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Blog Archive

Friday 31 May 2013

What Apple does best: reinventing, not inventing


If you’ve ever been in an online forum or on a general technology news site’s comment thread pertaining to an article about Apple, well, God help you. But if you are such a glutton for punishment, you’ve probably heard it before: “Apple never invented anything!”

Mac OS X spyware


Security researchers have identified multiple samples of the recently discovered “KitM” spyware for Mac OS X, including one dating back to December 2012 and targeting German-speaking users.

Thursday 30 May 2013

iTunes 11.0.3 update improves app updating


Along with the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, the recently updated iTunes 11.0.3 introduces several interface tweaks. For my money, the most welcome addition is one that Apple doesn’t even mention on its “About iTunes 11.0.3” page: a redesigned interface for checking on and downloading updated iOS apps.

How to use a Bluetooth keyboard with the Apple TV


Apple refers to the Apple TV as a “hobby,” and though the home-entertainment device has received regular updates, especially over the past couple years, for most of its life that description has fit. Still, the updates have helped make today’s Apple TV a much more capable device than the one that debuted back in 2007. It has improved enough that we regularly use it in our home.

Why Apple's iWatch will dominate the wearable market


When Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the D11 conference, he ignited a firestorm of speculation regarding Apple's stake in the wearable computing market. Rumours have long told us that Apple is working on a smartwatch, but now Cook's latest comments cement the speculation that the company is indeed working on wearable technology. 

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Apple to pay $53 million to settle iPhone, iPod touch warranty suit


Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class-action suit in connection with warranties for its iPhone and iPod touch devices.

EU investigating Apple's iPhone agreements with mobile operators


The European Commission has sent a questionnaire to a number of mobile operators in the European Union, focusing on whether its distribution terms with these providers may put Apple at an advantage over other smartphone makers, according to a newspaper report.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

App Store surpasses 50 billion downloads


Apple on Thursday announced that Brandon Ashmore, from Mentor, Ohio download the 50 billionth app from the App Store.

Monday 20 May 2013

Google makes Maps interesting again


At its Google I/O keynote Wednesday morning, Google announced an enhanced version of its popular Google Maps service. The demos shown on stage drew some applause out of the otherwise listless attendees, and left them itching for the chance to put this improved version of Maps through its paces.

Sunday 19 May 2013

iTunes 11.0.3 enhances MiniPlayer, tweaks album options


If you were hoping that the next update to iTunes might reverse some of the drastic changes Apple made in last year’s version 11, don’t hold your breath. A minor update released on Thursday, iTunes 11.0.3, makes some tweaks to the program’s interface, as well as applying fixes for some security issues.

Saturday 18 May 2013

Messages in Mountain Lion


If you thought the only way you could use your Mac to communicate with other people was to send email messages, you were wrong. For years the Mac OS has supported instant messaging, a form of texting similar to sending and receiving messages with a mobile phone.

Friday 17 May 2013

Five useful OS X system tweaks


If you like to find new ways to tweak OS X, you sometimes need to look in unexpected places. For example, the Accessibility pane of System Preferences, which houses a number of features to help users who have limited seeing, hearing, and mobility, contains some nifty features that all users should know about. Here are five system tweaks that you might want to try on your Mac.

Thursday 16 May 2013

Apple and the file system


Since the introduction of the Mac, Apple has waged a steadily escalating war against the file system. While the ability to organize files hierarchically has been a mainstay of operating systems for as long as there have been operating systems, the fine folks from Cupertino have constantly pushed away from that approach with each iteration of Apple’s products, starting with the introduction of Packages and culminating, arguably, with iOS’s complete lack of a user-facing interface for manipulating the file system.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

BBM to be released as a free app on iOS and Android


As we wait to see what Google will unveil at its annual I/O conference in San Francisco, BlackBerry used its yearly BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando, Fla., to announce its plans for the coming year. During his keynote, CEO Thorsten Heins said that the BBM messaging software would be available as a free app on both iOS and Android devices sometime before summer.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

A cheaper iPhone doesn't necessarily mean a "cheap" iPhone


For a product that has been around a scant six years—an eternity in the field of consumer electronics—the iPhone has had a remarkable run. It has changed the way we think about computing, conquered the mobile market, and transformed Apple from a relative underdog in the PC industry into one of the planet’s most profitable and influential enterprises.

Monday 13 May 2013

Apple releases Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.2


If you have a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac-it’s time to back up your data and set a little bit of time aside to download and run Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.2, released by Apple on Thursday.

Sunday 12 May 2013

All about Reminders


Whether it’s to pay the bills, replace furnace filters, or take the ferret to the vet for its annual cleaning, we all need reminding from time to time. Yes, you can accomplish this through a calendar event and alarm, but a calendar is too broad a tool for this kind of thing. What you really need is the digital equivalent of a scrap of paper onto which you write notes and shove into a handy pocket. Such is exactly the purpose of Mountain Lion’s Reminders application.

Saturday 11 May 2013

Adobe scraps Creative Suite software licenses in favor of cloud subscriptions


In a move that should surprise no one, Adobe announced sweeping changes to its Creative Suite software line and year-old Creative Cloud subscription service. Signaling a new focus on integrating creative services in the cloud with its professional desktop software, Adobe launched a new cloud-based Creative Suite—with a new CC moniker, for Creative Cloud. But it will look familiar. Significant upgrades to all current Creative Suite 6 apps are coming soon, but they will be available only by subscription to Creative Cloud, not traditional software licenses.

Friday 10 May 2013

Functional quantum Internet runs for two years


On Monday, the Department of Energy’s advanced research facility at the Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico unveiled that it has had a functioning quantum Internet for more than two years—in a work-around sort of way.

Thursday 9 May 2013

Apple's privacy policy violates German data protection law


Apple violates German data protection law by asking for users’ broad, overall consent in its privacy policy, the Regional Court of Berlin ruled.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Windows 8 on the slow grow, XP just won't let go


Microsoft was hit with a double whammy last month as it made scant progress in either boosting the usage share of Windows 8 or depressing the share of Windows XP, data published today showed.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Tablet shipments explode in Q1


Tablet shipments exploded by 142 percent in the first quarter of 2013 year-over-year as all Android tablets, including low-budget white box versions, dominated the market over Apple iOS tablets, IDC said.

Monday 6 May 2013

Intel’s next-gen CEO must get inside next-gen devices


Intel has found its new CEO in current chief operating officer Brian Krzanich (pronounced Krah-ZAN-itch), who will take over the reins when Paul Otellini steps down at the annual stockholder’s meeting on May 16.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Conquering Contacts


Contacts was called Address Book in previous versions of the Mac OS, and that’s still its most descriptive name. What with its faux-leather border and stitched pages, it reminds you of something in which your parents might have added a new neighbor or business contact. But, old-school though it may look, it has more powerful features than its paper-and-glue counterpart.

Saturday 4 May 2013

iOS 6.1.4 tweaks the iPhone 5's speakerphone


iPhone 5 users who get a lot of mileage out of their speakerphone will want to visit Software Update: iOS 6.1.4 is here, and it’s targeted right at you.

Friday 3 May 2013

Apple expands flash storage options across iMac line


If you’re in the market for a new iMac, you may be happy to hear that Apple has added a few more options to its line of desktop computers, allowing customers to opt for pure flash storage in addition to conventional hard drives or its hybrid, Fusion Drive.

How Apple could improve typing on the iPad


I continue to be impressed by the capabilities of my iPad. I praise the device’s merits to everyone I know. I can no longer recall how I got along without an iPad. And yet … I keep wanting more. “You’re wonderful, iPad, but you could be better. Couldn’t you try just a bit harder?”

Rare working Apple I computer to hit auction block this month


A German auctioneer will put a working Apple I computer on the block later this month, and expects the handmade computer to fetch between or between $261,000 and $392,000.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Apple to challenge $368 million patent infringement verdict


Apple will challenge a November 2012 jury verdict that awarded $368 million in damages to Nevada patent-holding company VirnetX, a filing with U.S. regulators showed.

The sad state of Apple rumours


It’s a weird time for those of us who’ve followed Apple rumors for years. (And I'm not the only one who has noticed.) At the risk of sounding like your prototypical hipster, today’s rumors just aren’t as good as they used to be. The devices that we hear whispers about now—a smartwatch, a television, a cheaper iPhone—seem lackluster compared to the rumored products of days past—products that, when they actually appeared, changed entire industries.
There were three canonical Apple devices that were foretold in prophecy: the phone, the tablet, and the set-top box. These three formed a trinity of promise that dates back to a bygone age—more than 15 years ago now. But though the tales of yore might seem meatier than the meager crumbs we get today, you have to remember that even those epic rumors weren’t built in a day.

The set-top box

Back in the late 1990s, there was a rumor site called Apple Recon, run by Robert Morgan. (There’s not much of it left now.) Much of his writing focused on the “convergence” between computers and entertainment devices. He frequently claimed that Apple was working on a set-top box, and that Apple was coming to your living room. Crazy, huh?
Apple was indeed working on a set-top box back in the 1990s but nothing really came of it. At the time, Morgan’s missives seemed, if not crazy, at least off the mark. It wouldn’t be until 2006 that the company announced the Apple TV, then called the iTV. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine how that device would have worked using late 1990s technology, unless you felt like wiring your house for ethernet. But just as time heals all wounds, it also makes all Apple rumors possible.

The phone

Rumors of a new Apple PDA (remember PDAs?) kicked off right around the time Steve Jobs killed the Newton, but the earliest mainstream reference to the iPhone was a piece by John Markoff inThe New York Times back in 2002.
Mr. Sculley’s great tumble came after he staked his and Apple’s reputation on the ill-fated Newton hand-held computer—an ambitious product based on handwriting-recognition technology that was ahead of its time. And now come signs that Mr. Jobs means to take Apple back to the land of the handhelds, but this time with a device that would combine elements of a cellphone and a Palm-like personal digital assistant.
Mr. Jobs and Apple decline to confirm those plans. But industry analysts see evidence that Apple is contemplating what inside the company is being called an ”iPhone.”
We’d have another five years to stoke that rumor fire, but despite that long gestation period, there were still people arguing that an Apple phone would never come to be: It was too difficult, the market was too mature, Apple had nothing to offer. No matter how good a rumor is, it’s never universally hailed.

The tablet

This one is pretty much all Steve Jobs’s fault: Shortly after Jobs killed the Newton, he said Apple would ship a replacement device within a year. For those of you who are not students of Apple history, that, er, didn’t actually happen. In fact, it ended up being more like 12 years, so he was only off by 1200 percent. During that decade-plus, people had plenty of time to obsess over Apple tablet rumors—and with good reason, since Apple was actually working on just that. But the technology behind it didn’t see the light of day until the iPhone was released.
The “iPad” moniker itself emerged after the release of the iPod, because people are brilliant and know how to change vowels (or they watch Star Trek and can put an “i” in front of something). Initially, the rumor’s focus was on running the full-fledged Mac OS on a tablet; later, the idea briefly transmogrified into a netbook, during what we can only assume was a bout of mass hysteria. But when the real iPad finally arrived, it changed the landscape of the entire computer industry. So, some things are worth waiting for.

The unrumored

But that was that: the holy trinity of Apple rumors for a whole decade. Sure was a long time for people to hang their hopes on unicorns and pixie dust. But, then again, that’s kind of what we do.
But I think that, to a certain degree, we’ve idolized these rumors in retrospect. Not necessarily because they seemed like sure-fire winners at the time, but because we followed them for so long. Now that decade of those iconic Apple rumors is over. So, is this the end? Are we destined to nothing more than lousy rumors and ho-hum product announcements?
Well, if you were paying attention, you might have noticed that I left out one highly successful Apple product of the 2000s, a device that wasn’t part of the rumor trinity: the iPod. The iPod came out in October of 2001 and was something of a surprise to everybody. Rumors of an Apple digital music player had only sprung up about a week before it was unveiled. Before any of those storied Apple rumors above came to fruition, we got a product that wasn’t rumored at all. And, I don’t know if you noticed, but the iPod turned out pretty OK.
So, while we might be flying blind right now, don’t assume that means Apple has nothing planned. And don’t assume that what is planned is anything you’ve heard as a rumor. Before the iPod came out, nobody had any idea what it was. Before the iPhone came out, no one had any idea what it would look like, let alone how transformative it would be. A year before the iPad came out, people were speculating about an Apple netbook, for crying out loud.
On the company's most recent conference call with analysts, Tim Cook said that the company has some great products on tap for this fall. That might seem like a long time for us to poke at paltry speculation, but don’t let the current sad state of rumormongering get you down. The magic can still happen without priming the pump for years.
And, remember: If you knew exactly what was going to happen, it wouldn’t be magic.

To give back to investors, Apple goes for massive bond deal


In an effort to return cash to investors, Apple is reaching out to the debt market and offering $17 billion in bonds, the biggest non-bank bond offering in history, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

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