“The iOS 7.0.2 release follows the launch of iOS 7 on Wednesday, September 18. That day also saw a special release of iOS 7.0.1 specifically for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, which launched on Friday, September 20.”
Apple ‘slide-to-unlock’ patent invalid, German court rules
“Apple’s famous “slide-to-unlock” patent has been invalidated by a German court earlier this week, which is good news for Samsung and Motorola (Google), both engaged in patent-based legal wars with the iPhone maker in the region. All claims of the slide-to-unlock patent (Patent No.”
Apple treats podcasting like an unwanted stepchild.
Apple treats podcasting like an unwanted stepchild.
I think this is a huge missed opportunity for Apple — and for audio and video content creators.
Here’s what Apple is doing wrong, and how they could do it right.
Apple is famous for re-thinking content consumption from the ground up, for rejecting knee-jerk assumptions about how things are supposed to work.
Apple has a powerful instinct in its DNA for blank-slate thinking.
One example comes from the Walter Isaacson biography, Steve Jobs. In that book, Jobs’ wife Laurene recalls why it took the Jobs family eight years to choose a sofa. She said: “We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, ‘What is the purpose of a sofa?’”
Jobs’ idea was not to just go buy a sofa because you’re supposed to buy a sofa, but to determine what problem a sofa is supposed to solve, then solving that problem in the best way possible (even if that solution doesn’t involve a sofa).
Another comes from a recent interview Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive gave to the UK children’s TV show Blue Peter. In the interview, the presenter asked Ive to judge children’s lunch box design contest entries.
Before he looked at the drawings, Ive said: “If we were thinking of lunch box we’d be careful about not having the word ‘box’ already give you a bunch of ideas that could be quite narrow, because you think of a box as being square, a cube, and so we’re quite careful with the words we use because those can sort of determine the path you go down.
This instinct is to avoid conditioned thinking before design, so that the designed object satisfies the requirements and solves the problems you desire to solve regardless of any preconceived ideas about how things are supposed look or work.
For some reason, it seems to me, Apple appears to have failed to think this way about podcasting.
Apple used to include podcasting on iOS as an also-ran feature in the Music app. Last year, they launched a dedicated Podcasts app.
The app has been universally panned. Mashable called it “horrible.” Business Insider called it “horrifically bad.” C|net called it the “worst app Apple ever made.”
A rough consensus has emerged in some quarters that Apple neglects the podcasting and the Podcasts app because there’s nothing in it for Apple. Podcasts are free, so Apple gets no cut. There’s no money in podcasting, so who cares?
I have no idea why Apple decided to separate podcasts from music or what series of blunders led to the release of an embarrassing Podcasts app.
But I do believe that Apple is missing an enormous opportunity by neglecting podcasting.
The Apple Way to Think About Podcasting
If Apple applied its famous blank-slate thinking to podcasting, I’m sure they would think different about it.
There are three basic Applesque questions to be asked and answered about podcasting:
1. What is a podcast, really?
The answer to the first question is simple. A podcast is simply serialized audio or video content that can be streamed over the Internet, downloaded and subscribed to.
Other types of audio and video content, such as radio and TV shows, used to be broadcast live. But now and in the future, content creators want to stream them live over the Internet, and make them available for downloading and subscription.
In other words, radio and TV shows want to become podcasts.
Yet nobody ever says this. The radio industry and Hollywood want to podcast without calling it podcasting so they can maintain the lie that what they’re doing is fundamentally different from what podcasters are doing.
So let’s be clear: The whole future of all media is podcasting — streaming, downloadable and subscribable — but the legacy producers want to exclude grass-roots competition by never, ever calling themselves podcasters.
2. What’s wrong with podcasting, currently?
The biggest problems for podcasters are 1) finding audience; and 2) monetizing the content.
The truth is that podcasts are often shunned and ignored in part because of the artificial distinction described in Question 1 between different types of content.
It’s easy for people to gravitate to YouTube or harvest content on social streams. But it takes some effort for users to find a good podcast they like and subscribe to it — especially if they’re using Apple’s lousy Podcasts app.
The “market,” if you will, for podcasting is artificially suppressed in part by Apple’s neglect.
And when good podcasters do find big audiences, they can struggle to get paid.
Some, like Leo Laporte’s TWiT network of “netcasts,” are very successfully monetized through advertising. (Full disclosure: I appear on three TWiT netcasts from time to time.)
Others, such as Adam Curry’s and John C. Dvorak’s No Agenda podcast are successfully monetized through listener donations.
Still others, such as Cult of Mac’s own Cultcast, both monetize through advertising and also provide additional content and context to readers of another medium (such as the Cult of Mac blog).
But for every successful TWiT, No Agenda or CultCast, there are thousands of podcasts with zero prospects of making significant revenue.
And this shouldn’t be the case. Vastly inferior programming on the radio and on TV makes far more money, simply because there’s a monetization model in place that everybody is used to. Without monetization, there’s little investment. And without investment, there are no budgets for production or marketing.
Another problem with podcasting is that there’s no single, unified place to do everything.
Podcasts that broadcast live, then make their audio and video podcasts available later tend to be scattered all over the Internet, combining custom-built web sites with RSS feeds with multiple places for the live stream plus multiple more for the downloadable file.
3. What are the opportunities for Apple and the world in podcasting?
Apple should have an advantage in the future of audio and video content. After all, it was the iPod that mainstreamed digital media entertainment. The word “podcast” was even named after that product.
Rather than joining Hollywood in the debasement and neglect of podcasting, Apple should be holding it up as the future of all serial media.
Yet Apple is losing (by forfeiture) the battle for new kinds of online content. The big winner is YouTube, where all kinds of innovative programming are going online. People want to listen to “radio” in the car and elsewhere — satellite and terrestrial — and yet podcasting would be a bazillion times better because there are several orders of magnitude more selection and because the user is in total control.
Apple should strive to replace talk radio, including satellite radio, with podcasting.
And Apple should strive to become the Internet’s biggest facilitator of whatever it is that will replace television, and ultimately use its market power to bring TV shows into its podcasting network.
From a business perspective, Apple should realize that all kinds of companies are making all kinds of money on recurring audio and video content. Properties like Funny or Die are pioneering a new TV-less form of serialized comedy. They’ve got an app, so they’d dying to be on the Apple platform. Yet where’s the “Between Two Ferns” podcast?
Why should users have to stumble across new episodes by hearing chatter on Facebook, then go do a search on YouTube to find it? Zach Galifianakis fans should be able to simply subscribe to the “Ferns” podcast and have new episodes download automatically.
By offering the content creators a clear, simple, flexible and profitable way to monetize, Apple could essentially create a new business that’s forward-looking (rather than its backward-looking approach to simply selling TV shows and seasons, for example).
In Apple’s view of the world, a TV show shouldn’t be a TV show. It’s should be a podcast.
And a podcast shouldn’t be considered a file that’s like a song, but un-monetizable. It should be considered a form of content equal to a radio or TV show.
Apple should destroy the culturally constructed and needless boundaries between podcasts, radio shows, TV shows, university lectures, vlogs and all the rest.
The only meaningful distinction is whether it’s audio only, or both audio and video. Any streamable, downloadable, subscribable content is either listened to or watched.
All those other distinctions are simply accidents of media history and now obsolete.
I think Apple is making a huge error by neglecting podcasting.
Rather than sweeping the medium under the rug and buying into the Hollywood fiction that old-school media is superior,
Apple should instead set up a brilliant, flexible model for all content creators to showcase their work, and enable users to live-stream, download, pay for, subscribe to and enjoy any kind of audio or video content regardless of who produced it — from the smallest, one-man podcast to the biggest-budget Hollywood TV series.
And call it podcasting. Because that’s what it is. All of it.
Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com/218123/why-apple-needs-to-fix-its-podcast-problem/#jWYSBCdy12jkHMZ6.99
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Which apps will drain your battery and data plan? Verizon’s got a list!
SUMMARY:
Verizon is now reviewing iPhone and Android apps, but not based on how fun or useful they are. It’s concerned about the resources they consume, which means Facebook and many popular games get docked.Verizon Wireless may have shut down its own app store, but it’s not wiping its hands of app curation entirely. The carrier has started reviewing, rating and recommending Android and iPhone apps to its customers.
What’s interesting about Verizon’s approach is it isn’t making its recommendations based on how entertaining, useful or fun a particular app is. Instead a team of Verizon engineers is looking at each app’s impact on the phone’s battery life, its drain on a customer’s data plan and how loosely it plays with security and customer privacy.
Basically, Verizon is compiling a series of regularly updated recommendation lists. The first is a list of 20 apps available either for Android or iOS that Verizon claims deliver a “best in class” experience on smartphones and tablets. As you might expect, Verizon isn’t being entirely objective in its choices, but it never claimed to be. One of the apps is even Verizon’s own AppLuvr software, which recommends other apps based on what’s already installed on smartphones.
The second list applies a much more visible methodology, rating the top 25 free and top 25 paid apps in Google Play based on three criteria: security, battery consumption and data usage. The third set of reviews is essentially Verizon’s naughty list: 13 apps – all games – that will drain your battery or eat up your data plan at a rapid clip.
Verizon isn’t making any friends here among the game development shops. Enormously popular games like Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja Free and OMGPOP’s Draw Something got bad marks because of their battery drain. Other apps like Facebook Messenger and eBay scored relatively high but were penalized because of their high data consumption.
That may come us a surprise to many users since Facebook and eBay wouldn’t appear to consume that much data, especially compared to streaming multimedia apps like Pandora and Netflix, which received the highest possible Verizon ratings. But what Verizon is likely highlighting here is the persistence of those two apps’ connections. While Facebook might consume only a tiny fraction of the data in a single hour than, say, a Netflix video stream, the social networking app is always running in the background – transmitting a constant stream of signaling traffic over the network and whittling away at your data plan.
Alcatel-Lucent recently analyzed the enormous impact Facebook has on mobile networks through that signaling traffic. On Nov. 15, the social networking giant updated its iOS and Android apps, precipitating a 60 percent boost in Facebook signal load on mobile networks, even though the number of new Facebook mobile users increased only 4 percent in the same time frame. Alcatel-Lucent now estimates that Facebook is responsible for more than 15 percent of all mobile signaling traffic and accounts for more than 20 percent of all network airtime.
Carriers have long implored developers to keep the constraints of mobile networks in mind and build more efficient apps. With these rankings Verizon could be upping that pressure, punishing developers who keep developing unnecessarily chatty software.
As you might expect, neither Facebook Messenger or the main Facebook app made Verizon’s list of “must have apps” (though eBay did). Verizon, however, named Facebook’s much more network-efficient Instagram photo-sharing app in its top 20. I doubt Facebook cares either way.
Any time a carrier produces a must-have list you should take it with a grain of salt, but I will give Verizon credit. It actually recommended Tango, an over-the-top voice, video and messaging app that competes directly with Verizon’s core voice and SMS services
via Which apps will drain your battery and data plan? Verizon’s got a list — Tech News and Analysis.
New untethered jailbreak works for iDevices running iOS 6.x
An iOS hacking team that calls itself “evad3rs” has released a tool to jailbreak devices running iOS 6. The tool, called “evasi0n,” is available for OS X, Windows, and Linux. It can jailbreak iOS 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, and 6.1 on all compatible iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.
For those unfamiliar with jailbreaking, it’s a process that defeats the built-in security and DRM features of iOS, allowing greater flexibility in customization, the ability to install apps outside of the official App Store, and access to iOS’s underlying UNIX internals. Jailbreakers tend to use the technique to enable functionality that isn’t part of iOS, or to customize the look of icons and other elements. Some also use it to unlock devices from particular carriers or to install software otherwise barred (and sometimes pirated) from the App Store.
Jailbreaking tools typically rely on some undocumented flaw that enables working around iOS’s security measures. As such, each new version of iOS usually patches flaws once they are exploited by jailbreaking tools, so each version of iOS often requires a new jailbreak tool. evasi0n uses a previously undisclosed exploit that works on all available versions of iOS 6. It also works “untethered,” meaning the iOS device doesn’t need to be plugged into a computer to re-enable the jailbreak every time the device is rebooted.
via New untethered jailbreak works for iDevices running iOS 6.x.
Mastering The Option Key On Your OS X Mac
The Option key is a powerful ally in the transition from new, beginner user of OS X to the power user that you want to be. There are a ton of hidden features in the Finder alone that are hidden behind the underrated and unassuming Option key. There are Option key tricks for the OS X Menu Bar, for apps in the iWork suite, in Safari, and a few more random ones to boot.
So, sit back, relax, and get ready to hit that Option key a whole bunch of times in a row.
Master The Option Key In OS X Finder
De-Select All The Files
Makes sense, right?
When you open up a Finder window with files in it, you can hit Command-A to Select All the items in the window, right? However, if you add Option key in, Command-Option-A, it will Deselect all the items.
Quickly Move To The Search Field
Hit Command-Option-F to skip the Spotlight window
Want to quickly go to the search field in a Finder window? Usually, Command-F will open a new Finder window defaulting to Search view, but press Command-Option-F instead and your cursor will jump straight to the “Search” box without opening a new Spotlight window.
Quickly Close or Minimize Multiple Windows
Or, Command-Option-W to close them all.
Got a bunch of Finder windows open? Simply hit Command-Option-M to minimize them, and Command-Option-W to close them all. You can do the same for any open app, just click on the app icon in the Dock and use the same keybaord shortcuts. Magic!
Full Disclosure
Open all the things.
Usually, when you’re in List View, clicking on a little triangle next to a folder will open it and only it. If you want to open all the nsted folders inside, however, simply add the Option key to the mix. Option-Click that little disclosure triangle and it will open all the stuff inside, too.
No More Trash Dialog
Get rid of this thing with a quick Option key click.
If you want to empty the Trash, you can hit Command-Shift-Delete. Typically, you’ll get a warning dialog box, asking if you’re sure you want to do so. If you want to skip this dialog box, add in the Option key, with Command-Shift-Option-Delete, and you’ll skip that dialog. Of course, you can also right click on the Trash icon to Empty it, with the Option key skipping the dialog box, here, too.
Master The Option Key In The OS X Menu Bar
Quickly Change Audio Settings
Why mess with the System Preferences?
Usually, if you want to change sound settings, you launch System Preferences, click on the Sound preference pane icon, and then switch the audio output and input settings from there. Instead, use the Option key – hold it down while you click on the Volume menu bar icon, and you’ll get access to the connected Inputs and Outputs.
More Wireless Info
More info than most of us need, for sure.
If you click on the WiFi rainbow in your menu bar, you’ll see the available WiFi networks nearby, plus a lock icon if they’re password protected. Hold the Option key down, and you’ll see plenty of info about the WiFi access node you’re connected to, including it’s SSID, the type of 802.11 you’re connected to, the channel, signal strength, and the rate of transmission. This can all help if you’re troubleshooting a slow WiFi connection.
Extra Bluetooth Details
A simple Option key press.
Typically, the Bluetooth menu bar icon lets you connect to already paired devices, open the Preferences pane, and turn Bluetooth on and off. Add in the Option key when you click on it, and you’ll see the Bluetooth version number (usefull if you’re checking to see if a particular headset or speaker will wrok with your Mac), the name of your Mac (good when connecting another device to it), and the Bluetooth address (helpful for troubleshooting). You’ll also be able to create a Bluetooth diagnostics report on your Desktop, if that float your boat.
Skip About This Mac
Could save you seconds per day.
Normally, when you click on the Apple menu, you’ll see “About This Mac,” which shows you an overview of your Mac’s information, like its processor, memory, and which OS X version you’re running. Then you can click the “More Info…” button, and then the “System Report…” to get to the giant list of technical specs about your Mac and its several subsystems. To skip all of that, simply hit the Option key when clicking on the Apple menu, and you’ll go right to the System Report.
Master The Option Key In iWork
Navigation
But I’m a creep.
Whether you’re in Pages or Keynote, there are several Option-related ways to navigate around in your document. Hit the Option key and an Arrow key (left or right), and you’ll be able to navigate by word, rather than by character, making moving to a word you need to edit that much faster. Need to jump up or down a paragraph? Hit the Option key and the up or down Arrow to do just that, making your way through that report for your boss lickety split.
In Numbers, the Option key makes navigating faster, as well, if you add it to the Page Up or Page Down buttons on your Keyboard. Option-Page Up will scroll one screen left, while Option-Page Down will scroll one screen right. Without the Option key, you’ll just scroll a page up or page down, accordingly.
Formatting Text
Luckily, I already have a perfect body.
If you use styles in iWork (and you should be), you can copy the paragraph style with the Option-Command-C keyboard shortcut, and the style of the character by adding a shift, so Option-Shift-Command-C. To paste the style to another character (or word) or paragraph, simply enhance the normal Paste command (Command-V) with an Option-Command-V to paste that character or paragraph style to other selected text.
Object Options
You’re a star!
Whether you’re drawing a vector graphic in Pages or Keynote or messing about with charts in Numbers, the Option key can unleash its power for you when it comes to objects. To duplicate an object in an iWork document, hold the Option key down before you click on that object. Your mouse cursor will show a little + sign by it, and you’ll create a copy of that object as you drag away from the original.
To resize an object from the middle, rather than the side handle you’re ragging from, hold the Option key down when you click and drag on the resize handle. The object will now enlarge or get smaller on all sides equally.
Using Option-Shift-Command-B or Option-Shift-Command-F keyboard shortcuts when you’re working with objects will send the selected object back or forward by only one layer. Without the Option key, you’ll send that sucker all the way to the back or front.
Keynote Options
Click it!
Playing a slideshow in Keynote is straightforward: just hit the Play button in the toolbar. However, if you want to set it in motion without using the mouse, hit the Option-Command-P buttons on your keyboard and it will start. If you’re in the middle of a slideshow, but want to start it playing from the beginning, hold the Option key down when you click the Play button; your slideshow will play from the start.
Master The Option Key In OS X Safari
Tab To More Links
Like point and click without a mouse.
When you hit the Tab key in Safari, you move from search field to search field or drop-down menu down the page. If you add the Option key, you get more keyboard control, skipping your way merrily through every link on the page. If you hit the Return key when you highlight a link with Option-Tab, Safari will open the link for you.
Precise Scrollbar Positioning
Scrollin, scrollin, scrollin.
Typically, if you click in the scrollbar area in Safari, you’ll move down a page at a time. It’s like scrolling, only faster. If you add the Option key in, and Option-Click anywhere in the scrollbar area, you’ll move the scrollbar indicator right to that spot. So, if you want to zap down near the bottom of a long web page, for example, Option-Click in the scrollbar region near the bottom of Safari’s window. This will also work within any window with a scrollbar.
Download Options
Just, you know, be careful what you click.
Typically, when you click on a link in Safari, you will go to whatever web page it links to. You can use the Command key to open that link in a new tab, too. But if you Option-Click that link, you’ll download the target right to your downloads folder on your Mac. Slick! Clicking a web link will download the target .html file, while clicking a link to a data file will download that specific file.
Close Those Other Tabs
No, no. Not THIS tab. The OTHER ones!
Got a bunch of tabs open in Safari? Of course you do, that’s why they’re there, of course. If you click on the File Menu, you can click on Close Tab there, or hit Command-W to close the currently active tab. Add Option to the keystroke or menu command, though, and you can close all the other tabs, except the one you’re currently looking at. Just press the Option key when you head up to the File menu, or hit Option-Command-W.
Even More Option Key Tricks And Tips
Simple Save As… Fix
Option turns Duplicate back to Save As… temporarily.
In case you haven’t been following along at home, Apple took away the Save As… menu feature in OS X Lion, then secretly put it back in Mountain Lion. There are a few ways to get it back permanently, but if you want a quick fix without messing about in the Terminal or with configuration files, press the Option key while clicking on the File menu, or hit Shift-Option-Cmd-S instead of Shift-Cmd-S for Duplicate.
Get More File Formats
BMP anyone? I didn’t think so.
While you’re in there Saving As…, you can typically click on the Format drop down menu at the bottom of the Save dialog box and get the top 6 or so formats that you might want to save your file as, like PDF, JPG, and the like. IF you want a few more, hit the Option key when you click on the Format drop down, and you’ll get a more expansive list of file formats, like Microsoft BMP, OpenEXR, and Photoshop.
Copy and Replace Options
Skip it, man, just skip it.
When you try and copy a file to a new location that is named the same as a file in that location, you’ll get a dialog box that basically asks if you want to stop, replace it, or keep both files. If you try and copy me name, you’ll get the same dialog box, but there’s a trick here. Hit the Option key when you see the “Do you want to replace it” dialog, and you’ll see that the Keep Both button turns into a Skip button, letting you skip the first of the multiple files and then deal with the next one, and so on.
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via Cult of Mac http://www.cultofmac.com/213986/mastering-the-option-key-on-your-os-x-mac-feature/
Apple Releases MacBook Firmware Update To Address Rare Battery Issue
Apple has released a new SMC firmware update for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. “This update addresses a rare issue on some Apple notebooks where a battery that has accumulated more than 1000 charge cycles may unexpectedly shut down or stop functioning,” according to Apple. This applies specifically to older batteries, but the update is recommended for all MacBook models.
You can find this new firmware update in the Mac App Store or download it directly from Apple’s website.
Source: Apple Support
via Cult of Mac
Judge Koh finds Samsung infringement of Apple patents was not willful, won’t triple damages
Judge Lucy Koh has decided on several post-trial motions from Samsung and Apple in their long running patent case, overturning one key element of the jury’s ruling while upholding several others. What was overturned was the jury’s ruling that Samsung’s acts of patent infringement were willful, which meant Judge Koh could have tripled some parts of the $1 billion+ in damages granted to Apple. On the other hand, she also rejected Samsung’s request for a new trial, and invalidated two claims a wireless patent it holds. AppleInsider posted the decision to Scribd, which you can find embedded after the break, hit the source links for a few other looks at the ruling and what this means going forward. Naturally of course, it’s not over yet (it’s never over) as each company can still appeal elements of the ruling, and other appeals in the case are already ongoing.
via Engadget
Apple Announces 128GB iPad 4
It what seemed to be hasty decision without a trip to a keynote event, Apple introduced their latest iPad 4 with 128GBs of storage via a press release. While 128GB is overkill for most people it does have a place in the market. More and more industries are switching to paperless solutions and the iPad is a perfect fit. Both designers working with large image files and doctors with MRI and Cat scans will benefit from the increased storage.
While most users can get away with their data in the cloud some people just don’t want to go that route. While I do use iCloud I have no interested in storing 128GBs in it because honestly Apple has a hard enough time restoring 2GBs.
The new iPad will be available starting February 5 for $799 for WiFi only and $929 for WiFi + Cellar. Sprint has confirmed that they will be carrying the new iPad at launch.
Click here to read the press release from Apple.
Check The Battery Health On Your MacBook
Hey,
If you have a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro it will come with a battery. Battery life degrades over the life time of the battery. Although there isn’t much you can really do about it, other than trying not to cycle the battery too many times, you can keep an eye on it’s health. This allows you to buy a new one, or get it replaced at an Apple shop before there is so little charge left that always needs to be tethered to the wall. This post is going to show you a couple of methods to ensure you know how healthy your MacBook is running at.
Finding The Health
To find the health of your battery open up System Information in Applications > Utilities. Within the sidebar select Power from the Hardware section. This page will list all of the related bits of information regarding the power supply to your MacBook.
There are two pieces of information that are of use, the charge remaining and the condition. If you have a fully charged battery the charge remaining in milli ampere-hour should be similar to the full charged capacity from fresh which is about 6000 mAh. If your laptop battery is starting to degrade this value will slowly never reach the fully charged battery value.
The second piece of information worth looking at is the condition parameter. There are three settings, Normal, Replace Soon and Replace Now. If the latter two options are appearing it may be time to replace the battery in your laptop. Apple has a guide on how to replace the battery in your laptop.
Finding out the battery power of your MacBook.
Apps
There are other ways of getting the battery power of your Mac. One of the apps I recommend if iStat Menus. These have some of the most well designed menus which allows you to see a multitude of information. One of these is the battery life.
You can use iStat Menus to get your battery life.
If you want a free app, a popular app is Battery Health, this gives you the health of your battery in an easy to read format, plus it is free which is always good.
Conclusion
Battery life is important to your Mac. Keeping an eye on it isn’t that complicated, with a couple of free apps and a little bit of know how you can keep an eye on your battery life.
