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“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” — E.B. White There was a time, during the PC Wars, when Apple customers had a special passion for Macs. It was derived from the industrial design…

Japan's SoftBank cell service provider expects to complete its US$21.6 billion deal to buy 78 percent of Sprint on July 10, 2013. The deal was first announced last October and finally won FCC approval last Friday and originally included a 70 percent stake in Sprint. Sprint is creating a new company called New Sprint as…

Douglas Engelbart, the man who invented the computer mouse, died on Wednesday. Mr. Engelbart was 88 and died of kidney failure, according to The New York Times. Douglas Engelbart in 2008 Source: Published Under Wikimedia Creative Commons The mouse was first envisioned in the early 1960s, and it was shown to the world—or at least…

Apple is facing another patent infringement lawsuit, although this time it's from Boston University instead of a company. The University is alleging that the iPhone 5, iPad, and MacBook Air use a semiconductor it received a patent for in 1997, and is asking for a ban on selling some Apple products as well as a…

“It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things. The monkey wears an expression of seriousness which would do credit to any college student, but the monkey is serious because he itches.” — Robert M. Hutchins ________________________________ It's our technical life and times. A surfeit of…

Steve Ballmer A Ballmerism Gone Mad Every once in awhile, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outdoes himself with a doozy of what I call a Ballmerism. That's when he makes a statement that departs so far from known facts that we just shake our head and wonder who buys the nonsense. Recently, as reported by CNET,…

Staying on task while every distraction the Web has to offer is just a mouse click away might not be difficult for some of you, but for me it's a challenge. It's especially bad if you're a student or a knowledge worker whose office isn't shared with others who are also getting things done, so…

The ISO in-ear, active noise canceling Bluetooth stereo headphones from Antec Mobile Products weigh 24 grams, including the control unit. It includes a lapel clip, internal Lithium-ion battery and charging cable. While the sound is crisp, the noise cancellation is less than spectacular. The reasons to have a pair of headphones like this are many.…

You've heard it threatened for more than a year, and now it's here—the first Firefox OS-based “smartphone” will be released on Tuesday in Spain. The ZTE Open will be priced at €69 (roughly US$90), and that includes €30 (roughly $39) in pre-paid credit. Is this something Google and Apple should be concerned about? Yes and…

Mac Geek Gab listener Chad sent us a note on Friday with a joke. It's a funny one about Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, chock full of nerdy humor. Two physicists speeding in a car? What could go wrong, right? In any event, the joke: Heisenberg and Schrödinger are driving, and get pulled over. Heisenberg…

If you use the Terminal for troubleshooting, you probably know that you can press the Up Arrow key to see your recently used commands. At the prompt, you'll just keep tapping that key until you see the command you'd like to execute again, and then press Return. Apparently, that was the last command I used.…

The BtX350 wireless Bluetooth stereo speaker system from Kinivo streams music from Bluetooth-capable smartphones, tablets, and computers. It includes a Class-D amplifier, bass boost; and volume controls and forward/reverse buttons within easy reach of users. There are two drivers inside for stereo music. Kinivo BtX350 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker This unit is powered by a built-in…

Apple released iTunes U 1.3.1 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch on Tuesday. The update for the iTunes U online course management app added a pull-to-refresh gesture for checking for course updates, and also fixed an issue related to updating course information. iTunes U makes course updates easier with pull-to-refresh gesture The version 1.3.1…

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is in talks with European Union regulators to settle patent abuse charges. The EU charged that Samsung violated EU antitrust rules when it tried to win injunctions against Apple using standards-essential patents. The European Commission launched its complaint against Samsung in December of 2012. Unnamed sources told Reuters that Samsung…

Since 2009, The Mac Observer has been interviewing Apple developers at WWDC to take the pulse of the developer community and allow them to tell their stories to the readers. All of these interviews has been extraordinary, and we thought it was time to provide links to every interview for reference. The interviews are listed…

Apple's attorneys were defiant during their closing statement in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit. Both sides delivered closing statements on Thursday, though Apple's lead attorney Orin Snyder took two and a half hours to deliver his, while the DOJ's attorneys spent just 90 minutes. The case has taken many ups and downs in…

Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our tenth and final interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Scott Morrison of Indev, famous for MailTags and Mail Act-On for…

Online and brick-and-mortar book retailer Barnes & Noble shot a massive hole through the Department of Justice's ebook price fixing case against Apple on Tuesday. When Theresa Horner, B&N's Vice President of Digital Content, took the stand she told the court her company was already negotiating agency pricing deals with publishers before Apple was on…

Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our ninth interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Dave Teare of AgileBits, famous for 1Password on the Mac and iOS. _________________________________…

Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our sixth interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Kevin Hoctor, creator of MoneyWell for Mac and iOS. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: I’m…

U.S. cell service providers are rolling out support for Wireless Emergency Alerts. The service launched in spring 2012, and carriers have been slowly adding support since then. AT&T iPhone owners started receiving notifications over the weekend that they now have the feature, so what exactly is WEA? WEA is a system that local, state, and…

Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our fourth interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Bruno Virlet of The Grizzly Labs. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: I’m here with Bruno…

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) reversed a “final” ruling from April that invalidated key claims in Apple's “overscroll bounce” patent. The USPTO informed Apple that it would be issuing a reexamination certificate for the patent that confirms four key claims, including claim 19 that a jury found Samsung infringed in 2012. In April,…

Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our third interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Brent Simmons, currently of Q Branch and Vesper fame. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: Brent,…