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January 29 2012
Judge interprets '263 patent in Apple's favor in HTC Android appeal
Upcoming software for the Mac and iOS lets users create unique video-based photographs.
Host Serenity Caldwell presides over a session featuring Christopher Breen and Ted Landau answering your Mac and iOS troubleshooting questions.
Here’s How Apple Controls Its Boardrooms From An iPad [MacWorld / iWorld 2012]
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD / iWORLD 2012 — Those brainstorming sessions that we’d all like to eavesdrop on at Apple are managed using an iPad system.
A screenshot of the Pro version.
In boardrooms on the Cupertino campus, iPad controls from Crestron Electronics turn on the projector, lower the screen, load slides, provide video conferencing and adjust lights and window shades. Crestron Electronics, Inc. has been making home and business control and automation systems for over 40 years.
A first-time MacWorld/ iWorld attendee, they brought four iPhone and iPad apps – Crestron Mobile and Crestron Mobile Pro – that are currently in thousands of homes acround the world. The iPad version is also responsible for lighting and climate control at the White House.
The pro version of the app costs $99 and can the control lights, media (including Apple TV), climate, security of your home or office from your iPhone, iPad or Android device. Nick who demoed it for us says that the paid version also acts as a video surveillance device. The free version manages lights, climate, security and drapes but with limited functionalities.
If you’re looking to add some smart controls to your house, the total cost to set up the system can run anywhere from $3,000 – $30,000, depending on what features you need. In terms of obsolescence, they say that their systems have a typical life span of about 10 years.
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The iFlashDrive has a USB connector on one end that, when attached to a Mac or PC, acts like any other thumb drive. On the other end of the iFlashDrive is a dock connector that you attach directly into an iOS device.
Labor advocate challenges accuracy of NYT report on Apple, Foxconn
Video: Weekend Tech Review: Macworld Week 4 2012
Quick Review: NewsFlash Aggregates The World’s Headlines
Even though I do most of news consumption in Instapaper, Twitter, and Zite these days, I still enjoy getting up to speed with “real news organizations” every once in a while. The majority of time that means getting to fire up some Italian website that delivers news (such as Ansa) or “big media” publications from the US, depending on what I’m looking for in that particular moment. Just as I was wondering why some sort of “Techmeme for Italy” doesn’t exist yet, an email dropped in my inbox pointing me at NewsFlash, a new universal app by Sollico, the same guys behind CurrencyPad for iOS.
NewsFlash is basically an RSS aggregator for the major news sources in the world — that is, some sort of “Techmeme for Italy only” for more countries, with “big media” websites aggregated by default and no relevance algorithm in the backend. In Italy, you can have news from the likes of Il Corriere Della Sera or Ansa; in the U.S. you’ll both find Reuters and Msnbc alongside TechCrunch and MacRumors. The app, in fact, is organized in sections that range from News and Politics to Sports, Technology and Gossip, providing a way to quickly change the topic you’re looking and get the facts, or at least what’s been written, about the latest news. It’s like Techmeme meets MacHash meets Tech News Tube meets Google Reader, only in a clean, intuitive app for iPhone and iPad.
The app obviously allows you to share stories via Facebook, Twitter (iOS 5 integration is supported), email and text message. NewsFlash doesn’t always load a website’s mobile view when jumping to stories (and that can actually be a good thing), but it offers font size controls and options to block ads and links to third-parties. News can be updated with the typical pull-to-refresh gesture, whilst a top toolbar is used to switch between countries and sections through a single swipe. Currently, NewsFlash comes with support for the following countries: Italy, UK, US, Germany (both in Deutsche and English), Japan, France (both French and English) and Israeli. The app’s preferences allow you to hide certain sections and add custom feeds (you can add literally anything that supports RSS, turning NewsFlash into a simple RSS reader), adjust fonts and change the app’s background. I like how the app automatically looks at your device’s language and tries to load news from that country.
NewsFlash is free, but you can disable iAd with a $1.99 in-app purchase. Give it a try if you’ve been looking for a nice app that aggregates “general” news, whilst keeping your real RSS subscriptions in a standalone Google Reader app.
Lion Full-Screen, New Tab Page Sneak Into Early Firefox 12 Build
One of the next versions of Firefox, Firefox 12, may feature a series of new interface elements and functionalities that should both appeal to OS X Lion users and introduce new navigation options for those who dont’ want to save their-most accessed websites in a bookmarks bar anymore. As first noted by ExtremeTech, an early version of a proposed new tab page design snuck into a nightly version of Firefox; per Mozilla’s multiple channel releases, users of Firefox can test different versions of the browser, which range from Nightly to Aurora, Beta, Stable, and those uploaded directly to Mozilla’s FTP servers.
ExtremeTech wrote about the new tab page:
The Firefox home tab is a lot more exciting. Basically there are two phases: The first phase will add “launchers” at the bottom — one-click links to your downloads, settings, apps, and so on (pictured right). Phase two is a complete reworking of the home page paradigm, weaving in favorite apps, recent websites, and even instant messaging (pictured below). Phase one is expected to roll out with Firefox 12, but at the time of writing the code still hasn’t been committed.
However, as also noted in an update to the original post, it appears Mozilla has pulled the functionality from the Nightly release of Firefox, leaving it in the “UX version” available for download on Mozilla’s servers. Upon comparing the standard Nightly build to the UX one, I noticed the latter already contains the grid design for top websites pictured above, and full-screen support for Lion.
I wasn’t able to activate ExtremeTech’s home tab page design with search, Top Apps, Top Sites and Chat in a single window; the current Firefox UX Nightly build features shortcuts along the bottom of the window to open History, Settings, Add-ons, Apps, and Downloads. A new “Restore Previous Session” button is also provided in case you haven’t set Firefox to automatically re-open previously open tabs on launch.
Changes that appear in Firefox Nightly builds typically carry over to the other stages of development and are further tweaked with refinements and bug fixes, but there could be changes in the features that Mozilla decides to implement once version 12 hits the beta channel. As for Lion support, Mozilla failed to deliver any significant optimization since the OS’ release back in July, unlike competitor Chrome which added new scrolling, full-screen support and gesture navigation (among other things) fairly quickly. A designer at Mozilla mocked up some ideas that the company could deliver in a future version of Firefox for Lion, but as of version 12 nightly (Firefox stable is currently at version 9) it seems those ideas haven’t been taken into consideration yet.
Why Android isn't gaining on Apple in the Enterprise
Macworld Concludes With a Big Drum Circle
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/IWORLD 2012 — Here is some video of the big drum circle that wrapped up Macworld. Such a great way to end a conference!
Macworld is done, but we’ll have the remainder of our show posts tomorrow.
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Chris Holt takes a look at the games being shown off at Macworld | iWorld this week -- some of which are already in the App Store and some which will arrive soon.
The iPad-only Babiis, which debuted at Macworld | iWorld, delivers video messages to the under-two set, while using the iPad 2's front-facing camera to record their reactions to recorded greetings and stories from family members.
January 28 2012
Scanner Makers Have Their Heads In The Cloud
Macworld: Scanner Makers Have Their Heads In The Cloud
James Galbraith reports from Macworld|iWorld 2012:
Don’t believe it when folks say that the Macworld | iWorld show floor is primarily filled with iOS accessories—the community of document scanner makers is quite well represented too. At least seven different companies have scanners on display at this week’s event.
Continuing a trend that we saw last year, many scanner companies are relying on their cloud capabilities rather than their hardware to differentiate themselves.
He mentions Doxie’s Go scanner, Neat Company‘s NeatReceipts and NeatDesktop products (powered by subscription-based NeatCloud), Fujitsu’s ScanSnap scanners, and Ambir, which partnered with NewSoft for the Mac versions of the TravelScan Pro and TravelScan Pro Duplex. NewSoft also showed a Mac utility that scans the OS X Address Book and syncs with iCloud.
It’s interesting to see how scanners, a category of devices many would have called “boring” five years ago, has been revitalized by iOS devices and the cloud. Most of these products have cloud-related functionalities built-in, usually in the form of Dropbox and Evernote integration for publishing scanned documents, or backing up entire libraries of PDFs. They come with desktop and mobile applications, too, that often allow for wireless syncing through Eye-Fi cards, thus cutting the need for a cord entirely.
On the iOS side, another trend that can only grow as the hardware gets better is camera-based scanning software. The App Store is full of possible solutions to turn your iPhone into a scanner; because it’s software, developers can augment these apps with updates and new features at any time. iOS scanning tools will never be a replacement for “real” scanners if you need to go paperless with 10 years worth of documents, but they can serve as the primarily solution for many people that are starting now with only a few business cards and small receipts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple coming out with its own scanning app in the future, as a cool hardware showcase for a new iPhone.
Personally, I bought a Doxie Go and I’m quite fond of it so far. Make sure to check out Shawn Blanc’s video and review if you’ve never heard of the Doxie before.
via [macworld.com]First Time Attendees Impressed by Macworld / iWorld 2012 [Macworld / iWorld]
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD / IWORLD 2012 — The exhibit hall was hopping today, with plenty of Apple enthusiasts checking out the various booths and panel discussions throughout the day.
Today’s crowd — not surprisingly — was the most diverse of the three-day event due to the “weekend factor”, and among the crowd were a lot of first-time attendees who were pretty happy with what they saw.
“I’m impressed,” said Colby from Portland when asked about his thoughts on the 2012 edition of the event.
He’s an admitted first-timer, and was well aware of how past Macworlds had dropped in attendance since Apple’s official departure from the event.
“There’s a lot of people here.”
When expo newcomers weren’t chatting up their positive experience on the floor, they were taking to social media to endorse the event. Brett Kelly is another first-time attendee and he expressed his thoughts on Macworld / iWorld over Twitter.
“I am having an absolutely epic time at Macworld,” Kelly tweeted. “I’ll definitely be back.”
Even as the day at Moscone West wound to a close, the exhibit hall was still pulsating with life. Many booths were still entertaining a tremendous amount of attendees despite “last call” less than 30 minutes away.
While there are many Macworld veterans who still long for the days of Apple’s presence, those who made the trek to the event for the first time were more than happy just to be part of the energy that surrounded Macworld / iWorld this year.
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WillowTree Apps wants to tap into your Facebook network to help you discover new places, movies, bands, and books with its latest Likes app.
This Waterproof iPad Bag Is Badass Enough For Navy Seals
Watershed is a company based in North Carolina that makes a variety of waterproof bags, including a range of military backpacks.
It has an iPad tote bag called the Grid Tablet that is used by none other than the Navy Seals.
The $97 Grid Tablet bag is seriously waterproof. It can withstand depths of 300 feet, or it can be filled with air to give it buoyancy.
The Navy Seals uses a camouflage version of the Grid Tablet, said WaterShed’s Justyn Thompson. The Seals are asking Watershed to design a special security strap system for the iPad, which will allow them to strap the device to soldier’s bodies or vehicles and keep it secure. They want another feature too, but Thompson said its a secret. He’s working on a prototype.
Watershed has been making Drybags bags for the past 16 years. It uses its ZipDry seal to make air-tight, water-proof bags for outdoor adventurers. The bags are simple but well made. They are constructed from embossed polyurethane, which is super strong. The ZipDry closes like a plastic lunch bag.
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The Rhythm Touch is a small rectangular box the size of half a deck of cards, and it uses electric stimulator pads to ease muscle pain.
Boost the volume of your iPad 2's speaker with a simple and inexpensive add-on. Alexandra Chang demos the SoundJaw on the Macworld | iWorld show floor.
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