Suite anticipation

Microsoft Office for iPad expected in coming weeks

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  Photo: Matt Hickey / The Daily

By Matt Hickey Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Back in November, The Daily initially uncovered the existence of an iPad version of the Microsoft Office Suite. Sources now say that the app will soon be submitted to Apple for approval.

A brief hands-on with a working prototype of the software revealed a number of new things. The app’s user interface is similar to the current app, but it has hints of Metro, the new design language that can be seen in Windows Phone and in the as-yet-released Windows 8 desktop operating system.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited locally and online. But it’s unclear if Microsoft will support other Office apps at launch or at all.

Sources close to the matter also commented that an Android version of Office is not in the works, and that an updated OneNote iOS app will also be released to reflect the Metro design language.

An exact launch date is unknown, but the design team has since wrapped up the project, meaning it could be released in the coming weeks.

– Matt Hickey

Earlier today we heard a report from AllThingsD claiming that Apple’s anticipated iPad 3 announcement is just a few weeks away. The site believes that we could see Apple unveil its next-generation tablet as early as the first week in March.

Now the New York Times is weighing in on the slate, claiming that it has also learned details about the next iPad. And according to its sources, the tablet’s [anticipated] Retina display looks “truly amazing…”

From the NYT:

“An Apple employee said that the version of the new iPad that is being tested inside the company is “essentially the same size and shape as the iPad 2,” with an improved and “truly amazing” screen. The tablet will include a faster processor, said the employee, who did not want to be identified because Apple is not fond of leaks.”

This information lines up with several previous rumors we’ve heard regarding the next-generation iPad’s upgraded components. It also lends some credibility to all of the gossip we’ve heard about its appearance. There have been a number of reports, and recent component leaks, suggesting that the iPad 3 will look extremely similar to its predecessor.

On top of a Retina display and faster processor, Apple’s next tablet is also rumored to feature high resolution cameras, Siri support, and 4G LTE technology.

[MacRumors]

iTunes Accounts Being Hacked to Steal Money From Store Credit

JS, Feb 9, 2012

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The amount of customers reporting that their iTunes account have been hacked is growing steadily on Apple’s Support Forum. Customers are reporting that their accounts are being hacked, and the hackers are then using the accounts to purchase gift cards, make purchases on the store, and even using their PayPal accounts.

The Globe and Mail reports customers that have been hacked are growing increasingly frustrated with Apple’s response to the issue…

Many of the iTunes users whose accounts have been hacked are increasingly frustrated with Apple’s customer service, saying the company at the very least has dithered in fixing the problem. Some accuse the tech giant of being indifferent to the problem.

To remedy the situation, Apple is refunding the money that has been stolen and quickly reverting the account back to their original settings. But according to the report, Apple’s customer service is not acknowledging there is a problem — even though the Support Forum continues to grow.

While some hacks are for personal financial gain, some crooked developers hack accounts to give themselves positive ratings on their own apps. A Vietnam developer allegedly hacked over 400 accounts two years ago to give himself five-star ratings on Apple’s iTunes App Store.

When The Globe and Mail reached out for comment from Apple, they responded, “Apple takes precautions to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and misuse.”

While hacking is expected on almost any online marketplace, many users believe it’s more widespread on the iTunes Store than people think. They appreciate Apple refunding the money, but don’t think they’re seeing the bigger picture of hacking.

iOS 5.0.1 Bug Lets Anyone Make FaceTime Calls On Your iPhone, Even With Security Settings

JS, Feb 9, 2012

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Canadian tech blogger Ade Barkah has discovered a new security loophole in Apple’s most recent iOS update, iOS 5.0.1. It involves FaceTime, and lets anyone make a call out, even with the highest security settings in place.

The loophole has been confirmed to work on both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and hopefully is addressed by Apple soon. Barkah details the bug on his blog…

We’re able to trick Voice Control to enumerate through the private address book and make live FaceTime video calls on a locked iPhone 4, even with Voice Dial specifically disabled in the settings.

Barkah set his iPhone 4 to the highest security settings with a passcode, and also turned off Voice Control. Even with the security settings in place, he could still make a call through the Emergency Call page, sending in commands through Voice Control, without having to type in his password. Luckily, actual voice calls didn’t go through, but rather he could look through contacts and even see contacts’ pictures. FaceTime calls did go through, however.

Now Voice Control leaks that I have two numbers for Lisa Klein: her “mobile” and another number at the “love shack“.  Had this been my jealous girlfriend probing my locked phone, I would’ve been totally busted! Remember, we’re getting all this info from a locked phone with Voice Dial explicitly disabled. So far we’ve only enumerated through the Contacts.  Can we actually complete a call from the locked phone?  With FaceTime, the answer is yes! Again starting from the Emergency Call screen, this time I say, “FaceTime <Lisa Klein>”.  

Obviously for iPhone 4S users, this will only work if Siri is turned off (default setting), because that’s when the iPhone 4S will begin using Voice Control. The iPhone 3GS doesn’t have this problem, because the older device doesn’t feature FaceTime, which was introduced with the iPhone 4. Someone could still sniff through your contacts, though.

This is a big problem. Anyone could snoop through your contacts, or even worse, call one of them. iOS 5.1, which is rumored to launch March 9th, will hopefully address this bug.

Really like the way this app works! Come for iPhone and Andriod

Lifestyle, Reviews

January 12th, 2012

Apple’s Cards Lets You Send Custom Greeting Cards from your iPhone

by Terry White

  

The concept is simple and it’s not a new one. There are a few different Apps on the App Store that let you turn your iDevice photos into printed post cards that can also be mailed to just about anyone. All you have to do is build the card in the App and the service takes care of the printing and mailing. Apple has entered this arena with custom greeting Cards. The Cards App is simple you start with a category and then once you pick the card you like from a given category you are three steps away from having a custom greeting card sent to a friend, colleague or family member. If the card you choose allows for a picture on the outside or inside you’ll get to choose one of the pics on your iDevice. Then you can edit the text on the inside and lastly address the envelope before placing your order. Thankfully the App let’s you pull address from your Contacts to speed up the process. These Letterpress cards run $2.99 and that’s complete with envelope and postage. 

Nice but it could be better

First off I’m a little surprised that this isn’t a Universal App for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. While it does work on all iOS devices it doesn’t take advantage of the iPad’s screen size. Portrait cards get no love in this App either. Everything is landscape. While landscape only cards aren’t the end of the world, the designs are fairly basic too. Luckily some designs don’t require a photo. While I love photos, not every card situation requires one. I’m also a bit surprised that Apple doesn’t allow you to “sign” the card. After all you are on a touch device and a “handwritten” signature option would be a nice touch. Lastly, because the cards are mailed through the postal service as regular 1st Class Mail, you have no tracking info. Apple doesn’t say where the cards are being mailed from, so you can’t really guess about delivery times. Aside from these little things (I actually expected a little more from Apple), the App does work as advertised and it makes sending custom greeting cards pretty painless.

You can get Cards for Free here from the 

Why Apple Will Dominate CES

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By Mike Elgan (8:31 am, Jan 07)

The biggest company at CES this year is Apple. No, Apple isn’t giving keynotes, hosting a booth or even taking meetings, as far as I know. But Apple dominates CES like cheesy hotel casinos dominate the Las Vegas Strip.

A consumer electronics show without Apple is like an Internet search show without Google, a social networking show without Facebook or a, er, MacWorld Expo without Apple.

But that’s not why Apple’s presence is so large at CES. The reason is that half the initiatives, product directions and announcements are responses to Apple, or anticipation of what Apple might do in the future.

The touch-tablet market is the House that Apple Built. By launching the iPad two years ago, Apple convinced the world that a multi-touch tablet with apps was a great new business to get into. Unfortunately, the world was mistaken.

Until Amazon shipped the Kindle Fire, which succeeded mainly because it was super cheap, all other touch tablets have utterly failed in the market, when measured against the expectations of manufacturers.

The grandest expression of the touch tablet delusion was last year’s CES. That show saw more than 100 individual tablet products introduced or showcased.

What a disaster. The vast majority of these products would never have existed if not for the crazy success of the iPad. Apple led them astray. These low-volume, low-margin me-too tablets represent enormous wasted time, money and energy on the part of nearly all manufacturers involved.

The tablet debacle from last year will be repeated this year in the form of ultrathin notebooks, and for the same reason.

Apple hit one out of the park with the most recent generation of MacBook Airs. Now everyone in the industry thinks following Apple’s lead is the path to market success. It’s not.

Even Apple failed with the first generation of MacBook Airs, which were too expensive and not awesome enough to gain widespread acceptance.

Ultrathin clamshell laptops are just like touch tablets in that the overall user experience has to be perfect in order to get people to make the small sacrifices in price, storage and flexibility required of such a small form factor.

CES organizers estimate that up to 40 new MacBook Air wanna-bes will be showcased at CES this year.

Most of these will fail because their manufacturers mistakenly believe that the MacBook Air is successful because it’s an ultrathin with flash storage. In reality, it’s successful because it’s a flawless, ultra-fast and thrilling to use device that comes at a very reasonable price.

It’s not enough to make an ultrathin with flash. Unless it makes people involuntarily blurt out “Wow!” when they first use it, it won’t succeed in the market.

Once again, Apple’s success in ultrathins is leading the rest of the industry down a false road, raising expectations that will be dashed by next year’s CES.

One of the big trends at CES will be TVs in general, and Google TV products in particular.

The TV industry is in a panic. In order to move merchandise, they need to innovate. But how?

3D was supposed to save the industry, giving consumers a new reason to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars on a new boob tube. The trouble is that 3D sucks. It makes people nauseated. Viewers feel like morons wearing goofy glasses in their living rooms.

So now the TV industry is being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the fate they’ve long resisted: becoming PCs.

The inevitable future of television involves Internet-streamed shows and movies, “intelligence” and apps.

So the battle in the TV industry is: roll your own “smart TV” solution and go nowhere? Or get in bed with Google and win sales but lose control?

That’s what the TV section of CES will be all about. The big three — Samsung, LG and Sony — will be playing both sides of the fence, for the most part, embracing Google TV with some products, but not doing so with others.

Google is the partner of last resort, acceptable only because TV makers believe Google is the only company that might help them fend off the scary Apple television onslaught that everybody knows is coming.

They’re partnering with Google because that company is willing to play ball with existing TV makers, willing to lend their Android platform, Chrome browser and apps. Apple, on the other hand, just wants to replace them, drive them out of business.

The future Apple TV, or iTV, will be a permanent replacement for the Asian TV you would otherwise buy. And once you go Mac, you never go back.

Another trend in TVs is ultra thing sets. While the new generation of incredibly thin TVs will generate a lot of attention (but few sales because of their high prices), the press will be wondering: Is this what Apple will do?

So just about every shiny new TV announcement at CES, whether Google-oriented or proprietary, will have everything to do with positioning the companies involved against the specter of Apple’s entry into the TV market.

Even the big drama of the show this year, the announcement by Microsoft that they wouldn’t participate in keynotes or booths in future CES events, is related to Apple.

When Microsoft first made their announcement, there was a knee-jerk comparison to Apple’s 2009 withdrawal from Macworld Expo. Commentators said that the biggest companies are leaving the biggest shows and striking out on their own.

But CES insiders have revealed that Microsoft left in a huff because show organizers wanted someone else to do the big, opening keynote. Which makes sense. Microsoft doesn’t signal the bleeding edge of consumer technology. So, according to reports, Microsoft left in a huff, taking their toys (and booths) and going home.

This falling out is particularly humiliating for Microsoft mainly because of the obvious and unflattering comparison with Apple.

To oversimplify, Apple left MacWorld because Apple is too powerful to be hemmed in by someone else’s show. Apple wants to control everything, and has the ability to do that, and doesn’t need a show organizer to bring them that attention.

Microsoft, on the other hand, left CES because Microsoft isn’t powerful, exciting or cool enough anymore to keynote the world’s largest consumer electronics show.

So although Apple won’t be attending CES, Apple will be everywhere at the show. It will be on the minds and lips of everyone in attendance, and will loom over the show like a dark cloud.

Wherever you look, you’ll see companies reacting to, copying, avoiding or anticipating Apple products as the main driver of their product development and marketing.

Become Indiana Jones With This Cool Free iOS Game [Review]

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By Giles Turnbull (6:09 am, Jan 06)

Here’s a treat for Indiana Jones fans. It’s called Temple Run, it’s free on the iOS App Store, and it gives you the chance to relive your Indy treasure-hunting dreams.

Just like the opening sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple Run is about running for your life. You’re in charge of a strangely Indy-like hero who’s just emerged from a dank cave clutching a golden idol and chased by killer zombie monkeys (or something).

The goal is survival, for as long as possible. You’ll have to master a series of simple moves to turn corners, leap obstacles, and pick up coins as you run. Coins means upgrades, and upgrades means more fun to be had.

There’s not much to it, but then there doesn’t need to be. You’ve raided a temple, now you run. Simple. Even for a dollar or so I’d say this game was good value, but when you don’t have to even pay a penny for it, I’d say it’s a must-have.

Now, you throw me the idol, and I’ll throw you the whip. And mind those booby traps on your way out.

Rating:

Apple News | Every 60 Seconds Apple Sells 925 iPhone 4s and 85 iPads [InfoGraphic]   Saturday, 24th December 2011, 04:12 am   

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Every 60 seconds Apple sells 925 iPhone 4s and 85 iPads, according to an infographic produced by Go-Gulf.

If you think that not much can possibly happen within 60 seconds, the following infographic will entirely change the way you think. Our “60 Seconds – Things That Happen Every Sixty Seconds” infographic contains 19 interesting facts that occur every sixty seconds.

Things That Happen Within 60 Seconds
● 710 computers are sold worldwide and 555 of these computers are sold with Intel processors
● 1,820 TB of data is created; that’s enough data to fill up 2.6 million CDs
● 232 computers around the world get infected by malware
● 450 Windows 7 Cds are sold worldwide
● 925 iPhone 4s and 85 iPads are sold worldwide
● 11 Xbox 360 consoles are sold worldwide
● 18 Amazon’s Kindle Fire are sold worldwide
● 38 tons E-waste is generated worldwide
● 4,000 USB devices are sold worldwide
● 2,500 ink cartridges are sold worldwide
● 2,100 checkins happen on location-based social networking website foursquare
● $75,000 is added to Google’s revenue
● 2 Million Internet users watch Porn Online
● 1.1 million conversations take place via instant messengers
● 103 Blackberries are sold worldwide
● 1,100 acres of land farmed in Farmville application
● PayPal processes transactions worth $219,000; out of these, $10,000 is transacted via PayPal mobile
● Around 950 purchases are done on eBay, out of which 180 purchases are done using eBay Mobile
● 12 websites get hacked and 416 attempts are made to compromise various Facebook accounts
● 1,400 movie discs are rented from the online movie rental service Redox

Check out the infographic below…

Read More [via BGR]

X Lossless Decoder 20111211 – Encode, transcode, and play various music file formats.. (Free)

from MacUpdate – Mac OS X

X Lossless Decoder (XLD) is a tool for Mac OS X that is able to decode/convert/play various ‘lossless’ audio files. The supported audio files can be split into some tracks with cue sheet when decoding.

XLD supports the following formats:

• (Ogg) FLAC (.flac/.ogg)
• Monkey’s Audio (.ape)
• Wavpack (.wv)
• TTA (.tta)
• Apple Lossless (.m4a) [10.4 and later]
• TAK (.tak) [Requires Wine]
• Shorten (.shn) [SHN v3 only]
• AIFF, WAV, etc

Other formats supported by Libsndfile are also decodable. XLD uses not decoder frontend but library to decode, so no intermediate files are generated. All of the supported formats can be directly split with the cue sheet. XLD also supports so-called ‘embedded’ or ‘internal’ cue sheet.

Currently you can choose output format from WAVE,AIFF and Raw PCM. In addition, you can choose Ogg Vorbis (aoTuV), MPEG-4 AAC (QuickTime/CoreAudio), MP3 (LAME), Apple Lossless and FLAC in the GUI version.

Version 20111211:

• XLD now pulls composer info from MusicBrainz
• Supported reading/writing MusicBrainz-related tags (some MBIDs, etc)
• XLD shows more verbose error messages for cue sheet opening failure
• Fixed a problem when writing lyrics tag to MP3 files
• Fixed a problem that XLD did not launch under specific login shell configuration
• Updated LAME to version 3.99.3

Mac OS X 10.4 or later

Download Now

This really work’s nice!!!