If you're in the city that never sleeps, there's a good chance your iPhone doesn't, either. To that end, AT&T, Goal Zero and Pensa have teamed up to bring solar powered smartphone chargers to the streets of New York City. The outdoor charging stations include built-in Dock and Lightning connectors as well as USB ports for people that prefer to use their own cables, small shelves to hold your phone while charging, and can be placed anywhere there's direct sunlight. The chargers are part of a test program in several locations such as Fort Greene Park, Union Square, Central Park. They'll be moving around and could end up in other cities at some point, too. Assuming the test program is successful, this'll be a handy way to power up on the go or when regular electrical service is down. If you get the chance to try one out let us know!
iOS: Prevent Unauthorized Siri Use
Whether you've locked your iOS device with a passcode or not, anyone who happens to "acquire" it has access to Siri (and thus some of your personal data, too). There is a way to prevent that, and Melissa Holt's here to tell us how. She also plans on scolding you if you don't have a passcode set. Hey, she's just looking out for you guys.
Apple Offers Retail Employees Early Access to OS X Mavericks
Apple has offered some of its retail employees early access to OS X Mavericks. Genius Bar and floor staff at the company's chain of Apple Stores have been invited to install, test, and report on their experiences with Mavericks, and Bryan Chaffin argues this is good for everyone, including Apple's customers.
Steve Wozniak Presides Over 3 Working Apple I Computers
It was a gathering tech legends, both the computers and the people. History San Jose put together a gathering of Apple I computers that included five of the 50 or so models still considered working. Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak and Apple employee #12 Daniel Kottke were on hand (one of the Apple Is belonged to The Woz), and by the end of the event three of the devices had been booted up and were running side by side. That's pretty darned cool, and it's not likely something that will be repeated any time soon. There is so much value attached to working models (the last one sold went for $674,100), no one wants to be the person who fried one or proved theirs no longer works. The San Jose Mercury News has photographs and more information.
Alf Watt at WWDC: The Journey from iStumbler to Apple and Beyond
Alf Watt attended MacWorld New York in 1999 and saw Steve Jobs launch AirPort in the first iBook and base stations. A geek at heart, he immediately wanted to understand this new technology, and iStumbler for Mac OS 9 was the result. Later, he headed a team at Apple working on Wi-Fi technologies. Basically, Mr. Watt has spent ten years making an invisible technology, indistinguishable from magic, very visible. The story of how that turned out includes fascinating technical tidbits about how Wi-Fi works.
Apple Updates Java for Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion
Apple released Java updates for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and OS X 10.7 (Lion) and 10.8 (Mountain Lion). The update brings Java SE 6 to the most recent version.
Chatology Offers Search & Filtering Options for Apple’s Messages & iChat
The folks at Flexibits have decided that the world would be a much better place if searching in Apple's Messages and iChat didn't suck. Their solution is a Mac app called Chatology that not only makes it easier to find old chats, it gives you filtering options (by image and links) to make it much easier to find the specific information you're looking for. There's also a preference option that makes ⌘F in Messages or iChat open up Chatology instead of the built-in search. The app is priced at US$19.99 from the Flexibits website—there's a free trial version available—and it requires Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later.
Just Mobile’s AluCup: iOS Device Convenience in a Small Space
The AluCup from Just Mobile is another inventive product from a company that provides convenience for the users of Apple’s many iOS devices. In this case, it is a small holder that works in different ways with all the iPhones, iPod touches and iPads.
How to Run Parallels Desktop 8 with OS X Mavericks DP
Mavericks testers have reported problems installing the Mavericks Developer Preview in a Parallels virtual machine on Mountain Lion. Parallels has provided some knowledge base articles to assist, including the installation of Parallels Desktop 8 in Mavericks itself.
Of Course iOS 7 is Broken, it’s Beta
Apple gave the public its first preview of iOS 7 last week during its annual World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco. A beta version just for iOS developers was released the same day, and it found its way to many people outside of that group who promptly started complaining about stability issues, non-functioning features, poor battery life, interface problems, broken third-party apps, and more. Of course iOS 7 has problems; it's beta software.
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Bryan Chaffin
Nancy Gravley
Jeff Gamet
John Martellaro