Macgasm

Apple is reportedly considering a second manufacturer for the iPad 3, as Taiwan Economic News reports. Pegatron is set to outbid Hon Hai (parent company of Foxconn) for a contract to produce the next iPad model.

Foxconn has been the major manufacturer in the production of the iPad 2, but that looks like it could change for the next iPad. Given that Apple is selling iPads as fast as they can make them, with little signs of slowing, having another manufacturer handle the iPad 3 production may be a smart move.

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Last year, if anyone had told me to make sure I changed the password on my battery, I would have thrown an energizer bunny at them. Today though, attackers could be targeting your Macbook’s battery.

These new high tech batteries are controlled and regulated by microprocessors. The microprocessors perform functions like telling the computer when the battery is done charging and how much power is left.

Security researcher Charlie Miller has discovered a way to access and control these processors by using the factory default password.

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Apple may be putting Thunderbolt in all of their machines these days, but not all of their machines are getting pure, unadulterated Thunderbolt. According to research done by AnandTech the MacBook Air only supports half the data channels of the chip found in other Apple models, as well as a single DisplayPort output.

Long story short, the MacBook Air can only handle one of Apple’s Thunderbolt displays, despite the displays being able to be daisy chained together.

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The inception of the new AirDrop feature in OS X Lion that allows one to easily and quickly share files with another Mac that is simply in the near vicinity caused the great thinkers over at AppleBitch to wonder if, and when, an AirDrop app would make its way to iOS:

Now that Apple has released OS X 10.7 Lion to the public, one of the most important questions for users with multiple Apple devices has to be; will Apple release an AirDrop app for iOS 5? AirDrop itself is an incredibly user friendly and simply way to move files between two compatible Macs running the Lion operating system. Users simply have to drag and drop files from one Mac to another and don’t even have to be operating on the same wireless network. It’s like Bluetooth file sharing but better. Could this be migrated on to iOS 5?

While AirDrop does have its issues, I do agree that having some form of AirDrop on an iOS device would certainly be nice. In terms of it making its way into iOS 5 however — not as likely. But then again, who really knows other than the Apple Giants hard at work in Cupertino?

On the other hand, being able to use AirDrop unrestricted on an iPhone just as you would on a Mac poses a number of questions. For one, would you be able to easily transfer music from one iPhone to another? Better yet, would you be able to transfer music at all? That just doesn’t seem like something Apple would be too keen on. Would you then have to register the devices that you can transfer your files to? I’m just not sure. While the idea to have AirDrop sounds nice conceptually, I am super curious to see just how Apple would implement it.

Finally, if it does work phone to phone at all, you can pretty much kiss Bump goodbye.

While this whole idea of an AirDrop app on iOS makes über sense to me, there is not much more we can speculate about right now other than us all agreeing that the idea certainly has a nice intriguing ring to it.

Source: AppleBitch

It’s been a busy month for Rovio Mobile and Angry Birds. Yesterday saw the HD iPad version cut its price to a reasonable $1.99, earlier in the month the CEO tooted his company’s horn and finally the game reached 250 million gamers. Now the original game’s received an update, bringing 15 new levels and fresh collectables to the fun.

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Wren ($4.99), by Andrew Ramos and Kevin Smith, is a new Twitter client for the Mac. With so many Twitter applications, you might wonder, “Why another one?” Well, Wren attempts to offer something other Twitter clients do not: a distraction-free tweeting environment. [...]

Are you a data hog? Do you, like me, giggle with pure joy as your data usage counter just keeps going and going into the red and beyond? Okay, so maybe I’m a little sadistic, but honestly, don’t you get a little rise out of watching your AT&T bill go up as you continue to use your iPhone? No? Hmmph.

Well, data nommers beware, AT&T is getting ready to make it harder to get that little phone-bill-through-the-roof high, AND harder to use your phone all at the same time, by slowing down your data service the more you use!

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It’s not really unexpected, but we thought we would pass on the good news anyway. Microsoft is currently working on an update for Office for Mac 2011 that will bring versions, auto-save and full-screen applications to the Mac.

But, don’t expect the update to happen any time in the near future. Pat Fox, a member of the Office for Mac team has already begun tempering expectations, stating that the update will likely be released in months not days.

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