MyAppleMenu

Timeful For iOS Aims To Help You Make Time To Get Everything Done

Mike Beasley, 9 To 5 Mac

Timeful is a calendar and to-do manager that examines how long each of your to-do items should take, where each task will take place, and more to find the perfect opening in your schedule to get it done.

Apple Re-releases MacBook Air EFI 2.9 Update After Bugs Discovered

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple TV Opens Channel In Latin America

Joe Leahy, Financial Times

Apple TV will offer its first local content television channel in Latin America, Esporte Interativo Plus, bringing it into competition with pay TV in the region’s tough sports market.

The offering of the Esporte Interativo Plus, whose programmes include soccer’s Uefa Champions League, is aimed at helping Apple TV penetrate one of the world’s fastest growing internet and pay TV markets.

Apple TV Gets CNBC And FOX NOW Channels

Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

Premiere Pro CC 2014 Review: New Features Allow Video Editors To Do More

Alan Stafford, Macworld

Adobe provides even more tweaks and features to its video editor -- all of which make for a better program.

Apple Confirms Acquisition Of Swell As Website And App Shut Down

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

Dark Skies (For iPhone)

Max Eddy, PC Magazine

There's no doubt that Dark Skies is a beautiful app, fitting in perfectly with the high-design aesthetics of iOS. Everything about the app just works together beautifully, and the 3D-globe radar map is a stunning way to convey weather information.

Five Hotkey Shortcuts You Might Not Know About

Topher Kessler, MacIssues

Next Up, Microsoft. McDonald’s, Apple, Starbucks, Already Know China’s Wrath

Hannah Beech, TIME

Apple Launches Retina MacBook Pros With Faster Haswell Processors, More RAM Standard

Richard Padila, MacRumors

The new notebooks feature faster versions of Intel's Haswell processors, as all 13-inch models now come with 8GB of RAM standard while all 15-inch models now feature 16GB of RAM.

Apple Allows The World's Most Popular Bitcoin Wallet Back Into Its Store

Klint Finley, Wired

Being Indie In 2014

Gus Mueller, The Shape Of Everything

Eventually you will get lucky and gain some traction- but it's not luck alone that is the key to success. You need to recognize opportunities as they come along and grab them. And just as equally important- you need to recognize time sinks and stupid ideas that come along as well. There will be more of the latter.

App Rot

Marco Arment

It’s not going to be an easy road, but it’s possible to adapt and keep going.

Interacting With C Pointers

Swift Blog

NPR One Delivers A Curated Public Radio Stream For The Smartphone Era

Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

It uses a combination of streams of NPR’s public news broadcasts, combined with stories that are curated for your specific tastes. You can get regionally relevant content by letting the device have access to your location settings, and you can also search for podcasts and other content to teach the app about what you want and get it instantly.

How To Prepare For A Mac Disaster

Joe Kissell, Macworld

No one likes to think about disasters such as burglary, earthquake, fire, the zombie apocalypse, or other catastrophes that could potentially wipe out your Mac, your other gadgets, and perhaps even your entire home or office. But these things do happen (with the possible exception of the zombies), and despite your best efforts, you might not be able to prevent the loss. You can, however, minimize the damage and inconvenience you’ll suffer—and speed your recovery—by making sure you’ve taken a number of commonsense steps to prepare for misfortune ahead of time.

Staff Picks: Revolution 60 Is The Most Ambitious iOS Game You'll Play This Year

Serenity Caldwell, Macworld

Giant Spacekat’s game captures everything I love about action/adventure films, classic sci-fi, and good storytelling—and puts it on display through a smart series of choices, reactions, events, and combat sequences.

Listen Up, America: It’s Time To Starting Making Mass Transit Free!

Henry Grabar, Salon

A free ride policy represents the culmination of a long shift from thinking of transit as a business sector — one that was quite profitable in its heyday — to considering it an indispensable public service.

The Return Of The Desktop Productivity App

Ryan Lawler, TechCrunch

As connections between desktop, web, and mobile development platforms continue to converge, we’re likely to see even more mobile developers bringing their applications to the desktop. And those apps will continue to get more useful, the more screens that they’re available on.

How-to: Use Spotlight And Smart Folders To Search For Anything On Your Mac

Whitney Marks, 9 To 5 Mac

Adobe Releases Two Experimental iPhone Apps Powered By Photoshop

Mark Wilson, Co.Design

Adobe is calling the apps “experiments”--more proofs-of-concept than consumer products. Even still, I could imagine using Fixel as an extension inside a larger app like Instagram. Photoshop could find its way into apps without us even ever realizing it.

TextWrangler: The Must-have Free Text Editor For Mac!

Peter Cohen, iMore

Whether you're looking for a no-nonsense text input system or are looking for something to do transformations to big chunks of text-based data, a text editor fits the bill like nothing else. Bare Bones Software makes a terrific one called TextWrangler that ought to be a part of every discriminating Mac user's app arsenal. What's more, it's absolutely free.

Apple Secretly Acquired “Pandora For Books” Startup BookLamp To Battle Amazon

Josh Constine, TechCrunch

BookLamp’s most well-known product was the Book Genome Project, a platform that let users find suggestions for books to read based on natural language analysis of other titles. BookLamp’s tech and talent could help Apple improve its iBooks service with better recommendations, search, and categorization.

Who At The Table Is An Indie iOS Developer?

Brent Simmons, Inesential.com

Swift Sequences And Lazy Evaluation

Colin Eberhardt, Scott Logic

In this blog post I want to take a quick look at the Swift Sequence protocol, which forms the basis for the for-in loop, and see how this allows you to write code that performs sequence operations that are only evaluated on-demand.

Having Charging Issues With Your iPad? Here's A Fix Them!

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

Out of all the mobile devices Apple makes, when it comes to charging issues, the iPad is typically at the top of the list. In some cases the problem is hardware related but in many, it's not. Here are some steps you can take to resolve iPad charging issues before heading out to an Apple Store.

Apple Begins OS X 10.10 Yosemite Public Beta Test

John Callaham, iMore

Five Retail Rules Flagrantly Violated By The Apple Store

Belinda Lanks, Bloomberg Businessweek

Access Control

Swift Blog

In Xcode 6 beta 4, Swift adds support for access control. This gives you complete control over what part of the code is accessible within a single file, available across your project, or made public as API for anyone that imports your framework.

I Searched For All 71 Of The Stickers In Apple's New Ad So You Don't Have To

Mike Wehner, TUAW

If you saw something you liked on that fast-moving ad, you're in luck because I did the legwork of searching for every funky sticker that made an appearance. Well, ok, not every sticker -- I ignored the section of the ad with the generic music stickers -- but every sticker you probably care about. All 71 of them.

Apple Tech Note Illuminates Purported 'Backdoor' Services

Dan Moren, Macworld

Just a couple days after a security researcher alleged that iOS contained “backdoor” access to user information, Apple has posted a knowledge base article explaining many of the systems that were under scrutiny.

OS X Yosemite Public Beta To Be Released July 24

Jim Dalrymple, The Loop

The public beta version of OS X Yosemite is the same version released to developers on Monday, so to start off, consumers and developers will be running the same software. However, the developer version of Yosemite will be updated more often over the next few months than the public beta version. This is so developers can continue to test their software with the latest operating system available. Consumers really don’t need updates that frequently.

Walk This Way: 6 Pedometer Apps For iPhone

Amber Bouman, TechHive

Moves' potential data sharing pushed me back to using Breeze—something I was more than happy to do, because I like both its functionality and design. Walker offers a lot of data, but Breeze organizes it better. The other apps either didn’t offer enough functionality (Pedometer for M7, Stepz) or focused on features that weren’t as important to me (Pacer’s plans and groups).

Apple Faces Class-Action Lawsuit In California Over Alleged Labor Violations Affecting 20K Employees

Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch

The company is being sued in a class-action suit over a series of alleged violations of the California Labor Code, including the “timely” granting of meal and rest breaks as well as final paychecks. The case potentially affects some 20,000 current and former Apple employees in the state, the plaintiffs say.

New MacBook Air Commercial: ‘Stickers’

John Gruber, Daring Fireball

In the old days Apple didn’t have to worry about conformance. Just owning a Mac made you stand out from the crowd. But what happens now, when everyone you know has a MacBook, and every MacBook looks the same?

Some Brief Thoughts About Apple’s MacBook Air ‘Stickers’ Ad

Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch

Bangs and dents mean these things get used. It emphasizes the reliability of the MacBook Air by showing that some of them have scuffs and scrapes. It’s rare in that it shows Apple products in a non-retail-box condition.

Apple Reports Strong iPhone Sales

Daisuke Wakabayashi, Wall Street Journal

The Cupertino, Calif., company said it sold 35.2 million iPhones in the quarter ended June 28, up 12.7% from the 31.2 million units in the year-ago period. The latest figure was just shy of analysts' projections for sales of 35.9 million iPhones.

However, sales of iPads dropped 9.2%, the second consecutive drop, suggesting that tablets are maturing and getting squeezed between more portable smartphones and more powerful computers. Mac computer sales, meanwhile, continued to show strength.

ITbits: Putting IBM MobileFirst In (Apple’s Enterprise) Context

Andrew Laurence, TidBITS

As a member of the slim MacIT population, I have long wished Apple would do a better and bolder job of telling the story of its enterprise-friendly technologies, and the many excellent supporting options. Fortunately, IBM excels at that.

“Alive Inside” Film Explores Power Of Music To Restore Memory

Dawn Chmielewski, Re/code

“Alive Inside” follows social worker Dan Cohen, whose nonprofit Music & Memory organization works to bring iPods loaded with personalized playlists to elderly Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.

Apple Issues MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update

Topher Kessler, MacIssues

If you have a MacBook Air and are experiencing long pauses when waking from sleep, or if you find your system fans are regularly blaring after waking from sleep, then Apple has a fix in the form of an EFI firmware update, that should hopefully clear the issue.

Apple's New Ad Proclaims The MacBook Air Is 'The Notebook People Love'

Chris Parsons, iMore

The ad itself is rather simple and just flashes through a bunch of MacBook Air lids all decked out in stickers ranging from the Beats logos, Snow White, Homer Simpson and various other pop culture characters, logos and symbols. A sight that's no doubt familiar to many readers out there.

Apple is going to start selling stickers at its Apple Stores? (Or have they already?)

Apple Denies It Included 'Backdoor' Services In iOS

Kelly Hodgkins, TUAW

"As we have said before, Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products of services."

Apple's iOS 'Dishing Out A Lot Of Data Behind Our Backs,' Security Researcher Charges

Sam Oliver, AppleInsider

Noted forensic scientist and iOS hacker Jonathan Zdziarski has uncovered a number of undocumented "backdoor" services in Apple's mobile operating system that he argues could be exploited by law enforcement agencies, the NSA, or other malicious actors to bypass encryption and siphon sensitive personal data from iOS devices.

Netflix Update On Apple TV Makes It Easier To Binge-watch Your Favorite TV Series

Huong H Nguyen, iMore

Through the new update, Apple TV's version of Netflix will now show and auto-play the next episode when the credits for TV shows appear.

GoodReader 4 Gets An Update Making Useful Auto-sync Changes

Joe White, AppAdvice

Now, users of the app – which first launched on the App Store a couple of months ago, in May – can enjoy executing auto-sync in the background. “You can continue reading your documents while the sync engine is working quietly behind the scenes,” developer Good.iWare explains in the updated application’s release notes.

Transferring Outlook-For-Mac Email To Apple's Mail

Christopher Breen, Macworld

This Year's iTunes Festival London Will Feature Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams And More

Harish Jonnalagadda, iMore

The iTunes Festival will return to London for an eighth consecutive year, with artists like Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams and Beck headlining the 30-day event. Set to run throughout the month of September at the Roundhouse in London, the event will feature over 60 artists.

I Don't Know Swift

Rob Napier, Cocoaphony

So there you go. You’re here at the beginning. There is no priesthood. There are no old folks sitting on rocking chairs cussing your new-fangled dot-syntax. You are the old folks. You remember before immutable arrays.

Apps Offer Useful Complexity With Simple Interface

Jeff Carlson, The Seattle Times

Ask any software developer (or designer or writer or builder) and you’ll learn that often the most difficult things to implement well are the ones that appear simple.

Two very different examples come to mind, with applications that remain clean and approachable while simultaneously offer useful complexity.

The two apps reviewed are OmniFocus and Overcast.

Stop Blaming Apple For An Entire Industry's Sins

David Price, Macworld UK

Apple hasn't always had an exemplary record on labour ethics or the environment. But going by media reports, you'd think it was the only culprit - and it's absolutely not.

A Less-Definite Article

Andy Ihnatko

What I’m saying is that alphabetizing things is a big mess…maybe the biggest mess there is, if ranked as a ratio of “how difficult this problem is” to “how difficult it appears to be.”

Review: Amazon Unlimited E-Book Service Is Limited

Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press

Amazon's new "unlimited" e-book service lets you read 600,000 books. That sounds like more than you'll ever read, but I found myself struggling to find the books I wanted.

Building Assert() In Swift, Part 1: Lazy Evaluation

Swift Blog

Amazon Launches Kindle Unlimited, A New Ebook Rental Service For $9.99 A Month

Rich Edmonds, iMore

The new service enables consumers to choose from over 600,000 books, listen to thousands of audiobooks from Audible and more for just $9.99 a month. Think of it as a music streaming package, but for books with Amazon.

Mophie Space Pack (For iPhone 5/5S)

Antonio Villas-Boas, PC Magazine

Checkbook (For iPhone)

Jill Duffy, PC Magazine

If you'd rather not connect an app to financial institutions directly and instead want to manually reconcile your accounts, Checkbook is very good option.

Apple Not So Clear On Where Washington, D.C. Is, Either

Laura Northrup, Consumerist

“According to the new featured category titled City Living on the Apple App Store,” he writes, “when you are visiting Seattle you’re going to want to install Washington, DC travel guides.”

What I've Learned From Three Decades In Retail BY DEBORAH PETERSEN

Deborah Petersen, Inc.com

In the end, Johnson knew JCPenney wasn't right for him. "It was disappointing because I really believed we would make it work, but it was a relief because the lesson I learned is I was a terrible fit for JCPenney."

Apple Scolded By Europe Over In-app Purchase Protections

Dave Lee, BBC

"Regrettably, no concrete and immediate solutions have been made by Apple to date to address the concerns linked in particular to payment authorisation," the Commission said in a statement.

"Apple has proposed to address those concerns. However, no firm commitment and no timing have been provided for the implementation of such possible future changes.

After 17 Years, Bill Campbell Steps Down From Apple's Board

Adam Lashnsky, Fortune

The one-time Apple executive, who will be replaced by BlackRock co-founder Sue Wagner, reflects on his long association with the company and its co-founder, Steve Jobs.

Apple's Longest-serving Board Member Steps Down

Nathan Ingraham, The Verge

Apple will report its quarterly earnings on July 22nd, but the company just announced a bit of a board shake-up ahead of that — Bill Campbell, the company's longest-tenured board member, is retiring after 17 years of service. He'll be replaced by Sue L. Wagner, a co-founder and director at investment management firm BlackRock.

Google Releases Official Analytics App For iPhone With Real Time Reports

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple ID Two-step Verification Feature Rolls Out To Dozens Of New Countries

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple Launches iTunes Pass In The U.S., UK, Australia And More

Harish Jonnalagadda, iMore

Adding funds via iTunes Pass is faster than buying a physical gift card, and should be a useful feature for those who are looking to quickly add funds to their App Store account.

Apple Looks To Status-Hungry Vietnam For Growth: Southeast Asia

John Boudreau and Nguyen Kieu Giang, Bloomberg

Bich Ngoc, who earns less than $60 a week and has a newborn son, cobbled together four months of savings to buy the latest iPhone so she could impress her colleagues who have older versions of the device.

“I like the iPhone because it is small, light and very delicate,” said Ngoc, a 24-year-old accountant in Hanoi who purchased the device last week. “Everyone seems a bit jealous.”

Review: Overcast Is A Winning Podcast App

Jason Snell, Macworld

A carefully designed and extremely functional podcast player highlighted by excellent and flexible playlists.

Overcast Review

Federico Viticci, MacStories

Overcast proves that an established app category is always ripe for innovation with the right technologies, ideas, and taste. I've tried many podcast apps over the years, but Overcast, thanks to its unique features and elegant design, is my new favorite.

15+ Reasons Apple Is Best For Accessibility

Jonny Evans, Computerworld

Apple engineers, "go to extraordinary lengths to make our products accessible to people with various disabilities from blindness and deafness to various muscular disorders," said CEO, Tim Cook.

Apple Joins With IBM On Business Software

Brian X. Chen and Steve Lohr, New York Times

The partnership, analysts said, also should help both companies woo software developers, who are increasingly focusing their efforts on mobile and cloud applications.

Five Classic Paul McCartney Albums Given New Lease Of Life As iPad Apps

Rich Edmonds, iMore

SnapNDrag Pro 3.5.6 Review: A Superb Mac App For Organizing And Annotating Your Screenshots

Jeffery Battersby, Macworld

Smart and simple to use, SnapNDrag is a superb screen capture app.

Nine Things Everyone Should Know How To Do With A Presentation App

Franklin Tessler, Macworld

Swift Language Changes In Xcode 6 Beta 3

Apple Swift Blog

Confessions Of An Ex-developer

Matt Gemmell

The implacable, crushing wheels of industry, slow to move because of their size, have at last arrived on the frontier. Our frontier, or at least yours now.

Apple, IBM Launch Partnership For Mobile Enterprise Apps, Services, More

Dan Moren, Macworld

“For the first time ever we’re putting IBM’s renowned big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the companies’ joint press release. “This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”

Apple Begins Encrypting iCloud Email Sent Between Providers

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

We Strenuously Factchecked The Entire Premise Of Sex Tape: An Investigation

Lauren Bans, GQ

Here is what happens in Sex Tape: Married couple Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel make a dirty film on their iPad, then "accidentally" upload it into the Cloud...and onto the many iPads they gave to friends and family as Christmas presents. Could any of this ever actually happen? We called AppleCare to find out.

Ten Things Everyone Should Know How To Do With A Word Processor

Jeffery Battersby, Macworld

Keyboard Maestro Control Gets A Big Update: Goes Universal And Adds 4-Inch Screen Support

Joe White, AppAdvice

Apple Debuts iTunes Pass In Japan, Allows Passbook-based iTunes Credit Refills At Apple Stores

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

The new service, called iTunes Pass, allows users to go to an Apple Store in Japan, purchase credit in-store for the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, and have that money immediately applied to the Apple ID account instead of needing to receive a gift card and enter a redemption code.

Apple Launches In-store iPhone Trade-in Program In Australia, Offers A$250 Toward Upgrade

Mike Beasley, 9 To 5 Mac

How A Reddit User Got Apple To Improve Its "On-hold" Music

Yoni Heisler, TUAW

"Much to my surprise a lady from Cupertino called me up the next day, saying she'd received a concerning email from Tim about ugly distortion hold music while on the phone, that Tim had tested this himself and agreed that something had to be done. She assured me that the hold music would be tested to make sure it sounded pleasant on all types of phones and connections."

Why Apple’s Swift Language Will Instantly Remake Computer Programming

Cade Metz, Wired

When it’s officially released this fall, it could achieve mass adoption with unprecedented speed, surpassing even the uptake of Sun Microsystems’ Java programming language and Microsoft’s C# in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Developers And Apple Open Up On New Swift Programming Language

David Morgenstern, ZDNet

Some are working away at adding new libraries; others are feeling a byte of angst about programming language future shock.

How To Restore Deleted Safari Bookmarks

Christopher Breen, Macworld

Nine Things Everyone Should Know How To Do With A Spreadsheet

Rob Griffiths, Macworld

I’m not talking about any specific task. Rather, these are the techniques and concepts that I think you should know in order to graduate from casual to serious user.

Apple-designed iBeacon Hardware Hits FCC: For Apple Stores, Developers, Or Consumers?

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

The Software Design Trends That We Love To Hate

Ars Technica

We put our collective heads together and came up with the following list of modern UI design trends that get our blood boiling. We're sure there are more things that could make this list, but we're trying to keep our blood pressure down.

Apple China Denies Location Tracking Claims: We’re ‘Deeply Committed To Protecting The Privacy Of All Our Customers’

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple denies the claims by stating that “privacy is built into [its] products and services from the earliest stages of design. We work tirelessly to deliver the most secure hardware and software in the world.” Apple also explains that it uses industry leading encryption to protect location data, and says that all location data is stored solely on the iPhone, not on Apple’s servers.

Apple’s Sexist iPad Engraving Policy

EJ Dickson, Salon

A customer service rep for Apple apparently agrees with that assessment: When Hyntze contacted Apple to complain, the rep “explicitly noted the sexism, but said there was nothing she could do.”

Apple Maps Team Reportedly Contacting Business Owners To Verify User-submitted Address Corrections

Mike Beasley, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple Wins Emblaze Patent Trial Over Live Video Streaming

Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg

Comments On Apple And NFB Resolution 2014-12

Mark A. Riccobono, National Federation Of The Blind

In fact, our access technology team has engaged with many app developers and will continue to do so. Apple itself, however, is in the best position to influence its developer community, and has in fact made efforts to do just that. While Apple’s clear accessibility guidelines and training at developer conferences are appreciated and necessary, however, they have proven insufficient. So the National Federation of the Blind, through its national convention, has decided to ask Apple to do more.

PicsArt Photo Studio (For iPhone)

Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine

Photographing Fearless Genius At NeXT, Apple, And Others

Tekla Perry, IEEE Spectrum

In 1985 experienced war photographer Doug Menuez decided to embed himself in a different kind of revolution—the tech revolution in Silicon Valley. He convinced Steve Jobs, recently ousted from Apple and launching NeXT computer, to give him unrestricted access to, well, everything. And once he earned Jobs’ trust, other Silicon Valley doors opened to him, doors at some 70 companies during the next 15 years.

Apple Launches New Swift Blog, Offers Xcode 6 Beta For Free

Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

Apple launched a new blog specifically for Swift today, and as part of the launch, the company is offering free downloads of the latest Xcode 6 beta to anyone who wants to register for it.

Compatibility

Apple Swift Blog

Swift is ready to use today, in brand new apps or alongside your proven Objective-C code. We have big plans for the Swift language, including improvements to syntax, and powerful new features. And as Swift evolves, we will provide tools in Xcode to help you migrate your source code forward.

China Labels iPhone A Security Threat

Eva Dou, Wall Street Journal

In its national noon broadcast, state-run China Central Television criticized the "frequent locations" function in Apple's iOS 7 mobile operating system, which records time and location for the owner's movements. The report quoted researchers who said that those with access to that data could gain knowledge of China's economic situation or "even state secrets."

Review: Apple Tweaks MacBook Air’s Ultra-portable Appeal

Seamus Bellamy, The Globe And Mail

The mid-2014 13” MacBook Air has strong industrial design, insanely long battery life, overwhelming versatility and is a good get that will serve most users well.

Adonit Jot Touch For iPad (2014)

Antonio Villas-Boas, PC Magazine

Adonit's original Jot Touch was our Editors' Choice for iPad styli when it was first released, and the newer, updated Jot Touch is still the most precise and accurate pressure-sensitive stylus available for the iPad.

Turn Your Old iPhone Into A Security Camera With IFTTT And Manything

Thomas Newton, Recombu

Manything is an IFTTT channel that lets you turn any iOS device into an impromptu security device.

Saving Tricks: Buy A Refurbished Apple Macbook Pro, Pay £170 Less

Kara Gammell, The Telegraph

Apple backs up all its refurbished goods with a one-year warranty and the option of purchasing the AppleCare Protection Plan for a further three years’ reassurance.

Apple, Coca-Cola Among Firms Signed On To White House Plan For Small Suppliers

Jeffrey Sparshott, Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration said Apple Inc. Coca-Cola Co. and other companies are signing on to a White House effort to speed payments to firms down their supply chains, a move intended to boost cash flows and increase investment at smaller businesses.

TwoDots Review: Dangerously Addictive Puzzle Game For iPhone & iPad

Amy Moore, Macworld

Offering a relatively challenging app, TwoDots is engaging enough to provide even the most skilled of puzzlers a lengthy gameplay.

Standard Controls

Brent Simmons, Inesential.com

Here’s how I think about this to myself: the Romantic era, which started with the Delicious Generation and became dominant with the early iPhone apps, has given way to the Modernist era. Grandiosity gives way to sleekness and honesty.

Mac Thunderbolt Docks: Belkin Versus The Clones

Julio Ojeda-Zapata, TidBITS

Ask The iTunes Guy: Inconsistent Buttons And Faulty Gapless Playback

Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

iTunes has many quirks and inconstancies. In this week’s column, I look at a few of them. Why do Next and Previous buttons display only sometimes when you view track tags? Why does iTunes funnel videos into the Home Videos category? And why isn’t gapless playback working on iOS devices running iTunes Match?

Apple Blocks All Outdated Versions Of Adobe Flash In Safari Due To Vulnerabilities

Mike Beasley, 9 To 5 Mac

Minecraft Pocket Edition Gets Biggest Update Yet With Infinite Worlds & Much More

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple Cuts Some iTunes Song Previews From 90 Seconds To 30 Seconds

Juli Clover, MacRumors

Best Airport Companion Apps For iPhone: FlightBoard, LoungeBuddy, App In The Air, And More!

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

YouTube Creator Studio Checks Your Video Stats, Comments, And More From Your iPhone

Joseph Keller, iMore

Apple Brings iTunes Extras To Apple TV, HD Extras To Macs Today & iOS 8 In Fall

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple today released iTunes version 11.3 and with it is making its iTunes Extras feature available for HD movies on Macs. Apple also announced today that the feature is now available for Apple TV with update 6.2 and will arrive on iOS 8 this fall.

How To Find Special Characters In OS X

Topher Kessler, MacIssues

Review: Unlimited E-book Services Offer Plenty

Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press

But I found plenty to read in no time, and I found myself reading more than I normally would. These services are great if you have a long weekend or a vacation coming up, or in my case three weeks of travels from California to New York.

Just don’t think it’ll be the same as walking into a library and finding just about any book you want.

Former Retail Chief: Only 1 In 100 Apple Store Visitors Actually Buys

Chris Matyszczyk, CNET

In an interview at Stanford, Ron Johnson explains that Apple stores aren't places to sell. They are places to be.

Highly Anticipated Minecraft - Pocket Edition Update With Infinite Worlds Out Now On iOS

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Parallels Access 2 Review: Control Your Mac (Or PC) From Your iPad Or iPhone

Rob Griffiths, Macworld

Parallels Access 2 lets you view and control your computer from any iOS device. It's a nice upgrade over the original, though subscription-based pricing makes it less appealing than some competitors.

Skitch Is A Multi-purpose Editing Tool For Doodling On Any Document

Leah Yamshon, TechHive

You can markup a photo for fun, point things out on a map, markup a webpage, annotate a PDF, or use it as a blank canvas for a fresh idea, drawing it out from scratch.

Clean Energy The Focus Of Apple's Environmental Report

Chuong H Nguyen, iMore

Apple has just released its environmental report for 2013 where the company is highlighting its clean energy use at its offices, stores, and employee initiatives. The report makes note of Apple's use of renewable energy, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and reduction of carbon footprint.

Apple Secures EU Trademark For Store Layouts

Matina Stevis, Wall Street Journal

The judgment allows Apple to replicate its distinguishing store layout—airy, well-lit interiors displaying Apple goods on open table tops—in the EU and stops competitors from replicating the style in their shops.

Why iWork Had To Change (And What That Has To Do With Aperture)

Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS

For Apple to provide a seamless, cross-device, cloud-managed experience, it had to build its apps with that experience in mind — patching old code just won’t cut it.

National Federation Of The Blind Pushes Apple To Add Accessibility Requirements For Apps

Sam Oliver, AppleInsider

Members of the National Federation of the Blind have approved a resolution that will have the advocacy group, which successfully sued Apple over iTunes in 2008, begin a new campaign designed to convince the iPhone maker to consider accessibility when approving apps for sale in the App Store.

Apple Suffers Siri Patent Case Defeat In China

BBC

Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company's voice-recognition patent ruled invalid.

The verdict threatens Apple's ability to offer its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, in the country.

Apple Launches iTunes U 2.0 With iPad-based Course Creation, Student Discussions, More

Mark Gurman, 9 To 5 Mac

Bye Google Maps: Apple Brings Its Maps To The Web For Find My iPhone

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

Review: Intensify Pro Photo App Offers Dazzling Quick Fix

Jackie Dove, The Next Web

Intensify Pro is one of my favorite photo editing apps because of its versatility and ease of use, while its range of artistic presets give you a new way to conceptualize your photos.

Play+ For YouTube Review: A Native Mac App For Frequent YouTube Viewers

Andrew Hayward, Macworld

For those of us who watch online videos incessantly, a native Mac app like Play+ for YouTube is a handy thing to keep in the Dock. It’s a minimal player that makes some helpful and appreciated tweaks to the Web UI for easier navigation and multitasking, but also one that feels too streamlined in spots and would benefit greatly from customization options.

Apple Celebrates Diversity And Equality In San Francisco Pride Parade Video

Sam Byford, The Verge

Apple has released a video showing its employees, including CEO Tim Cook, participating in the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 29th. The company says thousands of employees from around the world marched in the parade "to celebrate Apple's unwavering commitment to equality and diversity."

InfoClick Review: Find What You're Looking For In Apple Mail

Dan Miller, Macworld

InfoClick is essentially a supercharged search tool for Mail.

Apple’s New Coding Language Swift Receives Significant Update For Developers Alongside New Yosemite And iOS Seeds

Benjamin Mayo, 9 To 5 Mac

Is Your Waiter Reading Your Tweets?

Brian Karlovsky, ARN

Revel Systems has launched a new Yelp point of sale dash board on iPad, which instantly alerts restaurant staff to reviews and comments of patrons.

When a customer "checks in" to a venue with a social app like Foursquare and Facebook or leaves a review on Yelp, an icon will pop up on the Revel iPad POS merchant screen allowing visibility into a customer's previous reviews.

Apple Ordered To Revise App Store Refund Policy, May Make Changes Global

AppleInsider

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission on Sunday ordered Apple and Google to make changes to their respective iOS and Android app stores policies in an effort to make post-purchase refunding more consumer-friendly.

Brush Up On Classic Literature With These Immersive Apps

Kirk McElhearn, TechHive

Intermission 1.1 Review: Pause And Rewind Your Mac's Audio, TiVo-style

Dan Frakes, Macworld

How To Add Liner Notes To iTunes

Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville

iTunes can store PDF “digital booklets,” or liner notes. You may get some of these when you purchase albums from the iTunes Store, but if you download music from other sites, and get liner notes, you need to add them to your iTunes library.

Tackle OS X Only Booting In Safe Mode

Topher Kessler, MacIssues

Margaret, Lady Hodge, Appears To Demand That Apple Act Illegally Over Tax

Tim Worstall, Forbes

Which is how we end up at this interesting position. The low margins that Apple can get away with on selling iKit to third party retailers mean that it would be in breach of transfer pricing rules if it were to deliberately use a different price to increase domestic UK (or DE etc) profits. Margaret, Lady Hodge’s, demand that Apple onshore more of its profits is thus illegal under international tax law.

The Indie Life

Lucvandal..com

This reminds me of the early 1990s, where any kid with a few thousands of dollars could start his own snowboard company. Eventually, the market got saturated and many of those companies disappeared, got acquired or merged together in order to gather forces, improve their products and be more competitive. This is the normal process for any mature market.

Patching The Newton

Landon Dyer, Dadhacker

This one ends with me going into a Good Guys electronics store in a suburb of Boston, flashing my employee badge and saying “I’m from Apple. Take me to your Newtons.” I wanted to use a deep G-man voice, but I didn’t have the build for it. Also, I was wearing the slightly redonkulous khaki-pants and polo shirt that we’d been instructed to wear for the Newton debut the next day, and I looked like a rah-rah Apple sales guy. Appearances are deceiving.

Apple Signs Deal With Saudi Bookshop In Regional First

Al Arabiya

In the first deal of its kind in the Middle East, Apple has inked an agreement with Saudi bookshop Jarir to supply all Apple products through the outlet, as well as providing an after-sales service.

Apple Poaches Swiss Watch Exec For iWatch Launch

Jenny Cosgrave, CNBC

Apple has hired the sales director of luxury Swiss watch maker TAG Heuer to help with the launch of its new iWatch, as the technology group intend on using the prestigious "Swiss made" label to market its new gadget, the head of LVMH's watch brands Jean-Claude Biver told CNBC.

Sunrise Calendar Announces New Mac Client With Offline Mode, Third-party App Integration

Chance Miller, 9 To 5 Mac

How To Stream Your Musical Performances Across The Web

Christopher Breen, Macworld

The gist is that Nicecast allows you to use any app as an audio source and stream its output over a local network or the Internet.

Spotify Now Lets You View Your Play Queue And Notifies You Of Playlist Duplicates

Aldrin Calimlim, AppAdvice

Three Smart Tricks For Managing Printers In OS X

Dan Miller, Macworld

Give Your Brain A Workout With Lumosity

Leah Yamshon, TechHive

Support For .Mac And .Me AIM Logins Ends For OS X 10.7.1 Or Earlier, Newer Versions Unaffected

Jordan Kahn, 9 To 5 Mac

Apple Launches $49 Mac Pro Security Lock Adapter In Online Store

Husain Sumra, MacRumors

Apple's lock adapter is a simple metal bracket that secures the lift-off cover of the Mac Pro to the base of the machine with a security cable, preventing access to the machine's internals. The cable lock can then of course be secured to a bulky object or dedicated security ring found on some desks to make it difficult for thieves to steal the machine.

Best Todo Apps For Mac: Omnifocus, Things, 2Do, And More!

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore

Apple's New CarPlay Partners Include Chrysler, Mazda And More

Chris Velazco, Engadget

DC Comics (For iPad)

Jeffrey L. Wilson, PC Magazine

The Comixology-powered DC Comics (free) transforms Apple's slate into a digital comic book shop from which you can purchase new titles, as well as numerous back issues. DC Comics lacks the excellent shopping cart found in Comixology's own apps and has some big holes in the catalog, but those who enjoy spending time in the Batcave or Fortress of Solitude will like this app.

Apple Releases Security Fixes For iOS, OS X, Safari And Apple TV

Larry Seltzer, ZDNet

Apple has released new versions of iOS, OS X, Safari and Apple TV, and disclosed the vulnerabilities fixed in those new versions. A total of 60 unique vulnerabilities are addressed in the products. As is common with Apple, some of the vulnerabilities are quite old.

Apple Launches Back To School Promo, Offers Gift Cards With Purchase

Dan Moren, Macworld

As in the past, Apple is offering gift cards for the Apple Store along with the purchase of Macs, iPads, and iPhones.

New Store Graphics Are Changing The Mood

IfoApplestore.com

The visuals teams at the Apple retail stores are installing new back-lit wall graphics to promote the capabilities of the iPad and iPhone, but the graphics have also changed the mood of the stores with their photographic style.

iOS 7.1.2 Improves iBeacon

Josh Centers, TidBITS

OS X 10.9.4 Includes Wi-Fi, Wake From Sleep Fixes

Josh Centers, TidBITS

Highlights of the update include a fix for a bug that prevented some Macs from automatically connecting to Wi-Fi networks, improved reliability of wake from sleep, and the inclusion of Safari 7.0.5, which features a number of security fixes.

Apple Finally Brings Two-factor Authentication To iCloud Website

Mike Beasley, 9 To 5 Mac