Popular keyboard shortcut launcher Alfred has been updated with several new features and improvements. Version 1.3 of Alfred for Mac integrates with Apple’s Quick Look in OS X to let you see previews of files inside Alfred. A neat feature called file buffer gives you quick access to app and file placeholders above Alfred’s main search window.
The developers of Alfred have also added numerous other improvements and bug fixes in this 1.3 update. We’ve got the full change log.
The Dark Knight Rises is like the most anticipated movie of the year. People are going straight up loco for this movie. Is Batman going to die? Is Bane really just Ricky Martin’s alter-ego? Will Michael Keaton make a cameo? We don’t know, we haven’t seen it yet.
If you’re as excited we are though, then you’re probably trying to gorge on as much Batman stuff as humanly possible right now. Don’t worry, we got you covered and put together this little guide on all the ways you can use your iPad to get your Batman fix while waiting for the movie to finally hit theaters.
A recent Reynolds Journalism Institute study indicates that the iPad is becoming a primary vehicle for many users to consume (read, listen to, or watch) daily local, national, and world news and that it is leading a revolution in terms of how frequently people read news as well as how much news they read on a daily or weekly basis.
The survey noted that the iPad is the preferred large media tablet on the market with news consumers surveyed with an 88% share of that market. The Kindle Fire was the top pick among small media tablets with 68% of the news consumer market. The iPhone was the overall preferred smartphone with 39% of the news consumer market.
It also noted that the iPad (and other large tablet devices) seem to be encouraging news reading among all demographics including young adults. Among young adults (18 – 24 years old), 67% read news on one or more mobile devices and averaged five hours of news reading/consumption per week. Among young adults with iPads, 84% read news on their device(s) for an average of 7.3 hours per week.
Verizon’s 4G LTE coverage map continues to look like a teenager with a bad case of acne, however, they are lighting up more cities per month than other carriers have all year. The next batch of markets to receive the Verizon 4G LTE treatment is just as large, with 33 new markets and 32 expanding markets set to go live tomorrow. There’s a reason you pay Big Red all that cash, and this is one of them.
While Apple’s taking a wait and see approach to the nascent mobile payments and digital wallet industries, PayPal seems ready to launch an all-out offensive. In addition to its existing assortment of mobile, local, and online payment systems, PayPal announced this week that it is acquiring startup card.io.
card.io currently works with a range of iOS and Android developers to help them integrate mobile credit/debit card payment capabilities into their apps without the need of additional hardware like Square’s card reader or PayPal’s Here card reader. Instead, card.io’s partners use the built-in camera of an iPhone (or other iOS or Android device) to snap a photo of a credit card. The card number and related information is extracted and passed to a payment processor to complete the transaction (manual keying in a card number is also supported as a backup).
The National Cancer Institute estimates that there will be 2 million new diagnoses of skin cancer in the U.S. alone this year, including nearly 80,000 cases of melanoma. Besides the obvious practice of routine checkups, those known to be a bit more preemptive have taken to whole body photography as a means to spot cancerous activity before it’s too late.
An iPhone app called UMSkinCheck is meant to be an easy way to check for skin cancer without the need of a trained professional. All you need to do is have someone use your iPhone to take 23 pictures of yourself completely nude.
Seeking to challenge the iPad’s ongoing success in the healthcare field, Panasonic has announced an updated version of Toughbook tablet for doctors offices and hospitals. The update is the latest for Toughbook product line that Panasonic introduced in 2008.
The 10-inch screen size is about the only thing in the new Toughbook CF-H2 Health tablet offers that is similar to the iPad. The Toughbook is a Windows 7 tablet powered by an Intel Core i5 processor that relies on a 320GB hard drive rather than flash memory for storage (though a 128 GB SSD is available as a custom build option). It weighs in at a whopping 1.58 kg (3.48 pounds) – more than double the weight of the new iPad.
The Toughbook, which will ship next month, will have an entry-level price of €1,898 (approximately $2,330). That’s more than four times the cost of an entry-level new iPad and just shy of six times the cost of the entry-level iPad 2.
Evernote had released a new update for its Mac app that brings stunning Retina graphics and a new feature called Activity Stream. Version 3.2 of Evernote for Mac is available now on the web and soon in the Mac App Store.
The new Activity Stream acts as a notification hub for your Evernote account that is automatically updated within the Mac app. This latest update from Evernote also includes a few other improvements.
Apple and Samsung have been duking it out in court rooms around the world for many months, and a ruling today brings an interesting twist to the never-ending saga.
A U.K. judge has ordered Apple to admit on its website and in British newspapers that Samsung has not copied the design of the iPad. Previously, the U.K. court had ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs didn’t ripoff the iPad because “they are not as cool.” What today’s ruling essentially means is that Apple will have to advertise for Samsung’s Galaxy series on the web and in British newspapers.
The OKSU printer is kind of like a real life Pinterest concept, only cooler, and not just for girls. Found some Prada shoes you like but can’t afford? Print their picture out on the OKSU, pin them to your wall or something so you can drool over them everyday, and then when you finally got enough cash to buy them, you just drop the picture on top of the OKSU printer and the website pops up on your MacBook, iPad, or iPhone automatically. It’s magic, ta-da!
Bring your own device (BYOD) programs that allow employees to use their personal iPhones, iPads, Android devices, or other mobile technologies in the office are becoming more mainstream. While there are many advantages to allowing or actively encouraging employee-owned devices in the workplace, reducing costs isn’t one of them for most companies despite the fact that cost reduction is one of the most common goals for a BYOD program.
In fact, companies are more likely to see costs increase after adding BYOD as an option for employees. That’s a common perception that is being proved accurate by a new study that looks at home companies are handling BYOD, the cost savings or increases associated with BYOD, and the mobile platforms supported by BYOD programs.
I bet you didn’t consider this feature when deciding between an iPhone 4S and an Android device such as the Galaxy S III. The company behind the radiation measurement app Tawkon has released a semi-disturbing infograph (which can be found at the bottom of this post) detailing the SAR (a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the body when exposed to a radio frequency(RF) electromagnetic field) score of various popular smartphones.
Vertical Video Syndrome is a very serious problem, but it’s totally preventable. Next time you’re sitting on your couch, watching your baby and cat play together and think, “Oh snap, the spawn of my loins is like sooo freaking cute! I just totally need to film him for the 73rd time and upload it to Facebook for my friends.” That’s cool, go ahead. Film the crap out of your baby. But turn your iPhone horizontal so we can all enjoy that footage.
Only you can prevent Vertical Video Syndrom, so make sure to politely share this image with all your friends, and make the internet a safer place.
Image: Reddit
Over the last couple of months Apple has been trying to secure a real estate deal that will allow them to expand their Austin, Texas campus and bring an additional 3,600 new jobs to the area. Recent records show that Apple purchased three large tracts of land adjacent to their current campus, that will allow the company to expand and make good on their plans to invest $304 million in the area.
Apple’s iPad, with its sleek aluminum casing, large 9.7-inch display, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful tablets currently available. But there was a time when it was as thick as a cheap Dell notebook and made from tacky white plastic — as these images of an early iPad prototype prove.
Following in the footsteps of Verizon, AT&T is just a month away from implementing Shared Data/Mobile plans. Unveiled by AT&T today, the new Mobile Share Plans are extremely similar to Verizon’s, with a few notable differences.
Apple has been granted what has been described as “the mother of all software patents,” which covers a whole host of features that Apple pioneered with the iPhone. Not only is this huge for Apple in its fight against copycats, but it could have a significant affect on almost every single device that rivals the iPhone or the iPad.
There’s a growing consensus among IT leaders that organizations need a contingency plan in the event that RIM experiences a sudden and unexpected meltdown. That concern is so strong that 70% of IT managers are planning to replace RIM’s BlackBerry management tools with third-party options over the next one to two years – a move that could ease the transition away from BlackBerry devices to iPhones, iPads, and other mobile technologies.
Seeking to capitalize on that concern, mobile management powerhouse MobileIron announced yesterday that it is opening its training and certification services to any IT professionals that are administrators of RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).
MobileIron, which we profiled during our Mobile Management Month series, offers one of the most full-featured mobile management solutions on the market, and is the only company to offer training and certification centered specifically around mobile management technologies. Until now, however, the company’s MobileIron University training service was available only of MobileIron customers and partners.
Microsoft announced Office 2013 earlier this week and issued a consumer preview of the software to users running Windows 7 or Windows 8. If you were wondering why there was no preview for Mac OS X, it’s because Office 2013 isn’t coming to the Mac. Microsoft will, however, be adding SkyDrive integration to Office 2011. Great.
The poor working conditions in Foxconn’s Chinese factories have been widely documented for some time now, but the reports have seemingly done very little to dissuade workers from applying for Foxconn jobs.
Thousands have reportedly turned up to the company’s Chengdu and Zhengzhou plants in the hope of securing a “summer job” that is likely to involve the assembly of Apple’s new iPhone, and possibly even an “iPad mini.”
Following nearly six hours of downtime this morning, the Apple Online Store is back up. Although the Cupertino company has not added any new products, it has introduced a new notifications service that provides U.S. customers with text message alerts when their order status is updated.
If you’ve recently typed “weather” into Google search on your mobile phone, you may have noticed Google’s neat little interactive weather visualizations. The new weather visualizations give you a look at the current forecast, precipitation, wind direction/speeds, as well as an hourly and ten-day forecast. And now, these same cool visualizations are available in search on tablets.
US District Court Judge Lucy Koh rejected requests today from both Apple and Samsung regarding the parties’ proposal to keep portions of key legal documents out of the public eye during their upcoming patent case in California this month.
If you’ve been following all the current pre-trial back and forth between Apple and Samsung in the Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846 case, in which Apple has claimed Samsung is infringing on several patents, Samsung has counterclaimed similar infringement arguments, and Apple’s request for a temporary sales ban on the Samsung Nexus Phone has been accepted and enforced by the court.
You’ll also know that Judge Koh has been steadily, one might say doggedly, dealing with both parties, trying to keep the case as relevant, simple, and direct as possible.
In a new visual for the Apple Store website, Apple has posted a “We’ll be back” note for potential web visitors. What’s news about that? Well, there are 18 different languages that rotate through, each (assumedly) saying the same thing. We’re assuming this is regular maintenance for the site, but will keep an eye on things just in case.
It’s a nice international touch, and in keeping with Apple’s continuing success worldwide. Click on through to see if you can figure out all the languages – feel free to share in the comments below.
Another day, another patent infringement story. Today, HTC brought a couple of counterclaims against Apple in Florida over two patents it bought from HP last December.
The case they’re asserting the claims in is one that started in 2010, with a Motorola lawsuit against Apple. Six of the twelve Apple counterclaims in that lawsuit also concerned HTC. While HTC motioned to transfer the case out of Miami, they had to respond to those counterclaims. They did so by filing their own counterclaims.
