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Bryan Chaffin

Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.

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White iPhone 4 Sells Out in One Hour in Hong Kong

ElegentTech also reported that many of the units sold in that first hour will be resold on the grey market that has thrived in the past on limited availability of Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The site said that they could fetch as much as US$1,000, but no supporting evidence of either the intent or price…

Nokia Transfers Symbian Ownership, Sheds 7,000 Jobs

Nokia has faced a triple assault on its global domination of the smartphone business from Google’s Android platform, Apple’s iPhone empire, and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry corporate tool. Nokia once owned more than 50% of the global smartphone market, a market in which Nokia was a leading pioneer, but the company has watched its market…

Phil Schiller: White iPhone Delays About Material Science, Sensors

“It was challenging,” Mr. Schiller said in an interview with AllThingsD. “It’s not as simple as making something white. There’s a lot more that goes into both the material science of it–how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors.” “A lot more” includes the reality that the color…

Steve Jobs Says Apple Will Testify in Senate Privacy Hearing

Apple and Google were both invited to attend a hearing on mobile privacy that Senator Al Franken convened in the wake of revelations about the kinds of data collected or stored by both Apple and Google on smartphones. Android devices were found to be transmitting location data and a unique identifier back to Google, while…

Amazon App Store Lawsuit Response Quotes Steve Jobs

Apple filed for a trademark on for the name “App Store” when used as an online marketplace for downloadable apps (and other related uses). The company met with resistance from Microsoft, which asked the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) to throw out the trademark, arguing that it’s a generic term that should not be…

VRM Box: Pro Monitoring for Desktop Musicians/Producers

I am an adequate musician for many tasks, a barely competent recording engineer (that’s probably being generous), and when it comes to producing and mixing, I know just enough to be a significant danger to myself and those who love me. But I love music — I love playing, I love writing, and I love…

President Obama Totes his iPad 2 Onto Marine One

The caption posted by the White House reads, “President Barack Obama salutes as he walks to Marine One following a town hall meeting in Fairless Hills, Pa., April 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).” In March, President Obama acknowledged having an iPad during an interview with Univision. Today’s photograph suggests that it’s…

Apple Tops Nokia as Largest Handset Maker in the World

  “Apple became the world’s largest handset vendor in wholesale revenue terms during Q1 2011,” Strategy Analytics said in a statement. “Fueled by strong volumes and high wholesale prices, the PC maker has risen to the top of the mobile phone market in just four years. In revenue terms, Apple is now the world’s largest…

Apple Adds Noah & The Whale to London iTunes Festival

The iTunes Festival is an annual event Apple holds in London throughout the month of July, with a different band featured each night. The company has been slowly unveiling the lineup for the event, with Noah & The Whale being the 17th band announced. Noah & The Whale are billed as an indie folk band…

iPad Case Ad Targets Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Girls

Firstly, there’s The Clutch: It’s a case for the iPad that is designed to look like a woman’s clutch bag, from which it takes its name (Happy Owl offers a similar case designed for men called The Wallet). In addition to holding an iPad, it also has compartments for many other things that women often…

Verdiem Brings Surveyor Enterprise Power Management Software to Mac

“The release of SURVEYOR 5.5 has been highly anticipated by our customers, many of whom maintain mixed Windows and Mac environments,” John Scumniotales, president and CEO of Verdiem, said in a statement. “We are pleased to offer them the ability to control power states, as well as to better manage and report energy usage and…

Parent Launches In-App Purchase Class-Action Suit Against Apple

In other words, at least one parent refuses to take responsibility for allowing his kid to make US$200 in purchases using his iTunes password. According to the complaint, “Because the passwords now required for purchases of Game Currency are the same passwords required for any Apple purchase, minors aware of such password may purchase Game…

Report: Apple Snags Top Data Center Expert from Microsoft

“Kevin Timmons, general manager of Datacenter Services, has decided to pursue other career opportunities and is no longer working at Microsoft,” Dayne Sampson, CVP of Global Foundation Services for Microsoft, said in a statement. “We appreciate the contributions he made to Microsoft during his time here.” Mr. Timmons will reportedly not be filling Apple’s top…

Apple Adds Foo Fighters to London iTunes Festival

Foo Fighters announced for Apple’s iTunes Festival The iTunes Festival line-up so far includes: 1 July: Paul Simon 4 July: Linkin Park 5 July: Beady Eye 6 July: The Wanted 7 July: ADELE 10 July: Glasvegas 11 July: Foo Fighters 12: July: The Script 13 July: White Lies 15 July: Jessie J 16 July: Duran…

Microsoft also Updates Office 2008 for Mac

The update’s patch notes: Improvements for all Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac applications Security is improved This update fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2008 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. For more information, see the security bulletin that is listed earlier in this document. Stability is…

Leaked Microsoft Screenshots Show “Windows App Store”

Windows App Store screenshot, as posted by WindowsRumors Microsoft has a long track record of boldly going where Apple has shown the way. In this case, of course, Apple added a Mac App Store as a Mac OS X application in 2010, an idea modeled on the original App Store for iPhone and iPad apps.…

Time Warner Cable Goes to Court Over iPad Live Streaming

This is the argument that TWC has publicly made since cable network owners like Viacom, Discovery, Scripps and News Corp.’s Fox Cable Networks began threatening the cable operator with lawsuits over the streaming service, which is limited to iPads that are on the customer’s home network. The cable network owners believe that Time Warner Cable…

Clorox Employees Choose Their Smartphone; 92% Pick iPhone

Just to be clear, we’ll recap: Clorox is replacing the BlackBerry devices used by employees with smartphones of their choosing, and of the 2,000 devices that have been replaced so far, 92% of the company’s employees choose iPhones, 6% chose Android, and 2% chose Windows Phone 7. “If you believe demographic studies,” Mr. Loura said,…

Gartner (Also) Predicts that Windows Phone will Pass iPhone

The research firm said that Apple’s share of the smartphone market with the iPhone will peak in 2011, with 19.4% market share, and decline to 17.2% by 2015, even while shipments of iPhones increase from 62.6 million units to 189.9 million units during the same time period. “This reflects Gartner’s underlying assumption that Apple will…

Report: Toys “R” Us to Sell iPad 2

The training materials include a fact sheet and a page from an employee test about the device. The fact sheet also lists Apple’s Smart Cover, the iPad Camera Connection Kit, and VGA Connector as accessories that will be available at the toy store. Since the introduction of the iPod, and then the iPhone, Apple has…

Apple Job Postings Point to Second Utah Apple Store

The Salt Lake City Tribune noticed the job openings, and reporter Vince Horiuchi quipped that, “iPhone and iPad fans who have waited countless hours at Salt Lake City’s Gateway Apple Store to buy the latest must-have gadget may finally have the choice of waiting in a different line for Apple’s next product.” Despite the job…

Analyst “Skeptical” on Competitors Catching Up to iPad 2

In a research note to clients covered by AppleInsider, Mr. Whitmore wrote, “We remain skeptical whether the likes of (HP), Dell, Motorola, Samsung and RIMM etc can close the competitive gap on iPad 2. Specifically, iPad challengers must either undercut on price (negative margin implications) and/or offer a superior user experience.” He added, “In aggregate,…

Financial Times Fights Apple on Access to Subscriber Data

Apple added a subscription engine to the iOS software development kit (SDK) earlier this year, and the company requires that any publisher offering subscription access in an app include the ability to subscribe from within the app itself, meaning through Apple’s engine. While publishers can continue to offer access via other avenues, Apple requires that…