AppzDev iPhone Development

New iPhone case

2012-10-11T22:36:00.001-05:00

If you glance at your iPhone wish list, you may see things like longer battery life, expandable SD memory, a better flash, and an old school 30-pin connector for your shiny new iPhone 5. You can have all those things if you're willing to pledge $75 to the iExpander project on Kickstarter.

The iExpander is a jack-of-all-trades case that crams a whole lot into a relatively small size. You're still going to add 6.3mm of chunk to your sleek phone, but the trade-off is pretty tempting.

Let's start with the flashy stuff. The case has an ultrathin CAP-XX supercapacitor that powers an LED flash that can make a big difference in the quality of your low-light photos.

iOS maps

2012-10-11T22:34:00.001-05:00

An application designed to replace the look, feel, and utility of Apple's old maps application has disappeared from the App Store, just days after its debut.

ClassicMap, an application from developer Katsumi Kishikawa -- who has two other applications on sale through Apple -- is no longer available.

The free application popped up on the App Store on Monday and made waves for offering users a way to get some of the same look and feel as the old version of Apple's maps, which used data from Google.

The app included an options menu that looked very much like Apple's own maps app, folding up to reveal extra options, including a toggle to switch between Apple's maps data and Google's. Notably missing were any sort of navigation features or Google's Street View, two things other developers and Google have scrambled to replace either through apps or through the Web.

In a tweet Kishikawa noted that the removal was "Apple's decision," though did not elaborate. CNET has reached out to him and Apple for additional information.

Android Payback: Apple to Cut Google Out of Stunning New 3D Maps App in iOS6

2012-05-13T22:14:00.001-05:00

Android Payback: Apple to Cut Google Out of Stunning New 3D Maps App in iOS6

New Apple maps image based on C3 3D technology

One of the most immediate effects of Steve Jobs' legacy on Apple is an animosity towards Google fueled by what Jobs saw as the outright copying of iOS by Android. Big tech companies will always be battling titans, but this is more. This is personal.

Still, the two companies have been bound by the mutual dependence since Google's services are bundled into iOS. And iMore reports that Google may make four times the ad revenue off of their use in iOS than they do from their own Android platform. Apple wants to change that. Apple has already begun intermediating search queries though Siri, effectively cutting Google out of the valuable identity information associated with those searches. Next up is that other large data components on iOS, maps.

It was widely reported yesterday that Apple will likely announce at its WWDC in June that the new version of the built-in maps app in iOS6 will not be fed by Google maps. Instead, Apple has developed its own, in-house 3-D mapping database, based on the acquisition of three mapping software companies between 2009 and 2011, Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9. The stunning 3D image above is from C3, which, according to the company, uses "previously classified image processing technology… automated software and advanced algorithms… to rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street level photography and user generated images." The video below shows a flyover of Oslo using C3′s technology.

So if this report is true, Apple will have a new maps app with much more highly-detailed imagery than Google, collected through military-style reconnaissance without the (ahem) gathering of any personal information. It is a good bet that Apple will finesse the transitions between the different map modes far better than Google's wonky shift from "map view" to "street view." What could go wrong? Although Apple now owns the source and can engineer accordingly, the new app likely runs more image data through the pipe, so performance on mobile devices—where it's most critical—is going to be an issue. Apple may have to build in detection of the processor speed of the requesting iOS device and send a thinner stream to older iPhones than to the new quad-core iPads.

There is obviously an interesting business story here about how Apple and other tech companies are trying to chip away at Google's dominance of web services. But even more interesting, to me, is the end-user's story. The bloody competition between Apple and Google is leading Apple to create more innovative user experiences for its customers, and that is a good thing. An operating system is just a container for content, and recreating content is much more difficult than just knocking off its container. By creating a new source for the content of maps on iOS, Apple is making their platform more distinct from Android, as if to say, "You can only copy so much." Although Apple is always improving user experience, this particular effort might have not happened had Steve Jobs not threatened to go "thermonuclear."

Google May Be Close to Acquiring Meebo for $100 Million

2012-05-12T11:11:00.001-05:00

Google May Be Close to Acquiring Meebo for $100 Million [REPORT]

Google is in discussions to acquire Meebo for as much as $100 million, sources have told the often-reliable AllThingsD.

Meebo was founded in 2005 as a messaging app for the browser, a product that still exists as Meebo Messenger. The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup has since developed an expanding suite of social and mobile apps for consumers as well as publishers, each designed to enable online communication.

Meebo raised $25 million in its last round of financing in 2010. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Sequoia Capital. The company has raised $62.5 million to date.

Neither Google nor Meebo could be reached for comment.

How to redeem promo codes for iPhone Apps

2012-05-09T13:34:00.001-05:00

Want to redeem your code for an iPhone app?

Here's how you do it:

Click on the app store icon on your iPhone
Click on Featured
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click "Redeem Code"
Enter your promo code

OS X Lion Flaw Exposes Login Passwords in Plain Text

2012-05-09T09:34:00.001-05:00

OS X Lion Flaw Exposes Login Passwords in Plain Text

An Apple programmer has accidentally left a debug flag in the most recent version of OS X Lion, which under certain conditions can cause login passwords to appear in a plain text debug log file, reports ZDNet.

The flaw affects users who have used Apple's encryption software FileVault prior to upgrading to 10.7.3, while FileVault 2 is unaffected.

To make matters worse, Apple has not issued a fix for the matter, so changing your user credentials right now does not help, as those credentials might end up in a debug log file as well.

The flaw, which was originally spotted by a security researcher David Emery, potentially enables anyone with an admin password to retrieve other user's credentials.

"This is worse than it seems, since the log in question can also be read by booting the machine into firewire disk mode and reading it by opening the drive as a disk or by booting the new-with-LION recovery partition and using the available superuser shell to mount the main file system partition and read the file. This would allow someone to break into encrypted partitions on machines they did not have any idea of any login passwords for," claims Emery.

We'll let you know as soon as Apple issues a fix for this problem.

Apple Flirting with Epix for Streaming Video

2012-04-30T08:53:00.001-05:00

Apple Flirting with Epix for Streaming Video From 3 Major Studios

As rumors continue to run rampant about the alleged Apple HDTV set, now there's a tantalizing clue about programming Apple might use to entice people to buy and watch such a device.

Reuters found out Apple is currently in negotiations with Epix, a studio-backed company that streams relatively new content from major studios Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount.

Hey, isn't this how Netflix gets a lot of its best and newest movies and such for streaming? It sure is, and it's costing that company $200 million to do so, in an agreement that expires as soon as September of this year. Maybe Apple figures to get in on this action, perhaps even wresting exclusivity away from Netflix. There's talk of an Epix app for all iOS devices that will do just that.

One thing's certain: Apple's success with music on iTunes hinged on agreements with record companies, and its success with an Apple TV set likewise depends on favorable deals with movie studios.

If Apple wins streaming exclusivity for the latest movies, perhaps even beating to market those residing in its own iTunes video stable, the company could prove to be a juggernaunt in the HDTV world as well. Stay tuned.

Hosting Updates

2012-04-30T08:50:00.000-05:00

Softaculous Is Here!

We're pleased to announce that we're switching over our auto installer system from Fantastico to Softaculous. For those not in the know, Softaculous is an extremely fast auto installer for cPanel and DirectAdmin. We're pretty pleased with this change, and we think you will be too.

Some reasons why it's an awesome product:

• 259 scripts at your disposal

• One step installation

• User ratings/reviews of different scripts

• GZip compression

• Ease of use

• Import scripts directly or from other Auto Installers

• All available Softaculous scripts have demo versions available to try out

• Fast, regular updates

Apple Sells 35.1M iPhones, 11.8M iPads in Q2

2012-04-25T14:58:00.001-05:00

Apple Sells 35.1M iPhones, 11.8M iPads in Q2

Apple on Tuesday announced it sold 35.1 iPhones and 11.8 iPads in its fiscal second quarter. Analysts had expected Apple would sell about 30.5 million iPhones and 12.3 to 13.5 million iPads.

Earnings for the quarter were $12.30 a share on revenues of $39.2 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had projected a 2Q profit of $10.02 a share on revenues of $36.7 billion. Apple had issued guidance of $32.5 billion on revenues with profits of $8.50 per share. Apple's stock was up close to 7% in after-hours trading on the news.

"We're thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, in a release from the company. "The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you're going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver."

Apple also sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7% unit increase over Q2 2011 and about what analysts had expected. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, down 15% from the year-ago quarter.

The results come after Apple's stellar fiscal first quarter results in January, which included a $13 billion profit on revenues of $46.3 billion.

Shares are down nearly 11% since peaking on April 9, putting the stock in "correction" territory.

Microsoft Updates SkyDrive, Offers Up To 100GB Storage

2012-04-24T11:08:00.001-05:00

Watch Out, Dropbox! Microsoft Updates SkyDrive, Offers Up To 100GB Storage

Microsoft announced an update to its SkyDrive service Monday. Among other features, Microsoft integrated the drive into Windows Explorer and Apple's Finder so the drive works as an extension of your desktop, and added the ability to access files stored on your drive from the iPad as well as the iPhone and Windows Phone.

Microsoft has been building SkyDrive alongside Windows 8, which is expected to launch later this year. The cloud-storage option lets you access your files on the go. Monday's update expands on the functionality that was already present on the drive, making storing and accessing those files more seamless.

SkyDrive for Windows

In February, Microsoft announced a SkyDrive Metro-style app for Windows that allows you to fetch files from a connected PC. Monday's SkyDrive update adds to that feature, allowing you to access your SkyDrive from Windows Explorer on Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Files up to 2GB in size can be dragged and dropped onto the drive, and are stored in a folder just like other files on your PC. The drive ,works as an extension of your existing hard drive, and any app that works with local folders on your computer will now also work with SkyDrive.

SkyDrive stays in Sync no matter where you access it. So, if you change a file name on your phone, the file will also be renamed on your computer. Likewise, if you delete a file from SkyDrive.com, the file will also disappear on your computer and smartphone.

SkyDrive.com lets you browse and stream videos from any connected PC, as long as that computer is connected to the web. So, if you wanted to show a co-worker a video from your recent vacation that was stored at home, you could access that file from your work computer via the SkyDrive website as long as your computer at home is connected to the web.

New platforms

SkyDrive became available for Windows Phone and iPhone in December, and now Microsoft is also bringing the service to the iPad. Files can be moved, renamed and deleted remotely on the iPhone and iPad as well as Windows Phone. You can also see your remaining storage space, share with people, revoke their access or change their permissions from view-and-edit to view-only.

SkyDrive is also now available on Macs running OS X Lion. Much like you can on your PC, you can manage your SkyDrive offline using Finder on the Mac. Since SkyDrive is integrated with Finder, any Mac app that opens from or saves to the file system will also be able to access SkyDrive files.

Cost

Microsoft is offering 7GB of free storage for new SkyDrive users, a drop from the 25GB of free storage space it previously offered for free on the service.

If 7GB just isn't enough for your needs, the company is also offering several paid storage options:
20GB for $10/year, 50GB for $25/year, and 100GB for $50 a year.

Those who already have SkyDrive accounts –and have uploaded a file before April 22 – will be able to keep their existing accounts and opt-in to continue to receive 25GB of storage for free. Those who have already uploaded 4GB of data prior to April 1 are automatically opted in.

Competition

There are quite a few cloud storage options currently available. Dropbox is currently the king in cloud storage scene, offering 2GB of storage for free, 50GB for $9.99/month, and 100GB for $19.99/month. Microsoft's plans seriously undercut that pricing. Dropbox offers individual plans, however, up to 1000GB in size.

A lot of cloud storage attention has recently been on Google, who is rumored to be launching its own cloud-storage option – Google Drive – later this month. That service is rumored to give users 5GB of free storage, and be heavily integrated with if not replace Google Docs.

Do any of you currently use SkyDrive? What do you think of Monday's updates? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

New iPad LTE plans

2012-04-21T14:15:00.001-05:00

Inside the new iPad's 4G LTE mobile data: AT&T vs Verizon

Apple's newest iPad sports very fast 4G LTE data service, available on either AT&T or Verizon Wireless in the US. Here's how the two carriers stack up as LTE providers.

We performed a new series of tests on both the AT&T and Verizon models of the new iPad.

We didn't test the strength of radio connectivity between iPad and cellular towers, which is reflected in the "bars" of service reported by the device. Instead, we measured actual data throughput, providing a better indication of how well it will actually work on each carrier when you look up maps, browse the web or download or upload email.

Introducing 4G LTE

The new iPad is Apple's first device designed to connect to LTE networks, also referred to as "4G" to distinguish it from existing 3G technologies including Verizon's CDMA EV-DO and the 3GPP UMTS technology used by AT&T in the US.

The first generation of mobile networks were essentially voice-only analog (AMPS in the US), followed by a second generation of digital networks (CDMAOne and GSM) with rudimentary data features.

The 3G networks launched over the past decade initially began making it feasible to transmit data fast enough to comfortably support tasks such as web browsing. However, the exact definition of 3G or 4G is interpreted broadly enough to nearly be meaningless.

Up until late 2010, 4G was supposed to mean blazing fast 100Mbps data service using new carrier technologies and IP networking, just like computer networks and wireless WiFi.

Mobile carriers, however, wanted a new feature to sell smartphones, and pushed for "4G" to cover the significantly improved technologies they were in the process of building out. The ITU standards body relented and redefined "4G" to cover both the limited version of 4G LTE then being fleshed out as well as a variety of similar "3G+" standards, including HSPA+, which also delivered data service well in excess of the speeds commonly associated with 3G.

Verizon's leap from CDMA EV-DO to LTE

Verizon was the first national US carrier to implement LTE service, largely because it had the slowest 3G data network with no realistic potential to upgrade it. Qualcomm, which had developed the 2G CDMAOne and 3G CDMA EV-DO carrier technologies Verizon has historically used, had abandoned plans to build its own 4G replacement.

Instead, the chasm between Qualcomm's CDMA networks and the incompatible but more widely used GSM/UMTS technologies created by the 3GPP standards body was bridged by technology sharing that implemented carrier technologies originally developed by Qualcomm and improvements made by other technology companies.

The resulting 3GPP roadmap for GSM/UMTS standards outlined a series of steps that carriers could implement to bring significant, incremental improvements to their networks, working toward a 4G future. However, for legacy CDMA carriers such as Verizon, moving toward 3GPP standards would require a larger jump.

Internationally, other CDMA carriers have either bolted on UMTS/HSPA or LTE "overlays" that augmented their existing CDMA EV-DO service.

Outside of AT&T and Verizon in the US, Sprint hoped to beat its competitors to the market with competing WIMAX service, but has since announced plans to move toward LTE. T-Mobile has invested in HSPA+ upgrades but had no LTE rollout plans; it expected to be acquired by AT&T last year, and serve as an accelerant to help roll out that company's LTE strategy up until the government got involved and forced the transaction into failure.

Verizon's LTE performance

In our testing, Verizon's LTE network can be spectacularly fast, regularly reaching an astounding 40Mbps for downloads and up to 19Mbps for uploads. In the US, that's significantly faster than typical fast cable broadband speeds. But Verizon's LTE isn't always that fast. About ten percent of the time, LTE areas only delivered an AT&T 3G-esque 1.9Mbps to 2.7Mbps down, even while delivering (oddly enough) fast 10-14Mbps uploads. Occasionally, despite showing bars of LTE, we got poor service speeds.

In about a quarter of our tests, Verizon's LTE delivered what we'd describe as "Advanced 3G/4G" speeds between 5-10Mbps. However, most of the time, represented in 65 percent of our tests, Verizon's LTE delivered greater than 10Mbps download speeds, up to 40Mbps. These are typical WiFi speeds, very impressive for a mobile device. About 18.8 percent of the time, we got better than 20Mbps downloads on Verizon's LTE.

Despite usually delivering fast downloads, Verizon's LTE uploads were more of a mixed bag, ranging from an occasional slow 1Mbps rate to upload speeds between 3-9Mpbs about half of the time. And factoring in non-LTE service holes, we experienced slower than 5Mbps service around 37.7 percent of the time.

The biggest disappointment to Verizon users will be that as soon as you lose LTE service (which is only available in limited areas), data rates fall back into CDMA EV-DO territory, with a relatively plodding 0.1-1.3Mbps data rate for both uploads and downloads. That's the same you get from current Verizon iPhone models, and again is why Verizon worked the hardest to get LTE deployed first.

AT&T, LTE & 4G

In contrast to Verizon's big jump to LTE, existing GSM providers such as AT&T and T-Mobile have had the ability to incrementally improve their existing networks. While Verizon decided to jump to LTE directly, AT&T has added both incremental HSPA+ upgrades and has recently began building LTE as well in parallel, albeit being behind Verizon's LTE deployment.

AT&T, like T-Mobile, has also rebranded its HSPA+ service as "4G" in order to associate it with the faster data service of LTE. Both have the potential of reaching around 10-40Mbps, in excess of ten times faster than typical 1-1.5Mbps 3G EV-DO service. In our tests, AT&T's non-LTE "4G" service delivered a respectable 1.5 to 8Mbps, far above typical 3G but below the 9-40Mbps rates of AT&T's LTE.

The proportional breakdown of AT&T's mixed 4G and LTE service was nearly identical to Verizon's LTE: about ten percent of the time, AT&T's 4G areas delivered1.7Mbps to 2.5Mbps downloads, although uploads on those "4G" networks were much slower, effectively 3G speeds of 1-1.5Mbps. Across the board, AT&T fell below our baseline of 5Mbps 26.6 percent of the time, significantly less often than with Verizon.

In about a quarter of our tests, AT&T's 4G or LTE delivered those "Advanced 3G/4G" speeds between 5-10Mbps. However, most of the time, represented in 63 percent of our tests, AT&T's LTE delivered greater than 10Mbps down, up to the same 40Mbps hit by Verizon. When indicating LTE rather than 4G, AT&T's upload rates were also consistently faster than Verizon's, in the 10Mbps and up category. AT&T also reached above 20Mbps in 40 percent of our tests, nearly twice as often as Verizon.

AT&T vs Verizon in 4G & LTE

The bottom line: both AT&T and Verizon deliver very fast LTE downloads. In our tests, AT&T seemed to provide more consistent LTE upload speeds. Uploads matter if you're doing more than just browsing the web or downloading apps and movies. If you plan to do things like capture videos and email them to friends, you'll want the kind of upload speeds AT&T performed better at delivering consistently.

If you're located well within the currently quite limited LTE service areas of AT&T and Verizon, you'll enjoy really fast data speeds on either network. Unlike our previous testing of AT&T's early 3G network beginning in 2008, we found that even when the new iPad indicates a poor signal with just one or two bars, we were still able to download at very fast speeds (below). However, in many cases our Verizon model would indicate more bars, but deliver significantly slower LTE data service. It's possible Verizon's LTE network is handling more traffic, because its also newer than AT&T's, so this may change as AT&T signs up more LTE users.

If you plan to use your new iPad outside of areas covered by LTE, you'll have a different experience depending on the carrier you choose. While Verizon offers broader LTE service coverage spots, as soon as you leave the coverage area you're instantly back in 3G land, and slow EV-DO 3G (less than 1Mbps) at that.

If you break out AT&T's faster, more modern HSPA+ networks, which can deliver the same WiFi-like mobile speeds as LTE, the comparison between AT&T and Verizon's available "4G" networks tilt in favor of AT&T, as presented in the service maps of the Coverage app.

The first graphic below shows AT&T's (in blue) and Verizon's (in red) LTE network maps. The graphic below it adds all "4G" networks, allowing AT&T to get credit for its similarly performing, modern mobile networks.

With AT&T, as you leave LTE service areas you first get "4G," which ranges from very fast download speeds that feel like 4G (in that 5-10Mbps range) to service that feels more like very good 3G (1.5-5Mbps) down to the very rural speeds (less than 1Mbps) you'll find as you leave civilization.

However, while AT&T offered consistently faster LTE uploads than Verizon, when you enter "4G" on AT&T your downloads rapidly degrade to less than 1.5Mbps, which is hard to call 4G with a straight face.

In real world testing that involved reloading a long series of identical images in Mail, we found that despite slight differences in data throughput on each network, the effective and apparent speed of actual tasks seemed consistently identical when both models were operated in LTE service areas.

LTE drawbacks

While LTE is indeed very fast, it is not without its downsides. Apple seems to have solved the biggest issue with 4G on the new iPad: the idea that you can't have both LTE and battery life. The new iPad packs a huge battery and modern LTE chipsets that make its use very efficient, to the point where it wasn't an obvious battery hog.

The next big issue for LTE is that, while it's fast, carriers are not giving you any more data to run through. It's not a fire hose of data. It's more like a squirt gun: it shoots out data fast, but you also drain your tank quickly and have to refill at significant cost once you plough through your 2GB or so of data. If carriers really want to see adoption of LTE, they need to stop being so greedy about data limits. Offering ten times faster data at the same data limit is absurd.

AT&T is advertising its LTE service with spots that suggest people are greatly benefitted by getting Facebook updates and emails seconds before their peers. This is simply not true. LTE's biggest advantage will be when it allows you to inhale movies and download large apps and documents. You don't need faster data to get quick text updates. This is just stupid.

Verizon on the other hand has simply resurrected to its "we're bigger than AT&T" ad campaign, insisting that it has significantly more LTE service than its competitor. While that's technically true, AT&T has significantly more 4G service, and our tests show AT&T's LTE network seems to perform better on uploads (although its non-LTE 4G network does not).

Is it true that Verizon's 2-10Mbps LTE is really better than AT&T's 2-10Mbps 4G? No. So it's hard to see much honesty in such a simplistic comparison between the LTE coverage maps of Verizon and AT&T, particularly if you ignore AT&T's superior middle ground 4G service. Both networks have strengths and weaknesses that can't be boiled down into a best performer.

In fact, unless you plan to use your new iPad as a hot spot to serve fast (but limited data capacity) LTE service to your laptop and other devices (something only Verizon currently supports), it's hard to see a clear leader between the Verizon and AT&T models. Both are so constrained by their data plan limits that you might just be better off buying the WiFi model and saving the premium to help pay for a tethered data plan on your phone.

LTE outside North America

Apple currently only has agreements in place for LTE-equipped iPads on Verizon and AT&T, along with some Canadian carriers. European and Australian flavors of LTE aren't compatible with these new iPad versions.

Unfortunately, while the top three US carriers and most other significant carriers worldwide have settled upon LTE as the their common technology for future mobile networking, each carrier is using its own frequency bands, complicating the potential for using one device across different networks.

The upside is that Apple has also packed quad-band support for alternative 4G technologies into the new iPad, which should work on most international UMTS/HSPA+ providers, including those that support the very fast DC-HSDPA specification. These technologies can deliver the same top speeds up around 40Mbps we found with LTE providers in the US.

AT&T or Verizon: Which offers the best deal on 4G iPad data?

2012-04-21T14:10:00.001-05:00

AT&T or Verizon: Which offers the best deal on 4G iPad data?

Marguerite Reardon

In this Ask Maggie, I help a reader determine which LTE-enabled iPad to buy. I also offer some guidance to a Sprint customer wondering about the future of Sprint's WiMax network.

The new LTE-enabled iPad has turned out to be a data hog. So which carrier is best for getting the most bang for your buck?

In this edition of Ask Maggie I explain why the new LTE-enabled iPad eats through so much data. And I help a reader figure which carrier -- AT&T or Verizon -- will give him the most data usage for the least amount of money. I also offer some advice to a Sprint WiMax subscriber who is thinking about upgrading to a new Sprint 4G LTE device.

AT&T or Verizon LTE iPad?

Hello Maggie,
I saw one of your articles about 4G definitions and thought I would see if you had a solution to a question I can't answer. I am trying to decide whether to purchase a new iPad using Verizon Wireless or AT&T cellular service. I understand that the 4G LTE service from both carriers causes users to consume much more data on their plans for a combination of technical and behavioral reasons.
I have not been able to find anything on Web blogs or elsewhere, however, about any difference in data consumption for AT&T's HSPA+ (faux 4G) relative to Verizon's 3G. This could be very important factor in determining which version of the iPad to purchase, because if I decide to turn off 4G LTE to conserve data usage, I would like to know if the AT&T 4G HSPA+ eats up more data than Verizon's 3G for an equivalent amount of Web surfing, video downloading, etc.
I recognize that the HSPA+ is faster, but given the small difference in speed between it and 3G, I am much more concerned about the cost for the amount of data that I will use. We tried to test this with several friends' new iPads, and it appeared that the AT&T HSPA+ (faux 4G) used more data that the Verizon 3G for the same amount of Web surfing when we checked cellular data usage on the accounts on each machine. But I would really appreciate knowing if there is any good, credible evidence to help in making my decision.
Thanks,
Robert

Dear Robert,
You are right about there being technical and behavioral reasons why people are consuming so much more data on their new 4G LTE iPads. Devices using a faster 4G LTE network will download bits faster than devices using a 3G network. According to Verizon's data calculator, a 3G video stream downloads at 250 Megabytes per hour compared with a device on a 4G network that downloads 350MB/hr. So this is one factor that may be contributing to people using more data than they had expected on their new LTE-enabled iPads.

But the real reason why these 4G iPad users are busting through their data plans is simply because a faster network means they can do more with their tablets. It's like when you went from dial-up Internet connectivity at home to a broadband connection. On dial-up all you likely did was check e-mail and a few Web sites. When you got broadband, you went to a lot more Web sites that had more graphics and used Flash. You started streaming music and video. You uploaded and downloaded pictures. These activities inherently require more bandwidth than simply checking e-mail. And they simply weren't possible on the dial-up connection because it was too slow.

So when you got the faster connection, you used more data. It wasn't the connection per se that consumed more data, it was your behavior that resulted in you consuming more data on a network that was capable of handling more advanced content.

That's what is happening with 4G LTE wireless now. Users are going from a dial-up-like experience to a broadband experience. And they are happy to finally get access to the wireless Internet superhighway.

The other reason why they are using so much more data is because the iPad in particular has such a beautiful screen -- why would you want to watch anything but high-definition quality video on it? And now that the network is capable of delivering HD video without a ton of buffering, people are using it to stream HD movies and TV shows, even when they're not in a Wi-Fi hotspot.

This can be a problem on a cellular network where data usage is metered because HD video consumes much more bandwidth than standard-definition video. How much more? According to Verizon's data estimator, 30 minutes of HD video per day would use 30GB of data per month. By contrast, 30 minutes a day of SD video would use 9.52GB of data per month.

Is AT&T's HSPA+ more of a hog than Verizon's EV-DO?
But your question isn't so much about why people are busting through their data plans as much as you want to know whether AT&T's HSPA+ network will eat through data faster than Verizon's 3G EV-DO network. Right? In general, a faster network will consume data at a faster data rate. So in theory the HSPA+ network may consume slightly more data when engaging in the same activity. (As you know from reading my previous column, I really consider AT&T's HSPA+ 3G.)

As you mentioned in your test with your friend's iPad, there may be a difference in data usage between an AT&T HSPA+ iPad and a Verizon EV-DO iPad. But I'm not sure how big that difference really is. HSPA+ is a faster network, so certain content, such as video, may download at a higher bit-rate. For other applications, it may not matter at all. The real question is whether the faster network, if it's really noticeably any faster, compels you to stream more audio or visit more Web sites or do more of whatever it is you do on your iPad. That is what will drive up your data usage.

I think if you're interested in getting a 4G iPad and don't want to go over your data plan, you need to think about when and how you will use the device. Will you be using 4G LTE only occasionally to fill in for when you can't find a Wi-Fi hotspot? Or do you plan on using your new iPad everyday on your hour-long commute to work?

Once you know how often you will need to access the 4G LTE network, then you can find the data plan that is best suited to your needs at the lowest price. And that would be the plan I'd go with.

Right now, AT&T and Verizon have some significant price differences at the low-end of their pricing structure. Very light data users, could get the $15 plan with only 250MB from AT&T. But keep in mind that 250MB of data is not much, especially for a device like an iPad that is made for downloading pictures and streaming video. While it sounds like a great deal, users on this plan will have to really make certain they are very light data users since 25 minutes a day of Web surfing could use up to 750MB of data in a month, according to Verizon's data calculator.

By contrast, Verizon offers a plan for just $5 more a month ($20) that gives subscribers 1GB of data per month. This plan might also appeal to light data users.

If you're a moderate data user, then AT&T has the better deal. For $30 a month, AT&T offers 3GB of data per month. For the exact same price, Verizon offers only 2GB a month.

For heavier data users, there's really no difference in price. AT&T and Verizon each offer a $50 a month plan that gives subscribers 5GB of data. For really heavy data users, Verizon offers a 10GB plan for $80 a month.

If you're really concerned about exceeding your data plan, I'd suggest using Wi-Fi as much as possible. You can also turn off 4G to save on data. But I don't think there is much of a difference between how much data AT&T's HSPA+ network uses versus Verizon's EV-DO network to make much of a difference. I think it's much more important to find a plan that best fits your needs. I'd decide between AT&T and Verizon based on those costs rather than their 3G network technology.

Good luck with your decision. And I hope you enjoy your new iPad!

Should I upgrade from WiMax to LTE yet on Sprint? Or is it still too early?

Dear Maggie,
I have the original HTC Evo 4G smartphones from Sprint. My contract ends on May 4, 2012. The phone was definitely groundbreaking when it came out, but now it's barely hanging on to life.
I keep hearing that Sprint is abandoning its WiMax network, and it is building a new LTE network. Even if I buy the new HTC Evo 4G LTE, which was announced a week or so ago, I really don't want to end up in the same situation I was in when I bought my original Evo. Sprint charged all of its buyers the $10 per month premium data fee even when they didn't live in a 4G market. I live in Los Angeles, and I've heard no concrete date as to when LA will get Sprint LTE service. But it has WiMax now.
The way I look at it I have 2 choices:
1. I could tough it out with my current phone until God knows when. And once LTE is rolled out in LA, I could buy an LTE phone then.
2. If I can't wait for a new phone, I could buy the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, which uses the 4G WiMax network operated by Clearwire. This option would require me to sell my Samsung online if I decide I want one of the newer LTE devices when they are released and the network is active in my area.
What would Maggie do?
Thanks,
Upgrade Eligible

Dear Upgrade Eligible,
This is a tough question. I can tell from your message how frustrated you are. And who could blame you? Sprint only started offering a 4G WiMax handset two years ago. And now it looks like the carrier is starting from scratch with new handsets and a new network.

Even though Sprint will continue to offer WiMax service for customers who already own a WiMax handset, it won't be introducing new ones in the future. From now on, Sprint's 4G devices will all use LTE. And it's already announced the first two for the pipeline: the HTC Evo 4G LTE and the LG Viper. Both should be on sale in May.

Sprint's plan to move to LTE has been a long time coming. The company took a gamble when it committed to using WiMax back in 2007. When it launched the network in 2008 and teamed up with Clearwire, it was the first wireless operator to offer 4G service. It went with WiMax because the technology was more advanced than LTE at that point in time. And Sprint, already the No. 3 wireless operator in the U.S., didn't want to wait.

"WiMax was tried-and-true tested technology at the time we made the choice," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said two years ago at an industry event. "And we thought we could go with that for 4G now or wait for another technology that would be ready later. And we couldn't wait."

It became clear almost immediately after Sprint had launched its WiMax service that the rest of the world's largest telcos would be using LTE instead. And while it was alright for Sprint to be a maverick for a little while, it wasn't sustainable long term. The main reason is that if the rest of the world's operators are using LTE for 4G service, then there would be a cheaper, more efficient, and more innovative ecosystem for LTE as compared with WiMax. In other words, Sprint would never be able to afford to pay handset makers to build WiMax devices just for its network. And it would never be able to afford to provide incentives to infrastructure providers to build equipment just for its network.

Clearwire, Sprint's partner who has built the WiMax network, also recognizes this fact. And that's the company has plans to layer an LTE network on top of the WiMax network it is currently building. The plan is to eventually migrate users from the WiMax network to LTE. Of course, the problem with this migration is that older WiMax devices won't operate with the LTE network, so eventually those devices will be phased out entirely.

The bottom line here is that LTE was always going to have to be a part of Sprint's roadmap. But the one major twist in this story is that Sprint is now building its own LTE network. Instead of waiting for Clearwire to make its transition to LTE, Sprint has decided to use excess spectrum it owns and build its own LTE network. The reason Sprint is so anxious to move to LTE is that it's losing ground in the 4G battle to Verizon Wireless, which has the largest and fastest 4G LTE network available, and AT&T, which is just now building its network.

Unfortunately for Sprint customers, the transition to LTE is messy and confusing. For one, the company will soon be selling devices that support two different 4G networks. (As if 4G wasn't already confusing for wireless consumers.) In an effort to be more clear about which device operates on which network, Sprint is indicating on its Website which 4G network each device supports. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G says 4G WiMax. And the new HTC Evo is the HTC Evo 4G LTE.

Sadly, this will require customers to know more than they'd probably like to know about the difference between these 4G networks. I can only imagine the many different ways a sales associate in a store or on the phone can bungle questions from current and potential customers on this issue.

To get back to your original question, what should you do? As I said before it's a really tough question. The reality is that even though the 4G WiMax network is being phased out and at some point will cease to exist, today its footprint is much larger than Sprint's non-existent LTE network.

Sprint now offers 4G WiMax service in about 77 markets. By contrast, Sprint's LTE network will be up and running in only six larger markets by June. This includes Kansas City, Mo., Baltimore, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta and Houston. As you point out in your message, Los Angeles was not mentioned as one of the first six. And it's hard to say when exactly it will get this service.

That said, Sprint has promised that it will be able to cover 120 million people with its LTE service by the end of the year. And it plans to have its network completed by the end of 2013.

At least initially, Sprint's LTE network will be tiny. And just as you had to wait for 4G WiMax in Los Angeles, you're going to have to wait again for 4G LTE. The real problem is that when you use either type of 4G device in a place where LTE or WiMax is not available, it uses the 3G EV-DO network. And even though this network is adequate for some things, it's much slower than other 3G networks from carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

Since LTE is not yet deployed in Los Angeles where you live, this means that you're limited only to EV-DO. Meanwhile, you could enjoy faster speeds now using a WiMax device, since the network is already deployed. Going back to a device that connects at 3G speeds for you might be like disconnecting broadband and using dial-up.

Here is what I would do if I were in your situation. If network speed is important to you, and it sounds like it is, I would try to hold onto your original HTC Evo as long as you can. That way you'll still have access to the speedier WiMax network. When your device dies, there may be 4G LTE service in your area. And then you can upgrade to a 4G LTE device. If there is still no LTE service where you live, then you need to make decision. Do you want to buy a device strictly for network speed or do you want one that likely has better hardware and software specifications that will eventually connect to a speedier network when it becomes available in Los Angeles?

I don't know how quickly Sprint will really build out its LTE network, so that is what makes this question so difficult to answer. But I can tell that if I were in your shoes, I'd wait as long as I could to make a decision. Within the next three to six months, we should have a much better picture of what Sprint plans to do.

As for the extra $10 charge for data service, the sad truth about that charge is that it's applied to every smartphone on Sprint's network. What used to be an "advanced data" charge just for 4G WiMax devices is now also applied to 3G only smartphones, such as the iPhone 4S. Personally, I think it's ridiculous. Sprint should just raise the price of its smarthphone data plans by $10 a month. So instead of claiming to offer a $99.99 unlimited everything plan, it would cost $109.99. It wouldn't sound as sexy, but it would honest. At least, Sprint hasn't gotten rid of its unlimited data plan...yet.

Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page.

Update at 5:55 a.m. PT: Reference to HD video monthly usage corrected.

Marguerite Reardon

Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies.

Marriage Fight Tracker iPhone App

2012-04-21T14:05:00.001-05:00

Marriage Fight Tracker

Check out this application on the App Store:

Marriage Fight Tracker

AppzDev

Category: Lifestyle

Updated: Aug 15, 2011

17 Ratings

iTunes for Mac and Windows

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Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved

Check out Preschool Daily

2012-04-20T20:17:00.001-05:00

Preschool Daily

Apple approved our new app Preschool Daily for parents with Preschoolers!

Preschool Daily

AppzDev

Category: Education

Updated: Apr 19, 2012

iTunes for Mac and Windows

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Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved

Get Apple’s multi-touch Magic Mouse functions to work on Windows

2012-04-14T17:36:00.001-05:00

Get Apple’s multi-touch Magic Mouse functions to work on Windows

Do you have an Apple Magic Mouse and want the same functions on your Windows PC?

Thanks to a little hack from Apple’s Bluetooth Update, the Magic Mouse driver is now available with a 32bit version and a 64bit version that you can install on any ordinary Windows PC that will enable all the scrolling ‘magic’ of the Magic Mouse.

Download 32 Bit Magic Mouse Driver for Windows (most computers)

Download 64 Bit Magic Mouse Driver for Windows

How Steve Jobs Got Apple Into Trouble Over Ebooks

2012-04-12T10:35:00.000-05:00

How Steve Jobs Got Apple Into Trouble Over Ebooks

So Apple and a group of major publishers stand accused of ebook price fixing. But before we have them drawn and quartered, let's consider the facts.

First of all, Apple never tried to hide what it was doing with ebooks. Steve Jobs wanted his new iPad and iBooks platform to compete in the exploding ereader market.

As ever, Jobs wanted to do so on his own terms. So he told publishers how it was going to be.

Publishers agreed to his "Agency Model" (publishers set the price, Apple gets 30% of the profits, and publishers cannot allow lower prices on a competing service). The fortunes of Apple, publishers, authors and even Amazon, improved as a result.

Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography outlines Apple's plans in stark detail. In the book, Isaacson describes a conversation he had with the late Apple CEO the day after the iPad launched in 2010:

"Amazon screwed it up. It paid the wholesale price for some books, but started selling them below cost at $9.99. Publishers hated that — they thought it would trash their ability to sell hardcover books at $28. So before Apple even got on the scene, some booksellers were starting to withhold books from Amazon. So we told the publishers, 'We'll go to the agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30%, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that's what you want anyway.'

"But we also asked for a guarantee that if anybody else is selling the books cheaper than we are, then we can sell them at the lower price too. So they went to Amazon and said, 'You're going to sign an agency contract or we're not going to give you the books.' …

"We were not the first people in the books business. Given the situation that existed, what was best for us was to do this akido move and end up with the agency model. And we pulled it off."

There it is, in all its glory: the heart of the Department of Justice's case against Apple and the publishers. I'm no lawyer, but this does sound a lot like price-fixing between Apple and publishers — especially since Amazon was not given a seat at the negotiating table.

The fact that publishers went along with it is a clear indication of just how desperate they were to break the stranglehold Amazon had on the ebook business.

You see, Amazon was doing its own bit of price-fixing. It bought the books from publishers and then set super-low prices — $9.99 for everything from a three-year-old-book to the latest best seller. The whole discount-over-time model was thrown out the window.

Clearly, Amazon was selling books at a loss, but I doubt CEO Jeff Bezos cared. He wanted to build market share, fast, and knew the quickest way to do that was through consumer's wallets.

They'd be much more likely to adopt Amazon's Kindle ereaders if they thought they could find new books for much less than they could by 1) buying Amazon's own hardcovers or 2) shopping at the local bookseller (think retail discounter and current ebook competitor Barnes and Noble). This plan worked and by 2010, ebooks were outselling traditional books on Amazon.

Over the years I spoke to numerous people in the publishing industry who were somewhat shocked and not necessarily happy with this turn of events. Best-selling author James Patterson, whom I once met briefly on an airplane, wondered if movie makers would be as happy if their first run-movies were also available on DVD for $1.99 on the day films hit theaters.

Patterson's books have long been on ereaders, but back then he was clearly feeling the pinch of lost royalties as his bestsellers which once sold for over $20 at Barnes and Noble and were now selling for $9.99. Was it any wonder he was riding coach?

Amazon tried to smooth things out with publishers prior to the iPad launch by raising publisher royalties to 70% — effectively matching Apple — as long as publishers followed Amazon's rules for pricing and allowing text-to-speech on their books.

Amazon's $9.99 pricing insistence did not sit so well with government types, either. Back in 2010, the Connecticut Attorney General called Amazon's $9.99 pricing scheme potentially anti-competitive. Certainly, undercutting brick and mortar competitors by more than half on new hardcovers made it difficult for anyone else to compete in the ebooks space. Amazon was doing something few others could at the time: swallowing significant revenue losses until the scale of the business caught up.

I'm not saying what Steve Jobs and publishers did back in 2009 and 2010 was right. But it was right there in front of everyone's face. Only Steve Jobs could be so bold and, like it or not, what he did probably saved or improved more than one business.

Without Apple to force Amazon to rethink its pricing model, book publishers might have had to resort to draconian measures to stay afloat and deliver product (for all I know, they did anyway). Authors might have seen their publishing and sales platform opportunities shrink as fewer publishers took risks on unknown or no-name authors. Oh, and surely Amazon would be making less money on ebooks than it is today.

What good will come of this DOJ investigation? Not much, I suspect. Maybe the DOJ casts out the Apple pricing rule: "No one shall price below us!" There will be fines imposed on the publishers and, likely, Apple. We know Apple can afford to pay and I doubt that the DOJ will seek to destroy the publishers through exorbitant penalties.

Ultimately, this whole drama is just another little piece of Steve Job's legacy laid bare. He was a hard-nosed business man who knew how to win — at almost any cost. Do we judge Apple or him more harshly for it?

iPhone-Friendly Watch Gets $500,000 Kickstarter Funding in a Day

2012-04-12T10:22:00.001-05:00

iPhone-Friendly Watch Gets $500,000 Kickstarter Funding in a Day

Hey iPhone users: how many times a day do you take your beloved device out of your pocket just to check the time, change the tune, check email or see who's calling? What if we wore some kind of notification device on our wrists — let's call them watches — that could connect to your iPhone to do all of the above and more? And what if it didn't cost an arm and a leg?

Smart watches aren't exactly a new notion. In the past year we've seen and reviewed several: the InPulse, the WiMM One and the oddly-named I'm Watch. But they were all powered by Android, or connected to Android smartphones only.

iPhone owners were out of luck — until Wednesday, when a new smart watch by the guy behind InPulse (Eric Migicovsky, above) hit funding site Kickstarter. Dubbed the Pebble, it's the first smart watch that can form a meaningful, long-lasting relationship with your iOS device, as well as Android.

And it's nothing if not popular. The Kickstarter campaign asked for $100,000 in funding; it got that in the first two hours. By day's end, the device had more than $500,000 in pledges.

What's so smart about the Pebble? Well, for starters, it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. Other smart watches offer color screens as if they're trying to be a mini-smartphone. The Pebble lets your iPhone do all the heavy lifting. Its simple e-paper display — much like the original Kindle — is viewable even in direct sunlight, which is pretty necessary for a watch.

It is also releasing its software kit to developers, so they can create their own iPhone app-linking apps. Out of the box, you'll be able to see incoming emails and calls, track your run and your bike ride via your phone's GPS, as well as use your watch as a remote for the music app on your phone.

That feature alone seems worth the asking price — which, by the way, will be $149.

Trulia Rentals tops iOS Apps of the Week - iPhone app recommendations - Dan Kricke | Appolicious ™ iPhone and iPad App Directory

2012-04-09T18:33:00.001-05:00

Trulia Rentals tops iOS Apps of the Week

Don't look now, but it's time for this week's top apps! Our favorite new apps this week include one for helping you find apartment rentals, an app to get deals on restaurants, apps for recommendations on books, movies and restaurants, and an update to one of the best music-tagging apps around.

Trulia Rentals (Free)

Trulia Rentals is ideal for the person who knows what they're looking for in a home but isn't ready to buy a place yet. With Trulia Rentals, users can search for apartments and homes for rent via thorough search criteria and even get alerts when new rentals hit the market. The app also includes a map that shows nearby restaurants, grocery stores and shops so that the prospective renter will know what sort of neighborhood they could be moving in to. Trulia Rentals even lets users contact landlords from the app when possible, making it a great app to use when you don't have time to sit at your computer and craft an email.

Jybe (Free)

Jybe is a personal recommendations app that is built upon your own tastes. By asking a series of thumbs up/down questions about your tastes in movies, music, food and other activities, Jybe creates a profile of your personality and then recommends activities for you based upon things it thinks you will enjoy. Users can also link their Netflix account to the app and add movies that Jybe recommends right to their queue. Jybe also displays menus for the restaurants it recommends and showtimes for the movies it suggests.

Shazam 5.01 (Free)

Shazam's latest update is all about speed. The erstwhile music-tagging app has done some work under the hood and is running better than ever. The speed of tagging music has improved and even the app's boot-up time is over a second quicker. Shazam also added the option to make custom tweets when you opt to make your music tagging into a social experience.

Bookslinger (Free)

If you're tired of the Dan Browns of the world and want to read some literature that's a little more under the radar, Bookslinger is the app for you. Bookslinger comes preloaded with a few short stories, and each week the app will add a free story from one of its numerous independent publishers. The aim is to focus on little-known or emerging writers that might not be getting the press that other more noteworthy authors receive. Publishers involved in Bookslinger include Fulcrum Publishing, Feminist Press, Dzanc Books, Turtle Point Press and many more.

BiteHunter (Free)

BiteHunter makes it easy to get great deals on dining options. The app aggregates food deals from places like Groupon, LivingSocial, Spinach, Google and more and presents them all to its users under one simple interface. The latest update to BiteHunter now lets users purchase all deals under one single log-in, no longer requiring them to remember their individual passwords for numerous deal sites. This update is ideal for someone who wants to spend more time eating and less time remembering passwords.

Get all of your taxes in order with these mobile apps - iPhone app article - Brad Spirrison | Appolicious ™ iPhone and iPad App Directory

2012-04-09T18:29:00.001-05:00

Get all of your taxes in order with these mobile apps

Filing taxes and managing finances are more convenient and less painful with the help of mobile applications for smartphones and tablet devices. Whether you are looking for a way to manage your finances year-round to make tax-time less consuming, seeking to file your taxes right from the device, or wanting to track down your refund status wherever you travel, we have some app recommendations for you.

Mint.com Personal Finance (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android: Free)

Every year when I sit down to do my taxes, I make an April 14 resolution to keep my accounting and finances in order year-round. That way, I don't have to spend several hours on a beautiful, early spring weekend finding old bank statements in the drawer, and receipts scattered beneath the cushions of my couch. The one app that has a chance of keeping me financially organized for any length of time is Mint.com Personal Finance. This free, advertising-supported app tracks your bank and credit card accounts all in one place. If you file personal and business taxes, Mint.com is really helpful making sure your accounts are tracked separately. The app also includes the option of push notifications for major transactions and questionable fees, and advises you when you are spending more that a pre-set budget on certain expenses like fast food and bank fees. A great app any time of the year, Mint.com can make your tax season much more pleasant.

TurboTax SnapTax (iPhone, iPod Touch, Android: Free with subscription)

Designed for taxpayers who don't want to spend too much time with an accountant or in front of a computer in the early days of spring, TurboTax SnapTax is well, a snap. Simply take a photograph of your W2, upload it to the app, and you are just about done. Note that the app only accommodates the most simple of tax returns, and won't help you if you have children or dependents, own a home or make more than $100,000 annually. TurboTax Snap also has a tool that will estimate your tax refund and tracks the status of your return. TurboTax is developed by Intuit, which has several tax and accounting apps available for iOS and Android devices including Tax Caster and MyTaxRefund. With apps like TurboTax, there is no excuse for filing late this year.

H&R Block Mobile (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android: Free)

If you are loyal to H&R Block, or just want some free and easy tax advice as you put all of your information together, this app is nice to have in your pocket. Get answers to any tax-related question on-the-go, match your progress against a checklist, and even use the app to make a tax appointment and find an H&R Block location near you. And who wouldn't want a comprehensive tax glossary wherever they travel? Like SnapTax, this app also helps you track down the status of your federal refund.

IRS2Go (iPhone, iPod Touch, Android: Free)

While some may find the idea of being joined at the hip with the IRS wherever you travel to be disconcerting, this official app developed by the Internal Revenue Service gives you tax tips and rules directly from the source. Not sure if that business lunch you had last month is worthy of a write-off, or how to calculate gas and commuting mileage information into your filings? This app has all the answers and is designed to keep you honest. As well, there is a list of aggregated resources from the IRS across the web, the IRS Twitter feed, and email newsletters. And, of course, you can tap into this app to check out the status of your refund check.

Shoeboxed Receipt Tracker and Receipt Reader (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android: Free)

Throw out your inefficient receipt shoebox and exchange it for this fee app, which lets you take pictures of receipts with your smartphone or tablet and file them later for review.

Apple facial scanning patent

2012-04-09T18:18:00.000-05:00

A new patent filed by Apple could allow the company to eventually use facial scanning technology to allow iOS devices to switch between users and possibly lock devices.

As Ars Technica reports, a recently published Apple patent includes technology that would allow iOS devices to quickly switch preferences and settings between users just by scanning your face when you hold it up in front of you. It could also be used to lock and unlock your iPad or iPhone so that people who aren't you can't access them. All this would be done with the front-facing camera.

The patent is titled "Electronic Device Operation Adjustment Based On Face Detection," and Ars Technica notes that it would be easy for it to be ported to Macs as well. The patent details several different ways the face-scanning technology could be implemented, such as helping to keep the screen rotated and centered at the user's eye level.

More compelling, probably, is the idea of fast switching between users. Right now, iOS devices don't support multiple users – that is, unique people with saved profiles on the device that include various preferences. Computers have the ability to save unique users, so it seems possible, if not likely, that iOS devices could be following suit sometime in the future. In addition to just including multiple users, face-scanning technology would take any or all of the grunt work out of actually shifting between one user and another when picking up your family iPad, for example.

Face unlock technology isn't new, although it's new to iOS. Devices running Googles' Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich already use a version of the technology that allows face scanning to unlock those devices, rather than a code or PIN. Apple filed a similar patent for face-scanning technology last year, as well.

We'd love to see Apple institute both of these bits of technology for iOS devices, but a multi-user framework would be much more useful than facial locking technology. Just the ability to have your apps, documents, Instapaper lists, Flipboard feeds and everything else ready to go when you pick up the iPad – and then able to hand it to your spouse, kids, classmates or whoever, and have them get the same – is a great way to make iPads more personal and, ultimately, more useful. Facial scan technology for switching users, and locking out unauthorized people who attempt to use the tablet, would also be a nice bonus.

Facebook acquires Instagram

2012-04-09T18:16:00.000-05:00

Photo finish: Facebook to acquire Instagram for $1 billion

Posted: 9 Apr 2012 12:13 PM CDT

In a major app industry development, Facebook has just announced that it will acquire the leading photo sharing app Instagram for approximately $1 billion in cash and shares. Launched in late 2010, Instagram has nearly 30 million registered iOS users. Last week, the company also finally released its Android app. Stay tuned for more developments here. In the meantime, here is Facebook's press release. MENLO PARK, CALIF.

5 Charged After Chinese Teen Sells Kidney for iPhone, iPad

2012-04-07T13:24:00.001-05:00

5 Charged After Chinese Teen Sells Kidney for iPhone, iPad

When people say something costs "an arm and a leg," they usually aren't serious. After all, doesn't it make more sense to do business in internal organs? You might say no, but others say yes, like the five people who are in trouble with the law after they assisted a Chinese teenager who sold one of his kidneys to raise the money for a new iPhone and an iPad 2.

The recently charged include the doctor, staff, and other accomplices who paid the boy $3,500 for the organ, and kept the other $35,000 profit from its sale for themselves.

The teenager in question, a 17-year-old named Wang, is now one kidney short and a bit worse for the wear. He sold the kidney in April of 2011, and now he's suffering from progressively worsening kidney failure. He did get his iDevices though, so the ploy worked. He even managed to keep it a secret from his mother until she asked how he'd paid. Apparently he's not a very good liar.

Criminal charges are being brought against the surgical staff considering that the sale of human organs is illegal in China and has been since 2007. Yes, 2007. In 2006, this whole thing might have been shifty, in poor taste, and more than a little unfair, but also legal.

Meanwhile, Wang must really be hurting between the progressive kidney failure, the the release of the new iPad and iPhone 4S.

iPhone app developer and iphone/Mac News

2012-04-07T13:17:00.001-05:00

Check out our site for all iPhone, iPad, and Mac news at http://appzdev.com/mac-iphone-blog/

Looking for a developer for your next iPhone app? Visit Appzdev iphone development at: http://appzdev.com

Kaspersky Confirms Widespread Mac Infections Via Flashback Trojan | News & Opinion

2012-04-07T13:03:00.000-05:00

Kaspersky Confirms Widespread Mac Infections Via Flashback Trojan

Security firm Kaspersky Lab today weighed in on the Flashback Trojan controversy, confirming that the flaw likely infected more than half a million Macs.

In a blog post, Kaspersky Lab expert Igor Soumenkov said the firm analyzed the latest variant of the botnet - dubbed Flashfake - to try and nail down where the infected computers resided and how many were affected.

"We reverse engineered the first domain generation algorithm and used the current date, 06.04.2012, to generate and register a domain name, 'krymbrjasnof.com,'" Soumenkov wrote. "After domain registration, we were able to log requests from the bots. Since every request from the bot contains its unique hardware UUID, we were able to calculate the number of active bots."

Kaspersky's analysis saw more than 600,000 unique bots connect to its servers in less than 24 hours, using a total of 620,000 external IP addresses. More than 50 percent came from the United States.

That's in line with Wednesday data from anti-virus firm Doctor Web, which said that about 550,000 Macs were likely infected by the Java flaw, known as the Flashback Trojan.

Approximately 300,917 of the active bots were located in the U.S., followed by 94,625 in Canada, 47,109 in the U.K., and 41,600 in Australia, Kaspersky said. A smaller number of devices in France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Germany, and Japan were also affected.

Soumenkov said Kaspersky could not confirm or deny that all the bots were running Mac OS X, but the firm was able to get a "rough estimation" using passive OS fingerprinting techniques.

"More than 98 percent of incoming network packets were most likely sent from Mac OS X hosts," he wrote. "Although this technique is based on heuristics and can't be completely trusted, it can be used for making order-of-magnitude estimates. So, it is very likely that most of the machines running the Flashfake bot are Macs."

Yesterday, Apple issued a second update to address this issue, though it did not appear to be too in depth.

Security experts are suggesting that Mac users, particularly those on older versions of OS X, update their software as soon as possible. For the technically inclined, F-Secure also has instructions on how to locate a Flashback infection.

Quickly do your inventory on your iPhone this Easter weekend

2012-04-06T16:59:00.001-05:00

Home Inventory Video
Check out this application on the App Store:

Home Inventory Video

AppzDev

Category: Lifestyle

Updated: Sep 23, 2011

iTunes for Mac and Windows

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Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved