Yearly Archives: 2012

iOS apps and the address book: who has your data, and how they’re getting it

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The Verge:

Over the course of the past week, a firestorm has erupted in the world of iOS apps, thanks to the discovery that Path was uploading data from your iPhone’s address book without asking for explicit permission.Stated simply: any iOS app has complete access to a large amount of data stored on your iPhone, including your address book and calendar.Over the course of the past day, we have been using the method explained by Arun Thampi (who discovered Path’s privacy violation) to investigate several dozen popular iOS apps. Our findings should bring both comfort and concern to any iPhone user.

42 Saint Bernards!

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[caption id="attachment_20248" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="42 Lasquite Saint Bernards"][/caption] Lasquite Saint Bernards:

Video of us out for a walk with our 42 Saint Bernards.

That’s a lot of drool…

Tim Cook on the Apple TV

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Tim Cook talking about the Apple TV: So, with Apple TV however, despite the barriers in that market, for those of us who use it, we’ve always thought there was something there. If we kept following our intuition and kept … Continued

Apple disabling Siri hacks

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Redmond Pie:

Unlike the many clones and pretenders looking to essentially copy the format, Spire simply installs the necessary files of Apple’s voice-recognition utility, requiring a server host and a legit iPhone 4S certificate to leave users with an all-singing, all-dancing port of Siri. In order to prevent such treachery, Apple seems to have added a “SetActivationToken” which stops Spire right in its tracks.

Samsung not worried about Apple making a TV

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Pocket-lint:

“TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.“So, from that perspective, it’s not a great concern but it remains to be seen what they’re going to come out with, if anything.”

Seems a lot like what RIM said about the iPhone in 2007.

Protest against Apple nothing more than a publicity stunt

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I admit, I was a bit surprised when I received a press release on February 8 that a group of protesters were going to deliver a petition with 250,000 signatures to Apple demanding they respond to allegations of worker abuse in China.

I wondered if the group had done any homework at all. Do they not know that Apple is leading the industry in factory audits and its concerns for workers, not just in China, but all over the world?

This is not the iPad 3

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John Gruber talking about 8-inch iPad reported by WSJ: This is not the iPad 3, which I believe will have a same-sized (9.7 inches) double resolution display. This is a different iPad, which, last I heard, Apple was only considering, … Continued

Apple’s purchase of Nortel, Novell patents approved

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Josh Ong: The U.S. Department of Justice approved on Monday several patent purchases and acquisitions, including a collection of Nortel’s intellectual property to be acquired by Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others and Novell patents that Apple has purchased. … Continued

Canada’s Lawful Access Bill

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Michael Geist: Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is expected to introduce lawful access legislation tomorrow in the House of Commons. An Act to enact the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act and to amend the Criminal Code and others … Continued

Fascinating Matchbook Art

Written by

Dark Roasted Blend:

Matchbooks were at their peak in the 1940’s and 50’s, when they were popular souvenir items, but they have made something of a comeback recently due to the public interest in retro advertising.The collecting of matchboxes, matchbooks, match labels and other match-related items is called phillumeny.

Art is where you find it and sometimes, you find it in odd places.

iPad 3 event pegged for March 7

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Rene Ritchie:

According to sources who have been reliable in the past, Apple currently plans to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Yep.

The 6 best performances on the 2012 Grammy Awards

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[caption id="attachment_20197" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Jennifer Hudson"][/caption] The Week:

Sunday night’s Grammy Awards was all about two women: Adele and Whitney Houston. The former was the night’s big winner, emerging victorious in all six of the categories she competed in, including the Big Three: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. And Houston’s death on Saturday permeated the event’s entire proceedings.Here are six of the performances from Grammy night that critics are buzzing about.

Mooresville School District, a laptop success story

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New York Times:

“This is not about the technology,” Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, would tell the visitors later over lunch. “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the culture of instruction — preparing students for their future, not our past.”As debate continues over whether schools invest wisely in technology — and whether it measurably improves student achievement — Mooresville, a modest community about 20 miles north of Charlotte best known as home to several Nascar teams and drivers, has quietly emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school.

The American Experience – Bill Clinton

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PBS:

Premiering February 20th and 21st, a biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history, and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage.

PBS announced it was offering the first hour of the four hour documentary exclusively through its PBS iOS app – a full week before it airs on television.

The 2012 Westminster Kennel Club dog show live!

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I’ve been watching this dog show on TV since I was a kid and it’s great to see a live stream of the event. It gives you a different view and impression of the show. Thanks to @HikerCA for the heads up!

RIM director scoffs at BlackBerry critics

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RIM director Roger Martin speaking to the Globe and Mail:

I laugh at the vast majority of critics when they say ‘Oh, you should have made this CEO transition, like, four years ago.’ Yeah, right – like, to who?

I guess the co-CEOs aren’t the only ones that need to go.

VLC 2.0 coming this week

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The design obviously boasts a fairly sizable departure from previous iterations of VLC, most obviously with 2.0 consolidating much of the UI into one window.

Using Gobbler

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Gobbler transfers files extraordinarily fast from one account to another, and is geared towards musicians. If you decide that you can’t live without it, you want all your stuff backed up to your Gobbler account, and you need to send out even more projects at lightning speed, starting at $8 a month it’s still a steal! And, it also works really well with SoundCloud.

I’ve had a Gobbler account for some time now, but haven’t really used it a lot. However, the more I share files, the more I’ll be using it.

12 creative business cards

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Mental Floss:

Forget putting QR codes on your business card in order to stand out from the competition. Check out these 12 very cool, creative approaches.