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Leaked Amazon Kindle Fire 2 Pic Credit: The Verge (reprinted with permission) Amazon claimed that Kindle Fire captured 22 percent of the U.S. tablet market in “just nine months,” which is, again, a curious way to put things. For one thing, Amazon didn’t cite its source, making it impossible to know how that number was…

Apple and five book publishers were sued by the DOJ and multiple state governments in April for allegedly conspiring to increase the price of eBooks and remove Amazon’s ability to offer eBooks at a lower price by prohibiting books offered by Apple’s iBookstore from being sold for less anywhere else. Three publishers — Hachette, HarperCollins, and…

Following the news earlier this month that Apple Retail Chief John Browett was linked to an aborted attempt to drastically diminish the quality of the company’s retail stores by cutting employee pay and working hours in an effort to improve profit margins, a new report from ifoAppleStore suggests that Mr. Browett’s controversial moves were orchestrated…

The Scosche boomSTREAM Bluetooth Wireless Media Speaker is an extremely convenient compromise between sound quality, portability and utility. The unit is tiny, measuring only 6.7-in long, 2.5-in. high and 2.13-inches deep, and it’s quite light to carry around. (Scosche doesn’t specify the weight.) The Scosche boomSTREAM Media Speaker What It Does: With built in Bluetooth…

“Samsung’s defeat does not mean that Google Inc’s Android camp is defeated,” she told reporters, according to Taipei Times.Much like its legal fight with Samsung, Apple has squared off in the U.S. against HTC over claims the company’s smartphones infringe on iPhone and iPad-related patents. HTC filed its own counter suit alleging Apple’s devices infringe…

Areas covered by the manual include technical information on repairing Apple computers and devices, guidelines for interacting with customers, and rules for employee conduct. Depending on one’s view of Apple Retail, the contents of the manual are either completely expected or alarmingly distressing. According to the sections outlined by Gizmodo, Apple employees are given training…

The latest version of VMware Fusion, virtualization software that allows Mac users to run Windows and other operating systems from within OS X, has just been released. If you are already a Fusion user, is the new version worth the upgrade? If you’ve never used virtualization software, is now the time to start? We hope…

In the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit, Apple won. Big time. Humongous. It was awarded over a billion dollars and almost all of its claims of patent infringement were supported. To which I say: “Fantastic.” I say this not just because I make a living writing about Apple (although I’m sure this makes me biased)…

It’s been an interesting year for Apple, a year of ups and downs, but mostly ups. It’s also been a year where many have predicted that Apple will coast into mediocrity without a visionary like Steve Jobs in charge of the company, even while Wall Street has propelled the stock up 81.7 percent higher.Apple CEO…

I love to watch chaos and wrote a piece about digital magazines taking up too much iPad storage. After watching Wired  eat up about half a GB per issue, I started to do a bit of digging and realized that I had just scratched the surface on the state of Digital Magazines.  How Bloated Are You? Tom…

The Apple Rumor Mill LoopInsight’s Jim Dalrymple and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber set the Mac blogoshpere abuzz on Thursday with a one-two punch that strongly suggests Apple will introduce the iPhone 5 (or whatever it’s named) on September 12th. At some point later in the Fall, the company would then have a second event where…

In your Home directory, you have a folder called Library. It’s a useful folder, chock full of files that can get you out of jam or customize your Mac in ways that would otherwise not be possible. There’s only one problem: If you open your Home directory, you won’t see the folder listed. This is old…

The researchers found that FileVault 2 on its own is relatively secure compared to competing encryption techniques. Assuming a strong password, it would take up to 230 seconds, or 34 years to break into a FileVault encrypted volume with a brute force attack. However, the security of the encrypted volume is only as good as the…

Gizmodo’s sources made the following claims:Managers stole merchandise by giving it away to businesses for free in exchange for personal favors and services.Managers “stole” employee bonuses for themselves.Employees replaced an “unlimited” number of broken iPhones for themselves and their friends.Employees and managers traded free products or replacements to local bars in exchange for free or…

LYNKtec recently released the TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen. It’s a well balanced, sufficiently long stylus with a microfiber tip on one end and a ballpoint pen on the other. While expensive, it exudes weight, class and quality. It’s a great way to pamper yourself or someone else with a gift. Think of it as a…

The issue over the spoliation of evidence began in late July, when a magistrate judge ruled that the jury would be informed that Samsung destroyed evidence relevant to the case before the trial, and that the jury was free to infer that all of the evidence that was destroyed was damaging to Samsung’s case. Samsung…

Nearly 300 million people worldwide have visited an Apple store since October 2011. That’s nearly the entire population of the United States. Through only 375 stores. That’s an average of 800,000 people per store. If the number is current through July 2012, that’s 80,000 people per store per month. Whew! On top of that, The…

On the other hand, if Apple were to win, it could force its competitors to (finally) think outside of Apple’s box, which could lead to one of those competitors innovating their way around Apple. As such, Mr. Milunovich argued that losing its patent infringement case with Samsung could be a net win for Apple.Mr. Milunovich’s…

Mucoce is a Menu bar item that provides an always visible iTunes control center. You can do a lot in a small box: see the artwork, pause/play, select previous or next, rate the song, tweet it, and much more. And it only costs $0.99. The name “Mucoce” is derived from MUsic COntrol CEnter. This small…

The August report examines data from surveys conducted in March and, while the overall content is focused on advertising and user demographics, which are aimed at the web publishers that the OPA represents, the report does reveal some interesting statistics about mobile device users in the United States. The vast majority, 93 percent, of smartphone…

AAPL Chart for August 17th, 2012 Source: Yahoo! Finance Mr. Misek raised his price target to $900 per share from $800 after checks with Apple’s suppliers suggest the company is ready for the oft-rumored, much speculated iPad mini. Those checks also suggest that the iPhone 5 will also make an appearance at the September media…

______________________ This week we learned that Apple is, once again, begging for the keys to the TV kingdom. Presumably, that’s so Apple can apply its fantastic understanding of customers wants and needs, develop a revolutionary TV viewing interface, dust off its patents and put some major competitors into bankruptcy. Of course, that isn’t going to…

The Mac Observer checked with sources in United States and found that, at least in the markets that were surveyed, there were no serious disruptions. However, reports kept coming in from the United Kingdom and MacRumors continued to receive tips about U.S. and Canadian stores that were experiencing unusual workforce reductions. Cut to Thursday morning…

TMO Artist’s Rendition of What That Might Look Like Judge Koh has been iron fisted about how long the trial will last, giving both sides a specific allotment of time. Apple finished presenting its case earlier this week, while Samsung finished arguing Thursday afternoon. Apple will have the opportunity to present rebuttal witnesses in the…