The struggling Canadian tech company, which once lead the pack of email-enabled mobile devices, will see its two leaders who have guided the company for 20 years reduced to much less active roles. Mr. Lazaridis will become vice chairman of the board and Mr. Balsillie, while retaining his board position, will not have any operational…
Jim Tanous
Articles by Jim Tanous
Where Ringtones Dare Not Tread
Image of philharmonic via Igor Bulgarin / Shutterstock.com “Patron X,” as the offender was referred to by the Philharmonic, described himself as a business executive between 60 and 70 and expressed great regret for his inability to correctly operate his iPhone. “It was just awful to have any role in something like that, that is so…
Battery Patent Application Hints at Thinner Apple Devices
Patent illustration as edited by Patently Apple. The application’s illustrative figures demonstrate how the proposed design method can produce batteries that are circular, triangular, or even “L”-shaped. The technology could even produce batteries with rounded edges, so that future devices with rounded bezels can maximize battery capacity by having the battery run flush with the outer…
TMO’s Thunderbolt Roundup
Thankfully, this year’s CES brought several new announcements and demonstrations of upcoming Thunderbolt devices and the impending Macworld | iWorld Expo promises to bring even more. For all those excited by Thunderbolt, we take a look at what’s already available and what’s just around the corner. Available Now Little Big Disk (LaCie) Released late last…
Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang Quits
As initially reported by the Associated Press late Tuesday, Mr. Yang’s departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo hired Scott Thompson, the former PayPal President, as CEO. Mr. Yang, who stepped down from his role as CEO in 2008 following a botched takeover bid by Microsoft that ended up damaging Yahoo’s stock price, endorsed Mr.…
Printing Multiple Emails at Once in OS X Mail
Once all messages are selected, go to File > Save As and save the document as the default rich text format to the desired location on your hard drive.Finally, find the file you just created and open it to reveal a rich text file with all of your emails listed one after the other. This…
Evio Harmony Case for iPad 2 is Perfect for Readers
There are a plethora of iPad cases available today, and just as many use cases for the iPad itself. For some, it is a multimedia device primarily used to watch video. For others, an on-the-go email and productivity device. Some users type furiously and others almost never. This reviewer falls into the latter of that…
Wikipedia Shuts Down Wednesday in Protest of SOPA/PIPA
The outage, planned only for English-language versions of site, will last for 24 hours beginning at 05:00 UTC (that’s midnight for East Coast and 9:00 PM for the West Coast). The planned outage has Wikipedia joining many other online sites and organizations in their public opposition to the pending congressional bills, which are designed to…
US Air Force Revises Plans for iPad Exclusivity
The Air Force Special Operations Command stated (PDF) in a December 29, 2011 notice that, following three months of product evaluation, it planed to purchase over 2,800 iPad 2s to act as electronic flight bags for its crews. The Air Force felt that, of all the tablets they tested, only the iPad 2 “outmatched all…
An iPhone and Words With Friends Saved a Man’s Life
Three months ago, during a session of the game between Beth Legler and Georgie Fletcher, Mrs. Fletcher mentioned that her husband was feeling ill. As Mrs. Legler’s husband is a doctor, she asked Mrs. Fletcher to describe her husband’s symptoms via the chat feature of the game. Upon reading the symptoms, Mr. Legler insisted that…
Case Manufacturer Drops iPad From 100,000 Feet
The iPad, which according to the company’s video survived the ordeal unscathed, was encased in the company’s Extreme Edge case, launched by a weather balloon to an altitude of 100,000 feet (19 miles) and then unceremoniously released. While impressive to witness, the iPad did not truly reach “outer space,” as its maximum altitude of 100,000…
Steve Jobs Immortalized as Detailed Figurine
First noted by The Verge, the 12-inch figurine features an amazingly (and creepily) authentic reproduction of Mr. Jobs, including his iconic jeans and black turtleneck ensemble and a “One More Thing” backdrop. Although displayed on the In Icons’s website with a variety of Apple products, including a miniaturized 1984 Macintosh, iPad, and iPhone, the figurine…
Departing Apple Retail Employee Outlines Grievances to CEO
The email, reproduced at the employee’s website, describes a devolution of the internal organization and treatment of Apple Retail employees in recent years. The author claims that Apple’s “CORE” training, which stresses individual customer attention, has become almost completely supplanted by the traditional bottom-line approach that other electronic retailers, such as Best Buy, are known…
Crowd Source-Funding for New MacBook Air Docking Station
infiniWing has put together a nice video presentation, highlighting the LandingZone’s features. While the product looks perfect for 2010 MacBook Air owners, the noticeable lack of Thunderbolt makes this less than ideal for 2011 Air owners. The product still works with 2011 MacBook Airs, but it draws video from that port without passing it through…
VMWare Fusion 4.1 Allows Virtualization of OS X Clients
The new feature was first uncovered by Macworld, which also noted that VMware 4.1 simply reminds user to respect Apple’s licensing terms.Image courtesy of Macworld. VMware Fusion 4.1 installing Leopard Client. As the VMware tech note for the software explains: VMware Fusion 4.1 changes the behavior of the new virtual machine assistant when creating a…
Hands-On with the Kindle Family
While most of the attention this week may be paid to the Kindle Fire, Amazon also did something for book lovers out there by rounding out its Kindle family with the release of the Kindle Touch. For those consumers who primarily use their digital device to read and find LCD displays hard on the eyes…
TMO’s Complete Guide to SSD Data Management
Unfortunately, the one area where HDDs beat SSDs is price. SSDs cost many times per gigabyte of storage what HDDs cost, so it is unlikely that many users will be able to store all their data on an SSD alone. The answer to this problem is to use two drives, an SSD and an HDD,…
Welcome to OS X: Creating/Changing Your User Account Password
One of the most important steps any user can take to secure the information on their Mac is to set up a secure and robust password. In OS X, a user’s password is required (when properly configured) to wake the system from sleep, to install software, and to access critical areas of the operating system.…
Enabling iCloud Contacts & Calendar Syncing on Non-iCloud Devices
Go to ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book/Sources and open “Configuration.plist” using a text editor such as TextEdit or BBEdit. Near the top of this file is a line “<key>/xxxxxxxx/carddavhome/<key>.” The xxxxxxxx represents your iCloud Unique Identifier. Copy it or write it down for later. Step 2: Set up the non-iCloud iOS Device for Contacts On the iOS…
Apple Jumps Five Places in Greenpeace Eco Rankings
In a separate full report (PDF), Greenpeace notes that Apple scores well on green products and sustainable operations, but scores poorly on energy use policy, especially with regard to advocating a clean energy policy.Apple’s Greenpeace Scorecard from the Greenpeace Report In positive news for Apple, the report strongly praised the company for its product line,…
Hands-On With the Apple Store EasyPay System
Heading down to the Clarendon Apple Store in Arlington, VA we arrived to a typical early evening crowd. We were greeted at the door by the designated Apple employee but we declined assistance and headed to the back of the store where the accessories are kept. As of this post, Apple’s EasyPay system only works…
iOS Security Exploit Gives Apps Hidden Access to User Data
Charlie Miller’s iOS Exploit Makes Every App a Potential Threat. Although he plans to further discuss this vulnerability in Apple’s platform at the SysCan conference in Taiwan next week, Mr. Miller has already exploited the flaw by planting an app that takes advantage of the vulnerability in Apple’s App Store. The App, now removed, was…
Oregon First to Use iPads for Voting in National Elections
The iPad is not being used to submit the vote — election workers will print the ballot from the iPad after the voter has tapped out his or her selections — but it is the first time that Apple’s digital device has played a prominent role in an election for national office. Oregon election officials…