Buster Hein - page 204

WWDC 2013 is ready to kickoff in San Francisco next week, and in preparation for the event, Apple has already started decorating Moscone West with WWDC 2013 banners.

The banner art shows the same graphics that Apple used on the official WWDC 2013 logo. the graphics appear to be a bunch of flat app icons, which support the rumors that iOS 7 will ditch its skeumorphic roots for a more minimalist and modern look. One of the tag lines for the banners reads, ‘Where a whole new world is developing.’

Here are some more pictures of Apple’s WWDC 2013 decorations:

Apple just published a report prepared by Keyser Marston Associates that evaluates the “Economic and Fiscal Impacts Generated by Apple in Cupertino –  Current Facilities and Apple Campus 2.”

The report was prepared for the City of Cupertino under the contract of Apple, to evaluate the concerns the city has about Apple’s future Spaceship-like campus. The report states its principal objectives as the following:

• The on-going economic impact and benefits of Apple to the City of Cupertino;
• The ongoing economic impacts and benefits to the City of Santa Clara, City of Sunnyvale, and the broader region of Santa Clara County;
• Apple’s recurring annual fiscal impacts on the City of Cupertino;
•  The construction-related impacts of Apple Campus 2 on Santa Clara County; and
•  The construction-related tax and fee revenues to be received by the City of Cupertino and other local public agencies from the construction of Apple Campus 2.”

The full 82-page report can be read after the break –

The U.S. Department of Justice’s case against Apple has gotten underway in New York. The DOJ has accused Apple of colluding with publishers to raise the price on eBooks.

To start the trial off, the DOJ has released an 81-page slide deck containing its opening statements against Apple. The trial is expected to run for about three weeks, and both sides gave their opening arguments today.

The DOJ’s 81-page document includes a number of email between Apple execs, as well as sections of Walter Isaacon”s biography of Steve Jobs.

You can search through the DOJ’s opening arguments after the break:

Google just released Chrome 27 for iOS. The big update for Google’s third-party browser for iOS should have faster page reloading speeds as well as improved voice search.

Google included voice search in its Google Now app for iOS, but the conversational search tools are now being packed directly into Chrome as well. The update also gives Chrome the ability to speak search results back to you so you pretty much never have to look at your screen again if you don’t want to.

Here are the full release notes:

WordPress just released a new update for its iOS app that is sure to make WordPress bloggers happy. The new app features a overhauled UI that makes it easier and faster to blog from your iPhone than before.

The new update ditches the single pane view for a multi-pane view that users can swipe between to access different areas of the app (kind of like the Facebook and Rdio apps). WordPress also added a shortcut to the sidebar to make posting faster, there are also new translations for Russian, Danish, and Korean, improved Tumblr importing, and bug fixes.

Here are the full release notes:

Ever since Tim Cook ousted Scott Forstall last year, the Apple CEO has preached a lot about how collaboration within Apple is one of the most important aspects of the company’s culture.

Speaking at a reunion for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Tim Cook outlined what kind of attributes he looks for in employees and what it takes to be a great collaborator.

Here’s what Cook had to say about collaboration:

Have you ever contemplated just how many displays Apple’s manufactured for the iPhone since 2007? And then, have you ever thought how cool it’d be to combine all those iPhone displays into one gigantic Monophone that’s docked in the middle of Manhattan?

Josh Orter over at Stupid Calculations was wondering what such an object would look like too, so he did all the calculations and discovered the Monophone screen would stretch 5,059 feet into the sky, and measure 2,846 feet across, for a total surface area of 23-acres. It would be enough screen space to watch Game of Thrones on all fours sides of fourteen World Trade Centers.

Here’s another picture of what the Monophone would look like in Manhattan:

Apple hasn’t updated the Mac Pro in forever. It’s been 1,039 days since the Mac Pro received a respectable upgrade. Tim Cook promised us something really great for the Mac Pro will be coming in 2013. It’s possible we might even see it at WWDC.

In the build up towards WWDC and Apple’s first keynote of the year, Mac Pro supplies have started drying up at retail stores. Diminishing stock can be a decent sign that a refresh is imminent for some Apple products, so MacTrast checked in with a dozen major Apple resellers and found that the entry level Mac Pro is getting harder to find.

Here are some the companies that are out of stock:

Despite launching iAd in 2010, Apple’s foothold in the mobile advertising business hasn’t really taken off yet. Tim Cook even addressed Apple’s advertising strategies during his interview at the All Things D tech conference this week, and stated advertising isn’t core to Apple’s business.

Apple’s enthusiasm for mobile advertising might start picking up soon though if today’s latest rumor turns out to be true. According to Business Insider, Apple is planning to launch an ad exchange, similar to way Facebook and Twitter have recently done.

Siri knows everything (kind of). She even knows when you’re trying to use the Konami Code to cheat your way towards world domination.

In a newly discovered Siri Easter egg, if you try to give Siri the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start), she’ll chide you for your cheating ways.

Here are two other responses you can get in the Easter egg: 

While speaking today at the All Things D conference, Nuance CEO Paul Ricci confirmed that Nuance does indeed help power the voice recognition service for Siri.

Since Siri’s launch in 2011, many people assumed that Apple had formed a partnership with Nuance, but neither company has officially confirmed the relationship.

During the his interview, Ricci was asked whether it’s his company’s fault if the iPhone doesn’t understand a user’s voice. Ricci confirmed that Nuance does power the voice part of Siri, but the company is not involved in speech-recognition efforts with Google.

Apple has received a lot of heat from the U.S. Senate lately regarding its international tax practices and off-shore cash, and you can now add Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to the list of Apple tax dissenters.

Woz said that he doesn’t think Apple’s tax practices are really fair, and suggested that Apple, and other large firms, be taxed on their income.

In an interview with the BBC, Woz had the following to say regarding Apple’s tax practices:

Sometimes when you can’t decide between two things the easiest thing to do is flip a coin. Don’t got a quarter? Well, Siri can now create some random numbers for you via the command “Roll the dice.”

The litter Easter egg might also come in handy if you’re Monopoly board is missing its shiny white dice. But then again, you’ll probably be playing a game on your iPhone by then.

Oh, and if you just want Siri to flip a coin instead, she can do that too:

Twitter released a new app for iPhone and Android today that is all geared toward helping users tweet faster and better.

The new app boasts that users will be able to tweet a picture in under six seconds, thanks to the improved user interface that eliminates steps to tweeting photos by adding a new photo icon on the Tweet box.

Twitter is also trying to assist users in preventing tweeting in error. A new accounts avatar is displayed above the Tweet box so users know which account they are logged into at all times

Here are the full release notes from Twitter:

The iPhone has quickly become the most popular camera in the world simply because it’s the camera that’s always on you. Even though the iPhone’s camera doesn’t have anywhere near the same features and tools as a DSLR, that doesn’t mean you can’t squeak out some extra performance out of your iPhone to get pictures that look like a pro shot them.

Long exposures are a basic staple of most DSLR photographers, but thanks to some awesome apps for iOS, iPhone users can join in the fun too without having to spend hundreds of dollars on gear. In this guide we’re going to teach you about all of the gear and apps you need to take long exposure photos with your iPhone. 

Summer is here, and you know what that means? Movies. Lots and lots of over-the-top, cheesy summer action movies. It the best time of the year if you’re into popular movies, and Apple’s iTunes Movie Trailers app is one of the best way to get acquainted with all of them.

Apple just published a new update for its iTunes Movie Trailers app that adds better video playback, the choice of HD or SD trailer viewing, and Fandango integration. With the new update users can watch trailers for any movie and then purchase tickets through Fandango. Oh, and Fandango has Passbook support too, so you’ll never have to bother with losing your tickets ever again.

Here are the release notes:

Tim Cook just took the stage at All Things D’s, D11 tech conference to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Cook was asked for his opinion on wearable technology, and despite his belief that wearables could be a “profoundly interesting area,” Cook said he has a hard time believing Google Glass will find success with a mainstream audience.

Regarding Google Glass specifically, Cook said the following:

The iPhone 6 probably won’t be released until 2014, which means there’s still plenty of time for the rumor mill to churn out ridiculous specs and other ideas on what Apple might toss into the mix.

Today we’ve got a new iPhone 6 concept video that dreams of an iPhone with an edge-to-edge 4.8-inch curved display, along with an 8 megapixel 3D camera. We’ve yet to see 3D implementation in smartphones take off, which is probably a good thing. But if anyone could pull it off it’d be Apple right?

Check out the concept video below and tell us what you think:

Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle its class-action lawsuit from customers. The iPhone maker used faulty moisture indicators in both iPhones and iPods that resulted in customers’ warranty claims getting denied.

Depending on which iPhone model you’ve own, you may be eligible to receive $300 in damages from Apple, according to the federal court documents that were filed in San Francisco.

There are a lot of privacy concerns surrounding Google Glass, but that’s not deterring developers from making Google Glass apps that are even more invasive than Google’s dorky looking computer glasses.

Lambda Labs in San Francisco has created a facial recognition app for Google Glass that will launch in the next few days. The app is a facial recognition tool that is capable of recognizing someone in a picture you’ve taken with Glass, but it only works once you take a picture of them a second time with Glass.

Anyone who believes that still believes the iPad and other tablets are just a fad are in for a bumpy ride. A new forecast from IDC found that tablet shipments are expected to surpass ‘portable PC’ shipments by the end of 2013, and total PC shipments will get surpassed by 2015.

IDC found that tablet shipments are expected to grow 58.7% year-over-year in 2013, for a total of 229.3 million units sold. That figure is up from just 144.5 million last year, and if growth continues at the same pace tablet sales will be more popular than PC sales of both desktop and portable computers combined in 2015.

While Apple is working to cut the price of iPhones and iPads to appeal to more consumers, vintage Apple gear keeps getting more valuable by the minute. This weekend a vintage Apple I computer, made in 1976, was sold at an auction for a record $671,400.

The auction beat the previous record price for an Apple I that was set at an auction house in Germany last November when someone snatched up a working Apple I for $640,000.

Apple is having some trouble with its signature store on 5th Avenue in NYC. The company rebuilt the glass cube above the store so it will have less seams, but ever since the renovation was finished Apple has had not one, but two leaks.

A rain storm hit New York City yesterday, and just like two weeks ago, the roof of the 5th Ave store began to bulge with large deposits of water that then leaked and flooded the lower level. To make matters worse, the roof of the Apple Store in SoHo sprung a leak too.

One Apple Store customer got the entire scene on video this time. You can watch the 5th Ave Geniuses scramble to solve the flooding after the jump:

When rumors of the iWatch first surfaced, most insiders pegged its launch date for somewhere around the end of 2013 and everyone got super excited that our wrists are going to get blinged out by Apple really soon. However, lately we’ve been hearing that that might not be the case, and we won’t be able to slap Apple’s magical wrist watch on until 2014.

The unreleased iWatch isn’t the only timepiece Apple’s ever made though, so if you’re really desperate to get a watch made by Apple you totally can, but it might cost you more than your iPhone.

Here are 11 of the coolest retro Apple iWatches you can buy right now. We’ll start with the cheap stuff and work our way down:

AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid service has never been friendly to the iPhone. In fact, AT&T has tried to keep iPhones off it for years, hoping that iPhone users will pay for bigger data contracts instead. It looks like AT&T is starting to feel some pressure from T-Mobile and other prepaid networks though, because starting today you’ll be able to use an iPhone on the GoPhone network.

After preventing data access for iPhones for years, AT&T is enabling iPhone support to GoPhone, along with 4G HSPA+ and LTE access, and Visual Voicemail.