Can Apple's New Hire Create a Winning Wearable Tech Ensemble?

Apple has hired a senior prototype scientist who's got expertise in wearable computing, according to a Fast Company report. His name is Richard DeVaul, and he was an organizer for the MIThril wearable computing project while a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. DeVaul describes himself as an "expert in signal processing and real-time statistical classification techniques."

published today, 10 hours 21 minutes ago

Google's New Android Advocate Comes Out Swinging

Sun Microsystems' loss was Google's gain on Monday, as former Sun guru Tim Bray announced that he's joined Google's Android push in the role of Developer Advocate. "Google and I have been a plausible match for a long time," Bray wrote in a blog post announcing the decision. "Web-centric, check. Search, check. Open-source, check. The list goes on."

published today, 10 hours 21 minutes ago

Apple Tosses In a New iPad With $99 Battery Replacement

Apple has announced a new service plan its upcoming iPad tablet devices: The company will replace iPads whose batteries can't hold a full charge for a $99 service fee plus $6.95 for shipping as well as taxes. This is not a matter of a technician removing the old battery and installing a new one. The whole device will be replaced with a brand-new iPad.

published yesterday, 1 day 3 hours 10 minutes ago

FileMaker Pro Goes to 11

Fans of relational databases will find a lot to smile about in the latest release of FileMaker Pro. The program, long a favorite of Mac users, simultaneously released last week a new version of the data crunching powerhouse for both OS X and Windows. "This is a pretty significant release in the sense that there's a lot going on in it," FileMaker Group Product Manager Rick Kalman told MacNewsWorld.

published yesterday, 1 day 10 hours 21 minutes ago

Will the iPad Bookshelves Be Sparsely Stocked?

There are rumors that Apple's iPad launch has already run into some rough patches that are uncharacteristic for the company, but how much substance is actually behind them? One frequently mentioned challenge is having a sufficiently impressive array of available content that's compatible with the device.

published on Friday, the 12. March 2010

Vlingo Faces Off With the Dragon: A Speech-to-Text Smackdown

When Apple enabled in-app purchases for iPhone applications, it seemed as though the days of "free" and "paid" versions of any given app were coming to an end. Soon, I thought, everything in the store would start out free as a teaser and then charge for an upgrade. That hasn't exactly panned out universally, but Vlingo's new voice application does charge in the way I thought all apps would charge by now.

published on Thursday, the 11. March 2010

EFF Knocks Apple for Dumping on Devs

The first rule of Apple's App Club is: You do not talk about App Club. Any developer who writes an app for the App Store is forbidden from making any public statements about the iPhone Developer Program Licensing Agreement. Second rule of App Club is: Said developers also can't sell their apps to other app stores, even if that app is eventually rejected by Apple.

published on Wednesday, the 10. March 2010

Thunder in Cupertino Makes It Rain on Wall Street

Apple has announced the iPad will hit retail shelves April 3, sending the adrenalin surging through competitors' veins. HP and several Chinese manufacturers have announced tablets in what might be perceived as an attempt to capitalize on the not-quite-a-laptop, not-really-a-netbook category.

published on Wednesday, the 10. March 2010

Valve Opens Pipeline for Mac Gaming

Valve one of the largest distributors of online games, has announced that it will make its Steam online gaming service and proprietary gaming engine, Source, available on the Mac. The service, Steamworks for the Mac, comes equipped with Steam Play, a feature that allows play on either a PC or Mac at no additional charge.

published on Tuesday, the 9. March 2010

The iPad's Cruel Teaser

Apple debuted its first TV ads for the iPad during the Academy Awards television broadcast on Sunday, doing what Apple does best: showing us dozens of things we can do with an iPad in just a few seconds, all to the tune of some hip music we've never really listened to before. Yet these ads are like walking into a restaurant where the menu doesn't arrive -- we're hungry and salivating.

published on Tuesday, the 9. March 2010