Macgasm » Misc. News

Windows 8: Compromising Your Lack Of Compromise

Grant Brünner — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:10:47 +0000

Microsoft is hilariously late to the tablet market with anything resembling a modern tablet OS. Sure, Bill Gates loved the idea of a Windows desktop with a stylus, but that ain’t no tablet, sonny! As Windows 8 (RT BBQ Edition for Tablets of Beloved Fearless Leader Of The Motherland 2008 Server Edition) was revealed, Microsoft went on and on about how duct-taping Metro to the classic Windows OS was all about choice and no compromise and blah blah blah. That said, they had the good sense to make the ARM version of Windows free from plug-ins. Most of us assumed that would mean Microsoft would join Apple’s fight to wrestle the web away from Adobe, but it turns out they’re compromising.

Rafael Rivera, Within Windows:

Two years ago, Microsoft declared that the future of video on the web would be powered by HTML 5. Today, however, a lot of web video content is still delivered via Adobe Flash technology. So, in a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft is integrating Flash directly into Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and doing so in a way that does not undermine the safety and reliability of the Metro environment[…] Microsoft does work closely with Adobe, closely enough that Adobe actually provided Microsoft with source code access to Flash, allowing them to seamlessly integrate the technology into IE 10. Thus, Microsoft did not need to make an exception to its no-add-on policy for Internet Explorer Metro. By making Flash a part of IE 10, it can ensure the code meets its own standards for reliability, compatibility, security, and, probably most important, performance.

Yuck, yuck, yuck. So a half-working sorta version of Flash will be rolled into Internet Explorer 10, and Flash continues to limp its bloodied corpse forward another long, long year. This is less than happy news for those of us who fight with Flash on a daily basis. I’m sure that Windows tablets will be super fun to use, and we’ll all be punching chimps and watching splash screens for decades to come.

Source: Within Windows

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Seagate Moving To Purchase LaCie

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:28:29 +0000

It’s looking like LaCie and Seagate have entered into negotiations that would see Seagate purchasing Lacie for 146 million Euros. Based on the Forbes findings Segate plans on purchasing Philippe Spruch’s 64.5 percent stake in LaCie, then once that’s completed they will make an all-cash tender for the remaining LaCie shares:

Seagate has offered Mr. Spruch and his affiliate €4.05 per share in cash, minus a potential adjustment depending on the cash and debt position of LaCie at closing. This price may be increased by a possible price supplement of 3% in the event that the threshold of 95% of the shares and voting rights of LaCie would be reached by Seagate within 6 months following closing, resulting in a maximum potential price per LaCie share of €4.17.

Great for LaCie, and a pretty questionable move for Seagate. According to their press release, Seagate is essentially purchasing LaCie for its “premium-branded direct-attached storage line, strengthen our network-attached storage business line and enhance our capabilities in software development.” Whether or not that is worth the price of investment is up to Seagate, but to us it sounds like all they need is a nice external enclosure for their drives. We’re oversimplifying obviously, but are we really that far off the mark? One thing’s for certain, Seagate is about to inherit some nifty looking case enclosures.

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The RickRoll Is Officially Dead, DMCA’d

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:13:12 +0000

All good things must come to an end, especially on the Internet where copyright holders are so worried about lost revenue that they DMCA everyone and everything into submission. If you’re fond of sending Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” videos to your friends when they least expect it, finding the video on YouTube just got a whole lot harder. AVG Technologies has issued a takedown request, and the original RickRoll video has been removed from YouTube.

We’re not completely sure how the company behind AVG Anti-Virus holds any copyright to a music video that’s five years old, and hopefully this is just an AVG-Roll.

For now though, it looks like the RickRoll is officially being killed off. Stupid AVG.

Via: TorrentFreak

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Bioengineers Now Able To Write And Rewrite Information To DNA

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:54:38 +0000

Your DNA holds hundreds of gigabytes of data in a space so tiny you could only see it under a microscope. It’s no wonder scientists and engineers are dedicating a tremendous amount of time and energy into figuring out how to turn DNA into a data storage device.

Up until recently, bioengineers were only able to write data once to DNA, but Bioengineers at Stanford University have now discovered a way to write and rewrite data to a strand of DNA. “We can write and erase DNA in a living cell,” says Jerome Bonnet, a bioengineer at Stanford University. “Now we can bring logic and computation inside a cell itself.”

Science News explains the findings published by Stanford’s Drew Endy in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.:

In the experiment, the enzyme traveled to a particular place on the sequence of DNA that contains genetic information and flipped a small section so that it read backward. Sending a second signal then flipped the sequence back to its original state. The flipped and unflipped versions thus represent the “0” and “1” states of a computer bit, says Bonnet … Working in the bacterium Escherichia coli, the team also tweaked the DNA so that it would fluoresce in different colors depending on the orientation of the strand in question. By watching the cells’ glow change between red and green and then back again, the scientists could tell when the DNA strand had been flipped.

I’m pretty speechless. Mostly because this stuff is WAY over my head. I’m pretty glad people a lot smarter than I are on the case of turning DNA into a storage device. We’ve been hearing for years that a test tube filled with DNA could store a heck of a lot of information if not our entire historic record. It’s pretty exciting to think of the potential storage possibilities that a device the size of a typical thumb drive could have if it was based on a DNA-like storage system. Lossless audio and raw video footage wouldn’t even be a problem, and that’s just in the consumer media market. Imagine what something like this could do in the medical industry?

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IBM May Let You Bring Your Own Device To Work, But They Still Pretty Much Own It

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:15:57 +0000

If given the choice between using some crappy piece of hardware your company hands out or your own personal computer or mobile device, which would you choose? It’s pretty much a no-brainer, especially if you’re an Apple fan working in a Windows world. Apparently Big Blue (IBM) is finally catching up with the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement, and allowing their employees to bring their own preferred devices to work. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy sailing for its employees who are looking to take advantage of software or services they prefer over the IBMified devices. Nope, corporate IT policy is still pretty heavy-handed, and your iPhone will still get Big Blued.

IBM’s chief information officer Jeanette Horan offers a brief look at how BYOD works at IBM with MIT’s Technology Review:

Before an employee’s own device can be used to access IBM networks, the IT department configures it so that its memory can be erased remotely if it is lost or stolen. The IT crew also disables public file-transfer programs like Apple’s iCloud; instead, employees use an IBM-hosted version called MyMobileHub. IBM even turns off Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant, on employees’ iPhones. The company worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere.

Horan goes on to highlight how “conservative” the company is, and bemoans the lack of basic “awareness as to what constitutes a risk” among her employees. I’d like to suggest that if she really meant it, she’d take a moment and have her IT department explain to employees why using iCloud or Siri could be a security risk instead of disabling it on employees’ mobile devices. A simple, “people can steal our trade secrets if these services are breached” email should be sufficient and still give people the ability to ask Siri where the closest taco stand is in the area.

The best security policy is one that actually educates employees to help them make smart security decisions, not one that removes access or limits their functionality to certain applications without a basic discussion about the risks. Then again, having a smarter, more secure workforce would likely mean less IT jobs, so… there’s that.

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Ask And Tell: Happy With Siri? Seems Like It’s Too Close To Call

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:59:08 +0000

Man, we knew people loved Siri and another group of people hated it, but when it comes down to it, it seems like we’re damn close to being split in our opinions about Siri. According to our poll last week, we found that 49.68 percent of respondents were happy with Siri on their iPhone 4S, and that 50.32 percent of those who voted didn’t think that Siri lived up to original expectations.

We’ve seen a lot of polarizing topics on Macgasm over the years, but this may be the closest split to date. It’s no wonder comments and posts around the blogosphere are so split on Siri and whether or not it’s a disappointment. Being Canadian, and the fact that Siri is pretty limited up here, I fall in the diappointed category, but that’s a pretty unfair reason for me to cast a vote in one direction over another. We simply don’t have access to everything Siri has to offer just yet.

That said, we’re really hoping Apple moves to include a lot more features in Siri in iOS 6. Rolling out an API for other developers to integrate with the service may not be something we see in the short term, but over the long term, it’s going to be crucial to the service’s success. We absolutely need more integration with popular Internet services, as well as the ability to do things like send a Tweet or post a Facebook status update directly from Siri.

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Google Officially Annexes Motorola

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:45:06 +0000

Google announced today that it has officially acquired Motorola Mobility. The deal has been in the works for a while now, but had to get approval from a number of international jurisdictions, including those in Europe, China and the United States.

The acquisition will, of course, result in some turnover in the company, starting at the top. Google announced that Sanjay Jha will be stepping down as CEO of Motorola and Google executive Dennis Woodside will take over this position.

Google CEO Larry Page on the acquisition:

It’s a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound–as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That’s why it’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.

Motorola jumped on the Android bandwagon early, delivering handsets with the open source operating system from Google since 2009. When the acquisition was initially announced, Google indicated that they hoped the purchase of Motorola Mobility would “help supercharge Android.” Particularly attractive to Google is Motorola’s suite of wireless patents, which should help protect Android from its many patent-infringement lawsuits.

Source: Google Official Blog

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Sonos Announces Sexy New Sub Subwoofer For Your Speaker Speakers

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:10:44 +0000

The fine folks over at Sonos have introduced a brand-spanking-new subwoofer for their multi-room, wireless audio systems. The Sub is built to work in conjuncion with Sonos’ ZonePlayer system, as well as the Play:5 and Play:3 speaker systems.

The Sub system is built to fill only one room with “thick layers of deep, bottomless sound that let you hear and feel every chord, kick, splash and roll.” So, if you’re planning to set up a Sonos system throughout your house, you may want to consider a couple of these for key areas in need of better bass integration throughout your house.

The Sub also uses Sonos’ famous one-button setup that the rest of the system uses to sync your audio devices to the main network for your system.

While the Sub has been announced, you can’t walk away with one just yet. That said, the Sub is available for pre-order at $749, and it’s only available in a Black Gloss finish.

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Plugbook: A Better Power Strip

Grant Brünner — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:02:21 +0000

Getting power to your devices is a pain in the ass. Dave Hakkens, a product designer and student from Eindhoven, Netherlands, has reimagined the concept of a power strip into the shape of a book. Not only can it be kept on the bookshelf and stacked with other things neatly, but it also hides the messy cord. By pressing the button on the side, the Plugbook sucks up the cord inside of itself so it will sit nicely.

Built in two versions: US (Nema 5-15 plug) and EU (CEE7/7 plug), the Plugbook is available on Kickstarter for only $25 USD. That includes free shipping in the US or Europe, but an additional $10 USD is needed for shipping elsewhere. It has two standard power plugs and two USB ports for charging your favorite electronic devices. It is available in three colors: white, black, and red. A fourth color is currently being voted on by the Kickstarter backers.

As of publication, this project is sitting at just under $2,000 USD. The minimum funding goal is $45,000 USD, and they have 39 days left to reach it. If the current pace stays, they should have no problem, but don’t wait. If you want your own Plugbook, you should back the project ASAP.

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Aaron Sorkin Officially Adapting “Steve Jobs” Biography For Sony Pictures

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:18:52 +0000

If you’re worried that Kutcher and company are going to botch their indepented film, fear not, the big boys over at Sony Pictures have just officially hired Aaron Sorkin to adapt the official ‘Steve Jobs’ biography into a screenplay for their own.

From the press release uncovered by our friends over at Slashfilm:

Academy Award® winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin will adapt Steve Jobs, a motion picture based on the best-selling biography of the legendary Apple co-founder by award-winning journalist Walter Isaacson, it was announced today by Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Doug Belgrad, President of Columbia Pictures. The project is being produced by Mark Gordon, Scott Rudin and Guymon Casady.

For those of you not up on your film industry trivia, Aaron Sorkin also wrote the screenplay for The Social Network. He also spent time writing for The West Wing. We’re pretty pumped that Sorkin agreed to do the adaptation. The Social Network was fantastic, and there’s no doubt the Jobs bio will be fantastically written as well.

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So, Josh Co-Hosts The AppOrchard Podcast, Check It Out!

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:55:53 +0000

I’m not one to self promote, but I’m making an exception this time. Did you know that I also co-host a podcast over on the 70 Decibels network with that famous, or is it infamous, Myke Hurley? It’s called The AppOrchard

The network has some of the best podcasts on the Internet right now, and I think we’re one of them. I’m pretty biased though. You should check it out. We chat weekly about apps (mostly iOS and OS X).

It’s an honor that I’m even allowed to play with the big boys, but I’d also be even more honored if you checked it out and left us some feedback or rated the podcast in iTunes.

Do me a favour: go subscribe.

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In Finland Open Wi-Fi Owners Not Responsible For Others’ Copyright Infringement

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:36:43 +0000

A Finnish court has decided that having an open Wi-Fi connection does not make the access point owners responsible for third party copyright infringement that happens over their network. Proponents of common sense just let out a loud collective sigh of relief.

The case was brought to the courts by a Finnish Anti-Piracy Centre, which was also suing a woman for $7,700 for copyright infringement. Turns out the defendant had approximately 700 guests at her home for a play that day. The Finnish Anti-Piracy Center claimed that the women who owned the home downloaded the files in questions. The home owner claimed that it was one of her guests.

The ruling found that “the applicants were unable to provide any evidence that the connection-owner herself had been involved in the file-sharing. The court thus examined whether the mere act of providing a WiFi connection not protected with a password can be deemed to constitute a copyright-infringing act.” The court finally ruled that “the WiFi owner cannot be deemed liable for the infringements actually committed by third parties.”

Now, this pretty much has zero implications over here in North America, but it’s important to point out that it’s nice to see a court system applying logic to their cases. Owning a gun and having a third party use that gun to commit murder doesn’t make the original gun owner a murderer. It’s the same kind of logic in this case. Sure, murder versus copyright infringement isn’t exactly the same kind of case, but the basic tenants of reponsibilty apply in both cases. It’s time the rest of the Western world realizes that.

Via: BoingBoing

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Buffalo Launches Next Gen Wireless Router

Grant Brünner — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:45:24 +0000

802.11n wireless has been a godsend to those of us who want to stream video wirelessly over our home networks. It’s great, but technology ever marches onward. The next Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, is on its way to being ratified. Much like previous standards, hardware vendors cannot wait for the final standard to be ratified to start producing routers and network cards, so they start manufacturing them using the draft specification. Today, Buffalo announced the first 802.11ac draft wireless router available to the mass market. As is all too common, they have given this router a ridiculous name: AirStation AC1300 or WZR-D1800H. While that’s fine for internal use, it is pretty silly for that string of characters to be placed prominently for the world to see.

Now, there isn’t really any hardware that can take advantage of 802.11ac’s speeds yet, so they decided to release a wireless bridge as well: WLI-H4-D1300. This allows you to plug in devices over ethernet so you get the benefit of the increased speed, and you only have to run a tiny bit of wires instead of a long string across your entire house.

So, how much is it? Well, you can pick up the wireless router for $179 USD on Newegg. If you want the wireless bridge, that will be another $179 USD. So, is it worth it to drop $358 USD on a solution that doesn’t work with anything else yet, and might not even be compatible with the final spec? Not yet. To be fair, they dragged their feet with 802.11n, so Draft-N proliferated to a point where it was useful. If that happens again, Draft-AC devices might be worth the investment, but that time hasn’t come.

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Here’s Photographic Evidence That The Kutcher Indie Flick On Jobs Is Terrible

Joshua Schnell — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:07 +0000

As if you needed another reason to believe that the forthcoming independent film about Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher was going to be outright terrible. TMZ has stumbled across and posted some photos of Kutcher dressed up as Steve Jobs. It looks like the film is also throwing attention to detail to the wind, failing to accurately depict Jobs and his love for Levi jeans and New Balance running shoes. Instead, Kutcher’s Jobs loves what looks like Asics and slightly hipper and more expensive jeans. If you can overlook that fact, can you overlook the fact that Jobs wasn’t known for wearing that particular clothing combo until he was well into his 50s?

It has us wondering if Kutcher’s independent film has paid any attention to detail at all. It sure doesn’t look like it, does it? The only thing it looks like is a bunch of filmmakers looking to cash in on the Jobs story, which has us bummed because we were really hoping this thing would be good.

Status: Bummed Out.

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Notes And Reminders Appear On iCloud Beta Site, Then Disappear

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:31:13 +0000

It’s looking likely that Apple’s getting ready to extend iCloud, the website, to include both the Notes and Reminders applications. Some of our favorite Internet detectives managed to sneak a quick snapshot of the apps while they were temporarily online at iCloud.com. Both Dave Caolo of TUAW and 52 Tiger fame and the Macstories team were able to grab quick snapshots of the app listings, although neither was able to get into the apps.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Federico Viticci was able to snap a screenshot from beta.icloud.com that shows off the Notes and Reminders icons on the page.

Quick poll, do you actually use the iCloud website?

Image Credit: Macstories

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Plug In All Of Your Gadgets With This USB Power Strip

Grant Brünner — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:30:52 +0000

If you’re even the slightest bit nerdy, you probably have way more USB-powered baubles than there are USB ports on your computer. Harddrives, iPhone cables, scanners, or overexcited dogs are hogging all of your USB ports. You’re going to need a USB hub, and this one is perfect.

The USB Power Strip is a slim USB hub that is made to resemble traditional power strips. It plugs into your computer or wall wart with a three foot cord, and then offers four additional USB ports. When you’re on the go, this is the perfect little gadget to stuff in your backpack for emergencies when you and three of your friends need to plug in your iPhones.

The USB Power Strip is available from ThinkGeek for $9.99 USD. Your shipping charges may vary based on where you live.

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Apps Of The Week: Food And Wine, Procreate, Bastion, And More

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:52:52 +0000

It’s the end of another week, which means it’s time for our weekly top apps post. This week we feature a couple of games, as well as the perfect app for your upcoming party planning, and an artist tool that’s unparalleled on iOS.

iPhone / iPod touch: Food And Wine

This free application is perfect for the upcoming summer season. With over 350 drink recipes and a whole bunch of crazy food recipes, your next barbecue doesn’t have to suck any more. The really cool thing about the app is that it helps you pair drinks to food types so that you can make sure to serve complimentary beverages at your next shindig.

Download links below

New iPad: Procreate

Remember when we were all in a tizzy over Paper? Yeah, Paper isn’t even qualified to hold Procreate’s paint can. Procreate is pretty much Paper times a billion. With realistic stokes, synthetic pressure sensitivity, and layering up to 16 layers, it’s pretty obvious why Procreate is the sketching and painting app of professional artists on the iPad. If you’re into this kind of thing, it’ll only set you back $4.99 off the hop. We recommend checking this one out.

Download links below

The Mac: Bastion

It’s been a while since we’ve recommended a game for the Mac. Bastion has given us an excellent excuse to recommend the RPG in today’s Apps Of The Week post. The artwork is reminiscent of Braid, with over 40 hand-painted environments, the narration is fantastic, and the gameplay is amazing. All in all, if you’re looking for one game to eat up your weekend, pick up Bastion. It’s only $14.99.

Download links below

Game Of The Week: N.O.V.A 3

When it comes to FPS games on your iPad, the N.O.V.A series is pretty much the gold standard. This Halo-inspired game has only been out for a couple of days, but it’s already eating up my gaming time on my iPad. N.O.V.A 3 continues to push the boundaries of gaming capabilities on the iPad, and it’s certainly worth the price tag. If you’re into FPS gaming, you need to give this one a download.

Download links below

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This Is How To Send A Love Note Without Your iPhone

Grant Brünner — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:51 +0000

So you found yourself someone special. You want to send them a love note, but an email, tweet, or Facebook message isn’t cutting it. This is a job for actual, physical media. The horror! Well, if we’re going to be dealing in dead trees, we might as well be cute and somewhat cheeky.

This pixelated heart card is printed on real paper, and is available on Etsy for only $4.00 USD ($1.00 – $1.50 shipping depending on where you live). The front has a pixel-art heart available in either pink or grey with the text “not sent from my iPhone” underneath. The back comes with a quote from some book. If that’s your thing, great. Luckily, those of us who aren’t into that sort of thing can order the card without the quote on the back.

This card is the perfect way of showing that you care enough to put down your iPhone. Now that’s love!

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This Is Why I Don’t Own A Printer

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:22:27 +0000

I don’t own a printer. I haven’t for about three years now. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ll ever purchase another printer again. A lot of people ask me why I don’t have a printer tucked away in my office. Usually I just go on and on about PDFs and the fact that I just don’t need to print anything on paper these days. I was wrong. There’s a completely different reason that I don’t own a printer.

It’s shit like this.

Printer companies continue to screw customers over year after year, increasing prices while scrimping on the ink. Just ask the guy over at HP Ink Cartridges who decided to cut the top off an ink cartridge from HP all for the same printer model, but across multiple years.

Do you feel like you run out of ink quicker these days? Well, it turns out that you actually do. Printer companies have been shrinking the hydrophobic sponge in the ink cartridges so it holds less ink. The difference between 2010 and 2012? Fifty percent less sponge.

From HP Ink Cartridges:

Mmm, I was beginning to smell a rat; as the saying goes… this got me thinking even more and I started to wonder if all the newer cartridges are like this, so this time I chopped the top off of a new HP 301 cartridge to have a look at the sponge, surely it can’t be any smaller…..or can it? Guess what! The sponge inside the HP301 is almost 40 percent smaller than the 2012 HP 350, which means that we are actually getting less ink for our money now than ever before. Why is that? The price isn’t shrinking though, that’s for sure!

Yup, it’s shit like this. I honestly can’t wait until I never have to print another document again. I barely do now, but the odd time I head to a print shop to print out a contract or important documents is still too often. Anyone else tired of this crap? HP sure knows how to treat their customers right. Right?

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Six Things Apple Needs To Steal From Android For iOS 6

Greg Pettit — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:28:51 +0000

Apple’s mobile users have long held iOS as a shining example of what could be done “right” for end users. But let’s face the truth: it’s showing its age. As someone who regularly uses Android by choice and also iOS by circumstance, I honestly prefer Android in almost every way (iOS winning only in responsiveness of interactions). It’s not only the visible interface, but also the features exposed to users and developers. Here are some things that Apple needs to ~~steal~~ improve if they want to do right by their users

Mounting as a storage device:

I want an easier way to get my files on and off of my device. Let’s admit that iTunes is a ball and chain and confess that iCloud is not magic. You know what IS magical and seamless? Connecting my device (physically or via network) and being able to just interact with it, like every other portable device since 2001.

The Home Screen:

Google ~~stole~~ borrowed the Apple approach to displaying installed apps (the “big ol’ grid of icons”), but quickly called it “App Drawer” and buried it a level deeper. With the home screen liberated, I can use it for “widgets” that give me at-a-glance information presented in (usually) well-designed panels. Interactive dialers, media players, toggles for settings (which would otherwise require navigating menus), and hundreds of other useful tools that are widgetized and ready to make my homescreen actually useful. Apple? Big ol’ grid of icons.

System-Wide File System Access:

This is a pipe dream because Apple has said in no uncertain terms that their “sandboxing” approach to applications is core to their security model. But it sucks. There are many good reasons to let applications talk to one another and only one good reason not to: “We don’t trust our users to make smart choices, so we’re going to protect them.” Any number of useful things I can do on my Android device are possible because of system-wide file system access, from amazing automation of tasks and events to simple things like uploading edited files to an FTP server.

App Management:

iOS app management is rough. I choose an app to download and I am unceremoniously dumped to the home screen to watch the cute progress overlay on the new icon. Back to the App Store to grab another app, dumped to the home screen again. Only, it’s not even downloading; it’s “pending” the completion of the first app. Frustrating, yes. But at least after they’re installed they will automatically update in the future, right? Nope. Just more one-by-one updating.

The current iteration of the Google Play Store is beautifully presented and intuitive to use, which hasn’t always been the case. But what has been the case is the ability to continue doing whatever you’re doing after choosing an app. And if that means grabbing more apps, they can all download at the same time. As they arrive in any order (the smallest will generally arrive first), you can start using them right away. And auto-update? Yep, that’s available for most apps from the Google Play Store.

Format Support:

Apple supports almost no media formats other than their own. The easiest compromise is to process everything through iTunes. ‘Nuff said. However, I can’t see Apple changing their stance on media formats and the iTunes yoke any time soon.

Flick To Scroll:

Apple has (hands-down) the most responsive mobile UI. You can’t deny it. But there’s something wonky about the iOS “flicking” (fast swipe) gesture to scroll a lengthy webpage or a long list. It seems to take 20 flicks where I expect it to take one or two. Here’s how it feels to me: You’re at the top of an awesome slide. You put your hands forward on the rails, “wind up,” and give yourself a huge push, expecting to hurtle down the slide! Instead, you move two feet and you find yourself stuck partway down. There’s no choice but to wiggle to the bottom, wondering how the person who built the playground could have failed to grasp the purpose of a slide. Just as Apple has failed to grasp that a mighty flick should speed me along rather than nudge me.

Android? I give myself that huge push and I hurtle to the bottom of the slide. I whip through long webpages, my app drawer view, or other long lists — not at an exaggerated speed, but at exactly the speed I should be going based on the gesture.

Conclusion

I do enjoy a lot of what iOS and Apple have to offer. The App Store is still home to the best apps, and I find it particularly useful for toddler-aged educational and entertainment tools. But I also find it very claustrophobic and limiting. I can admit that some of what I want in a phone is not going to happen any time soon (file system interaction for example), but these are the very things that will limit my willingness to buy more iOS devices. Other things (app management) pose no threat to the Apple way of life and I think they couldn’t arrive on iOS devices quickly enough! Apple needs to bring some of these things to iOS 6.

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Only 20 Percent Of US Homes Have TVs Connected To The Net

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:01:16 +0000

The Google television may never have gotten off the ground, and the Apple TV may be Apple’s only solution to revolutionizing the television, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t connecting their televisions to the Internet these days. In a study conducted by Allied Business Intelligence, the research team found that only 21 percent of households have connected their telelvisions to the Internet through Internet TVs, Blu-ray players, or smart set-top boxes like the Apple TV or Roku.

That number is expected to double by 2017:

At least 21% of US households have either an Internet-ready TV, game console, standalone Blu-ray player, and/or smart set-top box connected to their home network … Looking out to 2017, the penetration rates are expected to exceed 60% for game consoles, TVs, and Blu-ray players, and while not all of these devices will be connected, there is certainly room for growth, as only 48.5% of consumers with a home network currently have one of these devices connected to the Internet.

This news surprises for two reasons: first, 21 percent of people connecting their televisions to the Internet is a pretty big deal considering Nielsen has estimated that 114.7 million homes have televisions in the US. That puts the number of connected TVs around 22.9 million homes; second, less than half of customers with a home network have connected their televisions to the web.

Considering Apple has just reported that they sold 35.1 million iPhones in the March quarter of 2012, and another 11.8 million iPads, it’s pretty obvious why Apple is still viewing the Apple TV and Internet connected television markets as a bit of hobby. While the market size is increasing, an entire US market of just 22 million potential customers may not be big enough for Apple to tackle the Internet television market. Given the rate people upgrade televisions, and the limited market, it’s hard to see how Apple could turn the industry on its head and rake in iPhone like profits.

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Apple Snags Yahoo Executive For iAd Team

Joshua Schnell — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:41:42 +0000

Apple has poached Jessica Jensen from Yahoo, and it’s being speculated that Jensen will be taking a job working under former Yahoo and Adobe advertsing executive Todd Teresi.

From All Things D:

Sources said Jensen is taking a job at Apple, working for former Yahoo and Adobe advertising exec Todd Teresi, who was recently tapped to head the mobile iAd division … Previously, Jensen worked on strategy for Yahoo’s Americas unit, arriving there three years ago from LowImpactLiving.com, a green-housing-sector site that she founded and led.

iAd has taken quite a beating in the advertising circles the last couple of years. The mobile advertising initiative from Apple has been much maligned since its announcement in 2010. Since its release, Apple has continously dropped its minimum advertising contracts to accommodate demand for its iAd platform. iAd contracts originally had a floor of $1,000,000, and as of February 2012 the minimum contact amount now sits at just $100,000, a tenth of its original value.

It seems that Apple is continuing its revamp of the advertising property by hiring adveritsing executives from competitors. Hopefully it helps the company turn around the advertising initiative. iAd enabled applications haven’t been showing very many ads these days.

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The Witch Hunt Continues: RIM May Be Involed In Anti-Apple ‘Wake Up’ Campaign

Joshua Schnell — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:11:17 +0000

Last week, sure-footed witch hunters were out in full force trying to figure out who was involved in launching the bizarre ‘Wake Up’ campaign in Austrailia. At the time, many pitchfork holders, including us, thought that Samsung had initiated the smug protest, but it turned out that Samsung had nothing to do with it, as reports have since indicated that the company has officially denied any involvedment in the campaign. It doesn’t stop there though; the torches have been lit, and the pitchforks re-sharpened for round two of this debacle. Slashgear, based on evidence found on an Apple Insider comment board, has published an article that points the pitchfork in RIM’s direction this time.

According to the findings by o0godspeed0o, the DoubleClick Ad iFrame embedded in the Wake Up page points to “black822″, with an ID of 2215527. That ID, which is also unique, is used by RIM’s Australian BlackBerry site.

From SlashGear:

The Apple Store demonstration was linked with a “Wake Up Australia” website running a countdown; that countdown expires several days after Samsung is expected to unveil its new flagship. However, buried in the source code is a DoubleClick Floodlight Tag ID, 2215527, which a little Googling turns up as also used by RIM’s Australian BlackBerry site.

Boom. Caught red-handed. Alledgedly.

In all honesty, this witch hunt is getting a little long in the tooth, and we’re probably going to retire the topic moving forward. While bizarre and somewhat hilarious at the time, the publicity stunt now just looks pretty desperate, especially if it was RIM that was involved with the ploy, considering just how long it took for RIM to wake up and admit that the iPhone had its number.

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Microsoft Patents Low Powered Backside e-Ink Display Concept

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:37:28 +0000

First, we know this is not an Apple related patent, but it was just so cool that we found ourselves wanting to actually pass along the information. Microsoft has patented the idea of a backside lower-powered e-Ink based display that could be molded to a smartphone.

From PatentBolt:

Microsoft describes a novel idea for the dual display system. When taking a photo of a person, the backside display of the camera could be set to provide a visual countdown so that the person knows when to freeze that smile: 3-2-1 will appear on the back display and then snap. Although it’s a bit gimmicky, it’s still kind of a neat idea.

The idea is to turn a lot of unusable space into something actually usable by the OS. Dates, times, and indicators could find themselves on the top or bottom of a phone. The backside of a phone could become a low-powered alarm clock or a timer count for a camera. The possibilities are pretty neat and endless.

While it’s unlikely that this type of technology will find itself in an Apple product any time soon, it’s certainly a pretty neat idea. It’s also a good little indicator that Microsoft is still thinking outside of the box, which is nice.

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Google Tweaks Its Search Algorithm To Weed Out Webspam, Again

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:03:19 +0000

On their official Google Search blog, Google differentiates between “white hat” search engine optimization and “black hat webspam,” emphasizing that the changes are intended to affect the latter only. However, I can’t help but think that search engine optimization is more of a spectrum than just black and white. Google points out that the changes will affect 3.1% of English queries, which will still be a significant number of searches. The reality is that many websites (including yours truly) are commercial entities, and Google searches are a significant means of obtaining traffic, which in the world of the Internet, is equated to income. Search engine optimization is therefore an essential way to maximize this income stream. We’re all for improving a service, but Google’s opacity when it comes to their search engine algorithm is frustrating for those of us that are trying to compete on the web.

On their blog, Google points out:

While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.

As Google emphasizes, our primary objective is to create a high quality site, but we also want to do our best to bring that high quality site to as many people as possible, and the means to that end is search engine optimization. Hopefully we won’t be penalized in that pursuit by these changes. We certainly aim to where a white hat when optimizing our website for search engines.

The changes will go live for all languages at the same time sometime this week (if they haven’t gone live already).

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Google Releases Google Drive To The Masses

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:09:34 +0000

The idea of Google Drive has been around for years. In fact, hacks that would turn your Google Docs account into a mountable virutal drive popped up almost immediately after Google Docs was released. What soon followed was years of speculation, rumors, and punditry that centered on whether or not Google was going to turn Google Docs into gDrive, and then, eventually, a full-on Google Drive. The day has finally come, Google has just announced Google Drive on its official Google Blog.

From the Official Google Blog:

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

Google Drive lets users create and collaborate on docs, store everything they can think of, and even search everything they upload. Google Drive gives users 5GB of storage space for free, but then lets customers upgrade to 25GB of storage space for $2.49 per month, 100GB of storage for $4.99 per month, or even a whopping 1TB of space for $49.99 per month. That’s a lot of potential space for relatively cheap. For example, Dropbox offers 50GB per month for $9.99 per month, and 100 GB per month for $19.99/month, which are all well over the prices set out by Google today. It’s pretty enticing. That said, Google Drive is not Dropbox. It does things differently, and from what we’ve seen early on, Drive has its own way of doing things.

Will people switch to Google Drive? Likely. Should they switch? We’ll leave that one up to you until we spend more time with it.

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Obama Trying To Put An End To Foreign Nationals Use Of Technology To Commit Human Rights Abuses

Joshua Schnell — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:16:51 +0000

If you’re planning to use your political power to shut down the Internet, or social networks as a tool to further human rights abuses in your country, you may want to think twice. Rumors have it that President Obama plans on issuing an executive order that will give U.S. officials the power to impose sanctions against foreign nationals who use technology to “carry out grave human rights abuses.” Social media has played a huge part in the organization of protests and revolutionary movements in countries like Syria over the last year. Many expect that Obama will announce the orders during his speech today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Further to the new executive orders, many expect Obama to make another major announcement:

The president will also announce a set of U.S. development “challenge” grants designed to encourage technology companies to develop new ways to help residents in countries vulnerable to mass killings better detect and quickly alert others to impending dangers. And he will unveil a high-level government panel to serve as a clearinghouse for real-time intelligence, policymaking and other issues related to mass killing. — The Washington Post

It’s a start, but we have to ask: what’s this administration, and more particularly, the U.S. government going to do about the home-grown U.S. companies providing technology to these “foreign nationals” to further their “human rights abuses?”

Most notably, companies such as Cisco and Google have played a large role in helping the Chinese government create the “Great Firewall” for no other reason than profit. While the reponsibility ultimately lies with the countries using the technology, some responsibility needs to be placed on the corporations selling the tools to these countries. Hopefully the new executive order addresses that, but we’re not holding our breath.

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It’s Obvious Now: For The Love Of God, No More Apps In iTunes

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:50:14 +0000

In my move to ultimate portabilitiy, and my ever-long quest to downgrade my life, I’ve been trying to leave behind my music library in favor of a streaming app like Spotify or Rdio. iTunes Match is great in theory, but I’m starting to get tired of having to purchase music all the time. The files eat up my hard drive space, even though iTunes Match pseudo-streams your files. Managing them has become a bore. I’ve finally settled on Rdio, so it seems, but my move to the service has re-ignited the flames of fustration I feel for iTunes, and more particularly the currently location of the iOS App Store, which is buried within the music application. Long story short, it’s time kill it off, and move the iOS App Store for good, and it should happen right this second.

If Apple’s intention was one App Store to rule them all, they lost that war the moment they released the Mac App Store, which is ironically called App Store in OS X. There are now three distinct App Stores in OS X, and two of them share the same home, while the other has been liberated and is now enjoying its golden age in solitude, away from the anarchy and choas that’s become iTunes.

The last week I’ve been using Rdio exclusively, and I’m increasingly getting annoyed that I have to open up iTunes just to get at the iPad and iPhone App Stores. It makes no sense for me any longer, and in the grand Apple scheme of things, it makes less and less sense for the company to include the iOS App Store in iTunes at all. For me, now that I’ve moved to a streaming service, iTunes is no longer about the music, and it’s entirely about iOS apps. I now have to open iTunes and wait for my connection to work so iTunes Match works, then I can click on the iTunes Store (poorly named at this point), then I have to click the App Store links that are pushed to the periphery at the expense of Music, Movies, and TV Shows. Which, for a company increasingly reliant on iOS apps, iPhones, and iPads as their primary business model these days, makes very little sense to me.

It’s pretty clear that iTunes is having an identity crisis these days, isn’t it? All Apple has to do is move all things iOS to the actual App Store application in OS X, and then rebrand the iTunes Store to something along the lines of a Media Store, but with a catchier, Thundbolt-like naming convention. Then, if I want audio and video, which I don’t these days, I can open up what’s become Apple’s most bloated OS X application. If I want an app, I can head to the actual App Store. The personal benefits are two-fold: first, I can leave behind Apple’s iTunes for good; second, I can leave behind Apple’s iTunes for good.

My 11-inch Macbook Air has limited storage real-estate, despite my harddrive upgrade, and dedicating that precious space to a music and video library is a thing of the past for me. Netflix all the movies, and Rdio all the music. Sure, those solutions have an additional monthly stipend, but the price has become more about the cost of everywhere access, and less about purchasing the individual works of art. I think about these prices more like a monthly membership to a museum than I do buying a Monet. One’s ridiculously overpriced, and the other I can look at whenever I want. I’ll take the monthly memebership fee to look at hundreds of thousands of paintings before I’d be willing to shell out the cash for my very own Monet. The economics and technology have changed, and unless iTunes is going streaming in the near future, I don’t see myself ever purchasing an album outright again.

I’m done with music in iTunes, just in case you couldn’t tell, but what I’m not done with is the iOS App Store. Apple, please stop making me traverse the terrain of one just to get to a completely unrelated land of awesome. It’s tiring, and it’s growing more annoying each and every day.

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Nokia Loses $1.7 Billion, Windows Phone Still Irrelevant

Grant Brünner — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:50:04 +0000

Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO has announced some disappointing numbers for his company. Despite their big bet on the Windows Phone platform, Nokia has continued to lose sales. In fact, they have lost $1.7 billion USD.

Nokia sales stats:

Year over year change: -24%
Quater over quarter change: -27%
Change from Q1 2011 to 2012: -29%

This is pretty bad news for the once dominant player in the phone market. Nokia did sell 20 percent more phones in the US this quarter than last quarter, but it is down from 2011′s Q1 sales. Apple Insider points out that while Nokia is trying to spin this as good news on the North American front, it actually looks pretty grim.

Nokia is falling, Palm has fallen, RIM has fallen, and Microsoft seems to be flailing in the mobile OS department. Without a doubt, Apple completely changed the landscape in 2007 with the announcement and launch of the original iPhone. The only other platform that is doing well is Android, and it is fair to credit that to Google and their hardware partners jumping on cloning Apple’s success as soon as possible. Talk about a revolution.

Source: AppleInsider

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Watch Josh Talk Pocket With The ReadWriteWeb Gang

Joshua Schnell — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:57:47 +0000

Interested in Pocket, Instapaper, Readability, and Content Shifting apps? You should check out Josh chatting with ReadWriteWeb’s Jon Mitchell and a host of others about Pocket and its role in the industry. The chat’s about the apps as well as the whole genre from both a consumer standpoint and a publishing standpoint. It’s just over thirty minutes. We recommend heading over there and checking out the roundup post, and then watching the video.

Excuse this awkward 3rd person moment

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Starck Project Was For Jobs’ Yacht, Not Apple

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:17:24 +0000

The moment the news broke that Philippe Starck was working with Apple we had a feeling something was a little bit off. While there was no direct mention of what Philippe Starck was working on at Apple, terms like “revolutionary product” were being tossed around the rumor blogs. While the product may indeed be revolutionary, it turns out that Philippe Starck was not building something for Apple. Nope, he was building a yacht for Steve Jobs. The yacht, originally being built for Steve, is now being completed by his wife, according to the Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal:

“It’s not a project with Apple. It’s a private project that began with Steve Jobs and that has been taken over by his wife.” In an interview with a French radio station, Mr. Starck disclosed that he went to visit Mr. Jobs once a month over the past seven years. “We liked to talk about interesting things. We were working on a big project that will come out in eight months.,” he said, adding that he’s going to see Jobs’ widow in California Monday. “It’ll be quite revolutionary, if not very revolutionary,” Mr. Starck said, adding that he couldn’t say more about it because of Apple’s “almost religious cult of secrecy.”

We may be in the minority, but if the quotes from the Wall Street Journal are correct, it looks like Starck knew exactly what he was doing when conflating the yacht project and Apple’s secrecy while talking to a French radio station. Mentioning the two, and leaving out details on who the project was for, was going to inevitably lead to people combining the two into one story. We’re not saying he was out looking for press, but it kind of looks like he was out looking for free press, doesn’t it?

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Intel Makes Promises About Windows 8 Tablets

Grant Brünner — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:48:03 +0000

In Beijing this week, Intel released some more information about future Windows 8 tablets that will be using its Clover Trail CPU platform. While these all sound nice, we should remain completely skeptical until these devices actually ship, and consumers get their hands on them.

Here are some of the features of these upcoming tablets:

9+ hours of battery life

3G and LTE capable

Roughly 30 days of standby

Less than 1.5 pounds

Less than 9 millimeters thick

Certainly, Intel is very worried about the future of their business right now. ARM is kicking ass in the mobile field because they focus on energy efficient chips while Intel has been, well, less successful in that area. They’re pretty much not competing in the phone space, which I’m sure is painful, but they clearly want a chunk of the tablet market. Too bad they are competing for a small slice of the already small slice that is the tablet market sans the iPad. Meanwhile, ARM is laughing manically while diving into piles and piles of money.

Intel is also doing a bit of a marketing dance around basic things like hyper threading and scaling processor power up for complex tasks. While I’m sure Intel is super proud of whatever tech is in these chips, my mind remains unblown.

Source: CNET

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Apple Looking Into No-Code Content Authoring Tool Similar To iBooks Author

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:26:17 +0000

In today’s iPad world, creating digital content for your readers pretty much involves owning a degree in computer science, or hiring someone who knows Objective-C and a bunch of web based languages. A patent filed on April 12, 2012, suggests that Apple’s experimenting with ways to eliminate the barrier to entry by creating a content authoring tool that would require zero knowledge of programming languages. The tool would ship with a bunch of templates for your content like an image carousel, map support, a grid view and a video carousel.

From the looks of it, the software bundle would be quite similar to and parallel Apple’s iBook Authoring tools released a couple of months ago during their education event in New York. Also, like the iBook Author tools recently released, it appears that an inspector widget would be available to anyone who was comfortable creating and editing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.

If true, the tools could be very useful for creating digital magazines for the iPhone and iPad. I know a couple of people already thinking about abandoning websites for digital magazines entirely. The only hurdle between them accomplishing their dreams and being stuck on the web is the skillset and tools available for creating the content. This no-code authoring tool would be a huge step towards the realization of a life-long dream for some. It’s pretty exciting times for digital publishing.

Image Credit and Via Patently Apple

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Sorry Germany, Still No Push Email To iCloud For You

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:46:25 +0000

Looks like you’re still out of luck if you live in Germany. Apple lost its bid to restore push email to iCloud users in a Mannheim regional court earlier today. The results? Apple will now be forced to pay Motorola Mobility for infringing on its patents that relate to pushing email to mobile devices automatically.

From 4-Traders:

The Mannheim regional court backed an earlier court decision that banned Apple from offering the service for synchronizing emails on devices in a patent proceeding brought by Motorola Mobility … The court said Apple must pay damages to Motorola Mobility, but didn’t specify the amount.

Instead of having your email automatically show up on your iPhone or iPad, those using Apple’s mobile devices currently have to manually hit the update icon to retrieve new emails.

As far as the lawsuit is concerned, things are still a bit messy over in Germany for Motorola. The European Commission has already opened an antitrust investigation against Motorola Mobility (now owned by Google) for breeching antitrust rules and unlawfully changing for standards-essential patents in a non-discriminatory (FRAND) way in the region.

Via: The Next Web

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Rumor: Too Many Parts In Headphones, Apple Experimenting With Unibody Design

Joshua Schnell — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:40:15 +0000

If there’s a seam or extraneous feature in an Apple product, you can pretty much be assured that the company is rethinking it, one design decision at a time. Apple got tired of design flaws in the early MacBooks that resulted in chipped keyboard parts, and this ultimately resulted in the company deeming them a manufacturing defect. The result, Apple tore it all down and built stronger, sturdier unibody devices.

It sounds like Apple’s setting its sights on “seamless, more aesthetically pleasing unibody” headphones for their mobile devices through ultrasonic bonding. We’re not joking: one headphone, one solid piece of ultrasonically welded plastic.

AppleInsider has uncovered a patent that illustrates Apple’s attempts at combining plastics, and deburring curved plastic objects with their headphone lineup. The next time you buy a next generation iPhone or iPod, you may find yourself with a set of unibody earbuds.

Photo Credit: Peter Gerdes

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R.I.P Sticky: We’ll Miss You

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:54:38 +0000

We’ve come to associate Apple’s “We’ll be back soon” sticky note with new products and sexy new updates in the online Apple Store over the years. Sadly, Apple has killed off the sticky note and replaced it with a newer, more hip version with a lot more linen goodness.

R.I.P Sticky Note. We’ll miss you.

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Want To Know What Life’s Like Working As An Apple Genius? Buy This Book.

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:01:54 +0000

Everyone thinks working Apple retail is all fun and games. Sure, there are worse jobs on the planet than working retail, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing worse than dealing with the tech-illiterate on a daily basis. Macgasm Alumnus, Stephen Hackett, has published his first book, On Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius, on Amazon, and we recommend picking it up.

The book is a fun, interesting, and often sarcastic read, in true Hackett fashion. We’re not going to spill any beans, and we’ve only just started giving the book a read ourselves, but from what we’ve seen from the first few chapters, we highly recommend picking up the book. I think you’ll enjoy it. I mean, there’s even a story about a drunken kid pissing on a laptop.

Hell, it’s only $4.99. Buy it even if you don’t plan on reading it. The economy needs your help.

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Don’t Give Up Hope, There’s Now A Cursor For iOS

Joshua Schnell — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:37:28 +0000

There are styluses for those who need pinpoint precision in iOS, but what about the rest of us folks who really, really, really don’t want to give up our mouse cursors for iOS? Well, there’s now a cursor for the iPad, and there’s a good chance that it will not only work like you’d expect, but it’ll also eliminate those grimy finger juices you leave behind every single time your dingy paws fling another one of those pesky birds into the annoying green pigs during your epicly long Angry Bird battles.

The Big Big Cursor for iPad is essentially a glorified stylus, but instead of being a pen, the input device is that finger icon we love in OS X. This fun little take on a stylus will only set you back $12.99 USD. Something tells me your kids will love it. Stop being such a curmudgeon, even if you’re using a virtual finger instead of a real finger to navigate iOS. If you really want to get authentic, you can also get an arrow cursor instead, buzzkill.

You can get the Big Big Cursor online.

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AOL Sells Its Patent Portfolio To Microsoft

Grant Brünner — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:00:10 +0000

AOL has been in trouble for a long while. At one point, they were the dominant ISP in America. When cable and DSL started to proliferate, AOL hung tough and tried to sell their walled garden service on top of cable for a long, long time. It took them a while to pivot. For the most part now, AOL is known as a content business with Weblogs, Inc., TechCrunch, and the Huffington Post. It makes sense that they’d start selling off their patent portfolio to make some cash.

John Ribeiro:

AOL has entered into a definitive agreement to sell more than 800 of its patents and their related patent applications to Microsoft, it said Monday. The sale of patents and a non-exclusive license to its retained patent portfolio will fetch the company over $1 billion in cash, AOL said.

This is worth noting, I think. Not only did AOL sell off 800 of its patents, but Microsoft has non-exclusive rights to the ones AOL didn’t sell. Considering how much money Microsoft has been reported to make from its patents on Android, it makes all the sense in the world that they’re interested in stocking up for an ongoing war of attrition with Google.

Will this save AOL as a company? Almost certainly not, but it will buy them some time as they continue to flail. Giants of old: AOL and Yahoo, against all odds, are still here. For how long is anybody’s guess.

Source: Macworld

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Universal Studios Movies Now Available For Re-Download Across iCloud

Joshua Schnell — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:46:43 +0000

While you were off stuffing your face with chocolate the last couple of days (don’t worry, I was too), Apple added another major film studio to their Apple TV iCloud offering. Films from Universal Studios are now available through iCloud, and customers are able to re-download previously purchased movies directly to iOS devices of their choice so long as the device is tied to the same Apple ID. At this point, the only studio left to get in on the iCloud goodness for its films is Fox.

What this means for consumers is that you’re now able to re-download any film you’ve purchased through iTunes on an iOS device of your choice, making it really easy to watch movies across your devices without having to repurchase films. Now, if only Apple would do the same with iTunes rentals, we’d be really laughing.

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Sonos Axes Remote Control In Favor Of iPod Touch

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:07:50 +0000

Sonos has announced that it will be discontinuing its remote control, used to control their range of audio devices, and instead, they’ll be recommending customers pick up an iPod touch.

The Sonos controller is currently available for both the iPhone and iPad, and does everything their custom remote control does, without the added price tag, especially if you already own an iPhone or iPod touch. The remote control and iPod controller application not only allow users to change tracks and albums, but also let you select speaker arrangements from room to room.

Sonos already offers an iPhone or iPod dock for their systems, and while it’s not needed to interact with the speakers, it certainly provides a place for you to keep your iPod touch charging and connected if you’re only going to use the iPod for the Sonos devices.

This was a logical next step for Sonos.

Via: Pocket-Lint

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Samsung Looking To Steal A Piece Of Apple And Google’s Advertising Pie

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:37:26 +0000

Samsung recently announced the launch of AdHub, their own digital advertising model. AdHub promises to meet the needs of both advertisers and end-users by using advanced targeting solutions to deliver the right ad to the right person. Samsung also promises a holistic advertising experience, where ads are delivered seamlessly across the multiple devices that end-users might be using, from smartphones, to tablets, to Smart TVs. Samsung will be working with OpenX Technologies to deliver their advertising service.

Of course, the clear leader in online and mobile advertising is Google. Many of Samsung’s handsets run Google’s Android, so it’ll be interesting to see how this partnership fares in the face of this new area of competition.

Another of Samsung’s competitor’s will be Apple, who has offered its iAds platform since 2010. However, there are some indications that Apple has not been as successful as they would like on this front. Most recently, they upped the developers’ share of advertising revenue from 60 percent to 70 percent. Clearly online and mobile advertising is not easily conquered so it will be interesting to see how Samsung does with it.

Samsung is expected to launch AdHub later this year.

Source: Samsung

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WTF: Ashton Kutcher To Play Steve Jobs In Indie Flick

Joshua Schnell — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:33:15 +0000

Ashton Kutcher has been pegged to play Steve Jobs in an upcoming independent film by Five Star Institute’s Mark Hulme according to Variety. You’re probably as blown away by the news as we were, but there’s some additional information you should probably know: Kutcher isn’t slated to play Steve Jobs in the major film that Sony Pictures is currently putting together based on Walter Isaacson’s biography.

The Sony Pictures film is the one that’s been rumored to be written by Aaron Sorokin, the author behind The Social Network. Instead, the film that Kutcher is being included in is an independent film, financed by Mark Hulme, and will have CAA taking charge of the domestic distribution rights. Feel free to exhale at this point.

That being said, there’s a pretty uncanny resemblance between Kutcher and Steve Jobs.

Via: Variety

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Show Your Nano Some Love With This Awesome Miniature Case

Grant Brünner — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:10:00 +0000

Sure, the iPhone, iPad, and MacBooks get all sorts of nifty cases. Sleeves, covers, and novelties out the nose. But what about your teeny-tiny iPod nano? Doesn’t it deserve a kitschy little cover? Well, the folks over at Pad & Quill have done just that with their newest product — The Littlest Black Book. Whenever you use your iPod nano, it will look like you’re reading the world’s smallest book. Pretty neat, eh? Eh? It may smell like an April Fool’s joke, but this is an actual Kickstarter project that will accept your money.

If you want your very own, you’re going to need to drop at least $34 USD — shipping included. If you want it shipped internationally, that’ll cost you $54 USD total. This project has 29 days to go, and it needs to reach $4,500 USD to be successfully funded. Are you interested? Is this the silliest thing you’ve seen all week? Let us know by hitting us up on Twitter. We love to hear from you folks. It really does help us tweak our content to best fit your tastes.

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New Evidence Shows Hackers Employing Windows Trojan Tactics Against OS X

Joshua Schnell — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:34:31 +0000

Hackers, or the Chiense government, seem to have figured out that sending fake Microsoft Word documents to individuals using OS X would be a great way to unleash a Trojan onto computers and steal information from the infected.

The findings hints that OS X may be susceptible to the same kind of exploits that have plagued Windows XP and other Microsoft operating systems for years: human stupidity. No seriously, this latest round of exploit goodness is completely centered on users opening up attachments in their email applications.

From Ars Technica:

The recently discovered campaign targets Mac-using employees of several pro-Tibetan non-governmental organizations, and employs attacks exploiting already patched vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office and Oracle’s Java framework … Once installed, the trojans send the computer, user, and domain name associated with the Mac to a server under the control of the attackers and then await further instructions.

Here’s our public service announcement: STOP OPENING EMAIL ATTACHMENTS YOU DON’T SOLICIT. We’ve been telling everyone since we first launched this blog to stop opening attachments in emails that were sent unsolicited. Of course your Mac is vulnerable. Frankly, if you’re dumb enough to open every single attachment in your inbox you deserve to have your documents stolen and shipped off to China. For the love of all that is holy, STOP opening bizarre attachments in even more bizarre emails. No, the Secretary-General at the UN did not personally email you for your opinion, despite your completely valid opinion on the child labor issues in China.

Seriously, this is why we can’t have nice things.

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RIM Continues To Spiral Out Of Control

Grant Brünner — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:08:26 +0000

Today, RIM reported its abysmal 4th quarter financials. Revenue is down 25 percent year over year. Shipments of their Blackberry phones are down 21 percent since last quarter. Things are so bad that RIM has decided to discontinue giving “specific quantitative guidance.”

That’s not all, though. RIM is looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. Jim Balsillie, ex-CEO of RIM, has resigned as director of the board. David Yach, RIM’s Software CTO, is retiring. Last, but not least, Jim Rowan, RIM’s Global Operations COO, is leaving as well. This really does look like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

As RIM continues to fail more spectacularly, we’re starting to wonder how long it will be until we’re reporting their bankruptcy. The once-dominant smartphone maker is becoming more and more irrelevant. It seems like only a matter of time until they collapse under the weight of failure, or start selling off brands to salvage anything at all. It’s not looking good for our northern neighbor.

So, what do you think of RIM’s inability to keep up? Where did they go wrong, and when should have investors started to see it? Sound off by leaving a comment below this post. All you need to do is log in with your Twitter or Facebook account, and you’re good to go. We want to hear what you’re thinking about the cluster-eff that is RIM.

Source: The Loop
Image Credit: Paul Holloway

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Fan Remakes Of Avatar Imminent: Apple Patents 3D, Facial Gesturing Recognition Camera

Joshua Schnell — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:54:02 +0000

A new patent has surfaced that shows Apple has been working on a killer 3D imaging camera that will use depth detection sensors such as LIDAR, RADAR, and lasers. Yup, frickin lasers. The camera also includes facial gesturing recognition, just in case you can’t tell if someone is smiling or frowning before you pull the trigger on your photo.

From Jack Purcher over at Patently Apple:

The three-dimensional imaging apparatus may be used for recognizing facial gestures. Facial gestures may include, but are not limited to, smiling, grimacing, frowning, winking, and so on and so forth. In one embodiment, this may be accomplished by detecting the orientation of various facial muscles using surface geometry data, such as the mouth, eyes, nose, forehead, cheeks, and so on, and correlating the detected orientations with various gestures.

Two things are for certain: first, the fact that this patent is already publicly available probably means we’ll never see the camera in an iPhone; second, if the camera does get released, it won’t be long until we see thousands of YouTube remakes of Avatar.

The technology would make for an interesting way to automatically sort photos based on moods that have been detected by the gesturing recognition. iPhoto’s faces technology would get a whole lot more useful, that’s for sure.

Via: Patently Apple

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Rdio Taking The Fight To Spotify In Europe

Joshua Schnell — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:18:51 +0000

Not content with growth in their current markets, Rdio has decided that it’s time to take the fight to Spotify in Europe over the course of this year.

In addition to being available in the U.S., Canada, and a couple of other countries, including the recent addition in Denmark, VP Scott Bagby told paidContent that “[Rdio] will be expanding in all countries in Europe – within the next few months, you’ll see several pop up.”

Spotify, as of September 15th, 2010, had approximately 10 million users and 2.5 million paying customers. Given Spotify’s recent expansion, those numbers have obviously increased. Rdio is clearly looking to pick up some steam and close the gap between themselves and Spotify across Europe.

It’s a good thing, too. From what we’ve seen from Rdio so far, Spotify better watch its back in the next couple of months. Things could get messy.

Via: MacStories

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Thank God, Anonymous Is Planning On Shutting Down The Internet This Saturday

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:43:33 +0000

Remember, remember the 31st of March. Wait, what? Anonymous has announced that it plans to shut down the Internet on March 31st in protest to SOPA, Wallstreet, and pretty much every other stupid politican and organization that doesn’t look out for the public like they promise.

The protest, called Operation Global Blackout 2012, is going to take aim at the core DNS servers, making the Internet pretty much unsuable for anyone who dosen’t have IP addresses memorized for their favorite websites.

From the Anonymous letter to the public:

By cutting these off the Internet, nobody will be able to perform a domain name look-up, thus, disabling the HTTP Internet, which is, after all, the most widely used function of the Web. Anybody entering “http://www.google.com” or ANY other url, will get an error page, thus, they will think the Internet is down, which is, close enough. Remember, this is a protest, we are not trying to ‘kill’ the Internet, we are only temporarily shutting it down where it hurts the most.

I don’t know about you, but this sounds like an excellent opportunity to unplug over the weekend and get some spring cleaning done before it gets too warm outside.

Via: BGR

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Half Of All Houses In The US Are Rocking Apple Products

Joshua Schnell — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:43:14 +0000

The proliferation of Apple products across the US landscape is something that’s quite astounding to contemplate. We often joke about never seeing Android phones in the wild here at Macgasm, but given the results of a recent study by CNBC, we may not be that far off. According to a survey commissioned by CNBC, over half of all US homes now own at least one Apple product, and of those homes that do not have an Apple product, one in ten homes plan to purchase one in the next year.

You would think that all these houses with Apple products may actually be a problem for Apple moving forward as markets begin to dry up, but that’s not the case at all. “Americans don’t stop with just one device. Homes that own [at] least one Apple, own an average of three. Overall, the average household has 1.6 Apple devices, with almost one-quarter planning to buy at least one more in the next year.”

Not only is Apple growing at an insane rate, but their primary markets are growing right alongside of them. It wasn’t long ago that there was only one computer in a household, but today the norm seems to be switching to one computer per family member.

You can read the rest of the study over at CNBC

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