WWDC: Tell me What YOUR Brilliant Idea is! Joe Pezzillo

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 second interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Joe Pezzillo, co-founder of Push.io. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: Joe, you’ve had varied career,…

WWDC: Peter Kelly Forsakes Android for Joys of iPad Coding

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 first interview this year, Dave Hamilton chats with Dr. Peter Kelly author of the UX Write word processor for…

President Obama, Tim Cook Named in $20B NSA Privacy Lawsuit

Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with President Barak Obama, U.S. Attorney Genreal Eric Holder, NSA Director Keith Alexander, and the CEOs of several other companies have all been named in a US$20 billion class action lawsuit over privacy violations related to the PRISM domestic surveillance program. The lawsuit was filed by Larry Klayman who clearly…

Steve Jobs' NeXTCube on Display at Last Night's NeXTEVNT

Last night, Pixar's Dr. Michael Johnson hosted the second-annual NeXTEVNT at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. One of the things on display at the event was the late Steve Jobs's personal NeXT Cube, on loan from Pixar for the event, shown in the image below. Steve Jobs's NeXTCube NeXTEVNT caters to multiple interests, but it…

Jeff Gamet, John F Braun Talk WWDC on Mac Roundtable

Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and Mac Geek Gab co-host John F. Braun joined the Mac Roundtable crew to talk about Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, and the preview of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7. This edition of the Mac Roundtable podcast also included Steve Stanger from The Mac Attack, Chuck Joiner…

Jeff Gamet Talks NSA, Patent Trolls on The BIG Show

The Mac Observer's Managing Editor Jeff Gamet joined the British Tech Network's The BIG Show to talk about the NSA collecting cell phone records from service providers, and the White House plan to stop patent trolls. Along with host Ewen Rankin, Sarah Gray, Steve Naybour, Karl Madden, and Richard Harkness the crew also discussed how…

AirPort Extreme Gains 802.11ac, New Design UPDATE

Apple introduced a revamped AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi basestation at World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The new model supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and sports a redesigned body that can also hold a hard drive, turning the new Basestation into a TimeCapsule. The new Basestation was introduced along with updated MacBook Air models that…

We Need To Develop Even The Most Dangerous Technology

“A curious thing happens when you decide to eliminate skepticism as an option, even if only for a few minutes: You give improbabilities an opportunity to transform into possibilities. You give unconventional ideas a chance to bloom a little bit.”  —Youngme Moon, Different The quote above is as good a place as any to start…

Microsoft Giving Away Vaunted Keyboard Cover with Surface

Click it! That's been part of the marketing message delivered by Microsoft for its Surface tablets. It's the sound the company's keyboard covers make when they attach it to their Surface, and it was what Microsoft was betting would really kick Windows 8 into the media tablet market owned by Apple's iPad. Ah, the dreams…

Can You Hear Me Now: NSA is Tracking Your Cell Calls UPDATED

If you think your cell phone activity is private, think again. The NSA reportedly obtained a court order requiring Verizon to hand over all kinds of data on subscriber activity — and not just for some customers, but for all customers. The order was issued secretly, and if the NSA targeted Verizon, there's a good…

Preview: Inserting Pages from Other Sources

Mountain Lion's version of Preview has a neat little ability that's tucked away under the Edit menu, labeled “Insert.” As the name implies, this menu item will let you insert pages into a PDF that you're working on. You have three choices—Page from Scanner, Page from File, or Blank Page. Groovy! First of all, I…

Penguin Backs Apple in Ebook Price Fixing Trial

Penguin may have settled out of court in the Department of Justice ebook price fixing trial Apple is dealing with, but that hasn't stopped the publisher from backing the iPhone and iPad maker on the stand. Penguin CEO David Shanks took the stand on Tuesday to say that Apple was fine if negotiations didn't pan…

Samsung Wins Import Ban on iPhone 4 & iPad 2 for AT&T

Samsung has won an import ban from the U.S. International Trade Commission. On Tuesday, the ITC announced the import ban for the iPhone 4 for AT&T, T-Mobile and some regional carriers, as well as the iPad 2 with Wi-Fi +3G for the same networks. The ITC found that the two Apple devices infringed on a…

DOJ Ebook Price Fixing Trial Against Apple Starts Today

A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing Apple of colluding with publishers to artificially raise the price of ebooks is scheduled to start Monday in New York over a year after the Federal agency first made its accusations against the companies. Apple will be squaring off against the DOJ alone since the five publishers that…

bēm's Wireless Outlet Mono Speaker Is Bluetooth Compatible

Users can pair the wireless Outlet Speaker from bēm with any of their iDevices and then plug the speaker directly into any electrical outlet to have a handy speaker with no cords connected to the actual device. The speaker has up to 25 feet of working range and includes a USB port as well as AUX in…

It's Okay Mr. Cook. Apple Customers Can Also Dream

One of the things that fascinated me about Tim Cook's AllThingsD interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher was one of the questions after the interview. The question was posed by Dan Benton of Indoor Capital. The Q&A went roughly like this: Mr. Benton. Why won't you let us dream? The guys at Google are…

Drobo vs. Synology: Choosing the Best NAS

I believe that, at some point, each home will truly benefit from having a Network Attached Storage device (NAS, for short). Most of us just love to accumulate stuff, and that holds true for our digital lives, too. Having one dump zone for these things attached to the home network can make life much easier, allowing…

Tim Cook Disses Google Glass, Hints at iWatch

Wearable computing could be as big a branch of the technology tree as iPhones and iPads, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Speaking Tuesday night at this year's D conference, Mr. Cook said that he was “extremely interested” in wearables, but he dismissed “glasses”—i.e. Google Glass—as a niche product and said that other forms of…

Canvas's Pixuru App Bestows Ready To Hang Art From iDevices

The Pixuru app, recently released by Canvas 123 Inc. allows you to send photos straight from your iDevice to their service where they can be turned into works of art and returned to you framed, on canvas, printed on metal, printed on wood, or turned into cases for iPhones, iPads and iPad minis. Pictures can…

Sponsor: PDFpen 6 from Smile

I'm quite happy to welcome Smile back as this week's TMO sponsor. And I'm quite happy that they again asked me to talk about PDFpen because this is something I use on every Mac I have, and I use it almost every day for one purpose or another. Whereas last month we focused on the extended…

Apple Ads Stay Positive Despite Microsoft's Negative Campaign

Apple has yet another new iPhone commercial out touting the smartphone's features by showing it as a personal device and a part of people's daily lives. In contrast, Microsoft's latest ads take a more negative spin by trying to show Apple's products are inferior. Apple's ads target emotion, not tech specs Apple's latest commercial shows…

Judge Cote Likely to Side with U.S. Against Apple

Judge Denise Cote said on Thursday that she expects the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will be able to prove that Apple conspired with publishers in the run-up to the release of the iPad. The judge issued a “tentative view” to attorneys representing the DOJ and Apple to that effect, adding that the opinion is…

Penguin Agrees to $75M Payout in ebook Price Fixing Settlement

Penguin is a step closer to ending its headaches over ebook price fixing allegations now that the publisher has agreed to a US$75 million settlement with states and consumers. The proposed settlement is part of a deal in a lawsuit that claims the company colluded with other publishers and Apple to artificially raise the price…

An iPhone Veteran Evaluates a Samsung Galaxy Note II

Introduction If there's one thing that I have learned from the evaluation of different Android devices, like the Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus, it's that the Android 4.x OS is a technical, pleasantly geeky, often beautiful OS that will appeal to many different people. On the 5.5-inch display of the Samsung Galaxy Note…