Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, More Fan Favorites to Headline iTunes Festival in London
Apple has announced that global superstars including Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson, and Jessie J are among the headliners at this year?s iTunes Festival in London. Running every night in September at the Roundhouse, the iTunes Festival features over 60 acts. Performances can be watched live or on-demand by millions of iOS users around the world on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, as well as by music fans with iTunes on their computer or in HD with Apple TV. ?This year?s iTunes Festival is the best ever with an incredible lineup of global superstars and stellar emerging artists,? said Eddy Cue, Apple?s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. Fans can win tickets to the iTunes Festival through competitions run by local media partners.
published on Thursday, the 30. May 2013, apple-hot-news
Mayo Clinic Brings New Innovations to Patient Care with iOS Apps
A new video features Mayo Clinic, which is using iPhone and iPad to transform how they care for patients. Practitioners say it?s helping patients and saving time. The clinic, known worldwide for its healthcare innovations, has developed a host of custom in-house apps, including one to give physicians instant access to patient records on an iOS device. Another app lets patients securely access their records and exchange messages with their providers. ?For patients dealing with any health issue, information is power,? says Mayo?s Dr. Brad Leibovich. ?The more we can empower them to understand what?s going on with them, the better they?ll feel and the better their outcomes will be.?
published on Wednesday, the 29. May 2013, apple-hot-news
Save on mobile bandwidth by disabling remote images in iOS Mail
I've just moved from a country where I had unlimited (really) data on my iPhone contract to one where data plans are metered and expensive. So this recent article by David Chartier, on the Finer Things in Tech web site, comes at the right time. It points out the simple setting in iOS to turn off automatic loading of images in Mail. As with Mail on OS X, you can load images later, but you won't need to load them for every message, saving download time and bandwidth. To change this setting, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts & Calendars, and toggle Load Remote Images to OFF. If you get an email with images, and want to see them, just tap on Load All Images in the message. This setting would make more sense if it only affected image downloads when using cellular data. But it's an all-or-nothing choice, so even when you connect via Wi-Fi, you'll need to d ...
published on Friday, the 3. May 2013, macosxhints
Ailing UK School Makes Dramatic Turnaround
A new video profiles Essa Academy, a once struggling school in one of the most disadvantaged areas of England. New principal Showkat Badat has reinvented the school as a hub of technology-assisted learning, and helped incorporate an ecosystem of Apple products, including iPad, Mac, and iTunes U, into the classrooms. The students? excitement about the technology and direct access to information is reflected in dramatically improved test scores. Since adopting the technology, Essa went from a 28 percent pass rate to 100 percent. ?I don?t see technology as an add-on, a nice option to have,? says Badat. ?It?s what enables learning and creates an environment that sparks creativity.?
published on Thursday, the 2. May 2013, apple-hot-news
Prevent Google Now from depleting iOS batteries
Google has added Google Now to its Google Search app for iOS. This provides local traffic information, weather data and more. Unfortunately, this also keeps GPS on permanently on an iOS device, depleting its battery. After installing the new Google Search app, I had noticed that my iPhone's Location Services icon was on permanently. I quit all apps that could be using GPS or location services, but it was still visible. I restarted the phone, and it was still visible. It turns out that it was Google Now, and I resolved the issue by deleting the Google Search app. You can also just turn off Google Now, in the Google Search app's settings. (See this screenshot by Dave Hamilton.) If you want to use Google Now, be aware that it will drain your battery, and remember to turn it off when you don't need it. ...
published on Wednesday, the 1. May 2013, macosxhints
Sync files across computers with BitTorrent Sync
BitTorrent Labs has released BitTorrent Sync, a tool for syncing files across computers, using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol. This app lets you choose a specific folder (or folders) to sync, and have it automatically synced on one or several computers. It runs on OS X, Windows and Linux. I find this an interesting tool. While I use Dropbox regularly, and depend on it for collaboration, and to sync a number of files between my two Macs, there is a limit in the amount of space available. (With the free version, it's 2 GB; paid subscriptions are available if you want more storage.) But also, Dropbox requires that anything you sync be put in its own folder. You can use symbolic links in a Dropbox folder, but if you want to sync the contents of a specific folder on your Mac to another Mac, this gets a bit complicated. ...
published on Tuesday, the 30. April 2013, macosxhints
Use Dropbox and Automator to automatically import photos from Android
I have an Android phone and wanted to automatically save photos that I take in iPhoto, similar to the Photo Stream feature that iPhones have. Dropbox has a feature that automatically uploads photos that you take into a folder called "Camera Uploads,” which is synced across all of my devices, so was a perfect candidate for creating a cross-platform Photo Stream. First, I needed to import the existing "Camera Uploads" photos into iPhoto, as the folder action only triggers when a new file appears in the folder. Once this has been done, the folder action can be created. Open Automator and create a new Folder Action. Select the folder "Camera Uploads" (in the Dropbox folder). Next, drag "Import files into iPhoto" from the list of actions to the main window. Select the album to import into, and choose whether to delete the photos after import or not (I chose not to). Save and give the folder action a name. Quit Automator and iPhoto. ...
published on Thursday, the 25. April 2013, macosxhints
Download iTunes Store purchases later
If you've ever been irked by the need to download iTunes Store purchases right away, or by seeing them constantly pop up in your Downloads queue until you download them, you'll be happy to know that Apple has changed this. You can now choose to download iTunes Store purchases later, as long as you're in a country which has iTunes in the Cloud. If you choose to download the content - a movie, TV show, or other large download - at a later date, it will simply be added to your Purchased list and you'll be able to download it later. Or not. Because in some cases, you may want to buy something on, say, an iPhone, but watch it on an Apple TV, and never actually download it locally. This will save a lot of time and bandwidth.
published on Wednesday, the 24. April 2013, macosxhints
Apple Reports Second Quarter Results
Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 second quarter ended March 30, 2013, posting revenue of $43.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. During the quarter, Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. And it sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in 2012. ?We are pleased to report record March quarter revenue thanks to continued strong performance of iPhone and iPad,? said Tim Cook, Apple?s CEO. ?Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.?
published on Tuesday, the 23. April 2013, apple-hot-news
Reduce FaceTime CPU when only using voice
FaceTime uses 100% CPU when in a call, probably because of video encoding. Yet it's possible to reduce CPU usage to 20% when you only need voice, extending battery life when mobile. To stop FaceTime from encoding video when in a call, make it fullscreen and it will move into its own space. Then switch back to your main desktop space with a four finger swipe to the right (or by simply switching to an app in that space). Although your camera LED stays on, this actually pauses the video, reducing your CPU from 100% to around 20%. You will also find that voice quality improves with less drop-outs and cracks because now your CPU is prioritized on encoding audio. Update: As mentioned in the comments, it's seems to be sufficient to just have FaceTime in a space and move to a different space, or to minimize the FaceTime window to the Dock. [kirkmc adds: I don't use FaceTime often, choosing rather to use Messages video chats or Skype, so I can't confirm ...
published on Monday, the 22. April 2013, macosxhints