Alex Heath - page 45

In what is perhaps the most bizarre lawsuit ever filed against Apple, Tennessee lawyer Chris Sevier is seeking damages for watching “women engaging in sexual acts with the intent to cause vicarious arousal” on his Apple devices. Contained within his 50-page complaint, Sevier’s proposal is that Apple ship its devices in a “safe mode” that customers would have to take steps to disable if they wanted to be naughty.

The Vanderbilt law school grad believes that it’s Apple’s responsibility to shift “the burden off of the buyers who do not want to see porn onto those who do want to see pornographic content to take the additional step.”

ReadKit is one of the best read-it-later/RSS apps out there for the Mac. It supports a nice lineup of services, and now it has been updated with Feedly integration. Although Feedly is the best Google Reader alternative for most people, it has been lacking a solid Mac app—until now.

Here’s the full list of changes and bug fixes in ReadKit 2.2:

AT&T plans to purchase Leap Wireless for $15 per share. Leap is the parent company of Cricket Wireless, a small U.S. carrier that sells the iPhone prepaid. In a press release issued today, both carriers confirmed the acquisition plans, explaining that “AT&T will acquire all of Leap’s stock and wireless properties, including licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 5 million subscribers.” Leap is currently over $2 billion in debt, so the AT&T deal will help rescue what has been a sinking ship.

“AT&T will retain the Cricket brand name, provide Cricket customers with access to AT&T’s award-winning 4G LTE mobile network, utilize Cricket’s distribution channels, and expand Cricket’s presence to additional U.S. cities,” notes the press release. The acquisition will also help bolster AT&T’s coverage in select areas around the country. More importantly, Cricket customers will have access to AT&T’s more robust 4G LTE network.

iPhone cases overwhelm me. There are cases made from wood, metal, plastic, recyclable material, leather, and fabric. I’ve tried nearly every kind you can imagine, but I have yet to find one that I’m happy to wake up to every morning—many probably feel that way about their lovers.

In my quest to find a good looking, functional, minimal iPhone case, I came across an aluminum case for the iPhone 5 by Freeform3, a Craftwerk company. What started as a Kickstarter project has turned into the best iPhone bumper I’ve ever used.

If you believe the rumors, Apple has been working on a cheaper, ‘budget’ iPhone for quite some time. Reports have started picking up momentum in recent months, as Apple is expected to announce the new device by early as this fall.

Just a few days ago we saw some of the first leaked images of the rear casing in a variety of bright colors. Now a collection of photos give us the closest look at the budget iPhone we’ve seen yet.

Instagram for iPhone has received a minor update in the App Store that brings a long overdue feature. You can finally shoot in landscape mode when taking stills or video. In the past, shooting in anything other than portrait wasn’t supported within the Instagram app. Now the orientation will adapt like the regular iOS Camera. When the iPhone is rotated, Instagram’s camera buttons rotate to match.

Cinema, an image stabilization feature that was introduced alongside video a couple weeks ago, has been added to the iPhone’s front-facing camera. Today’s update also packs bug fixes and other random improvements, so be sure to download it from the App Store.

Source: App Store

Back in April, we told you about Rolomotion, a new gaming platform for iOS that leverages the iPhone’s hardware sensors to create a Wii-like gaming experience on the Apple TV. Developed by Rolocule Games, the first Rolomotion game is available in the App Store, and it’s called Motion Tennis.

As the name implies, it’s a tennis game that requires an iPhone and Apple TV. Unlike most iOS games, the iPhone acts as a motion-aware controller. While it’s certainly not as polished as playing Wii Sports, Rolomotion is forecasting the future of Apple TV gaming.

iTranslate Voice has been the premiere language translation app in the App Store for awhile. Apple even featured it as one of the best apps of 2012.

Today Sonico Mobile, the company behind iTranslate, has released version 2.0 of the app with additional languages, a polished design, and a slick multi-lingual communication tool called AirTranslate.

Twitter’s Vine app was at the top of the mini-video sharing game until Instagram came along and crushed it by allowing users to upload 15-second video clips. With Instagram’s massive user base, you would think that Vine doesn’t have a fighting chance.

In the biggest update the iPhone app has seen yet, Vine has proven otherwise.

Apple likes to celebrate product anniversaries and other big milestones. The upcoming 5th anniversary of the App Store’s existence is no exception, and the company has sent out celebratory posters for the occasion to publications.

Tim Bradshaw of the Financial Times tweeted the above picture earlier today. The App Store doesn’t actually turn five years old until July 10th, so Apple must be trying to raise awareness beforehand.

July 1st has come and gone, and Google Reader is dead. The beloved RSS aggregator has been an invaluable tool for legions of news junkies throughout the years, but it wasn’t popular enough for Google to keep it running.

You can look at Google Reader’s death two ways: as either a misfortune, or an opportunity.

In the wake of Reader’s demise, numerous RSS platforms have sprung up, and many of them have built upon what made Reader great. Enter Feedly.

Apple is starting to give more attention to the Apple TV, as the recent additions of content like HBO Go and WatchESPN prove. Negotiations to stream cable content via the Apple TV have been underway, and Apple is almost ready to close a deal with Time Warner Cable. Former Hulu executive Pete Distad has also been hired by Apple to handle negotiations with content companies for the Apple TV, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Apple has released an important security update via the Mac App Store for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion users. It’s important to install these updates right when they come out to keep your Mac up to date with the latest bug fixes and malware patches.

You can download the update now in the Mac App Store or download them manually from Apple’s website.

Source: Apple

Apple and Samsung are heated rivals when it comes to selling smartphones and tablets, but the two companies are still in bed behind the scenes. Samsung makes the majority of Apple’s processors for the iPhone and iPad, and there hasn’t been another manufacturer that’s capable of replacing Samsung’s assembly line prowess.

Moves are being made to distance Samsung from the iPhone’s guts, however. A deal with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing) has been struck for Apple’s mobile processors. TSMC will start making a chunk of the ‘A’ series chips for Apple in 2014, but Samsung is still supplying the bulk of the orders.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed the deal over this past weekend after Digitimes recently said that TSMC will start making upcoming chips for Apple’s next-gen devices. “TSMC plans to start mass-producing the chips early next year using advanced “20-nanometer” technology, which makes the chips potentially smaller and more energy-efficient,” according to the Journal.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Did you know that Microsoft has its own note-taking app? Well it does, and it’s called OneNote. The iOS app has been in desperate need of some love for many months, and today Microsoft released version 2 for iPhone and iPad in the App Store. Besides some significant design and functionality tweaks, OneNote is now totally free. You used to only be able to save 500 notes before paying.

The best thing about AirPlay is that it just works. It takes about two taps to send audio from an iPhone to an Apple TV or other supported device. The downside to AirPlay is that Apple owns it exclusively, and accessory makers have to pay a licensing fee to use it in their products. That means customers pay more for an average AirPlay-capable speaker vs. a Bluetooth box.

DoubleTwist, a small developer team behind some gorgeous Mac and Android apps, has an open source alternative to AirPlay called MagicPlay.

Earlier today, we showed you a screenshot of what appears to be iOS 7 in some sort of jailbroken state. While the screenshot doesn’t confirm that iOS 7 has been fully jailbroken by any means, it’s a good sign that jailbreaking will live on in the post-iOS 6 era.

OpenJailbreak, a new project led by renowned iOS hacker Joshua ‘p0sixninja‘ Hill, will be the first community-driven hub of code and tools solely dedicated to jailbreaking and everything it entails. Not only does this mean that hacking iOS could become more of a public effort, but it also means that exploits will likely be gathered more quickly for jailbreaking future iOS versions. 

Top Apple executives get really good stock compensation as an incentive to stay with the company. In the past, stock awards have typically been granted by Apple’s board on a restricted basis, meaning that a certain number of shares is set aside to be given years down the road. The obvious incentive is that the executive does well and helps Apple succeed so that the stock is cashed in for more than when it was granted.

Tim Cook was awarded 1,000,000 restricted shares in Apple when he became CEO, but the shares weren’t tied to Apple’s overall health as a company. He would get them all over time as long as he stayed at Apple—whether the stock value bottomed out or rose exponentially.

A recent update to Cook’s stock compensation—at what appears to be his own request—changes the terms to focus on Apple’s actual performance. If Apple doesn’t perform well under Cook’s tenure, millions of his own dollars are on the line. His stock is currently worth around $413 million.

Instagram added support for sharing 15-second video clips yesterday, and the feature has been available in the App Store and Google Play for a little over 24 hours. Twitter’s Vine app is already a pretty established video sharing network with 13 million+ users, so you would think that Instagram has some catching up to do. O wait… Instagram has 130,000 million users. Right.

Enough videos were uploaded within the first eight hours of release that it would take you a year to watch them all. Also, there’s a reason clips are 15 seconds long.

Following the release of a teaser clip back in January, the first full trailer for the new Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher has been made available—and yes, it features a song by Macklemore.

The movie was originally supposed to hit theaters in April, but the premiere has been pushed back to August 16th due to a need more more marketing.

Early reviews were mixed for Jobs, but most seem to agree that the movie isn’t going to be that great. What do you think of the new trailer?

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have had their baby, and word on the street is that the name is “North West.” KimYe’s creation may very well be the most popular baby on earth right now,  but no one has seen it yet. Well, no one except… wait for it… Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

In what is probably the most random connection between celebrities in recent memory, the Woz has been chilling with Kim, Kanye, and baby North West.

Every year Apple does a summer camp for kids at its U.S. retail stores. The free workshops teach 8-12 year olds how to make movies and music with iMovie and Garageband. Camp sessions begin around the middle of July and last through the beginning of August in some cases. There are two workshop days that culminate with an Apple Camp Film Festival.

HBO Go and ESPN recently got added to the Apple TV, but only if you pay a hefty, monthly sum to a cable or satellite company for a bunch of other channels you never watch. The TV industry is evidently broken. You can have unlimited access to stream HD content for the price of a couple cups of coffee each month, but you can’t pay for HBO a la carte.

The Apple TV is slowly but surely becoming a more formidable media player with the addition of apps like HBO Go. But developers still can’t create apps and submit them to an Apple TV App Store; Apple handpicks partners to work with.

For the past few weeks, Apple has been battling the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over e-book pricing. The federal antitrust trial revolves around the DOJ’s accusation that Apple conspired with the country’s five biggest publishers to raise prices on e-books and stifle competition with Amazon.

Apple’s face for the trial has been its head of software and services, Eddy Cue. The trial has revealed some tidbits concerning Steve Jobs and the early negotiations surrounding the iBookstore. The trial ends today, but the court’s sentence for Apple has yet to be decided.

Today Instagram announced its rumored video feature at a press event in Southern California. Instagram’s 100,000,000 active members can now shoot 15-second video clips and apply filters.

Rumors leading up to the event claimed that Instagram would launch a competitor to Vine, Twitter’s video network that lets you quickly share six-second clips with the world. After seeing what Instagram unveiled today, it looks like Vine has been leapfrogged.