Electronista

With the exception of iPads and the declining iPod, the numbers coming out of Apple's conference call with analysts mirror the title of Pixar's best movie: Up. Of primary importance to analysts were the better-than-expected iPhone sales, but Mac sales were also up from the year-ago quarter. Other numbers revealed in the course of the call were also positive; growth in China and Japan, strength in developing markets a...

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Movie, television and celebrity information database, IMDb, has updated its app for iOS today. The app allows users to find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, and create a "must-see" list of shows and films. In v4.2, users can now access US-wide television listings. Additionally, Amazon Prime is now integrated, meaning that whether a title is available on Amazon Prime is indicated upon searching. If the Amazon...

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Once again, US District Court Judge Denise Cote has denied an Apple motion -- this time asking that the court delay the class-action lawsuit brought by 33 states and various consumer groups while Apple appeals her original guilty verdict in the federal case that alleged Apple led a conspiracy to fix e-book prices. The states are hoping to get further damages from Apple, up to a possible $840 million if the judge trip...

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On paper, the sales of the iPad in Apple's fiscal second quarter look bad: a 16 percent drop from the year-ago quarter, rumors of which already had pundits and business sites wondering if the iPad had peaked. Statistics, however, can sometimes be misleading -- and in an unusually proactive explanation, Apple CEO Tim Cook took time at the start of his conference call with analysts to explain that changes in channel in...

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will circulate new "open" Internet regulations internally on Thursday. The new proposal will allow companies to pay Internet providers a fee for "special access" to customers and boosted speed of delivery of the paid content, on a "commercially reasonable" basis, paving the way for more deals like the one Comcast struck with Netflix. The FCC will determine what the terms wi...

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In a surprise announcement, Apple will do a 7:1 stock split on June 6, giving stockholders of record as of June 2 an additional six shares for every one share of stock they currently hold. Trading will resume on June 9 at the split-adjusted price, which CEO Tim Cook has said the company wants to be more affordable so that smaller investors can get into the stock. Given today's closing price of $524.75, the average pr...

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Former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will be joining Apple as its retail head "next week," Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today during the company's Q2 conference call. Ahrendts has been confirmed as making the switch since last year, but until now neither Apple nor Burberry would give an exact timeframe. In the interim Ahrendts has been helping Burberry transition to her successor, CCO Christopher Bailey....

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As a part of announcing its second-quarter results, Apple has also posted a detailed breakdown (PDF), exposing further facts. They reveal, for instance, that Apple's iPad revenues dropped 16.4 percent year-over-year, shifting from roughly $8.7 billion to $7.6 billion. The company has typically seen continuous growth for the iPad, but units fell from just under 19.5 million to 16.3 million. Cook later clarified that i...

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Apple has posted $45.6 billion in revenues in its second fiscal quarter, up from $43.6 billion the same period a year ago. Net profits rose from $9.5 billion to $10.2 billion, or from $10.09 per share to $11.62. The company sold 43.7 million iPhones, an increase from the 37.4 million in Q2 2013. iPad sales came in at 16.3 million units, below a Wall Street consensus forecast of 19.7 million. The company also reco...

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Google Play Music on Android can be used to stream music through AirPlay devices, thanks to a release from doubleTwist. MagicPlay: AirPlay for Android, downloadable from Google Play and works with the existing doubleTwist Player, will act as a bridge between Google's Cast API for streaming to the Chromecast and AirPlay, granting the music service AirPlay support. ...

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Calling and messaging app, Viber, today has announced an update for its iPhone app featuring a redesign for iOS 7. Viber facilitates free world-wide calling and messaging over a WiFi or 3G connections to other Viber users, with calls made to non-Viber landlines and mobile numbers possible at low rates. Viber v4.2.0 features a revised aesthetic to compliment iOS 7, and the added ability to send up to 10 photos and vid...

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US-based game retailer GameStop is planning to add 23 Simply Mac locations this year, and as many as 400 Spring Mobile and Cricket locations, says the Star-Telegram. The company bought out Simply Mac and Spring Mobile last year in an attempt to diversify its revenue. Simply Mac is an authorized Apple reseller, whereas Spring Mobile sells AT&T products; Cricket is based on the AT&T network. The expansion is expecte...

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The Samsung Galaxy S5 might be the phone that Android users have been craving for some time. Information coming out of Mobile World Congress painted the phone to be the next leap in innovation spearheaded by Samsung to breathe life back into their smartphones. From changes in the camera and adding pieces of technology to aid a healthy lifestyle, on top of a powerful set of internals, the phone has been set up by Sams...

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Analysts for two financial firms, Barclays and Morgan Stanley, are contending that Taiwanese firm Catcher Technology will supply metal casings for the next-generation iPhone. Both firms in fact expect Catcher's share of iPhone 6 casings to top 10 million units this year. Much of the argument is based on Catcher's existing involvement in the Apple supply chain; the firm is thought to produce casings for both the Mac...

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Google has updated its online Maps service by adding the option to view earlier Street View imagery. Users of Google Maps can, in a number of locations, use previously-collected Street View photographs to explore an area, and be able to compare recent shots of the location with those from the same place dated from as far back as 2007. ...

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Code contained in iOS 7.1 and 7.1.1 suggests that Apple is planning to bring Siri to the Apple TV. A PLIST file for Assistant -- an internal Apple name for Siri -- includes the Apple TV lineup under its collection of supported devices. Notably, though, no Apple TV to date has included the microphone that would be needed for Siri....

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Subscribers of Amazon Prime will be able to enjoy classic HBO shows in the near future, the retailer has revealed. At the same time, Amazon has announced HBO Go will be added to the company's Fire TV, allowing the streaming media box to show recently-broadcast programs as well as its archive of over 1,700 shows, original films, and specials. ...

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Apple has released a minor update for the OS X version of FaceTime, v1.0.5. The patch is aimed directly at resolving connection problems some people have been experiencing, particularly in OS X Snow Leopard. The file is a 17.6MB download at the Mac App Store....

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WhatsApp has hit a milestone of half a billion active users, the messaging service has announced. The 500 million-user figure is 50 million more than it reported in February, when it also announced it was being acquired by Facebook for a total of $19 billion in cash and shares, with the service now seeing 700 million photographs and 100 million videos being shared between users every day. ...

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The biggest news in today's Apple vs Samsung patent trial was the previously-reported revelation of a secret deal between Google and Samsung in which the search and advertising giant not only agreed to indemnify Samsung if it lost on two of the patent claims in this trial, but that Google -- not Samsung -- was to "direct and control" litigation and defense on Samsung's behalf. The revelation, which Samsung had previo...

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A new Apple ad premiered tonight on Disney-owned ABC, called "Powerful." The 90-second spot (now available on Apple's YouTube channel) is the first this year to spotlight the iPhone 5s rather than the iPhone 5c, and features a band performing the Pixies song "Gigantic" while an array of apps -- beginning with musically-oriented ones, then branching off in other directions -- is shown. Like most recent Apple ads, the ...

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Among other updates issued on Tuesday, Apple has further updated the iOS versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- formerly known collectively as iWork apps -- to version 2.2.1, just three weeks after its last update. The previous version introduced new features and restored old ones, but today's update lists only unnamed "stability and bug fixes," which might hint that the change is related somehow to an OpenSSL pat...

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On Tuesday, Apple -- which had previously said none of its key software, operating systems, websites or web services had been affected by the Heartbleed OpenSSL security flaw -- issued a patch to its 2013 (only) Airport Extreme and Time Capsule products that support 802.11ac to fix the issue. The 2013 Airport Express is not affected by the bug, and does not require the update. The patch boosts the firmware version on...

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Google attorney James Mccoun testified today that the search engine giant agreed to defend Samsung at least in part against some of the claims against it in the ongoing Apple versus Samsung trial. Apple played pre-recorded testimony from the attorney who confirmed emails that Google would provide some level of indemnity over four patents held by Apple if Samsung was sued, or would possibly take over defense of the cl...

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As has been predicted for some time, a new malware threat exploits the same flaws in iOS that jailbreaking tools use in order to install itself on older jailbroken iPhones and iPads. The malware, likely to be found in devices where the user has installed third-party customizations, scans for the Apple ID and password of the user, then transmits it to remote servers. Current, 64-bit iOS devices like the iPhone 5s, iPa...

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OnOne Software has announced the upcoming release of its latest version of Perfect Photo Suite, adding improvements to photo browsing, file-management options, and more. Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 Photo Editor is a full-featured photo editor that also works as a plug-in with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Apple Aperture. In v8.5.0, the Browse module includes speed and productivity enhancements, such as ...

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For the first time, access to OS X beta releases has been opened to non-developers. Apple has introduced the Beta Seed Program, which requires only that a person have an Apple ID and sign a confidentiality agreement. The agreement blocks people from sharing information to anyone not also registered to receive betas....

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AT&T is partnering with The Chernin Group, with the latter pouring $500 million into an effort to distribute Internet-based video services. What exactly AT&T and Chernin will produce as a result isn't clear, but premium services like Netflix are suspected. The terms of the deal have not yet been announced....

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Apple appears to have fixed a problem that prevented owners of the first-generation Apple TV from accessing iTunes, according to comments on the product's support forums. The outage began over the weekend, but was resolved just earlier today. It's not clear what caused the issue, or why it would only affect first-gen Apple TVs....

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Apple has released Security Update 2014-002, an OS X patch that addresses various security flaws. The software applies to Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks. More significantly it comes bundled with Safari 7.0.3, which in addition to improved security includes some minor feature additions and bugfixes....

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Logitech today officially launched three new cases for the iPad Air and the iPad mini. Leading these is the Big Bang, which merges a compact folio design with shock-absorbing material; Logitech claims the case can survive drops from as high as 1.4m, or about 4.6 feet. The front and back are also covered with liquid-resistant materials. The Air version of the case costs $100, while the Mini edition is $80....

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In what is likely to be the final stop between Internet over-the-air television streamer Aereo and essentially the entire broadcast industry allied against it, Aereo seems to be fighting an uphill battle. Today's hearing before the US Supreme Court found judges skeptical about Aereo's business model, calling it "based solely on circumventing legal prohibitions that you don't want to comply with."...

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Today in the MacNN forums, Moderator "Thorzdad" sent a warning to other members about a malware attack that has been discovered that is targeting jailbroken 32-bit iPods, iPads and iPhones. Yesterday Mac Elite "rotuts" took to the forums asking if a hybrid drive would work with a Mac Pro running 10.6.8....

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A security flaw in some Linksys and Netgear routers discovered this winter, thought to be patched, has only been slightly hidden. Instead of the router listening and obeying command packets on port 32764, now the command must be prefixed by a specially crafted packet, which reactivates the flaw, and allows for remote command and seizure of afflicted routers....

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Today at Apple's online store chose from a wide selection of refurbished Mac Pro models. The Mac Pro with a 3.2GHz Intel quad-core Xeon processor, 6GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive has been reduced by $360 to $2,139. Priced at $2,549 is the refurbished Mac Pro with a 3.33GHz Intel 6-core Xeon processor, 6GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive....

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At MacMall.com's Earth Day sale, save $600 on the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display which has been slashed from $2,200 down to $1,600. That discount makes this the best price we have seen on this notebook by about $300. This MBP features a Retina display, 3.0GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of flash storage with Intel HD Graphics 4000. Included is a one year warranty on parts and labor from A...

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As anticipated, Apple has released iOS 7.1.1 via iTunes and iOS' over-the-air update mechanism. The code is simply a maintenance release, primarily fixing keyboard responsiveness, as well as glitches when using Bluetooth keyboards while VoiceOver is on. For iPhone 5s owners, the patch improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition....

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Apple appears to be using a shell company, "Brightflash USA LLC," to covertly register iWatch trademarks around the world, reports say. The firm is registered in Delaware, and has been tied to past trademarking efforts by Apple. The company has already requested iWatch trademarks in the US, the UK, Australia, the European Union, and Denmark. It has also filed for a trademark in dozens of other countries, ranging f...

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As an extension of Apple's new recycling intiatives, the iPad is now eligible for the same Reuse & Recycling program as the iPhone. People trading in an older iPad at an Apple Store can get credit towards a new model. Notably, that credit can also be applied to an iPhone; accordingly, iPhone credit can be applied towards an iPad. An iPhone and an iPhone also be traded in together towards a single purchase, but peo...

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Lytro has unveiled its second camera using light-field photography. Just like the original Lytro camera, the Lytro Illum allows photographers to change the point of focus of a shot after the shot has been taken, with the camera's construction updated to look more like a traditional DSLR instead of the original's compact and unusual body. ...

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AgileBits has released updates to the Mac and iOS editions of 1Password, its app for creating and storing passwords, as well as saving data related to credit cards, passports, and bank accounts. 1Password for Mac 4.3 includes a host of improvements, a number of which focus on 1Password mini, such as the ability to edit items and generated passwords from within the plugin. Mini is also capable of searching any and a...

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Apple's oft-rumored 5.5-inch version of the iPhone 6 has been pushed into 2015, claims Taiwanese publication the Industrial and Commercial Times. Apple has reportedly had trouble finding a battery that's both powerful and less than 2mm thick, needed to fit the 5.5-inch model's "very thin" profile. Suppliers have allegedly been referring to the device as the "iPhone Air," though that may not be the final product nam...

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On Monday, Samsung -- which has devoted some 21.5 hours of its 25-hour limit to defending itself against charges that it copied five specific Apple patents -- finally rested its defensive case and began its offensive case late in the day, alleging that Apple is infringing on two patents it owns (but did not create -- they were purchased from others). Several expert witnesses for Samsung had to walk a strange line of ...

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Continuing with the various environmentally-themed disclosures on Monday, Apple has begun decorating its Apple Stores for Earth Day on Tuesday by adding green gels to the "leaf" portion of the Apple logo on some stores. The changeover is happening worldwide, with pictures of the modified logo appearing from China and Australia that also include employees in green-colored work shirts....

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Following the alleged pullout of planned director David Fincher -- and possibly his choice to play the title role, Christian Bale -- the latest speculation on Sony Pictures' Steve Jobs biopic has it that the studio is now talking to Danny Boyle to helm the multi-million dollar movie, and goes on to say that Boyle's choice for the Jobs role is Leonard DiCaprio. Boyle, best known for Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotti...

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Today, WinZip announced its new file sharing app, WinZip Mac 3. Aiming to simplify management and projection of file sharing, WinZip Mac 3 offers direct support for Dropbox and Google Drive, complete with 128- or 256-bit AES encryption. Files that have been saved on cloud storage can be viewed and organized within WinZip; its new Cloud Picker tool allows users to see cloud files, rename files and folders, add zipped ...

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Continuing its multi-pronged and environmentally-minded publicity push on Monday, Apple has also initiated a new program that will turn all Apple Stores into recycling centers, accepting all used Apple devices either for free (in the case of non-functional and older devices) or in exchange for a gift card (for newer, functional units). The new plan is part of an effort to reduce the company's "footprint" in terms of ...

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Continuing to keep one step ahead of reported improvements in next-generation USB technology, Intel is said to be working on a third-generation Thunderbolt system that would double throughput to 40 gigabits (Gb) per second and yet reduce power requirements by as much as 50 percent, though the new connector would support up to 100 watts of charging power. The revised plug, which is backward-compatible with an adapter...

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Just six days after the previous release, Apple has pushed out the eighth beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 to developers for testing. Other than minor tweaks and fixes, the only thing different about the latest version is its build number, 13D45a -- just two build versions older than the previous one, and with an "a" appendix for unknown reasons. The numbering suggests that the update is nearing "golden master" status, ...

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The search for a good messenger bag that doubles as a laptop bag is something many travelers find themselves facing at least once. Between bags that are either good for carrying around a multitude of things every day, or ones that only have the capacity for a laptop, there doesn't seem to be many that offer a good equilibrium. STM is trying to bridge that gap with their new line of Annex bags. These bags take aim at ...

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