Alex Heath - page 48

Apple’s two-step authentication process is designed to make your Apple ID more secure. When attempting to reset a password or make other kinds of account changes, a separate verification code is sent to an iOS device you own. That code is then used to verify that you are who you claim to be before you’re allowed to make any changes.

Many big tech companies have offered two-step authentication for quite some time, and Apple’s process is only a couple months old.

Now that security researchers have had time to dig through Apple’s implementation of two-step, some problems have surfaced. Once the login details for an Apple ID with two-step authentication enabled are compromised, there’s nothing stopping hackers from accessing iCloud data, like device backups.

Adobe has released the Kuler iOS app for creating color themes on the iPhone. Designers can use Kuler to generate color palettes with help from the iPhone’s camera. The app and new Kuler website were both previewed at Adobe MAX earlier this month.

Today Tapbots released a big update for Tweetbot on the Mac. The main addition is the enhanced media view that is already present in the iOS version. When viewing a timeline, tapping ⌘F now allows you to switch between a text and media-only experience. The media view displays a stream of images and videos from tweets in the timeline.

Tweetbot for Mac also supports cover photos for individual profiles, another feature that has been present on mobile for a long time. Viewing the details on a specific tweet will now show how many times it has been favorited and retweeted.

Apple has announced a few of the big artists that will perform at the 2013 iTunes Festival in London this September. Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson and Jessie J will all be headlining, and more artists will be announced leading up to the event.

Like last year, each concert will be streamed live via iTunes on the desktop, the iTunes Festival iOS app, and Apple TV.

Designed by the makers of the Jawbone fitness band, August brings the concept of sharing a key into the 21st century.

A sleek, hi-tech deadbolt and companion iPhone app allow you to unlock and lock your door without the need of a physical key. Access codes for your lock can even be sent to friends and family using the August app.

Apple is looking to diversify its presence in the Asian supply chain, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Instead of partnering with Foxconn to make the rumored budget iPhone, Apple has reportedly commissioned Pegatron, a rival factory, to build the device.

Foxconn has been making the majority of Apple’s products for years, but under the leadership of Tim Cook, the umbilical cord is being cut.

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about an upcoming iPhone app called Analog Camera. Developed by Realmac Software, maker of popular to-do app Clear, Analog Camera is a gorgeous app for taking pictures and quickly applying Instagram-like filters.

Now that Analog Camera is available for download in the App Store, it’s time to decide if it belongs on your iPhone’s Home screen.

Automatic, the California-based startup that turns the iPhone into your own driving assistant, had planned to start shipping preorders this month. Unfortunately, the $70 car dongle + iPhone app won’t be shipping until the end of August now. Automatic needs more time to finish its app before drivers around the country start using it on the road.

If history is indeed destined to repeat itself, Intel’s next-gen Haswell processors will power the 2013 gamut of Macs. Every year Apple typically puts the newest Intel silicon in its desktop and laptop models, and this year should be no exception. When Haswell desktop lineup specs leaked in December 2012, we got a peak at what will likely power the 2013 iMac.

Intel has now said that Haswell chips will offer 50% more battery life for laptops than Ivy Bridge. The main focus of designing Haswell was to lower power consumption for laptops and tablets while also doubling graphics performance. Sounds great. Maybe we’ll see something with Haswell announced at WWDC!

Source: Computerworld

PC makers have been copying the Mac for years, but every now and then you just have to shake your head yet again. HP has unveiled two laptops that blatantly rip off Apple’s designs. It’s so painfully obvious that it makes you wonder if HP wants customers to be fooled into thinking they’re buying from Apple.

The FDA has gone after Biosense, a health startup that makes uCheck, an automated urine analyzer sold directly to end customers. You pee on a strip then use the uChek iPhone app to take a picture and analyze the contents of your urine for health info like glucose. Biosense claims that it can help detect up to 25 diseases, like diabetes, pre-clampsia, and urinary tract infection.

A letter has been sent to Biosense from FDA about its home kit + iPhone app product asking why Biosense hasn’t gotten uCheck officially sanctioned by the government.

The makers of Whale Trail, a popular iOS game where you fly a whale through a psychedelic skyline, have a new game out in the App Store. It’s called Blup, a new puzzler that aims to be an “addictive conundrum of coloration.”

iPhone games like Letterpress have started setting the trend of more flat, squared interface aesthetics. It’s something Apple is expected to do in iOS 7. Blup falls right into that category, and it looks pretty interesting.

Earlier today, Microsoft released a new ad that attempts to show how much better the ASUS VivoTab is at getting stuff done than the iPad. A similar TV spot was aired last night with Siri being used to mock things like the iPad’s lack of Powerpoint (a Microsoft product).

Alongside its TV ads, Microsoft has put up a new webpage called “iPad vs. Windows.” At the bottom of the comparison it says that the ASUS ViviTab “has a bigger touchscreen” than the iPad.

False.

Apple is rumored to be working on a budget iPhone targeted at emerging markets. The device will allegedly be made of plastic and look like an iPod touch in the back and an iPhone 5 in the front. Other reports have claimed that Apple is working on multiple color variations beyond the traditional black and white.

Today a new report from Japanese publication Macotakara claims that Apple is currently testing such a device in the supply chain for production later this year. 

Rhapsody, the online music streaming service a few of your friends used ten years ago, has released a redesigned version of its iPhone app. Like Spotify and Rdio, Rhapsody allows you to create playlists, download tracks for listening offline, and look up artist/album information. It costs $10 per month for access to millions of tracks.

“Beautiful and fully redesigned, the latest incarnation of the Rhapsody experience gets the music playing faster than ever,” according to the company. Rhapsody is calling this the “Ferrari of iPhone apps,” which is a bit of a stretch. Today’s update brings a lot of interface elements that have been in competing apps for a long time. Rhapsody still doesn’t look any better than Rdio, or even Spotify. The iPad version blatantly copies parts of Spotify’s iPad app, actually.

Nice try, Rhapsody.

Source: App Store

Via: The Rhapsody Blog

Microsoft has released a new TV ad that slams the iPad touts Windows 8 on an Asus tablet. This is the most directly targeted attack campaign on Apple in recent memory—even the Samsung Galaxy ads had more tact.

The tagline of the ad is “Less Talking, More Doing,” a.k.a using apps like Powerpoint. Siri is used to mock the iPad, ending in the virtual assistant giving up with, “Should we just play chopsticks?” in Garageband.

You have to give it to Microsoft for not pulling any punches. It will be interesting to see if Apple responds. Remember the good ol’ days of Mac vs. PC?

Via: The Verge

Popular iPhone case maker Otterbox has acquired LifeProof for an undisclosed sum. The news was announced today by the two companies at the CTIA wireless show.

The Omni Groups makes great, robust apps for OS X and iOS. Fans of the Omni apps will be pleased to learn that the company has released OmniPresence, its take on document syncing in the cloud. Instead of iCloud sync or Dropbox, The Omni Group has built its own solution using open standards like WebDAV and Apache.

Now files saved in OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniGraphSketcher on the iPad can be effortlessly synced with their Mac counterparts, and vice versa.

Google started rolling out voice search functionally for Chrome on the desktop earlier today, and now the company has revealed that the same feature is headed to iOS. Chrome for iOS will be receiving voice search in the App Store in the next few days.

We love picking apart the stupid things analysts say, but Michael Gartenberg is a rare example of a veteran analyst who doesn’t make wild, ridiculous predictions about Apple. He has worked for the Gartner research group, and Apple has even used Gartner’s market share figures multiple times in its keynotes.

After spending most of his career covering Apple and other tech companies, Gartenberg is now batting for the other team. He has reportedly accepted a job on Apple’s own marketing team, and he now reports to Phil Schiller.

Badger is a new jailbreak tweak that lets you access unread notifications from an app icon. Instead of opening Notification Center, swiping on a specific icon can reveal a list of notifications. From there, you can clear individual messages and even respond to texts.

Apple has published the opening statements read by CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer earlier today at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing on corporate taxes. The hearing lasted several hours and was televised live on CSPAN.

Senators like Carl Levin, John McCain, and Rand Paul were present to lead the committee and hear from industry experts. Apple was called to the stand to explain why it stores a large percentage of its billions in cash overseas.

Today Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One at its Redmond, Washington campus. As the battle for the living room rages on, Microsoft has won a decisive victory that puts it well ahead of the competition.

The Xbox One is just as much for all-around entertainment as it is for gaming, perhaps even more so. It’s designed to be the one box that sits below your TV and does everything: games, movies, live TV, music, surfing the web, messaging, and even video calling. Minority Report-style gestures control the experience, it can recognize your face when you walk in the room, and you can talk to it like Siri on steroids.

Should Apple be worried? The answer is no, at least not yet.

Apple executives are testifying before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee today on tax evasion practices, specifically on routing funds offshore to avoid the U.S. government’s 35% corporate tax rate. This is the highest single tax rate in the world, and Apple has avoided paying billions in U.S. taxes by storing more than two thirds of its $100+ billion cash hoard in countries like Ireland.

At the hearing, there are basically two camps: those attacking Apple for using “gimmicks” or loopholes that other multinational corporations take advantage of, and those defending Apple while pointing out the obvious need for reform in the corporate tax code.

While Michigan Senator Carl Levin and Arizona Senator John McCain fall in the first camp, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is clearly in the second. He said that the Senate should be apologizing to Apple during the hearing today, noting that “the committee needs to look in the mirror and see who created this mess.”

Yahoo just unveiled a completely redesigned website for Flickr, and it looks great. What makes it even better is that each user now gets 1 TB of free storage and 3 minutes of 1080p video.

The new look is very image-centric, as it should be. Profiles are collages of photos in a scrollable list with a Facebook-like cover photo. You can check it out now at Flickr.com.