Apple has released a series of mastering tools and and help sheets to educated audio engineers on the ways that they can best mix for Apple’s iTunes store, as well as provide the best listening experience on a range of Apple products and average-sounding headphones. 

Apple now wants studios and sound engineers to provide them with 24-bit 96kHz resolution for their audio recordings before Apple runs them through the AAC algorithm. It’s all about the masters:

The Apple Mastered for iTunes document provides a great deal of information on using the iTunes Droplet for converting master tracks to iTunes Plus tracks. It also highlights information on using the afconvert utility from the command-line, in addition to providing detailed afclip, and AURoundTripAAC Audio Unit information.

Apple, my ears thank you.

Via Arstechnica

Everyone knows that Apple and Flash don’t go together like PB &J. After all, the once dominate software bundle from Adobe is gradually being put out of its misery by CSS3 and other standardized web languages. Not to mention, the buggy software just doesn’t go well with mobile devices. Heck, even Google is putting support for the plugin behind it. However, once in a while, Flash is still needed (Hello video streaming websites!). Now there are already iPad apps like LogMeIn that allow users to “access” flash-equipped browsers running on their own desktops, but OnLive by Steve Perlman, the famous entrepreneur most behind Apple’s Quicktime, lets users access flash without having to rely on the desktop as a middle man.

Earlier today, the team revealed their newest version of OnLive Desktop. The iPad browser app, now equipped with Adobe Flash, lets users access virtual Windows desktops and apps “housed on servers in the proverbial cloud.” Initially free, the new flash-equipped browser version is priced at $4.99/month. You might find that to be a bit pricey for Flash, but Perlman says the app is really a tool for businesses – companies that require running Windows and its apps without having to install Microsoft software on machines. With that said, Perlman also notes that OnLive will soon introduce an “enterprise version” of its app, which will offer tools for IT professionals to control how company employees use the service. OnLive has also announced plans for Android, PC, Mac and TV compatibility in the near future.

Via: Wired

Remember a few days ago when we reported about the fake Pokemon Yellow app that was skyrocketing its way to top of the App Store? Well, it’s since been removed, and the official Pokemon Company has responded, albeit vaguely, on how consumers should deal with this kind of thing.

The makers of the Pokemon franchise had this to say:

Unfortunately, they never really clarified how exactly we’re supposed to contact them in such cases, but, as TechnoBuffalo has speculated, heading over to their official Contact Us page might be a good place to start.

The responsibility, however, ultimately falls into Apple’s hands. It’s their job to review games before they’re released for public consumption and to refund the defrauded customers. It’s kind of mind-boggling to think how something with such a noteworthy title was able to slip through Apple’s QA process like that. Valuable lesson learned, we hope.

It seems that the developers at EA finally heard our collective cries of injustice and have taken down Battlefield 3: Aftershock from the App Store.

In response to the overwhelmingly negative feedback the game received, EA released this statement via IGN concerning the game’s removal:

People who have already downloaded the game will receive an error message (as pictured above) when they boot up the game. There’s no word on what will actually happen with the title, or when (if ever) it will be re-released, but let’s just hope that if that ever happens, the result will be worthy of being a part of the franchise. Do us proud, EA. We know you’re capable.

According to a press release issued by Mozilla today:

While the app store will be available to developers next week, the doors will not open to the public until later this year. Since 2007, Mozilla’s Firefox has held pretty steady between 25 and 31 percent of browser market share; however, since 2009 the browser has begun slowly trending downwards sitting now at just 22.68 percent of the market, the lowest it’s been since 2008. Something tells us Mozilla is hoping that the new app store will turn around its fortunes. We’re not convinced.

From the W3C draft proposal abstract:

It’s inevitable, I guess. Content creators want to make sure people aren’t out there stealing quality content from HTML 5 media elements around the Internet. Using a key system, websites would be able to use plain-text, unencrypted keys to decrypt source video, without any other client-side content protection needed. Key rotation would be supported, along with heartbeat modes that would receive an “explicit heartbeat message from a server on a regular basis” to unlock encrypted video feeds.

As always, this is just a proposal, so it’s unlikely that we would see anything in the near future. That being said, it’s interesting to see that three massive media companies, including companies that are responsible for two major browsers (Chrome and Internet Explorer) are looking for ways to continue to support DRM in HTML5.

The storyline of the game is just plain wacky. The dead have risen again, but this time they’ve met their match in the form of a giant mutant pizza pie whose only purpose in life is to smash bones back to the unholy pit from whence they came. And, you know, rescue the occasional puppy.

PvS opens up with a campy introduction short with a voiceover explaining the plotline, and then a quick tutorial on how to play the game. The controls are fairly simple: tap to make your pizza mutant jump, and tilt the device to make it roll towards enemies. As you progress through the 100 mini-game style levels, you learn a few different attacks like the ground pound and the double jump. There are also a couple of boss battles at the end of each world. Some of them are pretty simple, like the first boss wherein you’ve apparently become a sumo mutant pizza, and the object of the fight is to push the giant skull monster off the cliff. As you go on to the next world, the boss battles increase in difficulty.

Some of you might be put off by the idea of another tilt control game, but if there’s one thing I long for in iOS games, it’s a good control mechanic, and Pizza vs. Skeletons has it. The tilt mechanic, unlike in a lot of games, is super well calibrated, so the response time is great and makes you feel more in control of your character.

What’s also fun about this game is that, as you play, you collect coins. Those coins can be used in the game’s store to buy a bunch of different things to customize your pizza. You can purchase different facial features, an assortment of toppings, and accessories like top hats, mohawks, and wings. You can even change your whole image and become a birthday cake. Or a cheetah. Or a jellyfish. The point is that the customization options are just as outrageous and nonsensical as the game at large.

So, if you’re tired of the same old games, Pizza vs. Skeletons is a really entertaining breath of fresh air. It’s packed full of content with promises from Riverman Media of more on the way. It’s available on the App Store right now for an introductory price of $2.99, but it won’t be that price for much longer. Go check it out.

Flash memory is becoming more and more important as speed, size, and power take center stage and pure storage capacity takes a back seat. Phones and tablets are driving the flash market to expand rapidly, but laptops like the MacBook Air are taking advantage of it as well. Today, SanDisk announced what they claim to be the smallest 16 GB flash chip ever made.

Sixteen gigs might not sound like a lot, but installing a couple of small, efficient flash chips in a laptop or tablet is completely viable, and larger storage capacities will be on their way soon enough. This is a market with an insane amount of innovation, and Apple is usually among the first companies to jump on the latest and greatest.

It amazes me how far we’ve come. My first hard drive was one gigabyte, and it was comparatively huge. This penny-sized chip holds more than an order of magnitude more information, and it’s been less than 20 years between the two. Things are moving fast, and it seems like there is no end in sight.

Source: Electronista
Image Credit: Jamiesrabbits

Good news, iPhone Twitter addicts! Twitter’s official iPhone app has been updated to version 4.1 with new features, and the return of some missing features. Sadly, this update only affects the iPhone version; the iPad doesn’t see any new features.

Perhaps the most useful change is the return of simple copying of the text of a tweet. Now when you tap and hold a tweet, you’ll be able to copy the text once again. Why this was removed in the first place is far beyond the minds of us mere mortals.

Two other substantial changes: One, the addition of swiping to interact with tweets. Now a simple swipe will allow you to retweet, favorite, reply, or go to that user’s profile. Two, they returned the capability to mark all DMs as read. It’s surprising that these features were absent from the 4.0 release. It seems odd, no?

Full Changelog:

• Swipe shortcut
• Copy and paste for tweets and profiles
• Press and hold actions on links in tweet details
• Font size settings
• Direct Message improvements
• Confirmation alert for Find Friends
• Improved startup time and general performance improvement
• Improved image quality in tweet detail
• Accessibility improvements
• Profile shows whether a user follows you
• Verified badges in people search results
• New language: Turkish
• Lots of other polish and bug fixes

Are you still using the official Twitter client, or have they scared you away with their obnoxious updates à la Dickbar? If you have dropped the official Twitter client, what client are you using now? Sound off by tweeting us @macgasm. We’d love to hear about your favorite apps.

Source: Twitter Blog
Image Credit: Andrew Lawlor

June 30th, the official death date of MobileMe, is drawing closer. Apple wants current MobileMe members to transition to iCloud before then, but there will always be foot draggers with any change.

Recently, Apple has been sending out emails to MobileMe diehards encouraging them to stop dawdling and make the switch. While iCloud doesn’t have iWeb publishing, photo galleries, or iDisk support, it does have a lot of great additions. First of all, it’s free. That’s a big deal, but it also offers iTunes in the cloud, Photo Stream, documents in the cloud, automatic downloads and purchase history for apps and books, and backup and restore. iCloud is the future, and no amount of stalling is going to change that.

So, what about the dropped features? Well, photo galleries can be hosted anywhere. Flickr and Picasa are popular solutions. As for a portable online disk and a WebDAV server, you can always look into a Dropbox and DropDAV solution. It isn’t built into the OS, but it works pretty damn seamlessly once installed.

Whether you like it or not, June 30th isn’t far away, so you should start exploring new options. If you have any suggestions for the foot draggers out there, please leave a comment below this post with some instructions. We’re curious how others are solving this issue.

Hat tip to The Mac Observer

From the Facebook Developer page:

Man, talk about a welcome addition. Previously, navigating between applications on Facebook was a bit of a nightmare. It’s pretty awesome that Facebook’s giving developers better tools to transfer users to mobile applications instead of websites through Safari. Giving users the ability to head directly to the App Store to pickup an applications they may not actually own yet is another pretty smart move. Obviously Facebook’s been pretty big on encouraging developers to build native Facebook applications, but giving me the ability to get a better functioning, native application on my device of choice goes a long way towards increasing my user experience within the Facebook application.

Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV research at Display Search, had this to say:

People veg out while watching TV, and they certainly don’t want to sit back and navigate through menus, websites, or even play Angry Birds while sitting on the couch, especially if they already have a gaming console attached to their television.

We should keep this study in mind while Apple Television rumors ramp up heading into Apple’s next set of keynotes. It’s a tough egg to crack for companies. The one thing going for Apple is that its iOS platform is a gaming console, and a platform for streaming content. That’s something no other company, possibly excluding Sony, could be in the short term. Most of the competition have put garbage applications directly onto the televisions, but Apple has a huge catalog of high quality, 3rd party applications that they could theoretically roll out in very little time.

The next year of living room technology releases should be really interesting.

Source: TechNewsDaily

There’s not too much else to say, outside of directing you to the iTunes page where you can check out the ringtones. Oh yeah, we should also point out that the ringtones can all be used as alerts on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

The day after a court ordered a ban on Apple iPad sales in part of China, Proview (creators of the Internet Personal Access Device dubbed IPAD) has stated that it is willing to negotiate with Apple searching for “proper” compensation to allow it to use the name iPad in China.

Now, you are probably wondering what Proview considers “proper” compensation. According to the NASDAQ, the company is seeking the hefty sum of $2 billion for use of the trademark.

Apple, claims that is had already purchased the rights in 10 countries including Taiwan, and states that it has the evidence to support the statement.

If Apple has the evidence (including emails from Proview’s legal staff), then this case could be done shortly; however, if Apple is unable to prove it has purchased the rights, it could see sales being banned in more cities, including Shanghai, which would be the biggest hit to sales yet. Even worse yet, if Apple loses the case and refuses to pay Proview for use of the trademark, it could face an export ban in China, causing a giant rift in the supply of iPads around the world.

Source: Times of India
Via: TNW

This past Monday, Apple updated the company’s environmental website with data from the past year. Apparently the facility was awarded a LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its iCloud and Siri data center located in Maiden, North Carolina. This makes the Apple data center the only one of its size to have received such a certification.

Apple had this to say:

With plans to power its facility with the largest non-utility fuel cell and user-owned solar farm in the U.S., Apple is well on its way to going “green.” Still, increased sales have caused Apple’s carbon footprint to  increase by 56% from 14.8 million metric tons in 2010 to 23.1 million metric tons in 2011. But even with a bigger footprint, Apple still boasts that greenhouse gas emissions/dollar of revenue have decreased by 15.4 percent since 2008. This is attributed to the increased usage of “environmentally conscious materials” like re-polymerized plastic bottles in fan assemblies, recycled plastic in speaker assembles and internal brackets, recycled paper in its packaging, and renewable tapioca paper foam in iPhone packages.Well done Apple. Well done.

If you haven’t heard by now, the iPad 3 is likely coming within the next two weeks, and that usually means leaked images will be popping like a bad rash. Chinese tech blog M.I.C.gadget has published such an image. The photos focus on the back shell of the alledged new device. As you can easily deduce from the image, the iPad 3 is could indeed be thicker than its predecessor, and it may have more of a tapered style. Just think of it as an iPad 2 that managed to eat too much and is now wearing a corset. There, I think that captures it.

As for the weight gain, that could easily be attributed to the new retina display, LTE compatibility, and the predictably larger battery (both in life and size). However, M.I.C. gadget has reported that it still found several iPad 2 cases to work with the new tablet. The Chinese tech blog also noted that the back of the iPad 3 “has room for a larger camera lens.” Though I don’t think this wouldn’t be to big of a surprise if it happens. Name one iOS device that didn’t come with a “larger camera lens” in its successor. Regardless, with Apple said to announce the iPad 3 in the coming weeks, one thing’s for sure, all shall be revealed before spring officially starts.

Lukas Mathis, a Software Engineer and usability author, has penned an excellent article titled Please Steal These webOS Features.

Lukas Mathis on webOS:

In his article, Lukas goes on to list eight things that Apple should steal from webOS to make iOS better, including the notifications, the keyboard, and account management systems, amongst other things. We highly recommend you head over there and check it out. He hits the nail right on the head: there are a lot of things worth borrowing from webOS that would make iOS even better. We’re huge fans of getting the number pad into the keyboard layout without having to hit a button to change to the keypad.

Read Please Steal these webOS Features on Ignore The Code.

China Telecom currently has over 38.7 million mobile subscribers, and analysts are predicting that the company could sell about 1.4 million iPhones this year. The carrier plans to sell the phone on multiple plans, so the price will vary depending on which plan customers decide to pickup. With a two-year, $62 per month contract, customers could walk away with a free 16GB iPhone 4S.

The move to sell iPhones on China Telecom has almost doubled Apple’s market in China. Morgan Stanley analysts believe that China Telecom has more than 15 million “high-end” users who could be potential iPhone users. The company also believes that once Apple signs a deal with China Mobile, the company could quickly see iPhone sales reach 40 million phones per year.

When you consider that Apple sold 13.4 million iPhones last year across the three major networks in the US, it’s pretty obvious that there’s huge potential for the company in China.  It looks like the market-share wars with Google are just getting warmed up.

Image Credit: zamax4

Many have been hoping that Microsoft would release Office for the iPad since the company has begun rolling out applications like OneNote and Xbox Live over the last couple of months. It turns out Office may not be coming to the iPad any time soon, which isn’t all that surprising. With Microsoft working on Windows 8 based tablets, it wouldn’t make too much sense to release office for the iPad before an official Microsoft tablet offering hits the shelves. If there’s anything that could get Microsoft back into the mobile/tablet war it’s going to be an Office tablet edition. It pains me to say, but it would obviously be a smart, and strategic, move.

According to Macworld, Apple has built in a VIP tool that lets you designate people as important. Mail.app will then place a star beside all emails that come from the VIP, making it easier to spot and take action on emails sent from the people you deem important. Mail.app will also add VIPs to your sidebar, giving you tools to narrow down and find emails from particular senders in a quicker fashion.

VIPs, clearly Apple’s take on Priority Inbox, is a welcomed addition to Mail.app. As I’m writing this post, I sit at 500 unread emails. Most of the emails aren’t important and will likely be deleted without me even spending much time with them. Any time Apple gives me tools to manage that information better it’s a good thing. VIP listings in Mail.app could be a huge time saver, and that makes me happy.

A huge complaint we’ve heard from many of you is that iOS devices can’t sync with multiple computers. When I was traveling all across the United States last year, I really wish I could have synced with my work laptop without removing my ability to sync with my personal computer. Well, jailbreakers now have the ability to sync to multiple iTunes libraries thanks to a Cydia application called MultiTunes.

The only real downside is that if you’re downloading apps on your device, you have to manually make sure that you go into this app, and switch back to your default library. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than not having the option available at all. I might have considered this if I was still jet setting around the continent.
This really brings forth the question of when all of your content, no matter how trivial, will be handled by iCloud instead of iTunes? It can’t be far away. Apple is clearly betting heavily on iCloud being the anchor of the iOS and OS X experience going forward, and Lion’s digital distribution shows how much confidence Apple has in their ability to serve large amounts of data.

What do you think about this? Is this app worth jail breaking for? Sound off in the comment section below this post. all you need is a Twitter or Facebook account to sign in.

Hat tip to ModMyI
Image Source: TheGiantVermin

Apple is doubling down on making iCloud the conceptual core of the next decade at Apple by tightly integrating it into Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Without a doubt, iCloud’s model has been a much bigger success than Apple’s previous attempts at cloud-hosting. Instead of making money directly from iCloud, Apple has decided that iCloud will help them sell more insanely profitable devices. Well, it looks like Microsoft wants a piece of that fat cash.

Brazilian blog Gemind is reporting that after poking around Microsoft’s SkyDrive site, text referring to a Mac client was found. Unless you’re a Microsoft diehard, you probably don’t know that they already have an iPhone app for their service. A Mac client isn’t too far of a stretch.

The biggest problem with this situation is the same thing that lead Internet Explorer to be the dominant force it once was. iCloud is built into your iOS devices and Macs. Unless you’re invested in the Microsoft ecosystem heavily, you probably don’t even know much about SKyDrive other than it is a drive in the sky. iCloud offers a level of integration that SkyDrive just can’t match on iOS and OS X. It might be a great solution for Windows Phone users (All seven of you) and Windows users, but it doesn’t offer much to the rest of us that other services don’t already do better.

Source: Source (Translated)
Image Source: BCMom

I’ve been reading PDFs of my Final Draft screenplays with iOS since before anyone had even heard of the iPad. Granted, this new app offers a few advantages over a PDF, but not enough to make me drop $19.99 and abandon my current Dropbox-centric process.

The Final Draft format

For film industry professionals, Final Draft is the screenplay format standard. I know many writers that don’t use Final Draft to write, but they know that they must be able to convert or export to FDX format, as that’s what most people want to see. Sometimes a PDF will suffice, but Final Draft includes lots of great collaborative, notes, and production features, so working within Final Draft (or something fully compatible) is usually preferred.

iPad enthusiasts have seen the device as a potential content creator from day one, especially in terms of writing apps. After all, screenplay programs are really just glorified word processors. Even those in the film industry who just bought their iPad as a toy have seen that they can do more with it than they thought, and we’ve all been waiting for Final Draft to bring their “glorified word processor” to the iPad in some form.

Final Draft on iOS

After all, reading screenplays have always been accessible on the iPad via PDF, via email, iDisk, or other syncing services (or iTunes File Sharing, if you want to make it super-inconvenient). I use Dropbox to manage all of my production files, and being able to stay in one app to look at overheads, storyboards, and the script is very convenient. Since iOS can’t read the FDX format, a PDF is preferred in this case.

While most of us don’t mind hitting File > Save as PDF, those that must read a lot of scripts on a regular basis find exporting a lot of PDFs to be tedious. An elegant reader app from John August addressed this issue a while ago, and received great reviews here at Macgasm. Also, a handful of Final-Draft-compatible writing apps have been available on the iOS App Store for some time. They import and export to FDX, often imperfectly, but usually good enough to scratch out a scene or script, then send it to the desktop for cleanup.

Meanwhile, we all waited for an awesome app from the official Final Draft, Inc. to raise the bar.

Final Draft Reader

So they teased, and they tested, and they hinted, and they teased some more. Then, last week, Final Draft, Inc. released their long-awaited app for iPad: a reader. Now, I realize some in the industry may welcome this reader and take advantage of its script notes feature as part of their job as a producer or executive. It might even prove useful for some writers collaborating. But it’s my guess that most iPad-wielding filmmakers are disappointed.

As one of the disappointed, my opinion regarding this app is clearly one-sided (more on that in a few). I also should disclose that I’ve not used this app, nor do I intend to. If it works perfectly as advertise, I have no use for it, especially for $19.99. If Final Draft thinks I’ll feel differently after using it, they are welcome to send me a review copy.

So let me first point out that the Final Draft Reader app does have some nice features for a reader app:

It opens the native FDX format, and you can add and edit script notes which remain in the file when sent back to your desktop.

That’s pretty much it.

A functional embarrassment

This whole process should be a total embarassment to Final Draft, Inc. — that they’ve spent this long, held this many focus groups, and spent who knows how much money, and this is all they have to show for it. As a reader, John August’s FDX Reader is just as good or better (though without the ability to edit script notes), and it was done quickly, leanly, efficiently, and humbly. It’s a shame he will likely discontinue development and support now that Final Draft, Inc. has unleashed this disgrace.

The most expensive Final-Draft-compatible screenwriting app on the App Store is $8.99, currently. Yet Final Draft, Inc. wants to charge $19.99 for this featureless wasteland.

I’ve given few scathing reviews in my time here at Macgasm, as many of the apps I review are by small development companies and sometimes just a guy. I try to take that into perspective. But no doubt the harshest review I’ve given was for another app from an industry-standard film company — MMS to Go (read that scathing review here). This release from Final Draft falls into the same territory.

To be fair, here’s Final Draft’s big list of features from their press release.

• Works with Final Draft version 8 FDX files – the Hollywood industry standard script file format
• Imports scripts using email, iTunes File Sharing, or Dropbox
• Perfectly paginates to US Letter and standard European (A4) page sizes
• Precisely displays production scripts, including colored production pages, locked pages, scene numbering, and more!
• Scripts accurately scale to actual draft size
• Add, edit, or delete ScriptNotes
• Automatic bookmarking feature ensures that you pick up right where you left off
• Easily reorder and organize your Scripts List
• Email your script directly from the Final Draft Reader app
• Scripts are viewable in landscape and portrait orientations
• Touch/swipe to turn pages in portrait view
• Scroll from page to page quickly in landscape view
• Quickly scroll through your script by scene or by page using the Page Navigator
• Search your entire script for names, key words, or any text fragments
• Link to online help from within the app
• Toggle navigation controls off for maximum readability
• Version numbers are automatically applied to imported script files that share the same name
• Multi-page Title Pages are supported for TV production drafts
• Print wirelessly with AirPrint*; choose page range, number of copies, and double-sided printing
• Scripts written in 14 different languages appear exactly as they do in the desktop application

Open files from email? Landscape and Portrait orientation? As MMS to Go tried to do, Final Draft lists a lot of things that are really features of iOS. It’s an embarrassing attempt to flesh out a feature list that doesn’t include “writing”.

It’s not that the app isn’t good or won’t be useful for some people in the industry. It’s that it’s so far below expectations, so far behind the technology it seeks to embrace, so broadly amiss from what writers want, Final Draft should at least give it away — certainly not charge $19.99 for it.

Competition is good for everyone

Like the awful, overpriced portable scheduling app, this Final Draft Reader app uses the bloated resources of a comfortably “industry-standard” competition-less company to produce the bare minimum at an exorbitant cost to the end user.

It’s time for another little guy to rise up and get rid of this irrelevant behemoth. For OS X, I use Scrivener, which compiles notes into Final Draft 8 (FDX) format; I highly suggest giving it a look — $44.99. Another great app just for writing is Movie Draft SE — $29.99 — and it includes Final Draft compatible formats and user interface tweaks to help make the switch. For iOS, I have used both Screenplay — $8.99 — and Scripts Pro — $5.99 — which I can use to edit FDX files or create them from scratch. You can buy them all for less than half the cost of Final Draft for OS X. Many have free demos available via their developers’ sites, linked in the paragraph above.

These programs are not without their flaws, but they are strong offerings, affordable, offer different features than Final Draft, and are in most cases version 1 or 2 apps, meaning the future is wide open for development. They are small companies — one or two-man shops in some cases — and they need your support. Only through true competition will real innovation and affordable, professional-quality apps find their way to the top.

If someone uses the Final Draft app and thinks I’m way out of line, by all means let me know.

Source: Final Draft, Inc.
Via: doddlenews

A few days ago, Rovio announced on their blog that they would be releasing the next Angry Birds game on March 22nd. Not much has been revealed about the game thus far, but Rovio Mobile has confirmed in an interview with Yahoo! Games that they have teamed up with NASA and National Geographic for the launch of what they’re calling the ‘biggest game launch since the original Angry Birds.’ YEP.

And we’re very excited to see another Angry Birds game. For further details and announcements concerning this release, we’ve been advised to keep our eyes on the new official website for Angry Birds Space. The countdown to March 22nd is officially on.

Today, it’s a similar flaw that lets someone access a phone’s contact list, phone records, text messages, even if the phone has a passcode.

iPhoneIslam found that by trying to make a call using a missed call notification, while without a signal, the iPhone could be unlocked.

Do yourself a favour and skip to 2:40 of the video.

We’re not sure if we should laugh or shed a tear. Sure the security bug is a problem and needs to be patched on the ASAP, but man, watching a video for 2:40 trying to figure out what iPhoneIslam was trying to prove really made me laugh. Those lower thirds are priceless.

Hat tip to Jeremy Johnstone for the find
Image Credit: iStevenxue

This USB Typewriter, available on Etsy, not only connects to an iPad or Mac, but it also still works as it was originally intended, with ink and paper.

It’s pretty damn snazzy, and scratches my nostalgia itch quite nicely. The price tag is a little hefty though. You can purchase the typewriter in its entirety for $699.00, or you can pick up conversion kits for $74.00.

Apple turned some heads when they announced that OS X 10.7 Lion was going to be sold through the Mac App Store. To assuage fears of the Internet-wary, Apple also sold the operating system at their retail outlets on USB sticks. Pocket-lint, an Apple blog in the UK, is claiming that they have a source at Apple that says Mountain Lion won’t be sold via USB stick. Instead, it will be App Store only.

It’s tough to judge how true this is. We’re not particularly trusting of the wording that Pocket-lint has used around Apple supposedly confirming this. That said, that complaint is more of a nitpick on style and sensationalism than it is a tick against the rumor itself. Apple is clearly on the vanguard of digital distribution with their incredibly popular App Stores, and this could be their move to further cement their dominance. Apple Geniuses will almost certainly have a way of side-loading Mountain Lion onto Macs that customers bring in, but making USB sticks with 10.8 on them available for purchase seems pretty convoluted at this point. Everyone not living under a rock is well aware that Apple prefers streamlined implementations if at all possible.

Getting rid of physical packaging and shipping of software not only makes for a better, faster experience for users, but it also means a better profit margin for Apple. This is where the industry is going, and Apple sees that clearly.

Source: Pocket-lint
Image Credit: Wesley Fryer

When I heard this morning that there was a possible Pokemon clone on the App Store, my heart was evenly divided between elation and scepticism. Turns out, the latter half had the right idea. Much to the disappointment of nerds everywhere, the app is a fake, and was, in all likelihood created by Satan worshippers who are out to destroy our happiness.

In fact, the developers responsible for this travesty are apparently no strangers to releasing fake games. However, that hasn’t stopped people from downloading it anyway. And really, I can’t actually blame them. I had to physically restrain myself from downloading it on the hopes that I had the one device in the world that would actually run it, and I could hoard all the fun to myself. Wishful thinking and naivety is exactly what the developers of this app are banking on, so whatever you’re thinking, do not download it!

It is kind of interesting to see the amount of people who, despite all of the negative reviews sitting on the app page right now, still downloaded the game anyway. The game is currently storming up the Top App chart. What would be nice is if Nintendo actually took this incident as a sign that maybe it’s time to stop being so bloody stubborn and start seriously considering developing for the iOS platform. Clearly, the audience is there, and there’s a nice chunk of money to be made.

We’re not linking to the game. Screw those guys.

Source: TouchArcade

From the press release:

The company may also merge with Samsung Mobile Display in the future. Samsung is betting on OLED, and thinks that the technology will eventually win against an aging LCD technology. Samsung is the biggest panel maker on the market, and its LCD technologies are found in Apple’s iPad, as well as Lenovo and HP PCs, not to mention that they’re found in 57 percent of all Samsung televisions on the market.

No matter how you cut it, this move affects more than just Samsung. A lot of companies rely on Samsung for its LCD panels, and display technologies. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and if Samsung LCD panels find their ways into the next iPad and iPhone.

As we reported, VLC 2.0 shipped last week. With it comes a new UI and experimental Blu-Ray support. Sadly, one of the changes with this release makes it impossible for third party applications to take advantage of VLC’s DVD decryption capability.

Unfortunately, that means that ripping DVDs in Handbrake is no longer as easy as dragging VLC.app and Handbrake.app into your /Applications folder. The good news is that there is a solution to this problem, and it’s really not that hard. If you run this installer from the VLC website, it will install a copy of the DVD decryption engine in a place where Handbrake can see it and use it. Once you run it once, you’re set.

If you want to double check to see if it is installed properly, open Terminal.app, and paste in this line:

file /usr/lib/libdvdcss.2.dylib

If you see the following, it is installed correctly:

/usr/lib/libdvdcss.2.dylib: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/usr/lib/libdvdcss.2.dylib (for architecture i386): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library i386
/usr/lib/libdvdcss.2.dylib (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64

This hiccup just shows how good we’ve had it as Mac users. For so long, ripping your DVDs has been a fairly seamless process. If this is the extent of the hassle we have to go through to get our DVD content on our iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs, so be it. The piper’s price is reasonable.

Source: Handbrake Forum
Image Credit: Peter Woodman

iOS 5.1, the long beta tested follow-up to 5.0, is rumored to be launching in early March alongside the next version of the iPad. According to iPhoneHellas, a Greek Apple blog, notes is going to ship with rich text editing for the first time.

We thought this was a rumor worth discussing, so we asked Gus Mueller of Flying Meat Software a few questions about Apple making rich text editing a feature of iOS. Not only does Gus make the popular image editor Acorn, but he is also well known for making the best damn note taking / wiki app on OS X and iOS called VoodooPad. If anyone is negatively affected by Apple’s lack of rich text editing, it would be Gus.

Grant Brünner: How long have you been told that rich text editing is “Right around the corner”?

Gus Mueller: I’ve never been told “right around the corner”, but there have been assurances for a couple of years it was coming.

GB: Do you think that the lack of rich text editing in iOS has hurt sales and reviews for VoodooPad?

GM: Yeah, for sure. People expect an iOS counterpart to a desktop version to behave in the same way.

GB: Do all of the features of rich text editing in something like VoodooPad for OS X need to be implemented in iOS?

GM: No, not all of them- I could care less about [tables] and lists. But things like font size, bold, italic, and supporting images would be a great start.

GB: Do you believe Apple would implement rich text editing in their own apps first, and not bother to make a public API available to devs until later?

GM: That’s typically how they do things, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all. If you look at the history of APIs, Apple generally implements them and tries them out in their apps (known as dog-fooding), refines it, and then when they think it’s suitable they’ll make it public. AddressBook on OS X is a great example. CoreText is another great example.

GB: Any other thoughts on rich text editing on iOS?

GM: It’s great that other devs are making their own implementations, but the problem is that each one behaves a little differently from each other and each one will have their own set of bugs. And think of all the time that developers have been spending trying to implement such an expected feature! Apple should have done it years ago, so everyone wouldn’t have been spinning their wheels.

Thanks so much to Gus for taking the time to answer these questions. Clearly, this is a feature some devs are clamoring for. It’s surprising that it has taken this long, frankly. What do you think? Is rich text editing coming soon, and will it allow devs to make a better experience? Sound off in the comment section below this post. We want to hear from you.

Source: iPhoneHellas (Translated)

That still hasn’t stopped the Intermediate People’s Court in Huizhou from ruling that Apple must stop selling the iPad immediately. It’s mind boggling, isn’t it?

Apple about to get medieval with the defamation

Proview may have won in an intermediate court, but that isn’t stopping Apple from exploring alternative solutions, including a lawsuit over defamation, and for potentially ruining Apple’s reputation by continually releasing information to the press that’s contrary to fact. Today, Apple sent a letter to Proview that asks Yang Rongshan to stop deliberately releasing false information to the media.

According to PCWorld, the letter states:

Given the evidence published over at All Things D, it’s hard not to view this Proview lawsuit as just another patent troll looking to get paid. While we don’t know the details about why the Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of Proview, we certainly see evidence that Proview at one point had interest in selling the trademark to Apple. What remains to be seen is if Proview signed the contract that they requested Apple send them in 2009, as evidenced by the images in the All Things D post. It’s certainly not proof enough to prove that the sale actually took place, but it is proof that negotiations were happening.

Image Credit: snapshotaesthetic

In a blog post titled, Welcome to the party, we were worried that we were being stood up, the Growl team gives us some of its thoughts on the new Mountain Lion feature:

They have a bit of a point in that we still have no idea how developers will be able to use Notification Center across their apps. And, it’s almost a foregone conclusion at this point that Notification Center will only be supported by applications that are in the Mac App Store. While some of us still prefer to purchase our applications from developers directly, the majority of consumers are heading to App Stores to get their software titles. The more that happens, the less there will be a need for Growl. As a case in point, I’ve been transitioning, albeit quite slowly, to having all of my applications downloaded and managed from the App Store, including the current Growl application. It’s only a matter of time until I stop using Growl and start using Notification Center. Heck, should Notification Center give me the ability to get my iOS notifications directly to my MacBook Pro, that transition would be immediate.

We’ve loved Growl for a long time. Hopefully Notification Center doesn’t spell the end for the application, but we have a really hard time seeing a world where that doesn’t happen, especially if everything remains as it does today.

Originally the wage increase was going to reach a ceiling of 2,000 yuan for employees; however, Foxconn has increased the wage rates to a maximum of 2,200 yuan.

The move comes after a recent barrage in negative press, with everyone from the New York Times to major television networks running articles and reports on the conditions of workers in Foxconn’s plants. Foxconn manufactures products for major technology companies such as Microsoft, Nintendo, and Apple.

Minimum wage in the region is roughly 1,500 yuan ($238) per month, making workers in the Shenzhen province amongst the highest minimum wage workers in the country.

This pay increase is the second major salary hike in less than two years at the company. The first coming after a cluster of suicides at the plant. Back in June (2010), Foxonn agreed to increase wages by 30 percent. By the numbers, the first announcement, scheduled to be implemented in July of 2010, failed to reach its goal. Today, it’s being announced that Foxconn plans on finally implementing the remainder of its promise to its employees.

We should point out that these recent promises could easily be rolled out like those promises from June. It’s easy to say you’re going to do something, but it’s a lot more difficult to actually do it. It’s taken Foxconn nine months to come through on their original promises, and this time it’s only under the guise of a second major wage increase, when in reality, Foxconn already promised a wage increase to 2,000 yuan per month in July. According to the recent reports, Foxconn employees were still sitting at 1,800 yuan per month before this major announcement, a full ten percent less than they were promised back in June.

The last couple bundles we put together for you have been focused on building and designing your iPhone app. Now, we want to take it to the next level with how to launch and market your apps, like a pro!

Normally this package from StartupPlays sells for $249; however, we are offering it to you for the low price of $63! That is a savings of 74% ($186!)

In this fantastic deal you learn how to network with important people in the iOS community, how to pitch your app to reporters, when to launch your application, and so much more! If you think you have the next best app, but have no idea how to get it in front of the people who matter, this deal is for you.

The launch and marketing of your app is just as important as how it is developed, so be sure to take advantage of this amazing deal!

Remember when the iPhone 4 was released in June of 2010, and it seemed like everyone had reception issues due to “antennagate”? It all might feel like a distant memory by now; however, one of the class-action lawsuits just reached a preliminary settlement with Apple.

The suit, which was actually 18 consolidated lawsuits, accused Apple of “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale and servicing of its iPhone 4 –- particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.”

What does the preliminary settlement include? People (U.S. residents only) who purchased the iPhone 4 are given the choice of either $15 in cash or a bumper case provided by Apple (the same bumpers that it provided to customers affected in 2010.)

Now, you might think that this is not a fair settlement to the consumers; however, you have to remember that Apple estimated during its 2010 Q3 earnings call that the free bumpers would cost the company $175 million in lost revenue during Q4 2010.

Add the $175 million to what you think this settlement is going to cost Apple, now that is quite a large sum of money.

Source: CNET

It’s Friday, and that means it’s time to take a look at some awesome apps for each platform: iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS. Today, we’re focusing on managing tasks, designing for mobile screens, and recording on your Mac the right way.

Ready? Let’s begin.

iPhone/iPod touch:

Clear: This Wednesday, RealMacSoftware released their newest iPhone app: Clear. The name says it all. Unlike other GTD and to-do list apps, Clear hopes for you to actually clear your list, whether that be by wanting to hear the creative sound effects, feel the fancy vibrations, or just have a sense of completion. Priority is deemed by a task’s rank in the list or the “hotness” of its color. Dark? Get it done now! Light? Yeah, do that some other time. The app uses a lot of native multi-touch gestures to deliver the experience. In fact, you can enter, add/edit, and exit the app without ever having to use your other hand. Slide up, down, left, right, and you’re done – literally. So are you still on the hunt for that ideal to-do list app? Check this one out. It just might be your type.

iPad:

Skala Preview: If you design/develop for iOS, this inexpensive app (because it’s free) will come in handy numerous times. Skala Preview, created by the creative folks at Bjango, syncs with its fellow Mac. Drag an image in one and it instantly appears uncompressed and in full resolution on the other. That way, you can see how your iOS design will really show up on the device itself. Goodbye to email. Goodbye to mockups. It’s time you see the real thing before everyone else does. Don’t you agree? Oh, and it’s on both iPad and iPhone.

Mac:

Screeny 2: Let’s be honest. Apple’s built-in screen recording tool (in Quicktime) sucks. Enter Screeny 2. A screen recording/snapping tool that sits in your menu bar and doesn’t suck. Screeny gives you the freedom of capturing videos or images in any way you’d like. Change the dimensions of shots (drag/resize or explicit) and even the frame rate of recordings (15, 20, 24, 25, 30, and 60 fps) all within the simple to use tool box. If that weren’t enough, you have the option to automatically upload high quality files to CloudApp. Nifty, right? So go check out the numerous other features.

Well, that’s it for this week folks! Like the apps we mentioned? Share the post with your friends. Have any suggestions? Email me at jerondu@macgasm.net or ping me @jarederondu and I’ll check them out. Until next Friday, have a great weekend.

They aren’t exactly wrong, but they aren’t exactly right either.

Pete Curley, author of the HipChat post states:

There’s more to the post, but in essence, he’s calling shenanigans without actually calling shenanigans, which is kind of sad.

Some, including Daniel Eran Dilger, went as far as suggesting that HipChat has shamelessly stolen Apple’s original iChat logo. Dilger states, in the comments of the HipChat post: “Perhaps you should also show Apple’s original iChat logo, which you simply reused as your own (with the same shape and color) after changing the direction of the “gloss” sheen and shadowing it with a flipped, black and white version. You ripped off iChat’s logo. Apple did not sue you. You did not create something original and protected.”

We’ll say this — Chat bubbles to illustrate, well, a chat application, isn’t something new. The AIM iOS app icon has a chat bubble. BeeJive IM has a chat bubble in its logo. I think you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, here’s some images of how the two icons measure up at this point.

Here’s the original iChat icon beside the HipChat icon:

Here’s the HipChat icon, beside the new Messages app for OS X icon:

Resized logos (iChat and HipChat), and overlaid:

Messages for OS X and Hipchat overlaid:

White chat bubbles overlaid:

We’ll let you make your own conclusions about the icons above. We should also point out that this wouldn’t be the first time Apple may have been inspired by some third party application design. Take a peek at the Delicious Library application, and then iOS’s iBooks design. They may have arrived at the iBooks design independently, but we should also mention that Apple awarded Delicious Monster Software design awards in both 2005 and 2007. Apple also hired one of the Delicious Monster co-founders. Take from that what you will.

Wave Crasher is the newest original game from my old friends at Magmic. This developer is best known for bringing licensed content (see Rubik’s Cube, Phase 10, Miner 2049er) to the iPhone, so any time they create a brand new game from the ground up, it’s exciting.

Basically, you’re playing as Ryder, a pro jet skier who rides waves collecting coins and scoring multipliers. What’s cool about this game is that it allows you to import your existing music on your iPhone, and the waves are generated using the beat and tempo of your music. Instead of controlling the rider, however, you control the height of the waves by swiping up or down to move your rider around.

The object of the game is to collect as many coins and score as many multipliers as possible before the song is over and the level ends. So that means that there really isn’t any fail mechanic, and you could be playing the same level for upwards of three or four minutes. It doesn’t seem like a long time, but when the only thing you have to do is collect coins, it can get a little monotonous and lackluster in the challenge department.

If you don’t have your own music on your phone, Wave Crasher has some built-in features which allow you to purchase songs from iTunes. It’s also got a “Featured Artist” option that has a couple of free songs available from a specific artist.

What I really like about the game is the artwork. It’s super well done, and the amount of time and effort poured into how the game looks is very apparent. It looks great on the iPhone’s Retina display, and it allows the game to fit in with current generation animated games.

What I don’t like about the game is the gravity mechanic. It just feels off to me. Any time you swipe the wave up to catch the coins near the top of the screen, it seems to take the rider an eternity to get back down. So you’re just kind of hanging out in midair, missing all kinds of coins. I’d like to see something like a plunge button that would allow you to dive back down to the bottom of the screen. Or just something that would allow for a little more control of the rider.

Overall, the game isn’t terrible, and it’s worth checking out. It seems to have a lot of potential, so I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of improvements Magmic can make to the game. It’s available on the App Store for $0.99 right now, so go check it out.

Apple isn’t taking any prisoners with their latest installment of Mac OS X. Announced yesterday, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion continues 10.7′s trend of moving successful concepts from iOS to OS X. One of those announced features was Share Sheets. Applications running in Mountain Lion now have the ability to access a drop-down menu for sharing content.

While most of the sharing capability was there before, this is a unified, simple interface for sharing. You can email or IM the contents of a website to your friends and clients, or you can save something to your reading list. More interesting is the integration with third party services.

With 10.8, we now have the ability to tweet in-app just like iOS 5 allows. Just click the drop-down, and start typing. The content you’re looking at is automatically added as a link for you. Even coolr is Flickr and Vimeo integration. Just finish editing your latest masterpiece? One click, and you can upload it directly to Vimeo. Take a great picture of the new grandbaby? Send it to Flickr to show Grandpa.

Apple’s willingness to work with third party services is a strength. They know they can’t own microblogging, photo sharing, and video sharing (yet), so they let their users take advantage of services that already exist. It’s incredibly smart, and it allows Apple to focus on their core products. Maybe Google could learn a thing or two. That’d be nice.

In January of 2011, Apple had a similar countdown, but to a mere 10 billion downloads. That means the amount of downloads from the iOS App Store has more than doubled in just over a year’s time. Just like last year, Apple is offering a chance at a $10,000 USD App Store gift card if you happen to be the lucky person to download the 25 billionth app. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

In this week’s episode, Brennan and Elle take a look at Temple Run and Cart Rider Rush, both free apps for the iPhone, and both loads of fun, kinda.

Oh, yeah. We should also welcome Elizabeth Cooke to the podcast. She’s going to be on episodes from time to time talking video games. Give her some love on Twitter.

[Download][Direct Feed][iTunes]

Apple Insider has contacted Best Buy’s sales division asking when the device will be back on sale, but according to a company representative, it doesn’t look like they will even be getting any Apple TVs back in stock:

It’s not just box stores seeing stock vanish either, apparently Amazon has also seen its supply run dry. Of course, rumor-mongers are salivating at the idea of an imminent Apple Television release. We’ve got no info on that, or if a refresh is happening. The only thing we know is that the Apple TV is in short supply, and traditionally that means a refresh is coming at the very least.

If we hear more, we’ll let you know.

For many, many years, Mac users have been using Growl to receive notifications from their apps. For just as long, Mac users have been wondering how long until Apple rips off Growl and bakes it into their OS. Turns out, that time is now.

With yesterday’s surprise announcement of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion came the unveiling of Notification Center for Mac. Not only do you get pop-up displays of notifications, but just like iOS, you can see a linen-lined list of all recent notifications at any time. This is a feature Growl was just able to implement a few months ago. Now, it is all for naught.

After looking at what Apple has shown to us so far, the implementation is very good. A quick click or swipe brings you to your list of notifications. Clicking on an individual notification brings you directly to the app that spawned it, and allows you to edit it.

From system preferences, you can manually alter the behavior of each application’s notifications. If you want them to be sticky notifications, make them alerts. If you just want them to pop up and then disappear, that’s for banners. Of course, you can completely disable them on an app-by-app basis. You’re in control, and that’s why we think Growl’s days are numbered. This does everything the majority of users want, and it is already installed for you without any hassle or cost.

Recent rumors have Apple working on doubling (Retina) the resolution of its MacBooks and Cinema Displays in 2012. We should also take a moment and point out that the increased resolution wouldn’t mean more screen real estate. Instead of making everything “smaller,” Retina displays would actually make things crisper, while still keeping things relatively similar to the screen resolutions that we see now, just like Retina iOS displays versus the non-Retina variety in the iPhone 3 and iPhone 3G. This move would be about making OS X crisper, and not about making it smaller, like a ton of people seem to be suggesting around the web.

Via: MacRumors

According to TUAW you’ll need to be running:

• iMac (mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook aluminum edition: (13 inch 2008 or newer)
• MacBook plastic edition: (early 2009 or newer)
• Macbook Pro (2009, or late 2007 if you had a 17-inch version or newer)
• MacBook Air (2008 or or newer)
• Mac Mini (early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (early 2009 or newer)

I’m sure there will be a couple of people annoyed by the move, but to be honest, the minimum required specs seem to be pretty fair. We should note, however, that minimum spec requirements do not necessarily ensure that the operating system will be running in tip top shape. My MacBook Pro is a 2009 edition, running Lion. Lion works quite admirably, but I did notice some drastic differences in responsiveness after my move from Snow Leopard to Lion. We expect the same thing to happen with Mountain Lion. Heck, we should expect it to happen with any computer running a new operating system unless it was purchased the same day Snow Lion Mountain Lion comes out. If you’re adamant about running the latest OS, now’s the moment to upgrade.

If you want to check out what year your Mac was made, click on the Apple icon in the menu bar, select “About This Mac,” then click the “More Info…” button.

Via: TUAW

Do you want to be a photographer or just play one on the web? Here’s your chance! Join Macgasm’s Flickr group and upload all your beauty shots of your Apple gear. Each week we select one lucky participant to be featured on Flickr Find Friday. Go join our Flickr Group now. Get creative. Upload up to 7 pics a day. Tune in on Fridays (like you ever miss a post, right?) and see if you have what it takes to be featured. Good luck and happy snapping.

With the announcement of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion today, Apple also released a beta of their brand new chat client for OS X called Messages. This completely replaces iChat, but it offers something we’ve all been waiting for: iMessage support.

AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, and Facebook chat all still work in the new Messages app, and they look better than ever. The tabbed interface is as seamless and slick as we could hope. Hands down, this is the most stylish chat client available today.

On first launch, you’ll be asked to log into your Apple account in the app. From then on, iMessage will appear in your preferences. You’ll be able to enable and disable the account, add aliases, and change which address identifies you to the receiver. You can also opt-in to sending read receipts, but nobody does that unless their business requires it. No need to help out the stalkers.

Now you have the ability to add your intended recipients and type your message.

Once you send, your message will appear. The cool thing? You can scroll upward, and previous conversations you had will appear automatically. Incredibly smart on Apple’s part, and completely intuitive for users.

Does your contact have the ability to FaceTime with you? Great! A little video icon will appear in the upper right-hand corner. When you click it, a drop down will appear that allows you to pick which address (email, phone number) you want to use to initiate a FaceTime chat. It’s fantastic, and we’re incredibly happy to see these improvements come to the Mac. Don’t forget to pick up your copy of the beta today!

Earlier in the month, Double Fine announced that they would be funding their next game through Kickstarter. They needed a minimum of $400,000 USD to produce the game and documentary series, and they got it. In fact, they reached their goal in about eight hours. As it stands now, they now have 450 percent of their minimum funding. With that comes some perks.

First of all, they will have the financial freedom to make exactly the kind of game they want to make. Secondly, the game will now have voice acting in English, and text in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Most importantly, they now have the ability to release it on multiple platforms.

Windows, Mac, and Linux will all see releases. In fact, they will be available DRM-free. Great news! As far as mobile goes, both iOS and some (limited number of) Android devices will be getting the game. It’s never been a better time to be both an Apple fan and a gamer. We’re seeing the most innovative and hotly anticipated games from indie developers as the monolithic giants of the industry still half-ass ports or ignore OS X completely. Now that iOS is such a huge market and the Mac continues to outpace the rest of the computer industry, they can’t ignore Apple anymore.

Are you excited about the Double Fine Adventure? Can’t wait to play it on your iPad and MacBook Pro? Sound off in the comment section below this post so that we can dork-out together.

For those uninitiated, Path was caught uploading users’ entire contact lists to its servers, which isn’t uncommon in the industry unfortunately. Path updated its app, and began asking for users’ permission before grabbing the contact information.

Reps. G.K. Butterfield, and Henry A. Waxman wrote an open letter to Tim Cook today, asking what Apple’s stance is on the matter, and what, if anything, can be done to protect consumers’ privacy and security (read the full letter here). The letter goes on to ask nine questions, ranging from iOS App Store guideline questions to why Apple lets customers turn off location services but not address book transmissions. All pretty par for the course questions that could probably be found by reading through Apple’s guidelines for iOS.

It didn’t take long for Apple to respond publicly. Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman, reached out to All Things D and told them:

So there you have it. Apple’s obviously aware of the storm brewing in the blogosphere, and they’re obviously looking into solutions to the problem. In hindsight, security measures like the ones people have been clamouring for since hearing about contact information being moved to corporate servers is probably something users should have been given to begin with, but sadly I don’t think too many people, including Apple, would have ever thought companies would go so far as to take contact information without asking users’ permission.

It certainly goes to show just how used to privacy pilfering today’s Facebook generation is these days. In-depth information on the theft of contact information has been around for months, and no one seemed to care, but now we get five or six articles a day on the topic. Go figure.

Also, nothing like getting your name in the press… eh guys? Any of you geniuses in congress think to ask Facebook what they’re doing with all of our information?