There will come a time when you would like to simply transfer a file from one iOS device to another or to a Mac; it's inevitable. When the time arises, you will discover as most of us already have that the process is not as straightforward as one would think, considering how powerful these devices are. The most common methods used up to this point have been emailing oneself, cloud services like iCloud or Dropbox, file sync with the USB cable and iTunes or pleading with the always capricious Camera Connection Kit.

Thankfully the developers at TwoManShow have developed a wonderful app to take the pain out of cross device file transfers with their Instashare app.

Instashare for iOS is like AirDrop for mobile devices as it quickly and painlessly copies any file from one device to another over WiFi or Bluetooth without a direct connection to the internet.

Instashare for OSX currently in beta, adds the ability to send files to and from your Mac and your iOS devices.

Both versions of Instashare are free; however, the iOS version is ad-supported and the ads can be removed by a $0.99 in-app purchase. Instashare for Android and Windows are currently in development.

Share between devices painlessly with Instashare originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What can be more comfortable to a cat than a pillow that blows warm air out of an optical media slot and vibrates ever so gently? That appears to be why Biru (Indonesian for Blue) loves to rest on a Mac mini owned by reader Peter Stagg and his wife.

Peter says, "Biru is my wife's British Short-haired and constant companion, especially when she is working in her study or on her laptop. He has claimed the lives of two laptops so far and is working on the Mac mini, very slowly. When he's not enjoying the warm air expelled from the optical media slot he lies across the front of the keyboard and doubles as a wrist support." Biru also seems to be keeping a Logitech headset nice and warm for his owners!

So there you have it! A cat who not only forces equipment upgrades from his owners, but who is also a working Mac accessory! If you've got a Caturday nominee to share, let us know via our feedback page. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link.

Thanks, Peter!

Caturday: Mac mini is Biru's pillow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Spark Inspector (US$39.99 single-license) offers an exciting new development tool. Targeting devs looking to refine their user interfaces, it enables you to interactively tweak view properties like frames and layers.

The app centers around an Interface Builder-like experience, with familiar-looking attribute and size inspectors. If you're comfortable in Xcode 4, you'll easily find your way around this tool.

In addition, it provides a custom layer inspector -- one that could (and, honestly should) inspire Apple. It enables you to update layer attributes like shadows and transforms, while viewing the results in real time.

Perfect for devs who otherwise write their interfaces in code (I am guilty as charged), it breaks out of the tweak-build-run loop that takes up so much time and energy in the normal development day. Instead, you apply your tweaks within the app itself, adjusting the interface until it looks just right.

This is the point at which Spark Inspector displays its one big weakness (keep in mind that it's still in development). Instead of producing an updated XIB (which would be okay) or PaintCode-like Objective-C output suitable for re-integration to your apps (which would kick ass), you take responsibility for transferring values back to your Xcode project.

Honestly, It's not a huge deal -- especially when your tweaks change a constant from say 50 to 58.5 -- but it's something that could be a killer feature in future updates. For now, you make notes of what values worked best for you. And no, there's no "bookmark this UI for later comparison" option either, another thing I would have liked to have seen.

One of Spark Inspector's nicest features is its 3D extrusion display. This pushes views out in parent-child hierarchies, letting you explore and select items with more tangible visualization than you get in IB.

Spark Inspector also offers a notification inspector, which may be useful for some devs. If you're already writing your UIs from code, however, you probably know how to set up a listener that logs notifications.

Setup is easy. There's a setup assistant for configuring Xcode projects, or (if you're paranoid like I am) add both the SparkInspector and libz frameworks to your dev builds, making sure to enable the -ObjC flag in Other Linker Flags. Include the SparkInspector header as such:

and enable the inspector in your application delegate, typically in application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:

Make sure you test using the simulator, and not (as I first tried) on device. The standalone Spark Inspector app (DMG) must be running. As soon as your app hits the "enable observation" stage, it seamlessly connects to the inspector, and you're ready to test and tweak.

For forty bucks, this promises to be a valuable tool that many devs will benefit from. If you'd like to kick the tires before you buy, there's a free 30 day trial available on the Spark Inspector website. If you do decide to buy, you purchase directly from the vendor.

DevJuice: Spark Inspector offers real time iOS interface inpection originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

On Wednesday, Apple sold its 50 billionth iOS app. TUAW was there keeping track of the excitement and monitoring the iTunes store. Many of our colleagues and readers used this contest as an opportunity to stock up on numerous free apps, to test and explore.

Were you one of them?

What apps did you download and which ones do you love? Here at TUAW, most of our choices were word of mouth -- Megan downloaded Moves while I gave the Target app a try. I managed to convince Steve Sande to pick up Enigma.

Sadly, none of us won.

What about you? Did you discover a really great app while trying to win the prize? Drop a note in the comments and share your discoveries. And take part in our little poll. We're curious as to how many times people "entered" with the intent of winning big.

View Poll

Weekend Poll: What apps did you discover via the 50 billionth download contest? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One thing that seems to be a common attribute of hard-core Apple fans is that they are connoisseurs of great design. It doesn't matter if it's the sleek curves of a new iMac or the minimalist slab of the iPhone 5, we love how the devices are designed with pleasing dimensions and an enjoyable tactile sensation. That's why I was instantly attracted to the Kenu Airframe (US$24.95), a simple and lightweight smartphone car mount that's perfect for present and future iPhones.

Design

Some of the car mounts I've received for review over the years have been expensive overkill. They often use a suction cup mount to stick to the front window of the car, which doesn't work very well in hot dry environments as they tend to pop off when they sit in the sun for a while, dropping your expensive phone to the floor of the car. There's usually a long arm designed to bring the iPhone closer to your hand, which has the undesirable effect of making the phone sway or bounce.

The Kenu Airframe is simplicity defined: it uses a soft plastic clip to attach to an air vent in your car. That clip rotates 90 degrees to properly fit thick or thin grilles on your vent. The idea of mounting the iPhone to your air vent is pure genius as well, as in hot conditions you'll most likely have air conditioning turned on, which will cool the phone and keep it from overheating.

Gallery: Kenu Airframe

An expandable jaw on the Airframe can hold most phones regardless of their width, giving you some semblance of insurance against needing to purchase another car mount should a future iteration of iPhone be a different width.

One other fun thing: if you need an impromptu stand for your iPhone, just grab your Airframe and a business or credit card from your wallet, then pop that card into the clip on the back. Voila! Your iPhone is standing up on its own.

Functionality

Installing the Airframe is quite simple. Find a spot in your car with a vent where you'd like to hang your iPhone, and push the clip onto the plastic grille. That's it. Next, grab your iPhone and push it into the jaws of the Airframe, and you're done. One note: if you have a thick iPhone case like the Mophie Juice Pack, the Airframe won't be able to grab onto your phone. It works swimmingly with a lot of the thinner cases.

The way the clip is designed virtually guarantees that the Airframe is not going to fall out of the vent grille. There's a lot of road construction going on near my home right now and it's practically "four-wheeling" territory on one of the main drags with a lot of bumps and dips. Even at the maximum speed allowed in the construction zone, the jarring and swerving didn't move the Airframe or my iPhone a bit.

The travel stand idea with the credit card is also brilliant. It's a perfect way to use a car mount anywhere -- something that you can't do with a "normal" suction-cup equipped mount.

If there are any negatives I can think of, it's that this might not be a good idea in the winter if you have the clips inserted into a vent blowing hot air onto your iPhone. I don't know for sure if this would cause your iPhone to shut off due to high temperatures, but it's worth thinking about.

Conclusion

Whether you use your iPhone in the car for entertainment, directions, or just to have your phone at arm's reach when you're driving, the Airframe is a simple, sturdy, and functional car mount that takes up very little room.

Pros

• Very compact design and light (less than 1 oz.) enough to carry anywhere
• Doesn't rely on suction cups to mount your phone in your vehicle
• Using the Airframe with a credit card as a travel stand for your phone is sheer genius
• Soft rubber material on the jaws and clips ensures a tight grip to phone and vent without scratching either

Cons

• Doesn't work with thicker cases like the Mophie Juice Packs
• Rather expensive when some car mounts are available for as little as $3.57

Who is it for?

• Anyone looking for an unobtrusive and functional car mount for their iPhone

Kenu Airframe: An ingenious car mount for your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I use my iPhone a lot to listen to music and podcasts in my car -- I connect it right up to my car stereo, and it's my main listening source while driving around LA. As a result, I really wish there were more options to control my music while driving around. Music- and podcast-streaming app Stitcher has introduced a new feature along these lines they're calling Car Mode, which is basically just a simplified interface with large, clear controls, so you can choose and play your music easily. There are also some other new features added into the app, including a new front page and faster playback. You can download Stitcher Radio for free on the App Store.

Unfortunately, this isn't really what I'm looking for -- this layout still requires you to pick up your phone and press buttons to use it, and that means that you'll still have to pull over to the side of the road to choose your music. (Because as we all know, using your cell phone while driving is illegal; just ask the LAPD.) What I'd really like to see from these streaming apps is Siri integration. I often will be driving around and get an urge to listen to a specific song or artist, and it'd be nice to use Siri to say something like, "Siri, play me some Rolling Stones," or "play me 'Bohemian Rhapsody,'" and have it automatically start playing.

I'm not sure that's entirely possible just yet, as Apple's API for Siri can be limited for some developers -- at this point, I think about all you can do is open an app. But hopefully that will change soon. The first streaming-audio app to let me start up and control songs in the car with just my voice will definitely have me interested in switching over to it.

Stitcher Radio announces a Car Mode, but it's not quite what I want originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Looking for some new games to play this weekend? You're in luck. Developer Gameloft is offering two of its premium titles, N.O.V.A. 3 and Gangstar Rio, for free this weekend in the App Store. Picking up both titles would normally set you back US$12 so jump on this deal quickly.

Gangster Rio is a 3D sandbox game in the spirit of Grand Theft Auto, complete with vehicles, combat and all the moral ambiguity you'd expect from a crime simulator. With over 60 missions, locations based on Rio de Janeiro and even an exploding football that as a weapon, Gangster Rio has a lot to offer for exploration.

First-person shooter fans should give N.O.V.A. 3 a spin for both single and multiplayer modes. The main storyline takes place over 10 levels of sci-fi combat, while the multiplayer is rounded out by 7 different play modes and support for up to 12 players. Most impressively the game has in-game chat for talking to your friends while you play.

Each game has micro-transaction options for beefing up your bankroll and ammo, so maybe this weekend, you will pass some of your savings from the free download into buying new weapons and vehicles. Or just revel in the knowledge that you got two free games. Either way act quickly, as this deal will be over soon.

Pick up Gangster Rio: City of Saints here at iTunes.

Pick up N.O.V.A. 3 here at iTunes.

Download N.O.V.A. 3 and Gangstar Rio for iOS free this weekend originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was lucky. My mom and dad had me while they were finishing up their graduate work in the 1970's at North Carolina State University. My dad was, at the time, a bit of a gadget nut. Of course, back then "gadgets" were more commonly found in the kitchen and came from companies like Ronco. My dad was more into the electronics side, and I remember seeing TAB books about building robots around the house. We never built those robots, but my dad did buy two pieces of tech which changed my life forever. One was an HP programmable calculator, the other was an Apple II.

For those who don't remember, the early programmable calculators from HP had less than 4 kilobytes of memory on them. My dad would program the equations needed to solve various math problems (he was getting his Ph.D in chemical engineering at the time), then he'd let the HP crank away on the math over the weekend. So yes, computers were a little slower back in those days.

While the HP lived at my dad's office on campus, and I only saw it a few times until he graduated, the Apple was a Christmas present for the whole family. He bought it in a bicycle shop, as there were no real computer shops at the time. In the back of this bike shop there was a hobbyist's corner filled with old computers like the Altair, and various electronics kits and projects for the budding "computer" hobbyist. As the Apple II had a keyboard and available software, it was an easy sell.

I still remember plugging it in to our color TV and hearing that beep as we loaded up Integer BASIC and tried out a game of Star Wars using a casette to load the program. We had 2 paddles to play, and Star Wars was hard to play with those paddles; one controlled your X-Wing's X-axis, and the other the Y-axis. That is no way to fly, for sure. More fun was Breakout, and later a Star Trek game where we obliterated ASCII Klingons in turn-based play. Even more fun than that: getting to program our own applications using AppleSoft BASIC, made from a little shop called Microsoft and licensed by Apple for use on the platform (the sad story of why AppleSoft BASIC for Mac never made it to market will have to wait for another day).

Within a few years I was happily using BASIC and fastidiously entering lines of code from books and magazines to make games, "screen art" and other fun things. When we moved to Tennessee I wound up getting a Laser 128, which, along with an external disk drive, allowed me to use some of the best software on the market -- for kids and adults.

Some of the software of the 1980's also had a big impact on me. Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set featured a visual interface for easily building virtual pinball tables. Music Construction Set similarly allowed the Apple II to turn into a synthesizer. Adventure Construction Set, while primitive, was used to make entire interactive worlds using little sprites and your imagination. All of those were from Electronic Arts, a rambunctious little gaming startup at the time. Then there was Broderbund, who brought me Lode Runner and The Print Shop. Lode Runner (still around today, sort of), had a level editor that allowed total freedom. I made dozens of levels; later, when I taught game design at a technical college, the lessons in game balance I learned from play testing those Lode Runner levels were not lost on me.

Then there was The Newsroom by Springboard (there's an archived review for the Atari here). Of course Broderbund made a killing with The Print Shop -- a simple software package which allowed anyone to easily print (on dot matrix!) posters, banners and other things. Every school in my town had a copy of The Print Shop, and judging from Kodak Disc photos of birthdays back then, I think most of the parents had a copy as well. But The Newsroom was like an advanced version of Print Shop. It was basically a desktop publishing package, complete with layout options, text editor, "image" editor, plus a couple of floppies worth of clip art. The Newsroom used the metaphor of an actual newspaper, complete with layout room and copy desk, to guide kids through the process of making newsletters. It was a powerful piece of software, and required several floppies (front and back!) to create and print your work.

I was also fortunate to grow up in a small East Tennessee town with a couple of taxpaying big companies located there. Eastman Kodak and Mead Paper had operations where I grew up, and because they paid so much in local taxes our schools were quite good. I remember attending computer programming camp where we worked on the Apple IIe at a local elementary school one summer -- apparently this was not common, and certainly rare in an otherwise agrarian locale. Along the way I got Microzine, a brilliant digital magazine available on floppy disk from Scholastic.

When my dad got our first Mac, it was an SE/30. The SE/30 was a great machine, but more importantly we got our first modem with it. Naturally, I was the first in my family to infect our computer with a virus. The virus came from a downloaded sound pack (remember when you could customize sounds on Mac OS?) featuring Monty Python noises. Virus writers definitely knew their audience. If you were on the Internet back then you'll also fondly remember how it was primarily a text interface, and "finding" stuff was largely done via print or word of mouth. Ah, BBS -- back when trolls were smote daily by mods.

I recall a youth filled with electronic toys, too. I still have a Speak & Spell, and a Entex Electronics Soccer game, briefly seen in TRON: Legacy. My dad was nice enough to get me several Erector and Capsela kits, and those awesome 100-in-1 electronics project kits, the old ones with springs and a million colored wires which inevitably became tangled up. Perhaps my most prized possession was Verbot from Tomy, a voice-recognizing robot which you could order around the house by shouting commands into a microphone. Verbot worked almost as well as Siri, so there you go.

In high school I helped our yearbook staff modernize. Mine was the first class to skip the old pasting methods, creating the yearbook digitally with Pagemaker (from Aldus at the time) and Freehand. I still have Freehand 1.0 on a disk somewhere. We also bought one of the first affordable color printers, which used thermal paper, and I remember being disappointed by the quality of the images.

One big side project in high school involved taking correspondence classes in electronics from NRI. My specific degree was to be in electronic music technology, but I only took the courses up until I made a mixer and a really terrible PC. The mouse was so cheap as to be non-functional by design. Building your own PC way back then gave one an appreciation for the fit and finish of Apple products.

It was also during high school that I continued my fascination for building things in software. I was never very good at it, but when HyperCard came along I churned out dozens of choose-your-own-adventure games. Often I was the only one playing them, but it further ingrained a sense that computers were the fastest way from thought to created reality.

By the time I was in college, and after switching from Electrical/Computer Engineering to Communications, Apple had started cranking out lots of Mac models. My first personal Mac was a Centris 610, the "pizza box" variety. I wanted a Mac TV, but had to wait until I treated myself to a graduation present of a PowerMac 8500. Until then I was an active member of several boards on Prodigy, took some time to make a fake ID with my Mac, and published a 'zine using, again, PageMaker. I remember not having enough RAM to load some of the photos.

The early-to-mid 90's were not exactly kind to Apple, but there were some important innovations. I watched my first QuickTime movie on a double-density disk in my Centris on afternoon in my dorm room. It blew my mind. That's also what got me into the video streaming business way back in 1999, at a now-defunct dot com startup. By then I had enough experience to know that if you could create something in the computer, you could *publish* that content in any form.

Now that video could be shown on a personal computer, the final wall had been broken. Of course I didn't consider bandwidth concerns, etc. but that was the origin point for my former stab at a multimedia shop, Superpixel.com. I founded Superpixel having grown up making stuff in computers, either in BASIC or hand-coded from a book, or in a construction set. Using software like HyperCard, and building electronics, printing yearbooks and editing video on a computer early in life also prepped me for the work I was to do later in life, both in education and blogging.

With a PowerMac 8500 under my arm, and After Effects 3.0 and Premiere 4 loaded onboard, I set off to film school. The 8500's analog output resulted in some hilarious attempts at visual effects. I spent far too much time painting fire and lightning effects frame-by-frame in Painter, and not nearly enough time writing scripts in Final Draft (still one of my favorite word processors ever). Still, by the time my final year rolled around the blue and white G3 had become available, so I grabbed one of those, a Canon XL-1 and an ultrawide SCSI hard drive with a whopping 8.5 GB of storage on it. With this setup I shot my final project, a sort of live action Robot Chicken, with a slight touch of Tim and Eric Awesome Show.

I briefly worked in the video industry, assisting AVID editors (who used Macs) and making labels and other assistant-editor duties on an ever-evolving lineup of candy colored iMacs. By the time I left that industry Apple was on the verge of releasing the first iPod.

After a brief stint making commercial websites and internal software solutions, all on Windows machines, I wound up teaching multimedia, then game design, again mostly on Dell computers. Still, 3ds max only runs on Windows, so I was quite fortunate to graduate from Bryce, Poser and Ray Dream Studio on my Mac to a "big boy" 3D toolset. While teaching I honed my skills in Photoshop, Director and Flash. Yes, this was back in the earlier part of the century when Flash was actually useful.

While teaching is awesome, there are times when you're sort of waiting around. During those times I would log in to Slashdot, or dial up a new site called Engadget. Phillip Torrone was a podcast host at the time, and I remember going from Phil's Flash hacking blog to Engadget. Through Engadget I discovered TUAW, where I wound up becoming the top-ranked commenter -- go figure! In 2004, Ryan Block wrote up my iPod case made from a milk jug (which hack-a-day had posted first). I also wound up writing a concept for a Mac mini-based home studio, much as Barb Dybwad did on Engadget, and that's how she and I met.

Eventually, the company then known as Weblogs, Inc. decided to launch a software blog, so Jason Calacanis asked David Chartier and I, along with Jordan Running and Marc Perton, to write for the new site. I learned a lot from or first lead, Marc, who went on to work at Consumer Reports before landing at gdgt. Funny how things come full circle, as gdgt is now also part of AOL!

Anyway, Download Squad was a sincere effort to find and review the best software out there, and report on the industry. What we didn't realize was that the industry would be forever changed as the concept of "software" became more mobile, more pervasive, ultimately morphing into "apps" with a huge growth curve in mobile. Download Squad was closed by AOL just a couple of years ago, but I like to think there's still a market opportunity in quality software reviews, covering all platforms that matter.

Once AOL acquired Weblogs (not long after the launch of Download Squad, incidentally), I started full time as a programming manager, in charge of several sites at once. I assisted in the administration of all of the foreign Engadget sites. I oversaw BBHub (a BlackBerry blog, can you imagine?), DVGuru and some of the rogue, hyper-niche sites we used to have -- like a site about web radio, and The Unofficial Yahoo Weblog (yep, that was a thing).

The rest is history, I suppose. As AOL shifted focus and CEOs, I kept working on making the sites great. We launched DIY Life at some point, with an eclectic and somewhat geeky bent, but that was folded into Lifestyle and is more home-focused now.

I'm incredibly proud of the team at TUAW, as many of us have been here for several years. Dave Caolo was at TUAW before me, in fact, and now he's full-time with AOL to make sure the trains run on time every morning. We were fortunate to have Laurie Duncan introduce us to Mike Rose, as his editorial love, deep knowledge and brilliant mind consistently bring clarity to the team and the site. (Mike's a damn fine writer, too. This farewell tribute to Steve Jobs is one of the best things I've ever read.) Steve Sande just joined AOL full-time as well, although I sometimes think he was installed as a patch during some overnight update -- the guy knows his Apple tech!

Oh, I also made a fart app video.

I've also been lucky to have worked with some amazing TUAW talent, now elsewhere. Brett Terpstra is now a developer with AOL Tech, but he produces a podcast and writes some amazing software. Drew Olanoff is kicking ass with TechCrunch. Christina Warren is with Mashable, but before she was big time, here's her interviewing David Pogue. I practically watched Nik Fletcher grow up! All amazing people, and there plenty of other, equally amazing ones I haven't listed because I'm afraid I'll forget someone -- it's been that great a ride.

Over the coming months I'll let the rest of the team tell their origin stories as well. Stay tuned for those, and lots more good stuff to come here on TUAW.

Origin Stories: Victor Agreda, Jr. originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Zoombies is a fascinating little game. It's made by a company called High Voltage that is probably best known for the Conduit shooter series, though they've been making licensed games for years (I remember visiting the studio for a tour back when I lived in Chicago -- they were based out in the Hoffman Estates suburb back then). Zoombies is a title that's been in development there for a while -- it was first considered for the Wii, then possibly for Xbox Live Arcade and finally has seen release on Apple's iOS.

It's easy to see why High Voltage was trying to make this game as a motion control title -- the idea is that you're a kid trying to fight an army of invading undead zoo animals ("Zoo-mbies," get it?), and you are armed with a weapon that you can toss according to a line you've drawn on the screen. Control on the Wii or Xbox would probably have been more direct, but on the iOS touchscreen it means you swipe your finger around, and then the weapon will follow your path. This creates some interesting timing issues -- you want to throw where an animal will be, not where they are. And once you've thrown your weapon, you can't throw it again until it finishes the path, which requires you to keep things as compact as possible.

Zoombies' real charm, however, is in the tone and the art style. The whole game, as you can tell by the subtitle, is done in a joyous sort of Mexican mariachi style, and it just oozes fun. The animals are menacingly cute, the kids are great and every level has plenty of "skull goals," which are super satisfying to complete. Even if you don't like that core line-drawing mechanic, this game is totally charming anyway. Clearly, this was a labor of love for High Voltage, and you can tell they had a lot of fun making the game.

Zoombies is available for US$2.99 on the App Store now, though there are a lot of in-app purchases included, so I wouldn't be surprised to see that price come down sooner if not later. Still, $3 is cheap, so if Zoombies interests you, you might as well grab it right away.

Daily iPhone App -- Zoombies: Animales de la Muerte is cute, arcade fun originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for May 17, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's clearly not the best time to be looking for a MacBook Air -- 13-inch versions are in especially short supply. The reason for the shortage will be obvious to those who follow Apple closely: it's almost time for the Apple World Wide Developer Conference starting June 10, and Apple is likely going to refresh the popular laptops with the next-generation Intel Haswell Processor.

Apple Insider reports that the only reseller with any significant inventory of the best selling model -- outfitted with a 1.8 GHz processor and 256 GB solid state drive -- is Best Buy. Typically, a constrained supply means new products are in the pipeline. The 11-inch MacBook Air is showing up as available at resellers.

Supply chain rumors have stated a new MacBook Air is on the way with the new Intel processors, with availability predicted for next month. The new chips from Intel promise to generate less heat, consume less power and allow longer battery life. The chips also have a new integrated graphics processor, claiming a 50 percent hike in performance.

Steve Jobs introduced the first MacBook Air in 2008, and promoted at the time as the world's thinnest notebook. Since then Apple has added new models, increased performance and battery life, and added new features such as USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt support.

MacBook Air supply dwindling as WWDC approaches originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earlier this month TUAW reported that iOS 6 had obtained FIPS 140-2 certification, "opening the door to more government use." It didn't take long for that door to swing wide open, as the Pentagon has now officially approved iPhones and iPads running a version of iOS 6 for use on secure government networks.

Two weeks ago, Samsung devices running the Knox security layer and BlackBerry devices including the BlackBerry 10 smartphones and PlayBook tablets were given the nod by the US military. Adding Apple's iOS devices to the mix was part of the platform-agnostic plans of the Pentagon revealed in February. Those plans detailed adding wireless voice, video and data capabilities for classified and unclassified communications by October 2013. The approved devices will begin to be used more widely in the military and intelligence communities late in 2013 or in early 2014.

iPhones and iPads already have a home in some parts of the government that don't require such strict security, but the new Pentagon certification should make for more widespread adoption of iOS.

[via AppleInsider]

US Pentagon grants security clearance to iPad, iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The next time you wish to hack into a Mac, it may help to grab your wand and book of spells. At the NoSuchCon security conference this week, security architect Alex Ionescu presented a talk where he revealed that special undocumented code on a Mac's SMC (system management controller) can be invoked by entering a secret spell used in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

That spell is "SpecialisRevelio," the words used by a wizard to "reveal charms and hexes that have been cast onto a target" or "reveal the ingredients of a potion." In an Ars Technica post about the secret spell, blogger Dan Goodin notes, "While most details are far too technical for this article, the gist of the research is that the SMC is a chip that very few people can read, but just about anyone with rudimentary technical skills can 'flash' update."

One of the possible attacks that Ionescu pointed out is infecting the SMC with code to pull out the FileVault key used to encrypt a Mac drive, although to implement this, an attacker would have to know details of the Mac like the model, year and screen size in advance.

Much more likely attacks provided by the spell backdoor include marking targets. The SMC could be programmed to emit audible or visual alerts through the fans or LED displays, which could point out a specific Mac to an attacker. A Mac could even be programmed to turn off at a certain time and refuse to boot again.

There's good news in all of this scary talk: to reflash the firmware an attacker has to have physical access to the Mac. Ionescu also reported that many of the SMC security holes were plugged in OS X Mountain Lion. A full copy of the presentation can be downloaded here (PDF file).

Your Mac's connection to Harry Potter originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Brandon Ashmore, a 21-year-old from Mentor, Ohio, has a lot to smile about as the winner of a US$10,000 gift card from Apple for being the person who downloaded the 50 billionth app from the App Store. Ashmore told NewsChannel5 in Cleveland that he had saved up five apps to download onto his iPhone 5 to try to win the contest, and thought he was being pranked when an Apple rep called him to relay the good news.

Ashmore finally believed the caller, saying that the Apple employee had "too much information" about him. The winning app was Say the Same Thing by SpaceInch, LLC, a free word game that has been floating around the Top Free Apps list since it was released in April 2013.

So what's Ashmore going to do with his $10,000 gift card? He refers to the credit as "free music, movies and books for life."

Apple's 50 billionth app contest winner saved up five app purchases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The US Air Force has opened up about how the iPad will help it realize over US$50 million in savings over the next 10 years, as 18,000 iPads replace flight manuals.

In an interview with The Street, US Air Force Major Brian Moritz described the huge drop in costs. "We're saving about 90 pounds of paper per aircraft and limiting the need for each crew member to carry a 30- to 40-pound paper pile [of flight manuals]. It adds up to quite a lot of weight in paper."

The Street notes that specific weight savings varies across aircraft. For instance, the iPads eliminate 250 pounds from a four-person C-17, and up to 490 pounds in a C-5 with a crew of 10.

In a related story from the civilian world, American Airlines recently described how its adoption of iPads has reduced the number of pilots reporting back injuries. American's VP of Airline Operations, Patrick O'Keeffe recently noted at the Tablet Strategy Conference in New York City, "We've reduced the single biggest source of pilot injuries, carrying those packs. And we are now able to save $1 million in fuel costs and stop printing all the page revisions."

US Air Force is saving huge money with iPads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• StackSocial: [Mac Software] MacX Video Converter Pro for Mac for free
• MacMall: [Apple Computers] MacMall Mac Blowout Sale: Up to $1,099 off Macs, iPads, and more
• Other World Computing: [Computer Accessories] OWC 2012 Featured Move 'em Out Sale: RAM, accessories, HDDs, more
• Monoprice.com: [24-Inch LCDs Or Larger] Monoprice 27" IPS-G LED LCD Display for $474 + $17 s&h
• eBay: [Home Security] Refurbished Philips WiFi Home Monitor for iPhone / iPad for $60 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] Simon Platinum 3 for Mac downloads for $150
• eBay: [Media Receivers] Denon 5.1-Channel 3D Network Receiver with AirPlay for $340 + free shipping
• Adorama: [Camera Accessories] Flashpoint Version II Carbon Fiber 65" Tripod for $100 + free shipping
• Cameta Camera: [Camera Accessories] Tenba Vector Digital Camera Bags from $35 + free shipping
• StackSocial: [Storage] The MacMate Pro 2-Year Plan for Mac and Windows downloads for $59
• StackSocial: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Building iOS Apps From Scratch Without Programming Course for $79
• MegaMacs: [MacBook] Refurbished Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz 13" Laptop for $360 + $15 s&h

iOS Software

• Paper Titans [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99] Paper Titans is a charming and gentle papercraft-inspired puzzle adventure set across 45 lovingly crafted and beautifully realized levels.

• Table Top Racing [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $2.99] Table Top Racing' pits all manner of crazy cars and automobiles against each other in a world of table top race tracks and oversized obstacles.

• Image Blender [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99] This is a simple and clean iPhone and iPad app with a single purpose, blending together images.

• Avernum 6 HD [iPad; Category: Games; On sale for $2.99, down from $6.99] Travel into the strange subterranean land of Avernum, full of dungeons, labyrinths, and constant warfare.

• N.O.V.A. 3 - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $6.99] The most immersive and impressive sci-fi FPS franchise on smartphones is back.

• VLC iRemote Free [iOS Universal; Category: Entertainment; Now free, down from $1.99] VLC iRemote lets you remotely control your VLC Media Player in style.

• Lapse It Pro o. Time Lapse Professional [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99] Lapse It is an award-winning full featured app for capturing amazing time lapse and stop motion videos.

• Laminar Pro - Image Editor [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] Laminar provides iPhoneography enthusiasts with a complete set of tools to quickly add life and emotions into their images.

• Gangstar Rio: City of Saints [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $4.99] The acclaimed Gangstar series is back on iPhone and iPad to offer you a whole new place to have criminally good fun.

• Shatoetry [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; Now free, down from $0.99] Shatoetry combines the addictive nature of magnet poetry with the convenience of a smart phone app.

• Pudding Monsters [iPhone; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] Pudding Monsters is a deliciously addicting puzzle adventure with wacky characters and innovative stick-'em-together game-play. Apple's App of the week.

• Pudding Monsters HD [iPad; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] Pudding Monsters is a deliciously addicting puzzle adventure with wacky characters and innovative stick-'em-together game-play.

• Aces of the Luftwaffe [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Fight waves of Axis planes and panzers until you hit the boss enemies.

• ScreenDIY [iPhone; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $0.99] ScreenDIY is right here to help you customize the look of your iPhone/iPod Touch ever cooler.

• Tiny Token Empires HD [iPad; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $8.99] Tiny Token Empires is an amazing mix -- it's a puzzle game.

• Sporos [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Sporos demands a mix of skill, luck and logic; in order to succeed, players will conduct clever experiments like scientists in a lab.

• Rail Maze Pro HD [iPad; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Rail Maze Pro HD is the iPad version of all-new Rail Maze Pro game.

• DMD Panorama [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99] Here is why you should get this panoramic app -- complete the circle: up to 360 degrees -- don't wait: we hate progress bars, the result is extremely fast -- get quality pixels.

• Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] You'll participate in visceral dogfights, protect cities and fleets, bomb enemy structures and even fly through tunnels.

OS X Software

• Quickipedia - Minimalistic Wikipedia Reader [OS X; Category: Reference; Now free, down from $1.99] Quickipedia is Wikipedia at its minimal best.Read Wikipedia in a beautiful, unobtrusive client only on your Mac.

• Appy Fridays [OS X; Category: Various; On sale] App Friday is discounting three OS X apps including Font Kit Mix, Bluenote and MultiMon.

• Skala Preview [OS X; Category: Graphics & Design; Now free, down from $4.99] Skala Preview is the fastest way to send pixel-perfect, color-perfect design previews from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad.

• Breezy [OS X; Category: Developer Tools; Now free, down from $1.99] This tiny app keeps track of your recent encoding sessions and you can get to base64 code of up to 7 recent images with a single click.

• Identical [OS X; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $0.99] There are times, perhaps only a few times per year, when you want to quickly find out whether two or more particular files (not folders) are exactly the same. In these cases, download and use Identical.

Daily Deals for May 17, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a new post at his Steamclock Software blog, Nigel Brooke writes how Apple has added new Objective-C-to-Javascript bridging to WebKit:

"This new API supports straightforward embedding of the JavaScriptCore interpreter into native Objective-C projects, including reading and writing variables and object members with appropriate type coercion, calling methods on JavaScript objects, and directly binding Objective-C objects into JavaScript."

The API performs its bridging using Objective-C protocols, enabling you to bind JavaScript calls to Objective-C implementations. If you'd like to give the tech a test, Brooke has posted a working sample project at github.

Hat tip iOS Dev Weekly

DevJuice: Apple's ObjC-JavaScript Bridge originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld Senior Contributor Kirk McElhearn has several excellent tips for iOS owners looking to sync their large iTunes library with their iPad, iPhone or iPod. Their libraries are so big that they exceed the capacity of their devices, which forces them to pick and choose what items they want to sync.

McElhearn walks users through two methods for syncing an oversized library. Each method lets you control which tracks are synced and which ones are not. The most efficient method allows users to sync playlists, individual artists, specific genres and even selected albums with their iOS device. You can read about the two methods in the article on Macworld's website.

When your iOS device runs out of storage space originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple was bringing production of an existing Mac line to the US. Cook shared some additional details on the project in an interview with Politco that was published yesterday.

Besides being assembled in the US, many of the components will be produced in the US. Cook confirmed to Politico that this manufacturing and assembly will be spread across many states in the US. Anna Palmer of Politico writes,

"We're going very deep in this project," Cook said, noting that not only will the final product be manufactured in the US, but so will many of its components. Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Kentucky are among the states he mentioned as having parts and assembly located.

Apple will invest US$100 million in this domestic manufacturing project. You can read the entire interview on Politico's website.

[Via MacRumors]

Tim Cook talks about US-made Mac with Politico originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NASA has a series of excellent educational iOS apps that appeal to adults and kids alike. Most have a strong scientific bent, but if you lean more towards art than science, NASA has an iPad app for you, too. Mixing a little bit of earth and planetary science with a keen eye for art, NASA has created its Earth As Art app, an iPad title that shows off the unseen beauty of our planet.

NASA's Earth As Art app picks the best images of Earth from the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1 and Aqua satellites. It also adds in some choice photos from the USGS Landsat image gallery. The satellites used to take these photos can measure light outside the visible range. The resulting images show you the Earth as you have never seen it before.

The images are presented in gallery format, allowing you to see a thumbnail of each stunning photograph. You can also switch to list format, which is sorted by geographical location. When viewing an image, you can pinch and zoom to look closely at a specific section. Each image has a brief and only slightly scientific description that you can access by tapping on the "i" in the corner. You may not understand the scientific reasons why each photo looks the way it does, but this is an art-centric app. You are expected to sit back and enjoy the images, not necessarily dissect them.

Besides stunning images, the app also has a several time-lapse photos that show changes in a specific location. I particularly enjoyed the Dubai series that shows the creation of its artificial palm islands and the rapid development of the area. The changes in just a short 11 years is unbelievable.

The NASA Earth As Art app is available for free. It's an iPad app and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Daily iPad App: NASA's Earth As Art shows us our beautiful planet originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a culture where high-profile employees at tech firms often jump ship for new, exciting and different opportunities, Paul Otellini is something of an exception. Yesterday, Otellini officially stepped down from his role as Intel CEO, a company he exclusively and faithfully worked at for nearly 40 years.

With Otellini stepping down to make room for newly minted CEO Brian Krzahnich, The Atlantic yesterday published an extremely interesting and in-depth feature on Otellini's history at Intel.

In a particularly candid moment, Otellini during an interview expresses regret for not having the foresight to get Intel's chips into the original iPhone. In an industry filled with such stories, Otellini's "what could have been?!" tale is especially interesting.

"We ended up not winning it or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we'd done it," Otellini told me in a two-hour conversation during his last month at Intel. "The thing you have to remember is that this was before the iPhone was introduced and no one knew what the iPhone would do... At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn't see it. It wasn't one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought."

The hard lesson learned, Otellini explained, was that he should have followed his gut instinct and not relied so strictly on cold hard data.

As for Apple's volume being 100 times what anyone thought, that's an interesting point to consider. It's easy to take the iPhone's success for granted and not really appreciate that Apple's foray into the smartphone market proved to be far more successful than anyone could have initially imagined.

Remember that when Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPhone at Macworld in 2007, he said that Apple's goal was to simply grab a 1 percent share of the then 1 billion-strong mobile phone market. In other words, Jobs said that Apple was hoping to sell 10 million iPhones in the 2008 calendar year.

About five and a half years later, Apple managed to sell 47.8 million iPhones in a single quarter. Indeed, Apple at this point has cumulatively sold well over 300 million iPhones worldwide, an impressive figure that becomes all the more impressive when one considers the net number of iOS devices sold overall.

All that said, let's keep in mind that even if Otellini did all he could to secure a deal with Apple with respect to the iPhone, Apple may have still chosen to go with ARM-based chips which, while less powerful, remain much more energy efficient.

Moreover, Steve Jobs in his biography briefly explained why Apple didn't tap Intel to manufacture chips for the iPad and the iPhone.

Every quarter we schedule a meeting with me and our top three guys and Paul Otellini. At the beginning, we were doing wonderful things together. They wanted this big joint project to do chips for future iPhones. There were two reason we didn't go with them. One was that they are just really slow. They're like a steamship, not very flexible. We're used to going pretty fast. Second is that we just didn't want to teach them everything , which they could go and sell to our competitors.

Otellini, who was interviewed for the Jobs biography, had a different take on things. He told Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson that the real reason the two companies didn't sign on the dotted line was because they couldn't agree on a price and who would control the design of the chips.

Outgoing Intel CEO regrets not getting Intel CPU in iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Deadline is reporting that the CW network is bringing its content to Apple's favorite little hobby -- the Apple TV.

During CW's upfront presentation today, CW President Mark Pedowitz explained that the CW network is now reaching "more viewers on more platforms" while stressing that 20 percent of the network's viewership now stems from digital sources.

MacRumors reached out to CW and was told that its upcoming app will be featured on the Apple TV homescreen and will operate similarly to its current Xbox app.

It's a dedicated CW app that will work like our Xbox and mobile and tablet apps - no cable authentication required, full episodes of our shows available next day after air, ad-supported.

MacRumors points out that Apple's deal with CW marks the first time Apple has struck a deal with a single television network. While television shows are available via Apple TV, they must be accessed via conduits such as Netflix or iTunes.

CW says that its app will appear on the Apple TV in the next few weeks, though a precise launch window wasn't given.

It remains to be seen if other networks will eventually follow suit and make their way onto the Apple TV as well. One network that many viewers want to hit the Apple TV is HBO. During an All Things D talk this past February, HBO President Eric Kessler said that he anticipates HBO will eventually land on Apple TV though no specific time frame was given. In the meantime, the company this year added AirPlay support to its HBO Go app for iOS.

Meanwhile, Apple still likes to tout the Apple TV as nothing more than a hobby. While sales of the device have grown considerably over the past few years, it still doesn't rake in the kind of cash that Apple's other products do. Like clockwork, whenever Apple CEO Tim Cook is asked a question about Apple's ambitions with the Apple TV, he routinely answers that the company will "continue to pull the string and see where it leads us."

Dedicated CW app coming to Apple TV in coming weeks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earlier this week we reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook is slated to testify at an upcoming Senate hearing focusing on the offshore tax practices of American corporations. As it stands now, Apple currently has over US$100 billion holed up overseas that it's hesitant to repatriate due to less-than-ideal US income tax rates.

What's more, Apple employs a number of accounting mechanisms to both delay and lessen its tax liability.

With his congressional debut just a few days away, Tim Cook sat down for a rare interview with the Washington Post where he explained his plan to suggest a number of proposals which, if enacted, would encourage companies like Apple to bring back billions of dollars to the States.

Cook explained:

If you look at it today, to repatriate cash to the US, you need to pay 35 percent of that cash. And that is a very high number. We are not proposing that it be zero. I know many of our peers believe that. But I don't view that. But I think it has to be reasonable

Remember that while Apple's tax practices often make headlines, many companies employ the same tax avoidance strategies that Apple itself uses. To wit, the Post points out that over 1,000 US companies together have approximately $1.7 trillion in overseas accounts.

During the interview, Cook also emphasized Apple's commitment to creating jobs in the United States while highlighting how much in taxes Apple already forks over to the government.

Specifically, Cook explained that Apple is currently on pace to pay $7 billion in federal taxes in 2013.

When one adds together Apple's state and federal tax liabilities, Cook said that "Apple is paying approximately $1 million an hour in just domestic income taxes."

Cook also issued a few soundbites regarding Apple's tax situation to Politico, making a point of noting that Apple does not shift any of its profits earned domestically to overseas accounts.

I can tell you unequivocally Apple does not funnel its domestic profits overseas. We don't do that. We pay taxes on all the products we sell in the U.S, and we pay every dollar that we owe. And so I'd like to be really clear on that.

As a final point of interest, Cook told the Washington Post that Apple may very well be the largest corporate taxpayer in the US.

Tim Cook talks Apple's tax situation ahead of next week's Senate hearing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to a new report from IDC, the smartphone market continues to be dominated by Android and Apple's iOS. Together, the two mobile operating systems accounted for a whopping 92.3 percent of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013.

Impressively, Apple, during the quarter gone by, shipped 37.4 million iPhones, a 6 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago. Shipments of Android-based smartphones, however, increased by 79.5 percent. Consequently, Apple's share of smartphone shipments last quarter slipped from 23 percent down to 17.3 percent.

IDC's report notes:

Apple iOS marked its largest ever first quarter volume on the strength of its iPhone shipment volumes, yet the operating system posted a year-over-year decline in market share and lower year-over-year shipment growth than the overall market. Although demand remains strong worldwide, the iOS experience has remained largely the same since the first iPhone debuted in 2007. That appears ready to change as online rumors and speculation predict a massive overhaul of the user interface when iOS 7 debuts.

Underscoring how fast the smartphone market continues to grow, IDC's data reveals that worldwide smartphone shipments shot up 59.1 percent year over year, increasing from 125.4 million units shipped during Q1 2012 to 199.5 million units in Q1 2013.

Some other notes of interest from IDC's report include the fact that Samsung by itself accounted for 41.1 percent of Q1 2013 smartphone shipments, representing 54.6 percent of all Android-based smartphones shipped during the quarter.

The largest year over year gain was recorded by Windows Phone as shipment volume increased 133 percent, hitting a total of 7 million units for the quarter. During Q1 2013, Windows Phone devices accounted for 7 percent of all smartphones shipped while BlackBerry's share of smartphone shipments fell to 6.3 percent.

iOS and Android comprised 92.3% of Q1 2013 smartphone shipments originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

RIM announced earlier this week that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is coming to both iOS and Android as a free download later this summer.

While RIM's market share continues to plummet, the number of folks who still use BBM is rather impressive. In a post on BlackBerry's official blog earlier this week, RIM boasted that BBM services more than 60 million active users per month and that BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each and every day.

For iOS users excited to explore, or perhaps get reacquainted with BBM, I should point out that BBM for iOS will only work on iPhones running iOS 6. In other words, iPad owners need not apply.

The news comes courtesy of Trusted Reviews which was able to get a direct statement on the matter from BlackBerry Software Portfolio head Vivek Bhardwaj.

"Smartphone is our real focus and and again it comes back to what BBM is," Bhardwaj explained. "If you look BBM and the engagement and the activity, it's because it is mobile, because people are on the go."

That's not to say that BBM for the iPad won't eventually see the light of day, but for the time being, BBM on smartphones appears to be the only thing on RIM's radar.

Explaining the company's decision to avoid iPad and other tablets in order to focus the BBM app launch on smartphone devices, he stated: "When you start looking at tablets, computers and other screens, the usage model changes and behaviour changes. For us right now the absolute focus is getting BBM onto smartphones.

As previously indicated, BBM for iOS will include the following features:

• The immediacy of BBM chats
• Multi-person chats
• Voice note sharing
• BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more

Sorry iPad owners, BBM for iOS will be iPhone only originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mosiaque is a very original puzzle game that I haven't quite figured out yet. It appeared on the App Store a little while ago from a company called Winning Blimp, and the core idea of the app is that you need to clear the screen of colored squares by firing them in from the sides.

The issue, however, is that if the square you shoot in hits a square of another color, it will switch out instead. Squares of the same color get cleared off, so your goal is to try and fire squares of the same color together, lining them up and clearing them off the board, refilling your meter for more shots. Mosiaque is the kind of game that's simple to play, but fairly tough to master -- even with the playtime I've put in, I'm not completely sure how deep the game's strategy gets. But there is a solid amount of fun to learning the game's mechanics, and as you play through the levels, there are some new tricks, too. Eventually, black blocks show up which will block your shots, and "void" blocks will appear that keep your shot meter from filling back up if not cleared right away.

Mosaique is a lot of fun, and it's very original, both in look and in gameplay. It's worth noting that there are no in-app purchases in this one either. Buy the game for US$0.99, and you'll have access to the game's unlimited parade of levels. That should be more than enough to get you figuring out exactly how it all works.

Daily iPhone App: Mosaique is an original and inventive puzzle game originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

App analytics firm App Annie has released a new report about portable gaming, and announced that iOS gamers are now spending more money on Apple's platform than on traditional handheld titles. The light blue above is last year's fourth quarter, the dark blue is this year's first quarter, and as you can see, both iOS and Google Play spending is up, and has actually topped spending on traditional handheld devices like the Nintendo 3DS and the PS Vita.

This is mostly due, says App Annie, to a seasonal drop in traditional handheld game spending -- game sales always tend to go up over the holidays, and then drop in the new year. But it's also clear that iOS is growing a lot -- and in fact, in the chart above, it's actually higher than even traditional gaming was last quarter.

We'll have to see how this plays out going forwards. Both the PS Vita (made by Sony) and the 3DS (made by Nintendo) have packed schedules for software releases this year, and the Sony handheld is set to be supported by the release of the new PS4 console. So this battle isn't over at all yet. But smartphones are clearly a dominant force in the world of portable gaming, and consumers are happy more and more to spend their money on iOS games rather than another traditional handheld title.

iOS games spending overtakes dedicated games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld blogger Steven Aquino wrote a fascinating piece today on how Apple's Retina display technology has helped him -- a legally blind individual with extremely low vision -- to be able to enjoy Apple's products as if he had no vision limitations at all.

Aquino says that he had used the original iPhone and iPad successfully with their displays set to full brightness, but "seeing my iPhone 4's Retina screen was a total game-changer." The high pixel density -- 326 pixels per inch -- and turning the screen brightness all the way up made it so "even the smallest text was readable, and I was able to spot details in images that were previously indistinguishable."

How much of a difference does a Retina display make to Aquino? "Simply put, I will no longer use an iPhone or iPad that doesn't feature a Retina display. Having used a Retina display, I can't go back to something that makes using my devices that much more difficult." Of course, he admits that having the screen brightness turned all the way up does eat up his battery charge quickly, so much so that a Mophie Powerstation Duo is in his favorite device bag at all times.

Apple's Retina display aids accessibility originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Back in April, Apple gave shareholders yearning for a bigger cut of Apple's profits something to be happy about. Specifically, Apple a few weeks ago announced that it was upping its quarterly dividend by 15 percent, raising it from $2.65 a share to $3.05 a share.

Apple's first dividend payment under the increased amount is scheduled to go down tomorrow. Shareholders with shares that were purchased on or before May 9, 2013 will be eligible for the increased quarterly dividend.

Since Apple first announced its increased quarterly dividend, along with a massive increase to its stock repurchasing plan, shares of the company have gone up by 7 percent.

Apple noted in a press release at the time that it is now one of the largest dividend payers in the world, "with annual payments of about $11 billion."

Apple's first $3.05 quarterly dividend payout scheduled for tomorrow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The company behind the Pebble smartwatch, which not only looks awesome but connects up to your iPhone, has picked up US$15 million in funding from venture capitalists, and has released yet another version of its SDK. The funding is obviously a solid chunk of change, and should help Pebble not only fulfill its current orders (the company is still aiming to get watches out to all of its supporters from a successful Kickstarter bid), but push the company on into the future as well.

This latest SDK release, called the PebbleKit, allows for two-way communication back and forth between the watch and your smartphone, which means there are lots of new options for apps to work with the watch as a display or even a remote control. The company has also released a Sports API, which should allow for GPS-enabled apps (like running apps) to send and receive information from the watch. Pebble's initial set of features was quite limited, but this API update should make a lot of new apps possible, and of course we'll likely see more in the future.

You can pre-order a Pebble watch on the main website right now for $150.00. Or you may want to wait just a bit longer, if you happen to believe those crazy rumors about an Apple iWatch.

Pebble receives $15 mil in funding, releases SDK and Sports API originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• StackSocial: [Mac Software] MacX Video Converter Pro for Mac for free.
• MacMall: [Apple Computers] MacMall Mac Blowout Sale: Up to $1,099 off Macs, iPads and more.
• Other World Computing: [Computer Accessories] OWC 2012 Featured Move 'em Out Sale: RAM, accessories, HDDs and more.
• Monoprice.com: [24-Inch LCDs Or Larger] Monoprice 27" IPS-G LED LCD Display for $474 + $17 s&h.
• eBay: [Home Security] Refurbished Philips WiFi Home Monitor for iPhone / iPad for $60 + free shipping.
• MegaMacs: [MacBook] Refurbished Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz 13" Laptop for $360 + $15 s&h.
• Other World Computing: [Media Receivers] NewerTech NuStand Alloy Display Stands from $16 + $4 s&h.
• eBay: [Media Receivers] Denon 5.1-Channel 3D Network Receiver with AirPlay for $340 + free shipping.
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Software] YourtTrip for Mac downloads for $9.
• Adorama: [Camera Accessories] Flashpoint Version II Carbon Fiber 65" Tripod for $100 + free shipping.
• Cameta Camera: [Camera Accessories] Tenba Vector Digital Camera Bags from $35 + free shipping.
• StackSocial: [Storage] The MacMate Pro 2-Year Plan for Mac and Windows downloads for $59.

iOS Software

• Asphalt 7: Heat [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Burn up the street with the fastest and most visually stunning edition of the Asphalt series. Apple's App of the week.

• Pudding Monsters [iPhone; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] Pudding Monsters is a deliciously addicting puzzle adventure with wacky characters and innovative stick-'em-together game-play.

• Pudding Monsters HD [iPad; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] Pudding Monsters is a deliciously addicting puzzle adventure with wacky characters and innovative stick-'em-together game-play.

• Aces of the Luftwaffe [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Fight waves of Axis planes and panzers until you hit the boss enemies.

• ScreenDIY [iPhone; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $0.99] ScreenDIY is right here to help you customize the look of your iPhone/iPod Touch ever cooler.

• Tiny Token Empires HD [iPad; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $8.99] Tiny Token Empires is an amazing mix -- it's a puzzle game.

• Sporos [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Sporos demands a mix of skill, luck and logic; in order to succeed, players will conduct clever experiments like scientists in a lab.

• Rail Maze Pro HD [iPad; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Rail Maze Pro HD is the iPad version of all-new Rail Maze Pro game.

• Pocket Cycle - Period & Fertility tracker [iOS Universal; Category: Health & Fitness; Now free, down from $0.99] Pocket Cycle keeps track of your period and fertility without all the inputting and upkeep of similar apps. Just tap the visual calendar to enter in your last period and choose your cycle length. That's it.

• iFileExplorer Pro - View and manager all files via WiFi or USB [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] iFileExplorer Pro not only integrates all the features of various iFileExplorer versions, but also has unique features like Web Download, and it supports both iPhone/iPad.

• DMD Panorama [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99] Here is why you should get this panoramic app -- complete the circle: up to 360 degrees -- don't wait: we hate progress bars, the result is extremely fast -- get quality pixels.

• Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] You'll participate in visceral dogfights, protect cities and fleets, bomb enemy structures and even fly through tunnels.

• TextCrafter 2.0 ~ Craft & Share Text [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $2.99] TextCrafter is a notes app for iPhone and iPad. Packed with features designed to allow you to quickly write messages, manage and search you notes and share your writings across your social networks.

• ProCollage [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $1.99] ProCollage is a powerful and professional photo collage app with almost all features you can imagine.

OS X Software

• Skala Preview [OS X; Category: Graphics & Design; Now free, down from $4.99] Skala Preview is the fastest way to send pixel-perfect, color-perfect design previews from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad.

• Breezy [OS X; Category: Developer Tools; Now free, down from $1.99] This tiny app keeps track of your recent encoding sessions and you can get to base64 code of up to 7 recent images with a single click.

• Identical [OS X; Category: Utilities; Now free, down from $0.99] There are times, perhaps only a few times per year, when you want to quickly find out whether two or more particular files (not folders) are exactly the same. In these cases, download and use Identical.

Daily Deals for May 16, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've been using the Google Hangouts app on the iPhone since it was announced on Wednesday, and I've really liked it so far. I haven't messed around with it much on my iPad, except to install it, but it was enough for my Android-using husband to be jealous that we got it first.

Like Apple's Messages, it's pushing conversations to my iPhone when I'm not at my computer, a feature which I've grown to love in iOS and OS X. The Hangouts app has a great feature to snooze notifications, which is great if you're going to be at the computer for awhile and don't want the iOS app constantly alerting you to new messages. However, there's no way to change your status and alert people you're having discussions with that you might be out of pocket for a bit, but it's something that's not in Apple's Messages either.

The biggest missing feature in Hangouts is SMS integration, and Google vows it's on the way. Google community manager Dori Storbeck said the feature was the most-requested one and is coming soon.

However, as TechCrunch points out, the SMS integration most likely will be Android-only because of permissions limitation on iOS. It's a shame, because I wouldn't mind having some Hangout messages default to texts if a reliable data connection isn't available.

Google Hangouts app to integrate SMS "soon" originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for May 16, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

King, which used to be called King.com it pulled a name change at GDC this year, has announced that it has 70 million daily active players, which is a crazy number. By far, King's biggest title is Candy Crush Saga. The company notes that the game has 15.5 million active players on Facebook every day. Candy Crush Saga is also a big hit on iOS, where it consistently appears in the top charts for both most downloaded and top grossing.

King also announced its intention to bring Pet Rescue Saga to iOS. That game has 6 million daily players on Facebook, and King says it will be the third saga game (along with Bubble Witch Saga) to make the leap to mobile platforms. Pet Rescue Saga will arrive on both iOS and Android later this summer.

King's success is just phenomenal. It's impressive for any form of media to reach 70 million people, and for that to happen daily is just crazy. This casual games market can blow up overnight and shrink just as fast (just ask Zynga), but for now, King is doing impressively well.

King claims 70 million daily active players, Pet Rescue Saga coming soon to mobile originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Attendees of Macworld/iWorld and WWDC have always known that if they needed an Apple fix during their conference stay, they could walk over to the Apple Store at the corner of Stockton and Ellis streets. The SFGate blog is reporting that the company has submitted plans to open a new flagship store on Union Square a few blocks away.

The new store is expected to occupy a space at Stockton and Post streets that was previously the home of a Levi's store. The design of the new building is intriguing -- it's a silver box-shaped store with an all-glass front, with the iconic Apple logo seemingly floating in midair.

Apple said that the move to the new location -- about 45 percent larger than the existing store -- will increase employment by about 50 jobs over the existing 350. There's currently no schedule for the renovation and relocation.

San Francisco politicians were thrilled by the news, with Supervisor David Chiu saying that he hoped the new flagship store would "turbo-charge" the Union Square area, and Mayor Ed Lee saying his office is working with Apple on green initiatives.

Apple to re-locate flagship store in San Francisco originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

On a recent trip, I found I had failed to add copies of my auto-resizing drop tools to my travel MacBook Air. My droplets allow me to convert images to TUAW-standard sizes, namely 225 pixels for small images and 456 pixels for banner images. (See? Information you never thought you'd need to know.)

What a lot of people don't realize is that OS X offers solutions for these kinds of basic image tasks.

First and foremost is Preview. This app is simply terrific. Yes, I know, Apple took some really helpful utilities like Link Annotation out of the app on its road to Mountain Lion. (Time? Feature trimming? It's hard to say.) Even so, Preview is the best app on your computer that nobody uses enough.

Preview offers a surprising tool suite that combines a little bit of Photoshop and a little bit of Acrobat into one app. In addition to annotating PDFs, you can rotate and crop images using Preview's Tools menu. You have access to lasso selection, color correction, and image fitting, among many other features.

At one point Steve Sande and I threw around the idea of writing an entire book on Preview (there's plenty of interesting material in there!) but ended up deciding against it. Unfortunately, demand leads sales and too few people know how powerful Preview can be.

To resize an image, choose Tools > Adjust Size or click the resizing icon you see at the top-right of this post's main image. The icon looks like an arrowed line in a square box. An Image Dimensions panel slides into view, as you see here.

Select the new width you want to use, making sure the small icon next to the two text fields remains in the locked position. This ensures that the height and width scale proportionately, so the resulting image is sized just right.

Preview isn't the only resizing solution on your Mac, however. The "sips" command line tool offers another take on image processing, one that's especially convenient for scripting and batch processing.

For example, if you want to resize an image to fit a given width, you can ask it to resample to the pixel count you supply. Here's how you might do that.

% sips --resampleWidth 225 input.png --o output.png

You can also perform many of the same tasks as preview. For example, you might rotate an image clockwise by 90 degrees:

% sips -r 90 input.png -o output.png

or convert a file from PNG to JPG format:

% sips -s format jpeg input.png -o output.jpg

OS X also supports related based on "folder actions". These refer to AppleScripts that you attach to folders, so when you drop items into the folders, they run those scripts. It's easy to take a peek at some of the system-supplied actions.

Create a new folder on your desktop. Control-click or Right-click it and choose Services > Folder Action Setup from the contextual pop-up menu. Select a pre-built script like "Duplicate as JPEG" or "Rotate Left" and click Attach. Finish by checking "Enable Folder Actions". Your new folder applies the attached script to any file you drop into it.

If you're an intrepid system-modding type, you can expand these script choices by adding items to ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts. (The system supplied versions all appear in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts).

Scripts are built around a standalone Image Events application, found in /System/Library/CoreServices. This app provides a "faceless background application" that wraps sips for AppleScript scripting. Apple has documented Image Events as part of its developer library, and its docs point to this external website that details how you integrate scripting with image manipulation requests.

I'll leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, but a bit of Googling will turn up already-built image solutions ready for testing.

Here at TUAW, we regularly use these for image resizing -- and they're exactly the bits I forgot to pack on my trip.

So did I get my work done while gone? You bet I did. And a big part of that reason is how sips and Preview enable you to step up to image challenges without any third party software needed.

Got some OS X image processing tips? Share them in the comments.

Preview, sips, and more: OS X image processing tools originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Check Software Update, because Apple has released iTunes 11.0.3. This update offers a few new features, including a new MiniPlayer that highlights album artwork and has a built-in progress bar. That should make many people happy.

Also, iTunes 11.0.3 has improved the songs view and has support for multi-disc albums, in that they now appear as a single album, which is great.

You can download it now and check out the changes right away. Have fun.

iTunes 11.0.3 now available originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today, iPhone 5 users have another way to keep their phone charged up for those times when the battery is getting sucked dry. Mophie, which previously brought us the Juice Pack Helium and Juice Pack Air for iPhone 5, today announced the Juice Pack Plus (US$119.95).

The case comes in hues of black, white and PRODUCT(RED), and differs from its siblings in thickness, weight, and capacity. The battery in the Plus is a whopping 2,100 mAh, while the Air has 1,700 mAh of extra power and the Helium provides 1,500 mAh. Weight for the Plus and Air is 2.68 oz., while the Helium weighs in at a svelte 2.44 oz. The Plus is 0.70 inch thick, the Air is 0.63 inch thick and the Helium is just 0.59 inch thick.

The battery of the Juice Pack Plus is enough to give your iPhone 5 120 percent of a charge -- enough to top it off completely once and then have enough juice left over to make some emergency calls.

Mophie says that the black model will ship within one or two days; the white model ships next week on May 22nd, and the special PRODUCT(RED) model will be available on May 31st. We hope to have a full review of the Juice Pack Plus soon.

New Mophie Juice Pack Plus gives your iPhone 5 extra oomph originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW has covered the US Department of Justice price-fixing case against Apple for the past several years. Now an email sent from former Apple CEO Steve Jobs to James Murdoch of News Corporation (parent company of HarperCollins publishers) is being interpreted by the DOJ as showing that Apple and HarperCollins conspired with other publishers to raise e-book prices. John Paczkowski at AllThingsD pointed out yesterday that the DOJ might be taking the email out of context.

The seemingly incriminating portion of Jobs' email is this: "Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99." As Paczkowski points out, reading the entire email, it appears that Jobs was simply using those price points as "price caps in broader pricing tiers" and that he "openly concedes that the agency model he's proposing may well fail."

Jobs wrote, "We simply don't think the e-book market can be successful with pricing higher than $12.99 or $14.99. Heck, Amazon is selling these books at $9.99, and who knows, maybe they are right and we will fail even at $12.99. But we're willing to try at the prices we proposed. We are not willing to try at higher prices, because we are pretty sure we'll all fail."

Paczkowski notes that this is just "one piece of evidence in a much larger case," but that the DOJ appears to have "cherry-picked a quote for maximum effect." The full exhibit from which the Jobs email was taken is included below.

The Steve Jobs email that has the DOJ's interest originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My last visit to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah was in pre-iPhone days. My, how things have changed. I went to Bryce on a landscape shoot this week with my usual semi-pro equipment: Canon 5D, Manfrotto tripod and the usual gaggle of batteries, timers and other esoterica.

I was especially interested in seeing if people were toting different equipment in the age of the smartphone. I expected to see Android and iPhones snapping away, while the pros and semi-pros were hanging on to their expensive DSLRs.

It wasn't quite what I expected. I saw a lot of iPhones in the crowds of people gathered at the rim of Bryce Canyon waiting for the sunset. I saw a couple of Android phones, but there could have been more. I walked up to a large group of young girls from Tennessee and asked how many were using iPhones? Every hand went up. I asked them if they were still using their old point-and-shoot cameras, and everyone had dropped them for an iPhone. The main reason? Instagram and other photo-sharing services. No one mentioned Apple's Photo Stream. You just can't get photos to friends with a point-and-shoot. None of those girls were into editing photos, it was mostly shoot and send.

I asked about the iPhone HDR feature. The most frequent answer was "huh?" More marketing needed by Cupertino. I showed some of the people up there how easy it was to activate HDR, and let them compare the results. Sunset at Bryce Canyon is the perfect place for HDR. All were amazed, so I helped create some new converts.

The biggest surprise were the pro and semi-pro shooters. Many had iPhones, which they would take out of a pocket for a moment, usually to shoot a panorama. One woman with a big Nikon said she loved her camera, but there was nothing like capturing a quick panorama with the iPhone. Easy to do, plenty of megapixels, and easy to send. A guy from Georgia with all kinds of pro equipment told me the same thing.

Gallery: iPhones at Bryce Canyon

So here I was at one of the most beautiful scenery spots in the world and iPhones were everywhere. Young, old, novice, semi-pro and some pros.

It's amazing that a company trying to make a better cellular phone has had such an impact on photography. Planning or accident? How about you? Have you dropped your point-and-shoot for an iPhone? And those of you with DSLRs, are you tempted to haul your iPhone out at times too? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

iPhone cameras are everywhere at one of America's best scenic spots originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.