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Friday, November 20

Apple's App Store API screening flawed, says developer

A new automatic screening technique Apple is using for the App Store appears to be backfiring, claims developer Rogue Sheep. The screening is believed to be aimed at catching unauthorized APIs, blocked under Apple's submission rules. A number of the apps trapped so far are allegedly ones using Three20, an Objective-C library. Rogue Sheep's Postage has in the past relied on some Three20 c...

Microsoft fights claims of NSA backdoor in Win 7

Microsoft in a response late Thursday rejected assertions that it has put in a security "backdoor" at the request of the National Security Agency. The denial comes after the NSA's information assurance lead, Richard Schaeffer, told a US Senate terrorism subcommittee that the agency had worked with Microsoft to improve Windows 7's "security guide" and sparked fears that the government had de...

Aqua Connect intros hosted Mac terminal services

Aqua Connect and Ashbourne Technology Group have announced a new partnership designed to provide hosted services on the Mac platform. The Aqua Connect Terminal Server previously had been unavailable as a hosted service, however the new offering will allow customers to take advantage of the Mac terminal services without purchasing a dedicated server....

TomTom to ship iPod touch-specific car kit

GPS maker TomTom has revealed a new car mount, one designed exclusively for the iPod touch. The accessory reflects a recent update to the company's GPS app, which now includes Touch support. The new kit is little different from its more broadly-compatible iPhone version, mainly being $20 cheaper at a price of $100....

Qualcomm demos FLO TV on iPhone

Qualcomm has quietly shown an example receiver that would give the iPhone and iPod touch FLO TV reception. Despite assertions that the company would use iPhone OS 3.0 support for native hardware, the demonstrator mimics the strategy used for the Softbank 1Seg tuner in Japan and pipes video over Wi-Fi. The receiver itself is roughly as large as the iPhone, though it's unclear whether this i...

YouTube blocking native video API from TV devices

YouTube drew controversy with word this week that it has begun limiting the use of its native video API on devices. Reflecting new terms of service, any device that connects to a TV must have a license from YouTube to get fully native video support. The move will ban smaller-scale devices like the Popcorn Hour C-200 from directly accessing YouTube videos, although it will still allow them ...

Barnes & Noble sold out of Nook reader until 2010

Barnes & Noble today signaled that new orders for the Nook reader now won't ship at all in 2009. Those placed today will ship no sooner than January 4th, or more than three weeks after the delay to December 11th. The bookseller hopes to console those missing the Christmas target by giving them a certificate that promises a Nook reader when it ships....

China Unicom claims high expectations for iPhone

China Unicom has set high targets for iPhone sales in its native country, according to China Daily. One senior executive tells the newspaper that within two to three years, the iPhone is expected to represent 10 percent of all 3G devices in China. The carrier's chairman, Chang Xiaobing, has meanwhile suggested that the product will eventually become the nation's most popular smartphone....

Apple I system on auction through eBay

A resident of Roseville, California is auctioning off an original Apple I, according to the Detroit Free Press. The computer was the first put into production by Apple, launching in 1976 in a limited run of 200 units. It was distinctive at the time for being produced and sold by a two-man team -- Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs -- and building in its own terminal circuitry, requiring only a ...

T-Mobile looking to team up with other US carrier?

T-Mobile's US branch may land a deal with another carrier to grow its network much more rapidly, a rumor maintained on Friday. Sources for the German paper Handelsblatt claimed that Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent, is in the "early stages" of looking for a partner that would help it build out the network through a cash infusion. The top candidates so far include budget carrier MetroPC...

Cumulus 8.1 adds new report features, automatic e-mails

Canto has announced Cumulus 8.1, an upgrade to the company’s digital asset management (DAM) software. The update turns the Cumulus Cross Client into a standalone version of Cumulus, letting users create new catalogs on a local computer, open catalogs served by Cumulus Servers, and update metadata and assets between the two. For comparison purposes, visual representation of two selected asse...

Early details of Intel's 2011 Atom surface

Initial information has surfaced of Intel's sequel to its imminent Pine Trail platform for the Atom processor. Appropriately codenamed Cedar Trail, the 2011 update should be the first built on a 32 nanometer process and will take advantage of this through a new integrated graphics core. The new version will support DirectX 10-level 3D as well as HD video decoding. It should additionally b...

Mac OS X 10.6.2 hacked to allow Atom processors

A workaround has been developed to restore Atom processor support in Mac OS X 10.6.2, a Russian hacker claims. The technique relies on a custom version of the Mach kernel, which must be installed using Terminal because of the need to gain root access. Once active, the kernel should support so-called hackintosh netbooks, most likely to use Atom chips....

Nokia to cut an extra 330 jobs in R&D

Nokia on Friday said it would cut 330 jobs in its research and development group. The reductions are spread between an office in Oulu, in Nokia's native Finland, as well as in Copenhagen. Nokia isn't specific as to the nature of the layoffs and says only that they're meant to reflect the company's "focused portfolio of future products."...

Autodesk's Smoke 2010 to come to Macs

Autodesk will soon launch a Mac version of Smoke, a demonstration at Japan's InterBEE expo confirms. The software is a high-end video production suite, costing approximately $15,000. It is capable not only of conventional editing tasks, but also handling audio, painting, text and various visual effects....

Pogoplug updated with 4 USB ports, automatic media sync

Cloud Engines on Friday introduced the second-generation Pogoplug, along with a variety of new features for storing and sharing multimedia. The hardware features the same plug-and-play capability of the original, but adds several USB ports to allow connection of up to four external hard drives without using a dedicated USB hub....

Gameloft sells 400X more iPhone games than Android

Gameloft today revealed that it has scaled back development of games for Android phones. The French software house made the move as just a fraction of its sales come from the Google platform: it sells 400 times more iPhone games than Android titles, the company's financial head Alexandre de Rochefort said....

Briefly: Office 2008 for Mac discount, iMac repair guides

In brief: To help U.S college and graduate students dealing with heavy educational-based costs, Microsoft's MacBU has announced a special deal for the Office 2008 for Mac, dropping the price by over 70 percent. Office 2008 Business Edition provides a series of different applications to help support all areas of education, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Entourage 2008, and Document Connec...

Thursday, November 19

Apple updates Server Admin Tools, Boot Camp drivers

Apple on Thursday released an update to its Server Admin utility for Snow Leopard Server, as well as Boot Camp drivers for Windows. Server Admin tools 10.6.2 includes the latest releases of iCal Server Utility, Podcast Composer, Server Admin, Server Monitor, Server Preferences, System Image Utility, Workgroup Manager, and Xgrid Admin....

Big Fish Games releases Drawn: The Painted Tower for Mac

Big Fish Games has released Drawn: The Painted Tower, a new puzzle-adventure game for the Mac. Players must travel through painted worlds and unravel the secrets of the Painted Tower in order to rescue a girl named Iris. Each floor of the tower has been locked by a curse, which requires players to solve a series of puzzles in order to unlock. Players will also meet a variety of different ch...

Star Trek D-A-C arriving for Mac in December

Paramount and TransGaming have announced a December release for a Mac version of Star Trek: D-A-C. The new game is a top-down space shooter game pitting Starfleet against the Romulan Empire, supporting online multiplayer for up to 12 players, online co-op and single-player gameplay. Gameplay options include survival, team deathwatch, conquest and assault. Defeated ships offer new abilities ...

Springy 1.6 archiving software adds 7Z, CAB support

Dragan Milic has released Springy 1.6, adding several new capabilities to the archiving software. Springy can open and browse the contents of an archive or a disk image without extracting any files, and can extract all content or specific files from an archive. It can modify an existing archive or disk image, with options to add, overwrite, delete or rename contents. It also supports both e...

Ebbinghaus 3.0 flashcard app adds new study function

Christian Kienle has introduced Ebbinghaus 3.0, the latest version of the flash card application for organizing cards into decks, folders or "smart decks." All cards will be displayed within a table, while a progress indicator shows overall performance. The update features a study function that displays the cards consecutively, allowing users to type in an answer, while smart decks can be c...

Slammer 1.0 offers design layout and geometry tools

Ringce has announced the final release of Slammer, a layout and geometry utility for Mac OS X. Designed for both graphic designers and app developers, the layout tool can be used for creating blueprints, customizing borders and size presets, or saving and exporting templates. Version 1.0 includes improvements to the Unibody theme and introduces customizable themes, enabling users to alter t...

Sony set to launch online portal for music, movies, books

Sony on Thursday introduced plans to launch an online portal for music, movies, books, and other content such as applications, according to BusinessWeek. The market, named Sony Online Service, is expected to fulfill CEO Howard Stringer's goals and help the company compete against alternatives such as iTunes. ...

Twitter turns on geolocation feature

Twitter today added its promised geolocation feature for tweets. The addition gives any app using the API, but not the Twitter site itself, the option of tagging posts with a location as well as to automatically draw on the location for position-based features, such as finding tweets in a certain area. It isn't exclusive to GPS-equipped devices and will work with Wi-Fi and other methods t...

Apple uses Infineon 3G chips to dodge Qualcomm royalties

Apple has allegedly established a system to minimize licensing costs for 3G components patented by Qualcomm, according to Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi. While most 3G OEMs are paying Qualcomm roughly 4 percent on the wholesale price of their phones, Apple reportedly dodges most of the fees and pays an estimated 1.6 percent of its iPhone revenue to the chip maker....

Dell misses targets, sees income plunge 54%

Dell today posted disappointing results for its latest quarter ended in October. The company saw its year-over-year revenue drop 15 percent to about $12.9 billion and its net income drop even further, falling 54 percent to $337 million. Both decreases were blamed on poor results both in the public sector and in its staple home PC business, where its shipments were up about 17 percent compa...

Ballmer: it "matters" that Apple has gained share

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer today warned at a yearly shareholders' meeting that the company needed to improve the standing of Windows in the future. The executive was emphatic that Microsoft was still in a comfortable position with "96 out of 100" choosing Windows worldwide but acknowledged that Apple had cut into Microsoft's share in the past year. He downplayed the amount, labeling it ...

Diverget posts ClipWrap 2.0 update

Divergent Media has released an update to its M2T/MTS batch converter, ClipWrap 2.0. The program converts HDV or AVCHD files into QuickTime movies that can be used with any QuickTime-based application. Features in v2.0 include enhanced speed when rewrapping files, as well as additional format support....

Apple retail workers to get new iPod touch apps?

Apple Store workers will soon have more apps for their iPod touch-based EasyPay handhelds, a source claims. The devices are currently meant to run Easy Touch, an app which handles roaming checkouts in tandem with an attached card reader and barcode scanner. Apple is gradually retiring an assortment of Windows CE-based checkout units, which have been criticized as slow and unreliable....

Hasselblad unveils high-detail H3DII-50 Multi-Shot

Hasselblad today kept its H3DII camera line alive by adding a specialized model, the H3DII-50 Multi-Shot. It addresses image quality through an unusual approach that drops the need for the Bayer filtering common on virtually all cameras: it takes four shots, each offset by a pixel, and composites these into a single image. The result is a shot where every pixel has full color information ...

Trillian for iPhone reaches App Store

Cerulean has released an iPhone version of Trillian, its normally Windows-based instant messaging client. The app syncs with both web and desktop clients, and supports several different messaging networks, including AIM, ICQ, Google, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo. Users can correspondingly login with multiple accounts, and switch between chats via tabs. ...

Live: Google's Chrome OS event

Google provided its first public details of Chrome OS at a special event today. Electronista supplied coverage of the just-ended even; all updates are listed in reverse chronological order. Among the news unveiled are the first public view of the OS, that there will be no beta today and that the platform is being open-sourced early as Chromium OS a year ahead of...

Virgin Mobile Canada to sell iPhone 3G, 3GS

Virgin Mobile's Canadian division will soon carry the iPhone, according to an announcement. The company has revealed few details, except that it will sell both the 3G and 3GS, and that a launch should happen sometime "in the coming months." The device will also be the carrier's first HSPA-based phone, possible through an upgraded Bell cellular network....

Jobs: Forced name change 'not that big of a deal'

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has chastised a Mac developer in response to a letter regarding a name change, reports say. The CEO of Little App Factory, John Devor, says he was recently served a notice by Apple lawfirm Baker & McKenzie, asking him to change the name of iPodRip, a program used to transfer content from an iPod or iPhone back to a Mac. Devor decided to plead his case with Jobs directl...

Intel's first 32nm mobile Celeron due in spring?

Intel's first Celeron processor based on its 32 nanometer Arrandale design should ship this spring, a leak says today. The P4500 will clock in at just 1.86GHz but should be a dual-core example and have 2MB of Level 2 cache and perform faster than an older 45nm Celeron. Both Hyperthreading and Turbo Boost will reportedly be disabled, as with the Core i3, to keep the price down and different...

TomTom app update brings iPod touch support

As promised, TomTom has released an updated GPS app for the iPhone. A previously unannounced feature is support for the iPod touch, which normally lacks a GPS receiver. As with the recent Magellan app however, Touch support can only be enabled by docking with a first-party car kit....

Sharkoon intros USB 3.0 Quickport HDD dock

Germany's Sharkoon is coming out with a USB 3.0 hard drive dock that allows users to plug in any IDE or SATA hard drives and transfer data through a fast USB 3.0 connection. The Quickport Combo is an upright drive station that can support 2.5- and 3.5-inch IDE or SATA hard drives as well as optical 5.25-inch IDE drives. SATA hard drives can be plugged directly into the top-facing dock, whil...

MacBook, iPod touch make Time list of top travel gadgets

The MacBook and the iPod touch have both taken positions on a Time list of the top 25 travel gadgets for 2009. The updated plastic MacBook is complimented for being tougher than its predecessor, and having LED backlighting, which contributes to a maximum seven-hour battery life. The magazine also remarks on the presence of a glass multi-touch trackpad, and the removal of mercury and arsen...

Imation ships Wireless USB hard drive, new SSD kit

Imation this morning made further inroads into hard drives by shipping two new designs. The Imation Pro WX gives both Macs and PCs their first Wireless USB external hard drive and transfers data at a usable 15MB per second over the air. It comes in a single 1.5TB capacity and uses a physical USB adapter to provide its wireless connection. Imation sells it for $450....

1Password 3 adds remote access, custom iPhone sync

Agile Web Solutions has released the completed version of 1Password 3, its web login utility. The software generates custom passwords for websites, remembering login information for automatic insertion later. Users can also save content related to online shopping, such as credit card numbers....

Livescribe pens get own app store

Livescribe today followed trends today by launching its own app store for its intelligent pens like the Pulse. The unusual addition uses a combination of the pen output, screen and audio features to provide a mix of games, education tools and utilities. In many cases, users draw some of the interface itself; language tools speak dialogue....

Apple posts Cinema Display, Windows QuickTime updates

Apple has released two new software updates, beginning with a firmware update for the 24-inch LED Cinema Display. The update fixes an error with the built-in iSight camera, which may not be detected as intended by some programs. Downloaders must have an Intel Mac, as well as Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.6.2....

Apple tablets pushed to 2H 2010, to get OLED model?

Apple may have delayed the launch of its repeatedly rumored tablet line to incorporate newer parts that could include an OLED touchscreen, a purported leak claims today. While an often mentioned 10.6-inch version with an LCD is still deemed on tap, the entire line may have been moved to the second half of 2010 to accommodate a 9.7-inch OLED from LG Display. The company may be delaying the...

Wednesday, November 18

GelaSkins intros line of Tim Burton protective skins

GelaSkins, in collaboration with DarkHorse, has announced a new line of protective skins for notebooks and iPhones, each featuring designs from various Time Burton stories. The set of GelaSkins are made to fit 15.4-inch notebooks, as well as all three versions of the iPhone. They provide detailed pictures that wrap around the outside surface, while 3M materials help ensure the skins can sli...

AT&T strikes back at Verizon with new 3G commercials

AT&T has fired back at Verizon's "there's a map for that" commercials by launching its own critical ad. The carrier hired film actor Luke Wilson, who guides viewers through a chart comparing several aspects of the 3G networks. Wilson credits AT&T with having the fastest network, the ability to simultaneously use voice and Internet, the most popular smartphones and access to over 100,000 app...

Adobe intros new Camera Raw, Lightroom and DNG converters

Adobe has announced several release candidates for updates to its RAW and DNG file utilities, Photoshop Camera Raw 5.6, Lightroom 2.6 and DNG Converter 5.6. The updates extend file support to 19 new camera models including Canon's EOS 7D, Powershot G11 and S90; the Nikon D3s, Olympus E-P2, Pentax K-x, Sigma DP1s, Sony's A500/550/850, and several others....

AT&T denied injunction against Verizon ads

Judge Timothy Batten Sr. dealt an early setback to AT&T's lawsuit against Verizon over allegedly misleading ads by refusing to grant a requested injunction that would have forced Verizon to take the ads down immediately. The US District Court ruled that the TV spots might be misunderstood but weren't harmfully deceptive, thus leaving no urgent need to change or withdraw the ads ahead of cou...

Camino 2 adds tab overview, phishing and malware protection

The Camino Project has released an update to its self-titled browser for Mac OS X. Version 2.0 adds a tab overview feature that allows users to quickly browse all open tabs in a layout preview. Tabbed browsing has also been improved with drag-and-drop rearranging, a scrollable bar, and a dedicated menu listing all of the open tabs....

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