20 helpful tips and tricks to totally utilize iPhoto's features and become the ultimate power user. Your friends will never look at your photo albums the same way.

Amazon has released an update to its Kindle app for the iPhone and iPad. Version 2.2 adds a variety of new features, such as instant word lookup that quickly finds definitions for highlighted words. The included dictionary provides over 250,000 entries and definitions, however users can also choose to look up content on Google or Wikipedia....


Amazon Kindle - Google - iPhone - IPad - Wikipedia

Check out 10 of the best Safari 5 extensions, and how to enable them in Apple?s latest release of Safari.

Filed under: App ReviewCivil War: America's Epic Struggle (US$4.99) from MultiEducator Inc. is a full history course in an iPad and iPhone app. It contains at least as much information as most textbooks on the Civil War at a fraction of the cost, while adding elements that no textbook can. There are 24 multimedia presentations, some as long as nine minutes, a nice selection of music popular during the Civil War, and a wonderful navigation system that just makes sense.
When starting the app, information can be sorted 18 ways, from a changing Categories bar including Battles (sorted either chronologically or alphabetically), Multimedia Presentations, Statistics and topics like Navy, Economics, Railroads, Music, etc. Depending upon where you are in the app, tapping on Categories brings up a contextual listing of what you can see. For example, tapping on Major Battles Chronologically changes the bar to a listing of battles grouped by year. Tapping on a battle such as Bull Run, brings choices of a text summary of the battle, a five minute multimedia summary, seven text articles on aspects of the battle, 20 photos or drawings, most of them taken from the Matthew Brady Archives, and full color maps. Depending upon the battle there is more or less information available, but this is done for 26 battles in total; clearly, there's a phenomenal amount of information in the app, plenty for even a Civil War buff to peruse.
Gallery: Civil War: America's Epic Struggle
TUAWCivil War: America's Epic Struggle comes to the iPad and iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch
I was first introduced to the wonders of the mobile Wi-Fi hotspot at Macworld earlier this year -- our own Mike Rose was carrying one around, and it was like magic. A Wi-Fi connection for up to five people anywhere you go? Yes please. I don't think the charges make it necessarily feasible for someone on a budget (say, a humble blogger like yours truly) to carry around every day, but it's certainly handy to have around, especially if you're traveling.
And now Sprint is apparently looking to piggyback one of these devices on Apple's iPod touch. Macrumors reports on new filings to the FCC that show a device that's almost a case; it's designed to be attached to the back of Apple's handheld, providing local Wi-Fi service anywhere you happen to be. It's called The Peel, and it doesn't connect to the iPod touch at all except physically -- it's just a case that wraps around and sets up a Wi-Fi spot whenever it's hooked up.
It's worth nothing that this isn't the first time Sprint has tried to pair up their 4G service with an Apple device -- you might remember the iPad 4G case that came out a while back. Makes a lot of sense -- Apple's devices need a connection, and Sprint has a much better chance of making you get one if you've already got a device to use it with. We'll keep an eye out for an official release of The Peel.TUAWRumor: Sprint working on iPod touch-friendly 4G hotspot called "Peel" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: iPadIt was earlier this week that Jeff Bezos, father of the Kindle and CEO of Amazon was saying that "A color screen doesn't make an Ernest Hemingway novel any better."
True enough -- the Kindle has a beautiful sharp screen that is a pleasure to gaze at. Not all books, however, are Hemingways, and we're starting to see so-called multimedia titles showing up in the Apple iBooks Store.
One example is the 'Enhanced Edition' of Nixonland, by Rick Perlstein, a chronicle of our 37th President. The book contains the full text of the book first published in 2008. It also includes 27 videos of the former President and newsreels that put those turbulent years into perspective.
Gallery: Enhanced iBooksTUAWiBooks Store adding increasing number of multimedia titles originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The iPhone 4 works just as well and just as bad as competing smartphones, at least in Norway, according to Oslo-based newspaper Verdens Gang, which tested the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, HTC Wildfire, and Nokia E71 on the outskirts of Norwegian carrier Telenor?s network. The newspaper?s conclusion is that all of the smartphones suffered the same possibility for signal attenuation, and pointed to AT&T?s network as the possible source of problems in the U.S.






IPhone - Smartphone - AT&T - Norway - Verdens Gang

Filed under: iPadCNET's Crave blog compiled a great list last week of twenty great, free comic books to read on your iPad. For me, more than anything else, the iPad seems perfect for a visual, interactive medium like comics. Movies are better on my big screen, and books can be read on a Kindle (or just on paper -- weird, I know), but for the iPad, having the ability to zoom in on a great piece of comic art or download new comics straight to the device to be read on that big, colorful screen seems perfect.
Enter this list, which has some great free samples from both the DC and Marvel comics apps, or a few other free Comics reader apps available on the store. There's some really good stuff out there for the low price of absolutely nothing, from some classic books that are hard to find in print to some newer promo books for current series or comics that have been made into movies.
Man cannot live on free alone -- if you're really into comics, you'll probably want to buy a few from their official apps (though it's a shame that pricing and selection isn't quite there yet, but hopefully Marvel and DC will eventually figure that out). And this article doesn't even mention the tons of great single-app books you can find on the App Store, for both the iPhone and the iPad. The iPad was designed for consuming media, and comic books are one of my favorite media around.TUAW20 great, free iPad comics originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple is promising that Mac OS X 10.7 will contain a new feature the company calls ?revolutionary? in a job posting on the Apple Web site. According to the posting, this unspecified feature, ?has never been done before and will truly amaze everyone,? and the company used the word ?revolutionary? to describe the feature three times.






Apple - Mac OS X - Operating system - Mac OS - Mac OS X Apple

Intel on Thursday landed a crucial victory in a private lawsuit that accused it of unfair pricing [sub. required]. Special Master Vincent Poppiti recommended to the US District Court in Delaware that the judge deny the lawsuit any class action status as there was no proof PC shoppers as a group were price gouged by alleged Intel price dumping meant to exclude AMD from the market. As Intel only set its own pricing, computer builders were free to drop their own stickers rather than simply widen their profit margins, Poppiti said....


Intel Corporation - Advanced Micro Devices - Delaware - Personal computer - Class action

Filed under: iPhoneImagine if Apple's handset prices in the US weren't announced at WWDC, and the subsidy pricing was up to AT&T. Imagine if AT&T told potential iPhone customers that the iPhone 4 would launch on July 30, and pricing info would be released well in advance of that.
Now imagine the weeks leading up to July 30 went by, and AT&T didn't say a word about the iPhone 4's pricing, even though many other countries had already released handset and plan info. It's July 29, and instead of working with its customers, throwing them a bone, giving them some sort of information, AT&T instead remained utterly reticent and deleted any posts on its forums remotely critical of its handling of the situation. Imagine AT&T followed up by deleting all mention of the iPhone 4 from its website: no pricing info, no pre-orders, not even a "coming soon" link.
Imagine that July 30 comes along, with the usual line-ups happening nationwide. You'll also have to imagine there's no Apple Stores, and AT&T is the only place in the country where you can buy a subsidized iPhone. At eight in the morning on the day the iPhone 4 is supposed to launch, there's no trace of it at any AT&T store, or Best Buy, or Wal-Mart, or anywhere else you might reasonably expect to find an iPhone 4 on the day it's launched. And even in the midst of all this, and with media reports flying about that Apple's partnership with AT&T has been cancelled, AT&T still doesn't have a single scrap of information to spare for its loyal customers. Not a word of explanation. Not a single excuse. Nothing. And no iPhone 4 anywhere in the nation.
Now replace "AT&T" with "Vodafone," and you have a picture of the iPhone "launch" in New Zealand. I put "launch" in heavy sarcasm quotes, because the iPhone 4 is not launching in New Zealand today... and thanks to Vodafone, no one has any idea when or even if it will be coming to New Zealand at a subsidised price. Read on for a textbook example of how to generate a PR disaster, and also an example of how not to treat potential customers.
Update: I just got off the phone with my local Vodafone retailer, and they claim they will be selling the iPhone 4 today starting at mid-day, but only to those willing to sign a 2-year plan; they are not selling unsubsidized handsets, and the iPhone 4 will be available for online sale "in the coming weeks." I'll be heading over there momentarily to try my luck, and will update later whether I'm successful in getting one or not.TUAWiPhone 4 launch may be cancelled in New Zealand, confusion reigns down under originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple is aware of complaints from customers who have upgraded their iPhone 3G to iOS 4. Responding to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal?s Digits column, an Apple spokesperson told the paper that the company knows about the complaints and is investigating the issue.






IPhone - Apple - Wall Street Journal - iPhone 3G - IPhone OS

Bell this evening became the second Canadian carrier to detail its iPhone 4 pricing and confirmed many of the details leaked out a day earlier. The provider is matching Rogers' efforts and will have its own 6GB smartphone data plan for $30, again only available until September 30. Device pricing on a new contract or a full upgrade is similar, at $160 for a 16GB iPhone 4 and $270 for a 32GB model....


IPhone - Smartphone - Canada - Rogers - Handhelds

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts and investors that working with hardware partners to develop a tablet that is competitive with the iPad has ?job one urgency? Thursday. The comments came at Microsoft?s annual Financial Analysts Meeting as he briefed analysts on hand for the event on his company?s overall business.






Microsoft - Steve Ballmer - Business - IPad - Companies

Just Mobile has expanded its line of accessories for Apple gadgets with a new stand designed for iPads. The UpStand is a desktop stand machined from aluminum, with rubber grips that help hold the iPad in landscape orientation....


Apple - IPad - Aluminium - IPhone - IMac

Recently released FCC documents reveal that Sprint is set to launch what appears to be a new case for the iPod touch that would enable 3G networking on the WiFi-only device. Manufactured by ZTE and called the "Peel," the case is essentially a MiFi-like mobile hotspot that snaps on to an iPod touch, giving it a network connection wherever you can get a Sprint 3G signal.

The Peel has its own 3.4Whr lithium ion battery, which is good for about 40hrs of standby time—there's no mention of how long it would last in active use, but our guess is perhaps a few hours. In addition to giving 3G network access to an iPod touch, it can also connect other WiFi devices. It doesn't appear to have a limit to the number of simultaneously connected devices (the manual submitted to the FCC suggests this number is configurable), unlike most mobile hotspots that usually limit connections to four or five. Phone Scoop also notes that the device is only cleared to operate on the slower EV-DO Rev 0 standard, and not the faster Rev A that most current 3G devices use.
We're not exactly sure what to think of the Peel (Apple, Peel, get it?). It seems that if an iPhone really appealed to you, you wouldn't have opted for the iPod touch to begin with. Then again, there are some users who would rather have an iPhone with data but no voice, and on a different network. Depending on the pricing and data options—especially if there is a pay-as-you-go option—it might be a nice complement to an iPod touch. The added utility of being able to connect multiple devices—one clear advantage over an iPhone—is offset somewhat by the slower 3G speeds.
Sprint tried to attract Apple device users with a similar tack when the WiFi-only iPad was released, offering users a free iPad case with a pocket that would fit the carrier's 4G/3G Overdrive mobile hotspot. Still, we're wondering if there are any iPod touch owners out there excited by this news. If you are, let us know in the comments.



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Developing a Windows-based alternative to the iPad is a "job one urgency" at Microsoft, company chief Steve Ballmer said today during the annual Financial Analysts Meeting. He admitted that Microsoft was uncomfortable with how well iPads were selling and was tuning both its software and hardware partnerships to provide a competitive option. Besides altering Windows 7, it's counting on Intel's Oak Trail Atom platform and plans to push hardware makers "as soon as they are ready."...


Microsoft - Steve Ballmer - IPad - Intel Corporation - Companies

Apple is working on a "revolutionary" new feature for Mac OS X, a new job listing claims. The company is hiring a new software engineer at its Santa Clara Valley offices, who must be experienced with Mac, Objective-C and Unix development. "We are looking for a senior software engineer to help us create a revolutionary new feature in the very foundations of Mac OS X," the listing mentions. "We have something truly revolutionary and really exciting in progress and it is going to require your most creative and focused efforts ever."...


Mac OS X - Apple - Unix - Operating system - Mac OS

ActiveTrak announced Thursday the release of GadgetTrak 3, a new version of the company?s tracking software that allows users to track multiple devices from one Web-based interface. Aimed at families and small businesses who want to be able to find their laptop, desktop, or netbook computing device if it?s stolen, GadgetTrak can remotely track the location of the tracked devices.






GadgetTrak - Business - Laptop - GadgetTrak 3 - Mobile phone

If you have an iPhone 4 or other iOS 4 compatible device, you?re probably running iOS 4.0.1. Great. But what if you want to downgrade back to iOS 4.0 or iOS 3.1.3? Too bad. You probably won?t be able to do it. At least not easily. There are several roadblocks that get in your way.The source of these roadblocks is Apple. They have deliberately made it difficult to downgrade. Why have they done this? How have the done this? And how you can circumvent their obstacles?You are about to learn the answers to all of these questions.






Apple - IPhone - IPhone OS - Handhelds - Smartphones

The new low-end iMac -- one of several models released this week -- displays some significant performance boosts over its predecessor, tests show. The latest version switches from a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo CPU to a Core i3 processor of the same clock speed. Graphics are now handled by a dedicated ATI Radeon HD 4670 chipset with 256MB of onboard memory, instead of NVIDIA's integrated GeForce 9400M; system RAM has been upgraded in speed from 1,066MHz to 1,333MHz....


IMac - NVIDIA - Intel Core 2 - GeForce - Intel Core

Filed under: iPhone, iPadMany developers and users of Apple's iOS devices bemoan the "walled garden" of the App Store approval process, but it appears that the company's measures have prevented mass data theft from iPhones, and iPads.
At the Black Hat security conference being held in Las Vegas this week, mobile security firm Lookout announced that an app distributed in Google's Android Market had collected private information from millions of users, then forwarded it to servers in China. Worse than that, the exact number of affected users isn't known, since the Android Market doesn't provide precise data. Estimates are that the app was downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times.
The app appeared to simply load free custom background wallpapers, but in fact collected a user's browsing history, text messages, the SIM card number, and even voice mail passwords, and then sent the data to a web site in Shenzen, China.
This is different from the recent AT&T website leak that could have let a hacker access 144,000 iPad 3G user email addresses, since in this case the data theft actually did happen, was being perpetrated by malicious hackers, involves much more personal information, and affected many more people.
So what's the difference between the security methodologies used by Google and Apple? Apple approves iOS apps only after they've gone through a strict (and frustrating to developers) process, while Google's Android Market simply warns the user that an app needs permission to perform certain functions during the installation. iOS apps must be signed by an Apple-created certificate, which means that malicious developers have a harder time distributing malware anonymously.
Lookout also noted that iOS remains virus-free, since third-party apps can only be distributed through Apple's heavily-moderated App Store, and the apps run in a sandbox environment where they can't affect the system. Lookout chief executive John Hering said that "he believes both Google and Apple are on top of policing their app stores." It's just those odd cases where apps don't do what they're advertised to do that can cause problems for users.
[via AppleInsider]TUAWWhy Apple's "walled garden" is a good idea originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Just Mobile announced a new stand for the iPad called UpStand Thursday. The stand is made from aluminum, with rubber-fitted grips to protect your device. Thestand will work in portrait or landscape mode, and it can accomodate many iPad cases too.






IPad - Page orientation - Aluminium - Business - Metals

Consumer firm MyType has done a study of the opinions of 20,000 people, and have determined that iPad owners are wealthy, sophisticated, educated, and score very low in tests designed to chart altruism and kindness. In short, they're rich and smart, but also spoiled and cruel.

Google today started running its first location-sensitive mobile ads. Apps and websites tailored to Android and iOS devices can now use the location features, such as GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation, to trigger ads in a given area. The ads are expandable and expand with a tap to show a map with the location as well as the option of calling or getting directions....


Google - Global Positioning System - iPhone 3G - Wi-Fi - Location awareness

Parrot's AR.Drone remote controlled quadricopter has now gone on pre-sale through a special deal Brookstone. The toy is unique in that it needs to be controlled using the Wi-Fi connection of an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad. It also has two integrated video cameras for streaming live images to the screen of the Apple device....


IPhone - Apple - IPod Touch - Wi-Fi - IPad

Filed under: iPhone, iPad
I'm not the most musically inclined person, but I do tend to try out a bunch of different music generating apps on both my iPhone and iPad. Sometimes the end result is more or less successful, while other times I may as well have been sitting in front of a Baby Grand with just my index fingers and the sheet music for Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor in front of me. The newly released Hexaphone from Impresario Digital, thankfully, fits the former quite well.
Hexaphone uses samples generated from an expensive Nord Lead 3 synthesizer to provide you with five different sound patches and eight different scales to use, as well as 17 percussion beats to accompany your music. You can lay down a drum beat, then record a bass line and play it back while you lay down another track, and then more upon that if you want.
What's most interesting and different about this music app is how the keys are laid out, making it much easier to hit the intended notes on a smaller iPhone screen. The app works quite well on the iPad, though one optimized for the larger iPad screen would be most welcome. See the video on the next page.
My only gripe with the app so far is not being able to easily export recordings, though the developer says that's coming in a future release. The developer's website has lots of instructional videos for musical newbs like me, and they do a good job of showing you the capabilities of the app, before or after you buy. You can grab Hexaphone in the app store now for $2.99 (25% off).TUAWApp Review: Hexaphone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

When I was 12, using a Performa 660CD, my parents gave me an external trackpad accessory that connected via ADB (a moment of silence for Apple Desktop Bus, please... thank you) for my birthday. The useable surface area was tiny—maybe three-quarters the size of a 3.5" floppy—and clunky, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever... for about five minutes. I soon learned that tracking around your desktop computer to play Oregon Trail and put together school projects in Microsoft Word 6.0 was Serious Business, and the trackpad wasn't cutting it for me. The small surface was annoying, and the precision even worse. I eventually disconnected it and went back to my trusty mouse.
Seventeen years later, I find myself splitting my time between a 27" iMac and a 13" MacBook Pro; instead of Word 6.0, I deal with MacJournal and the Ars CMS, and instead of Oregon Trail, I play various online Scrabble knockoffs. I use a Magic Mouse and the multitouch trackpad that is built into my MacBook Pro. I constantly find myself trying to perform multitouch gestures—ones that only work on Apple's trackpad—on the mouse, and find myself regularly wishing for a better input device on my desktop.
When Apple introduced the Magic Trackpad, a standalone Bluetooth trackpad designed for use with Apple's desktop machines, I was cautiously optimistic. My previous dalliance in trackpad-on-desktop land ended poorly, but a lot has changed in a couple decades. Or has it?




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The Deal Brothers found another fun, geeky T-Shirt, this one the ?Esc? T-Shirt for $15.99.






Shopping - Clothing - T-shirt - Shirt - Crafts

Rogers in a last-minute update detailed its upgrade plans for the iPhone 4 and offered a data sharing plan for the iPad. The upgrade discounts are larger than before. Anyone who bought an iPhone between January 2009 and June 7 this year can buy a 16GB iPhone for $399 or a 32GB model for $499. Anyone who bought an iPhone 3G in 2008 and then upgraded to an iPhone 3GS between June 19 and September 15 of last year will pay much less, paying $159 or $269 respectively....


IPhone - Smartphone - IPad - Handhelds - Apple

The ZAGG invisibleSHIELD for iPhone 4 is a set of thin, adhesive plastic strips designed to be stuck to the stainless steel edge of the iPhone 4. The claim is that it provides insulation sufficient to allow better signal reception.






Zagg - IPhone - Smartphone - iPhone 4 - Handhelds

Filed under: Accessories, iPhone
And you thought using an iPhone as a flashlight was crazy...
Apparently the above image is just a concept for a flexible iPhone dock that one can easily bend into the form of a lamp. Obviously, the screen is bright enough to give enough light for a small desk area, but is it at all practical? Of course it's not. It should be using the iPhone 4 and its much brighter back-facing LED!
To me, the stand looks much too narrow to be practical as an iPhone stand, never mind as a lamp. Still, I've seen crazier things being done with the iPhone when one is in a pinch.
[via Obama Pacman]TUAWInteresting, impractical iPhone concept lamp originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nintendo on Thursday faced its first loss in two years as its own lineup and competition from Apple hurt its business. The company lost the equivalent of $288.5 million after DS sales were cut in half from 5.97 million a year ago to just 3.15 million this spring. The drop included a 33 percent fall in sales in the US during June alone....


Nintendo DS - Nintendo - Apple - Video game - Games

Two Apple patent applications, newly published by the USPTO, could potentially allow for complex 3D interpretations of places iPhone owners have been. One of the documents is titled Generating a Three-Dimensional Model using a Portable Electronic Device Recording, and illustrates how an iPhone's GPS and motion sensors could complement other recording technologies, such as video. "By walking with the device in the user's real environment, a user can virtually navigate representation of a three-dimensional environment," the application says....


iPhone - Apple - United States Patent and Trademark Office - Patent - Smartphones

ActiveTrak announced the immediate availability of GadgetTrak 3 on Thursday. The new version of the service for tracking lost or stolen computers added the ability to track multiple devices.






GadgetTrak - Business - KenWestin - GadgetTrak 3 - Security

Filed under: iPhoneClearCam has been around for a while, and I first took a look at it more than a year ago. It was a clever app that had two modes. One mode took a series of four pictures in rapid succession, and then it saved the best and sharpest one in your photo library; the other mode took six images together and stacked them in order to increase resolution and reduce noise. In practice, it meant that the old 3G 2MP camera became the rough equivalent of a 4MP camera.
The app had been pulled from the App Store for a while -- the SDK did not allow access to raw iPhone images (only compressed images), which meant it was impossible to run any enhancement algorithms on the data. The SDK now allows for access to those uncompressed images, iPhone cameras are better, and ClearCam has returned as a regular iPhone app. It runs on the 3GS and the iPhone 4, and it requires iOS 4.
The app is similar to the original version, although now it chooses the best shot out of three instead of four. For the stacking or enhanced mode, it still takes six images and then aligns and processes them.
Gallery: ClearCam example imagesTUAWClearCam goes legit, will increase image resolution at a price originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The iPhone 4 is still, "overall, the best device in its class," according to Walt Mossberg. The All Things Digital writer was one of the first people to review the iPhone 4, being one of the few people allowed early access. It was through Mossberg that Apple told the public a software fix was enroute for reception problems, though at the time this referred to improving how iOS displays signal, not solving signal drops caused by a wraparound grip. The latter issue was documented over the course of following days and weeks....


IPhone - Apple - Walt Mossberg - All Things Digital - Smartphone

T-Mobile has beaten AT&T to hold on to its top spot in the quality of its help for customers, JD Power found today. The company had the highest score for its service at 777 points and was the only one of the top four carriers to get a five-star mark from subscribers. It thrived primarily on the level of over-the-phone support....


AT&T - Mobile phone - Business - Telecommunications - Mobile

It didn't take long for adult entertainment companies to develop video-sex chat services. In at least five cities, Craigslist ads seek models specifically for video sex chat on FaceTime. Many of the ads even offer to throw in a free iPhone 4 for the new employees.

Filed under: HardwareIt's so thin and barely there. What could be inside Apple's Magic Trackpad? The folks at iFixit took theirs apart, photographing and describing each component in great detail. Here's what they found.
Inside there is, well, not a whole heck of a lot. A large spacer prevents the user from pressing down hard enough to damage the small logic board. That board is connected to the trackpad itself via two "ridiculously thin" ribbon cables, which are glued into place. They used a hot air gun to soften the adhesive. So, tread very lightly if you plan to remove these.
Speaking of the board, the gang found that it holds a Broadcom BCM2042 for Bluetooth connectivity and a Broadcom BCM5974 touch screen controller chip (the same on used in the iPhone, iPod touch and MacBook Air). A SST 25WF020 provides 2 Mbit of serial flash memory. On the back, there's just a whole lot of glue.
Here's a bit of good news: the Magic Trackpad's battery is user-serviceable! Just good luck getting to it. It's also notable that pressure applied to the surface is translated to the feet, which in turn presses on a plate attached to the chassis. That place squeezes an electronic mouse button switch. In essence, as pointed out by Macworld, it clicks with its feet.

Thanks to iFixit for another well-documented tear down, and for sweating the (very tiny) details.TUAWA look inside the Magic Trackpad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

An FCC filing discovered late Wednesday has signaled a unique Sprint plan to capture Apple device users. A ZTE device known as the Peel would serve as an iPod touch case but would hold a full 3G-to-Wi-Fi mobile hotspot in its back. The combo would give the iPod, and other nearby devices, an always-on 3G connection without needing a separate MiFi....


Apple - IpodTouch - iPod - IPod Classic - ZTE

Filed under: Software
You lousy kids, with your iPhones and iPads and iGadgets! Back in my day, we worked on real computers, with real keyboards, and mice with one button, and we liked it! BBEdit is a relative relic of that age -- when text ruled the Earth, BBEdit ruled text. And the old Mac app is still being updated. The latest version 9.5.1, adds in a couple of dozen fixes, and reverts some of the capitalization rules to the way it worked in a previous version. There are still some die-hards who swear by BBEdit for coding or editing text, and because of its power and versatility, it's $125 for an initial purchase. The upgrade to 9.5.1 by current users is, of course, free.
Nowadays, you've got your drag-and-drop and your touchscreens and your gestural controls, but BBEdit is one of the best apps that does what your computer used to be best at: editing text quickly and well.TUAWBBEdit 9.5.1 out now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A popular third-party wallpaper app for Android-based smartphones apparently collects user?s personal data and uploads it to servers in China without permission. The news was revealed by the mobile security company Lookout at the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas.






Android - Lookout - Black Hat - Las Vegas Nevada - China

Filed under: HumorSometimes app developers will send me PR releases hoping I review their apps (thus increasing their sales). If I think it's a good app, or that my readers would like it, I do. Many times I don't, however. But I couldn't resist sharing this app with the rest of the world. Why? Not because it's a good app (I haven't even tried it), but because it is the worst-named app in the history of apps: Touch Teen Patti.
When I first read the name images of an app that featured photos the young and innocent teen Patti popped into my head. I imagined the Pedobear's on the Chan sites going crazy over this app as they used their fingers to pinch and squeeze young teen Patti's various body parts. It wasn't just the name that caused me to shamelessly snicker like a thirteen year-old either. The PR release went on to contain a number of inadvertent, though sexually ambiguous, double entendres:
"Teen Patti recently featured in a movie of the same name."
"Teen Patti can be played with a minimum of 2 players but it's more fun with 4 or more players."
"The AI will challenge the players to an extreme and test not only your luck but your skills on the table."
If you don't know (or haven't guessed) by now, Teen Patti is actually an innocent Indian card game that's similar to poker. When the devs made it into an iPhone game they decided to (appropriately enough) throw "touch" into the title -- probably much to the alarm of Chris Hanson and to the hopes of Pedobear's everywhere. To the dev who wanted me to do a review of this app -- sorry, but I'm not into card games. However, with a name like "Touch Teen Patti," if you want to increase your sales, all you have to do is post a link to your app on 4Chan and your numbers will go through the roof.TUAWThe worst app name. Ever. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Japan's industry ministry is now demanding that Apple report on how it will deal with iPod nanos overheating, says Agence France-Presse. 2005-era Nanos have caused at least 27 incidents, according to a ministry official, including six fires. "Four people burned themselves after they touched the device, which had overheated during charging," the official elaborates....


Apple - IPod Nano - iPod - Japan - Agence France-Presse

Apple is looking into user complaints about hardware and software performance issues reported by iPhone 3G users after upgrading to iOS 4. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is investigating the myriad complaints that have surfaced since the June release of iOS 4.
The major sticking points share a common factor: performance. Complaints are plentiful online—the Apple discussion thread on the issue currently spans 36 pages. According to many, upgrading to iOS 4.0.1 has done little to ameliorate the issue. There is even a humorous spoof of Apple’s iPhone advertisements about exactly what iOS 4 brings to the iPhone 3G. Less-prominent complaints also include the device overheating and general degradation of battery performance.
From the beginning, Apple explained that there would not be feature parity between the older iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4. The iPhone 3G has a 412MHz processor versus the 600MHz processor of the 3GS, and a paltry 128MB of RAM versus 256MB on the 3GS and 512MB on the iPhone 4. And remember, one of the selling features of the 3GS was indeed the handset's speed improvements over the older 3G.
At this point, Apple is in an unenviable position: a handset that is performing undesirably with an operating system that the company said would be at least partially supported. Apple could recommend that users downgrade back to iOS 3.1.3, or tell them that older hardware will always have issues running the latest and greatest software; neither of these would be very popular with the 3G-using public. There is also a third option—put even more time and effort into optimizing the OS for a phone that is now two generations old. That's the least likely option in our view.



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Today TMO readers are talking about Apple, Google, and how Google plans to make money off of its Android platform.






Google - Apple - Searching - Search Engines - Eric E. Schmidt

IPad - IPhone - Handhelds - Smartphones - Simple Genius Project

Apple - IPhone - Shopping - Operating Systems - X11

E-book sales will overtake the paperback format within the next year, Amazon's Senior VP Steve Kessel said today following the launch of the new Kindle. Having just overtaken hardcovers, Kindle book sales should outrun paperbacks before the end of 2011. The executive added to Pocket-lint that e-books would overtake all paper books "sometime after that."...


E-book - Amazon.com - Paperback - Books - Shopping

Only a day after the Apple introduced its new Magic Trackpad, iFixit managed to get ahold of one and promptly stripped it down to the frame. The technology packed inside Apple?s stand-alone trackpad is both diminutive and impressive, but don?t try to take yours apart unless you know what you?re doing.






Apple - iFixit - MagicTrackpad - Macintosh - multitouch

Repair firm iFixit has published a teardown of Apple's Magic Trackpad, which was...


Apple - iFixit - Magic - Performing Arts - Arts

Filed under: iPhone, iPad
Semi Secret Software (the same folks behind the amazing Canabalt game for the iPhone) has released its second game for the iOS platform, Gravity Hook HD. I actually heard about this one way back in March, and it was made even before Canabalt was. But this iPhone and iPad release has been updated for HD, and it's kind of fun. To play, you tap on various hook points in order to send your little guy skyward; you do this while fighting gravity and trying to keep from falling off the bottom of the screen. I can't say it's as fun or as simple as Canabalt, but it is colorful and addictive for sure.
You don't believe me? Go play the free Flash version on the website. If it hooks you (get it? Hooks?), you can pick up the universal app for iPhone or iPad for US $2.99.TUAWTUAW's Daily App: Gravity Hook HD originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Adobe plans to buy Day Software Holding, a Swiss company that specializes in enterprise-level software solutions for digital asset management, Web-based content management, and social collaboration. The two companies are ready to move forward with a deal that will cost Adobe about US$240 million.






Content management - Day Software - Digital asset management - Site Management - Enterprise content management

Filed under: iPadHey we didn't say it, we only repeated it. Consumer firm MyType has done a study of the opinions of 20,000 people, and have determined that iPad owners are wealthy, sophisticated, educated, and score very low in tests designed to chart altruism and kindness. In short, they're rich and smart, but also spoiled and cruel.
If you happen to be anti-iPad (and probably vocal about it), don't worry, we're not leaving you out. Those who criticize the iPad, says the study, most likely don't own one (which seems obvious, no?), and tend to be "independent geeks" -- "self-directed young people who look down on conformity and are interested in videogames, computers, electronics, science and the internet." In short, "bashing the iPad is, in a way, an identity statement for independent geeks." Owning an iPad might make you less inclined to give to charity, but not owning one means you're trying to define yourself by being anti-Apple.
Whew -- and they say generalization is a bad thing. In reality, of course, there are all kinds of shades of gray in here. Certainly there are very altrustic people who have purchased iPads, and certainly, not owning an iPad doesn't mean you're searching for an identity (nor, of course, does it mean you have one). But these are definitely general trends -- we've heard before that iPad owners tend to be at least more wealthy and educated than have-nots, and just one browse through your average comments section will tell you that "independent geeks" are often more than willing to criticize to make themselves look good.
[via Slashdot]TUAWStudy: iPad owners are selfish elitists, non-owners are independent geeks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Amazon.com introduced its third generation Kindle ebook reader on Thursday with a redesigned body and the option to buy versions with Wi-Fi and 3G, or Wi-Fi only. The new models highlight Amazon.com?s plans to steer clear of Apple?s iPad and focus on the dedicated ebook reader market.






Amazon.com - Apple - IPad - Wi-Fi - Barnes & Noble

Motorola today posted results that underscored its urgent move to smartphones. The company's total phone shipments in the spring quarter shrank compared to the winter, falling from 8.5 million to 8.3 million, but its smartphone numbers grew quickly. Continued strong Droid sales and growing ranks of other Android devices led it to ship 2.7 million smartphones, or nearly a third of its entire lineup....


Smartphone - Motorola - Apple - Android - Droid

RAGE Software announced the immediate availability of Macintosh Explorer 5.0 on Thursday. The new version of the Microsoft Windows-like file browser improved support for Mac OS X 10.6, and added Quick Look support for Mac OS X 10.5.






Mac OS X - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Quick Look - Apple - Microsoft

Intel's platform for its Sandy Bridge desktop processors, Sugar Bay, should launch right at the start of the new year if sources are accurate. The design would combine the new, quad-core, 32 nanometer processors with Intel's upcoming P67 chipset and would ship during the CES show starting January 6. Budget dual-core and higher end unlocked processors would ship later....


Intel Corporation - Intel Sandy Bridge - Central processing unit - Intel - Multi-core processor

If his recent Facebook activity has to be believed, than Facebook's founder and CEO might have just ditched his iPhone for Android. It was only last month when Mark made the headlines for switching to iPhone (it was 3GS, not iPhone 4) from BlackBerry. But the experience wasn't all that great as he posted about his frustrations with the device...

CodeWeavers has launched CrossOver and CrossOver Games 9.1, new versions of its Mac virtualization software. CrossOver allows users to run Windows programs inside Mac OS X, while CrossOver Games specializes in running a range of Windows based Games on an Intel Mac. One of the main new features for both programs is the incorporation of changes made in Wine 1.2, which include support for 62-bit applications, over 3,000 bug fixes, and more than 23,000 changes....


Mac OS X - CodeWeavers - CrossOver - Microsoft Windows - Windows

RAGE Software has launched a new version of its intergrated file browser and file management tool, Macintosh Explorer 5.0. The software provides users with an alternative for browsing their hard drives, and features filtering based file browsing and tabbed file browsing tools. New to the program is additional support for the Snow Leopard operating system, along with an enhanced user interface, and improved file browsing....


filemanager - Operating system - Hard disk drive - Snow Leopard - Macintosh

Bell could land a victory against other Canadian carriers by offering a strong promo deal for smartphones and the iPad, a leaked memo shows. Similar to the deals Rogers has been running since 2008, the carrier would provide 6GB of data for $30 per month for BlackBerries, iPhones and other smartphones, including tethering.

With each new generation of graphic card, NVidia makes two version, a consumer one and a professional one. It is now true for the Fermi.
There will be three different models similarly to the three models of GeForce GTX4xx. These new cards have a few more features than the consumer ones, in particular support of EEC memory, and it doesn't limit double precision calculations, which are limited at 25% of their total capacity on the GeForce GTX.Of Course, these graphic cards will come with specific drivers that alone justify that professionals buy them instead of the consumer GeForce.We don't know if Apple will make those cards available for the Mac Pro, but if they don't provide them with the appropriate drivers, the cards will be just a little more powerful than a GeForce GTX, but not much, and certainly not enough to be worth 3 to 4 times the price of a GeForce.

Global Delight has launched an update to its popular iPhone camera application, Camera Plus Pro. The new release adds additional compatibility for some of the iPhone 4's new features, such as the LED flash and front-facing camera. iPhone 4 users are provided with 3 different resolution settings for saving images, in addition to real-time zoom for both of the cameras. Version 2.5 also includes a new Wi-Fi sharing feature, Bing image search, improved video recording, and a variety of bug fixes. To celebrate this new release, Global Delight is currently offering a 50 pe...

Stand By Soft has launched an update to its Microsoft Project viewer, MOOS Project Viewer 2.0. The utility is designed to address the lack of an official viewer for Microsoft Project files. Companies having numerous employees that simply need to view Project files, as opposed to creating and editing them, would need to have the full Project license. Project Viewer provides a low-cost alternative. It can open, view and print Microsoft Project files, with support for views such as Gantt Chart, Task Usage, Resource Sheet, Resource Usage and Tracking Gantt....