Other features include a new (and much needed) Control Center setting that allows the feature to be turned off while in apps. This prevents Control Center from being accidentally invoked when dragging up from the bottom in an app. Many people had problems with Control Center conflicting with controls and buttons located along the lower edge of an app's UI.

The problem is that beta 5's Control Center implementation uses an all-or-nothing approach. The new "Access Within Apps" slider turns off Control Center for all apps, which is not ideal. It would be better if the Control Center setting allowed you to blacklist apps that conflicted with the feature. Or alternatively, you could whitelist apps that you did want Control Center to work with.

Other features include an updated power off slider, new phone icons, banner notification pull-down behavior, new On/Off toggles in the Accessibility settings and a new Twitter icon. Changes are being tracked on MacRumors and its forums. 

With the recent revelation that the NSA can remotely enable the microphone on your Android phone and laptop and that the Feds are believed to be behind the recent malware attack that exposes the identity of Tor users, the privacy news gets worse every day. 

If you're concerned about the Fed (or anyone for that matter) tracking your whereabouts, you're going to have to do more than put a piece of gaffer's tape over your MacBook's built-in camera. Your smartphone is the world's best spying device, and most people willing take them everywhere they go.  

A new Kickstarter project is a sign of the times: the OFF Pocket. Billed as a "privacy accessory for mobile phones," the simple black pouch claims to be able to shield over 100dB (which is better than other methods, like sticking your smartphone in a cocktail shaker (~90dB) or in a refrigerator (~85dB). Seriously, people do this. 

OFF Pocket blocks frequencies between 800MHz – 2.4 GHz, CDMA/GSM/DCS/PHS/3G/4G, WiFi (2.4GHz), Bluetooth (2.4Ghz), and GPS (1-2GHz) and is carrier, hardware, and OS agnostic.

If your phone has a removable battery, taking it out is your best way to stay off the grid, but iPhone users don't have that luxury thanks to its fixed battery design. If you're in the tinfoil hat camp, the OFF Pocket may be just what you're looking for. (And no, turning off your phone isn't enough). 

Since the $75 pledge level is already sold out, it'll take $85 (only 53 left) to snag an OFF Pocket in October. The Kickstarter project will be funded if $35,000 is pledged by August 27, 2013, and it has already raised around $21,000 in its first three days. Which tells a story of its own.

Here's the obligatory demo video from the Kickstarter project:

In addition, Gemmell offers some excellent advice about orphaned software: get it while it's available and don't assume that you can find it in the cloud on some future date.

Firstly, as with any retro technology, if you have a Newton and think you’ll ever want to connect it to your modern Mac, I’d advise you to download the relevant software and drivers right now, while they’re still available. It’s probably also a good time to obtain the necessary cable and adapter. If you wait a few years, it’ll probably become a lot more difficult.

He points out that the Einstein Project lets developers run the NewtonOS in emulation on various platforms including iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Of course, anyone can run it if they want to, but they will have to jailbreak their devices to do it, since the emulator requires users to upload a Newton ROM image. (Neither Apple or I approve of jailbreaking.) This is one reason that it was rejected by the iTunes Store — another being that Apple likely didn't want a whole OS and app platform running on iOS devices, even as a curiosity and even if it came from Apple.

I liked this bit about launching Einstein on an iPhone or iPad.

When you launch iEinstein with ROM installed for the first time, it will need to set up the entire Newton system. It will take up to a minute until the Newton logo shows and another minute until you are finally asked to input some personal information.

Don't bother setting the date: NewtonOS has a bug and can not support dates after January 2010. There is a patch available which may or may not work with the emulator.

Eventually, Notes will show icon bar at the bottom of the screen and you can write text, and run other packages available online. Neat! This is almost something that might make me want to jailbreak my iPad. Maybe when I graduate up to the new iPad, I will make my old iPad a Newton. A useful reuse and upcycling of older hardware and software.

Near the top of the page are a couple of "important" notes:

Important: Run Software Update before connecting a printer or scanner. This will update your Mac's database of the latest supported printer and scanner models. Note: If you do not run Software Update before attempting to connect a new printer, you may see that software is not available.

So, we should run Apple Software Update for printers and before installing the printer? The answer is yes. And if you've kept adding all the printer drivers to your system with the update everything will be fine. This page is useful since it has a list of printers (printer/scanners) and lists the current drivers for Lion and Mountain Lion. It tells which features are supported. It also offers links to the latest Mac drivers on the printer and scanner makers' sites.

Actually, Apple says that Software Update may be more current than the list.

It is possible that Software Update will display software newer than what is listed in this article for a short period of time after each update becomes available.

However, if you've removed some of these drivers (or all of them) to save space on an SSD, then you will need to search for the drivers in Software Downloads.

A number of vendors orphaned older printers with the release of OS X Lion and later. At the bottom of the Apple list is a list of printers that are no longer supported by Software Update.

For orphaned printers, longtime Mac users may recall using Gimp-Print Project drivers and the CUPS project printing architecture with past versions of OS X (it was called Mac OS X back then). This project is now called Gutenprint.  However, while these drivers may support printing, they may not support all functions, some of which may be important to users, such as color on an inkjet.

If you have an unsupported, older Hewlett-Packard printer, check out the Linux Foundation's HPJIS, which provides printer drivers and PPDs for Macs. They may offer more functionality than the Gutenprint downloads.

Let me start out by saying that despite the name of this blog, and my long affiliation with Apple products, I was looking forward to the Moto X as much as anyone. I recently got Google Glass, switched to Google+ (mostly) and generally been drinking the Google Kool-Aid of late. 

Although an iPhone 5 is my daily driver, I've always been an Android user and don't travel too far without bringing my trusty Droid-of-the-moment with me. For starters, the MyGlass app is only available on Android (as is Google Music) and the Google Plus app doesn't work on iOS 7 betas 1-4. 

Disclosures aside, I really, really wanted to love the Moto X. Everything about it sounded sweet in the buildup to the heir apparent to the Jesus-phone: made in the USA, $199 off contract, latest Android, customizable, yadda. 

The problem is that, except for the "assembled in the USA" and "customizable" parts, the Moto X announced yesterday bears little resemblance to the phone that was being rumored. And it's mostly a disappointment. 

Here are four fatal flaws of the Moto X:

1) Price

$199 with a two-year contract? Pfft. That's super expensive, for what is by most accounts a mid-level Android phone. And I'm being kind here. There are tons of people calling its 720p screen and lack of an SD card slot "last year's technology." I'm not quite in that camp, but it's not a super-premium device. What's worse is that there's no unlocked Google Play Edition initially (it's supposedly "coming soon") and the price is on track for the $600-700 stratosphere. UPDATE: AT&T tells The Verge that the full off-contract retail price for the 16GB and 32GB Moto X will be $575 and $630, respectively. Yikes.

2) Android 4.2.2

After all the hype around Android 4.3 last week the Moto X ships with Android 4.2.2. Although it was promised to get an upgrade to Android 4.3 "soon" it will be when the carriers are good and ready and finished packing it with custom apps like Verizon Tone Manager. Speaking of which...

3) Carrier Bloatware

The Moto X is going to ship with tons of crap from the carriers. Verizon will be bulking up the Moto X with its famous bloatware, including Caller Name ID, Mobile Hotspot, NFL Mobile, QuickOffice, Verizon Tones, Voicemail, Setup, My Verizon, and VZ Navigator. I wonder if you'll be able to delete all the cruft? Don't plan on rooting it right away either, because of the...

4) Locked bootloader

Moto X will ship with its bootloader locked, although it's not clear if it's also encrypted. If it is, users won't be able to unlock it to load custom software of any sort. The device will be restricted to running software ROMs provided by the manufacturer. A SIM unlocked version of the Moto X is "in the works," however it will be specific to AT&T’s LTE. Google has not said whether there would be an bootloader-unlocked developer edition, but there is a Google Play version "in the works." (There's a good discussion of bootloaders here).

BONUS: 5) It's only customizable on AT&T

Remember all the hype around Moto X's "customizability?" Well, you better like AT&T, because it paid for the exclusive ability to do that. Everyone else can choose black or white. But don't worry, Motorola says other carriers will offer customizable hardware "later this year." Gobble, gobble.

Again, I wanted to love the Moto X. I had my credit card out and ready to roll, but now I'm not sure. Honestly, I'd rather wait a week or two for the next Samsung, LG or HTC hotness to come along.

The Moto X is a serious disappointment. 

What's your take on the Moto X?

After months of rumors suggesting that Apple wouldn't release a "Retina" iPad mini this year, the Wall Street Journal published a new rumor that the company would indeed release a Retina iPad in Q4 2013 after all — a complete turnaround.

Why, you ask? The answer is actually pretty simple. But first, some background is in order.

Apple used to be extremely predictable with its mobile hardware announcements:

• iPhones were announced in June (in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010) 
• iPads were announced in April (in 2010, 2011, and 2012)

Samsung and Google would bank on Apple's clockwork-like schedule and release new models with new features that were better than Apple's a couple of months later.

Then Apple wised up and dropped its traditional April and June schedule:

• The iPhone 4 was announced in January 2011 and the iPhone 5 was announced in September 2012
• The iPad mini and iPad 4 which were both announced in October 2012

Although the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5C could still drop in September, Google couldn't wait until October to see what Apple would do with its next iPad, so it had to announce first.

On July 24, 2013, Google announced the successor to the Nexus 7 tablet, with an upgraded 1920 x 1200 pixel (323 PPI) screen, a jump from 1290 x 800 pixels (216 PPI) screen on the 2012 model. The screen has been getting high marks from critics and stealing mind share from the iPad mini's (non-Retina) 1024-by-768 pixel (163 PPI) screen. Which is admittedly anemic in comparison.

Then 8 days after the Nexus 7 2 reveal there's a new rumor (from WSJ, no less) that Apple would indeed release a Retina iPad mini this year after all. That's no accident, my friend. 

Apple realized that it stood to lose millions in iPad sales to the new Nexus 7 2 with its flashy high-resolution screen and it leaked the Retina iPad mini story to the WSJ to freeze the market. The rumor will slow Nexus 7 2 sales to a crawl because most intelligent consumers will wait for the Apple announcement before buying a Nexus 7. Especially those with iTunes accounts.

I'm a huge fan of the iPad mini form factor and definitely felt seduced by Google's new hotness, but I'd definitely wait a month or two to see what Cupertino has up its sleeve for the September/October time frame.

You'd be crazy to buy a Nexus 7 2 before seeing what Apple has to offer!

We owe the fact that we'll probably see a Retina iPad mini in the fall to Google. I'm certain that if it weren't for the Nexus 7 2 Apple would have release a non-Retina iPad mini in the fall with a modest processor and camera bump making us wait until 2014 for the Retina version (and banking on the fact that a large segment of die hards would by both models). I'd bet my house on it. 

Competition is a good thing my friend. (And good luck to Google selling all those frozen turkeys.)

I take my family's physical security very seriously and as a result, I'm a big fan of remote monitoring and home automation.

I previously used ArcherFish Solo cameras but have since replaced them with DropCams – and I can't wait for Canary to go into production. I also dig Twine, Nest, Hue and innovative trackers like Tile, Fobo and Trackdot.

Back to cameras for a second though. The problem with them is twofold, 1) the hardware can be expensive, and 2) there's a recurring cost for the service. But you're in luck, I've got the answer to both problems and you can have a wireless, network-enabled camera for nothing, at least while it's in beta. 

Manything is an innovative new service that turns your iOS 5+ device  (including that old iPod touch or iPhone collecting dust in a drawer) into a free WiFi video camera. The Manything iOS app (free, App Store) records and streams video via the cloud to your manything.com account and allows you watch it remotely in real-time, view recorded sessions and make and share clips.

Compatible devices include:

• iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5
• iPod Touch 4th and 5th generation
• iPad 2,3,4
• iPad mini

If you have an unused iOS 5 device around, that solves problem 1 above. The second problem (the recurring fee for the service) is also covered because the Manything service is free during the beta period. After that, pricing for the storage is reasonable: 1GB is free, 3GB is $3 per month, 10GB is $8 per month, and 50GB is $15 per month. 

The service includes:

• Live monitoring
• Sound & movement detection
• Unlimited devices
• Clip sharing

A great use for an old iOS device that you might have laying around. 

What do you use for security cameras? 

I received the following email from reader Just Blaze and wanted to follow up on my post from 2011:

I'm looking to make the change. Do you still stand by what you mention in your 2011 article ("Outta here! I'm porting my AT&T number to Google Voice")? I've just moved from US (New Jersey) to London. I'm thinking the best thing to do is to keep my US number for folks who want to reach me back home. I can at least get the voicemail and int calling free to the US + there are much better phone/data rate for local services here (UK). Thoughts? Thanks

Yes, I still stand by my article from 2011 about dropping AT&T for Google Voice. But remember that with Google Voice, you still need a mobile phone with service and the Google Voice iOS app (free, App Store). It's not 100 percent perfect (occasional drops, periodic quality issues and such) but it's hard to beat the price. If you don't need a mobile phone you can also use a Google Voice account with a landline. More on that in a second.

If you still need a mobile phone but don't make a lot of voice calls I highly recommend the secret $30 per month plan from T-Mobile. It includes 100 minutes of voice calls and unlimited data (albeit only 5GB at 4G speeds) and is the best kept secret in technology. The problem is that it's almost impossible to find and very well hidden on the T-Mobile prepaid site.

Since porting my mobile number in 2011, I've also ported my landline phone number to Google Voice. I used to like the quality and reliability of a landline phone and the reassurance of having 911 service, but the pricing was the simply too much. A Verizon landline in my area with unlimited local calling, an unpublished listing, Caller ID and Call Forwarding was costing me $48.30 per month. Ridiculous. Even lowering it to a basic pay-by-the-call account with no trimmings would have cost me $30 per month, so I decided on spending zero dollars per month instead. 

Although it's not technically possible to port a landline directly to Google Voice, you can do it by porting to a cell carrier first, then porting from the cell carrier to GV. I purchased the excellent ObiHai OBi100 Service Bridge ($40 from Amazon) which turned my Google Voice number back into a landline (with dial tone). You simply plug the OBi100 into your cable modem, configure it, then plug a traditional landline phone into the ObiHai bridge.

Now, I've got both my mobile number and my landline ported to Google Voice for the ultimate flexibility. My calls are free (at least through 2013) and I get to keep my mobile and landline phone numbers for life.

Further Reading:

• Google: How to port your phone number to Google Voice
• ObiHai: Number Porting to Google Voice

I'm also completely fed up with the exorbitant pricing of cable TV and cut the cord on that too. More on that in my next installment. 

Are you still using a landline phone? How much do you pay per month?

I don't know about you, but one of the most common questions that I get from friends (or friends of friends) is "Where can I get an Apple discount?" My usual response is that the only real Apple discounts are to students and educators (via the Apple Store for Education), its Black Friday Sale, and on Special Deals (a.k.a. refurbished items).

The same is true for content. I buy and rent most of my movies these days from iTunes, because despite the ridiculous $20 price tag, they're immediately available on our iPads, which is great for the kids. That being said, I'm always on the lookout for discounts on iTunes gift cards because they can be redeemed for anything in the iTunes Store including, movies, music, books and apps. 

Each year around black Friday I usually stock up on $300 worth of iTunes gift cards when Best Buys sells them at 20 percent off. I've long since burned through my credit balance from November, so I was thrilled when I found this deal from Office Max: Two $25 gift cards for $40 (20 percent off) with free shipping. 

The caveats are that it's limited to two cards, and the offer expires on Saturday, August 3. 

Tip: 9to5Toys

It appears that the widely rumored, low-cost iPhone will be sold as the "iPhone 5C" if recently leaked photos are real. 

French site Nowhereelse.fr posted an image from Chinese site WeiPhone that appears to show plastic retail packaging emblazoned with the name "iPhone 5C." If genuine, it could be upcoming packaging for Apple's rumored low-cost, plastic iPhone. 

The "C" doesn't stand for Cheap, China or Child Labor, but instead for "Colors" according to the consensus at MacRumors. The low-cost device, believed to be targeted at emerging economies in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be priced less than the forthcoming iPhone 5S and will presumably include less-expensive CPU, camera and networking hardware and lower-cost materials. 

Computerworld published a 60-page report (PDF) from labor rights group China Labor Watch alleging poor working conditions also confirms that a plastic-shelled iPhone is currently in mass production at Pegatron. A section of the report entitled "July 9, 2013: A day in Pegatron" includes a paragraph in which a worker describes their role in applying protective film to the rear shell of the device before the part enters the assembly process.

Today’s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone’s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines. This iPhone model with a plastic cover will soon be released on the market by Apple. The task is pretty easy, and I was able to work independently after a five-minute instruction from a veteran employee. It took around a minute to paste protective film on one rear cover. The new cell phone has not yet been put into mass production, so quantity is not as important. This makes our job more slow paced than in departments that have begun mass production schedules.

Pictures of what's believed to be rear shells of the iPhone 5C have previously leaked, showing that the device will come in five colors including red, yellow, white, blue and green.

More seriously, Pegatron is accused of misleading Apple on employee overtime.

Pegatron has a falsified attendance recording system in which workers’ overtime is recorded to be less than the real amount. Each week, all workers are required by an HR assistant to check yes and sign their names on an overtime form. Workers are required to sign and are not to pay attention to the number of overtime hours written on the form; the document’s only purpose is to deceive Apple during inspections.

Other claimed violations according to China Labor Watch:

• Dispatch labor abuse,
• Hiring discrimination,
• Women’s rights violations,
• Contract violations,
• Insufficient worker training,
• Excessive working hours,
• Insufficient wages,
• Poor working conditions,
• Poor living conditions,
• Difficulty in taking leave,
• Labor health and safety concerns,
• Ineffective grievance channels,
• Abuse by management,
• Environmental pollution.

You can read the report in its entirety here (PDF). 

9to5Mac (via Hamza Sood) notes that the just-released iOS 7 beta 4 includes a new folder called "BiometricKitUI" (pictured above) which contains code aimed at users with the iOS VoiceOver feature enabled. The strings inside the folder indicate that a new biometric sensor will be embedded in the iPhone's home button:

According to 9to5Mac the user-interface for the fingerprint scanning system is complete and the technology will be used for unlocking the phone, but it is unclear if biometrics will be leveraged for an Apple payment system based on the user's iTunes account or if it will be integrated into its affinity card app, Passbook.

It's not hard to imagine all of the uses for a fingerprint sensor in an iPhone or iPad and developers would be especially interested in the technology if an API were made available that would allow them to access the fingerprint sensor from their apps. 1password and all of the major banking and financial apps would be eager to implement the technology and large corporations could also use the new security/verification hardware to secure the increasing amount of sensitive material and intellectual property that is contained on corporately-owned iPhones and iPads. 

A biometric fingerprint sensor would definitely give the iPhone a leg up on the competition, at least initially. Samsung filed a patent application in January 2012 and was granted patent number 20130129163 in May 2013 for the integration of a fingerprint sensor that could arrive in the Home buttons of upcoming Galaxy devices and possibly initiate another patent war (or licensing deal) between the companies. (Update: the Motorola ATRIX 4G included a fingerprint sensor. Read the CNET review here.)

Apple acquired fingerprint sensor firm AuthenTec for $356 million in July 2012 and rumors have been swirling since then about how the company could leverage biometric technology. 

How would you like to see a fingerprint scanner implemented in an iPhone or iPad?

Apple today released iOS 7 beta 4 to developers after a longer than usual delay between builds believed to be the result of a security breach which brought the Developer Center offline for 8 days. 

Beta 4, labeled as build 11A4435d, comes exactly 21 days after the release of beta 3. A week later than iOS 7 betas 2 and 3 which were released every two weeks like clockwork.

The new beta release includes a number of enhancements and changes, including a redesigned lock screen, improvements to Notification Center and a cancel button on the search screen according to MacRumors.

• The lock screen contains a new Slide to Unlock icon and animation which make it slightly more obvious. It also includes new bar icons to expose Notification Center and Control center. 
• Notification Center now supports swiping left and right to switch between Today, All and Missed. There is also a new notification for completed uploads.
• Perhaps the most immediately visible changes are to the Phone app, including refined Answer, End, Decline, Remind Me and Message buttons.
• Another new feature is the ability to set up a completely new Apple TV from an iPhone running iOS 7.

Other news features in iOS 7 beta 4, including changes to Siri, Mail and Messages, are being tracked at MacRumors.

Michael Dell has long been quick to tell the market "what's right" for a company. In October 1997, at ITxpo, Gartner Group's long-running IT analyst conference, Dell was asked what he would do if he were Apple's CEO. Steve Jobs had returned to the company early in the year and only a few months before had taken over as interim CEO.

"What would I do?" he said. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

This drew a big laugh from the PC crowd. Apple was mostly a computer system maker with a declining market share, less than 5 percent. And Dell was riding high from the success of its its direct-sales model.

However, Dell appears to be less than quick to take his own advice when its his company on the receiving end of trouble.

Since then, the high-flying Dell hasn't exactly soared. Its hardware quality kept declining as the company tried to squeeze profit from ever-thinner margins.

In a fall 2007 briefing, Michael Dell and corporate executives presented a vision for "Dell 2.0," saying that the company would be a leaner, meaner, selling machine. Mark Jarvis, then Dell marketing vice president, said that "Apple has become the conformist company."

Instead, Dell would be the "different company," he said, borrowing a bit from Apple's then-fading "Think Different" advertising campaign from the late 1990s. Of course, he couldn't provide much detail of how this difference would be achieved.

Check Out: Dell and the wish for Apple's cool

In 2010, despite the Version 2.0 reset, Dell settled a lawsuit that it had knowingly shipped millions of faulty computers and then concealed those problems from its customers. The primary cause of the problems were overly-cheap capacitors.

Also in the fall of 2010, Michael Dell himself and the company settled with the SEC on charges that both had taken hidden payments from Intel to not use AMD processors. In addition, the company had used fraudulent accounting practices to meet analysts' targets.

To a baseball fan as myself, I would suspect a "curse," such as the infamous Curse of the Bambino," which was blamed for the failure of the Boston Red Sox to win the world series from 1918 to 2004, an 86-year period. It was due to the sale of Babe Ruth (called the Bambino) to the Yankees. This is the Curse of Apple.

Why anyone believes that Dell can make a go of its Dell 3.0 or Dell 4.0 strategy, move out of its commodity PC business and make a success as an enterprise technology player providing expensive, high-margin hardware, software and services, is an open question.

At the Monday Note blog, Jean-Louis Gassée said that Microsoft may come to the rescue and help take Dell private, forcing it to keep producing Windows PCs.

Or maybe there’s another story behind Microsoft’s beneficence: The investor syndicate struggles and can’t quite reach the $22B finish line. Microsoft generously — and very publicly — offers to contribute the few missing billions. Investors see Microsoft trying to reattach the PC millstone to their necks — and run away.

Hats off to Steve Ballmer: Microsoft looks generous – without having to spend a dime – and forces Dell keep making PCs.

Or perhaps all the deals will fall apart. After all, Dell appears to be operating under a "curse."

The Apple Developer Center came partially back online this afternoon after an extended 8-day outage due to a security breach. The outage started on July 18 but the reason or extent of the problem wasn't revealed until July 21. According to the company's new Developer System Status Page (above) forums, technical support and pre-release documentation are still offline. 

According to The Next Web, Apple told its developers how it plans to restore systems in an email:

We plan to roll out our updated systems, starting with Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Apple Developer Forums, Bug Reporter, pre-release developer libraries, and videos first. Next, we will restore software downloads, so that the latest betas of iOS 7, Xcode 5, and OS X Mavericks will once again be available to program members. We’ll then bring the remaining systems online.

An updated note posted on the Member Center now reads:

We appreciate your patience as we work to bring our developer services back online. Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, software downloads, and other developer services are now available. If you would like to know the availability of a particular system, visit our status page.

If your program membership expired or is set to expire during this downtime, it will be extended and your app will remain on the App Store. If you have any other concerns about your account, please contact us.

Thank you for bearing with us while we bring these important systems back online. We will continue to update you with our progress.

In October 2012 Android added the ability to support multiple user accounts in version 4.2 (Jelly Bean) so that multiple users can customize their tablet experience, from lockscreen to wallpaper, apps and folders. It's just common sense that two people sharing a tablet would want to see their own accounts when they look at email and calendars.

Android 4.3 (announced July 24) takes it up a notch with "Restricted profiles for tablets" which can be used to limit access for children (like iOS' Parental Controls feature), but it can also be used for POS terminals and kiosks in retail stores.

Profiles include:

• Parental controls. Selectively restrict family members from accessing mature content.
• Kiosk. Set up the tablet to demonstrate selected apps and features to customers.
• Retail. Let customers explore tablet features, but prevent them from browsing or playing games.
• Point of sale. Limit employees to the use of selected sales and register apps.

Sadly, multiple user support doesn't appear to be coming in iOS 7, so it could easily be another year (or more) before we see the feature on the iPad. What a shame.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but there's only one reason why Apple would deprioritize such a needed feature: it doesn't want family members sharing an iPad because Apple wants you to buy separate iPads for everyone in your household.

Is this Apple's idea of "multiple accounts?"

Update: According to TechCrunch the multiple user accounts feature is only on Android tablets because Nokia patented it for phones.

Do you like music? Yeah, me too. (Ok, pretty much everyone likes music.)

But do you like playing with your music? If so (and you have an iPhone or iPad) you should download djay 2.0 immediately because it's one of the most fun applications on the App Store – bar none. In December 2010 I called djay my favorite iPad app, and v2 continues the streak.

Even though it's a professional-level app that's used by a number of pro DJs, what makes djay 2.0 compelling is that it's extremely approachable and has an extremely low barrier to entry. It's as easy as picking tracks from your music library for deck 1 and deck 2 and then scratching and cross-fading one track into another. And when your done spinning, simply touch the Automix button to have two playlists mixed automatically so that you can grab a drink and mingle with your guests. 

Onto what's new. 

Djay 2.0 is a complete rewrite from the ground up. Although it looks like djay 1 at first glance, it's improved in almost every respect. The main "vinyl" view (above) -- which is still my favorite -- is skeuomorphism done right. Nothing beats the tactile interface of a record on a turntable, it's such a simple and natural interface that both my kids (ages 6 and 3) take to it instantly. Just drop a record on the turntable then spin it, drag it around, and move the needle. Algoriddim took it up a notch by adding realistic grooves in the vinyl which show where tracks start and end and where the pitch changes in individual tracks — just like real vinyl. 

The Sync button, which syncs the BPM of two tracks, got a major upgrade too. Instead of a one-time sync, djay 2.0 keeps both tracks in perfect sync throughout your crossfade, continually stretching tracks so that they stay in sync and sound smooth across your mix.

The built-in sampler in djay 2.0 (above) alone is worth the price of admission. It rounds out an already amazing app and provides another tool that aspiring and pro DJs can use to sweeten their mix. While a track is playing simply touch the little grid icon in the center of the screen and the decks (or waveforms) slide away to reveal a series of drum pads that can be used to pump up the jam. Djay 2.0 includes three high-quality sample packs (Essentials, Sound FX, and Dubstep). The best part is that you're not limited to just those, djay 2.0 allows you to create your own samples on-the-fly from your iTunes library which can then be saved and reloaded later.

The most stressful part of DJing, whether for a house party or in a big room, is finding and queuing the right track to play next. Invariably, you'll think of a track that you want to play (or someone will request one) and you only have a few seconds to find it and queue it up. Algoriddim spent a lot of time on the re-designed music browser and it shows. Finding tracks is much easier in this release and you can easily build a playlist for the perfect set. Djay 2.0 now keeps track of what you've played and allows you to preview tracks inline. You can also swipe tracks into your playlist, make the browser full screen, and even dim it to a dark "club mode" so that it doesn't scorch your retinas like the solar white backgrounds can. 

I really wish that djay 2.0 could stream tracks directly from iCloud/iTunes Match, but the developer tells me that it's a limit of the Apple API. The good news is that you can download tracks from iCloud via Apple's Music app and they'll be available in djay 2.0. A setting to hide cloud-based music is also a welcome addition. Unfortunately, music with DRM still does not work with the app. The other thing I'd like to see is even more sample packs for the new drum pads, even via in-app purchase. While the three included packs are excellent, many people are too lazy to create their own. (Cough!) I'd like to see tie ups with popular artists - I'm talking to you Snoop and Skrillex!

Overall djay 2.0 is the app that I'm most excited about this summer and I can't wait to use it drop the need at a house party this weekend. It's the perfect music app for users of all ages because it allows you to touch and feel your music in ways you never thought possible, and sound good doing it. Djay 2.0 ($0.99 for iPhone, $4.99 for iPad) is half price for one week, so I highly recommend that you grab it (especially the iPad version) before the price goes up.

Here's the demo video:

NEW FEATURES:

• All-new user interface:
  • Turntable view: Hyper-realistic "two turntables and a mixer" DJ setup for intuitive mixing and scratching
  • HD Waveforms view: New layer featuring scrolling parallel waveforms with advanced performance capabilities
  • Single deck view in portrait orientation: Single deck view allows focus on an individual deck and provides larger controls
  • Sampler view: Allows the user to add sounds to their live performance, comes with high-quality pre-bundled content
  • All-new music library:
    • Queue: Perfect for upcoming songs and requests
    • History: Offers a catalog of previously played songs with auto-saved playlists
    • Light/dark mode: Adjust to a bright day-light setting or a dark-club lighting
    • Expandable full-screen view: Dynamically switch from popover to full-screen view
    • Advanced sorting: Easily browse music by BPM, Title, Artist, Time
    • Instant preview: Quickly preview a track in the library before loading it to the deck
    • Analyze library: Pre-analyze entire iTunes music library (BPM, Beat Grids, Gain, Color, etc)

• Built-in Sampler:
  • Pre-bundled content: Comes with built-in sample packs (Essentials, Sound FX, and Dubstep Pack)
  • Color-coded drum pads: Assign a color to each pad for easy identification of samples
  • Live sampling: Create custom samples recorded live from the two decks
  • Custom sample banks: Reassign samples to buttons and save as custom presets

• HD Waveforms:
  • Parallel Scrolling Waveforms View: Touch and interact with two tracks side-by-side
  • Beat Grids: Visualizes the beats and bars of a song
  • Spectral Timeline: In overview mode this shows the structure of the song (e.g. verse, chorus).  In detail mode it allows the user to distinguish bass drums, snare drums, hi-hats, etc. by color
  • Slice Mode: Slices waveform into four-beat bars and allows the user to trigger each beat individually for stunning live remixing

• Enhanced Performance Modes:
  • Slip Mode: Scratch without interrupting the flow as the music snaps back in time seamlessly
  • Loop-FX: Beat-matched looping with simultaneous XY-style filtering

• Enhanced Audio Analysis:
  • Full color waveforms: Identifies similar musical patterns within a song and associates them with color
  • Beat grids: Editable and shared via iCloud across Mac, iPad, and iPhone
  • Real Vinyl: Virtual grooves are individually mapped and rendered for every track on djay’s virtual records. It allows to quickly identify breaks within a song, as if the vinyl was fresh off the press
  • Perfect Sync: Keeps songs perfectly in sync by time-stretching their beat-grids in real-time

• Enhanced Support for DJ Hardware Controllers and Multi-Channel Audio Interfaces:
  • Improved MIDI integration: Enhanced djay’s officially supported hardware controllers with new pro-level features: Vestax Spin 2, Numark iDJ Pro, Numark Mixdeck Quad, Numark iDJ Live, Numark iDJ Live II, iDJ 2 Go, Pioneer DDJ-WeGo, and Pioneer DDJ-Ergo
  • All-new portrait interface: Optimized for Numark iDJ Pro

If you missed it, the video that Ibrahim Balic made (since removed) demonstrating the flaw that he discovered in the Apple's iAd Workbench has been re-posted (embed below). Balic claims that the vulnerability he discovered was the impetus for the company's removal of the Apple Developer Center portal.

In the video Balic demonstrates the flaw that allowed him to scrape 100,000 names and email addresses from the iAd Workbench tool, which isn't the most concerning issue. Balic submitted a total of 13 issues to Apple via its bug reporting tool, 12 of them were XSS (cross-site scripting) vulnerabilities in various Apple Services (including the Developer portal) which had the potential to expose user details. 

Although his motives are unclear, Balic presumably removed the video because it shows actual user names and email addresses. For his part, Balic claims his efforts weren't malicious and that he told Apple about the flaws via official channels. According to TechCrunch:

Balic swears up and down that he’s not a malicious hacker. Rather, he claims to be just a security buff who stumbled upon a way to access gobs of Apple user data, tried to warn the company about it, and made a (now private) video highlighting the security flaw in question when Apple wouldn’t respond.

Apple hasn't responded to questions about the outage (outside of the statement below) and the Developer Center has been down since Thursday, July 18, 2013.

Does the video help or hurt his case?

After you enter Chelsea Market, you take the elevator to an undisclosed floor, where the next door is obvious. 

After checking in, you're given a Glass laminant while waiting for your Google host to greet you.

Although you have to choose your Glass color when you schedule your appointment, Google will allow you to switch to another color on fitting day – if they have it in stock. Pictured from Left to Right are shale (grey), sky (blue), cotton (white), tangerine (orange), and charcoal (black). 

Glass comes in beautiful packaging with callouts to its various features and functions. Behind it you can see the Chromebook Pixel that the Google host uses to help you configure your Glass. 

Google's NYC Glass loft features high ceilings and an industrial aesthetic.

The right side of the space features two levels of meeting rooms.

The left side of the space continues the startup chic motif with doors-on-sawhorses desks, and of course, the bar.

A look back at the entrance/reception area, and one of the fitting stations, which is actually a piece of scaffolding.

A wide shot of the space and the scaffolding fitting stations.

A shot of my host, Carlos.

And lastly, a shot of me wearing my Glass and enjoying a cold beverage. 

In February I wrote about Leap Motion, a futuristic peripheral that allows you to control your computer with "air gestures," by moving your hands in the air. The Leap Motion controller began shipping this weekend and I received mine in the mail today. Although some people that place pre-orders got theirs over the weekend, Leap just posted the software today. 

It was originally slated to begin shipping in Mid-May, but Leap ran into production problems and had to push back delivery two months to account for a larger and longer beta period.

The Leap Motion hardware – about the large USB flash drive – consists of two cameras, three infared LEDs, and a USB controller, but the secret sauce is in the software algorithm that tracks all 10 of your fingers as you wave them in the air above the device. 

Many people have compared Leap Motion to the hand gestures used by Tom Cruise's character in the 2002 movie Minority Report, but it's more about finger finesse and subtle screen control than it is about swiping large halographic panels of information to and fro. After you install the Leap Motion software, it installs the Airspace Store (a repository of apps designed for the controller) and five demo apps to get you started with the device.

The Getting Started video, shows how to setup the device on a Mac.

While using it definitely feels futuristic, Leap takes a fair amount of getting used to. I was able to fumble my way around the Shimsham and Molecules apps, but Cut The Rope was an unmitigated disaster on my first attempt but I'm willing to chalk that up to a totally new category of peripheral and less than an hour of actually using it. While the apps and UI are a little rough around the edges, Leap Motion shows a lot of potential and I can't help but root for a company placing such a big bet on a touchless, 3D interface for computers. 

It's early yet, but I like what I see. It feels like the future.

Leap Motion is novel in these early days but I can't wait to see what kind of innovative applications are developed to exploit its innovative sensors. Someday when motion sensors are built into every computer (Leap Motion has announced partnerships with HP and ASUS), it's conceivable that we won't touch our computers at all, but instead just point, swipe and gesture in the air in front of them. 

If you want to find out more, CNET has posted a photo gallery, a video demo, and a video interview with Leap Motion's Eric Lau.

Leap Motion is available now for $79.99 plus shipping. 

Dual Personas occur when someone is employed by more than one defense organization; for example, as a soldier in the National Guard and as a civilian contractor. These personals are required to take extra steps for certification and identity validation on the Common Access Card mobile device. Dual Persona support was first added to Thursby's Mac solution, PKard for Mac v1.3, which was rolled out in the spring.

Other features of the update include improvements for organizational policy management in the enterprise and certificate revocation checking. The update notes say that "CRL data is not loaded unless a WiFi connection is available; Users will be prompted to accept a certificate."

In addition, the company said PKard Reader 2.0 provides options for Zero Data At Rest, a situation where mobile devices, removable storage devices, network servers and other systems, can have sensitive data "at rest" in memory and awaiting a read or retrieval. To eliminate vulnerabilities, this data often requires special encryption solutions.

Thursby said the development of PKard Reader and its Mac CAC software leveraged the company's PKard Toolkit 2.0 SDK.

Not simply an SDK to access the “chip” on a CAC/PIV card, but an entire public key development environment including a special Mac OS X emulator to simplify the basic programming of the mobile app using the latest Apple programming tools as well as the debugging of those applications. The toolkit provides a device independent and comprehensive API including PC/SC, PKCS11 and OpenSSL support. It also includes fully integrated solutions such as HTTPS delivered through Apple standard APIs making secured network programming seem trivial. The toolkit provides for a validated FIPS 140-2 framework for secure policy management based on cryptographically signed policy data. Provided as a royalty-free license to use on any mobile device that has a valid PKard license.