Jun 2013 - MyAppleMenu

Losing Precious Hard Drive Space On Your Mac? Here’s How To Fix That.

Geoffrey Goetz, GigaOM

Here’s how you can identify where all of your hard drive space is going, and a few techniques for managing your free space more effectively.

Review: iPhone Microsoft Office Isn’t Worth The Wait

Rich Jaroslovsky, Associated Press

A lot of iOS users have wanted to get Microsoft Office onto their devices in the worst way. And that's just how they've gotten it.

The Elements For iPad Review

Sandra Vogel, Macworld UK

There are plenty of apps that cover the subject of the periodic table, but none have the panache, great design or addictiveness of the Elements. In iPad terms, this one is a real page-turner and well worth its asking price even if you don’t have to mug up for an exam.

I Hate Books

Anna North, Salon

I just won’t be able to separate the memory from the object, and the object, however heavy, will have to stay.

Transfer Files Between Android And OS X With Droid NAS

Eddie Cho, CNET

Droid NAS lets you send files back and forth between your Mac and Android phone. The app makes this possible via Wi-Fi and the built-in Bonjour protocol inside OS X.

Access Menus Via The Keyboard In OS X

Topher Kessler, CNET

While the contextual activation is lacking, in OS X you can activate and access the top menu bar using the keyboard, which will give you access to all of the commands in the contextual menu, and more.

San Francisco Officials Suggest Significant Changes Needed For Apple's New Flagship Store Proposal

Eric Slivka, MacRumors

The city's planners object to the uniform wall of glass along the store's main frontage on Post Street, suggesting that Apple should do more to break up the wall by including colors or textures or vertical design elements. The planners also suggest possibilities for improving the blank Stockton Street frontage, including adding windows or pulling back the storefront to allow for landscaping and perhaps public seating areas.

Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station

Samara Lynn, PC Magazine

Apple aficionados can rest assured that the new Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station adheres to both Apple's design ethos and its mantra of "it just works"—not to mention delivering decent performance, too.

How To Manage Services In OS X

Topher Kessler, CNET

One of the relatively hidden but often invaluable features of OS X is its support for services, which is when one application can provide a function or capability to another, and accept some input such as text, files, or images, and perform a separate task with this data.

All Or Nothing

Marco Arment

But if your app only syncs to your own service and nobody else’s, you’ve put up a massive barrier: for someone who likes feed-reading on multiple platforms, to switch to you, they’ll need to like your respective clients better than their existing choices on every platform they use.

AfterLight Adds New Dusty Textures, Light Leak Textures And Original Frames

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Subway Surfers Says Bonjour To Paris As Its Latest World Tour Stop

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Hear Donald Duck's Loud Quacking As You Wake Up With Disney

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Disney knows that waking up is such a hard thing to do that it has released a new alarm clock app that initially features its loudest character, Donald Duck.

Review: InDesign CC Boosts ePub Features, Font Menus

Jay J. Nelson, Macworld

InDesign CC contains very few new features—from a user’s perspective this is not a major upgrade. However, if your work involves creating ePub books, you’ll want InDesign CC just for the improvements to ePub formatting. Numerous enhancements to the font menus make choosing fonts much more efficient and flexible.

Get Familiar With Dictation In OS X

Topher Kessler, CNET

With a little practice and the right resources, Apple's Dictation service can be an exceptionally useful feature.

Google Earth 7.1 For iOS Now Includes Street View

Yoni Heisler, TUAW

Droplr 3 Brings iPad Support, Native Sharing, And More

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

Droplr has been updated to version 3.0 which brings with it native iPad support, new sharing options, a tweaked interface, and more. For those not familiar with Droplr and what it does, it's a great way to share all kinds of files and store them in one universal place. With support from many third party apps, it's a great option for keeping track of all the files, photos, and videos you want to share across all your networks.

Leisure Suit Larry Now Available For PC, Mac, Launches On Mobile Tomorrow

Andrew Kunesh, Macgasm

This game features all new graphics and an original music score by Austin Wintory. However, the game has kept its original plot: will Larry Laffer find true love? The game takes place in Lost Wages and, of course, features tons of risqué jokes. So if you loved the game in the 80s and 90s, you’re sure to love it now as Leisure Suit Larry has been produced by Al Lowe, the original creator of the series, and Replay Games.

AOL For iPad Now In The App Store

Steven Sande, TUAW

The app was designed from the ground up for the iPad, featuring a tiled UI with stories that can be tapped to dive in deeper. While the app opens with a window onto general featured news, users can select their area of interest to focus only on stories in that area: entertainment, food, health, money, sports, style, tech, travel and world.

Songza Review: The Best Way Yet To Yet To Stream Music On Your iPhone

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

Songza for iPhone is a streaming music service that takes a different approach to discovering music than traditional apps such as Pandora. Songza comes complete with your own personal concierge. Just tell Songza what you're doing or what kind of mood you're in and you'll instantly be served with playlists curated by experts based on what you've specified.

iOS 7 To Remove Major Education Roadblock

Josh Centers, TidBITS

How To Stop Excessive MacBook Fan Noise

Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet

Apple Fail: The Ridiculous Guideline That’s Preventing iCloud From Doing What It Was Born To Do

Autriv

Apple’s reasoning was that they will not allow iOS applications to use iCloud to sync “non-user-generated” data between devices. After some lengthy followup, we learned that while using a “drawing application” to create a new piece of art and then saving that file would be considered “user-generated”, using our app to add a signature and content to a PDF and saving it as a new file is not “user-generated”.

Adobe Dreamweaver CC

Edward Mendelson, PC Magazine

If you're serious about Web design, nothing else comes close, and in the Web design field, it's our obvious and—now that Microsoft has effectively abandoned Expression Web—our only Editors' Choice.

Max Payne 3 Review

Mikel Reparaz, Mac Life

While the Mac version has a few irritating technical problems, Max Payne 3 still shines through as a high-quality shooter with a smart story, intense action, and sky-high production values.

Review: Apple 27-Inch iMac (Late 2012)

Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla, Canadian Reviewer

This is a mature product, one that's been refined for close to eight years of constant improvement and design. The latest iMa simply brings together the best of performance and design in one convenient, striking and powerful package.

Review: Together 3 One Of The Better File And Data Organizers For The Mac

Stuart Gripman, Macworld

Most of us amass disparate pieces of information we need to keep around, be they receipts for online purchases, scans of important documents, or just notes we’ve typed. Together 3 aims to keep all those bits of information in one easy to organize place. Building upon the already excellent Together 2, the new revision adds some compelling capabilities.

iOS 7 As Defense

Marco Arment

The theme is clear: iOS 7’s UI requires some of Apple’s biggest strengths, and efforts to copy it will be hindered by some of Android’s biggest weaknesses.

NoteSuite For iPad And Mac Is Your All-in-one Digital Notebook

Zac Hall, 9 To 5 Mac

NoteSuite features note taking, task management, PDF viewing and annotation, and Office document management all in a single app creating one digital briefcase.

How To Improve Mac Security

Keir Thomas, Macworld UK

Mac OS X is inherently secure, but there are a handful of steps you can take to tighten things even further.

Skype For iPhone & iPad Updated With Free & Unlimited Video Messaging, Improvements To Audio/video Calls

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

Review: Elegant, Flexible Timer Gives Your iPhone Multiple Timers

Dan Frakes, Macworld

This easy-to-use app offers a slew of configurable timers (15 on an iPhone 5 or fifth-generation iPod touch, 12 on older devices) so you always have the right timer for a particular activity—steeping tea, cooking pizza, working out, you name it—at your fingertips.

New Livestream App Lets You Discover, Experience And Broadcast Live Events

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Livestream has recently launched a new live video streaming platform. And to maintain a consistent user experience, it has also released a vastly upgraded app for iOS.

Foodspotting 4.0 Introduces Food Camera To Help You Take Mouthwatering Photos

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

With Food Camera in Foodspotting 4.0, you can now take and compare multiple photos of a dish, or choose multiple photos from the gallery for comparison.

Review: Hotwire Travels To iPad With Intuitive App

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

The iPad app is very simple to use. From the start screen of the app, a user can input either their current location or another location where they want to travel, check-in/check-out dates, a number of rooms and guests, and tap a single button to immediately search for matching hotels.

Tools We Use: The Best Mac Apps For Working Remotely

Lex Friedman, Macworld

Here are the Mac apps and web-based tools I use to make working from home work.

Bye-bye, Google Reader: Alternative RSS Solutions For Mac And iOS Users

Lex Friedman, Macworld

Review: Nine Batteries For Charging Your iPad (And Everything Else)

James Galbraith, Macworld

We recently put nine such devices through their paces and found that while all could help in a pinch, only one could provide a full recharge of a fourth-generation iPad.

Apple Spells Out iTunes Radio Terms For Record Labels

Hannah Karp And Jessica E. Lessin, Wall Street Journal

Ahead of its launch of an online radio service Apple circulated terms to independent record labels last week, many of them more generous to the music companies than what rival Pandora Media currently pays.
During iTunes Radio’s first year, Apple will pay a label 0.13 cents each time a song is played, as well as 15% of net advertising revenue, proportionate to a given label’s share of the music played on iTunes. In the second year, that bumps up to 0.14 cents per listen, plus 19% of ad revenue.

iOS 7: Catch Me If You Can

Allen Pike

The hairlines and flourescent colours are trendy and easy to copy. On the other hand, bringing to life these blurs, animations, and dynamics with HTML and JavaScript isn’t yet possible. You need the latest hardware and the most efficient software to make something feel like this. Further, you need thoughtful APIs so developers can take it to its full potential. In short, the browser vendors have their work cut out for them.

'Where's My Mickey' Brings Disney's Beloved Mouse, All New Adventure

Peter Cohen, iMore

Vue 11.5 Infinite Review

Duncan Evans, Macworld UK

The biggest name in 3D digital nature gets another update.

Can Apple Read Your iMessages? Ars Deciphers “End-to-end” Crypto Claims

Dan Goodin, Ars Technica

But even if you don't store iMessages in iCloud, there are almost certainly other ways Apple could decrypt them if it wanted to. That's because Apple acts as a directory look-up service that iMessage apps can use to find the public key belonging to the person receiving a message. The integrity of the entire system rests on Apple distributing the right public key for the right person. The ease in resetting passwords already suggests Apple has little trouble generating new user credentials. And there doesn't appear to be any warnings or dialogs displayed when the public key of a receiver has changed.

DOMA’s Demise Celebrated By Apple, Other Top Tech Firms

Mike Isaac, All Things D

“Apple strongly supports marriage equality and we consider it a civil rights issue. We applaud the Supreme Court for its decisions today,” an Apple spokesman told AllThingsD in a statement.

Apple Details New iOS 7 Features For Business, Education

Dan Moren, Macworld

For example, App Store license management gives users at both businesses and education institutions the ability to provide apps to users via Apple’s App Store Volume Purchase Program, while letting the organization maintain control over app licenses; that way, the organization can revoke the apps at a later date, or reassign them to other students and employees. Personal Apple IDs can be enrolled in the program, and don’t have to be provided to the business or school.

Perfect Photo Suite 7.5 Review

Duncan Evans, Macworld UK

The all-in-one suite for enhancing photos gets a makeover and some new tools to deal with problem areas.

Mr. Reader Prepares For Life After Google Reader With Newly Released Version 2.0

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Mr. Reader has just received its 2.0 update, which brings support for several Google Reader replacements, namely: BazQux Reader, Feedbin, FeedHQ, Feedly, Feed Wrangler, and Fever.

Apple Expands East In Europe As It Launches Its Online Retail Store In Russia

Jon Russell, The Next Web

Apple has launched its online store in Russia, meaning that Apple fans among the country’s 140 million population can buy iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macbooks and other Apple products and accessories direct from the company online.

Mac Gems: Photo+ Simplifies And Streamlines Photo Viewing

Jackie Dove, Macworld

ArcSoft Photo+ simplifies and streamlines the process of viewing photos. It’s handy when used alongside programs like iPhoto for deciding which photos to keep as favorites or which to use in an albums or cards. And though it doesn’t include complex editing tools, the app makes it easy enough to send your photos to the image editor of your choice.

Fuse Is The App That Creates One Feed To Rule All Your Social Networks

John-Michael Bond, TUAW

The app aggregates your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn feeds into one updating master list.

Dropbox For iOS Gets New Swipe, Share Features

Michael Grothaus, TUAW

The most noticeable new feature of Dropbox 2.3 is the ability to swipe on any file or folder to reveal a host of options for it, including the ability to share, move, delete, or favorite the item. Another great new feature is the ability to create a new folder in your Dropbox right on your iOS device. Then, using the new "move" option, you can place other items inside that folder -- all without accessing Dropbox on your desktop.

Can Apple Read Your iMessages?

Matthew Green, A Few Thoughts On Cryptographic Engineering

All you need to do is run the following simple experiment: First, lose your iPhone. Now change your password using Apple's iForgot service (this requires you to answer some simple security questions or provide a recovery email). Now go to an Apple store and shell out a fortune buying a new phone.
If you can recover your recent iMessages onto a new iPhone -- as I was able to do in an Apple store this afternoon -- then Apple isn't protecting your iMessages with your password or with a device key.

Skitch Updates Again, With A Faster Screen Shot Process

Mike Schramm, TUAW

The Screen Snap feature has been streamlined, which means you can grab pictures from your Mac easier and quicker than ever. As far as I know, that's what most people use Skitch for anyway, so it should be much appreciated.

Firefox's Latest Update Includes A Special Feature For OS X

Mike Schramm, TUAW

In addition to support for 3D gaming, video and voice calls, and file sharing without the need for any extra plugins, the team has added something for OS X users. Whenever you download a file, the progress bar will show up right on the icon in your Dock. That's fun, and it means you can monitor the file's progress, even when the regular meter isn't on your screen.

Look, And Feel

Dan Wineman, Venomous Porridge

Affordances are the baby to skeuomorphism’s bathwater. When they engage our instincts just right, they create an emotional bond, and the unfamiliar becomes inviting. Without them, it’s just pictures under glass. It makes no difference how flat, how deep, how minimal, or how ornate the look-and-feel is if it can’t show us, when we look, how to feel.

Sony Music Unlimited For iOS Gains Offline Mode, High-quality Streaming

Steven Sande, TUAW

DAZ Studio Pro 4.6 Review: Pro Rendering Tool Now At No Cost

Dncan Evans, Macworld UK

There’s no doubt that DAZ Studio is being improved and from an utterly chaotic interface, there’s now a sense of order emerging. This needs to continue while more work needs to go on lighting but for the core users, the package is friendlier than ever and the results possible keep getting better all the time. Even if you don’t render in Studio, it’s worth having to create and pose figures to export to a package with better facilities.

Apple Finally Updates iTunes U, Brings Pull-To-Refresh

Toby Wellington, Macgasm

What Sync Means These Days

Brent Simmons, Inesential.com

“Syncing” now means not just syncing itself but the creation of multiple versions of an app that sync.

MacBook Air Review: A Tiny Computer With Big Battery Life

Joanna Stern, ABC News

The Air has consistently provided the best blend of performance and ergonomics in a truly mobile package. With the new version, there is just another reason to recommend the laptop.

PopChar X 6.3

Agen G. N. Schmitz, TidBITS

Ergonis Software has released PopChar X 6.3, adding a clickable link to the Font Info view that opens the font’s storage location. If you have multiple versions of a font on your system, the font discovery utility will also tell you which version is currently in use.

Review: iBank For iPad A Stellar Full-featured Personal Financial App

Jeffery Battersby, Macworld

iBank for iPad is, in a word, stellar. If you’re still using Quicken on your Mac or, for that matter, iBank for your Mac, there’s no reason not to move to this app. It’s as good as, or better than, anything you’re using online or on your Mac.

How To Share Photo Streams With Friends And Family Not Using An iPhone Or iPad

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

LibreOffice 4.0.4 For Mac

Lee Collins, V3.co.uk

LibreOffice is a comprehensive, professional-quality productivity suite that you can download and install for free.

How To Extend The Battery Life Of Your Macbook

Geoffrey Goetz, GigaOM

The battery life of the brand new MacBook Air is an enviable 12 hours (or more, as some reviewers found). If you can't afford to run out and buy a new one, don't worry: there are still things you can try to help preserve and extend the life of your older MacBook's battery.

Tile, A Convenient Tag That Keeps Track Of Anything

Cody Fink, MacStories

Tile resembles a small white square that’s only a few millimeters thick, making it both pocketable and small enough to be conveniently attached to gadgets or personal belongings. It’s small enough that you can slip it into a wallet’s pocket, or you can simply adhere it to the surface of a MacBook.
Tile will work over Bluetooth 4.0 with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad mini, 3rd or 4th generation iPads, and the 5th generation iPod touch. A Tile app for the iPhone will let you track all of your Tiles within a 50 ft to 150 ft range, displaying a small marker to help you find lost or misplaced items.

Apple Investigating New MacBook Air WiFi Issues, Some Customers Receiving Replacements

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

The 6 Most Annoying iPhone Settings & How To Fix Them

OS X Daily

There are a few default settings on the iPhone that are just plain annoying, but within just a minute or two you can fix all of that with a handful of simple adjustments, and have a much better experience.

Personally, I don't see how any user, as well as everyone around him, can put up with keyboard clicking sounds on a phone.

All The Apps Have Been Written

Entrepreneurial Seduction

What ails you? What apps do you use today that piss you off? What apps are incomplete or missing from your favorite device (mine being my iPad)? Make a list. Pick the most personal ones and load up Xcode. Trust me, there are thousands of apps that haven’t been written yet.

NetNewsWire 4 For Mac Public Beta Debuts, With Sync And iOS Versions To Come

Lex Friedman, Macworld

Marvin Redux: A Smart Ebook Reader Gets Smarter

Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS

Marvin now respects publisher layout specifications for any EPUBs that have them. And, as it should be, adhering to those specifications is a user-controllable option: Marvin’s Format pane now has a prominent Switch to Publisher’s Formatting option that you can enable or disable.

The 2013 MacBook Air Review (13-Inch)

Anand Lal Shimpi, AnandTech

OS X Is Holding Back The 2013 MacBook Air’s 802.11Ac Wi-Fi Speeds

Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

If you're expecting the new MacBook Air and your brand new 802.11ac router to make your wireless speeds skyrocket, you might be stuck waiting on a fix from Apple.

Reason 7 Review: Bring The Power Of A Mixing Desk To Your Mac

Rob Beattie, Macworld UK

Reason is what it is. It still employs cumbersome and occasionally confusing copy protection (what’s the Authorizer, have I got an Ignition key, where’s my copy of the Audiomatic Effects rack? These are all questions that could be answered with slicker, less intrusive copy protection) and people love or hate the interface, but it’s now firmly positioned among the very best and most comprehensive DAWs around.

Watch And Rip Blu-ray Movies On Your Mac

Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

Apple Notifies iTunes Users Of $100M In-app Purchase Settlement Details, $5 Credit To Those Inappropriately Charged Under $30

Scott Buscemi, 9 To 5 Mac

Parents of kids who racked up hundreds of even thousands of dollars in in-app purchases can now begin to seek compensation for their bills.

SessionBand Jazz Lets You Create Like A Master

Ilene Hoffman, TUAW

Review: Apple's New 11-Inch MacBook Air (Mid-2013)

Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider

In 2013, Apple's smallest ultraportable has finally come into its own.

The Circa App: News Exclusively For Mobiles

Frederic Filloux, Monday Note

Suddenly, everybody talks about Circa, a simple application that delivers news in an astutely condensed format. Is there a Circa secret sauce? And can it last?

Stickets Review

Angela LaFollette, 148Apps

Stickets looks incredibly simple at first, but be prepared to sink hours into the three difficulty modes.

App Review: It’s XCOM. On iOS. Isn’t That All You Need To Know?

Jason Schreier, Kotaku

Everything runs perfectly smoothly on my iPad 3 with two exceptions: the lip-syncing is way off, and the framerate sometimes stutters. That said, I believe both of those were technical problems on the console versions of XCOM as well.

Banish Briefly Flashing Adobe Update Window In OS X

Topher Kessler, CNET

Papering Over App Store Problems

Ben Thompson, Stratechery

It’s easy to see this as a big endorsement of the App Store: startup creates a breakthrough product, gets noticed, gets funding, changes the world. And perhaps that’s the path FiftyThree is on.
But there’s another scenario that may be in play, and if I were Apple, this round of funding and FiftyThree’s plans going forward should be a yellow flag that the App Store may not be as strong as it could be.

The Apple Obstacle For Serious Games

Tracey Lien, Polygon

"What I think is going to be increasingly difficult for Apple as its devices become more popular is people will naturally ask, 'Why can't I see this? Why are you making these decisions for me?' So I think Apple is going to have to revisit how they treat things like serious games, and I'm sure we're not the only category of application that they are getting friction from," Rawlings said.
"So really, the ball is in Apple's court to show it recognises the difference between completely inappropriate content and those people who are just trying to do something a bit different. I would like to see them balance it more toward the developers who are taking these issues seriously, and who do want to use games as an experimental form to explore it."

Airmail For Mac Updated With Google Drive Support, Droplr Integration, And More

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

Most notably, Airmail now has Google Drive support and also allows both Droplr and CloudApp support for attachments in addition to Dropbox. You can also now choose to delay sending an email if you'd like.

Apple Board Of Directors Modifies Tim Cook's 2011 Stock Award To Be Based On Performance

Yoni Heisler, TUAW

According to a filing Apple made with the SEC on Friday, Apple's Board of Directors decided to adjust Tim Cook's compensation package as it pertains to his stock options.

First Impressions Of Apple's New MacBook Air

Michael deAgonia, Computerworld

It's only been a few days, but I can already see how this device is perfect for those who value portability over ports.

Java For OS X 2013-004 And Java For Mac OS X 10.6 Update 16

Josh Centers, TidBITS

How To Get 3G Data On A Wi-Fi iPad

Mark Hattersley, Macworld UK

It's actually perfectly possible to share an internet connection with your iPad from your iPhone using a feature called "Personal Hotspot". You get all the benefits of cellular iPad with the cheaper Wi-Fi model.

Mac Gems: Startupizer Takes Control Of Login Items

Dan Miller, Macworld

Gentle Bytes’ $10 Startupizer is one of those utilities that does one very specific thing, but does it well. The thing, in this case, is manage your login items—those apps and other nifty processes that you’ve opted to automatically launch or open every time you log in to your account on your Mac. Startupizer does this well by giving you greater control than OS X over exactly when and how those things launch.

Email Overload? Check Out SaneBox

Dan Miller, Macworld

Today I wanted to give you a brief tour of a tool I’ve been relying on for a while to keep my email inbox under control.

For HBO And Apple, A Long Process To Partner On TV

Greg Sandoval, The Verge

Instagram Video

Federico Viticci, MacStories

The 4.0 update to the iOS app is nicely built and put together. I like how video capture sits right next to the standard camera interface (you can tap a button or swipe to access it), and I also appreciate the options to delete clips (portions of a video) and choose a cover thumbnail — two features that I always wanted to see in Vine.

Toca Builders For iPad Is A Charming, Delightful Game

Dave Caolo, TUAW

Toca Builders is an utterly charming take on the world-builder theme that's become so popular thanks to hits like Minecraft and Eden. The artwork, sound and play mechanics are stellar, and each of the six "characters" whose unique skills you must manipulate to construct your fantasy world, brick by brick, are so well executed you'll wish they were scooting, rolling and building all over your desk.

The Best Time To Buy A Brand New Mac

Johnny Winter, Mactuts+

Is Your New MacBook Air's Wi-Fi Crappy?

Chris Mills, Gizmodo

Wi-Fi will initially connect, but after a minute or two the connection will stop working, and a total reboot is needed to be able to connect again.

Simple To-Do App Task Goes Universal With A Big 2.0 Update

Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

Originally just designed for the iPhone/iPod touch, probably the biggest improvement is that Task is now universal and looks great on the iPad and iPad mini.
To make keeping track of tasks easier, the update also brings iCloud syncing so you’ll always be up to date on what needs to be done, no matter what iOS device you’re using.

What’s Hot About OS X’s Hot Corners

Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

OS X’s Hot Corners come alive after you set a not-so-easy-to-spot preference. This lets you determine what actions will trigger when you move your cursor into a particular corner of your Mac’s display.

Best Buy Is Recalling Thousands Of MacBook Pro Batteries Over Fire Risk

Ashley Feinberg, Gizmodo

Best Buy is recalling 5,100 third-party replacement MacBook Pro batteries after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 13 separate cases in which the batteries caught fire, at least one of which caused serious injury.

Watch The WWDC 2013 Keynote On YouTube

Rene Ritchie, iMore

Hazel 3.1 Update Adds Powerful Date Matching Feature

John-Michael Bond, TUAW

Noodlesoft's Hazel is a file organization tool for Mac OS X that uses a set of customizable rules to automatically move and sort your information. It can be set to automatically move your new music or movies to your Music and Movies folders, or sort files by name, email address, the website they came from, and much more. For people who'd rather keep working than sort files it can be a great time saving tool for keeping your desktop and downloads folder clear.

Rdio For iOS Update Brings “Song Stations”

Federico Viticci, MacStories

Apple TV Update Adds HBO GO, ESPN, And More

Josh Centers, TidBITS

Apple has updated the second and third-generation Apple TVs to version 5.3, adding several new content options: HBO GO, WatchESPN, Sky News, Crunchyroll, and Qello.

Review: Long Live The New MacBook Air

Harry McCracken, Time

These were already excellent ultraportable notebooks; now they’re excellent ultraportable notebooks that push battery life to new, productivity-changing heights.

Mac Gems: OneSafe Gives 1Password Some Password-saving Competition

Marco Tabini, Macworld

There’s much to like about OneSafe. The app is well made, robust, and very easy to use—all excellent attributes for a security app—software that, by necessity, can often feel more annoying than useful. Considering its price and features, OneSafe is a good choice if you’re in the market for a new password manager—and an excellent choice one if you’ve never had one.

Lab Tested: New MacBook Air Offers Best Battery Life Of Any Apple Laptop

James Galbraith, Macworld

How To Extract Audio From Movie Files

Christopher Breen, Macworld

Beach Ball, No More: Chatology Aims To Fix OS X's Messaging Misfortune

Ellis Hamburger, The Verge

iOS Personal Hotspot Passwords Vulnerable To Brute Force Attacks

Nick Arnott, iMore

Researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg have discovered weaknesses in the Personal Hotspot feature in iOS. The weak, and somewhat predictable password generation -- used in all current versions of iOS up through iOS 6 -- means people are susceptible to brute force attacks when using the personal hotspot feature on their iPhone or cellular iPad.

11 Simple Tips For Maximizing iPad Battery Life That Work

OS X Daily

Tone the brightness down manually and do it often, because the iPad can be very aggressive with readjusting the screen brightness level, and the higher the brightness the faster the battery drains.

Wrong

Neven Mrgan’s Tumbl

Allow me to declare the following: Jony Ive’s icon grid in iOS 7 is wrong.

Lab Tested: Ultimate MacBook Air 2013 Holds Its Own Against The MacBook Pro

James Galbraith, Macworld

Apple Updates Siri's Response To Possible Suicide Risks

Joe White, AppAdvice

Potential threats now result in the personal assistant offering to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for its user, in a change that is appearing on both iOS 6- and iOS 7-powered iDevices.

Adobe Releases 15 All New Creative Cloud Apps

Michael Grothaus, TUAW

Adobe has announced the release of 15 all new Creative Cloud apps. In addition to feature updates to Adobe's apps, they all now feature Behance integration. Behance is the world's largest social network aimed at allowing designers to share their work.

Also:

• Illustrator CC Review (Ben O'Brien, Macworld UK)

• Dreamweaver CC Review (Craig Grannell, Digital Arts)

Review: TextExpander Touch 2 A Typing Timesaver For iOS

Brian Beam, Macworld

With this latest update, I’m even happier that I can now use my more advanced snippets on my iOS devices. Here’s hoping that iOS developers will quickly hop onto the TextExpander 2 bandwagon.

Buying The New MacBook Air

Virtual Pants

Most salespeople would have sold the more expensive computer, but this guy took the time to explain why I didn’t really need it, and convinced me to spend much less. Apple recognizes what few other retailers do: customer satisfaction starts even before a product is purchased, and it is customer satisfaction that makes companies great.

Skype Launches Video Messaging

Federico Viticci, MacStories

Skype videos can be up to three minutes long, and they can be recorded directly from Skype’s apps.

Real

Apple Outsider

It’s the realism I want to talk about. John Gruber calls it “A real thing, not pixels rendered on glass.” Rene Ritchie says “iOS 7 is alive.” This is the sort of update I was hoping iOS 5 would be nearly two years ago.

Apple’s 2013 13-Inch MacBook Air Sweetens The Deal For One Of The Best Available Computers

Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

For those who value the portability, flexibility and economy of the Air above all, the 2013 edition definitely hits all the right notes.

MacBook Air Review (13-Inch, 2013)

Nilay Patel, The Verge

The new Air is the first of a dramatic new breed of computer — it lets you set up a mobile office for a full day without concern for power.

Review: Kingdom Rush Frontiers Towers Above Its Predecessor In Every Way

Chris Holt, Macworld

Apple’s Commitment To Customer Privacy

Apple

Like several other companies, we have asked the U.S. government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data, and we are providing it here in the interest of transparency.
From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.

Also:

• Apple claims it can't decrypt FaceTime and iMessage data, details extent of government requests (Aaron Souppouris, The Verge)

The New Mac Pro: What We Wanted, What We're Actually Getting

Dan Frakes, Macworld

Apple's Bid To Crack The Center Stack

David Sedgwick, Automotive News

Reluctant to surrender control of their center stacks, and worried about safety-conscious federal regulators, automakers will perform a balancing act.

The Atlantic Weekly Magazine Launches For iOS

Joe White, AppAdvice

Can A Tablet Replace Your Laptop? We Used An iPad For Three Months To Find out

Matt Smith, Digital Trends

A tablet’s simply better for consumption, while also good enough for most productivity.

Wireless Emergency Alerts Coming To iPhone 5, 4S

AT&T Consumer Blog

Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (Mid 2013)

Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine

The fact that the system gives up very little if any day-to-day performance is astounding. This isn't a low-powered slate tablet that gives up computing performance in exchange for battery life. With the latest MacBook Air 13-inch, you have a fully functional ultraportable laptop with extremely long battery life, as it should be. If you need to do real work on a plane, train, or out in the field, get a MacBook Air 13-inch. It's our new Editors' Choice winner for mainstream ultraportable laptops.

Insignificant Bug Keeps Encrypted Disks Unlocked After Ejecting In OS X

Topher Kessler, CNET

While not the expected behavior, this bug is technically not a breach in security.

The New TweetDeck For OS X

Cody Fink, MacStories

It’s not a native app, there’s a bug or two, but I can’t help but think there is some clear improvement over the last update.

First Look: Hands-on With Office Mobile For iPhone

Jeffery Battersby, Macworld

Yes, it’s Microsoft Office on your iPhone, but it’s Office in air quotes—which is to say that, while you can create and edit Office documents on your phone, there isn’t much here in the way of added value and, in fact, may only introduce frustration to your daily grind. Also, the fact that it’s an iPhone-only app seems like an unnecessary limitation on Microsoft’s part. While it’s possible to use the Web-based version of Office on your iPad, a native iPad app seems like a more obvious solution.

State Of Web Inspector

Timothy Hatcher, Surfin' Safari

Last year, Safari 6 included a reimagination of Web Inspector that aligned the design and user experience with Xcode 4. This design, while familiar to Mac and iOS developers, alienated some web developers familiar with the old Web Inspector. Over the last year we have listened and have taken all your feedback to heart.
We are happy to announce the next version of Web Inspector, released as a developer preview this week at WWDC 2013. If you regularly use WebKit nightly builds, this Web Inspector will be familiar to you, since we have been bundling it in the nightly as an early developer preview for a while now. Even though the new Web Inspector has been in the WebKit nightly build, its source has not been part of the WebKit open source project — until now.

A Familiar MacBook Air, But With An All-day Battery

Dan Ackerman, CNET

Even if our 14-hour video playback battery life run is cut by a third or more in rigorous real-world conditions, you've still got a true all-day, always-on computer. Couple that with OS X and the best-in-show touch pad and gestures, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a single competitor that comes close to the ubiquitous usefulness of this system.

Handbrake, The Best Video Conversion Tool You've Never Used

Matt Asay, ReadWrite

Dealing With iTunes Font Sizes, File Types, And Missing Files

Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

Apple's Security Strategy: Make It Invisible

Rich Mogull, Macworld

Despite a rocky start, Apple now applies its impressive design sensibilities to security, playing the game its own way and in the process changing our expectations for security and technology.

Apple MacBook Air 13In (Mid-2013) Review: True Laptop Longevity Now available

Andrew Harrison, PC Advisor

The Apple MacBook Air (Mid-2013) really does provide all-day battery life. For that alone, it fully deserves to be top of the list for anyone looking for a workaday laptop, one that can reduce one of modern life’s stresses: that of wondering whether your computer will still be functional just when you need it. It’s just as fast as the previous model, more so actually in real-world use, and seals the deal with future-proofed faster Wi-Fi, more storage and a lower price than last year’s model. It’s an outstanding ultraportable among a mass of me-too ultrabook mediocrity.

Review: Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock

Bob Dormon, The Register

Hands On With Microsoft Office For iPhone, As The Productivity Suite Finally Comes To Apple’s Smartphone

Alex Wilhelm, The Next Web

Office for iPhone, what Microsoft calls “Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers,” will be available only to current, paying Office 365 customers. If you purchased the most recent Office suite for desktop as a standalone product, you will not have access to the iPhone version of the software.

Http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/06/13/apple-gm-ford-sync-microsoft-chrysler-toyota-honda/2419925/

Chris Woodyard, USA Today

It's easy to see why automakers are dividing up. Deciding whether Apple helps or hurts depends on "what the automaker is trying to accomplish," says Thilo Koslowski, vice president of automotive for consulting group Gartner. "To be a leader or a follower."

The Smaller, Subtler Changes In iOS 7

Alex Layne, GigaOM

802.11Ac Promises Better Coverage, But Won’t Hit Advertised Speeds

Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS

Why iOS 7 Doesn’t Have Shadows

Peter Alguacil, Medium

One could argue that by making the user interface behave as if it is backlit, Apple is treating iOS 7 as a more integral part of the device itself. It’s not a mock front-lit interface with shadows and textures, it is a representation of the actual physical screen.

DevJuice: The Easy Way To Set Up An OS X Mavericks Test Environment

Steven Sande, TUAW

How To Make A Bootable OS X Mavericks USB Install Drive

OS X Daily

Apple Posts New Video Titled 'Making A Difference. One App At A Time.'

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

iOS 7

Matt Gemmell

iOS 7 is an interface’s coming of age, acknowledging that its users – and our industry – are now all grown up.

Lab Tested: Haswell MacBook Air Benefits From Faster Graphics, Flash Storage

James Galbraith, Macworld

Haswell: What Intel’s New Processor Promises For Mac Users

Roman Loyola, Macworld

The emphasis with Haswell’s microarchitecture is power management and graphics speed.

Mac Gems: Mailplane 3 Melds Gmail And Your Mac

Nathan Alderman, Macworld

Apple Releases Mavericks Core Technology Overview

Kelly Hodgkins, TUAW

For those hardware and software geeks in the audience, Apple has released a document detailing the core technology that drives Mavericks power optimizations and its improved performance.

Something Amiss In IOS-Land?

Dave Winer, Scripting News

I can't imagine that developers relish the choices that Apple is giving them.

iOS 7 Warns About Non-certified Lightning Cables, Though Doesn’t Block Them

Ben Lovejoy, 9 To 5 Mac

Despite the message, non-certified cables do function properly.

New MacBook Air 13-Inch Teardown Reveals Larger Battery And Smaller SSD

Richard Devine, iMore

Fertile Ground

Marco Arment

iOS 7 is different. It isn’t just a new skin: it introduces entirely new navigational and structural standards far beyond the extent of any previous UI changes. Existing apps can support iOS 7 fairly easily without looking broken, but they’ll look and feel ancient.

Should You Buy A New MacBook Air Now, Or Wait For A New MacBook Pro Later?

Peter Cohen, iMore

Obviously if you need the horsepower and the feature set of an MBP today, you should get one. But your patience will be rewarded in due time - Apple's migration of the MacBook Pro to Haswell processors is a virtual certainty. The question is when.
And if you're in the market for a lightweight laptop, step up and buy one of the new MacBook Airs - with better power efficiency and better graphics performance, there's never been a better time to buy.

How To Share The iTunes Library On Your Mac Or PC On Any WiFi Network

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

If you use iTunes to manage your music collection, you can easily share it across any WiFi network where friends and family can stream and listen to your music. It's a great way to discover new music that requires no cables or transferring of files.

Design, And Insecurity, Is Back At Apple

Ryan Block, TechCrunch

In a world of companies willing to say yes to just about anything in the name of being innovative Apple still says no.

Andy Ihnatko Deconstructs The Apple Ethos After Its Annual Conference

Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Grid

The company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference saw a lot of refinement, if not a lot of innovation.

Apple Confirms New Version Of Final Cut Pro X Coming Alongside New Mac Pro Later This Year

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

Summer Vacation Tech Tips

John Moltz's Very Nice Web Site

Of course your kids should get outside. They should spend most of their time outside, depending on the bear threat in your area. Do all the standard fun summer stuff with them. Take them to the wave pool, the zoo, the mysterious island where they play The Most Dangerous Game. But when you’ve done all that and you realize it’s only day four of summer and you’re all out of ideas, here’s a few I’ve found come in handy and have used in the past when my son is home sick.

Tim Cook's WWDC

Rene Ritchie, iMore

Where Jobs had drawn a grid and filled it with products, with the intersections of portable and desktop, consumer and professional, Cook filled his grid with people, with the unification of hardware and software design, of iOS and OS X software, of all internet services, and with core technologies.

Schiller’s Zinger: Apple’s Rallying Cry

Ken Segall's Observatory

The company that seemed a bit too self-conscious in the presentation department after Steve’s passing seems to be settling into a good place. The new cast is talented and works well together. They inspire confidence in the future, which is something the Apple crowd can use more of these days.

Also:

• Apple's events move on, and so does the company (Jason Snell, Macworld): After an appropriate period of mourning, this is the new face of Apple.

Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2013) Review

Mark Spoonauer, Laptop Magazine

Cord-cutting With An Apple TV

Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle

AirPlay is what makes the Apple TV the best choice for my cord-cutting household.

How OS X “Mavericks” Works Its Power-saving Magic

Nate Anderson, Ars Technica

The overarching goal of the power efficiency changes is of course longer battery life, but Apple claims that it can acheive this without harming "and in some cases even improving" overall system responsiveness. Three main technologies make this possible.

Generosity Of Perspective

Frank Chimero

Luckily, things like icons, colors, and typography are easier to iterate than userflows, information architecture, and features. They’re also the elements that take more time than expected to craft, so I can see all of these refinements being the most likely to be cut from a tight deadline, and the first up to be revisited by the design team before the official release, or quickly thereafter. If that awful Safari icon bugs you, imagine how the designers at Apple must feel.

Apple iOS 7 Supports Wi-Fi Hotspot 2.0

John-Michael Bond, TUAW

Hotspot 2.0 is form of public access Wi-Fi that automatically connects your phone to a Wi-Fi network when you enter its range.

Rolling On

512 Pixels

However, once we can all zoom out a little bit, I think iOS 7 will be seen as an evolutionary change. A big one, perhaps, but one that shouldn’t be seen as all that surprising.

iOS 7: Thoughts And Questions

Federico Viticci, MacStories

To paraphrase yesterday’s demo, we should look beyond the icons. iOS 7 will be defined by its overall design language, user features, and developer technologies.

SF, NY Officials Wait To Judge Apple 'Kill switch'

Terry Collins, Associated Press

Meet The New Apple, Same As The Old Apple

Dan Moren, Macworld

Watching Apple through the lens of public perception, it would be easy to buy into the idea that the company has been under siege of late. But even if that were the case, it’s clear that Apple isn’t buying the hype. Each of the executives who took to the stage on Monday conveyed, to a one, both excitement and confidence about the future direction of Apple—and they brought the announcements to prove it.

PSA: OS X 10.9 Appears To Run On Any Mac That Can Run OS X 10.8

Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

OS X Mavericks Will Tell You Which Apps Are Using Significant Power

Kaylie Moise, Macgasm

With the new battery menu, which you’ll find at the top right of your screen, you’ll see a new section in the middle that tells you which apps are using up your power. This will show up whether you’re plugged in or not. If you’re running power-sucking apps, you’ll see the words “Apps Using Significant Power” followed by a list of the apps. If none of your apps are taking up too much power, you’ll see this: “All Apps Using Nominal Power.”

Apps Have To Ask For Permission To Access The Microphone In iOS 7

Ben Lovejoy, 9 To 5 Mac

In a further boost to privacy, it appears that apps will now have to request permission in order to access the microphone. This would prevent a rogue app recording you and sending the data off somewhere without your knowledge.

The iPhone Finally Gets Call-blocking In iOS 7

Ben Lovejoy, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple To Relocate, Expand Last "Mini" Apple Store

Michael Grothaus, TUAW

The mini-store in question is the Oakridge Apple Store in San Jose, California. The store will move from its current location to a new spot just across from the food court in the mall. The revamped store will be 15 times larger than its current size. Once the move is complete, it will mark the end of the mini-stores, the first of which were opened in 2004.

Apple To Boost Twitter #Music With Trending iTunes Radio Station

Matt Brian, The Verge

Passbook For iOS 7 To Support Scanning QR Codes

Richard Devine, iMore

Apple Design Awards Announced, Letterpress And Yahoo! Weather Among The Winners

Richard Devine, iMore

Apple's annual Design Award winners for iOS and Mac have been announced at WWDC 2013, and among those recognised this year are some favorites of our own. Loren Brichter's atebits has won the award for the fantastic Letterpress, and the simply gorgeous Yahoo! Weather is also on the list.

Congrats to every one of the winners.

OS X Mavericks Switches To SMB2 Networking

Topher Kessler, CNET

Apple's inclusion of Windows networking options in OS X has been a great addition to the operating system, but until now it has taken second place to Apple's own AFP protocol. In OS X Mavericks, however, Apple will be including the newer SMB2 protocol as the default protocol for sharing files, so even if you are connecting two Macs running OS X Maverick or later, unless you specify to use AFP, they will use SMB2.

The Design Of iOS 7: Simply Confusing

Joshua Topolsky, The Verge

The icons are striking to see, and the first sign that there are points of confusion and even missteps in Apple's new approach.

The look of the icons can be easily changed between now and the actual release of iOS, I think.

App Store Will Update Apps Automatically In iOS 7

Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge

Less tech-savvy users who aren't familiar with the App Store may let apps sit around out of date, but starting in iOS 7, that should no longer be a problem.

27 New iOS 7 Features Apple Didn't Talk About

Serenity Caldwell, Macworld

New Maps Icon Centers Around New Spaceship Campus Location

Scott Buscemi, 9 To 5 Mac

iOS 7 To Include Security Feature Dubbed 'Activation Lock'

Yoni Heisler, TUAW

What's more, even if a thief attempts to wipe a device clean, he won't be able to reactivate the phone without entering in a user's credentials.

Apple Airs New Commercial On Company Values

Andrew Kunesh, Macgasm

New Hardware Standards And Game Controller APIs Pop Up At WWDC 2013

Jamie Young, AppAdvice

iOS 7 Went Too Far In The Other Direction

Mike Rundle, Medium

If there is a gamut of interface design execution and symbolism where rich, detailed, skeuomorphic design is on the left and flat, robotic, sparse design is on the right, iOS 7 is solidly planted on the right. It’s the anti-iOS 6 and everything before it. Hell, it’s anti-Apple and everything before it.

A Closer Look At The New Mac Pro

Peter Cohen, iMore

This is liable to disappoint some Mac Pro enthusiasts who enjoy the internal expandability of today's model, but Apple says all expandability on this new machine is external. That's because in addition to four USB 3.0 ports, the new Mac Pro has a total of six Thunderbolt 2 ports.

‘This Is Our Signature’: iOS 7

John Gruber, Daring Fireball

The design of iOS 7 is based on rules. There’s an intricate system at work, a Z-axis of layers organized in a logical way. There is a profound reduction in the use of faux-3D visual effects and textures, but iOS 7 is anything but flat. It is three dimensional not just visually but logically.

Apple Literally Stole My Thunder

Alaric, Medium

I’m not naive enough to claim Apple actually took my idea. I’m sure they just happened to be working on a similar concept. I’m just claiming that may have unfairly biased the review process, not wishing for someone to debut a key new aspect of their beloved OS before they were able. Not wanting someone to steal their thunder.
According to Apple, no one wanted such a flashy weather app. They were so certain of this, they built one themselves.

Comparing Apple's Old And New MacBook Air Models

Peter Cohen, iMore

Apple took the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach while incorporating solid enhancements that promise better performance and better power management - always welcome news for road warriors who depend on the nimble MacBook Air to get their work done.

iOS 7: Instead Of Flatness, We Got Depth

Kelsey Campbell-dollaghan, Gizmodo

This iOS 7 we met today was full of what Jony Ive called “new types of depth.” Alongside a poppy, neon-and-pastel color scheme, the icons, apps, and homescreen of iOS 7 are full of layering and dimensionality. There are also entirely new types of animation: from a screen that uses the accelerometer to adjust in parallax, to beautiful new animated weather icons.

Apps Can Now Be Transferred From One Developer To Another

Zaheer.com

Apple's Cook: iOS 7 Is The 'Biggest Change To iOS' Since iPhone's Arrival

Lex Friedman, Macworld

Apple on Monday took the wraps off iOS 7, revealing a dramatic new design that sheds six-year-old interface elements, and replaces them with a cleaner, more modern aesthetic. From top to bottom, the OS that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has been renovated for both looks and usability.

Also:

• Surprise: Apple’s Siri adopts Microsoft Bing for web search (Todd Bishop, Geekwire)

• All the New iOS Features Your Old iPhone Won't Get (Peter Ha, Gizmodo)

Apple Gets Into The Stream Of Things With iTunes Radio

Christopher Breen, Macworld

Rather than an on-demand service such as Spotify, iTunes Radio has more in common with Pandora, where you listen to stations inspired by a particular track, artist, or genre.
There will be two models for the service—ad-supported and free or ad-free if you have an iTunes Match subscription, which costs $25 per year. The service will launch first in the U.S. in the fall with other countries to follow.

iWork For iCloud Highlights Productivity Suite Update

Marco Tabini, Macworld

As with the current version of iWork and the now-shuttered iWork.com, this new service will let you view documents that the native version of the productivity suite have synced to iCloud. For the first time, however, you will also be able to create new documents, edit existing ones—even those created by competing apps, such as Microsoft Word—and continue to synchronize them to the cloud, thus making them available for access on your devices.

New MacBook Airs Offer All-day Battery Life, Better Graphics Performance

Jackie Dove, Macworld

The 11-inch Air improves from 5 hours of battery life to 9 hours, with standby for up to 30 days. The 13-inch Air goes from 7 hours to 12 hours of battery life. Wakeup time is 1 second. What does that mean for everyday life? According to Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing guru, you get up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback and you can watch the entire trilogy of Lord of the Rings.

The Wait Is Nearly Over: Apple Unveils New Mac Pro

Roman Loyola, Macworld

Apple’s new desktop workstation features a sleek, cylindrical design that’s a stark contrast to the mammoth, roomy aluminum tower initially introduced with the Power PC-based Power Mac G5 in 2003, and revised with the release of the Intel-based Mac Pro in 2006. Apple didn’t announce a formal ship date, stating that the new Mac Pro will ship later this year, nor did it talk about pricing or specific models. It will be made in the United States.

OS X Catches A Wave, As Apple Previews OS X Mavericks

Serenity Caldwell, Macworld

Federighi previewed three new features present in Mavericks: Finder Tabs, Tags, and Multiple Displays. In addition, Mavericks includes a slew of under-the-hood improvements; updates to Safari, Calendar, and Notifications; new password syncing options via iCloud; and brings Maps and iBooks to the Mac.

Also:

• Safari gets energy-efficient update in Mavericks (Leah Yamshon): OS X Mavericks introduces a new power-saving feature called App Nap, which decides where your Mac should direct its power supply. When Safari isn’t your primary program, App Nap will essentially put it to sleep, greatly reduces your Mac’s power usage.

• iBooks to come to the Mac (Serenity Caldwell, Macworld): iBooks for Mac includes all the features users have come to expect in the iBooks app on iOS, including full access to the iBookstore and your iCloud-synced user library. The bookshelves of iOS 6 are gone, leaving simple rows of cover titles in your library.

How To Encrypt Your Email

Christopher Breen, Macworld

Apple To Stream Live Video Of WWDC 2013 Keynote To Apple TV

Eric Slivka, MacRumors

With just hours to go before today's keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off, the company has brought back its "Apple Events" channel on the Apple TV, indicating that it will be streaming live video of the event.

OS X has long let you encrypt external drives, and even your Mac HD. Mountain Lion has actually made it even easier to encrypt external disks with just a few clicks. It's sometimes a good idea to do so on items such as backup disks. This way, if they ever fall into the wrong hands, no one should be able to access your data without the password you have set to decrypt it.

Slow Feeds Extends Its RSS Aggregator Support Ahead Of Google Reader Shutdown

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

In addition to extending the app’s feed aggregator support, the latest update to Slow Feeds extends the app’s sharing and third-party browser support on iOS 6.

Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Moves In Lets You Build Your Very Own Bikini Bottom

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Marvel Pinball

Mike Rose, Pocket Gamer

If you're a pinball fanatic, this is well worth a swing.

REVIEW: Sorcery! (iPad)

Fox43

Finally, Three Ways To Automate iOS App Testing

Brad Heintz, James Paolantonio And Aaron Schildkrout, Fast Company

Our experience building HowAboutWe Dating for iPhone and iPad has shown that TDD and CI on iOS are well worth the effort. The tools are young but rapidly maturing. It is possible! Our move to a genuine culture of TDD on iOS has transformed the quality of our software and how quickly and predictably we can deliver it. So we're believers that any organization not already employing these practices should dive in and measure the results for themselves.

WaPost Backtracks On Claim Tech Companies ‘Participate Knowingly’ In PRISM Data Collection

Jon Russell, The Next Web

The phrase ”participate knowingly” has been removed from the article, a new passage suggests the firms were unaware of PRISM.
This new text, added to the denials from Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and others, suggests that the NSA did not have direct access to the data systems. That initial suggestion was an assumption that the Post made based on the contents of the leaked slides.

Also:

• Dissecting Big Tech's Denial of Involvement in NSA's PRISM Spying Program (Joanna Stern, ABC News)

Since I’m always interested in hearing what other teams use to work together and ship their software, I figure I should list what we use to work together on Vesper.

Siri "Eyes Free" Mode Coming To 2014 BMWs

Peter Cohen, iMore

BMW announced this week that 2014 models equipped with its iDrive 4.2 interface will include Siri Hands Free mode, making it possible to pair an iPhone with your car and use Siri without ever taking your hands off the wheel.

iOS 7 Confirmed: New Banners Up At Moscone West

Federico Viticci, MacStories

Using a very simple layout compared to last year, Apple is simply saying “7″ on the banner that’s being put up at Moscone West right now.

Comedy Central's Stand-Up App Puts Comics On Your iPhone

Yoni Heisler, TUAW

7 Reasons To Switch To Firefox, The Browser With A Conscience

Nicole Nguyen, ReadWrite

We downloaded the latest build of Firefox for desktop and mobile, talked to some of the Mozilla crew about what's next for the red panda of the Internet, and thought: maybe it's time to switch browsers. Take a look at seven reasons to make the move to Mozilla Firefox, and let us know: will you switch?

Mail Pilot for iOS offers one solution to the email organization mess by letting you choose when to deal with your new messages, rather than where to put them.

Marvel Fans And Pinball Players, Assemble! Marvel Pinball Out Now On iOS

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Little Chomp iPhone Game Review: Addictive Climbing Game

Tucker Cummings, Tapscape

It manages to provide a balance of speed, strategy, and fun that not many simple games can master.

Review: Moment Is A Huge Improvement On Facebook Sharing For OS X

Mike Beasley, 9 To 5 Mac

Moment is designed to sit in your menu bar and stay out of your way until you need it. When you do need it, you will find a range of features that makes it one of the best options for posting to Facebook from your Mac. You can drag photos, text, or videos to the menu bar icon and immediately attach them to a new post.

Amazon Demanded Same Terms From Publishers For Which Apple Is Now On Trial

John Paczkowski, All Things D

Apple Not Throttling iPhone or iPad Cellular Throughput via Carrier Bundles

Brian Klug, AnandTech

The reality is that this is simply not the case. Apple doesn't limit cellular data throughput on its devices — there's both no incentive for them to do so, and any traffic management is better off done in the packet core of the respective network operator rather than on devices.

What To Do When An iPhone Won’t Turn On

OS X Daily

Apple, Google, And Facebook Deny Providing Direct Access To PRISM Surveillance Program

Chris Welch, The Verge

Apple is among the nine technology companies attached to PRISM, the just-leaked government program that reportedly allows the NSA and FBI to access sensitive data of US citizens in total secrecy. There's just one problem: Apple says it's never heard of PRISM. That's according to identical statements provided to both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal.
The Verge has received the same statement, with Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling flatly adding, "We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order." Clearly the iPhone maker is attempting to get out in front of today's controversy amid outcries of privacy invasion brought on by PRISM and other, ongoing secret initiatives.

Vesper: An Accessibility Audit

Doug Russell, Taking Notes

I’m going to describe my process for auditing the app, providing feedback and how we implemented the basic accessibility features of the app.

The Space Between The Notes

Jason Santa Maria

The MacBook's Most Underrated Feature

Kyle Wagner, Gizmodo

Seven years after Apple made the best laptop charger on the planet, no one else has made anything even half as good. Because they can't.

Hulu Plus Update Brings New Experience To The iPad

Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

Vesper Review: Collect Your Thoughts

Federico Viticci, MacStories

When I first tried Vesper a couple of weeks ago, I was skeptical in regard to the app’s reason of existence. But now, in spite of its 1.0 nature and many missing features, I see one – and, more importantly, I believe Vesper gets several things right.

Have you ever noticed how some apps will have information pulled from your iOS Contacts list, like peoples names, numbers, and contact information? Or, contrarily, how some apps should have access to your address book, but don’t, and are then feature limited? Though this happens by choice, it’s fairly easy to overlook these settings during initial setup of many apps, or to forget which of the “Allow” or “Don’t Allow” setting you chose. Fortunately, this is very easy to see, and change in either direction.

Obama Faces High Stakes Dilemma In Apple-Samsung Battle

Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times

“These are two electronics giants; he’s going to offend someone whichever way he goes,” says Susan Kohn Ross, a partner specialising in trade disputes and intellectual property at law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.

Apple Says Differences In Publisher Deals Belie E-Book Conspiracy Charges

John Paczkowski, All Things D

Simon & Schuster, for example, wanted flexibility to do one-off, limited-time promotions. There were book clubs to take into account as well. Other publishers demanded their own specific considerations, so that by the time the deals were signed, each MFN contained numerous exceptions that were not present in the others. And according to the Tuesday testimony of Apple Associate General Counsel Kevin Saul, negotiating these exceptions wasn’t exactly a simple matter. “[It was] particularly difficult,” he said on the witness stand. “Twelve hours a day negotiations, emails, exchanging drafts. It was a challenging, tiring and difficult couple of weeks.”

Also:

• Focus, criticism shifts to Amazon in Apple e-book trial (Shara Tibken, CNET)

• It was Apple's way or the highway, e-book execs say (Shara Tibken, CNET)

A Fitbit For Fido: Whistle Will Help Track Your Dog’s Activity

John Paczkowski, All Things D

Ever wish you could talk to your dog? Understand what’s bothering him? How much of the time she paces around when you’re not home?

Process Your Inbox In A New Way With Dispatch: Action-Based Email

Christine Chan, AppAdvice

So what does this button do? This button has Dispatch talk to 14 different apps (hopefully more in the future) for quarantining messages to become reminders, todos, notes, and whatever else you may need.

Kindle For iOS Update Brings New Line Spacing Options

Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

The Stilly-est Camera App Ever

Steven Sande, TUAW

The app is simple, making an animated GIF of whatever motion happens to flash in front of your iPhone camera when you push the large red and yellow shutter button.

Apple Releases Minor Updates For iTunes, Aperture

Lex Friedman, Macworld

The iTunes update addresses a bug that plagued many: Constantly getting prompted to enter your iTunes password. It also fixes a crashing bug related to switching between wireless and wired syncing.

Analog For Mac Receives Analog Camera Filters, On Sale Through Sunday

Zac Hall, 9 To 5 Mac

Camera Noir From Pacific Helm Gives You Your Gotham Back, With Style!

Rene Ritchie, iMore

It does one thing, but in typical PH fashion, does it insanely well: Takes black and white photos in the style of the gone-but-not-forgotten Gotham filter from the early Instagram.

Eight Easy Ways To Move Between Folders In OS X

Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

You probably spend a lot of time moving in and out of folders in the Finder as you navigate among your files and apps. Getting into a folder is easy: Just double-click it. But what about getting out of that folder and returning to where you were? You may be surprised to find that you have many ways to move up a folder in the Finder. Here are eight of them.

eBooks, Footnotes, And Skeuomorphs, Oh My!

Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS

Like many other skeuomorphs, traditional footnotes in a digital text may not be the best UI solution to the problem of annotation, but that does not mean they have no worth. Stylistic messages are messages still, and they can have something worthwhile to convey. That, in itself, is worth considering in a time when many designers and critics have declared total war on skeuomorphism.

Snyder described the difficult negotiations that Apple and the publishers went through to come to agreement. The discussions were “knock-down, drag-out,” and “protracted,” and he argued that the government had oversimplified them to paint a picture of the company and publishers acting together, Snyder said.

Mac OS X 10.8.4 Fixes iMessage Ordering Issue, More

Dan Moren, Macworld

Among the changes in the latest Mountain Lion update are improved compatibility with certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks, better Microsoft Exchange compatibility in Calendar, a fix for issues with FaceTime calls to non-U.S. phone numbers, and—to cries of joy heard round the world—a solution for an issue where iMessages might show up up out of order in Messages.

What To Do When Netflix, Google, And Other Browser Plug-ins Won't Update

Lex Friedman, Macworld

Review: TopXNotes Brings Top-notch Note Taking To Your Mac

Marco Tabini, Macworld

TopXNotes creates a centralized location where you can store and categorize all your notes.

New Gmail For iPhone Adds Auto-categorization

John-Michael Bond, TUAW

Apple Starts Decorating Moscone West With WWDC 2013 Banners

Federico Viticci, MacStories

This year, Apple is using the “Where a whole new world is developing” tagline for the initial set of banners.

Apple Will Appeal ITC Import Ban On Older iPhones, iPads

John Paczkowski, All Things D

An unexpected victory for Samsung in its patent battle with Apple. The United States International Trade Commission on Tuesday granted the South Korean company’s request for import ban on older iPhones and iPads which it found to infringe one of Samsung’s standards-essential patents.
The ITC’s order affects only AT&T iPhones prior to the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 and earlier, so it’s not a devastating blow to Apple. Still, a ban is a ban, and this one can only be overturned by the White House or the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Mac Gems: Keyboard Maestro 6 Is A Genius At Repetitive Tasks

Christopher Breen, Macworld

If you find yourself doing the same things over and over—typing text strings, navigating to a particular location, running through the same series of menu commands, or manipulating files on a recently mounted USB drive—you owe it to yourself to try Keyboard Maestro.

Review: 16GB Fifth-generation iPod Touch Comes Down To Cash, Capacity, And Camera

Christopher Breen, Macworld

For many people the lack of color choices and wrist strap won’t be that important. The missing rear-facing iSight camera, with its 5-megapixel photos and 1080p video, may give you pause, however.

Byword 2.0 Gets Publishing Services, Improved Sync, And More

Federico Viticci, MacStories

Byword 2.0, released today for iOS and OS X, introduces new publishing options for WordPress, Tumblr, Evernote, Blogger, and Scriptogram, more robust sync with offline support and better conflict resolution, and several other enhancements.

Playlist Assist Replicates Old iTunes Playlist Window

Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville

AppleScript maestro Doug Adams has released the $5 Playlist Assist, a new tool which replicates some of the old iTunes playlist window features. Playlist Assist gives you a floating window that you can use to create and edit playlists. But you can also get track info, change tags, play tracks using Quick Look, and export playlists.

A Glimpse At Apple's New Bug Reporter

Nick Arnott, iMore

How To Make Your Smartphone Automatically Unlock Your Stuff

Adam Dachis, Lifehacker

Perhaps you hate typing passwords but want to keep your phone and computer secure. Thanks to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, you can adapt your mobile devices to automatically unlock your computer and even your front door by using a couple of apps and defining a few rules.

I no longer think about which device to use. I just use the device that’s at hand and right for the task. Computers, phones, tablets—these are all outdated names for things that we used to do with the ancestors of today’s devices. Most of us don’t compute, we rarely make voice calls, and what the hell is a tablet anyway?

Apple Begins Offering In-Store iPhone 5 Display Replacements For $149

Juli Clover, MacRumors

As part of a shift to lower repair costs, Apple has begun replacing iPhone 5 screens at its retail locations. The new display replacement service is priced at $149 and can be purchased with or without AppleCare+.

What Moment is so successful with is taking all the work out of Facebook posting ... and browsing.

Apple’s released a universal iOS app for both WWDC attendees and those Apple developers who aren’t making the trip to San Francisco later this month.

Apple Ordered To Pay Out The €5 Million It's Collected In Copying Levies In France

Loek Essers, IDG News Service

While Apple collected the levies from iPads sold to consumers, it did not pay those levies to Copie France, he said. Instead, Apple put the collected money in a separate account and started numerous proceedings and court cases to contest the imposed levies, Lonjon said.

Review: Haiku Deck For iPad Takes The Work Out Of Building A Slideshow Presentation

Joel Mathis, Macworld

The app offers beautifully designed slideshow templates and draws upon immense resources—including more than 35 million free photos available under a Creative Commons license—to inspire users and help them easily craft a good-looking presentation in just a short period of time.

Any iOS Device Can Be Hacked Within One Minute With Modified Charger, Say Researchers

Aaron Souppouris, The Verge

Security researchers have discovered a way to push software onto an iOS device using a modified charger. The team at George Institute of Technology says its charger was able to upload arbitrary software to an iOS device within one minute of it being plugged in.

So, does this mean you shouldn't share power strips with strangers at airports and conferences?

Mac Gems: iStat Menus Is A Standout App For Monitoring Your Mac

Chris Barylick, Macworld

Bjango has created a standout application for hardware-level monitoring of your Mac. For $16, you get as much technical information as you want, plus a means of reviewing that data to see which components might need repairs or replacement.

Apple To Modify Service Certifications Program In June

David Morgenstern, ZDNet

US V. Apple: What They’re Really Fighting Over As The Antitrust Case Goes To Trial

Zachary M. Seward, Quartz

Since the publishers have already been forced to reach new agreements with retailers, what is there really left to decide? Damages, of course, which could be steep if Apple loses, though the company can afford it.
But the most substantial issue Apple and the US are likely to fight over is something called “most-favored nation” status, which the publishers granted to Apple in their original deals. It meant that Apple would always be able to sell e-books at least as cheaply as other retailers. The publishers couldn’t let others, namely Amazon, sell the same e-books for less.

Review: Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing For Mac

Cliff Joseph, Macworld UK

All Star Racing isn’t a particularly difficult or challenging game so it will probably only appeal to very young players. However, it’s reasonably priced and its multiplayer modes and support for Game Center add a social element that will help to keep the kids amused on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Quit All Open Applications Instantly From The OS X Dock With A Simple Mac App

OS X Daily

Apple Inquiry Welcomed By Mobile Operators

Christopher Williams, The Telegraph

British mobile operators are privately celebrating an EU investigation of Apple’s business practices in the hope it will help them get a better deal on the next iPhone.

Apple, Betrayed By Its Own Law Firm

Joe Mullin, Ars Technica

Jennifer McAleese reached out to numerous "troll patent" companies, as she called them, convinced that she and Milekic had an "excellent position against Apple" if and when they chose to sue. She emailed top patent lawyers at Google and Nokia, competitors known to be in patent clashes with Apple.
The whole time, she was advised by her husband, a lawyer who had access to reams of confidential Apple data—but who says he never touched it. (Apple doesn't see it that way.) Together, the McAleeses created "an indirect and covert pipeline" of information pumped to to FlatWorld's attorneys, say Apple lawyers. Now Apple wants FlatWorld's law firm, Seattle-based Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, kicked off the case.

iPod Touch 5Th Generation 16 GB Teardown

IFixIt

Also:

• Teardown of Apple's new 16GB iPod touch finds few changes from other 5th-gen models (AppleInsider)

Mac Gems: Swing For App.net Makes It Easy To Share Files

Dan Frakes, Macworld

Airmail For Mac Review: Sparrow Lamenters Rejoice, An Even Better Solution Is Here!

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

Airmail for Mac is a new third party mail client that not only supports a plethora of account types, but is also one of the most visually appealing email apps for Mac I've ever used. For users who are still clutching onto Sparrow while waiting for a viable alternative, you may just find your solution in Airmail.

Apple Issues RAW Compatibility Update For OS X 10.8

Steven Sande, TUAW

Who Needs A Mac Pro When They Can Get An iMac?

Peter Cohen, iMore

If Apple's making money on the Mac Pro, despite it being a niche machine, one can argue that it still deserves a place of respect in the Mac lineup.

Listacular For Dropbox Review

Michael Simon, Mac Life

To make a great task manager, three criteria need to be met: Simple list creation, easy gestures, and effortless syncing. With a clean, flat design and versatile text options, Listacular for Dropbox hits every note and then some. Listacular sports a minimal interface subtly influenced by a sheet of loose-leaf paper, but what it lacks in color and pizzazz, it makes up for in intuitiveness.

Untappd (For iPhone)

Jill Duffy, PC Magazine

Untappd is one of the best beer mobile apps available because of its incredible community, but it's not a great app in any other sense. The user interface design needs to be standardized and more thoroughly tested, as does the search functionality. The developers shouldn't rest on their laurels just because they have a large and active community. I like Untappd, but I don't love it, even though I want to.

Instacast For Mac Fills The Desktop Podcatcher Gap

Josh Centers, TidBITS

So why did I pay $15 for something that iTunes can do for free, and in the process abandon an arguably better iOS podcatcher in Downcast? In short, podcast syncing.

Also:

• Syncing Issue Fix for Instacast (Phil Poccia, Macgasm)

Adobe Listening To Creative Cloud Complaints

Josh Centers, TidBITS

Adobe did speak to one of the complaints we’ve heard most often: maintaining access to your files in Adobe proprietary formats outside of a membership. Adobe agrees that customers should be able to access files even after their memberships have ended, but the company is as yet vague on details. “Our job is to delight our customers with innovation, but there are a number of options open to us here and we expect to have news around this issue shortly,” Adobe said.

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