Software Blog » apple

The Whens, Whats and Hows of iPad 3

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

A Wall Street Journal report on Thursday gave Apple fans all the excuse they needed to indulge in some more speculation regarding the iPad 3 — if that is its real name, and if whatever it is even exists. Apple’s kind of tight-lipped about this stuff. At this moment in the tablet universe, it’s hard to guess what kind of grand and monumental new features Apple would want to add to the iPad. It already got its cameras, and it’s already pretty damn thin. I’m sure a faster processor would be appreciated, but that’s pretty much a given.

iOS More Crashtastic Than Android

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The rivalry between Google and Apple in the cut-throat mobile device world took a new turn recently when mobile app support platform company Crittercism published a study that found iOS apps crash more often than their Android counterparts. Crittercism analyzed more than 214 million apps launched in November and December that use its service. The worst offender was iOS 5.01, with nearly 29 percent of overall crashes. iOS 4.2.10 accounted for another nearly 13 percent and iOS 4.4.4 a further nearly 11 percent.

Facebook to Investors: You Like What You See?

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Facebook’s finally decided to take a head-first dive into the mountain of cash it’s been standing on for years. Following several days of heated rumors and years of speculation about when CEO Mark Zuckerberg was finally going to cash in his chips, the company filed an S-1 statement with the SEC, paving the way for an IPO as early as this May. Facebook has its sights set on hauling in $5 billion, making it the biggest Internet IPO in history. The move will likely make hundreds of Facebook staffers millionaires overnight.

Leaked Info Offers Glimpse of WinPho’s Muscular Future

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:22:54 +0000

Microsoft is overhauling Windows Phone 8, which is still in development, to make it more competitive with market leaders iOS and Android, according to leaked information. The mobile OS will add support for multicore processors, up to four new screen resolutions, and removable microSD card storage. It will also support near-field communications, the technology that enables mobile wallets. “This builds upon what Mango has,” Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC, told TechNewsWorld, referring to Windows Phone 7.5.

Google Hires Bouncer to Give Android Malware the Heave-Ho

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:49:00 +0000

Google announced a new layer of security for its Android Market on Thursday, unveiling a program called “Bouncer” that will automatically scan apps and developer accounts for malware. Bouncer works by analyzing each app as it’s uploaded to the Market, scanning for threats, spyware and trojans. It also takes a look at developer accounts to make sure they don’t have a malicious history. If they do, Bouncer will discourage them from returning. The program will do repeated scans on existing apps to keep tabs on the entire marketplace.

Avid Packs a Prosumer Video Editor Into an iPad

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Avid is well-known for its chops as a maker of professional video editing suites, but on Thursday it grabbed some notice in consumer circles with a new offering for Apple’s iPad 2. Avid Studio, available from Apple’s App Store for a limited time at $4.99, brings a solid set of video editing tools to the iPad. For instance, clips can be quickly arranged along a storyboard. Frames can be precisely trimmed in the app’s timeline. Cuts can be made on the fly with the software’s razor tool.

Apple Remakes Final Cut Pro X

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:27:07 +0000

Apple announced a new update Tuesday of its video editing software Final Cut Pro X aimed at quelling dissatisfaction with the product among professional media producers. This latest version of the software, release 10.0.3, is available from the Apple’s App Store as a free upgrade for existing Final Cut Pro X users and for $299 for new users. A 30-day free trial version is also available. Many of the professional features removed from Final Cut Pro X when Apple redesigned the program last June have been restored in this update of the software.

SMPlayer: A Flexible, Feature-Filled Media Player With a Frustrating Flaw

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

When it comes to playing audio and video files in Linux, media players pretty much all work the same way and have a very similar user interface. It usually all comes down to features. With SMPlayer it depends on what you want to play. Unfortunately, this bug of sorts is something its developer Ricardo Villalba has yet to resolve in the latest release, version 0.7.0. It is more of an inconvenience than an all-out reason to reject using SMPlayer completely. The problem is this app’s inability to read directories from CD/DVD music collections inserted in the optical drive.

Yoink: Efficient Swatch Snatcher Makes Full-Screen Feel Less Bloated

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Of all the changes brought about with OS X Lion, full-screen viewing was one that failed to make much of an impression on me, at least at first. Ballooning a window to the edges of the screen and blowing out the menu bar seemed a little restrictive at first. It’s the kind of thing I’d do all the time when using a Windows computer, but OS X is different in how it manages the desktop, and full-screening an app just felt uncomfortable and weird at first. But over the course of a couple of weeks, I found myself using it a little more.

Apple’s Textbooks Improve Everything but the Text

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

After Apple announced that it had “reinvented” textbooks at its education media event in New York earlier in the month, I knew I had to take one for a spin myself. I downloaded the new iBooks 2 iPad app and launched it to get to the refreshed iBooks Store. I tapped the big “Introducing Textbooks” graphic and started looking. There were eight titles available, covering topics like Algebra, Geometry and Physics. Seven of them cost $14.99, which seems like a steal, but I’m not personally interested in learning Algebra 1 all over again, for example.

Windows 8 Secure Boot – or How Microsoft Is Riling Up the Linux Masses

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

What a difference a week makes. It was just the other day that Linux bloggers were celebrating the news from researcher Net Applications that desktop Linux had surged in popularity in recent months. Now, the mood in the blogosphere has plummeted once again as a result of the latest developments on the Windows 8 front. Secure Boot, that is — a topic astute readers may remember from last fall but that lately seems to have taken a turn for the worse.

Numberlys: A Top-Shelf App for Kids, Though a Bit Overhyped

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I must admit, I felt a bit duped by the description of the Numberlys app after I bought, downloaded and launched the app. I was expecting something bigger and longer that would appeal more to adults. Something gorgeous, imaginative, and slightly dystopian with an uplifting ending. What I got was something gorgeous, imaginative, and slightly dystopian with an uplifting ending. Just not something huge. In order to be fair in this review, I have to juggle the expectations set up by the description with my personal expectations and connect that to what you actually ge.

SOPA Shellacked, PIPA Plastered

admin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The Stop Online Piracy Act, otherwise known as “SOPA,” is losing friends fast, and now it looks like there’s a good chance it’ll lose the support it needs to make it out of Congress alive, much less the White House. SOPA and its Senate bill cousin PIPA, the Protect IP Act, have been controversial from the beginning, but a recent round of protests have made them almost toxic. High-profile websites like Reddit and Wikipedia went dark last Wednesday to give visitors a taste of what SOPA and PIPA opponents say the whole Internet could look like if they become law.

Facebook Gets App-Happy

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:24:26 +0000

Do you like to garden? Share coupons? How about bike riding? If so, there’s an app for that — on Facebook, that is — or soon will be. As promised at last year’s f8 developer conference, Facebook rolled out about 60 new apps to be used on its site this week. They are designed for users to express more precisely how they are interacting with content on Facebook by introducing new verbs to join Facebook’s “Like” button. What this means is that a Facebook user who previously could only “Like” the book The Help, now can proclaim having “Read” it.

Quantum Tech Could Secure the Cloud Through ‘Blind’ Data Processing

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:00:05 +0000

Researchers led by the University of Vienna’s Stefanie Barz have demonstrated the possibility of using quantum computing to unconditionally secure cloud computing. The scientists’ work, written up in the journal Science, essentially demonstrates double-blind cryptography. It consists of an optical implementation of blind quantum computing, Barz told TechNewsWorld. The researchers used lasers, optical fibers, lenses, crystals, mirrors and polarization analyzers to conduct the demo.

Ultrabooks, Tablets and the Space Between

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The stage is set for a new battle of mobile form factors. The winner could set a new non-desktop standard for consumers and office workers looking for a better alternative to bulky laptops. Lighter, thinner and more powerful are the key factors guiding the designs of tablets, convertibles, hybrids and Ultrabooks. All four form factors challenge the range of sizes found in traditional notebook computers. The netbook is perhaps a casualty of the last round of form factor skirmishing.

Amazon Spins Up DynamoDB Database as a Service

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:43:01 +0000

Amazon.com has launched its DynamoDB fully managed NoSQL database service, targeting businesses that need to deal with large amounts of data. The service will use the company’s traditional pay-as-you-go model, and Amazon will take care of the administrative side of things, such as hardware provisioning and configuration, replication and partitioning. DynamoDB is based on provisioned throughput, meaning that customers will state how much read/write throughput they need when they create database tables using the service.

Can Apple Outdo Itself With iPad 3?

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:14:04 +0000

The latest rumor in the flood of speculation about the next version of Apple’s tablet, the iPad 3, is that it will be equipped with a high-definition screen, a faster processor, and the ability to work with next-generation wireless networks. A quad-core chip reportedly will allow users to quickly toggle back and forth between applications. The iPad 3 is definitely slated for a March debut, the sources said, with production ramping up to full capacity at its supplier factories in Asia.

The Future According to CES

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

One of the things that unfortunately doesn’t happen much since Bill Gates stepped down is a quintessential talk on what the future will look like, and I find I miss that. So, to fill my own need for such a talk, this week’s column will focus on the interesting products I saw come out at CES and the future they represent. If you looked in on the Nvidia booth, the future it envisions includes massive 17-inch displays in cars for entertainment, navigation and communication.

Snapseed for Mac OS X Makes Your Photos Pop

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The app that won Apple’s coveted iPad App of the Year award, Snapseed by Nik Software, has made it to the Mac App Store and therefore, Mac OS X. Not only is this cool for photography-loving Mac users, it’s cool because it brings some awesome filter and editing effects to the masses. As near as I can tell, Nik Software has been around since 1995 and has pretty much focused on photo pros or prosumer sorts of customers — I never heard of them until Snapseed hit the Apple App Store. Fast forward to 2012, and Snapseed has me rethinking how I handle my photos.