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Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Apple Sued Over MMS: But Who Really Uses It?

Written on November 19, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 27 people have commented

According to a report this week on The Mac Observer, Apple and AT&T have been presented with a class action lawsuit by a customer who accuses them of misleading the public by advertising the MMS capabilities of the iPhone 3GS despite not making those capabilities available in the U.S. when it launched.
(Yawn.) I’ll let you [...]

Mplayit Provides iPhone App Discoverability Via Facebook

Written on November 19, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

I spend an awful lot of time poking around in the App Store in both iTunes and on my iPhone, just in the hopes of finding something new and exciting to download and use on my device. It’s not an ideal situation, and I often wish Apple would throw out its tired model and completely [...]

Ozzie Misses the Point, says Apps Don’t Matter

Written on November 18, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 12 people have commented

Speaking yesterday at the Professional Developer’s Conference, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie explained what’s really important when it comes to the smartphone business, and it’s apparently nothing at all to do with the number of apps available on any one platform.
All the apps that count will be ported to every one of them. It’s [...]

Anachronistic Twitter Client Released for Classic Macs

Written on November 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and No one has commented

If you’re still running an old Mac PowerBook 550c or something similar, it must be really annoying to not be able to use Twitter via a native client. That’s probably your No. 1 concern, in fact, on your OS 8.1-running machine. You could always use the web interface, but that’s not really a fair solution, [...]

Apple Has Been Working on OS X 10.7 for At Least a Month

Written on November 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 17 people have commented

Snow Leopard has barely gotten its paws wet, and now news comes that Apple is already working on its replacement. It’s not really surprising, since Apple is basically always either working on the next iteration of its products or releasing them, but still, it does whet the appetite for the next version of OS X.
The [...]

TweetDeck for iPhone Gets Facebook Integration

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and No one has commented

The iPhone isn’t capable of true multitasking if you’re running a legit, non-jailbroken device, so you can’t do something like, say, have Facebook and Twitter open at the same time. Thanks to the latest update, though, for TweetDeck for the iPhone (free, iTunes link), you can experience most of the advantages of that hypothetical situation [...]

Apple’s App Store Approval Process Now Includes an Automated Layer

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

App Store developers now have more to contend with than just the fickle tastes of the humans Apple has reviewing submissions. Now, submissions also go through an automated filter that determines whether or not the app is obeying the rules and not using any of Apple’s private APIs, which is a no-no, according to the [...]

Apple Set to Release “Concierge” App to Make Scheduling Appointments Easier

Written on November 16, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

Scheduling a Genius Bar or One to One training session appointment has never been that difficult. Just go to Apple’s web site, enter some information, and you’re done. But a new rumor over at AppleInsider suggests that it’s about to become even easier, thanks to a new in-house developed iPhone app that could be forthcoming [...]

What if OnLive Came to the iPhone?

Written on November 16, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

OnLive made a lot of noise when it first appeared on the scene way back in March at the Game Developer’s Conference of 2009. It’s a service that’s said to be able to make a gaming machine out of any computer that can run the latest browsers, which would effectively end the madness that is [...]

Opinion: Psystar Ruling Could Have Set Precedent for Upgrading Your Mac

Written on November 16, 2009 by Dave Greenbaum and 46 people have commented

This past Friday, your future ability to upgrade your Mac may have been significantly restricted. Psystar, the company that tried to create “open” Macs by running OS X on non-Apple hardware, suffered a quick defeat in its effort against Apple’s OS license restrictions.
No question this was a long shot and Psystar was going for the [...]

Eliminate Pro Becomes First Free App in the Top Grossing List

Written on November 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

I’m not sure how many of you are playing Eliminate Pro on your iPhones, but I’m guessing it has to be a fairly high number, considering the app’s success since its recent launch. ngmoco’s ambitious first-person shooter for Apple’s mobile platform is third overall in the App Store’s Top Free list, but what’s more impressive [...]

App Store Devs Flaunt Copyright Troll With Name Changes

Written on November 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 8 people have commented

iPhone devs are a rebellious bunch, and they don’t like to be bullied by anyone other than their Apple, which both frustrates and affirms their existence. Now, in light of what some might call a campaign being waged against the App Store by a well-known trademark troll, many iPhone devs are protesting what they see [...]

Facebook Developer Turns Back on iPhone

Written on November 12, 2009 by Alfredo Padilla and 14 people have commented

Facebook for the iPhone is one of my most used applications, and I’m not alone as it’s amongst the most popular iPhone applications ever. This success is due to the size of Facebook itself, that the application is free, and that it is very well done. That last is due mainly to Joe Hewitt, who [...]

“ikee” iPhone Worm Progeny Not So Harmless

Written on November 12, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

Earlier this week, we reported that the first iPhone worm had been created. It was called “ikee,” and all it did was change the default wallpaper on devices to an image of Rick Astley with “ikee is never going to give you up” printed across the top. It was relatively harmless, if annoying, and the [...]

Safari 4.0.4 Update Released

Written on November 12, 2009 by Charles Jade and 4 people have commented

Safari version 4.0.4 is now available, the 30MB update promising improvements to “performance, stability, and security.”
Regarding security, the update addresses several potential “maliciously crafted” attacks–are there such things as benevolently crafted attacks? One uses a color profile, which is inventive, if evil. Others use XML, shortcut menus, or the user’s desire to visit web pages [...]

Blu-Ray App for iPhone Arrives Courtesy of Universal

Written on November 11, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 8 people have commented

Universal Media announced awhile ago that it would be introducing iPhone control into some of its Blu-ray titles, starting with “Fast & Furious,” the Vin Diesel/Paul Walker romp that saw the lucrative car racing series return to its humble origins. Now, Universal is extending the iPhone/Blu-ray connection to a much wider swath of its library [...]

Mac Office Update: Stability, Stability, Stability

Written on November 11, 2009 by Charles Jade and 4 people have commented

Microsoft issued updates for Office 2004 and 2008 covering security issues for both versions, as well as an XML conversion tool. The Office 2008 update also includes a number of minor fixes to enhance stability.
Regarding security, both updates address vulnerabilities “that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious [...]

Apple Releases OS X 10.6.2 Update

Written on November 09, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 10 people have commented

The second minor incremental update for OS X Snow Leopard was released today, and it contains the usual expected bug fixes. It is also is said to contain built-in support for Apple’s new Magic Mouse, and may or may not remove support for Intel Atom processors. If you happen to be using a hackintosh and [...]

Jailbreakers: First iPhone Worm Discovered, Features Rick Astley

Written on November 09, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 2 people have commented

The first iPhone worm has been discovered. It comes to us via Australia, and appears to be limited to that country for now, although it has the potential to spread. It also stars Rick Astley, so to speak. The work changes the iPhone’s wallpaper to an image of the 1980s pop singer, who’s enjoyed a [...]

Will the Cloud Lead Me Away From the Mac?

Written on November 09, 2009 by Alfredo Padilla and 36 people have commented

There’s no doubt that cloud computing is a growing trend. All you have to look at is the popularity of netbooks to see that many people nowadays will be quite happy with a computing device that gives them access to the web, and not much else.
I’m certainly part of this trend, as I write this story [...]