Apple plans to ship OS X Mountain Lion – with 200 new features, including Game Center support, Power Nap and improvements to Safari – in July for $20.
MacBook Air, MacBook Pro refreshed, MacBook Air Retina Display model offered
Apple unveiled refreshed MacBook and MacBook Air models, with a 15.4-inch “Retina Display” version also available.
HBO’s future is in standalone streaming. It just doesn’t know it
PandoDaily:
When HBO does come around to breaking free of cable, how late will it be? Clearly the ideal time to make this move is right this minute. Or, actually, it was two weeks ago, just before the Game of Thrones finale. In addition to the immense popularity of that nerd-bait show, HBO currently benefits from a struggling Netflix and Hulu, and a TV industry that hasn’t yet been completely remade by Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. If it had booked a few million non-cable subscribers now, and then slowly expanded on that effort over the next few years, the company could well have set itself up as a leading player in the new, many-device, multi-payment model TV world.But instead HBO is dithering, playing chicken with an unyielding future. How disastrous will this course prove? When HBO finally, inevitably decides to offer non-cable subscription plans, will it be just fashionably late, at a point where it can salvage its future? Or will it be so perilously tardy that it can’t catch up? At the moment, when it comes to streaming, the men who lead HBO seem bent on sticking with this second strategy—better never than late, as they see it.
Making the most of WWDC
Apptentive:
We pinged Buzz Andersen (@buzz) for his thoughts on the topic. As a long-time WWDC attendee, former SF resident and established food and drink connoisseur we knew he’d have a great set of recommendations for us. We’re sad he won’t be making the trip this year but we’ll frequent a few of his favorite haunts in his honor.
If you are lucky enough to be attending WWDC, make time to explore one of the most beautiful cities in North America. It would be a shame to make the trip and not see at least some of the sites San Francisco has to offer. If you are a WWDC/San Francisco veteran, let us know your favorite spots and things to do in the comments.
Apple Campus 2 floor plans take you inside the ‘spaceship’
We’ve already seen a number of renders of Apple Campus 2 — the company’s proposed “spaceship” campus — that show what it will look like from the outside. Of particular interest, though, is what’s going on beneath the surface — the campus will include a four level basement that features an auditorium and 4,300 parking spaces. The building has yet to be approved by the city, but if it does Apple is hoping to have it ready for some time in 2015.
Can Phil Schiller keep Apple cool?
Bloomberg Businessweek:
Steve Jobs always oversaw Apple’s blockbuster product launches, but he was never a one-man show. Phil Schiller, the company’s longtime senior vice president of product marketing, often hammed it up onstage as the lower-brow counterweight to Apple’s cool, polished chief executive officer.Offstage, Schiller wasn’t a clown but one of Jobs’s most trusted, influential lieutenants. He helped Apple’s late CEO work through the meat-and-potatoes of creating new products: Defining target markets, determining technical specs, setting prices. It was Schiller who came up with the spin-wheel interface on the original iPod, and he was a champion of the iPad when other executives questioned its potential.Since Jobs’s death in October, perhaps no Apple executive other than CEO Tim Cook is under more pressure to fill the void.
Schiller may play the clown onstage but everyone who knows him knows he’s a pitbull when it comes to Apple.
Comparing costs: prepaid vs post-paid iPhone plans
Virgin Mobile is the second U.S. carrier to offer prepaid iPhone plans, which could save you more than $500 over the lifetime of the phone compared to the big three carriers. Virgin’s iPhone deals go live from June 29, while Cricket’s prepaid Phone offers start June 22.So how does Virgin Mobile’s deal stack up against AT&T, Verizon and Sprint’s offers if you want to get an iPhone 4S? Since the big three are selling the iPhone with two-year contracts, I calculated the ownership costs of a 16GB iPhone 4S over this period with the lowest-cost plan available in order to compare it with Virgin and Cricket, which do not require a contract, so you’ll pay month by month.
Foursquare launches major redesign
IDG News Service:
Foursquare on Thursday launched a major redesign of its app for the iPhone and Android devices, incorporating features from social discovery and local search applications, as well as the “like” feature made famous by Facebook.
Foursquare described the redesign as “a whole new app.” The app’s “explore” function will now allow users to browse locations by category or conduct a specific search like “free wi-fi” or “dumplings,” a company blog post announcing the launch said.
Good for them. I’m still not going to use it.
Expectations
Matt Alexander is the owner and editor of ONE37.net, a writer, a technology enthusiast and a contributing writer for The Loop. Last week, amidst the furor of competing announcements, Microsoft unveiled its latest innovation in the living room: Smart Glass. … Continued
Judge is sick and tired of Apple and Motorola’s bullshit, tosses case
The judge responsible for hearing Apple’s case against Motorola has unceremoniously tossed it all together.
What Google Maps actually just unveiled: Anxiety over Apple Maps
Massive Greatness:
What Google actually unveiled today is their own vulnerability in the space. Beyond a few tiny leaks, no one knows what Apple’s mapping product will be like. Google has by far and away the best mapping product on the planet. But they still felt the need to hold this meaningless press conference today. That’s fighting down, not up. And it’s a big mistake because it conveys the opposite of what Google was trying to convey: concern, not confidence.
Even before today’s non-event, I had been thinking more about Apple’s move into mapping. When the news broke, everyone knew it was a big deal, but I actually still think it’s being underplayed. It could be a massive deal.
Legendary SF author Ray Bradbury dies at 91
Legendary SF writer Ray Bradbury has passed away at 91 years old.
Facebook ‘Privacy Notice’ is utter horseshit
Mat Honan drops some knowledge about the latest Facebook idiocy making the rounds.
The mechanics and meaning of that modem sound
The Atlantic:
Of all the noises that my children will not understand, the one that is nearest to my heart is not from a song or a television show or a jingle. It’s the sound of a modem connecting with another modem across the repurposed telephone infrastructure. It was the noise of being part of the beginning of the Internet.
Thanks to Daring Fireball for the link.
Lee Clow: Me and Steve Jobs
TBWA/Chiat/Day’s Lee Clow, the advertising genius behind the “Think Different” and “1984” advertisements, sums up his relationship with Steve Jobs.
Apple’s Newton at 20
…In 1992, nobody had a PDA. That’s Personal Digital Assistant, in case you’ve forgotten, and even though nobody had one, lots of people were talking about them. Apple CEO John Sculley had coined the term in the keynote speech he made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 7. He announced that Apple would release PDAs–pocket-sized information devices, easier to use than a PC and selling for under $1000–in 1993.
Twenty years ago this week, on May 29, 1992, Sculley spoke again at another CES, in Chicago. This time, he didn’t just talk about PDAs. He brought one with him. It was a Newton, a prototype of the device which Apple planned to start selling in early 1993. Actually, Apple had multiple Newtons on hand that, which was good: The first one it unveiled on stage had dead batteries and didn’t work. Using a second unit, Steve Capps, one of Newton’s creators, showed how you could use it to order a pizza by moving topping icons onto a pie and then sending out a fax. In 1992, that was show-stopping stuff.
Newton’s were the must-have geek toy of the Nineties. It may not seem like it now but they were amazing for their time.
TiVo countersues Cisco over DVR patents
TiVo is countersuing Cisco as the two companies escalate hostilities over alleged DVR patent infringement.
Apple denied ban on Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet on procedural grounds
Apple has been denied a request to ban importation of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 until a Federal appeals court rules.
Apple TV, AirPlay and why the iPad is the new TV apps platform
Jeremy Allaire, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Brightcove:
Apple will not anytime soon launch a competitive subscription video product to cable.(but)…the iPhone and iPad in your pocket or handbag is the next-generation TV set-top box, and it is both highly personal and highly social and capable of bringing hundreds of thousands and soon millions of rich interactive applications and experiences onto your TV set.Apple will release a new Apple TV add-on product, though I expect that rather than using the current “puck” design it will instead be a thin black bar, perhaps 1 inch tall and 3 inches wide, that can easily mount to the top of almost any existing HD capable TV set. Like the existing Apple TV, it will have HDMI and power jacks on the back, but it will also include a high-def camera built into its face, as well as an embedded iOS environment that provides motion sensing and speech processing.
Very interesting analysis and, I believe, almost exactly the way Apple’s future on your television will be.
Paper Camera
I have a confession to make – I’m a iOS photography app junkie. Show me an app that has even a little bit of cool to it, and I’ll drop a few bucks on it in a heartbeat. Consequently, I have a couple hundred photography apps!
A downside to many apps is you have to take a picture first and then run various filters on the app, never knowing exactly whether or not the filter is suitable for the image or vice versa. Thanks to David Chartier, I found a new app this morning that solves that issue – it runs filters on a live image!
It’s called Paper Camera. It’s really clever and original and I highly recommend it.
On designing user interfaces for ‘The Avengers’
A look at the process behind the design of the user interface for the computers in The Avengers, along with the tools of the trade.
This is Vinyl Tap!
Vinyl Tap brings the golden age of music listening to your iPad. Beautifully re-imagined turntables allow you once again to experience music the way it was intended.Remember the joy you felt when you pulled out that beautiful, black record from its sleeve and placed it gently on to your player, listened for that comforting crackle of the needle in the grooves as you lay back and closed your eyes? Vinyl Tap will enable you to enjoy reminiscing or have the vinyl experience for the first time using your iTunes library.
Sandboxing deadline arrives: What it means…
Macworld’s Lex Friedman:
Depending upon whom you ask, Friday, June 1 is the best or worst thing to come to the Mac App Store since it opened its doors in 2011. As of now, new and significantly updated apps submitted to Apple’s Mac App Store must implement sandboxing.Sandboxing refers to compartmentalizing what data and features a specific app is granted access to; apps each can metaphorically play exclusively in their own sandbox, accessing only that data which Apple has granted that app entitlements to see. The plus side of sandboxing is that it means, in theory, that your apps will become safer and more trustworthy: Your Mac prevents them from accessing files they shouldn’t access.But that security comes with a price, at least in some cases.
How Facebook ‘Likes’ become ads
A look at how Facebook turns your personal “Likes” into ads.
iOS gamers will bathe in blood with Carmageddon’s release this summer
The carnage-filled racing game Carmageddon makes its triumphant return on iOS this summer, and it’ll be free – at least at first.
Steve Jobs D: All Things Digital appearances available for download
Steve Jobs’ six appearances at the D: All Things Digital conferences have been compiled and are now available for download as video or audio podcasts.
Geek It Up Radio episode 11
Peter joined Chris Stanton and Gene Marques on their “Geek It Up Radio” podcast this week.
A brief history of HyperCard
It’s HyperCard’s 25th anniversary!
Rolling Stone magazine takes notice of Mastered for iTunes
Steve Knopper for Rolling Stone: Mastered for iTunes unofficially began last year, when producer Rick Rubin was frustrated with his inability to make the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ I’m With You sound as dynamic in the AAC format as it … Continued
The EFF can suck it
The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls iOS a “crystal prison.” Ridiculous.



