Buster Hein - page 209

As the head of Apple’s design team, Jony Ive has been one of the most influential figures in tech over the last two decades. He helped create the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and slew of other Apple products that have hit shelves over the last few years.

Now Jony’s putting his mark on Apple’s software too, which makes you wonder if there’s any area of design Jony can’t master. Time just released its list of the 100 most influential People in the world, and Ive is the only Apple employee that made the list.

Here’s what Bono had to say about Sir Jony:

Once you get on Apple’s bad side, it’s hard to climb back into its good graces, and AppGratis is starting to learn that the hard way. After pulling AppGratis’ app from the Apple Store last week, Apple has also decided to kill push notifications on the app for users that still have it installed.

This is the first time we’ve seen Apple kill certain functionality on an app after users have already installed it. AppGratis was banned from the App Store after Apple decided violated multiple rules of the App Store, but AppGratis says its already working on a comeback.

Apple has been keeping developers busy with a steady stream of beta builds for OS X 10.8.4.  The latest beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4 Build 12E33a was just seeded to developers.

Like the last build of 10.8.4, the release notes don’t contain anything significant, but devs will surely find new stuff once they get to digging through the OS. Apple asks developers to focus on Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers, and Safari and says there are no known issues with build.

OS X 10.8.3 was released to the public a couple weeks ago after going through 13 beta revisions over a period of nearly 5 months. The next version of OS X should be revealed by WWDC this year, if not before.

If you can’t beat ’em, talk trash.

That’s seems to be the popular sentiment among technologies most powerful companies, and Microsoft’s head executive for Windows Phone has been all too happy to do a little ribbing on Apple and Android lately.

At the All Things D conference yesterday, Terry Myerson,  took to the stage to talk about the future of Windows Phone, but he also took a few shots at Apple and Google during the interview and said that iOS is “boring.”

Last year it seemed like there was no end in sight for the rise of Apple’s stock price. Then things started to slip in October thanks to Apple Maps and the management shakeup, and it’s been all downhill from there.

Earlier this morning Apple shares were trading below $400 for the first time in over 16 months, as the stock has continued to slide from its high point of over $700 per share that it enjoyed just last year.

Siri hasn’t quite lived up to the hype that most Apple fans bestowed upon it after it debuted with the iPhone 4S, but it’s still a magical piece of software, and Apple’s competitors want their own version of Siri.

Adding to months of speculation that it’s working on its own smartphone, Amazon just bought a  Siri-like app called Evi, for $26 million. 

After being fired from his post at Apple for the Apple Maps fiasco last year, Richard Williamson has found a new home at one of tech’s other superstars – Facebook.

Richard Williamson played a key role in the development of the iPhone’s software under Steve Jobs. After working at Apple for more than a decade, Williamson was put in charge of the Apple Maps team that replaced Google Maps in iOS 6.

Apple just released a new software update for its popular iPhoto app today. iPhoto 9.4.3  contains bug fixes, along with some new features for Photo Stream, like the ability to delete photos by dragging to Trash, and exporting Photo Stream photos through the File Menu.

There was another update released for Aperture as well. The Aperture 3.4.4 update also has some improved Photo Stream features, along with several bug fixes.

Here are the full notes for both iPhoto and Aperture:

As more cable subscribers start to embrace the idea of ditching cable for services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, cable companies are quickly trying to entice subscribers to stay by offering TV everywhere on every device.

Time Warner Cable announced today that starting tomorrow, TWC subscribers will be able to stream live TV to their Apple devices for the first time ever. An update for TWC’s iOS app should roll out  tomorrow that will make 11 live national news, sports, and entertainment channels available to subscribers outside of their home, via an iPhone or iPad.

Kicking Google Maps to the curb last year in favor of its own homegrown solution caused quite a stir last year for Apple. Most of the rage over Apple Maps has died down, but Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, sees no reason why things can’t be repaired.

In fact, Schmidt admitted today that Google would love to work with Apple to set Google Maps as the primary navigation tool on iOS. With tensions between the two companies still being tight, we’d say there’s not a slim chance in hell of that happening, but Schmidt thinks it could.

Even though there are rumors that Facebook and Apple might be working to bring Facebook Home to iOS, it’s hard to believe Apple would give up so much control of iOS to Facebook.

For those craving for some Facebook Home action on iOS, there’s a new Facebook app update that will bring the most buzzed-about features of Facebook Home to your iPhone: “Chat Heads.”

If you’ve ever been disappointed with the YouTube for iOS app’s inability to tune into Live streams, then we’ve got some great news for you today.

Google just released version 1.3 of YouTube for iOS, and along with some stability and performance improvements, the app now gives users the ability to view Live streams inside the app. There’s also a new Queue feature that will let you add a bunch of videos to a list to watch later, along with some UI improvements to give users quicker access to their My Subscriptions feed.

The free update is available in the App Store now.

Source: iTunes

While companies like Samsung have been busy making mega-huge smartphones with gigantic screens, Apple’s aim has been to keep the physical footprint of the iPhone the same while adding better features, like the iPhone 5’s 4-inch display.

If Apple wants to make an iPhone with a 4.5-inch screen though, it’s going to come with some big changes. However, Ran Avni has created an iPhone 6 concept that gives big display fans the 4.5-inch screen they dream of, without making the device bigger. To achieve the thinner, smaller design all Apple would have to do is ditch the home button.

Here’s a video of the concept:

At one point in time, Dom had a beautiful MacBook and iPad that he loved very very much. Then one day, when Dom was out having some fun, thieves broke into his London flat and stole his MacBook and iPad. Assholes.

After calling the police and trying to recover his stolen MacBook and iPad, Dom remembered he had Hidden App installed on the MacBook. And one month later, when the MacBook finally got connected to the Internet again, it started broadcasting all the thieves secrets, from its new home in Iran.

Unfortunately, Iran is a bit out of the police’s jurisdiction, but at least Dom gets to know who his adversary is, incase they ever cross paths at an airport. On top of that, Dom’s created an awesome Tumblr so everyone can know what the thieves are up to.

Here are some of the pictures Dom’s MacBook thieves have taken:

Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs has kept herself busy with a number of different projects since the passing of her late husband. Yet, despite hanging out with the Clintons, one thing Jobs hasn’t done is offer an interview to a major news outlet.

Friday, April 12th on Rock Center with Brian Williams, Laurene Powell Jobs is set to be interviewed, for the first time since Steve’s passing, to advocate for young undocumented immigrants.

Samsung just announced a mega-sized phone. It’s freaking big. Like, it’s almost as big as the iPad mini, kind of. It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, and it’s got a ridiculously huge 6.3-inch display.

If the Galaxy Note II was a puny “phablet” with its 5.5-inch display, then we have no idea what to nickname this gargantuan “phone.” Just look at how monstrous it is next to the iPhone 5! Have fun taking calls on that in public.

Source: Reddit

Even though the iPhone 5 was launched in October of 2012, many analysts and pundits believe that Apple will likely release the iPhone 5S sometime this summer.

KGI Securities analysts Ming-Chi Kuo thinks that you shouldn’t get your hopes too high for a new iPhone though. In a report he released today, Kuo claims Apple is facing production problems on both the iPhone 5 and cheaper iPhone and that they won’t launch until Q3 of 2013.

As the last major carrier in the U.S. to sell the iPhone, T-Mobile has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to become competitive with AT&T, Verizon, and even Sprint. With the iPhone 5 set to launch on T-Mobile tomorrow, the carrier is preparing a massive media blitz to try and win new customers.

Along with its “uncarrier” plans and the $100 iPhone 5 price point, T-Mobile has been busy training its employees on the benefits of switching to T-Mobile from a cost perspective, and right now it looks like T-Mobile is the cheapest carrier to roll with on your iPhone.

A lot of hullabaloo has been made over the last 24 hours regarding the comic Saga #12. To catch up the uninformed, basically there’s a popular comic that has two “postage stamp” size scenes of gay sex in it, so it got banned from the App Store.

Everyone immediately blamed Apple and screamed “censorship” but it turns out Apple didn’t have anything to do with Saga #12’s banishment at all. It was Comixology.

In a letter posted to customers on the company blog, David Steinberger, CEO of Comixology decided to make it clear that Apple was not at all responsible for the banning:

Be careful where you leave your iPad. It might end up impaling some poor lady’s bumper.

That’s what happened to one unlucky iPad owner who forget they placed their iPad on top of their car. After getting onto the road, the iPad eventually fell off the roof of the car, slammed into a Georgia woman’s front bumper, and then stayed there for the rest of day.

Despite the unsuccessful launch of Windows 8, Microsoft still knows how to make some really great productivity software. Microsoft Office is one of the most popular suite of apps on the planet, and it could make over $2.5 billion per year if Microsoft ported it to iOS.

There have been a number of rumors that Office for iOS is coming really soon, but nothing’s happened yet. A new rumor claims that there’s still a lot of waiting to do, as Microsoft doesn’t plan to bring Office to iOS until Fall 2014.

Apple’s new spaceship headquarters look pretty amazing. Even though the mothership is still a year behind schedule, Apple loves the design of it so much, that they want the architectural firm who created the mothership to redesign some Apple Stores too.

Foster + Partners architecture firm has just signed a deal with Apple to work on new designs for some of its retail stores.

Palm and its line of smartphones might be extinct, but its patents have managed to live on after the company’s death, and Apple’s ready to scoop some of them up.

Apple reached an agreement with Japan’s ACCESS Co., Ltd. to license $10 million worth of patents that were originally created by Palm and PalmSource. Other patents were included in the deal from Bell Communications and Geoworks as well.

To stay on top of its prediction game, analyst firm Piper Jaffray’s just finished its 25th bi-annual teen survey to find out what all the cool kids are doing with tech and what do they want next.

The survey found that Apple is the most desired tech brand by teens, but Google has made some improvement compared to last year. Yet while analysts are still busy predicting the demise of Apple, 48% of teens in the survey say they own an iPhone, and 62% say they plan to buy one next.

Barely a week has passed and Apple already has a new update for the OS X 10.8.4 beta. Apple just released build 12E30 of OS X 10.8.4 to developers.

The seed’s release notes don’t contain anything significant, but devs will surely find new stuff once they get to digging through the OS. Apple does note for developers to focus on Graphics, Drivers, Safari, and WiFi.

OS X 10.8.3 was released to the public a couple weeks ago after going through 13 beta revisions over a period of nearly 5 months. The next version of OS X should premier at WWDC this year, if not before.