June 2012 | GoneTechno.com

Why Apple wants to spread lies about you

A new Apple patent could be a powerful defense in the war on privacy

It's becoming harder and harder to maintain any sense of privacy on the internet. Do a search for just about anything online, and somewhere there's a data collector compiling information about you and your searches. Even though the eyes on you at all times are digital, being watched is still unsettling. But such a loss of privacy is an inevitable part of life on the net, right?

PicStory For iPad Is A Comprehensive Photo Management App With An Amazing UI

I would feel quite confident in going out on a limb and guessing that most owners of the iPad use the device in some form to scroll through albums of images and photographs. The large and engaging display, especially the Retina screen on the new iPad, is perfect for reliving the memories that photographs portray with the iPad also offering excellent multitouch and zooming features for viewing photo details.

PicStory

iPhone Turn Off Security

Regardless of whether you happen to be an experienced iOS device owner who upgrades to the latest release religiously or are relatively new to the Apple device owning world, it should come as no surprise that an iPhone or iPod touch is an extremely powerful device that rivals anything on the market today. Although an out of the box iDevice experience is an extremely pleasurable one, when combined with a jailbreak, it is taken to a new level with new features and enhancements becoming available.

Downloading from Cydia

‘Leave My Apps Alone’ Stops Anyone From Moving Or Deleting Apps From Your iPhone

I don’t imagine that I am the only person in the world who spends most of his day buried face first into an iPhone, iPad or MacBook. And in that respect, said devices become something I depend on and can’t honestly get my day’s social and professional work done without them. It sounds pretty weird to say out loud, but the three Apple products I use daily have almost become an extension of who I am and I therefore like them set up just right.

From BigBoss Repo

Stereomood For iOS Lets You Discover New Music Based On Your Mood / Activity

I’m a big fan of music discovery services but, unfortunately, the most popular ones like Pandora, Spotify, last.FM don’t work outside a handful of supported countries where streaming music from big music labels is allowed. Outside these countries, you have services like GrooveShark which, really, is the poor man’s Spotify. There is, however, one not-so-famous service that not only works outside the USA and Europe but also offers excellent music discovery features for free.

iTrivia, Apple Quiz

There’s no doubting the massive increase in Apple since the introduction of the iPhone back in 2007, but even if you’ve been an avid follower since the early days, a relatively new App Store app aims to test even the most knowledgeable Cupertino enthusiast.

Set on a background of ambient music, it really pits your wits with some particularly difficult questions in categories from software such as native Macintosh features, to hardware, to history, and, of course, the people who made it all happen.

iTrivia for iOS

The Nintendo 3D XL, with 90% bigger screens, will be released later this summer. It will retail in the United States for $199.

Having already gone 3-D, Nintendo now wants to go big, announcing a new version of its handheld gaming console with screens nearly twice as large.

The Nintendo 3DS XL, announced late Thursday, will have a 90% bigger screen and, Nintendo says, a stronger battery for more gaming time. It will also come bundled with a 4-gigabyte SD Card to store downloadable games and applications.

The new console was announced during a Nintendo Direct video presentation. It will be available in Japan and Europe in July and the U.S market on August 19, the same day as the release of "New Super Mario Bros. 2," the latest in the storied gaming franchise, for the 3DS.

Facebook Rolls Out Comment Editing

No more “Arggh! Copy, delete, paste, edit, post.” Facebook is now rolling out the ability to edit comments, but users will be able to see the full edit history of a thread. This is just one more feature that I really liked about Google+, since I could essentially live blog with it and fix my mistakes, but that Facebook has now too.

Facebook tells me comment editing is rolling out now and will become available to everyone in the next few days on the web. There’s no comment editing yet in Facebook’s embeddable comment widget for websites or from mobile yet where that damn auto-correct lurks. Also, you still can’t edit original posts, all of which would be much more helpful than this. But I guess if you have to say or spell something wrong, do it from your desktop on someone else’s news feed post.

Facebook made a step in the right direction a year ago when it let you edit comments within a few seconds of posting them so you could fix immediately recognized typos as seen below.

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. A product that HP or Dell could have (should have) done?

So, why does the world obsess about the newest MacBook Pro and not competing laptops from Hewlett-Packard or Dell?

Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded.

We all know that Mark Zuckerberg’s company is a social network steam train that towers above other services of its kind, consuming other businesses and technologies as it continues on its journey of world domination. Perhaps what we didn’t know or expect so soon, is that Apple would board that steam train and integrate Facebook into iOS, but as consumers we are definitely glad they have. The native integration doesn’t remove the need for the official Facebook iOS app, but if you are one of the many users who are baffled by its inability to consistently work then it might be time to look at Facebook in a new light.

Gabi For iPhone Brings New Facebook Experience

Premium Protection for the iPhone

iPhone 5 concept features

Google slashes price 88%

Shortly after Apple dumped Google Maps for iOS, Google announces it's time to dramatically cut the price for others using the online service. Google also gives a plug for its map-based ad service.

Earlier this month, Google revealed that it hopes to improve its Google Maps 3D feature by equipping planes with its own hardware and having them take oblique image photos.

First BlackBerry will not have physical keyboard

The first BlackBerry device running Research In Motion Ltd.’s new operating software will not have a physical keyboard, only a touch-screen one.

AMD launches HD 7970 GHz

AMD has launched the world's fastest graphics processing unit (GPU), the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, an upgrade to the existing HD 7970. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition uses AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture to deliver high performance and good image quality, providing gameplay at the highest resolutions in the most demanding games such as Battlefield 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and DiRT Showdown. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition comes fully equipped with 3GBs of GDDR5 frame buffer, AMD Eyefinity 2.0 technology, and support for PCI Express 3.0 and multi-GPU configurations with AMD CrossFire technology. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition will be available as early as next week from add-in board (AIB) partners including ASUS, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, Sapphire, TUL and XFX starting at USD$499 (Rs.27,500). AMD is going after Nvidia’s GTX 680 which for a while, has been the fastest single-chip graphics card in the market.

What's Wrong With Google CEO Lary Page

Lary Page, Google's CEO

Google CEO Larry Page has a mysterious ailment that caused him to miss last week's shareholder meeting.

Facebook Alters Policy for Its Like Button

Complicating its efforts to accelerate advertising revenue, Facebook has agreed to make it clear to users that when they click to like a product on Facebook, their names and photos can be used to plug the product. They will also be given a chance to decline the opportunity to be unpaid endorsers.

Google Doodle Honoring British Mathematician a Brain Game

Google's latest doodle is a brain twister befitting the man it is meant to honor -- the late British mathematician Alan Turing, who would have turned 100 on Saturday.

Coolest Google Docs Demo Ever

Google Docs is one of those things that we tend to use daily but don’t get the full experience. I know that I personally don’t use all of its capabilities, especially when it comes to collaboration. I end up using it like a flat Word document.

Google has pushed out a pretty cool demo, which invites you to collaborate with some of the greatest writers of all time. Kind of.

A “famous writer” will start typing and then it’s your turn. Once you’ve typed in the next line, the writer takes over. It’s kind of fun.

Google Docs Demo

Once you’ve finished your collaborative masterpiece, you can then share it with whomever you like. Pretty neat, huh? You can have a play with it here.

Facebook hires Apple UI designer

Facebook has raided Apple’s deep well of talent to lure former UI Design Manager Chris Weeldreyer over to its Menlo Park HQ, installing him as its new Product Design Manager.

Weeldreyer joined Facebook on June 18, four months after he left Apple. At his former employer, he was charged with designing its iWeb and Numbers software and also named in a number of patent applications registered to the company.

The new Facebook employee noted the change on both his LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, joining the company just days after it emerged that its CTO Brett Taylor was to leave the company, to work on unknown startup projects.

Timeline of Apple UI designer in Facebook

Facebook has been advertising for a new Product Design Manager on its careers website, where it says a successful candidate will lead a team of designers and report to the Design Director.

Weeldreyer boasts skills in industrial design, interaction design, and user interface design on his LinkedIn profile, fitting in with the company’s continued focus on iterating and developing new products on the social network.

With Apple recently announcing that it will integrate Facebook into iOS 6, the bond between the two companies is closer than ever before.

With Weeldreyer’s experience lying in designing Apple’s Web design and spreadsheet software, Facebook appears to be looking for more design insights on both the desktop and in mobile.

Google, thinking BIG!

Larry Page, CEO Google

One analyst is wondering what's going on with Larry Page.

Google CEO Larry Page wasn't at his company's annual shareholders' meeting this week because the search company said he lost his voice. Google has already announced that that he also won't be at Google I/O next week -- nor participating in the second-quarter earnings call set for July.

Google Wallet

Google's Galaxy Nexus phone may soon receive Android 4.1, codenamed “Jelly Bean,” according to an inadvertent leak by Google.

On Thursday, the Google Play Store displayed the following message when shoppers added the Galaxy Nexus to their carts: “The latest smartphone from Google, soon the first phone with Android 4.1 Jell...” The message was spotted by Droid-Life, GigaOM, and others before Google removed it.

Google may announce Android 4.1 during its Google IO developers conference next week. The company is also expected to introduce a 7-inch Nexus tablet, built by Asus, that runs the latest software.

Google I/O

But despite lots of rumors about the release of Jelly Bean, and the devices that will run it, not much is known about its features. A screenshot of Google's IO application, possibly taken on a Jelly Bean device, hints at a redesigned search widget and Chrome as the default browser, but that's about it.

Google has also talked about new Maps features for mobile devices, such as offline access and 3D flyovers, but those features may be available for all users, not just those with Jelly Bean on their phones.

Personally, I'd like to see Google take on Apple's Passbook and Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 wallet with its own app for loyalty cards, coupons, and event tickets, as an extension of Google Wallet. I'd also like to see built-in remote wipe and geolocation for lost or stolen phones, similar to Apple's “Find My iPhone” service. Expanded voice commands, or a full-blown Siri competitor, would be nice as well. Finally, I'm hoping for tighter Google Drive integration, so you could pull files directly from the online storage service into other apps.

If Google really is planning to bring Android 4.1 to the Galaxy Nexus soon, we're likely to hear a lot more next week at Google IO. Stay tuned for updates from the conference, which kicks off on Tuesday.

Swype for iPad and iPhone

How to downgrade iOS 6 beta to iOS 5.1.1 without SHSH blobs

Mountain Center (Cydia) for iOS

3D Maps on iOS 5

Twitter Crash: Hack Or Hardware Fail?

Twitter

Twitter was unavailable for about two hours Thursday due to a bug or to a denial of service attack.

Microsoft Surface tablet may cost $599, have Wi-Fi only

I reached out to Microsoft, but the company was unable to confirm either of the rumors. However, it's worth looking at why both are relatively likely.

Download Google I/O for Android

With Apple’s 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference all done and dusted for this year, the residents of San Francisco could be forgiven for thinking they could get back to a little bit of normality without a plethora of developers and programmers buzzing around. Unfortunately for them, they may need to wait a little longer as iOS and Mac OS X developers have left, the Google I/O conference is about to descend on the Moscone Center in seven days time.

Google I/O 2012

SIM Unlock Galaxy S III

Although, when initially manufactured, smartphones are designed to work with a particular type of SIM, the carriers narrow things down by locking devices down to their particular network. The process of trying to unlock can be difficult indeed, and as such, consumers look to the expert developers and modders to offer a solution.

Picture the scene. You upgrade your device on one carrier, let’s call them, for argument’s sake, AB&B, but your daughter – who is far more technologically-orientated than yourself, wants your shiny new device, to which you begrudgingly oblige. Unfortunately, your daughter is contracted with another carrier – Dash – and of course, you both want the new device to work with her carrier. Herein lies the problem.

Voodoo Galaxy S III SIM Unlock

Winzip for Android

The tablet market is heating up, folks! The iPad continues to dominate it because of its sweet starting price and strong feature-set and now, other manufacturers are trying to come up with ways to beat it. Whether its Microsoft’s promise of a desktop-level experience with Windows 8 Pro on its Surface tablet or Amazon cutting down on extraneous features to get the starting price down to $199, everyone’s trying something.

We’ve been hearing of a pure Google Nexus tablet for a long time now. The earliest post about it was published more than six months ago in December, 2011 where it was rumored that Google would come up with a tablet of the “highest quality” to compete with the iPad. Six months later and we still keep hearing all kinds of rumors and reports.

WinZip for Android

Google's Siri is "Majel"

Revealed in late 2011, Siri the personal assistant has become one of iOS’ most recognized features at least on the latest iOS devices. It was updated recently at WWDC 2012, bringing new features such as being able to take queries regarding sports and movies, Facebook integration and support for the new iPad.

Other mobile device manufacturers are working towards their alternative to Siri. Samsung recently introduced S Voice as part of their Galaxy S III smartphone which look and works a lot like Siri. Google has been long-rumored to be working on their Siri competitor codenamed ‘Majel’ and now we’re hearing that the company has accelerated development of their voice-based personal assistant to ready it, perhaps, for the upcoming Google I/O event. Details after the jump!

Google's Siri

Download OS X Lion

If you happen to be one of the many individuals that are involved in development for one of Apple’s extremely popular platforms then you will no doubt be thoroughly enjoying things at present thanks to the recent release of iOS 6 beta and the fourth developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion. Although still in beta stages, the releases offer developers the chance to not only interrogate their own software and apps but to also inspect the builds for bugs and potential showstoppers.

HTC One X Smartphone

As you may or may not be aware, I picked up an HTC One X last week. I wanted an Android phone to compliment my iPhone 4S. Not to replace it, but to offer something different to the iOS life I have lived almost exclusively for the last few years. Basically, I fancied a change without giving up the iPhone that I have grown to love, but also grown a little tired of. Variety is the spice of life, after all!

The handset I chose was the HTC One X in white. Whether you like white handsets or not, you have to admit that the phone itself does look absolutely gorgeous. The curved chassis makes the screen appear curved too, even though it isn’t. It’s an optical illusion that really stands out with the white casing, and I still say white is the color to choose, especially given the fact the only other choice is a rather dull grey, not black. I’m sure which color is best will be argued for some time, though.

HTC One X Smartphone

Although Apple’s mobile operating system iOS is still leading the app-downloading market, Google’s Android platform is keeping up pace with its rival, according to a new infographic.

App Annie, a provider of app store analytics and intelligence for iOS, Mac and Android publishers, highlights in an infographic that shows iOS makes up 71% of global revenue for app downloads — compared to Android’s 29% share — but both companies are growing 14% year-over-year in revenue for app downloads.

“iOS publishers are undoubtedly making more money than Android publishers,” an App Annie spokesperson told Mashable. “But Android has shown impressive growth in the global market.”

Swype adds voice recognition

Nuance has announced the latest iteration of its Swype software, adding voice recognition and handwriting smarts to the alternative onscreen keypad.

Using Nuance's Dragon voice recognition software, the latest Swype beta is able to transcibe sentences as you speak them, and promises to learn your voice for more intelligent messaging. The INQUIRER managed to get its hands on the updated Swype beta software, which managed to transcribe our dictations, impressively without any hiccups.

Handwriting recognition is another new feature, although Nuance's senior solution architect John West told us this add-on is unlikely to take off here in the UK, instead being aimed mainly at asian markets. One feature that is likely to take off however, is Swype's ability to launch apps. Dragging your finger across "FB", for example, will rapidly launch Facebook.

The latest Swype beta also uses Nuance's XT9 multi-model text input solution, rather than T9, making for a more intelligent and speedy imput system. Next word prediction has also been added, similar to that which is set to come baked into RIM's Blackberry 10 software, alongside a smarter onboard dictionary, which learns new words as you use them.

Latest Swype Beta adds voic recognition

Price Will Make or Break Microsoft Surface

Microsoft needs to hook customers with better pricing if it wants to capture market attention with its new Surface tablets, analysts said Tuesday.

Microsoft said it will roll out the Windows RT version of Surface with prices in line with Windows RT machines from makers such as Asustek Computer. Asus has shown a Windows RT tablet, but has not announced pricing or availability.

The Windows 8 Pro version of the Surface will be priced in line with Intel-powered ultrabooks by other vendors, Microsoft said. Those guidelines could put the Windows RT Surface at more than $600, and the Windows 8 Pro at more than $700, and possibly higher, several analysts said.

But those prices are too high to win favor with buyers who might be intrigued by the innovative Surface tablets with their attachable keyboards that double as covers, analysts said.
Guestimating the Costs

Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said that $600 for a Windows RT Surface tablet would be a "non-starter." Even $500 would probably be too high unless that price includes a cover/keyboard, he said.

"I think the Windows RT version needs to be in the $400 range to compete with older iPads and the new Android devices," he said. The new iPad starts at $499.

There will be plenty of bits spilled over the next few days about whether Apple is going extinct, whether Jobs’ touch was integral to the Apple experience, and whether this was “The.Worst.Keynote.Ever.” I posit, however, that Apple still has a few good years left and this keynote (now available here) – a precise and well-orchestrated experience dedicated mostly to software – is proof that the Apple vision runs far deeper than the efforts of a figurehead CEO.

Apple’s Passbook Could Be A Platform, Not Just Another Mobile Payments Rival

At this week’s WWDC, Apple introduced a new application called “Passbook,” meant to function as an organizer for all your passes. It supports store cards, gift cards and coupons out of the gate, replacing their plastic counterparts, and providing an Apple-approved way to get consumers paying at checkout with their mobile phones. At first glance, it seems that Passbook’s launch is bad news for mobile wallet players like Square, PayPal, and others.

But it might actually represent an opportunity for everybody else.

Besides the gee-whiz factor of having scannable cards organized in a pretty interface within the iPhone, the most interesting thing about Passbook is that the digital cards are able to make use of the iPhone’s geolocation capabilities. “When you get to the movie theater, your ticket automatically pops up on the lockscreen,” explained Scott Forstall, Apple’s SVP for iPhone software, demonstrating how a Fandago movie ticket in action.

WWDC Event

The WWDC keynote came and went with nary a mention of a new iPhone, but that didn’t stop people from ruminating about Apple’s newest mobile juggernaut. Apple’s brass spent much of their time on-stage pulling back the curtains on the latest version of iOS, and now some are claiming that a fairly innocuous (albeit useful) new feature for developers means that an iPhone with a larger screen is barreling down the pipeline.

Get iOS 6 on iOS 5

Facebook Mobile Ads

How will Facebook monetize mobile? Its organic-seeming Sponsored Stories ad format may be the answer. Mobile Sponsored Stories are getting over 13 times the click-through rates and earn 11.2 times the money per impression (eCPM) on mobile compared to all of Facebook’s desktop ads, and 1.93 times the CTR and 2.65 times the eCPM of Sponsored Stories on the web in the two weeks since Facebook began selling them separate from web ads.

The data comes from new studies by TBG Digital, AdParlor, and Spruce Media, three of Facebook’s biggest Ads API partners that help brands buy ads. Since Sponsored Stories slip into content feeds so seamlessly, Facebook may actually be better equipped to handle the shift to mobile advertising than other web-first tech companies. Let’s check out the early proof.

Apple has a lot more on maps than it is showing, and that is sowing confusion in the online and mobile maps industry.

Google targets YouTube conversion site

Google has come under fire from content owners in the past over copyright infringement on YouTube, but it’s not afraid to take the fight to others. TorrentFreak reports that Google is threatening legal action against YouTube-MP3, a service that allows users to plug in a YouTube URL and convert the resulting audio to a downloadable MP3. Naturally, Google aren’t too happy about the service, saying it violates the Terms of Service for YouTube’s API.

Google targets YouTube conversion site

Yahoo Captures Google Executive to Help Boost Advertising

Yahoo has tapped former Google exec Michael Barrett to help revive its floundering advertising business, the company announced Monday. Barrett, who joined Google late in 2011, previously worked alongside current interim CEO of Yahoo, Ross Levinsohn. Barrett will serve as Yahoo’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer.

Sony Xperia PLAY

Sony announced back in May that it would not be providing an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for its PlayStation Certified Xperia PLAY. However, an upcoming firmware release for the handset suggests the Japanese company may have changes its mind.

Around a quarter of the world's web surfing is done using Mozilla's Firefox browser

Adobe has as yet been unable to fix a problem which has left many Firefox users unable to watch Flash video online.

An update to the software - which is used by sites like YouTube - has been causing the Firefox browser to crash.

The problem was said to be affecting users of the browser on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

In a statement, Mozilla said: "Adobe and Mozilla are working closely to diagnose and address these issues."

It added: "In the meantime, Firefox users experiencing problems viewing videos in Flash Player should try the workarounds listed in this help article."

Among the suggested solutions is downgrading Adobe's software.

The update was initially released on 8 June.

No other browsers or operating systems are believed to have been affected by the problem.

Olympic Games portal opens on Facebook

Dedicated section will let people follow their favorite athletes

Facebook has announced a dedicated portal for London 2012 to allow fans to "connect with their favourite Olympians" at the Games.

The section features dedicated pages for athletes and sports, including a complete timeline history of the competition since the 1800s.

Warns of office workers becoming "screen slaves".

People are risking their health by working on smartphones, tablets and laptops after they have left the office, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

It says people have become "screen slaves" and are often working while commuting or after they get home.

Intel buys wireless patent

Chip maker Intel has spent $375m (£240m) buying 1,700 patents from hi-tech firm Interdigital.

The patents cover innovations in different wireless technologies used by both computers and mobile phones.

The deal is designed to help Intel's strategy to get its chips used more widely in handsets.

Intel is one of many firms buying portfolios of patents to help negotiations with rivals in the competitive smartphone market.

Using Roomba

iRobot announced on Tuesday the latest vacuum cleaning robot in its Roomba lineup, boasting a wireless command center that schedules cleanings and allows users to control the device from anywhere in the house.

The new Roomba 790 — available now for $699.99 — gives users more flexibility in cleaning. By using the Wireless Command Center remote control, it’s possible to steer the Roomba to any spot in the house and schedule it to routinely clean during certain hours, even when no one is home.

Although the scheduling feature exists on previous Roomba models, it’s only been available via programming on the robot itself.

Google+ chief Bradley Horowitz shows off a version of the high-profile app that lets people see and publish posts on Google's social network. Also: "dramatic" Google+ user growth.

Google+ leader shows off a Google+-enhanced version of the Flipboard app at the LeWeb conference in London.

Face.com is a 11-person start-up based in Tel Aviv, Israel

Social networking giant Facebook has decided to buy an Israeli startup specialising in facial recognition technology - Face.com.

On Monday, Microsoft revealed Surface, their new tablet running Windows 8. I want one -- depending on what it costs.

Microsoft's Steves Ballmer and Sinofsky made the announcement at a mystery event in Los Angeles and made it clear that Surface fixes what is wrong with today's tablets, hitting hard on some of the same problems I have with them. They seem to be designed with arbitrary criteria separate the needs of real business users. Sure, everyone loves using tablets, but everyone also runs into their limitations, mostly surrounding documents. Dealing with real documents, and even with short stuff like e-mail, is a series of compromises and hacks (sometimes elegant hacks, like this Logitech keyboard for the iPad).

Surface will be a "no compromise" device. It will, say the Steves, be a great tablet and a great document system.

Samsung: Our software still needs work

Samsung’s new CEO has reconfirmed the company’s focus on improving software for mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, highlighting key areas where the “customer experience” needs work. Kwon Oh-hyun highlighted software in his first speech as the new CEO, the WSJ reports, echoing comments the company made back in August 2011. “A particular focus must be given to serving new customer experience and value by strengthening soft capabilities in software, user experience, design, and solutions” he said today.

A few days after Apple unveiled its new 15-inch MacBook Pro, its first shipment has already arrived. Dubbed as the company’s “most beautiful computer,” the device was introduced during the Worldwide Developers Conference last June 11. It features a Retina Display, MagSafe 2 connector, unibody chassis and upgraded connectivity options.

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