News

If you need to add a field to someone's contact card—such as “spouse's name” or “nickname”—there are a couple of ways you could go about it. First of all, you could add that field only to a few specific cards and leave the template alone. Do that by selecting someone within the Contacts program and…

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) used Apple's annual shareholder meeting Wednesday to protest an Apple contractor. Members picketed, chanted, played drums, and shook rattles in protest of Security Industry Specialists, Inc. (SIS), which provides some security services to Apple. A representative of three unions with stakes in Apple also used the question and answer…

Samsung showed off its latest innovation for its Android OS-based smartphone lineup on Wednesday: An app that manages movie tickets, boarding passes and more, and bears more than a striking resemblance to Apple's Passbook. The app, dubbed Wallet, even relies on barcodes instead of NFC technology, just like Apple's Passbook. Wallet was unveiled during the…

This is probably the most unique messenger bag you will ever see. The Platforma Convertible Messenger Bag for iPad from Strotter won an Editor’s Choice Award at Macworld/iWorld 2013. It holds your stuff, including your iPad, but it will also turn into a mobile desk anywhere, any time in just a few seconds. Platforma Convertible iPad Messenger…

The U.S. Department of Defense is either losing or gaining religion—depending on your viewpoint—and is abandoning its BlackBerry-only, top-down smart device approach in favor of a “device-agnostic” approach that will include iOS and Android. The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it was rolling out its Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan, an effort to get the…

In a Vanity Fair article about Google's new headquarters, the civil engineer in charge of the effort used ideas and language Steve Jobs developed at Pixar and was implementing at Apple's own Spaceship HQ to describe the building's intent. Google Bay View Renderings Credit: NBBJ Googleplex Times Two Google is building a new built-to-order headquarters…

This week I'm happy to welcome Smile back as our sponsor here at TMO. Smile makes a several fantastic software packages for us Mac users, and this week our focus is on one of my personal favorites, TextExpander. For those of you who don't know about TextExpander, you're in for a real treat. In short,…

A federal court issued an injunction blocking a vote on an Apple shareholder proposal originally scheduled to take place on February 27th, according to Reuters. The proposal would have prevented Apple from issued preferred stocks without shareholder approval. Apple's management backed the shareholder proposal, arguing that it empowered the company's shareholders by giving them say…

Google on Thursday unveiled the Chromebook Pixel, the latest in its line of unique laptops powered by the company’s browser-based Chrome OS. But is this powerful piece of hardware a waste on an immature operating system, or can Google expand Chrome OS's usefulness before the Pixel's hardware is obsolete? When first released in June 2011, the…

I have never yet reviewed an item from Booq that was not both beautiful and exquisitely made. The Python Sling camera bag lives up to my expectations while also being an extremely useful product.  It is designed for serious photographers who need to have one or two Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras, multiple lenses, and…

First off, this is my blog at TMO, a place where I write about anything I think would be interesting to our readers. What follows is not a review of the Kindle Fire HD. I won't be showing comparison charts. Instead, my observations are based on my technical background and experience with iPads, but naturally…

 Arthur Levinson Art Levinson, chairman and former CEO of Genentech, and long-time board member and current chairman of Apple Inc., spoke on Tuesday about life at Apple in the 16 months since cofounder Steve Jobs died. This marks the first time that Mr. Levinson—who counted Steve Jobs as a friend, as well as a colleague—has…

The Judge overseeing David Einhorn and Greenlight Capital's lawsuit against Apple over a proposal to allow shareholder voting on preferred stock options ruled on Tuesday that bundling together three issues into a single vote may violate U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. Judge Richard Sullivan, however, stopped short of saying Apple proposal would cause irreparable…

The sleek, HardCase for LapTops from WaterField provides safe, structured protection for either a 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook Pro and does it with first-class style. WaterField HardCase The flap is smooth leather. The remaining parts of the outside are custom made ballistic nylon, a layer of impact plastic, and a layer of cushioned foam. On the back…

Adobe has acknowledged reports of an active security threat in Adobe Reader and Acrobat XI 11.0.1 and earlier that's being already being exploited by hackers, and plans to release emergency updates some time this week to patch the flaws. The exploit is highly sophisticated on the level of espionage cyber attacks, according to security research…

Microsoft has quietly jacked up the price of Office for Mac 2011 by 17 percent for the Home & Student edition and 10 percent for the Home & Business edition. The move brings pricing for the Mac version in sync with the 2013 Windows version of the productivity suite, which udnerwent its own price increase…

Some SEC documents filed on Thursday suggest that hedge fund selling contributed—perhaps greatly—to the precipitous decline of $AAPL throughout the December quarter, and by extension the early part of 2013. That's not too surprising, but what's more interesting to me is that it's a demonstration of an idea that's been kicking around in my head…

It's been selling cider for 20 years, and Apple Inc. hasn't exerted an iota of pressure, but The Apple Shop in Hoveton England )as noted in the comments below) is changing its name. Why, you ask? Turns out an all-day flood of Apple customers looking for help with their iMacs and their iPads and their…

If you've got kids, giving them your Apple ID password (or your credit card info) so that they can buy music from iTunes is a bit risky. You never know when one of them will go crazy and decide to purchase the entire Grateful Dead back catalog, do you? In any case, if you'd like…

Recently I've had multiple people ask me to describe my home Sonos setup. Today I set about answering that question. However, in writing that post I realized that we had no post here describing exactly what Sonos is, as my only explanations of that have happened audibly on Mac Geek Gab (in episode 350 and unintentionally…

[Update: This article originally focused on Apple's quarterly foot traffic of 120 million people through its retail stores. It has been updated to focus on the 370 million people who visited an Apple Store in 2012. – Bryan] Apple CEO Tim Cook reminded us on Tuesday that 370 million people visited an Apple Store during…

Apple CEO Tim Cook's talk at Goldman Sachs on Tuesday morning didn't help his company's stock, which gave back some recent gains throughout the morning session. Mr. Cook talked about innovation, his company's efforts to return more money to its shareholders, and more, but investors were apparently unimpressed. As of this writing, shares of Apple…

Apple cofounder Steve “The Woz” Wozniak thinks that Apple has allowed itself to fall behind Android in some features. In other areas, Mr. Wozniak said that competitors have caught up to Apple, and he praised Samsung for making great devices. Steve Wozniak Source: Wikimedia Commons The Woz made the comments to Wirtschafts Woche, a German…

Apple announced Wednesday that the company has now sold more than 25 billion songs from the iTunes Store since its inception in 2003. At its current pace, over 15,000 songs are downloaded from the store every minute. Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services, described the company’s pleasure with reaching the milestone: We…