Delaware courts have have called for delegates from HTC and Apple to meet on August 28 to talk about settling the patent dispute that has blocked the U.S. import of some HTC handsets. This appears to be fallout from the pending lawsuit Apple brought against HTC through the International Trade Commission over a “data tapping” patent. Apple has been ordered into similar settlement talks with Samsung.
The meeting will be overseen by Magistrate Judge Sherry R. Fallon. It’s not clear exactly who the companies will be sending, but the court order says that they ”must have full authority to act on behalf of the parties, including the authority to negotiate a resolution of the matter and to respond to developments during the mediation process.”
So, it doesn’t sound like either company will be sending “Skippy”, the intern from accounting in for the sit down. In Apple’s case, it would likely be someone like CEO Tim Cook, or its lead counsel.
The ITC ban against HTC went into effect on April 19th, 2012. The claim of infringement was made on U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647, a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data.”
HTC stated that the cause of the infringement ruling “is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.”
HTC is now shipping custom versions of Android on its phones, in an apparent end-run attempt to get around the ban.
The ordered meeting will happen just a few days before the scheduled meeting between Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Gee-Sung Choi in San Francisco. That meeting will be overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero.
The lawsuits between Apple and the Android manufacturers continue to drag on with no end currently in site. While I enjoy reporting on the legal wranglings of the tech giants, (I just love learning new legal lingo…) I’m sure some weary of the constant legal struggles, and just wish the companies would tend to the business of making kick-ass phones! What’s your opinion, dear reader? Let us know. Do you want everyone to sit down and make nice? Or, are you like me, and just love getting to see behind the scenes as evidence continues to be revealed? Leave a comment below.
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After two years, the Mac Pro has finally been upgraded, Gizmodo reports. But not in the way you might think. Gizmodo reader Steve Shaw has created one cool Mac mod, stripping the insides of a Mac Pro and replacing it with a fish tank complete with pump and a light, without forgetting the fish themselves!
I’m a huge fan of Mac modding, and this is one cool project and outcome. It’s no doubt the ultimate fish tank for fanboys or home for Apple loving fish, depending on which way you see it.
Even more awesome is the Apple logo in the background, which makes your iFishes look even cooler then they already are. While this mod isn’t for the fainthearted, it’s definitely great inspiration and shows just how useful an old Mac case can be.
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#Friday5 is a weekly giveaway that rewards 5 of our Twitter followers with a free copy of either a Mac or iOS app each and every Friday! Cool huh? But wait, there’s more…. one of the lucky five will also pocket a $20 iTunes voucher! Hurrah!
We have hooked up with Arobas Music to give away 5 copies of Guitar Pro – an excellent way to view, play, and write guitar music directly from your iPhone or iPad! Guitar Pro would normally set you back $7.99, but we’re giving away 5 copies today for free!
To enter the giveaway all you have to do is follow @macdrops (our new giveaways and discount deals Twitter account) and RT the below message on Twitter.
Guitar Pro for iOS is this week’s @MacDrops #Friday5 – view, play, and write guitar music with ease! http://mctr.st/KJuAH8
From the developer:
This mobile version of the famous Guitar Pro tab-editing program is the ideal companion for you to practice your favorite songs and share them at any time, anywhere! An arpeggio, a riff, a chord sequence ringing in your head? You can now note and save all this on the tablature notepad!
Main features include compatibility with MySongBook portal for sheet music, metronome and visual countdown, 3 levels of zoom, virtual fretboard and keyboard, a note pad for tablature, ability to transpose songs on-the-fly, and more!
We will pick out the 5 app winners at random, and we will also reward one of the lucky 5 with a $20 iTunes voucher. The competition is open to everyone (there is no regional restriction).
The competition runs for two hours after this post is published. Winners will be announced on this page and on Twitter.
In order to claim the $20 iTunes voucher you must have an iTunes account. If you do not have an iTunes account (or can’t create one) we will draw another winner at random from the four remaining app winners and reward one of them with the voucher.
Thank you for reading #Friday5 – 5 Copies of Guitar Pro to Give Away + a $20 iTunes Voucher! from MacTrast. Why not follow us on Twitter and fan us on Facebook?
If you’re a Mac Pro user who’s updated to 10.7.4, you’ve probably noticed a bug present when you boot up your machine. Indeed, as MacGeneration reports, if you have a Mac Pro from 2009 or newer, you should see a ‘KeyApplicationTitle’ message appear, with ‘keyWarningOptimalInfo’.
Reported on the Apple Support forums, it appears that after some investigation it’s to do with the Memory Slot Utility application, located in /System/Library/CoreServices/. Until Apple release a fix, the easiest way to solve the problem is to simply move the application to another folder.
This doesn’t seem to be the result of any serious problem, just a false error message, so a quick bug fix from Apple should do the trick, even if it doesn’t affect any other Macs.
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An event first held in 2007, Apple has announced this year’s iTunes Festival lineup and event information. The event will be held in September at London’s Roundhouse music venue.
The event will offer 30 nights of free music to live attendees, and to users of Apple’s iOS devices through the recently updated iTunes Festival app. Just some of the acts performing will be Jack White, One Direction, Norah Jones, and R&B star Usher. The full lineup will include over 60 artists.
Tickets are not available for purchase. They can only be won via a random drawing. All entrants must be 14 years of age or older, and reside in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, or Netherlands. Apple will draw winners each week in June for the show of their choice, with 160 total pairs available for each night.
To enter, just head over to the iTunes Festival website and select an artist to win tickets for that show. Entries can also be made from within the free iOS app, which also includes information on the venue, line-ups, and all news about the festival. For those not lucky enough to be chosen, each night’s festivities can be streamed via your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch in the app.
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Following yesterday’s report that Apple was censoring the word “jailbreak” in the iTunes store, the issue has now been corrected, and the term can now be seen once again on songs and video downloaded through iTunes.
TheNextWeb suggests that the censoring may have been due to some sort of ratings error, as the issue only surfaced in the U.S.. Whatever the reason was for the word being censored in the first place, it’s good to see that the issue was quickly corrected after being brought to Apple’s attention.
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Steve Wozniak, often referred to as ‘The Woz,” was essential to the formation of Apple, and was Steve Jobs’ primary business partners in the early days of the company. Apple likely would not exist as we know it today without him.
As such, it’s especially fitting that Sony Pictures has hired Wozniak as an advisor on the upcoming film based on Steve Jobs’ official biography. Reuters reports on comments made by Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter for the film:
“I know so little about what I am going to write. I know what I am not going to write. It can’t be a straight ahead biography because it’s very difficult to shake the cradle-to-grave structure of a biography, ” Sorkin told reporters at a news conference for his upcoming HBO drama “The Newsroom.”
[...] He said that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hired by the film studio as a “tutor” on all the technical aspects of computers and on Jobs himself.
It’s also particularly interesting that Sorkin says the film will be more than a straight biography. It will be interesting to see what direction he takes the film in! Sorkin is well-known for his work on the film The Social Network, which revolves around the creation of Facebook.
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A Morgan Stanley analyst said this week that if Apple were to launch a full-fledged television set, it could cause total average annual household spending on Apple products in the U.S. to double to $888 by 2015.
Analyst Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley explained in a note to investors this week that Apple’s U.S. household spending doubled following the launch of the original iPhone, from $150 per year in 2007 to $295 in 2010. She expects that the iPad will double that spending again, to an average of $635 per household, per year by 2013.
“Given a 97% TV household penetration and a 61% broadband household penetration in the US along with an expected high price (and value) point, an Apple TV is likely to generate a similar increase in average household spend, with some help from iPad and iPhone growth,” Huberty wrote.
Huberty’s projections say that the average U.S. household with at least $10,000 in disposable income would spend at least $888 in Apple products by 2015, double the average spent per year in 2011.
If Apple were to obtain a 10 percent share of global television spending, which would include hardware, subscriptions, and advertising, it would represent $60 billion a year.
The initial impact of an Apple television would likely be seen mostly in the U.S., but Huberty noted that Apple’s real growth potential will remain outside of the U.S. Ten years ago, Apple received close to 56 percent of its revenue from the U.S., but in the most recent fiscal year, that figure had fallen to 39 percent.
Last years figures show that among households with at least $10,000 disposable income, the average U.S. household spent $444 on Apple products, compared to just $113 for households outside the U.S. In order for global household spending to reach an even keel with U.S. spending, non-U.S. spending for Apple products needs to grow 36 percent annually through 2015.
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In Nielsen’s recently released State of the Appnation report, the research firm revealed that half of all U.S. mobile subscribers now use smartphones, as the devices continue to become mainstream and weave their way into the very fabric of society.
The growth of smartphone usage has risen significantly in the past year – in 2011, only 38% of mobile subscribers owned smartphones. That’s a decent change in just one year. Nielsen also noted that Android and iOS made up a majority of those devices.
Also of note in the report is that smartphone users are now downloading more apps than ever before. The average number of apps currently sits at 41 per device, up from 32 apps per device one year ago. That’s an impressive 28% rise! Also interesting (though unsurprising) is that Android and iOS devices made up 88% of those downloads.
There’s no doubt about it: Smartphones are quickly dominating the mobile industry and becoming a normal part of life for an increasing number of people. It will be fascinating to see what these numbers reflect a year from today!
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Many have wondered how Steve Jobs’ passing might affect the next generation of Apple products. Fortunately, if a new report from Bloomberg is to be believed, those worries can be put to rest, at least as far as the next iPhone is concerned, as Steve Jobs was reportedly intimately involved in the design for Apple’s next-gen device (mockup below via iMore).
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has placed orders from suppliers in Asia for screens that are bigger than the 3.5- inch size now on the smartphone, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had worked closely on the redesigned phone before his death in October, one person said. [...]
Apple has been working on the new device since before the current iPhone 4S model was introduced last October, said one person with knowledge of the project. Jobs, who had gone on medical leave from Apple starting last January, played a key role in developing the phone…
Also of note is that the report claims that Apple’s next iPhone will have a larger screen, making Bloomberg the third major publication to make such a claim, after Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. That sounds more like a controlled leak than practically any such series of claims I’ve ever heard!
Previous reports have claimed that Jobs planned out four years of future products before his passing. While that may seem like a bit of a while claim, it seems very likely that Steve Jobs did offer direct input at least on the projects that Apple had in mind before his passing.
Even if Steve Jobs didn’t offer direct input on the design of the next iPhone (or any future Apple products), however, he did spend years shaping Apple’s high-level executives to think and design in a certain way. As long as Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Phil Schiller and the gang are still around, you can bet that Steve Jobs’ influence in Apple future products will persist for a good long time.
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Infinity Blade: Dungeons has been on my radar ever since it was shown of at Apple’s 3rd-gen iPad announcement, but up until now, it’s been unclear what to expect from the game as far as gameplay is concerned.
Even though Epic’s official trailer gave a brief glimpse of some fighting scenes from the game, those clips weren’t very revealing. The folks at Joystiq have now answered that question by providing the first raw glimpse of the game in action!
Unlike the previous two Infinity Blade games, Dungeons doesn’t focus on battling your enemies one-on-one. Instead, the game features a wide-roaming environment with a top-down view, complete with the exceptional graphics that you’ve come to expect from the Infinity Blade franchise.
Judging by the new footage, it looks life Infinity Blade: Dungeons is poised to meet the high expectations that Epic has been building for the title. It just might be one of the most exciting games of the year, and I for one, can’t wait to try it in person!
Hopefully the game’s debut on the App Store isn’t far away – it looks pretty polished to me!
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After revealing plans to build a 20-megawatt solar farm to power their North Carolina datacenter, Apple has now been officially granted regulatory approval to go ahead with construction by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, MacRumors reports.
From the official approval papers:
The Public Staff presented this matter to the Commission at its Regular Staff Conference on May 14, 2012. The Public Staff recommended that the Commission approve the application and issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction of a 20 MW solar photovoltaic electric generating facility to be located at 6028 Startown Road, Maiden, North Carolina.
After careful consideration, the Commission finds good cause to approve the application and issue the attached certificate of public convenience and necessity for the proposed 20 MW solar photovoltaic electric generating facility.
Apple has come under scrutiny from Greenpeace in the last few weeks over the power for used for its datacenters, so hopefully this confirmation of using solar power will make them stop protesting, even though you get the feeling that Apple are being unfairly targeted compared to other tech companies who probably use the same amount of energy as they do.
The solar power facility will also be the largest user-owned array in the US, and when you add in a 5 megawatt fuel cell facility that’s currently undergoing the approval process, that’s A LOT of power!
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Steve Jobs was a lot of things, including a pitchman, a designer, and a perfectionist. These three characteristics helped Steve Jobs re-imagine entire industries, plan them out down to the last detail, and then convince those around him that was a great idea.
If Steve Jobs could revolutionize the retail industry, shape the future of the smartphone, and create a completely new tablet computer industry out of thin air, what might Steve Jobs have been able to offer the auto industry?
According to Apple board member and and J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, speaking at a recent Fast Company conference on innovation (via The Loop), Steve Jobs did in fact dream of designing the ultimate vehicle – an iCar!
“Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” Drexler said. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar.”
“And,” Drexler added with a coy smile, “it would’ve been probably 50% of the market. He never did design it.”
Just as nobody could imagine the iPad or what it would achieve before it was actually unveiled, I can scarcely begin to imagine how different vehicles could have been if Steve Jobs had managed to disrupt the auto industry.
The possibilities are endless.
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This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.
Did you know you can minimise or hide any window or application you currently have open? In this tip we will take a look at these basic but important controls specifically aiming it towards new users of the Mac.
Using minmize and hide gives users even greater control over their applications and windows. Minimising and hiding is particularly important for users with smaller displays.
We will first take a look at the minimise functionality. Minimize is the ability to take an open application window and hide it within the applications icon in the Dock. When you perform the keyboard shortcut Command + M you will notice the current open and front most window in the application will recede into the associated Dock icon. You will also note the application remains opens allowing you to open or create new documents.
If you have multiple windows open in an application such as Safari then only the active window in front of the other windows will minimise. This thereby allows you to continue working within the other open windows that are located in the background.
Instead of using the keyboard command for minimizing you can also navigate to Window > Minimize from the Menu Bar.
Additionally you can also achieve the same result by clicking the round orange button located at the top right of your window. You will notice when you roll the mouse over this area you will see the (-) sign within the button.
In order to continue working in the window you have just minimized simply click on the application icon in the dock and it will reappear. If you have more than one window open in that application you will need to click hold down your mouse button (or right click) in order to bring up a view of the windows you currently have open so you can select the one you wish to work in.
Next we have the hide functionality. Hide is the ability to hide all open windows from view on your Mac’s display. It will also hide the application from view and another non hidden application or the Finder will take its place.
To hide an application and all open associated windows simply press Command + H, or navigate to Safari > Hide Safari from the Menu Bar. Each application will have its specific name listed. Within the same Menu Bar area you can also select Hide Others. Selecting Hide Others will immediately hide all other open applications on your Mac. The keyboard shortcut for Hide Others is Option + Command + H.
When you wish to unhide (by clicking the application icon in the Dock) all windows associated to that specific application will reappear on your Mac. This differs from the approach of minimize where you are bringing back a single window at a time.
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Adopted from Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel, then into a television series, The Walking Dead now makes its way to Mac in an episodic series of its own. The Walking Dead, Episode 1: A New Day ($24.99, direct link) is the first part of a 5 episode series from Telltale Games. The Walking Dead is an adventure game with turn-based gameplay. Every decision you make dramatically affects the story.
You only have a certain amount of time to make decisions so you have to make them on the fly. At first you can’t really tell how each decision was a wise one or not, but the more you play and the more decisions you make, you’ll have a better idea of how it will effect the storyline. Instead of playing as the same characters from the comic or TV series, you play as a new set of characters.
Gameplay
The story takes place during the same time frame and location (Georgia) as the TV and comic series do. At first I thought I would have liked to play the game with the same characters as the ones already established just to relive all the story lines. I’m glad Telltale Games decided to go in a different direction because instead of having the story lines in the game already spoiled, from reading the comics and watching the series, you get to live the story through a whole set of new characters.
In A New Day, you play as Lee Everett who has a dark past. After surviving a car cash after the patrol vehicle he was in crashes head on into a walker, he tries to get hold of his surroundings and runs into Clementine who he has to protect throughout the first episode.
You eventually run into other locals who are trying to survive the apocalypse just as you are. I found the gameplay pretty self explanatory, although there’s a lot more story telling, cut scenes, and decision making than actual action. I think this is just building up of what’s to come in the next episode. Although, when there actually is action and gameplay, it’s really intense and it left me at the edge of my seat just like the television and comic book series because one quick move and it’s game over.
One interesting thing about The Walking Dead is that the choices you make involving all the characters stays with you throughout the game, so they’ll remember the positive and negative choices you make which will alter the story line accordingly.
Graphics
The graphics in The Walking Dead are something I don’t think people expected. Instead of going along the lines of something more realistic that resembles the television series. Telltale Games went in a different direction. The game kind of has a cartoonish look to it, which still looks great, especially all the character models. The environments and backgrounds are dark, which of course go well with the story.
It always feels like there’s something lurking in every corner, even though you can tell what’s coming when the game loads of course. Even though the character models and all the textures look great, the animations are kind of awkward, which stands out because the fact that the game and storyline are more serious, it takes away from the reality of the game a bit. Once in a while it’s noticeable such as when you’re controlling Lee, moving him in any direction. You can see he’s obviously floating in some parts of the game specifically.
Controls
The controls are pretty self-explanatory. Since there’s a lot of cut scenes and talking, it’s mostly point and click. Other than that, when you’re attacked by a walker, you have to fend it off with the action controls. You press ‘Q’ or ‘E’ repeatedly until the two arrows meet back to back. While using weapons you just aim and click with the mouse or the track pad. To control Lee, you can either use A, S, D, and W keys or the directional keys. I found the directional keys a lot easier to use, especially when you’re right in the middle of any gameplay.
Conclusion
The Walking Dead Episode One is a great change and improvement from Telltale’s other games such as from Jurassic Park. With it’s intense story line and gameplay, The Walking Dead is one of the best action games derived from an original series. The game does lack a bit on graphics and there is a limited amount of gameplay, which makes this first episode feel kind of short.
The voice acting and the story line make the game so serious and realistic. In a way it felt like I was watching a mini series. Telltale Games made a bold move by using original characters and taking the graphics into a more cartoonish look. Overall, The Walking Dead Episode One is a solid game with a truly great presentation that sets it up nicely for the nest episode.
Price: ($24.99, direct link)
Pros:
Cons:
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If you haven’t made the transition from MobileMe to iCloud yet, maybe because one of your iOS devices doesn’t meet the specs, or your Mac is too old to run Lion, this article could help you save your email and calendars.
As you’re probably aware, Apple is shutting down MobileMe for good on June 30, 2012. If you haven’t migrated to iCloud, or haven’t taken the steps we’re about to lay out for you, all your email and calendars will be gone, deleted, terminated with extreme prejudice. But we can help you avoid that. Just follow the simple steps below, and all will remain right with your cloud-based world.
For awhile, it appeared that if you weren’t running a Mac with 10.7 Lion, or a PC running Windows 7 or Vista, you were going to be S.O.L. (Simply Out of Luck), But at the beginning of May, a light appeared in the harbor for those with unconverted me.com and mac.com accounts. They received an email that informed them they could keep those addresses, along with still being able to access their MobileMe calendars.
If you didn’t receive the email, you can get the same information at the MobileMe Transition and iCloud page. An excerpt from that page reads:
What if I just want to keep using my email on all my devices?
As of May 1, you can choose to keep using your mail after MobileMe ends, even on devices that don’t meet the iCloud system requirements. Just go to me.com/move and select the option to keep using your email after MobileMe ends. Once you have completed this short process, your mail will continue to work on devices that don’t meet the iCloud requirements after MobileMe ends on June 30th, 2012.
Upon visiting the above link, you’ll need to sign in with your old address, and then click the “Next” button beside “Not all my devices meet requirements,” you’ll be prompted to agree to the iCloud Terms of Service, after which your email and calendars — but not other MobileMe data — will be transitioned to iCloud. After that, you’ll be able to access your email and calendar data in your web browser at iCloud.com. Later on, when you upgrade to fully iCloud compatible devices, you’ll be able to use all of the features of iCloud.
Apple’s description of what is and isn’t accessible by users may not be clear to some, so let’s state for the record that users of older Operating Systems will only have web-based access to email and calendar data after migration. Mail and iCal in Snow Leopard still don’t know how to set up and access an iCloud account, so even though they’ll still connect to the MobileMe servers today, that access will end when MobileMe does.
Luckily, the f0lks s at TidBITS have a solution:
“In Mail, after moving your address to iCloud, delete your existing MobileMe account: Choose Mail > Preferences, click Accounts, select your MobileMe account in the list on the left, and click the – (minus) button. Then click the + (plus) button to add a new account and fill in your mac.com or me.com address and password. But now hold down Option while clicking Continue. This bypasses Mail’s automated setup process (which would configure the account for the MobileMe servers — not what you want).
On the next screen, choose IMAP from the Account Type pop-up menu. Enter
imap.mail.me.comfor the incoming mail server address, click Continue, and entersmtp.mail.me.comfor the outgoing mail server address. Once you’ve completed the process, Mail in Snow Leopard should be able to check your iCloud mail both now and after MobileMe is turned off. As for calendars, see “iCal in Snow Leopard Can Participate in iCloud”.”
After you’ve completed these steps, don’t forget to get copies of any of your data you’ve been storing on the MobilMe servers, like say, the files on your iDisk. The only safe assumption to make is that as of the end of June, all of that will be gone. Find a new home for that data now! Dropbox is my favorite online storage service, and I highly recommend it.
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Sparrow has updated their popular email client for Mac with several new features, including an updated “unified inbox” that shows sent messages, drafts, and trash. Thee most notable update, however, is the long-awaited addition of POP support!
What’s New in Version 1.6
New features:
- POP support
- Esc on Quick Reply saves as draft
- Empty spam
- Unified inbox shows starred, sent, drafts, etc.
- Inbox zero message
- Composer: tab toggle now works for selecting the sending account
- Pull to refresh updates list of starred messages / unread messages / priority messages
- Shift-cmd-option-M toggles Extended Sidebar
- App startup time improvement
In addition to the new features, there are also a variety of bug fixes. The update is available immediately through the Mac App Store, as well as through the app’s own autoupdate feature for those who purchased the app directly from Sparrow. Sparrow costs $9.99 from the Mac App Store (direct link).
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Apple will apparently begin rejecting all Mac App Store apps that make use of hotkey functionality starting on June 1st. All new apps (and existing apps updated with new features) submitted to the Mac App Store must eliminate the use of hotkeys in order to be approved.
TUAW reports:
TUAW has been told that Apple will be rejecting all MAS apps with hotkey functionality starting June 1, regardless of whether the new features are hotkey related or not. Basically, if you’re developing one of those apps, an app that assumes you can still add hotkeys, don’t bother submitting it to the Mac App Store.
For those of you in the dark, hotkeys are keyboard combinations that can be used to trigger a certain event on your Mac. One example of a program that depends on hotkeys is Alfred – a productivity app for the Mac. Alfred allows you to use a keyboard shortcut to automatically call the app to the forefront of your Mac regardless of what app you are using at the time.
It’s an unfortunate exclusion on Apple’s part, and will dramatically reduce the functionality of a number of apps that I find highly useful. Even more interesting is that developers have reportedly not been made aware of this change. MacStories spoke to a number of developers of apps that use this feature, and they all stated that they were unaware of the change.
I find it strange that Apple has not alerted developers of this change, especially considering that it is coming up in less than two weeks – the same deadline that Apple has announced for requiring Sandboxing support (preventing apps from accessing certain parts of your system) in all future Mac App Store apps.
Has Apple really decided to kill off hotkey support in Mac App Store apps? Will fantastic apps like Alfred cease to exist? I certainly hope not – but it looks like we’ll be finding out for sure in a couple of weeks.
Update: Macworld has confirmed that Apple has no intention of banning apps that use hotkeys from the App Store.
Despite reports earlier Thursday suggesting that Apple would disallow Mac App Store apps from employing systemwide keyboard “hotkey” shortcuts, sources close to the matter confirm to Macworld that such apps remain welcome in the cozy confines of Apple’s software
That certainly makes sense, given that Apple didn’t give any sort of warning to developers…
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Following yesterday’s update to OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3, Apple has now issued the fourth developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion Server to registered Mac developers. The update carries a build number of 12S219n.
It’s unclear why Apple didn’t simply issue an update to Mountain Lion Server DP3, as they did with the Mountain Lion developer preview. In fact, it seems strange for Apple to seed Mountain Lion Server as Developer Preview 4 while keeping the base OS as Developer Preview 3.
The update is available now as a Mac App Store redeem code, which can be obtained from Apple’s developer portal.
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Apple has reportedly confirmed LCD suppliers for a rumored “iPad Mini” which the rumor mill says will be released in the second half of 2012. This latest tidbit comes courtesy of Taiwan news outlet Liberty Times.
CNET:
Citing the usual, vague “market rumors” but also a report from Japanese securities firm Macquarie, the Liberty Times said the iPad mini could start shipping by the end of the third quarter with a goal of 6 million units.
That 6 million is the same number projected last month by Chinese online portal Netease.
The report claims that LG and Au Optronics have already passed Apple’s certification tests to provide LCD panels for the tablet. According to the report, both are working to ship the panels for production of the smaller iPad.
Japanese blog site Macotakara says TPK Holdings will produce 4 million backlight modules, and Chimei Innolux will provide an additional 2 million. The tablet’s touch sensor would be made by Nissha Printing.
Other rumors say the 7.85-inch iPad will not feature a Retina display as we’d hope. They say Apple may stick to the resolution numbers of the original iPad, (768 X 1024), to cut costs and preserve profit margins, even at a lower sale price.
This is just the latest in a series of rumors that Apple will unveil a 7-inch iPad later this year. Barclays has carried reports of evidence of an iPad mini in the supply chain, while others have reported that the small tablet would offer 8GB of storage and sell for $200. Other reports have placed the price range at $249 to $299.
These rumors come as the iPad received a bit of competition, no matter how slight, from the Amazon Kindle Fire, the 7-inch Android tablet released last year. Apple has remained the runaway leader in tablet sales, with a projected market share of around 61 percent for this year.
While Apple has watched it’s tablet market lead erode in the face of the onslaught of Android tablets, is it ready to release a smaller iPad in order to strike a blow against its foes, both large and small? Will they follow a trend, instead of setting one as they usually do? Will they go for value instead of innovation with the smaller device?
We’ll all have to wait to find out the verdict, but while we wait, what’s your opinion readers? Will there be a smaller iPad? Will it have a Retina display? How much RAM will it have? How many question marks is a writer allowed to use in a paragraph? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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