Archives for August 2012

August, 31st August 2012

• Free Retro Gaming for iOS - Activision’s Kaboom!

  Love some retrogaming? Then you’ll like this week’s Free on iTunes where Vern Seward take a nostalgic look at the…

• Retina Display Support Coming to Adobe Creative Suite 6

  Adobe confirmed on Thursday that many of its Creative Suite 6 products will soon be optimized for HiDPI displays such…

• Grounds for Jury Misconduct in Apple v Samsung Patent Trial

  In the aftermath of the jury verdict largely against Samsung in its California patent battle with Apple, some questions have…

• Apple & eBook Pubs Offer Concessions to Avoid EU Antitrust Case

  Apple and four book publishers have offered to modify their eBook distribution agreements in the European Union to allow a…

• Apple Adds Chomp Bits to iOS 6 App Store Discovery

  Apple has begun integrating technology it acquired from Chomp in the newest beta of iOS 6. iPodUplink published a video…

• Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App

  Taking notes has always been a traditional pen and paper ordeal. It is not far fetched to assume many dedicated…

• Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful

  The reference grade RG656m headphones with mic from Scosche have a great sound, and the tapLINE III Control and Mic…

• How OS X Won and Linux Lost the Desktop

  Once upon a time, the Linux community believed that they had just as good a shot as Apple on the…

• German Court Delays Apple, Motorola Multi-touch Patent Ruling

  The Mannheim Regional Court in Germany postponed its decision in a trial where Apple is accusing Motorola Mobility of infringing…

• TMO Forum Downtime on Monday Sept 3

  We’ve been working on some big upgrades behind the scenes at The Mac Observer, and we’ll start rolling those out…

• Japan Court Rules Samsung Not Infringing on Apple Media Patent

  A Japanese court ruled against Apple’s claims that Samsung is infringing on media syncing patents it holds. Apple alleged Samsung’s…

• Console: Using the “Ignore Sender” Feature

  The Console program is very handy when your Mac is having problems, and Ignore Sender makes it even more so.…

August, 30th August 2012

• Oracle Patches Java Zero-Day Vulnerability

  Oracle announced on Thursday the release of a security patch to address a zero-day exploit in the Java runtime that…

• Tim Cook & Larry Page Reportedly Discuss Patents

  Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Larry Page have reportedly been in behind-the-scenes discussions about “a range of intellectual…

• Chess Deluxe for iOS & OS X: Beginners Only

  Chess Deluxe for both OS X and iOS have been recently released. (OS X on August 14.) It’s a simple…

• Analysis: Amazon Kindle Fire Sold Out, Kindle Fire 2 Pic Leaked

  Amazon told the world on Thursday that its budget tablet entry, Kindle Fire, has sold out. Bryan CHaffin thinks that…

• Three eBook Publishers Settle States’ Antitrust Suit

  Three book publishers will pay more than US$69 million to settle an antitrust suit with U.S. states based on allegations…

• Apple’s John Browett Affair: Cooked

  The recent Apple affair with Tim Cook and John Browett can be analyzed from several perspectives. First, as captain of…

• Apple’s Mountain Lion Quickly Nabs 10% of Mac Traffic

  Apple’s latest version of OS X, 10.8 Mountain Lion, is only 36 days old but is already installed on over…

• Ingram to Distribute Amazon Ebooks via Competing Retailers

  Ingram has struck a deal with Amazon.com to distribute ebooks from the online retailer’s own New York-based book publishing imprint…

• Apple’s Designs Help Make White the Most Popular Car Color

  White is now the most popular exterior car color in America, supplanting silver for the first time in nearly a decade.…

• Samsung & Mobile Carriers Working to Out-Innovate Apple

  Following its initial defeat last week in its patent infringement battle with Apple, Samsung is moving quickly to change its products and…

• Reader Discussion: Windows 8 Impact on iMac, iPad Marketshare

  Windows 8 is getting lots of hype from tech journalists, but TMO readers aren’t so sure it’ll go over well…

• Delta to Roll Out 4,500 iPads at Airport Restaurants

  Delta Air Lines is rolling out 4,500 iPads at airport restaurants as part of a plan to improve food service…

• GIMP Image Editor Goes Native for the Mac

  The GIMP team released its first ever Mac-native version of the GIMP image editor on Wednesday. Earlier versions of the…

• Parallels Unleashes Desktop 8: a Major Upgrade

  Parallels has announced the release of Desktop 8 for Mac, its virtualization software that allows OS X users to run…

August, 29th August 2012

• Gazelle Reports Spike in Used Samsung Device Sells

  Used kit broker Gazelle.com (Gazelle) has seen a sharp spike in Samsung device sells in the immediate aftermath of Apple’s…

• Sources Claim Tim Cook Was True Mastermind of Apple Retail Cuts

  Following the news earlier this month that Apple Retail Chief John Browett was linked to an aborted attempt to drastically diminish the quality of…

• Christie’s Expects Apple 1 to Fetch $127K at Auction

  Christie’s announced this week the auction of another Apple 1 motherboard, and the auction house expects it to fetch between…

• IPEVO’s Typi Folio Case & Keyboard for iPad is First-rate

  The Typi Folio Case for Apple’s iPad 2 and 3 includes real leather and an excellent, built-in keyboard that can…

• Scosche’s boomSTREAM BT Speaker: Features & Compromises

  Scosche has packed a lot of features in an amazingly small package in their boomSTREAM Bluetooth speaker. David Winograd puts…

• Semiconductor Producer TSMC Turns Down Bids From Apple, Qualcomm

  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest independent semiconductor producer, recently turned down lucrative offers from both Apple and…

• Ted Landau Discusses Apple, Samsung Verdict on MacNotables

  TMO columnist and popular author Ted Landau joined Chuck Joiner on the MacNotables podcast to talk about the verdict in…

• How to Find Documents & Applications on Your Mac Using Terminal

  Need to quickly locate certain file or application types on your Mac? Sure, you could set up a custom search…

• HTC: We Won’t Settle with Apple

  Cher Wang, HTC chairwoman, said her company won’t settle its mobile device patent lawsuit with Apple despite the fact that…

• New Apple Online Store Features Bring a Specialist to You

  Apple enhanced the chat and help services of its online store early Wednesday. Customres in select countries can now take…

• Reader Discussion: Dealing with OS X Dock Problems

  One Mac Geek Gab forum member is having trouble using Dock features that should be available, but aren’t. Today TMO…

• Apple v Samsung Damages, Injunction Hearing Set for Dec 6

  Judge Lucy Koh set December 6 for a hearing in Apple and Samsung’s post-trial case to review Apple’s request for…

• Contacts: Changing the Country Format for Each Card

  World travelers, take note—if you want to set a different country format for the address of every contact you have,…

August, 28th August 2012

• Moto Licenses Standards-Essential Patents to Apple in Germany

  Apple and Motorola Mobility have reached an agreement of sorts for the iOS device maker to license Moto’s standards-essential patents…

• Apple to Introduce ‘AirPlay Direct’ with New iPhone, Report

  Apple is planning on introducing a new version of AirPlay that would allow users to stream audio to AirPlay Direct…

• Leaked Training Manual Reveals Apple’s True Goal: Sell Stuff

  An internal Apple training manual, intended for use by employees who are about to assume the role of Genius in…

• VMware Fusion 5: In-Depth Review & Benchmarks

  The latest version of VMware Fusion, virtualization software that allows Mac users to run Windows and other operating systems from…

• Objective-C Makes Facebook for iOS Likable

  Last week, Facebook debuted version 5.0 of its mobile app for iOS. The new app promised much faster performance, and…

• Why the MacBook Pro (Retina) Doesn’t Have a Security Slot

  The new MacBook Pro with Retina Display doesn’t have a security slot for a locking cable. I wondered why, and…

• Samsung Starts Working to Sidestep Apple Patents

  With the possibility of product bans looming following its patent trial loss to Apple, Samsung is already talking with cell…

• Cheers for the Apple vs. Samsung Verdict

  In the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit, Apple won. Big time. Humongous. To which Ted Landau says: “Fantastic.” Here’s why…

• NFC on the Next iPhone: Not Likely

  Rumors that Apple will include Near Field Communication, or NFC, technology in the next iPhone suffered a blow on Tuesday…

• Reader Discussion: iOS App Pirating

  Apple has taken steps to help prevent the theft of apps that are available through the iTunes-based App Store, but…

• Jeff Gamet Talks Spacecraft on SciFi Tech Talk

  The Mac Observer’s Jeff Gamet put his tech knowledge to work on the SciFi Tech Talk podcast to talk about…