When Fantastical was first released it brought with it a fresh take on the Mac's Calendar thanks to its easy to use drop down menu view and natural language event entry system. Where the original made a great addition to Apple's Calendar apps, Fantastical 2 is an excellent replacement and shows just how much power…
Jeff Gamet
Jeff Gamet is the Mac Observer’s Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of “The Designer’s Guide to Mac OS X” from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also hosts TMO’s Daily Observations podcast, co-hosts The iOS Show podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other shows, too. Jeff dreams in HD.
Articles by Jeff Gamet
Pegtron Rides the iPhone Wave to Big Profits
Megatron's profits jump thanks to the iPhone's success Smartphone manufacturing makes up the majority of Pegatron's profits right now, and CEO Jason Cheng said he's fine taking advantage of that, according to Reuters. “It's definitely not a good thing to be too concentrated on just a few clients. But you can't avoid the fact that…
Brute Force Device can Find Your iPhone Password
Device that cracks iPhone passcodes sidesteps data auto-delete feature MDSec got ahold of one of the brute force attack boxes for about £200 (about US$297) to see how it works, and it turns out the device is pretty clever. After trying a bad passcode, it shuts down your iPhone before it gets written to device…
Which Airlines are Supporting Apple Watch? [Updated]
Airlines getting onboard with Apple Watch support Alaska Airlines – YES Alaska's Apple Watch app gives you check-in notifications, gate changes, connecting gate information, flight delay and cancellation alerts, and countdowns for boarding and landing. The airline says that's just the beginning, and is asking for customer feedback to decide which features to add next.…
Blackberry goes for Security with new Secutablet Tablet
Blackberry thinks it's Secutablet has a shot in the tablet market Blackberry is hoping to play off of its reputation to draw in government and business buyers who need high levels of security for their mobile devices, and that may be exactly what they need to find a place in the tablet market. “Security is…
Apple Drops Apple TV Price to $69
Apple TV gets a $30 price cut following HBO Now exclusive channel announcement News of Apple TV's price drop came during the company's “Spring forward” media event Monday morning. The event also included the news of HBO Now's April launch for $14.99 a month without requiring a cable or satellite TV package. Apple's “Spring forward”…
Reports Claim 12-inch iPad to Copy Microsoft Surface Tablet, Shipping in September
USB ports on the next iPad? Not likely. Part of the reasoning behing adding USB ports to the larger iPad is faster data transfer speeds, according to an anonymous source speaking with the Wall Street Journal. “Apple has continued to rework some of the features of the larger iPad,” they said. “It is now considering…
Apple Adds Cars to its Business in Switzerland
Apple adds cars to its business description in Switzerland News of the corporate description change comes courtesy of the Swiss website ApfelBlog (English translation). From Apple's updated corporate description: Vehicles; Apparatus for locomotion by land, air or water; electronic hardware components for motor vehicles, rail cars and locomotives, ships and aircraft; Anti-theft devices; Theft alarms…
Apple Builds Mystery Room for Apple Watch Media Event
Apple's mystery room at the Yerba Buena Center Image courtesy 9to5 Mac Apple sent out invitations last week for the March 9 media event with the tag line “Spring forward.” The wording is no doubt a nod to the Day Light Saving time change that will have happened the day before, and also a likely…
Apple Buys Audio Plug-in Maker Camel Audio
Apple buys, shuts down Camel Audio An official announcement hasn't come from either company. The confirmation for the buyout came via documents found on the corporate registry site Companies House, according to MacRumors. Camel Audio's address is now the same as Apple's in London, and its only director is listed and Heather Joy Morrison, who…
Pebble Unveils Time Smartwatch with New Kickstarter Campaign [Update]
Pebble's new Time smart watch with color display to ship in May The company said Time is about 20 percent thinner than the original Pebble smartwatch, and has a slightly curved body to better fit your wrist. It combines the Pebble's plastic body with the Pebble Steel's metal body for a new look the company…
A123 Systems Sues Apple for Poaching Car Battery Engineers
A123 Systems sues Apple for hiring its car battery design team A123 named Apple along with the five employees who left for the Cupertino company in the lawsuit. The filing said Apple first hired away their CFO Mujeeb Ijaz, who then brought on board four other employees over an eight month window. The five were…
Preparing Your Social Network for the Afterlife
Each social network handles your post-death data differently Facebook Facebook's new policy still offers the memorial page option, but now includes a way for subscribers to assign someone as a caretaker for their account after they're gone. Once Facebook has received notice of your death, your legacy contact can change your profile photo, accept friend…
Want to Unlock Your iPhone? There's a Law for That
New carrier smartphone unlocking rules went in place Wednesday Carrier locking binds a smartphone to a specific carrier—a practice cell service providers use to keep customers from switching to competitors. Devices can be unlocked through a software update, but carriers prefer to make that a difficult process to discourage their customers from doing so. Current…
No, Your Next iPhone Won't Have Sapphire Glass
Don't look for sapphire glass for the next iPhone's display Apple started using Gorilla Glass with the original iPhone because it offered much better scratch resistance and strength compared to other display surface materials while at the same time being relatively thin and light weight. The relationship between the two companies paid off because Apple…
Thanks to Apple Watch Some Schools Ban Smartwatches
Schools banning Apple Watch to stop cheating on tests The big problem schools are facing is that smartwatches can work as an extension of our smartphones—devices that have already been banned from many exam halls. While some smartwatches are very obviously not traditional watches, Apple Watch blurs that line with its design that's more fashion…
Twitter: We Lost 4M Users Thanks to Apple
Twitter blames Apple for 4 million user drop Mr. Noto said during the company's quarterly earnings report, So we said we lost four million monthly active users due to the iOS 8 integration. One million of those monthly active users were Twitter owned and operated monthly active users. And three million were on Safari, what…
XAgent iPhone Malware Attack Steals Data without Jailbreaking
XAgent malware can hit iPhones that aren't jailbroken The threat was found by the security research company Trend Micro said XAgent doesn't require victims use jailbroken iOS devices. The company said the malware is very advanced, and that it's similar to the SEDNIT threat for Windows. Jailbreaking is a process where iPhone users hack their…
Net Neutrality Isn't a Win Yet
Net neutrality protection is coming, but there's still a fight ahead Mr. Wheeler revealed his plans in a Wired op-ed piece on Wednesday. In his piece he said, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking…
FCC Ready to Classify Internet Service as a Utility in Net Neutrality Plan
FCC ready to propose changes to protect net neutrality Industry analysts and lobbyists said the FCC will push to group ISPs as a telecommunication service under Title II of the Communications Act, according to the New York Times. That change would give the FCC much more authority over ISP practices, but chairman Tom Wheeler is…
Congress Takes Apple CEO's Advice, Eyes Corporate Tax Changes
Congress may be taking Tim Cook's advice to heart and changing corporate tax policies When grilled by the subcommittee, Mr. Cook said, The tax system handicaps American corporations in relation to our foreign competitors who don’t have such constraints on the free movement of capital. It is in this spirit that we recommend a dramatic…
Comarco Hits Apple with Patent Lawsuit over iPhone Chargers
Apple ht with patent infringement lawsuit over Lightning connector tech Comarco's 8,492,933 patent, titled Power Supply Equipment for Providing a Data Signal, Identification Information and Power to an Electronic Device, describes a system where device chargers include a cable with a smart tip that can communicate with the device its charging, much like Apple's Lightning…
Repatriation Tax Bill Holds Promise, but Faces Uphill Battle
Senate bill aims to get Apple, other companies to bring money into the US The bill is cosponsored by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) and proposes to use the tax funds it generates to extend the U.S. Highway Trust Fund. Titled Invest in Transportation Act of 2015, the two are promoting the bill…
iTunes gets OS X Yosemite Notification Widget
iTunes 12.1 gets a Notification Center widget According to Apple's release notes, the 12.1 update also improves sync performance with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. While the new Notification Center widget is pretty slick, we found it to be a bit of a disappointment, too. If offers controls only for the currently playing song,…