It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here . No Flash? Click here to listen . Subscribe via RSS Daily Update for April 23, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Daily Update for April 23, 2013
Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer must really be cracking the whip lately, as the company has been on a roll when it comes to updating its apps or coming out with completely new apps like Yahoo! Weather . Today’s news is that the company has updated its namesake iOS news app (free) to version 3.0, adding an exhaustive list of new features. According to a post on the company’s blog allegedly written by Meyer, the new Yahoo mobile app uses “Summly’s natural-language algorithms and machine learning to deliver quick story summaries.” Yahoo acquired Summly less than a month ago , so it’s fascinating to see that the app was updated with the new capabilities so quickly. Users of the app can now choose to focus on their favorite type of news, continually tweaking the topics they wish to see or omit. Article summaries are backed by appropriate images, making for a much more attractive browsing and reading experience. Meyer also reports that the web search experience has been updated to underscore the company’s focus on mobile content discovery. Yahoo! updates iPhone app with Summly integration originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
We’ve received direct word and noted on Twitter that that Mike Culbert , a longtime Apple hardware engineer, has passed away after battling cancer. According to his friends, he was a “brilliant engineer, a wonderful human being.” He will be missed. Culbert began working at Apple over 25 years ago, ending up as VP of Architecture. His contributions include numerous patents for many iPhone and iPad innovations, we now take for granted. These include iOS video screen rotation, power saving patents, the ambient light sensor, digital content escrow for iTunes purchases, and more. He was also a key player on the Newton development team. We at TUAW send our condolences to his family and friends. Thanks Maurice. Newton Photo by Blake Patterson . RIP Mike Culbert, iOS and Newton pioneer originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of standout apps from the past few weeks (all prices are USD)! iOS Apps Currency – Made Simple [iPhone; Category: Travel; $0.99] Currency is a simple converter for travelers. Has over 160 currencies from all over the world. Trial of the Clone [iOS Universal; Category: Business; $3.99] You’re a clone who sets out to find your place in a cold, uncaring, but also kickass and ridiculous futuristic world, solving challenging puzzles and fighting monsters along the way. Written by Zach Weinersmith, creator of the hilarious, award-winning comic strip “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.” Wil Wheaton voice overs. Triage: Email First Aid [iPhone Category: Productivity; $1.99] Triage is for people who struggle to stay on top of their inbox. It doesn’t try to replace your desktop mail client, but lets you use your downtime to quickly remove the noise and stress. Complete – Reminders, Tasks and Grocery [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $0.99] Complete it. Finish it. Do it. Start organizing and managing your tasks and reminders the best way possible. Dragon Puzzle [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Dragon Puzzle is an awesome iOS game which combines puzzle- and RPG-playing and set in a fantasy landscape. Bottle Cap Blitz [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Bottle Cap Blitz is an explosive one-minute action game where you fire bottle caps to smash as many ice cubes as possible in 60 seconds. Blue Toad Murder Files: A Touch of Mystery [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] As one of the detectives from the infamous Blue Toad Agency you arrive in the quaint village of Little Riddle for a well-earned break. But there is murder and mystery afoot. Lumber Jacked [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Take on the role of Joe the Lumber Jack in his quest for justice against the notorious Bustin Beaver and his band of beaver bandits. YoCam [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; $0.99] YoCam – Beautifully designed and packed with powerful and trendy tools will let you edit fast and perfect your photos. OS X Apps SandboxCleaner [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] Some QuickTime components are incompatible with OS X sandboxing, which leads to problems — including crashes — with many popular video and photo apps. SandboxCleaner finds and reveals those components, helping you to fix the problems and keep your system up and running smoothly. DM1 – The Drum Machine [OS X; Category: Music; $4.99] DM1 is an advanced drum machine. It turns your computer into a fun and creative beat making machine. WebCode [OS X; Category: Developer Tools; $49.99] WebCode is a vector-drawing app that instantly generates JavaScript+Canvas, CSS+HTML or SVG code. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing [OS X; Category: Games; $24.99] Take 25 years of SEGA history, a revving lineup of crazy vehicles and the world’s fastest hedgehog and what do you get? Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. New and notable apps for iOS and OS X, April 17 edition originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
YoWindow for iPhone ($0.99) is a super cute weather app that combines information with good looks into a handy little utility. I’ve been using it for about a week and, while it won’t satisfy hardcore weather junkies, those who simply want to know, “What’s it gonna be like?” should enjoy YoWindow. Looks This is going to be divisive. YoWindow’s main screen features an animation, complete with sound effects, that coincides with your local weather. For example, a sunny day generates a sunny scene. Rain, a downpour. The time of day is also represented, and you can watch as the sun and moon rise and set. There are five animation themes to choose from: village, seaside, airport, oriental and sky (village is the default). Each animation has its own set of sound effects, and is drawn in a vector style. Some will love it. Some will despise it. I got into the fun of the app, so I found the animations and sounds enjoyable. Gallery: YoWindow for iPhone The top half of the screen shows the current weather conditions as well as a seven-day forecast. Tap the current temperature reading for additional information (I’m calling this the “weather detail area” for the sake of this review), like wind speed and direction, humidity and pressure. Use The first time you launch YoWindow, it will ask permission to note your location. I was impressed that it found my rinky-dink town of the first try. Most of these apps select a neighboring town, forcing me to go in and fix it. After a brief bit of research (it pulls data from the National Weather Service), up pops the display. The forecast is at the very top of the screen. Tap any one to jump right to it. Next is the timeline, which is very cool. Tap and hold anywhere on the screen, and then slide your finger left or right. As you do, you scrub the timeline and the appropriate conditions — past, present or future — are reflected in the animation and weather detail area. You can even scrub through the conditions history of upcoming days. It’s a fun, clever way to present a weather forecast. Finally, a single tap on the screen hides the overlay information and lets you enjoy the animation. Conclusion As I said, some will be put off by the animated scenes and lack of real-time satellite maps. Others who like a bit of fun and a simple way to know if they need sunblock or an umbrella will enjoy this app. I did. Daily iPhone App: YoWindow for iPhone is a cute, useful weather app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
Today’s edition of “How the AppGratis Turns” finds Business Insider reporting on a “leaked document” showing that the company supplies developers with estimates on where their app will land in the App Store rankings based on how much they’re willing to spend . This contradicts what AppGratis CEO Simon Dawlat stated yesterday to TUAW sister site TechCrunch . In Dawlat’s statement, he said that “We’ve never been in the business of gaming the top charts or anything.” Business Insider contacted Dawlat about a chart they received showing that an approximately US$100,000 buy with AppGratis would place an app in the top five in the US App Store; something that BI considers to be at odds with what Dawlat said. Dawlat took a look at the chart published by BI and replied that “Today, mobile-media buying is this simple equation where the biggest industry players will acquire a certain number of installs through guys like AppGratis, Facebook Mobile Ads, Apple’s iAd and all the other guys in order to reach their ranking objective.” In other words, what Dawlat thinks is business as usual in the mobile app-marketing world is what Business Insider and Apple appear to see as disrupting the system. AllThingsD featured a guest post by former OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter last week in which he said that App Store rankings are so important to Apple that the company strives to keep them fair and democratic. Apps like AppGratis are seen as artificially inflating rankings based on how much a developer is willing to pay, totally at odds with Apple’s goals and probably what lead to the current AppGratis ban. Well-known iOS developer David Barnard of App Cubby (@drbarnard) tweeted earlier today that “I don’t get why BI and people linking to it make that chart out to be a bad thing or inconsistent with statements” made by Dawlat. Barnard noted that “many developers buy ads on launch day to help get that traction” in the App Store, essentially gaming the App Store rankings as well. Ads in the Facebook iOS app highlight a variety of apps that are for sale in the App Store. Will Facebook eventually face the wrath of Apple’s iOS developer guidelines? Guideline 2.25 states that, “Apps that display apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.” How Apple interprets and applies that guideline to apps other than AppGratis that are also used to promote apps needs to be clarified quickly. For further details on this continuing story, a look at the previous posts about AppGratis is a good way to get some background. AppGratis document shows disconnect between statement and promotion originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
SugarSync , which allows you to share your documents, photos, music and other files between computers and mobile devices, has updated its iOS app to version 4.0. The new version features a major redesign which, as you can see above, looks quick slick and functional. In addition to the new app-wide interface, there are two big, new features. Cloud search is a system-wide search that allows you to find files sync’d by SugarSync, no matter which computer or device they happen to be on. And the new “Open In” feature allows you to take photos, videos and other documents from other apps on your mobile device, and open them up inside SugarSync’s folders, where you can share them off to anywhere else. SugarSync’s a great app that’s gotten even better with this update. It’s a free download from the App Store, and while you can pay for more storage if you like, everyone using the app gets 5 GB of storage for free. [via Engadget ] SugarSync gets a fresh, new UI and improved search in version 4 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
While Apple’s success in established markets around the world is taken for granted, the company is having a harder time gaining a solid foothold in two large and growing smartphone markets — China and Brazil. As GigaOM’s Erica Ogg notes in a recent post, a Chinese manufacturer and Brazilian mobile carrier are demonstrating that Apple may need to tweak its model for success in emerging markets . In China, handset maker Xiaomi is following the Apple plan for success quite well. It designs the hardware, uses NVIDIA mobile chipsets and Samsung memory, and lets Foxconn assemble the hardware. Also like Apple, the company waits about a year between introducing new models. Xiaomi sold 7.2 million smartphones in China in 2012 and has plans to sell double that amount in 2013. By building its smartphone on Android, designing all of the major apps in-house and doing no marketing except on “China’s Twitter” Sina Weibo, Xiaomi can charge much less for a smartphone with an excellent user experience. In a market where 70 percent of all smartphones are unlocked and unsubsidized, that lower initial price makes a big difference to users. Brazil is a totally different matter. Android smartphones and iPhones only make up about 20 percent of the market, since most are manufactured overseas and various taxes make an iPhone close to 30 times more expensive in Brazil than in the US. Fabricio Bloiso Rocha, CEO of Brazilian carrier Movile, thinks that the iPhone has “the best UX” and is the “best product overall.” However, he also mentioned that “for Latin America, to invest there, you have to go Android because price is very important.” That’s an important factor for Apple to consider when thinking about whether or not to produce a lower-priced iPhone for emerging markets. Apple faces challenges in China and Brazil originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
Nobody likes spam , but if you use Apple’s Mail on Mountain Lion, at least you have some tools to deal with it. Plenty of Mac users rely on Mail to read, manage and process their emails… and spam messages. If you use email, you have spam — that’s just the way it works. Following up on Kelly’s how-to from a few months back , let’s take a look at some ways to manage spam efficiently and decrease your email processing time. Built-in Spam Filtering Mail ‘s built-in spam filtering is enabled by default. You’ll find it in the Junk Mail setting in Preferences. Make sure that the box labeled “Enable junk mail filtering” is selected. You can also determine where spam messages go after detection, or add exemptions to your filter. [Note that some online mail services -- Gmail in particular -- recommend disabling Mail's onboard spam filtering. Be sure to check the setup instructions for your service provider. --Ed.] In the Viewing preferences tab, disable “Display remote images in HTML messages.” Some spammers send out messages with web bugs — invisible images linked to the specific message you received — that notify the spammer that your email is an active email account once you click on the message. From the spammer’s perspective, this “validates” you as a real, live address, which then generates more spam for you. Not good. Turning off this feature prevents the spammer from recognizing your email as an active email account. Creating Rules Mail lets you create rules to fine-tune your spam filtering. One helpful method is to create a new mailbox for messages that meet your spam criteria. Once your new mailbox is created and properly labeled (i.e., “Spam-ish”), go to the Rules setting under Preferences and create specific actions based on a predetermined set of criteria. For example: If all the Content-Type Contains ‘ multipart/related ‘ then Move Message to [the mailbox you just created]. Now that you’ve set that rule, messages that meet your criteria are moved to that mailbox. Fine-Tuning No spam filter is completely foolproof, so you will get false positives and false negatives. Mail allows you to select a message and click on “Not Junk” or “Load Image” which will correct the labeling of the message. The more times you correct these errors, the better Mail gets at reducing them. A good rule of thumb is to review your Junk Mail folder periodically to make sure valid messages haven’t slipped through the cracks. Cloud Mail If you’re not using Mail on your Mac, you still have options in the cloud. An iCloud or Gmail account can act as a buffer between malicious spam and your computer. In some cases, the cloud service filters may be a bit too aggressive ; if you suspect some of your inbound mail is being blocked incorrectly, be sure to check the support page for your provider and test with another account. Third-Party Spam Utilities Several third-party spam utilities are available to further enhance your spam-squashing powers, including SpamSieve from C-Command Software . It’s been around for quite a while and works very well. A single license will cost you US$30; a free trial is also available. SaneBox is an online application which helps to sort your email into proper boxes and reduces your email processing time. An added feature is that it runs through spam amazingly well. The Smart filtering feature of SaneBox reads your email messages, determines the level of importance and moves unimportant messages out of the inbox. The @SaneBlackHole will not only delete your spam messages but makes sure you never receive email from the sender again and automatically unsubscribes you from the mailing list. You can also defer processing your email by placing your email in the “@SaneTomorrow” or “@SaneNextWeek” folder and it will automatically pop back into your inbox when the time comes. The cost for SaneBox is US$5/month but if you refer other people you’ll receive extra credits. The free Mailstrom.co service also can help you reduce spam along with unwanted subscriptions, newsletters and so forth. Mailstrom groups your email by big-picture criteria (sender, subject, size, etc.) and lets you archive or delete in bulk with a single click. For catalog emails or newsletters, you can also unsubscribe in only a few steps, rather than having to track down and confirm individual unsubscribe requests. By using these techniques, hopefully the only place you will see spam is in your musubi . Mac 101: Beef up your spam filters in Mail (video) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments