July 9, 2012 - 9to5Mac

Apps

How to get OnLive Desktop running on a Mac, allowing free access to Microsoft Office

Jake Smith Jul 9 2012 - 6:03 pm PT

We have known about OnLive’s awesome Desktop feature since this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. OnLive Desktop allows you to get access to a full Windows 7 client, complete with the ability to use Microsoft Office and other Windows apps. It was introduced as an iPad and Android app earlier this year, coming with 2GB of free cloud storage and paid plans that offer a bit more storage for those looking to get serious. The folks at OnLive promised the release of a Mac app with similar VM functionality, but that day has never come.

Luckily, Snowleo on the OnLiveFans forum posted an unofficial guide to getting OnLive Desktop to run on a Mac. It is a simple process, requiring only a free application called “Bluestacks”. Bluestacks lets Mac users run Android apps on their desktop, and it now allows them to access OnLive’s desktop service with a little side-loading. Only a few steps are required, and you will soon have free access to a full version of Microsoft Office on your Mac. Here’s how:

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Apple tells developers to start submitting their OS X Mountain Lion apps

Mark Gurman Jul 9 2012 - 5:29 pm PT

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As OS X Mountain Lion’s launch nears, Apple has informed developers to start submitting their optimized Mac App Store software for review. OS X Mountain Lion launches later this month with 200 new features.

Make sure your apps take advantage of the great new features in OS X Mountain Lion when the world’s most advanced operating system ships to millions of customers worldwide. Download OS X Mountain Lion GM seed and Xcode 4.4 GM seed, now available on the Mac Dev Center. Build your apps with these latest seeds, then test and submit for review. You can also submit iOS apps that take advantage of the new cross-platform Game Center Groups, so they’ll be available when OS X Mountain Lion ships.

A complete, “Golden Master” version of OS X Mountain Lion was released to developers earlier today, and this is the build that we expect Apple to provide customers with this month. The update will cost $19.99 for Snow Leopard and Lion users, and it will be available via the Mac App Store.

OS X Mountain Lion includes several new features that developers can take advantage of such as iCloud integration, Notification Center, Gatekeeper, and Game Center.

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Apple patches iOS 6 App Store bug that leaked upcoming app updates

Mark Gurman Jul 9 2012 - 3:13 pm PT

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Last night, we broke the news that the iOS 6 App Store includes a bug that leaks upcoming App Store app updates. The bug’s first victim, Twitter, led to a major reveal, but we followed up with some smaller updates (sent in by readers) such as an upcoming Instagram update with bug fixes. Now, it appears that mentions of future app updates (and the app release notes) have disappeared from the iOS 6 App Store. We’re glad to see Apple working to patch this up in a timely manner.

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Microsoft to buy multi-touch display pioneer Perceptive Pixel for Windows 8 integration

Élyse Betters Jul 9 2012 - 2:33 pm PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JcSu7h-I40]

Apple made popular the use of touchscreen technology, but Jeff Han produced large multi-touch displays long before the iPhone’s mid-2007 launch. Now, Microsoft announced it would buy the company he founded.

According to a press release, Perceptive Pixel’s multi-touch tech, which is capable of detecting up to 100 touch events or 10 simultaneous users simultaneously, first gained recognition in 2008—despite its founding over two years earlier:

In 2008 its technology gained widespread recognition for transforming the way CNN and other broadcasters covered the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In 2009 the Smithsonian awarded the company the National Design Award in the inaugural category of Interaction Design. PPI’s patented technologies are used across a wide variety of industries such as government, defense, broadcast, energy exploration, engineering and higher education, and its expertise in both software and hardware will contribute to success in broad scenarios such as collaboration, meetings and presentations.

Han’s technology is often brought up as “prior art” in the context of Apple’s multi-touch patents. However, as Han said above, the technology has its roots in the 80s and what you do with technology is the thing that counts.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Perceptive Pixel’s 82-inch screens retail at about $80,000 each, according to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer at a conference in Toronto today, and they are able to run Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft even demonstrated the duo at an event in February (video above).

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Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion Golden Master to Developers, Xcode 4.4

Mike Beasley Jul 9 2012 - 2:15 pm PT

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Apple just published the Gold Master seed of OS X Mountain Lion, which will go on sale to the public later this month. It is available now in the OS X Dev Center on Apple’s Developer website. The Mountain Lion GM build number is 12A269. The previous build was 12A526.

The 10.8 Golden Master comes out to a 4.34 GB Mac App Store download.

We are hearing from people who have installed the GM that it is smoother. Specifically, Dictation’s performance is said to also be improved.

The GM build is almost always the same exact build that is released to the general public, meaning Mountain Lion is now considered “ready to ship” by Apple. If you’re planning on grabbing the $20 upgrade later this month, you can save some money by grabbing one of Wal-Mart’s discounted iTunes gift cards.

More downloads after the break, including the 10.7.5 and Xcode 4.4 change logs.

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Instagram iPhone app to soon get minor bug fixes

Jul 9 2012 - 1:18 pm PT

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Instagram for iPhone is going to get a “minor” bug fix update soon. This is per the iOS 6 App Store bug that helped us leak the incoming major Twitter for iPhone update. Obviously, this iOS 6 bug is a major issue for developers looking to keep their updates a secret.

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Apps & updates, DRM still misbehaving edition: eBay, TED Books, InstaTalks, more

Jordan Kahn Jul 9 2012 - 1:06 pm PT

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[tweet https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/222411178842918912]

A few apps and updates hit the App Store today, unfortunately some are still reporting issues with apps not launching after updates. Let us know if you run into any issues in the comments.

eBay version 2.6.0: ebay’s main iPhone app received an update today alongside a small update to the eBay for iPad app. Unfortunately, eBay has now posted warning on at least the eBay for iPad release notes that some have reported the app is not working. As for the iPhone app, version 2.6.0 includes the following features and fixes:

• Improved selling flow

• Landscape support for easy typing of eBay item descriptions

• Faster bidding experience

• Check auto parts for compatibility before you buy

• Ability to search for items in My eBay

• Add and remove your Favorite Sellers

• Filter Feedback for buyers and sellers

• Payment support for Singapore and Malaysia

• More UI, stability and performance improvements

TED Books: TED, the people behind the TED conferences that are later made available online as TED Talks, released a free app today, which offers paid subscriptions to “Ted Books.” The books are produced every two weeks and “are typically under 20,000 words. They also consist of audio, video, and built-in social features. Subscriptions cost $15 for three months or $2.99 per book for non-subscribers.

InstaTalks: Recently released on the App Store, InstaTalks is a third-party messenger built for Instagram that allows you to exchange private messages and photos with Instagram users. There is no registration required (just an Instagram account), and the app is available for free now.

NBA Summer League: NBA Digital just dropped the official Summer League app, while the NBA Game Time app has also been updated with live video and scoring content for Summer League games.

Swedish ‘iWatch’ concept features FaceTime, Retina display [Photos]

Élyse Betters Jul 9 2012 - 10:22 am PT

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The New York Times reported in December that a small group of people at Apple were “conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices,” so we posted Federico Ciccarese’s ~~creepy~~ take on a wearable, curved-glass iOS device last week. Now, Swedish designer Anders Kjellberg introduces his iteration of the tech with an “iWatch” concept featuring FaceTime.

The mockup touts a Retina display, an 8-megapixel camera with HD and FaceTime capabilities, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Airplay support, a built-in, rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, 16 GB of storage, accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors, and eight customizable wristbands. Oh, and iTunes and apps—of course.

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iOS 6 code points to integration of Apple Maps on Intel-based Macs

Jordan Kahn Jul 9 2012 - 7:47 am PT

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Since Apple unveiled its new in-house Maps app for iOS 6, we have discovered bits and pieces of what it has planned for the final release this fall. Apple already showed off Yelp integration, turn-by-turn navigation, and the 3D flyover mode, and it appears to be utilizing a new Avenir typeface. Today, Techpp posted a code dump from the iOS 6 maps app courtesy of developer Cody Cooper who found some interesting evidence of potential Maps integration with OS X:

Our developer friend, Cody Cooper has now stumbled upon an interesting code dump in iOS 6 maps application which hints at the possibility of Apple Maps coming to Macs in the near future.

During his routine investigation of Maps app, Cody found some interesting bits in the file altitude_manifest.xml

In this XML file, there is a reference to a set of Intel based graphics chipsets for which certain features like Shading are disabled.

While this is not solid proof that Apple is working on a full-blown Maps app for Mac, it could hint at possible integration between core apps and features in Mountain Lion and Maps on iOS. For example, location features in iPhoto could integrate with iOS Maps. As noted in the report, the code refers to shading being disabled for older Intel chipsets, which Cooper guessed could likely not support the app’s shading features. We will do some digging, and then update you if we discover anything new. The public release of Mountain Lion is scheduled for this month.
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Keeping daughters off the pole made much harder with Pole Dancer Pro app rated at 12+ years

9to5 Staff Jul 9 2012 - 7:26 am PT

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Some interesting debate from the U.K.’s Sun this morning on the new Pole Dancer Pro app aimed at users 12-years-old and older. Says one opponent, “I’m all for encouraging new ways of helping people to keep fit, but do we really want to create a generation of children who are fully equipped in, what the app describes as, the ’art of tease’, ’erotic moves’ and ’seductive eye contact’?

On the flip side, the app’s creators counter, “Forget about social norms, morale and conservative practices that ladies should follow. Nothing is wrong with breaking the rules, if that makes you feel good.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tojBadSr2zI&start=33]

We anticipate Apple will raise the age of this app in the coming hours to the relief of fathers everywhere.

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Former Apple Hardware guru leads the charge at Square

Élyse Betters Jul 9 2012 - 7:17 am PT

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CNN Money published a report today detailing how companies and startups want folks to ditch cash and use their smartphone to pay for everything, but a little nugget about Square’s upcoming hardware plans seemed the most noteworthy:

Now Square is planning to expand aggressively into yet another area: hardware. Earlier this year it hired Jesse Dorogusker, an Apple refugee who led the team that built headphones, docking stations, and other peripherals for iOS devices, as its vice president of hardware. “We are going to be doing a lot of hardware,” says Keith Rabois, chief operating officer of Square and a former executive at PayPal and LinkedIn (LNKD). Rabois cagily declines to elaborate, but consider this: In a pilot program the company recently began installing a software and hardware bundle that includes Square-powered iPads and iPhones in New York City taxicabs. It serves as a payment mechanism and replacement for those annoying TV screens that are common in the backseats of cabs. People with knowledge of Square’s plans say that in the future the company hopes to develop similar bundles for other vertical markets. It also plans to build different versions of its reader as it expands overseas. (Did we mention that Dorsey is ambitious?)

Taken together, Square’s products begin to offer a glimpse of what a utopia for buyers and sellers could look like: You’re in a new city and feel like sushi, so you fire up your phone and Square’s software offers you a series of suggestions that reflect your tastes; a nearby eatery offering you 20% off your bill catches your eye. Once you’re at the sushi bar, your phone talks wirelessly to the restaurant’s register and settles your bill, including the discount. And the restaurant collects a slew of information about you, which it can use to market to you in the future.

Dorogusker served as Apple’s former director of engineering for iOS accessories for over eight years, and he holds a few patents under his belt. One of his notable hardware inventions includes an iPod/iPhone-integrated personal fitness system capable of monitoring personal fitness data and sharing exercisers’ through the Web.

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Report: Apple gets tough on websites selling access to iOS betas

Élyse Betters Jul 9 2012 - 6:19 am PT

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A report from MacStories yesterday claimed that many third-party websites selling developer access to Apple’s iOS betas are no longer live.

The blog apparently contacted the websites’ owners. It soon confirmed with at least one that Apple recently submitted a copyright infringement claim, so the website’s hosting service immediately took the page offline. A Wired report from last month by Andy Baio first spotlighted the trend of websites that sell developer access to iOS betas by doling UDID activations to any paying user. Apple restricts UDID activation to registered developers.

The Wired report allegedly sparked a flurry of website takedown requests. The CEO of Fused, a hosting service, even admitted to the MacStories, “Apple has been fairly heavy-handed with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests to the ones we host”:

After noticing several of the sites mentioned in Baio’s article had become unavailable in recent weeks (activatemyios.com, iosudidregistrations.com, activatemyudid.com, udidregistration.com, instantudidactivation.com), we reached out to some of them asking whether Apple was behind the takedown of their “services”, which infringed on Apple’s developer agreement. While most of our emails bounced, we heard back from one of the site owners (who asked to remain anonymous), who confirmed his hosting provider took down the site after a complaint for copyright infringement by Apple. Similarly, the CEO of Fused tweeted in a reply to Andy Baio that Apple had been “fairly heavy-handed” with DMCA requests to UDID-selling sites hosted on their network.

In the email, the site owner said that their website made $75,000 since last June, when Apple released the first beta of iOS 6 to developers. “We do not believe our service was infringing and our services did not violate their guidelines for iOS 6″, the site owner commented, adding that they will soon launch another similar site, “with better and more secure data lines to handle Apple”.

The owner of another site replied to our emails with a “no comment”. According to him, “the Wired article has caused all these sites to go down”.

Indeed, it appears Apple has started taking action against these sites recently, and more precisely after Wired ran the story on UDID activation.

To install an iOS beta, developers must register their account with Apple and receive UDID activation for $99 a year. Third-party websites, on the other hand, sell UDID activation for a cheaper price—usually around $10.

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UK Judge rules against Apple in Samsung patent case, claims Galaxy Tabs ‘are not as cool’

Jordan Kahn Jul 9 2012 - 5:56 am PT

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Reports from last week noted that Samsung’s attempt to lift Apple’s preliminary injunction placed on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States was rejected by District Judge Lucy Koh. Today, in Apple’s ongoing patent cases with Samsung in the United Kingdom, Bloomberg reported Judge Colin Birss ruled against Apple, claiming Sammy’s Galaxy Tabs “are not as cool.” It is hard to imagine Apple losing in any more of a complimentary way, as Judge Birss claimed his decision was based partly on the fact Galaxy tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity” as iPad.

The Galaxy tablet doesn’t infringe Apple’s registered design, Judge Colin Birss said in a ruling today in London. He said that consumers weren’t likely to get the two tablet computers mixed up.

The Galaxy tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” Birss said. “They are not as cool.”

The company provided a full email statement regarding today’s decision (via Pocket-lint). Samsung explained the court referred to roughly 50 pieces of prior art when dismissing Apple’s case:

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