Luke Dormehl - page 355

BitTorrent Sync has received an end -of-2013 update — adding an often requested feature and several important fixes.

Here’s a reason to download Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts app if you haven’t already: the latest gift — freely downloadable using the app — is Martin Scorsese’s critically-acclaimed 2011 film Hugo.

The movie, based on Brian Selznick’s New York Times best-seller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, tells the story of a 12-year-old boy living in the walls of a Parisian train station, who meets a down-on-his-luck toymaker, who turns out to be silent movie special effects maestro Georges Méliès (the guy that famously made this iconic short, entitled A Trip to the Moon).

Apple’s flagship Apple Retail Store in Brisbane, Australia may be less than two weeks away from opening.

Following a period of construction — including a delay — barricade signage has appeared outside the location: usually a surefire indication that launch is imminent.

Apple has reopened its iTunes Connect developer portal following the Christmas period closure — during which it gave respite to the gatekeepers whose job it is to manually approve new apps and updates.

Back in November we reported on the UK resident thrown in jail for accidentally buying what turned out to be a clay iPad from his local supermarket.

Well, jump forward another month and here’s a similarly bizarre tale: the man who set out to buy an iPod Classic for his wife’s Christmas gift — only to discover a box full of erasers and index cards instead. Twice.

He’s appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and been called a “Johnny Come Lately” by Apple shareholders — and now Carl Icahn has also received a response from Apple regarding his proposed $50 billion buyback plan.

In short, Apple claims it is already returning a lot of money to its shareholders, and will continue to look at ways to do so — but doesn’t feel that it should be bound by Icahn’s suggested strategy.

Tim Cook was paid $4.25 million in 2013, according to a regulatory filing reported by Apple on Friday.

This figure broke down as $1.4 million in salary, and a further bonus bonus of $2.8 million. Cook’s other compensation included $52,721 in company contributions to his 401(k) account, life insurance premiums, and vacation cash-out.

Remember all those stories that accompanied the iPad’s launch about how the device was so straightforward that a person with no previous computer experience could use one? Well, it turns out that they’re so easy that cats can use them too.

A new endeavor from the UK’s Cats Protection charity has seen pictures “painted” by felines, using the Paint For Cats iPad app, sold off to raise money.

The Rockstar Consortium — a group of several tech companies, including Apple — has reportedly been in talks concerning the sale of a portion of its $4.5 billion worth of patents.

This marks a major turnaround from 2011, when the patents — acquired from the Nortel Networks Corp — were highly sought after. In that instance, Apple and its bidding partners outbid Google for access to more than 4,000 patents.

If you thought that “Think Different” was the last time Apple was going to come under fire from the grammar police, think again!

Finland’s linguistic authorities, the Institute for the Languages of Finland — which rules on correct spellings, loan words and usages as the Finnish, Swedish, Romani and Sami languages develop — has decreed that the correct Finnish usage of iPhone is not iPhone, but rather Iphone or I-phone.

Samsung may have been ordered to pay Apple $290 million in patent infringement damages, but one thing the tech company hasn’t managed to steal is Apple’s knack for good advertizing.

In a holiday season in which Apple has released its effective and genuinely tear-jerking “Misunderstood” iPhone ad, the best Samsung can manage is a Galaxy Gear smart watch commercial that would have looked cheesy in 1982 — which is where we presume the creative team behind this campaign must have been summoned from.

Call it a stocking filler if you want, but Digitimes has one last (?) rumor to take us out of 2013: that Apple is planning to release a 12.9-inch tablet in October 2014, aimed at the North American educational market.

The rumors allegedly come from “sources from the upstream supply chain”.

It’s still very early in the life of the new Mac Pro (shipping dates have already slipped to February), but the first review unit reports are starting to seep out — and they’re positive.

Tim Cook has talked about this being an “iPad Christmas”, but plain calling it an Apple Christmas might be altogether more accurate — as Apple surged to a 2013 new stock high following news of the recent China Mobile deal.

Apple stock gained 3.8 percent to end Monday trading at $570.09, reflecting what Creative Technologies analyst Tim Bajarin has called, “a huge deal for Apple.”

Although it hit several year highs over the past several months, Apple stock prices had been depressed for some of 2013 as investors appeared concerned regarding a supposed lack of innovation from the company.

More recently, share prices had wavered as nervous shareholders fretted that the long-reported China Mobile deal wasn’t happening as fast as they hoped.

Although analysts are still arguing over the long-term impact the China Mobile deal is likely to have, this strong year finish nonetheless bodes well for Apple in 2014.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google shares also finished strong after the day’s trading.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Apple’s only Berlin store — — located on the city’s lengthy Kurfuerstendamm shopping avenue — has been broken into, with thieves crashing a stolen Opel Corsa through the attractively minimalist (but sadly overly vulnerable) plate glass entrance way this morning, and making off with MacBooks, iPads and iPhones.

Americans reportedly spend more than $5 billion upgrading their iPhones — or switching to Apple from a competing brand — each year.

She may have the fastest selling album in iTunes history, but not everyone is happy with Beyoncé’s success — and it’s not just limited to brick-and-mortar stores either.

Responding to Beyoncé’s iTunes exclusive, Amazon has joined Target in announcing that it will not stock physical copies of the Beyoncé album (although the album is available from Amazon’s online US MP3 store if a customer searches for it).

Nokia has taken aim at the iPad before. Just last month, we reported on a somewhat Freudian ad for the Lumia 2520 which showed a male iPad user unable to connect with the fairer sex because of the “shortcomings” of his chosen tablet.

If that wasn’t enough to get you to drop your Apple products immediately, Nokia now returns with an even more searing indictment against the iPad: it will make you ignore your dog.

It may have recently fallen out with Beyoncé over her decision to debut her new album on iTunes rather than in brick-and-mortar stores, but Target isn’t above going down the Apple route to grab a pre-Christmas buck either.

Customers searching for perfect last-minute holiday gift ideas can head to Target, which is offering deals on the iPhone 5c, 5s, and iPad Air between now and December 24.

Apple investors got their Christmas wish: The China Mobile deal, which could add billions of dollars to Apple’s revenue, has finally materialized.

The iPhone will be available to China Mobile customers beginning January 17, Apple announced Sunday, with pricing and availability to be released at a later date.

There is something unimportant and yet oh-so-important about choosing the right way to carry around your laptop.

Apple purists likely hate anything which covers up their beloved machines for even the shortest amount of time. For the rest of us, however, it’s about finding the most attractive way possible to transport your laptop without being mugged in the process.

Rockstar Games has been re-releasing its GTA catalog on iOS platforms for the past few years. GTA 3 appeared as a 10th-anniversary port back in late 2011, and revered follow-up Vice City turned up a year later. San Andreas’ arrival isn’t a surprise, then, but it’s certainly a pleasant treat — a bit like when that Christmas gift you’d been requesting all year finally turns up under the tree.

For those unfamiliar with this particular entry, it follows the rise and rise of former gangbanger Carl Johnson — aka CJ — as he returns to Los Santos to find his mom dead, his family in ruins and his former gang marginalized. From there it’s a climb back to the top, as CJ takes on local gangstas and corrupt cops en route to re-establishing control of the streets.

Remember that story we ran recently about the Grinch Apple Store that stole Christmas?

For those who don’t recall, the news item in question concerned a giant Christmas tree  in shopping area De Passage of Netherlands city The Hague, which had been removed at Apple’s request so as not to obscure the entrance of its new store.

Just as in real life — where trouble-making siblings get more attention than quiet, studious ones — it seems that everyone is speculating about the supposed low sales of the iPhone 5c, while ignoring the fact that the iPhone 5s is ticking along nicely.

Very nicely, in fact, according to Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Chris Caso, who says that sales of the 5s haven’t fallen off since launch — and are more than offsetting weak demand for the 5c.