Wed, Feb 29, 2012
As an outlining app, MagicalPad is terrific.
Looxcie records in a continuous five-hour loop, allowing users to capture events in their lives, both unexpected and mundane, without lugging around a video camera. An Instant Clip button on the phone lets videographers send a clip of the last 30 seconds to a social network with a single click.
Possibly the most pleasant change with the Mini is the absence of fan noise from it when compared to my old G5.
If a problem happens with the permissions setup on the system, you may run into errors when you access or edit files, including the need to enter your admin password anytime you wish to move, open, or edit a specific file (even those in your user account).
After a user allows an application on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to have access to location information, the app can copy the user’s entire photo library, without any further notification or warning, according to app developers.
Full access to the photo library was first permitted in 2010 when Apple released the fourth version of its mobile software, iOS. It was intended to make photo apps more efficient. Developers said it was unclear why Apple would tie the permission for sharing of location data to access to photos.
If you use Markdown and want a minimal tool to write with, Byword is a good choice, despite its limited selection of themes.
While nobody knows for sure what changes the iPad 3 will have, it is widely expected the device will have a faster processor, improved graphics processor and a Retina Display.
Also, will there be a new Apple TV 3?
Tue, Feb 28, 2012
Apple doesn't hide the fact you can make your own ringtones for free, but it's certainly not widely advertised. Plenty of iPhone users are still unaware how easy it is to create your own ringtones out of music you already own (or even music you create). Whether you like The Beatles, Rush, Beyoncé, or Vivaldi, you can make ringtones to your heart's content without having to plunk down a dollar every time you want to switch things up.
What did I learn? Nothing that I didn’t already know, but I repeat it here because it’s an important lesson I relearned: when you see an error message and you aren’t sure what it means, it only takes a few moments to do a Web search for that message. In a large number of cases, you’ll find others bedeviled with the same problem who have found a solution.
Apple sent out an email today asking developers in its various programs to go ahead and get their applications ready with the Developer ID program, which is basically a new form of certifying apps that run on your Mac or iOS device.
The update resolves an issue that can prevent an iMac from automatically connecting to a known Wi-Fi network after waking from sleep.
All that said, I can’t ignore the allure of an elegant and inexpensive repurposing of the machines I have, and bringing the Mac mini into service as my desktop Mac currently feels like the best option. But I’ve had so much fun contemplating all the possibilities that I wanted to throw the entire puzzle open to others as well. What would you do if you were in my shoes, with my needs and limited budget?
Mon, Feb 27, 2012
Apple Inc.'s rivals aren’t rushing to emulate the iPhone maker’s decision to subject supplier factories to audits by a labor group. Instead, they’re sticking to internal checks that may leave room for violations -- and negative public relations fallout.
Adobe has done a great job with Photoshop Touch: it’s one of the very best iPad apps to date. As far as I am concerned, Adobe has matched the quality of Apple’s iPad apps like Pages and iMovie in creating Photoshop Touch. Adobe has made appropriate compromises in bringing Photoshop to the iPad, making considered design choices that fit in with the iPad and exploiting the philosophies the iPad embodies: simplicity and an enjoyable experience.
Sun, Feb 26, 2012
Sat, Feb 25, 2012
What I detect in Google’s behavior (and Battelle’s more-or-less defense of it) is a sense of entitlement. That because in the past ad networks could track almost all users via cookies, they are entitled to continue tracking almost all users across the web via cookies, even when a large (and growing) number of them begin using a web browser which, by default, tries to prevent it.
Arguing that Google didn’t do anything wrong — or all that wrong — is one thing. But trying to spin this into an argument that Apple has done something wrong, and that Google was just reacting naturally, is something else.
Cocktail is great. It’s highly recommended if you need, truly need to dig into your Mac and make it better. It’s a fine app for the paranoid, the Mac newbie, and the geek wannabe.
Apple is so big, it’s running up against the law of large numbers.
Although Apple’s iCloud service debuted last fall, it’s only recently that we’ve started to see applications take advantage of iCloud to keep data synchronized between your Macs. Scrawl is one such program, and this note-taking tool is both simple and useful.
Fri, Feb 24, 2012
In this installment, the iTunes Guy answers questions about moving your iTunes library, opening multiple iTunes windows simultaneously, finding tracks in playlists, and more.
Cupertino says it is has suspended push email via iCloud or MobileMe for users in Germany, due to "recent patent litigation by Motorola Mobility."
We've heard back from Apple and for its part, it is treating this as no big deal, focusing on the fact that it only applies to push email specifically and customers can still receive their emails other ways as mentioned above. As it is, it says this will affect only a "limited number of customers."
Covering some 2,000 albums is still a lengthy, arduous process, but the script’s made things much quicker and less click-crazy. If you’re thinking about an iTunes cover art makeover, give it a look, and while you’re there, check out the site’s other scripts — a bona fide library of tools to manage your track info, playlists and more.
The excellent
Doug's AppleScirpts have tons of AppleScripts that you can download to use or modify. I've learnt a lot from this site to use AppleScripts to manage my podcasts.
Instead, Mr. Cook said Apple has been thinking about cash "very deeply" and is actively discussing strategies for managing it with its board. "It's a lot," he added. "It's more than we need to run the company."
In the OS X boot process, when the Apple logo is showing, the system has found a valid boot device and will then display a spinning wheel below the Apple logo when the system loads the kernel and its extensions. At this point, the system can load kernel extensions from several sources including boot caches and from the extensions' locations on disk. In doing so, odd problems with the files from any of these sources could result in problems that force the system to restart.
Have a 2011 Mac mini, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac? If Software Update hasn't yet told you about it, there's an EFI Firmware Update available that you might want to install.
The "Flashback" Mac trojan is back, and it's smarter than ever. Mac security company Intego says the latest variant, Flashback.G, uses three new methods in order to make its way onto Macs, though it won't install itself at all if it detects a number of antivirus or anti-malware security programs already installed.
At its annual shareholders meeting on Thursday, Apple announced that it has adopted a measure approved by shareholders last year that requires a majority vote for new board members to be approved.
I think that's an unlikely end state (making my headline fully Betteridge compliant), and so do some prominent indie developers, but I also think the issue is worth examining.
Thu, Feb 23, 2012
The command did not provide any explanation for the move in its notice on the Federal Business Opportunities website. Officials originally planned to acquire 2,861 iPad2 tablet computers to serve as electronic flight bags, storing digital versions of paper charts and technical manuals.
Over the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday, Apple quietly released a surprisingly detailed update to a report on its “environmental footprint,” including plans to build the world’s largest private solar array and fuel-cell farm to power its massive new North Carolina data center.
It’s quite a turnaround from Apple’s past public indifference to environmental concerns. Given the company’s other initiatives to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, Apple is emerging as a leader rather than a laggard on the environmental front.
Since ABC News’ original report, Apple, Foxconn, and the Fair Labor Association have sent statements explaining a few sentences in the original report. We have posted the text of those statements below.
In an age when Apple has become the top music retailer without selling a single physical disc, audio engineers are increasingly creating specially mastered versions of songs and albums designed to counteract the audio degradation caused by compression. Though audiophiles typically scoff at paying for compressed audio, preferring vinyl or high-end digital formats such as DVD-A, mastering engineers are doing their best to create digital masters that can pass through Apple's iTunes algorithms with minimal sonic corruption.
The provisions will require that developers of apps that collect personal information include privacy policies with their app sthat can be viewed directly from the store before downloading the apps themselves.
Looking to share an external hard drive between a Mac and PC? The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as FAT32. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support from active platforms, including Mac and Windows operating systems, and many gaming and Linux OSs.
MobileMe is scheduled to be shut down in June 2012, and Apple has begun encouraging users to transition to iCloud. Email messages are going out this week that promote iCloud's services and provide a big 'ol blue button for customers to click and begin the migration process.
Wed, Feb 22, 2012
Ted Taylor and Barney Lerten,
KTVZ:
Tech giant Apple Inc. confirmed Tuesday to NewsChannel 21 that it plans to build a data center at a 160-acre parcel in Prineville it just bought from Crook County for $5.6 million, a stone’s throw from the huge facility built by Facebook.
There are numerous changes to look forward to when Mountain Lion roars onto the scene this summer, along with some major system additions like Notification Center and Gatekeeper. But for those uninterested in flashy features, there are plenty of minor system changes, too. Here’s a quick look at ten that caught my eye.
I'm looking forward to Time Machine's multi-disk backup.
Apple today announced that it has extended the deadline for Mac App Store apps to implement sandboxing until June 1. The requirement had been set to go into effect on March 1 after already having been delayed from last November, but continued uncertainty about implementation and its effects on app functionality has caused Apple to again slow down the transition.
The evidence so far is inconclusive. There is clearly some connection to graphics capabilities--of that much we can be sure. However, when we spoke to Apple, the company cautioned that Mountain Lion is still in the early stages of readying for release this summer, and so far those limits only apply to the developer preview. "It's still early, and the system requirements for the final version have not yet been determined," an Apple spokesperson told Ars.
If you want a minimalist tool for writing, WriteRoom is likely to have all the features you need. And even though you can personalize the app all you want, you can also ignore those options and just write.
Tue, Feb 21, 2012
If you use iTunes radio stations, you may have noticed that you can’t search in the Radio list; the search field is dimmed. But OS X Hints reader osxpounder pointed out that you can search if you put the radio stations in a playlist.
You probably know Quicksilver the excellent application launcher for OS X, but it's capable of far more than that. One of its excellent additional features is called Triggers, which allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to any action Quicksilver can perform.
For the next release of my app Clipstart, I will be removing it from the Mac App Store and only selling directly from my web site. With Gatekeeper I hope to have some confidence that my customers will still be able to run the app on future versions of the OS.
While using Safari to view an article that you’d like to archive, click on the Reader button that appears in the Address field. The article, complete with its links, will appear in a pane all its own—free of elements unrelated to the article.
At this point you could select all the text in this pane, copy it, and then paste it into a Word document. But why bother when there’s Automator? Just launch Automator and from the sheet that appears, choose Service and click Choose.
Here's a way that allows one to archive a web page, without all the clutters.
This is a bit disturbing. I can understand wanting to save space by not having duplicate tracks, but this means that if you have, say, some albums by a popular performer, along with a “best of” album, then you won’t find many or all of the tracks on the latter in your iTunes library after matching.
For those who want to listen to an entire album from first song to last song, iTunes Match doesn't work well enough.
Mac OS X has a ton of great features, but there's always room for improvement. Many developers have felt the same and created a bunch of great apps to enhance OS X's capabilities. Here are our top 10 apps that can power up your Mac to the next level.
The good news is that there is a solution to this problem, and it’s really not that hard. If you run this installer from the VLC website, it will install a copy of the DVD decryption engine in a place where Handbrake can see it and use it. Once you run it once, you’re set.
In Messages on the Mac, you can drag any file to the message window and send it directly to iMessages on your iPhone.
It may not “change the fact that Apple is playing favorites”, but it does change the entire premise of Schofield’s column — that Apple “excommunicated” The New York Times because of its reporting on Apple’s use of Chinese manufacturing.
Mon, Feb 20, 2012
TurboTax Premier is an excellent application that makes the prospect of preparing your own taxes easy and worry free. Clear instruction, simple data entry, and confidence-inspiring audit checks make TurboTax the perfect choice for filing you annual tax return.
H&R Block At Home is an easy to use application that makes tax prep simple, offers tools to help you avoid audit-inducing mistakes, and if necessary, keeps a professional close at hand if you’re not sure how to handle a specific situation. At Home’s simplicity and the prospect of professional help inspire the confidence necessary to dispense with a tax pro and start using H&R Block At Home.
Being ruthless to yourself is having the discipline to become a better developer - not letting yourself get away with the easy or convenient. Being ruthless to your objects is having the discipline to write the API which separates their responsibilities effectively. The combination is what enables you to produce consistent results - to keep shipping, to keep creating great software, and to keep improving.
Sun, Feb 19, 2012
Note that Messages’ Name & Extension is iChat.app.
And it seems to mess up LaunchBar.
(I am using Alfred, and it seems to be able to handle the naming.)
This latest version is a major update which features a completely re-designed UI, full-screen support on Lion and experimental support for Blu-ray discs.
Sat, Feb 18, 2012
Essentially, my suggestion is that rather than let users face a stacked barrage of blue permission dialogs, is to flatten them all out on one clear screen when they first launch an app after installation. Users would see a list of what the app would like permission to access and the user would be able to (with one tap) allow all, or individually deny permission for the various databases.
Growl is alive and kicking - We are still actively working on shipping two future versions of Growl. Our understanding from press reports at this point is that Notification Center is only available to apps from the Mac App Store, which effectively locks out the entire class of applications that aren't or can't be in the store.
The app not only lets you see what files are zipped inside the archive file, but lets you view the contained documents if they're one of 11 very popular formats.
Ultimately, I think Apple’s current implementation of dialogs on first access, then settings to revoke later, is the better, more understandable, less annoying solution with fewer negative side effects for users and developers. They just need to add another dialog and setting for Contacts access, and that’s probably exactly what they’ll do in iOS 6.
There are still important things to sort out, and the choices Apple makes will determine the future of the Mac platform and deeply impact those who use it going forward.
To increase adoption, Apple should expand the current list of entitlements until it covers every reasonable behavior that users expect from Mac apps. A good test for this is any app that is currently available in the Mac App Store. Having been approved by Apple’s own reviewers, and purchased by Apple’s own customers, the merit of these apps should be considered implicit.
According to the information Apple has provided with the developer preview, you need to be running at least the latest version of Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8) to install Mountain Lion.
Google says it was using a known bit of Safari functionality to provide features that were only enabled when users signed into Google using their browser. Google used this functionality to provide personalized ads and the ability to +1 items for signed-in Google users.
Google then pins the problem on Safari; the statement says the browser "contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser." The search giant said it didn't expect this to happen and is now "removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers." Google insists that the original cookie enablement was done anonymously and no personal data was collected.
While developers we spoke to seem mildly excited about the new functionality, their immediate focus was on the implications of Apple's new Gatekeeper security feature.
Fri, Feb 17, 2012
Based on the text strings found in the App's resources, it has been revealed that Messages will no longer be available for Lion users once the beta expires.
Google Inc. and other advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple Inc.'s Web browser on their iPhones and computers—tracking the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked.
The companies used special computer code that tricks Apple's Safari Web-browsing software into letting them monitor many users. Safari, the most widely used browser on mobile devices, is designed to block such tracking by default.
From my perspective, the desktop OS of today needs to be built with that reality in mind, let’s call this the SoMoClo operating system, where SoMoClo stands for Social+Mobile+Cloud.
An exclusive, of course, cuts two ways. Payoff for the recipient and pain for the shunned. Heading up the latter camp is the New York Times, arguably the most aggressive pursuer of Apple-related news on the planet.
Fundamentally, sandboxing is a good idea. Asking applications to be specific about what they need to do, and exposing that to the system and users for validation is a good idea for security.
The trouble is, the sandboxing implementation currently in place on Mac OS X Lion doesn’t allow for all the behaviours that real Mac applications do right now, behaviours which are not at all contentious, are approved in the Mac App Store already, and indeed are very much appreciated by users.
Looks like Gatekeeper is more or less the right kind of solution, balancing the different requirement between security and functionality.
Apple was warned as long ago as 2010 that the popular Gowalla location-sharing iPhone app was uploading users' address books without alerting them, Technology Review has learned.
This raises questions about why Apple didn't do then what it announced it would do yesterday. In a statement, the company said software upgrades for iPhones would be issued to protect users from the practice, which is forbidden.
I will be surprise if the address-book privacy issue hasn't been discussed within Apple before the Path incident.
o it seemed feasible that we’d wake up one day and Apple would decree that all Mac apps must be sold through the App Store. But instead, Apple went to considerable effort and expense to find a middle ground.
One can employ a "slippery-slope" arguments about the future of apps outside of Mac App Store. But a slipper-slope argument is just that: an alert for us to be prepared, but not something that should prompt us to abandon ship.
An anonymous developer clued us into the minimum requirements for OS X 10.8, and there's bad news for some older Mac owners.
Apple has revealed that the functionality is already baked into OS X 10.7.3 but hidden by default. Apple has instructed developers that they can enable Gatekeeper on OS X 10.7.3 from the command line in order to test the functionality.
The problem, therefore, was a somewhat corrupted Bookmarks.plist file in Safari that was causing iCloud bookmark syncing to choke in such a way as to use a vast amount of processing power, and, in the process, battery power.
Apple has confirmed that the next version of its desktop operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, will be available to customers only via the Mac App Store when it comes out this summer.
Thu, Feb 16, 2012
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion includes a transformative security technology called Gatekeeper. It’s a major new advance in operating system security designed to reduce dramatically the ability of an attacker to trick users into installing malicious software. It could be the key to preventing a future widespread malware epidemic.
Putting both iOS and OS X on an annual release schedule is a sign that Apple is confident it no longer needs to make such tradeoffs in engineering resources. There’s an aspect of Apple’s “now” — changes it needs to make, ways the company needs to adapt — that simply relate to just how damn big, and how successful, the company has become. They are in uncharted territory, success-wise. They are cognizant that they’re no longer the upstart, and are changing accordingly.
It seems important to Apple that the Mac not be perceived as an afterthought compared to the iPad, and, perhaps more importantly, that Apple not be perceived as itself considering or treating the Mac as an afterthought.
Like Lion, Mountain Lion offers numerous feature additions that will be familiar to iOS users. This OS X release continues Apple’s philosophy of bringing iOS features “back to the Mac,” and includes iMessage, Reminders, Notes, Notification Center, Twitter integration, Game Center, and AirPlay Mirroring.
As the first OS X release post-iCloud, there’s also much more thorough integration with Apple’s data-syncing service. Mountain Lion also brings options to limit which kinds of apps users can install. And although there are no actual mountain lions in China, OS X Mountain Lion does add a raft of features to speak to users in the country that’s Apple’s biggest growth opportunity.
Mountain Lion will be a paid upgrade to OS X; like Lion, it will be available only via a Mac App Store download. Apple hasn’t yet set a price or a release date more specific than “summer.” Mac developers will be able to download a developer release of Mountain Lion on Thursday, giving them several months to update their apps to take advantage of the new features in the release.
Although we have a favorite text expansion utility already, xType has the advantage of being free while still maintaining a comparable feature set to the paid competition. It's not yet ready to claim the top spot in the text expansion category, but is a seriously good alternative if you're looking to save some money.
ProSoft Engineering (maker of Data Rescue and Drive Genius) has released a new utility called SoundBunny, which is a simple control panel that interfaces with the core audio system in OS X and allows you to adjust volume levels on a per-application basis.
The last PowerBook G3 model, referred to as the Pismo, is fondly regarded as the ultimate PowerBook by many, and I tend to agree.
Called AirParrot, the new app allows you to select a Mac display and an AirPlay destination (typically an Apple TV). It then uses H.264 encoding to build a live video stream from your selected display.
This allows you to work directly on your laptop or desktop system and mirror it to an HDTV display, just as you would using iOS's built-in AirPlay mirroring features.
“Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines*,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD. “We’re working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release.”
Wed, Feb 15, 2012
Apple is once again slashing the minimum amount it charges advertisers to run a campaign on its iAd mobile ad system and boosting the amount it pays mobile app developers, Ad Age has learned.
In the meantime, Apple has been losing share in the mobile-ad market, threatening the business and app developers' ability to make money from advertising.
MacInnis tells us that the team set out to build a publishing platform that would redefine digital media, starting with reinventing the textbook. But in doing so, they’ve discovered that to reinvent books, they’ve had to go back to ground zero and re-imagine the entire printing process itself. Desktop publishing has been around for decades, but to do it right, MacInnis said that they quickly became acutely aware that this required them to reset the type, so to speak.
The design process, the resulting products, the centrality of software — Isaacson simply misses the boat.
Over the course of the past day, we have been using the method explained by Arun Thampi (who discovered Path's privacy violation) to investigate several dozen popular iOS apps. Our findings should bring both comfort and concern to any iPhone user — and to be frank the work of doing a similar investigation on Android and other platforms remains to be done.
Presented below are our findings so far, but we consider this to be an ongoing project. It's nearly impossible to prove a negative, so instead we simply need to test as many apps as possible to determine which apps are uploading your data. Without further ado, here's what we've discovered so far.
Foursquare -- at least until the latest update -- and Hipster are "egregious offenders".
Tons of other apps -- including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Gowalla, Foodspotting, Angry Birds, and Cut-The-Rope -- requires an action from the user, but they don't clearly tell users that the entire contact list will be uploaded to their servers.
See Also:
"Some developers are taking advantage of the situation to turn children into click-mules. Do this, now do that, now spend some money. They're turning the child into a click-zombie trying to do whatever it takes to feed their virtual fish, or whatever. We're interested in exploring in-app purchasing, but we won't ever be predatory."
He comes back to Oceanhouse's educational ambitions, filing misguided use of freemium billing alongside unnecessary multimedia and interactivity on the company's Not-To-Do list.
If iOS was, in fact, designed to pop up a dialog box saying “SomeApp is trying to access your address book. Allow or Deny?” like it does for the GPS, that might be a minor improvement—but it doesn’t tell you what the application in question is doing with the address book data.
See also:
What Info Can iOS Apps Access? (Dave Winer, Scripting News): Which of the apps on my iPhone is transmitting everything I think is private and to whom are they transmitting it?
Tue, Feb 14, 2012
What most Mac OS X users probably don't know is that Mac OS X keeps a log of all files downloaded. Files are added to that log even if you are using "private" browsing in Safari or "incognito" in Google Chrome, and the log does not appear to ever be cleared.
Even so, Don't Panic: there is no evidence that this information is shared with Apple or anyone else. You do not need to be worried about Apple telling anyone that you torrented all of the episodes of Downton Abbey. The only one who has access to this information is anyone with access to your account.
Apple® today announced that the Fair Labor Association will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple’s request. A team of labor rights experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerden began the first inspections Monday morning at the facility in Shenzhen known as Foxconn City.
“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”
I know a lot of people who hate Microsoft Word. The two complaints that I hear most often are that it's slow to launch and extremely cluttered. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to make it better. I'll walk you through the steps that I take whenever I'm setting up Word on a new computer.
When Lion debuted, I explained how to create a bootable Lion-installer drive from the Mac App Store version of Lion. But if you have a Mac that debuted after Lion (any Mac from July 2011 or later), your Mac shipped with Lion pre-installed. In other words, you don’t have a downloadable version of the installer unless you happened to purchase Lion for another, older Mac. Apple does offer a utility for creating an emergency Lion Recovery drive but, like the standard Lion Recovery feature, this drive requires you to download the full 4GB of Lion each time you want to install—it’s better to have the full installer on a bootable drive.
Mon, Feb 13, 2012
The iPhone maker announced today that it has asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA), an organization "dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories worldwide," to investigate Foxconn facilities in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China. The first inspections have already begun in the Shenzhen factory, known as Foxconn City.
"We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we've asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports."
No one is seriously suggesting Arrington’s straw man argument about Path cooperating with Egyptian authorities. But the way that companies both transmit and store data — whether it be Path, Instagram, Google or Skype — could have very serious, very real implications. It’s a conversation that we should be having. More importantly, it’s time that tech firms start being completely open about how they deal with data.
Can users store private information on iPhones and iPads and at the same time use apps?
Pretty simple. It seems to me that the two actions are incompatible. If you install even one app on your iPhone or iPad, all your data is compromised. Since the tech industry is the predator here, we have to think for ourselves.
A person’s contacts are so sensitive that Alec Ross, a senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the State Department was supporting the development of an application that would act as a “panic button” on a smartphone, enabling people to erase all contacts with one click if they are arrested during a protest.
It seems the management philosophy of “ask for forgiveness, not permission” is becoming the “industry best practice.” And based on the response to Mr. Morin, tech executives are even lauded for it.
Sun, Feb 12, 2012
The Air Mobility Command plans to issue a request for proposals to purchase between 63 and 18,000 "iPad 2, brand name or equal devices" to lighten the load of flight crews. The goal is to replace the bag of manuals and navigation charts weighing as much as 40 pounds that's carried by pilots and navigators.
Bookle looks good, and is an excellent 1.0 implementation of a Mac ebook reader.
“The more we dig, the bigger the rabbit hole is and we’re starting to think tech is a really big key for how we can develop therapies quickly,” said Marc Sirkin, vice president of social marketing and online fundraising for Autism Speaks.
Sat, Feb 11, 2012
The new educational-exclusive MacBook Air is a 13" model with the same specs as the entry-level consumer 11" MacBook Air.
It’s been almost 12 months since Thunderbolt made its debut on the 2011 MacBook Pro. In that time, just a few dozen Thunderbolt products have shipped, to the disappointment of users eager to take advantage of the fast connection.
iPhone developers are familiar with having to provide artwork at both regular and Retina (doubled) pixel dimensions for their apps. With rumours of a Retina Display-equipped iPad being just around the corner, it’s wise to consider moving to fully scaleable vector artwork for as much of your app’s images (such as toolbar icons) as possible.
Fri, Feb 10, 2012
MiJournal isn’t the flashiest choice in Mac journaling, but it’s steady and straightforward. The visual emphasis on repeated writing and the search support are standout features in an app that makes journaling just a bit easier.
The ads, called “Rock God” and “Road Trip”, share a common theme: people talking to their assistant using natural language and a friendly tone, not simply asking a piece of software to execute commands.
Apple says the rules are necessary for security reasons, as it aims to standardize consumers' experience across all Apple devices. But developers say they may be forced to remove certain features from their apps, and the move could create extra work for Mac owners, who may have to download additional software to access those features.
Apple, it seems, have a vision of where the Mac is going to be. We may not know the vision yet, and we may or may not agree with it. But this proves, I think, that Apple is not abandoning the Mac.
While you may not be able to access an Apple-created Empty Trash action, you can build an AppleScript that accomplishes this task that's included as part of your workflow. I’ll demonstrate by creating a workflow that only empties the trash when executed.
AppleScript is such a useful thing on the Mac that I hope Apple will not abandon it.
And I do hope that some smart engineers inside Apple is thinking of how to bring scripting capabilities to iOS.
Despite the inevitable layout-design compromises that the small size of the iPhone imposes on the FileMaker developer, FileMaker Go for the iPhone is a solid piece of software that integrates well with the existing FileMaker universe.
Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these.
As for the next-generation iPad itself, sources say it will be pretty much what we’ve been led to expect by the innumerable reports leading up to its release: A device similar in form factor to the iPad 2, but running a much faster chip, sporting an improved graphics processing unit, and featuring a 2048×1536 Retina Display — or something close to it.
Thu, Feb 9, 2012
Dropbox client applets allow only basic functionality for interacting with the file storage service. To get the full breadth of capabilities, you'll need to use their SDK and write your own code.
The fingerprints of iOS encroaching on OS X may be more tangible than realized. As I’ve watched Apple — in particular its video offerings — over the years, it occured to me sometime last year that if you want to know where Apple is taking OS X with regard to iOS, here’s a sure bet: Watch iLife.
In recent months, several new apps have focused on specific works of architecture, like Richard Neutra’s VDL Studio and Residences, Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22 and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, bringing those masterworks into the digital age. The latter two were created by in-D media, a California-based company that has been producing architecture videos and CD-ROMs since the late-’90s and last year began transferring its wealth of content into mobile app form.
I fully believe this issue is a failure of Apple and a breach of trust by Apple, not by app developers. The expectation of Address Book privacy is obvious; in fact, one person on Hacker News, in response to learning about Path's use of the data, said, "Apple would never do this to their users." Because Apple has your trust and yet gives this private information freely to developers, Apple does do this to their users. All of them.
Usually, when I am curious about something Apple has done, I try to understand the design thinking that went into the decision. In this case, I can't think of a rational reason for why Apple has not placed any protections on Address Book in iOS. It makes no sense. It is a breach of my privacy, and it has allowed every app I've installed to steal my address book.
We’re glad Path took the steps necessary to quickly eliminate the problem, but we’re more concerned about all the applications out there that do this that we’re not aware of at this point.
How many other apps on your iOS devices are secretly uploading the entire address book to their servers?
A person has a song on her computer hard drive. She clicks on the song and plays it. No one is getting paid. The same person pays iTunes $25 for iMatch. She now clicks on the same song and plays it through her iMatch service. Copyright holders get paid.
Same action, same song, one makes money for the copyright holder, and one does not. This is found money that the copyright holders would never have gotten otherwise.
Artists get money just because you did some syncing.
After a day or two of using the iPad, my brain seemed to have rewired itself. It’s not that the iPad is better or worse than the Mac; it’s just that different things are hard to do on each device.
Even more adventures of the man who decided to go Mac-less.
Wed, Feb 8, 2012
Apple on Tuesday released several EFI firmware updates for its 2010 Macs to enable the Lion Internet Recovery feature to the older machines.
While day one had been an adjustment, things had gone pretty well; I hadn’t needed to resort to my Mac at all, and I had finished my work on time. But, to be honest, I had been a bit cautious about the things I’d attempted to do. So on day two, I pushed myself a little bit harder. Not surprisingly, in doing so I ran into more problems.
Further adventures of a man who went Mac-less for three days.
Two years after the debut of the iPad, most newspaper publishers still are fretting and fumbling over what to do about it.
Tue, Feb 7, 2012
Later in the first half of 2012, Adobe will introduce Creative Cloud, an end-to-end service offering that will grant users access to its upcoming Creative Suite 6 apps and provide ancillary services starting at $49.99 a month if you commit to a one year contract. The new software-as-a-service offering seems like a great deal, and when you compare $600 per year to $2,000 up-front, you'll have to think long and hard about whether it's worth it in the long term. Still, it's not hard to connect the changes to the rampant piracy that's plagued Adobe for years: a $49 entry price might lure in a lot of buyers who'd otherwise head straight to a torrent site.
The coolest thing is that I can remain backwardly compatible with my organization’s requirements while embracing the new architectures of apps and devices. Nice work, Apple, Parallels, and our network & security team!
KeyRemap4Macbook would rise to the top thanks to numerous remapping options, customizability, and helpful bonus features.
PaperPort Notes has been updated, by Nuance of Dragon Naturally Speaking speech-to-text fame. The 1.1 update introduces only one new feature, but it's a goodie: speech recognition for note taking. The price? Free.
Karelia has released Sandvox 2.5, a major update of its popular Web site creation software. This new version introduces a drag-and-drop Slide Show object that enables you to cycle through images, and it offers a variety of controls including timing, transitions, and captions. It also provides enhanced sharing capabilities via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and email.
While reading ebooks on your iOS devices is fairly pleasant, thanks to Apple’s iBooks app, the company has yet to release any such program for the Mac. To fill this void, Tidbits Publishing and Stairways Software have collaborated to create Bookle, a DRM-free ePub reader.
Having to have Apple intervene to stop the messages being sent isn’t always an option and, frankly, shouldn’t have to be. Apple shouldn’t be held responsible for compensating users for stolen devices, but it should be held responsible for providing clear documentation about how iMessage issues like this can be resolved, without some mysterious procedure only Apple can perform.
For 20 years, I’ve been using a Mac; for the last five, I’ve used one almost daily to write. So that first morning, when I shambled into my home office and sat down at the desk, it struck me just how different working with an iPad would be.
Dan Moren is trying to go Mac-less for 3 whole days.
Sun, Feb 5, 2012
We've recreated all this in a controlled environment, but that doesn't exactly mean it might come up in a real world setting — the biggest danger here is that someone might swipe your SIM card, slap it in a spare iPhone, put it back in your iPhone after verification, and then monitor all of your conversations without you ever knowing. And since this all takes place on the physical level, your messages can be swiped even if your phone is passcode locked. And what if your phone is stolen? In that case, you can always default to normal panic mode, which is the same on all platforms.
Of course, if someone ever does get their hands on your iPhone, there's a whole host of other nefarious things that they could do than swipe your SIM card — so the issue might not deserve some of the hysteria we've seen across the web, but it's also clearly a risk that Apple needs to address. Until then, it's just one more reason to think twice the next time you consider leaving your iPhone unattended at the bar.
Instead, make it behave just like the “Next Track” button in reverse: always just seek to the previous track. If the previous track is bookmarkable, resume from its last-played position, and if not, play it from the beginning.
All these software update problems really spoils Apple's it-just-works reputation.
Avid Studio may be iMovie’s newest competitor for video editing on the iPad, but it’s not a fair competition. Avid Studio is the clear winner. iMovie doesn’t offer any significant features that Avid does not, but Avid can do much more than iMovie.
Sat, Feb 4, 2012
Looks like Apple's reviewers have more and more things to do.
I, for example, am used to typing the letter B with my left hand. And I can continue to use iPad's split keyboard, even though Apple chose to (visually) place the letter B on the right-hand side.
Apple today updated iBooks [App Store] to version 2.0.1, bringing a fix for an issue that resulted in some iBooks Textbooks not opening in the application.
One of the most important things to stay on top of is a regular system backup. If you’re new to Mac usage—or just never bothered to backup before—you’ll want to get familiar with a built-in Mac program called Time Machine.
Apple has updated its iBooks Author app in order to clarify the language of its End User License Agreement. The changes to the EULA clarify that Apple does indeed intend the packaged product to be sold on the iBookstore only, but also make it clear that it does not lay claim to the content that you use to create the book, nor does it try to limit what you can do with that content elsewhere.
Details are still murky surrounding Security Update 2012-001’s effect on an installation of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, but many people are reporting problems with PowerPC-based applications that rely on Snow Leopard’s Rosetta environment.
Apple released a new version of Security Update 2012-001 labeled v1.1 for 10.6.8 that “removes the ImageIO security fixes” to “address a compatibility issue.” We still recommend waiting before installing this fix unless you installed the 1.0 version.
Fri, Feb 3, 2012
Attempts to invigorate books with video and other digital bells and whistles keep bumping up against this fundamental problem: You can’t really pay much attention to anything else while you’re reading, so in order to play with any of these new features, you have to stop reading. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, then the attentional tug of all these peripheral doodads is vaguely annoying, and if you’re not engaged by the story, they aren’t enough on their own to win you over.
The latest crop of enhanced e-books struggle mightily to overcome this dilemma. The vast majority of such books are kids’ titles, for the simple reason that literature for young children has always included images. The pictures give kids something to look at as the books are being read aloud to them, and this helps cement the relationship between printed and spoken language. Every children’s e-book offers a read-aloud feature in which a recorded voice recites the text. Most offer the ability to tap individual words to hear them spoken aloud. Parents understandably believe that these apps will help their kids learn to read — and that they make tempting, but still educational, alternatives to television.
Apple is unintentionally censoring rap music and other explicit tracks downloaded using its iTunes Match service — by replacing them with the clean versions of the same songs.
Because of the stringent requirements for obtaining the encryption keys, it is highly unlikely that a thief would uncover your files. Instead, it is far more likely that a thief would format the drive and get rid of the system to the quickest and highest bidder. Nevertheless, if you are still concerned, then there are a couple of things you can do to prevent such access to your system and protect your data.
In a statement (PDF) issued this morning, password recovery company Passware has claimed that it can fully decrypt a FileVault-encrypted Mac disk within an hour. Using a live-memory analysis approach via the system's FireWire connection, Passware says its utilities can sample system memory and extract the encryption key for FileVault disks. The process apparently takes no more than 40 minutes, regardless of the length or complexity of the password used.
Shortly after the first Intel-based Macs arrived on the market, Apple released a tool called Boot Camp, which lets Mac owners install and boot their machines natively into Microsoft Windows alongside an existing OS X installation without running two operating systems concurrently--perfect for running performance-intensive applications that don't work in a virtual machine (such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion). Here’s how to set up Boot Camp.
Apple CEO Tim Cook held a town hall meeting last week to celebrate Apple's record quarter, and in addition to giving employees deep discounts on Apple products, we're now hearing that he spent quite a bit of time focusing on Apple's charitable contributions.
Avid, maker of high-end digital video and audio production tools, is bringing its “pro-sumer” video editing software to the iPad.
Full projects and video files can be transferred to and from the Avid Studio app via iCloud and iTunes. Finished movie files can also be shared directly from the Avid app to Facebook and YouTube.
Some folks who installed 10.7.3 via Software Update—using the traditional update approach—discovered upon rebooting that every app they launched would crash, and the ensuing error dialog box sported bizarre overlays: gradient boxes reading “CUI CUI,” along with bright red question marks.
The good news is, there's a fix. The bad news is, it isn't simple to perform. The combo updater—the version that could also update older versions of Lion—seems to resolve the issue for afflicted users. The problem, however, is that getting the installer to run can be a bit of an issue, if your Web browser crashes each time you try to download it.
“This was an extremely rare situation that occurred when a retail employee did not follow the correct service procedure and used their personal SIM to help a customer who did not have a working SIM,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison told The Loop. “This resulted in a temporary situation that has since been resolved by the employee.”
I wish Apple (or someone) will come up with a list of things to do and not to do regarding your SIM card. Looks like a minefield of iMessage hurt out there.
Thu, Feb 2, 2012
After a back and forth Twitter discussion yesterday with David Barnard about how Japanese tax withholding works in the the App Store I figured I’d write a quick post to clarify how it works. I am neither an accountant nor a lawyer, so it is a good idea to contact one of those before making any major decisions on this topic. This is also written entirely from a US perspective. I have no idea how things work around the world.
When Dale Fuller was trying to resuscitate Apple’s PowerBook division in the late 1990s, he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Steve Jobs. Fuller saw all those PC makers selling Windows laptops to big businesses, and as he struggled to inject new life into Apple’s moribund PowerBook division, he wanted to do the same. But Jobs said no.
Fifteen years after he left Apple, Dale Fuller still thinks Macs are good for business. His new company, MokaFive, carries the tagline: “Finally, Apple for the Enterprise.” But the world has changed, and his efforts to push Apple machines onto businesses are no longer at odds with the Jobsian vision — or least, not entirely.
The app is pretty simple; like other mini-players, it shows the current playing track and album art on your desktop. You can play, pause, and skip by clicking on the mini-player, but it also has a number of customizable shortcuts that affect all three players. You also have a few different sizes and looks to choose from, so it blends in nicely with your desktop and the way you listen to music.
When performing tasks like surfing the Web, browsing through images, or even reading text on screen there may be instances where you need to examine or demonstrate a detail that is relatively small or otherwise difficult to see.
The 10.7.3 update would seem to be a much bigger deal for those using Lion Server, to judge from the release notes for Mac OS X Lion Server 10.7.3 Update.
This new version of Lion includes “general operating system fixes” and support for more languages; 10.7.3 also addresses compatibility issues with Windows file sharing and directory services.
Instead of telling you how every last feature now works in version 6.0, let me walk you through things I know everyone will like, elements many will hate, and some particular callouts for network administrators who are already turning amber in distress.
So how practical is it to use recipes on cookery apps? Can a phone or iPad cope with the splatters of the kitchen? And how do you scroll to the next stage of a recipe when your hands are covered in flour or lemon juice or potato peelings?
According to one of the comments, there are apps that uses the light sensor to detect you waving your hands to advance a page. No touching of iPhone or iPad is needed.
In addition to releasing Mac OS X 10.7.3 on Wednesday, Apple also pushed out two other software updates: a security update for Snow Leopard and an update to Apple Remote Desktop.
If you want to add a freeze frame from content in your iMovie library, move the cursor to the point in the clip where you’d like the frame and Control (right) click. From the contextual menu choose Add Still Frame to Project.
It’s now a show as much about doing as having—and one that’s available to everyone, not just those whose companies can foot the bill for a pricey conference package. As such, it has the potential to attract not only those interested in accessorizing and enhancing their Apple gear, but also people who want to dive into areas where Apple technology excels—the arts, media, communication, and productivity.
I've gotten to the point where I dread using the home button on my iPhone because it Makes Me Think. And I get it wrong a significant percentage of the time. This isn't the way it's supposed to be.
That’s the first reason we’re thrilled about the widget-microformat approach iBooks is taking — we can build to the spirit of the functionality, rather than just mimic the functionality. We can parse the intention of a microformat — it’s impossible to parse the intention of a chunk of JavaScript. We’re not forced to build an iBooks clone, which work would hold no attraction for us.
Yes, sometimes I do wish Javascript (in web pages) was never invented.
Wed, Feb 1, 2012
Computers excel at repetitive tasks. So why are you opening the same menus and submenus, looking for the same commands again and again?
David Morgenstern,
ZDNet:
So, what’s the holdup? On the show floor, I happened upon an engineer with long experience in the Mac storage market and he put the blame on fundamental cost issues and growing pains with a new technology.
Welcome, kids, to TIL – Today I Learned. Today’s TIL is “Don’t post your correspondence with AppleCare representatives or Apple will totally tell the government on you.”
Maybe you have a problem getting friends to meet up for cocktails. Or Evite just isn’t driving a turnout for your dinner party. A little incentive might help.
That’s where a free iPhone app called Pozzle comes in. It lets you create events and offer friends a Groupon-style enticement you think up. You can even win the equivalent of Foursquare badges in the process.
When Final Cut Pro X was first released, there were many gripes and grumbles about the application, but none so prominent as the lack of support for projects created in earlier versions of Final Cut Pro. Third-party developer Intelligent Assistance seeks to change that with its new 7toX for Final Cut Pro converter, available on the Mac App Store alongside the newly released Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 update.
Until the cost of the equipment and cables come down, Thunderbolt is absolutely not worth the investment unless you’re routinely transferring hundreds of huge files.
While there may be problems with the photos, an issue with iPhoto’s photo library file could be the culprit. Apple includes a troubleshooting tool to rebuild this library file, which might restore the thumbnail images to their normal state.
Numerous readers have let Ars know that they feel Dixons' stores are messy, staffed with clueless salespeople, and sell low-quality goods. Because of this, some consumers worry that the new hire may be a harbinger of bad things to come for Apple's otherwise highly respected retail stores.
See Also:
Something's Clicked With Apple's Choice Of Browett (Damian Reece, The Telegraph): Browett has done the hard yards at Dixons. His Renewal and Transformation plan hasn't saved the chain from the UK high street's desperate decline but it has rescued the shops from commission-led product sales to become more service led. Consumers have responded and Dixons has taken market share. Browett can bring a much-needed dose of reality to Apple stores during a period of rapid expansion.
Many IT departments are struggling with Apple’s take-it-or-leave-it attitude, based on discussions last week at MacIT, which is Macworld | iWorld’s companion conference for IT professionals.
Not every company that embraces Apple runs into these issues, or suffers the same degree of pain. And other platforms impose their own mandates and constraints. But judging from the comments at MacIT, there is a lot of complexity in applying this apparent simplicity in the enterprise.