Apps Lists, News/Rumors

Tweetbot update gets new media timeline and image viewer

Developer Tapbots on Tuesday released a version update for its popular Twitter client Tweetbot, providing with new feature called “media timeline”. The new timeline displays images, videos and Vines right in-line, with the tweet acting as a caption. Tweetbot version 2.8 hit the App Store with a host of minor user interface tweaks and bug fixes.

Tapbots’ Paul Haddad says that the media timeline exists simply because they “thought it’d be a good feature to add, as it lets people view their stream in a different way.”

The principle is simple, which is to aggregate all tweets with photos from Instagram, videos from Vine, or media from other supported services, and place them in a single feed separate from the traditional timeline.
The app’s new media viewer is much like the implementation used by Facebook in its iOS app. To access the new media timeline, scroll to the top of your main view and tap on the new toggle to the right of the search field. If you can’t see it now, scroll your timeline down a bit further, as the search bar tucks away when you scroll down. Tapping on the icon you’ll be sent to a view that shows you images and video inline with a header containing the tweet and avatar.

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What’s New in Version 2.8

- New media timeline. Scroll to the top of a timeline and switch to the new media view (next to the search box). This view displays only supported image and video tweets.
- Completely redesigned image viewer
- Tweet/status detail view now displays the number of Favs and Retweets
- Fixed Instagram Previews
- Various other bug fixes

News/Rumors

Apple Donates 50 Million Yuan To Victims Of Chinese Earthquake

Man has no power to prevent nature disasters, so everything we can is to eliminate its consequences by common efforts. In such situation not only administration and government is involved, but often some profit-making organizations and companies. It wasn’t once, when Apple took part in the actions dealing with removing grave nature effects. This time China was the country suffered from the earthquake, which caused 200 killed persons and 11.500 injured.

Apple has announced that it will be donating 50 million yuan ($8 million) to victims of the recent Sichuan earthquake. In addition it has added a message to its official China website homepage where Apple offers its respect and sympathy following the disastrous earthquake that has affected the country over the past few days. Moreover, the company said that it’s ready to provide the affected schools in the Sichuan region with free iDevices and guaranteed support from the local employees.

“In this difficult time our hearts are with the Sichuan earthquake victims. In addition to cash donations to help the victims ride out the storm, we will also commit to donating brand new Apple equipment to some of the schools in the affected region, and the local Apple staff will be on standby to provide support.”

The acknowledgement present on Apple’s site reads as follows:

«Our deepest condolences to those who were taken away by the Sichuan Yaan earthquake, and respect to all the rescuers. May those who have passed away rest in peace, and may the survivors stay strong.»

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Before the news about Apple’s donation appeared on its official site, Samsung announced that it’s ready to offer all the victims a donation of 60 million yuan ($9.63 million).

Apple, Mac, News/Rumors

Tim Cook about iMac “significant shortage”.

During the Q&A portion of today’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about the number of product releases in the fall of 2012 and whether he wished Apple had done things differently.
Cook said:” Looking back, I would have delayed the release of the new iMac until 2013 to avoid some of the the delays that many customers experienced after ordering a new Mac. I don’t spend a lot of time looking back except to learn from it. If we could run it over, I’d announce the iMac after the turn of the year. We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product.”
The problem is Apple’s new iMacs experienced significant delays in shipping, due to the thinness of the machine. The displays required a new manufacturing process along with advanced welding techniques, causing some customers to wait for weeks before receiving their orders. During Apple’s Q1 earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that the iMac was constrained for the entire quarter, resulting in a “significant shortage”.

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News/Rumors

Apple is hard at work on some amazing new hardware

Yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company will announce some new products this fall but wouldn’t offer any specifics.
“Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services that we can’t wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014,” he said during the company’s earnings call Tuesday afternoon. But apparently, he can wait.
Cook also addressed the reality of Apple’s stock performance as of late, apparently taking issue with Wall Street.
“We know we didn’t meet everyone’s expectations,” Cook said before the call moved on to discuss Apple’s financial particulars. Cook seemed to be referring to Wall Street analysts, who have been down on Apple in light of the appearance of slowing profit growth and increasing competition.

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Cook said that, while Apple’s share price might not be fully within the company’s control, Apple’s existing product pipeline, the strength of its ecosystem, and the potential for new product categories meant the company is on a solid path.

“The most important objective for Apple,” Cook explained, “is developing innovative products.”

Apple, News/Rumors

“Download later” option added to iTunes 11

Quite recently Apple added a number of new download options for customers of its iTunes Store, among them possibility to save music and video content a little bit later. The option is available for users in countries where iTunes in the Cloud has support. A full listing of those countries is available on Apple’s site.

Now iTunes customers selecting movies, TV episodes and Season Passes, and completed seasons will can download the content either immediately or in the future through the iTunes in the Cloud feature. The new option also applies to music box sets and other music content which could take more time to download than a single track or album.

When you make a large purchase, a pop-up window will offer you the option between “Later” or “Download.” If “Later” is selected, the content is moved to the Purchased section, allowing customers to download at their leisure. They say that such an option requires an iOS device running iOS 6 or later or a Mac or PC running iTunes 11.

 

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Apple, News/Rumors

Apple returned 8 million iPhones to Foxconn

According to the latest reports 8 Million iPhones were returned “due to appearance of substandard or dysfunctional problems.” This could cost Cupertino’s top manufacturer up to $1.6 billion.

Anyway, the report doesn’t point out any specific problems with the handsets. Besides, ther’s no concrete information which models were returned.If the party was made up of existing models, such as the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S, this could eventually show up as a hole in Apple’s supply chain. However, if these defective models were in fact “iPhone 5S” models, Apple may be forced to delay the launch of its newest handset.

Foxconn reportedly began production of the iPhone 5S earlier this month. As of now, Apple is expected to announce the seventh-generation iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

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News/Rumors

Apple to fire CEO Tim Cook?

Members of the Board of Directors is rumored to be secretly searching for a new CEO of Apple,Tim Cook, which was succeeded by Steve Jobs in 2011. Now Wall Street sources close to some Apple executives have indicated that the company is secretly trying to find a replacment for CEO Cook. According to the publication, the board of directors in Cupertino was allegedly pushed to the decision by the continuing stock price depreciation.
Shares of Apple last week fell below the psychological mark of $ 400 – to a level of $ 391.96. At the moment, shares of the iPhone’s manufacture are traded at $ 390.54 per share.
To date, Apple’s market capitalization is estimated at $ 368 billion. Thus, the company ceded the title of the most valuable corporation in the world – leadership was returned to the oil giant Exxon Mobil, which is estimated at $ 388.1 billion. In just six months, the market value of Apple, runned by Tim Cook, fell down by the $ 290 billion.

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Nevertheless, analysts are positive about the future of the company and recommend buying its shares. Thus, there is a hope for a return to growth. As a positive factor there is a high demand for the iPhone and iPad. Many also expect Apple to announce new and innovative products. According to the rumors, Apple is preparing a “smart” watch, iPhone 5S with a fingerprint reader, iPad mini 2, MacBook Air laptops with Retina display, and more.

Lets hope to hear some impressive sales numbers or some dramatic new tech announcement as that is what will either cement Cook’s position in the company or pave way for his exist.

News/Rumors

Apple keeps Siri data for up to 2 years

It found out that before been discarded, data collected by Apple to improve its voice-driven Siri service is anonymized and kept on the company’s servers for up to two years .

The fact is your commands are uploaded to Apple for analysis. Apple then assigns you a random number, which it associates with your voice files. It’s this random number – not your Apple ID or e-mail address – that gets stored on the backend.

After six months or if you simply turn Siri off, Apple will disentangle the number from your Siri files, severing all ties with you. The files themselves will stick around for another 18 months as Apple uses them for testing and product improvement.

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The fact that Siri data must be sent to Apple before it can provide results has been a concern for security advocates, as well as some companies. For example, last year it was revealed that security-conscious IBM barred the use of Siri on its corporate networks, out of concern that sensitive information could leak.

News/Rumors

Earnings call Q2 set for Tuesday

As you know Apple Earnings reports are always intensely scrutinized and pontificated as investors and others look for signs of strength or weakness in sales as well as other aspects of Apple’s business operations in key markets like China. Apple said Friday morning that it will host its conference call for the press at 2 p.m. PT on Tuesday, April 23, a little less than an hour after the earnings press release hits the wires. There will be an accompanying live Webcast at that time.
The hard numbers on Apple’s fiscal second quarter will come out first on Tuesday. But for further details, Apple watchers will want the lowdown from the company’s conference call.
Shares of Apple have been on a long downward skid since the company soared above $700 last fall. On Wednesday, Apple stock dropped below $400 for a brief moment before rebounding that day. On Thursday, Apple shares slipped below $400 again and stayed there.13.04.01-2Q_Call

In early trading Friday morning, Apple’s stock started out fluctuating around the $388 mark, down slightly from Thursday’s close at $392.05 before bouncing back up to the $394 range.

News/Rumors

Susan Kare:”I was so lucky to get to work in the Macintosh group”.

Susan Kare is the former Apple designer and creator of the famous icons used in the original Macintosh operating system. She created many of the original interface elements in the mid–1980s.Now Kare works as an independent artist and created a set of “stickers” for social networking app Path. In an interview with Path she reflected on her work at Apple. Kare first joined Apple with the title “Macintosh Artist” . When Susan was asked about her time at Apple, she said the following:

“I was so lucky to get to work in the Macintosh group with great colleagues and talented programmers. That experience introduced me to interface design development and how I might be able to contribute as a graphic designer to the overall user experience. It also gave me practice in aiming to communicate big concepts in small spaces.”

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At Apple Kare was responsible for most of the typefaces and the icons of the original Macintosh, along with much of the marketing material. She is best known for the Chicago sans-serif typeface and the “Happy Mac” icon that welcomed early Mac users on startup.