Apple

With the Creative Cloud news from Adobe and the brouhaha that followed, we completely forgot to let you know about their update to Adobe Connect Mobile this week. Available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch (and now optimized for iPad mini and iPhone 5), Adobe Connect Mobile lets users host, join, collaborate and share in Adobe Connect Meetings.Continue reading Adobe Connect Mobile updated for iOSRelated posts:Adobe releases its CreatePDF iOS appAdobe Revel for OSX and iOS reviewCamera Plus Pro v4 offers live video/photo filters, 30x faster

This week's Google I/O saw no announcements of any new versions of the company's mobile operating system, Android, and that may be because the team that is building the system is working to address the platform's biggest problem: fragmentation.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have discovered that the US fire ant population is being pushed out by "tawny crazy ants," with an affinity to the interior of electronic devices. The ants are capable of nesting in nearly any container, and as they travel, they disrupt other ant populations....

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have discovered that the US fire ant population is being pushed out by "tawny crazy ants," with an affinity to the interior of electronic devices. The ants are capable of nesting in nearly any container, and as they travel, they disrupt other ant populations....

The eBook publishing price-fixing scandal raised its fugly head again this week when the US Justice Department filed documents in advance of the June 3 trial in New York. Among those documents was a series of emails and documents in which eBook pricing strategy and tactics are discussed. An email from late founder and CEO Steve Jobs to New Corporation’s James Murdoch got all the attention. (The email itself was harmless but parts of it printed out of context sounded vaguely conspiratorial and old-boys clubbish.) To me, the scandal is buried in those emails and testimony records. We learned that Apple used its control over app approvals to exert pressure on companies for reasons totally unrelated to the apps. Does this bother you? It should. When Apple was negotiating with Random House and the companies were disagreeing about pricing, Jobs threatened the publisher’s CEO by saying they would “suffer a loss of support from Apple” if the company continued to resist Apple’s terms, according to that CEO. Two months later, the CEO said that Apple threatened to block an eBook application by Random House because they had not reached a deal. (I don’t know if that book was Nigella’s Quick Collection, pictured, but that is a Random House title.) A subsequent email sent by Eddy Cue to Jobs said that Random House agreed to Apple’s terms in part because Cue “prevented an app from Random House from going live in the app store.” (Ironically, I believe these emails are part of Apple’s defense, to show that its relationships with publishers was contentious rather than conspiratorial.) If court documents are portraying this accurately, it means that in 2010, at least, Apple was willing to use its control over the app store to give the company an unfair advantage in unrelated business deals. Apple’s History of Arbitrary App Store Decisions Some blocking of apps is more legitimate — or, at least, determined by published rules. For example, Apple banned a DUI checkpoint finding app a couple years ago. This violated a very specific section of the Apple guidelines that flat out say that DUI checkpoint apps will be rejected. Fair enough. The controversial removal by Apple of T&C’s AppGratis from the App Store last month was also probably justifiable. (Apple not only removed the app, they also pulled the plug on the app’s push notifications to people who had previously installed the app.) Though critics accused Apple of stifling an alternative view to the App Store, Apple said the app violated two of its terms of service. For a fee, the company would promote a developer’s app by giving apps free or offering in-app content free. This directly violates the App Store requirements around app promotions and direct-marketing push notifications. Still, the banning caused an international incident. France’s minister for the digital economy (why does the digital economy need a “minister”?), named Fleur Pellerin, slammed Apple in a tweet that falsely said “plenty of apps similar to AppGratis remain” in the App Store. Her involvement has also been criticized as harmful to the very “digital economy” French taxpayers are paying her to boost. Other app removals exist in a gray area where it appears that Apple just doesn’t like the sound or intent of apps, and pulls them somewhat arbitrarily. Apple this week removed the Bang With Friends app, which existed to enable users to proposition people they follow on Facebook to find out if they are “down to bang.” Essentially, it works like this: You scan your Facebook friends and choose the ones you would like to “bang.” These choices remain private. But when someone on your “down to bang” list puts you on their “down to bang” list, you’re both notified of this mutually assured attraction. As far as I can tell, the pulling of this app is arbitrary. I’m guessing Apple just doesn’t like the sound of it. I would be surprised if Apple considered as one of its corporate missions the need to prevent peo

Given that Apple now sits on well over $144.7 billion in liquid resources, there's lots of discussion about how the company could or should be spending it. What Apple is already doing with its cash is actually more interesting.

There will come a time when you would like to simply transfer a file from one iOS device to another or to a Mac; it's inevitable. When the time arises, you will discover as most of us already have that the process is not as straightforward as one would think, considering how powerful these devices are. The most common methods used up to this point have been emailing oneself, cloud services like iCloud or Dropbox, file sync with the USB cable and iTunes or pleading with the always capricious Camera Connection Kit. Thankfully the developers at TwoManShow have developed a wonderful app to take the pain out of cross device file transfers with their Instashare app. Instashare for iOS is like AirDrop for mobile devices as it quickly and painlessly copies any file from one device to another over WiFi or Bluetooth without a direct connection to the internet. Instashare for OSX currently in beta, adds the ability to send files to and from your Mac and your iOS devices. Both versions of Instashare are free; however, the iOS version is ad-supported and the ads can be removed by a $0.99 in-app purchase. Instashare for Android and Windows are currently in development. Share between devices painlessly with Instashare originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Do you want to keep your iPhone screen safe from scratches and damage? And why do so many people have iPhones with cracked screens? The Glass Guard screen protector by Good Gadget may be the solution. Good Gadget says the screen is 5x stronger than most plastic protectors, and it’s bubble-free. The tempered glass has optical nano anti-glare coating for a clear, sharper image that doesn’t reflect much in bright conditions. While the surface glides smoother than the glass of the iPhone itself, the touch screen responsiveness is unaffected. The bezel of the phone screen comes in black, white, blue, red and pink. There are two types of…Continue reading Good Gadget’s Glass Guard screen protector for iPhone 5 reviewRelated posts:V-MODA introduces VAMP iPhone amp and DAC caseSurfacePad for iPhone 5 reviewiPhone 5 skins from DecalGirl review

Seth and Mark were traveling back from Google I/O this week, but Scott and Zac sat down to discuss what Google’s announcements mean for Apple and next month’s WWDC. Subscribe now on iTunes!

Do Not Disturb is one of the best and often ignored features in iOS 6. If your iPhone is home to multiple social network apps, email, messaging and more, I’m guessing it buzzes and beeps plenty throughout your day. While not uncommon, this sort of thing can be extremely distracting when night falls and you’d like to get some well deserved rest. In the past, that mean switching on Airplane mode, which is like taking a hacksaw to a dandelion. With Do Not Disturb enabled, and customized to your preferences, calls and alerts that you designate will be silenced if your iPhone is locked. Read on for how to use do not disturb on iPhone. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll be well rested and you will not have missed anything important. Basics To enable Do Not Disturb, follow these easy steps: Navigate to Settings Toggle Do Not Disturb to ‘On’ This will enable the feature immediately, using the default settings. This works if you want to be tasked with enabling it each night. Let’s dig a little deeper and personalize the settings that work best for you. Once you enable the feature: Tap on the ‘Notifications’ option just below it. Select Do Not Disturb Here is where you can customize your preferences. The first setting allows you to set a schedule for when Do Not Disturb is active. I typically set my DND, as the cool kids call it, to enable between the hours of 11:00 pm and 7:00 am. What About Calls? If someone is calling you during your prescribed hours, chances are that it is important or heck, maybe it’s a wrong number. If someone is calling from your family or friends, it probably falls in the important call designation. The default setting is to Allow Calls From > Everyone. If you tap on that row, you can select a group from your Contacts or your Favorites. Of course, if you are set on not being disturbed, you can select No One. If you have groups that might fit the bill, you can also select a group. To further refine the group, I have created a Contact Group titled Disturb Me. This is the list of people who can call me at all hours. Point here is that you have a number of options that include no calls, everyone or a specific group that you designate. As granular as you might get in the previous step, calls that are allowed to come through are based on the contacts and phone numbers on your iPhone. It’s entirely possible that a good friend changed their cellphone number or they lost their iPhone and calling from a pay phone. They still have pay phones, right? Don’t worry, Apple has got your back. The last option in settings is ‘Repeated Calls’. If someone is trying to get in touch with you, chances are pretty good they’ll continue to call your cellphone and your home phone. If they call your iPhone more than once within three minutes, it will not be silenced if you have this option set to ‘On’. When you have finished your setup, your iPhone will go into Do Not Disturb mode during the scheduled time. You’ll know you’ve set it up correctly when you see a half-moon icon to left of the time on your iPhone. I should note that while you can customize call settings, the same cannot be said for notifications from apps. Your iPhone will continue to receive them, but they will be silenced. If you are obsessed with notifications, this feature is not for you. If you would like to silence incoming calls, the Do Not Disturb feature is an excellent option. Using the custom settings, you can still ensure that the most important people can reach you and if someone calls repeatedly, your iPhone will ring. If you’ve ever been woken up for a rogue Facebook alert or a wrong number, take a few minutes and setup Do Not Disturb on your iPhone. How To Use Do Not Disturb On iPhone is an article from everythingiCafe.