Alex Heath - page 79

Brookstone sells the aptly-named “Bluetooth Keyboard Pro with Leather Case for iPad Tablets.” While I have to think that a better name could have been thought of, don’t let the genericness fool you. This case actually packs some surprises.

While no one should consider dropping $150 on an iPad case without good reason, Brookstone does deliver some features to make it worth checking out. Namely, the case comes with a full size Bluetooth keyboard that can be detached effortlessly and reattached with magnets. And that, my friend, opens up a world of possibilities.

Apple and the EPEAT have had quite the back and forth over the past week or so. It was discovered that Apple had suddenly withdrew all of its products from the EPEAT’s environmental registry, and Apple’s Bob Mansfield later explained the company’s decision to abandon the EPEAT’s outdated standards. Due to the initial concern and outcry, Apple did something it hardly ever does: backpedaled. Now Apple’s products are certified by the EPEAT again.

Despite the fact that all of Apple’s other MacBooks boast the EPEAT’s highest gold ranking, it was assumed that the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display wouldn’t qualify. After all, Apple’s new creation is the “least repairable” MacBook ever made. And yet, according to Apple’s website, the new MacBook Pro earns a stellar gold ranking as well.

Apple has released its third version of the iOS 6 beta to registered developers in the iOS Dev Center. iOS 6 beta 2 was seeded to developers three weeks ago after Apple unveiled the original iOS 6 beta at WWDC.

Beta 3 is available as an over-the-air update for developers running iOS 6 already. Apple is expected to release iOS 6 to the public this fall alongside the new iPhone.

Following numerous sources like iMore, Digitimes, Macotakara, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times now reports that Apple is planning to launch a 7.85-inch iPad this year. In a ploy “to lure customers who want different sizes of tablets into the iPad product family,” the smaller device will cost “significantly less” than the current iPad Apple starts at $499.

This morning a story started circulating about a Russian hacker who had hijacked Apple’s in-app purchasing system in iOS. Alexey Borodin had figured out how to intercept in-app purchases within App Store apps to get free access to content. The most disturbing part of the “hack” was that it is actually fairly simple to replicate on any (non-jailbroken) iOS device.

Apple has now responded with an official statement saying that it is looking into the issue.

Back in March, Max Petriv tweeted some images of a Spotify iPad app he had been working on. Not only was the app optimized for the iPad’s larger display (at that time there had not been a Spotify client even teased for the iPad), but the design and interface of Petriv’s app looked downright gorgeous.

The New York-based designer had no clue that his pictures would cause such a stir, with many publications, including Cult of Mac, reporting that an unofficial Spotify app was finally in the works. You see, Spotify had been promising the world an official iPad client for months and months, but when pressed, the music streaming juggernaut would only give vague hints, like “it’s definitely coming.” Hardly a satisfactory answer for iPad users wanting their own Spotify experience.

After showing off his early work on a Spotify iPad app, Petriv was blindsided by Spotify suddenly coming out of the woodwork to release its highly anticipated official app in May. The timing of Spotify’s announcement was interesting given that Petriv had just asked for help developing his own app less than two months prior.

Petriv is now publicly working on his own Spotify app again, but due to the restrictions Spotify imposes on developers, he needs your help.

NBC just announced that it will be streaming all 302 medal events from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to U.S. viewers via its new iPhone and iPad app. Not only will NBC be streaming everything live on its Olympics website, but these two new iOS apps will also stream each event as it happens in real time. Over 3,500 hours of event coverage will be streamed to desktop and mobile viewers, making this year’s Olympics coverage the most internet-friendly in history.

The only catch is that viewers will need to verify in-app that they are subscribed to a cable/satellite provider that includes CNBC and MSNBC.

Pixelmator, a beautiful image editor for the Mac that Apple could have designed itself, is about to receive a huge update. Version 2.1 Cherry will be going live “very soon,” and the folks at Pixelmator have revealed that the Cherry update packs full support for the new MacBook Pro’s gorgeous Retina Display.

Adobe has yet to update its Creative Suite for Retina, so Pixelmator will be the first image editing app of its class to be fully optimized for Apple’s newest display technology.

News Corp., parent company of The Daily, could very well discontinue the iPad-only newspaper in coming months. According to The New York Observer, The Daily has been losing News Corp. $30 million a year, and the tabloid has been placed “on watch.” News Corp. will supposedly “reassess” The Daily after the presidential election this November.

The Daily was the first mainstream paper to be delivered exclusively on the iPad. Since The Daily was introduced onstage with Apple’s Eddy Cue in 2011, the publication has expanded to the iPhone and Android devices.

Environmental activist group Greenpeace called out Apple’s reliance on coal power for fueling its iCloud data centers back in April. Apple responded by saying that all of its data centers will eventually be powered by 100% clean, renewable energy. Greenpeace was happy about Apple’s bold stance on the issue, saying that it was a “great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal.”

Now Greenpeace is saying that Apple’s plans to make its data centers truly coal-free “are still far from complete.” While Apple’s energy footprint has become significantly cleaner in recent months, the Cupertino-based company has yet to offer a viable plan for fully eliminating its use of coal, according to Greenpeace.

Research firm Gartner just released its numbers for PC shipments during the second quarter of 2012, and Apple was the only company in the top 5 vendors to see an actual increase in PC shipments. Every other PC manufacturer suffered a significant decline, totaling a 5.7% drop in overall U.S. PC shipments.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, tablet and iPad sales are increasing exponentially. A recent report even estimated that tablet shipments will surpass the PC in the next 4-5 years.

Microsoft has had a lot to say about Apple over the past couple days. The Redmond-based company is holding its annual Worldwide Partner Conference this week, and some recent comments from Microsoft COO Kevin Turner and CEO Steve Ballmer address the company’s stance on Apple as a competitor.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and the late Steve Jobs have spoken out multiple times on how the iPad and iPhone have pioneered the “post-PC era.” Instead of needing a traditional desktop computer, consumers are turning to tablets and smartphones for their everyday habits. Today, Microsoft’s Turner called Apple out on its post-PC label, saying “We actually believe Windows 8 is the new era for the PC plus.” Yesterday, Steve Ballmer said, “we are not going to leave any space uncovered to Apple.”

The guys at Tapbots released the highly anticipated Tweetbot for Mac today with a catch. The app is available for free, but it’s in alpha form. This means that the developers are still working furiously to iron out the kinks and create the complete, public version. But for now, those who feel so inclined can download Tweetbot for Mac 0.6 and give it a go.

I’ve been playing around with the app, and for an alpha release, Tweetbot for Mac is very good. The app has already become my default Twitter client on the Mac for a few reasons.

The day has finally come. Tapbots has released its highly anticipated Tweetbot for Mac application. After releasing an acclaimed iPhone app in April of 2011 and a native iPad app back in February, Tweetbot for Mac is now available to complete the family… albeit in alpha form.

The new Twitter client comes with stunning graphics for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, and the app’s design borrows heavily from the iOS interface. Tapbots designer Mark Jardine leaked a screenshot of the Mac app a few weeks ago. We’re all excited that it’s finally here!

While it’s already been revealed that there are certain spec requirements for installing Apple’s upcoming OS X Mountain Lion, certain 64-bit Macs will also be unable to run the new operating system when it ships this month. Following the release of the Mountain Lion GM to developers, Apple has an official list of current Mac models that are compatible with Mountain Lion.

If your Mac doesn’t support the current OS X Lion already, don’t expect to hop on the Mountain Lion bandwagon later this month.

Apple recently pulled all of its products from the U.S. government-backed Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). This is a big deal because EPEAT is largely considered the de facto “green” standard for U.S. companies.

The reason Apple withdrew its 39 products was speculated to be because of the EPEAT’s requirements for device repairability—something Apple has definitely shied away from in recent years with products like the iPhone, iPad, and new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Apple has now issued an official statement on its decision to part ways with EPEAT.

Taking an innovative approach to how we experience music on our iOS devices, a new jailbreak tweak called FoldMusic lets you create playlists from the iOS Music app and view them as standalone folders on your iOS Home screen.

I was skeptical of this idea originally, but after playing with the tweak, I can see the appeal. If you have an artist, playlist, or album you want quick access to, it doesn’t get much faster than this.

Google has released a major update to its Google+ iOS app that brings full support to the iPad’s Retina display. Borrowing from the Android version, Google+ on the iPad relies heavily on images and sports a very clean, minimal interface. The iPhone version of Google+ was updated weeks ago with a similarly clean UI, probably due to the fact that Google acquired Kevin Rose’s talent at the app development firm Milk.

In today’s update, the location-based Google+ Events feature has been integrated into the universal app. You can attach photos directly from your device’s Camera Roll and add them to your posts. You can also start and join hangouts in-app and stream them to your TV using AirPlay.

Twitter has updated its official iPhone app in the App Store with several new features, including added settings for notifications, enhancements to the Discover tab, the new expandable tweets feature for viewing media content in the timeline, stability improvements, and the new Twitter icon.

Twitter for iPhone 4.3 is available now in the App Store for free. Change log after the break:

Back in February it was discovered that Google was bypassing Apple’s privacy settings in Mobile Safari on iOS. The search giant was making ad revenue from Safari users’ web activity by ‘tricking’ the default iOS browser to allow multiple tracking cookies.

6 months later, and Google is about to pay the “largest penalty ever levied on a single company” by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Google will pay $22.5 million to settle the charges issued by the FTC, and the code in question has already been disabled by Google in Safari on iOS.

This graphic shows popular tablet screen sizes compared with the rumored ‘iPad mini’ screen size. Tablets include the Kindle Fire (Amazon is rumored to introduce a new generation of the Fire in coming months), Google Nexus 7, current iPad, and the theoretical 7.85-inch iPad mini’s screen. Rounding the screen size, we should actually be calling the purported device a 8-inch iPad.

Rumors are saying Apple will unveil the iPad mini (unconfirmed name) this fall, and that the device will sport a non-Retina 1024×768 display.

Source: @trojankitten

Via: Daring Fireball

Dropbox today announced some major changes to its Pro storage plans. The cross-platform data storage/sync solution is introducing huge upgrades for its Pro users. The service’s 50GB ($10/month) plan has been doubled to 100GB, and the 100GB plan ($20/month) has been doubled to 200GB for no extra charge. Pro users who already pay for one of those plans will be given the extra storage for free automatically. For those who want even more space on the cloud, a giant 500GB plan has also been announced.

Mujjo makes high quality cases and accessories for iOS devices, and the company is announcing the first sleeve for the brand new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. The hand-crafted sleeve is made in The Netherlands, and you can pre-order it now from Mujjo now for €64.95 ($80). Shipments go out on August 28th.

We conducted a brief chat with Mujjo about their new sleeve, and the product looks fantastic.

When Apple opened the App Store in 2008, it began a revolution that would lead to the largest and most vibrant mobile apps ecosystem in existence. It should then come as no surprise that Objective-C, the object-oriented coding language used by developers to build apps for iOS and OS X, has become the third most popular coding language, right behind Java and C itself.

Sometimes a jailbreak tweak comes along that is so subtle and yet so brilliant. Banner notifications in iOS are great, but Apple made a poor design choice: incoming banners push in on the top of whatever app you’re using at the moment. If you’re using Safari, the address/search bar is momentarily obscured by a banner notification. That’s no good.

A new Cydia tweak called CoverMeNot keeps banner notifications out of the way by automatically doubling the height of your iOS status bar. No more obtrusive banners covering the top of your favorite apps.