FireCore updates aTV Flash, Seas0nPass for Apple TV 5.2
Developer FireCore has released updated versions of aTV Flash (black) and Seas0nPass for people hoping to jailbreak Apple TVs running the new v5.2 firmware. While Seas0nPass is simply the required jailbreaking utility, aTV Flash adds new functions, such as web browsing and wider format compatibility. FireCore notes that the Bluetooth keyboard support in v5.2 carries over to Flash's features....
published on Wednesday, the 13. February 2013, macintosh-news-network
Apple Updates Processors and Prices of MacBook Pro with Retina Display
Apple is making the MacBook Pro with Retina display faster and more affordable with updated processors and lower starting prices. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499 for 128GB of flash, and $1,699 for a new 2.6GHz processor and 256GB of flash. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now features a faster 2.4GHz quad-core processor, and the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook comes with a new 2.7GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory. Apple also announced that the 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of flash has a new lower price of $1,399. The new models are available starting today through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers.
published on Wednesday, the 13. February 2013, apple-hot-news
Microsoft Surface Pro Earns Repairability Score of 1/10 from iFixit
The iFixit team today tore apart the Microsoft Surface Pro, which began showing up in stores last week, to reveal what's inside of the PC/tablet hybrid. Microsoft has touted the Surface Pro's power and compact design, which has come at the cost of easy consumer access to the device. As it turns out, the Surface Pro is sealed with what iFixit termed "a metric duckload" of adhesive, which took more than an hour to overcome. We tried every method we could think of to free the display, including cutting the adhesive ? to no avail. This Pro required a pro method, and thankfully we had the required heat gun and guitar picks ready. The black glue we found around the perimeter looks like tar, and is unbelievably close in function, appearance, and smell to its road-paving cousin.Because of the adhesive, which holds both the battery and the display in place, and the more than 90 screws that hold the Surface Pro together, the tablet earned itself a repairability rating of 1/10. As TechCrunch notes, that is even less than Apple's iPad, which scored a 2/10 in repairability. The battery is not soldered to the tablet so it is technically removable, but iFixit warns that removing the battery or upgrading the SSD might kill the tablet because of the proximity of several cables. Other highlights of the teardown include:The removable Micron RealSSD C400 we found inside is responsible for the 64 GB of storage capacity. The tiny 1.8? form factor SSD can read at 500MB/s and write at 95 MB/s. Digging a little deeper, we found that a Marvell 88SS9174 SSD processor keeps all those Micron flash ICs running smoothly. This Surface Pro is all party in the front, business in the back ? cooling business that is. Two small fans help this Pro keep its cool. Microsoft spared no expense when it came to keeping the Surface Pro going. They sourced the Cadillac of batteries from LG: an Escalade 42 Wh unit. The battery is rated for 7.4 V and 5676 mAh. Impressive specs? Note that the iPad 4 has a 43 Wh battery, albeit at 3.7 V. Even with all this battery juice, the reported battery life of the Surface Pro is less than 5 hours.iFixit declared some of Microsoft's choices, like the glued-in battery "completely unnecessary." Apple's products have been similarly criticized by the site in the past, such as the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which also received a repairability score of 1 out of 10. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple Ranks Second in Mobile Shopping Satisfaction Behind Amazon • Apple Officially Loses 'iPhone' Trademark Dispute in Brazil, Appeals and Lawsuits Coming • Mobile Video Viewing Growing Fast, with Apple Way Out in Front on iPad's Strength • Apple Becomes Top-Selling Phone Manufacturer in Japan After Six-Year Battle • Apple Releases Firmware Battery Fix for 2010/2011 MacBook Pro 15- and 17-Inch Models • Minor Update of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Fixes Licensing Bug • Apple Exploring Alternatives to Traditional Passwords with Photo Identification as Authentication • Tim Cook Opposed Suing Samsung Over Mobile Device Patents
published on Wednesday, the 13. February 2013, macrumors
Apple Updates Retina MacBook Pro with New Processors, Drops Pricing on 13-Inch Models and High-End MacBook Air
Apple today announced that it has updated its Retina MacBook Pro lineup with new processors, also moving to lower pricing across the board on the 13-inch models.The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499 for 128GB of flash, and $1,699 for a new 2.6 GHz processor and 256GB of flash. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now features a faster 2.4 GHz quad-core processor, and the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook comes with a new 2.7 GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory.The high-end 15-inch stock configuration now has the twice the amount of RAM that it had previously and the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro prices are $200 and $300 cheaper than their predecessor models, respectively. In addition to the Retina MacBook Pro updates, Apple has also lowered the price of the 256 GB 13-inch MacBook Air by $100, now starting at $1399. Update: Apple has also eliminated the high-end stock configuration of the non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro, leaving only the base model starting at $1799. Customers can still configure the low-end model with all available options, meaning that the previous high-end configuration is still available, but it is no longer being promoted separately as a stock machine. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple Releases Firmware Battery Fix for 2010/2011 MacBook Pro 15- and 17-Inch Models • Minor Update of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Fixes Licensing Bug • Apple Exploring Alternatives to Traditional Passwords with Photo Identification as Authentication • Tim Cook Opposed Suing Samsung Over Mobile Device Patents • 4chan Founder Chris Poole Releases DrawQuest, an App Designed to Inspire Creativity • iOS 6.x Jailbreak Evasi0n Hits Seven Million Installs in Four Days • Vodafone UK Warning iPhone 4S Users Not to Upgrade to iOS 6.1 Due to 3G Issues • Enterprise Information Workers Favor Microsoft Tablets and Apple Phones
published on Wednesday, the 13. February 2013, macrumors
Apple deals: retina MBPs at discount prices
Currently, Apple's online store has a variety of refurbished Retina MacBook Pro models to chose from. The 13.3-inch Retina MBP with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of Flash Storage has been reduced by $260 to $1,439. A $300 price cut is offered on the 13.3-inch MBP with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage, now $1,699....
published on Tuesday, the 12. February 2013, macintosh-news-network
Forum roundup: Lightning connector woes and more
This week in the MacNN forums, members discuss the Lightning connector, trouble playing Flash, USB 3.0 PCI card recommendations and more. When Posting Junkie "subego" first used the Lightning cable on their iPhone 5, they were concerned about the longterm durability of this new connector, and recently their fears came true -- as is discussed in the thread titled "I Kinda Thought Lightning Might Suck". "Is this a mystery? A big problem? A little probem?" asks one confused Junior Member about a problem playing Flash on their Mac Pro, read more and join in here....
published on Tuesday, the 12. February 2013, macintosh-news-network
Adobe Hopes Pop-up Warnings Will Stop Office-Borne Flash Attacks
tsamsoniw writes "In the wake of the most recent zero-day attacks exploiting Flash Player, Adobe claims that it's worked hard to make Player secure — and that most SWF exploits stem from users opening infected Office docs attached to emails. The company has a solution, though: A forthcoming version of Flash Player will detect when it's being launched from Office and will present users with a dialog box with vague warnings of a potential threat." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
published on Friday, the 8. February 2013, apple-slashdot
New Apple TV Has A5X Chip and Single WLAN + Bluetooth Antenna
AnandTech has found that new Apple TV will use the same WLAN+Bluetooth antenna/chip combo that the iPhone 5 uses as well as an A5X processor rather than the A5. The unreleased Apple TV revision was first suggested by an iOS 6.1 firmware release for a previously unseen AppleTV3,2 model. Then, a new FCC application revealed that the new Apple TV would have slightly smaller dimensions than the currently shipping model. AnandTech writes:Instead of the A5R2 SoC (S5L8942) inside the Apple TV 3,1, this new device contains an A5X SoC (S5L8947) as shown in the screenshots I've taken of the Restore.plist file, though there are numerous others. It's entirely possible that Apple is again using different bins of the A5X, it's not possible to tell whether CPU or GPU cores are fused off at this point from my digging through the IPSW.The A5X chip (with Quad-Core graphics) was originally introduced to power the new Retina Display screen of the iPad 3. It was in the current Apple TV that Apple first used the 32-nm (die shrunk) A5 chip. It was believed at the time that Apple had used the Apple TV has a test platform to start ramping up that new 32-nm A5 processor before they started using it more broadly to power the still-for-sale iPad 2. It seems likely that Apple will follow the same pattern with this new A5X -- first ramp up production in the Apple TV, and later extend its use to the new iPad mini. The next iPad mini is believed to include a Retina display. Apple will need to upgrade the iPad mini's CPU/GPU in order to be able to accommodate the extra pixels of such a display. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Best Buy Offering Refurbished Airport Extreme Base Station for $89.99 • THX Releases iPhone App to Calibrate Televisions and Surround Sound Systems • 500px Photo Sharing Application Returns to App Store After Nude Photo Concerns • Apple Removes Vine from 'Editor?s Choice' for Featuring Pornographic Content • Minor Change in iOS 6.1 Makes it Easier to Find Passbook-Enabled Apps • Xcode Developer Toolset Updated to Version 4.6 • WhatsApp Messenger Comes Under Scrutiny Over Privacy Practices • 'Premeditated Flash Dump' of Apple Shares Behind Friday's Last-Second Slump, Says Trader
published on Tuesday, the 29. January 2013, macrumors
FCC Filing Reveals New, Slightly Smaller Apple TV Model
The FCC has published paperwork, discovered by Engadget, that Apple filed late last week on what appears to be a new model of the Apple TV. This follows on yesterday's revelation that iOS 6.1 included support for an as yet unrevealed AppleTV3,2 model. Engadget writes: While the diagram pictured above doesn't suggest any major changes to the device's appearance, it does list some slightly smaller measurements: 93.78mm square compared to the 98mm of the current model. That's certainly not the biggest of differences, but the measurements in previous Apple FCC filing have been spot on. The model number, A1469, is also one that we haven't seen before, but the documents unfortunately don't offer much else in the way of details (only confirmation of the same WiFi capabilities as the current-gen Apple TV).In the middle of this month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo -- who has been accurate in the past -- posted his expectations for Apple's various product launches this year. He expected a new Apple TV model late in the first calendar quarter, which lines up with the filing. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • THX Releases iPhone App to Calibrate Televisions and Surround Sound Systems • 500px Photo Sharing Application Returns to App Store After Nude Photo Concerns • Apple Removes Vine from 'Editor?s Choice' for Featuring Pornographic Content • Minor Change in iOS 6.1 Makes it Easier to Find Passbook-Enabled Apps • Xcode Developer Toolset Updated to Version 4.6 • WhatsApp Messenger Comes Under Scrutiny Over Privacy Practices • 'Premeditated Flash Dump' of Apple Shares Behind Friday's Last-Second Slump, Says Trader • Fully Functional MAME Emulator Appears in App Store
published on Tuesday, the 29. January 2013, macrumors
Verizon, Sprint and AT&T Confirm They Will Carry 128GB iPad WiFi + Cellular
Verizon and AT&T have confirmed to MacRumors that they will both carry the 128GB iPad's cellular variant when it launches on February 5th. Earlier, Sprint confirmed to iMore that it will also be carrying the new device. AT&T is particularly noteworthy because the carrier is offering $100 off tablets purchased with a 2-year data contract through February 14th. Apple added support for a number of new LTE carriers in the iOS 6.1 update that was released yesterday, and presumably all those carriers -- as well as normal iPad sales channels -- will carry the new 128GB iPad on launch day. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • THX Releases iPhone App to Calibrate Televisions and Surround Sound Systems • 500px Photo Sharing Application Returns to App Store After Nude Photo Concerns • Apple Removes Vine from 'Editor?s Choice' for Featuring Pornographic Content • Minor Change in iOS 6.1 Makes it Easier to Find Passbook-Enabled Apps • Xcode Developer Toolset Updated to Version 4.6 • WhatsApp Messenger Comes Under Scrutiny Over Privacy Practices • 'Premeditated Flash Dump' of Apple Shares Behind Friday's Last-Second Slump, Says Trader • Fully Functional MAME Emulator Appears in App Store
published on Tuesday, the 29. January 2013, macrumors