latest development in the Time Warner Cable and CBS licensing disagreement, Time Warner Cable has yet again discontinued CBS-owned programming in New York City, with other venues to follow. Channels affected by the negotiation failure are local CBS stations, Showtime, The Movie Channel (TMC), Flix, and the Smithsonian channel. Areas likely to see the programming cut are Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and Pittsburgh....  ...

The U.S. Justice Department and 33 states' attorneys general have proposed remedies against Apple for its conviction on e-book price-fixing that could dry up a large portion of the company's revenue stream while benefiting Amazon and, possibly, Google. The proposed final judgment seeks to have Apple terminate contracts with the five codefendant publishers in the case; hobble its ability to enter contracts for any and all content; and require Apple to hire a full-time internal antitrust compliance officer.

While Bob Mansfield looks after Apple's special projects, two senior VPs -- Hardware leader Dan Riccio and Operations head Jeff Williams -- are handling his former duties as senior VP of Technologies, sources say. Riccio's tasks now include overseeing antenna design for mobile and the Wi-Fi components in all of Apple's major products. The situation is a reversal of the one that brought Mansfield out of his recent retirement, in which he was asked to transition wireless teams over to Riccio....  ...

From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Also check out the latest...

It’s annoying as hell, but damn it’s funny.

∞ Read this on The Loop