Technology Today ( Apple,iPhone,iPad,Mac – Google,Tables,Android )
Apple
Flipboard 1.9 puts emphasis on audio
May 16th
Flipboard is the “social magazine” for iPad and iPhone that lets users browse their favorite social network sites, feeds and more in a beautiful, magazine-like interface. Version 1.9 was released this week and adds audio to the mix.
A new audio tab offers several options, like SoundCloud and shows from National Public Radio (like Fresh Air) and Public Radio International. You’ll also find podcasts and indue music from the likes of Sub Pop Records and Epitaph Records.
What’s really nice is that you can begin an audio stream and navigate away to another section of Flipboard (or even another app) while the stream continues. Version 1.9 is a free update.
Source: http://inside.flipboard.com/2012/05/16/what%E2%80%99s-that-s…
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/16/flipboard-1-9-puts-emphasis-on-audio/
Hello iPhoto for iPad & iPhone is an amazing new way to learn
May 16th
If there’s one thing about iPhoto for iPad and iPhone that I’ve never been too happy with, it’s that the apps aren’t exactly self-explanatory and Apple doesn’t provide much in terms of an onboard guided tour. Long-time Apple developer and publisher Saied Ghaffari has just published a new iBook titled Hello iPhoto for iPad iPhone (US$1.99) that provides a unique way of learning the tricks of iPhoto for your iOS device.
I had the opportunity to talk with Saied recently about the book, which was created in iBooks Author and has been featured by Apple in the iBookstore. He’s no newcomer to the how-to book market, having created the popular “It’s About Time: Learn the Switch to Mac” application that led a generation of switchers to the OS X platform. That app made it into special bundles with Parallels Desktop as well, providing a way for switchers to painlessly make the way between Windows and OS X.
Times change, and now Saied has embraced iBooks Author and created a helpful companion to the iOS version of iPhoto. Once purchased and downloaded to your iPad, the book appears on the shelf in iBooks. With a tap, it opens to a gorgeous photo of the Grand Canyon — an image repeated on other chapter headings. In the lower left corner is a small thumbnail that opens a launch page when tapped.
Hello iPhoto for iPad iPhone
The launch page provides a portal to learning a bit about iPhoto and iTunes on your Mac, iPhoto on your iPad, or iPhoto on your iPhone. Tapping any one
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/16/hello-iphoto-for-ipad-and-iphone-is-an-amazing-new-way-to-learn/
Found Footage: MacPaint introductory video
May 16th
Vintage Apple fans should check out Matt Pearce and his “Matt’s Macintosh” YouTube channel. Besides current content, his channel is full of videos featuring his 1984 Macintosh 128K. He has a quick tutorial from earlier this year that showcases MacPaint and a more recent video of an Iron Man design created on a Starkintosh with StarkPaint. You can watch these two MacPaint clips below and head over to YouTube for many more.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/MattsMacintosh?feature=watch
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/16/found-footage-macpaint-introductory-video/
HTC handsets delayed at US customs due to ITC injunction over Apple patent
May 16th
HTC confirmed to The Verge that its One X phone for ATT and EVO 4G LTE handset for Sprint are being held at the border by customs officials. The shipments are being delayed while the government agency reviews the packages in accordance with an ITC ruling that banned the import of HTC’s Android smartphones.
In December 2011, the ITC ruled that HTC violated Apple patents, one of which describe a UI feature that lets you tap on an address or phone number as a link and pull down a menu of appropriate actions. HTC said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal that its products are no longer infringing, “We believe we have worked around our design and are now in compliance with the ITC ruling. We are cooperating with the U.S. Customs to speed up the review process.”
Depending on how long it takes for the review, HTC could face shortages of its One X, which went on sale last month with ATT. It may also have to delay its May 18 launch of the EVO 4G LTE with Sprint.
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Apple, ban, customs, htc, import, infringing, iPhone, ITC, lawsuit, legal, patent
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/15/3022907/at-t-htc-one-x-blo…
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120516-704176.html
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/16/htc-handsets-delayed-at-us-customs-due-to-itc-injunction-over-ap/
Tim Cook meets with Speaker of US House of Representatives, John Boehner
May 16th
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s office has released a picture of Boehner meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday. While Boehner’s staff didn’t go into details about the meeting, MacRumors theorizes that Cook was lobbying for a tax holiday, allowing Apple to bring some of its offshore funds back into the U.S.
Fortune first reported in February that Apple was lobbying for a tax holiday to alleviate the 35% rate that repatriated funds are currently taxed at. Apple and other corporate entities would like the government to drop this rate to 5% for a year.
Source: http://www.speaker.gov/photo/speaker-boehner-meets-tim-cook-…
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/15/tim-cook-meets-with-speaker-of-us-house-of-representatives-john/
Aaron Sorkin to pen Jobs’ biopic, Variety reports
May 16th
Aaron Sorkin, fresh from winning an Oscar for writing “The Social Network,” will move from covering Facebook to Apple. Sony has hired Sorkin to turn Walter Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs” biography into a feature film, Variety reports. Sony acquired the movie rights to Isaacson’s biography a couple weeks before it was released in October.
Another Jobs biopic is scheduled to begin filming this month. This film, with the working title “Jobs,” stars Ashton Kutcher and covers the years 1971-2000. “Jobs” is slated to be released in the fourth quarter of this year.
[Via Mashable]
Source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118054084
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/15/aaron-sorkin-to-pen-jobs-biopic-variety-reports/
Judge refuses request to dismiss ebook class action suit
May 16th
Apple received a legal slap on Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Denise Cote rejected a request to dismiss a class action lawsuit against Apple and five publishers.
Cote scoffed at the idea that Apple and the publishers acted independently in coming up with what’s known as agency pricing, their defense to the charges that they were price-fixing ebooks. Not only that, she accused Steve Jobs at being at the center of it all. Parts of the opinion, as excerpted by paidContent, reads:
In short, Apple did not try to earn money off of eBooks by competing with other retailers in an open market; rather, Apple ‘accomplished this goal by [helping] the suppliers to collude, rather than to compete independently.’”
“Finally, the fact that Apple might have had different motivations for joining the conspiracy, and was involved in only a portion of it, does not undermine the existence of the conspiracy itself or Apple’s role as a participant.
Cote also cites ongoing investigations against Apple, including the antitrust suit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, as other reasons to maintain the class action suit, filed in August 2011.
Source: http://paidcontent.org/2012/05/15/judge-comes-down-hard-on-p…
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/15/judge-refuses-request-to-dismiss-ebook-class-action-suit/
Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard Cover: The best iPad keyboard case yet
May 15th
Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard Cover (US$99) has been out for a while, but TUAW didn’t receive a review device until last week. After a weekend of happily pounding on the keyboard and giving this shiny new product a workout, I’m pleased to say that it’s the best iPad keyboard case I’ve reviewed so far.
Design
Logitech appears to have started with a clean sheet of paper when they came up with the design for the Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. While the rest of the teeming mass of accessory manufacturers have pretty much all chosen to take a folio case and throw a keyboard — removable in some cases — into it, Logitech took the unique idea of making the keyboard the case cover.
The thin (.31 inch) and light (11.6 ounce) keyboard has a Smart Cover-like hinged magnet on one side. Drag that magnet against the left side of an iPad and it snaps into place. The Ultrathin also has magnets on the right side to turn the iPad 2 or third-generation iPad on or off.
Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover
The back of the Ultrathin is made with aluminum that matches the material of the iPad. If you’d like to customize your Ultrathin, Logitech provides free laser engraving if you order the keyboard from its online store.
When the keyboard cover and iPad are mated together, they form a nice curvy aluminum shell about .68 inch thick. That just so happens to match the maximum thickness of a MacBook Air. The combined weight of the Ultrathin and third-generation iPad is 2.185 lb., .2 lb. (3.2 oz.) less than that of
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/15/logitechs-ultrathin-keyboard-cover-the-best-ipad-keyboard-case/
On the UDID ban: Tracking devices, users and advertisers
May 15th
Over the past few weeks, several ad networks have announced “UDID-independent” conversion tracking tools. As Apple’s UDID ban has gone into effect, mobile advertising has had to find other ways to track device users.
The problem with this is, of course, that they’re still tracking. Apple’s SDK supports lots of ways to retrieve hardware data that’s not limited to UDID, and it’s easy enough to re-build the same UDID that Apple’s APIs no longer support.
What’s uncomfortable about this transition away from UDID tracking to other forms of user identification is how hard these firms are scrambling to keep tracking users. In a nutshell, companies want to track because it’s of value to advertisers, not because it’s of value to users. iPhone owners are giving up some of their privacy, and for what? The ad companies are not creating coherent user experiences (UX) across time and device; they’re just targeting ads.
Ad networks might reply that a clear audience demographic allows for more effective (and profitable) advertising on mobile, which in turn supports a more diverse and dynamic population of ad-supported free apps. Certainly the App Store’s free lineup reflects a degree of ad-driven revenue that would be missed if it evaporated.
Of course, TUAW is an ad-supported site. We have to personally acknowledge the role of tracking cookies and other advertising technologies in supporting what we do. Mobile, however, feels different. It’s more personal, it’s location-aware, and it’s less transparent to the end user.
What we’re not seeing is transparency and explicit opt-outs. On-device tracking is done completely silently in applications. You can’t open up a device’s “cookies” to see who is tracking you, and what information is being shared. That’s fundamentally different from the
Article source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/15/on-the-udid-ban-tracking-devices-users-and-advertisers/
Daily iPhone App: Ozgood is a lovable piece of puppet tech
May 15th
Ozgood is an interesting little iPhone game from a few developers who’ve worked for bigger game companies, and have recently gone independent. Most iPhone games deal with the platform’s hardware by either just going with 2D graphics or trying relatively simple 3D — it’s usually only bigger developers like Epic Games that can really use an engine like Unreal to wring really colorful graphics out of the iPhone. But RunWilder, the developers of Ozgood, took an entirely different tack: They took video of a real life puppet, and then put it together with 2D backgrounds and 3D items to make this virtual pet game.
The result is a very unique kind of wonderful. Ozgood is a crazy little guy full of personality, and the app (which is free right now) is full of content. There’s a “story” you can play through by feeding Ozgood certain things and interacting with him in certain ways, there’s a “studio mode” where you can use him to make messages to send along to friends, and there’s an ongoing metagame as well, where you can feed Ozgood a fake soda called Chugg and even share six packs of it with your friends online.
The app is silly — it’s very kid friendly, and Ozgood can sometimes be crass with his burps and various bodily functions. But even for adults, it’s wild to see how these developers used a puppet to make this app, and there’s clearly a lot of skill in how it’s all put together. Ozgood is a free universal download that’s definitely worth checking out.
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/15/daily-iphone-app-ozgood-is-a-lovable-piece-of-puppet-tech/