The app that lets users wirelessly access their Mac applications and Windows programs on-the-go, while running Parallels Desktop for Mac, was just updated to version 3.1.530.
Parallels Mobile allows users to remotely control all the software on a computer from an iOS device, but today’s upgrade includes iOS 5 compatibility and new iPad optimization. It also offers support for international keyboard layouts when working in Mac applications, fixed scrolling in Mac and Windows, and a host of other improvements.
The app requires Parallels Desktop for Mac version 6 or 7 (Amazon currently offers v7 for $62), but 9to5Mac found Parallels Desktop 7 to be a huge leap ahead of its predecessor. This is especially true for Lion users that want to run the odd Windows app, try Windows 8, or for devs that just want to run another instance of OS X.
Kanex just released an AirPlay mirroring adapter for VGA projectors that streams content wirelessly from computers and iOS devices to TVs and projectors through Apple TV.
The Kanex ATV Pro is geared toward legacy projectors lacking HDMI ports. The new tech connects to Apple TV’s HDMI output port, as well as other device’s HDMI ports, and offers a mini D-sub 15-pin VGA port and 3.5mm stereo minijack audio connection for aging projectors and sound systems. It is also power plug free and supports up to 1080p with vertical refresh rate range of 50 Hz to 60 Hz.
The result allows teachers and presenters with an iOS device to stream or mirror content directly to a VGA projector through an Apple TV without additional equipment, power, or infrastructure.
“Kanex is excited to be delivering a product that supports an interactive learning experience. We listened to the concerns surrounding technological modernization and designed a high-quality adapter that grants facilities an unmatched HD solution for iLearning with their iOS devices and Apple TVs,” explained Kanex President Kelvin Yan in a press release.
The ATV Pro is available now for $59. Additional details are available at Kanex’s website, and the presser is available below.
Pedro Franceschi’s Quasar jailbreak adds window app management to the iPad, which allows a user to operate and view multiple apps by entering and exiting full screen, resizing, changing orientation, and rearranging them simultaneously.
The above video demonstrates the tweak, and it should surely entice those whom are sick of double-tapping the iPad’s home button to switch between a dozen open apps. It also looks enticing for iPhone-optimized apps on the iPad that lack a tablet counterpart. However, it may seem useless for a slew of apps that require full screen usage.
Elgato entered the Thunderbolt space today with its own flavor of the tech aptly called “Elgato’s Thunderbolt Cable.”
Thunderbolt is an interface connector that pushes data between computers and peripherals at high speeds. Apple first launched its $49 trademarked-cable last June, but alternate choices have been few and far between ever since.
At $60 a pop, Elgato’s follow-up to the March release of Thunderbolt SSD is more expensive. The cable is also much shorter at just 1.6-foot compared to Apple’s 2-meter offering.
It is black, too.
The new cable will likely come down below Apple’s price once supply catches up with demand.
Fortunately, Elgato is giving a free Thunderbolt Cable included with every purchase of the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD completed through its Elgato Online Shop until May 6. Just redeem the discount code: “FREE-THUNDERBOLT-CABLE.” Amazon-lovers can also buy the cable for $59.95 USD (here), but shipping times are currently between two to three weeks.
Samsung just officially denied any involvement with the “Wake Up” protest held outside of an Australian Apple Store earlier this week.
According to SlashGear, the company stepped forth today and rebuffed any ties to the affair: ”Samsung Electronics Australia has nothing to do with the ‘Wake-Up Campaign’.”
For currently unknown reasons, a puzzling demonstration with anti-Apple cues occurred outside an Apple Store in Sydney April 22. A black bus boasted the phrase “WAKE UP” and a slew of paid picketers with coordinating signs paraded along George Street while chanting, “Wake up!”
The staged fuss accompanied a series of billboards posted around the city, as well as “WAKE UP” written on the bottom of Bondi Ice Bergs’ pool, and a baffling website at wake-up-australia.com.au that features a focal point countdown. The URL is registered to ad agency New Dialogue, which underwent rebranding and now goes by the name “Tongue.”
The lavish Los Angeles Hotel Bel-Air recently reopened with redesigned rooms and made sure to toss out its old, clunky receivers along with the outdated interior design. The 70-year-old hotel replaced the telephones with Apple’s booming iPad, so guests no longer need to use a laminated binder menu and corded handset to order their caviar and wine. Room service now occurs via the iOS tablet included in their room, and the hotel hopes to have 50 percent of orders placed through the new addition.
However, according to USAToday, 75 percent of guests are actually now ordering room service with the iPad:
[…] the 75% statistic is noteworthy because it’s an indication of how rapidly people are embracing newfangled tech offerings in their hotels – especially at a time when more hotels are undergoing renovations and considering installing new customer technology.
Some higher-end hotels already are using the iPads to replace the old-fashioned paper brochures that describe the hotel’s features such as spa offerings, restaurants and local information. A small-but-growing number, however, are taking it further. They’re letting guests conduct hotel business once done over the phone, such as requesting a special pillow or extra towels, making restaurant reservations, booking a spa treatment – and ordering room service.
“People view it as a way to make their life easier,” said Bel-Air General Manager Denise Flanders. “They put down exactly what they want. It’s the luxury of saving time.”
UPDATE: Samsung just officially denied any involvement with the “Wake Up” protest held outside of an Australian Apple Store earlier this week. According to SlashGear, the company stepped forth Friday and denied any ties to the affair: ”Samsung Electronics Australia has nothing to do with the ‘Wake-Up Campaign’.” Read more at 9to5Mac.
Samsung reportedly hired marketing agency Tongue to lead an advertising campaign for its upcoming Galaxy S III launch, and its first demonstration occurred at an Apple Store in Australia earlier this week, but the event resembled more of a protest or call to arms, rather than a promotional stunt.
A mysterious black bus donning the phrase “WAKE UP,” coupled with hordes of chanters waving coordinating signs in the air, roamed through the streets of Sydney on April 22. The show paraded in front of George Street’s Apple store and left the entire city in confusion.
According to Australian website mUmBRELLA, the staged fuss also boasted a series of billboards posted around the area, as well as “WAKE UP” written on the bottom of Bondi Ice Bergs’ pool, and an equally-mystifying website at wake-up-australia.com.au. The URL is registered to ad agency New Dialogue, which underwent rebranding and now goes by the name “Tongue.”
The website allegedly counts down the Galaxy S III launch, but it is set to end at 3 p.m. May 6. The highly anticipated Android-powered smartphone is the primary rival to Apple’s iPhone, and it is unveiling May 3 in London, so circulating rumors indicate the “WAKE UP” countdown is actually the device’s landing date for Australian markets.
Samsung previously hosted a teaser website at tgeltaayehxnx.com, which is anagram for “the new galaxy,” that also contained a countdown. It redirected users to thenextgalaxy.com when the clock ran out last Monday. Samsung embedded a video on the subsequent page that promised its next Galaxy device will “stand out from everyone else” while depicting a slew of sheep in a field for the closing frame. The imagery and language is a definite jab at iPhone users, who are often mocked as “iSheep,” over speculation that they blindly follow Apple.
According to research company NPD Group, and its recent Apple Ecosystem Study based on 3,000 consumers in an online survey, about 37 million United States households own Apple products. The details specify that 69 percent of those consumers own iPods, but ownership of the iPad is growing. In fact, one-in-four iPad owners claimed the device as their first Apple product:
“iPad sales are growing much faster than any other Apple product has this soon after launch,” said Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis at NPD. “”In fact, one-in-five Apple owner households has one— nearly equivalent to the number that own an Apple computer. This demonstrates the appeal of both the new form factor and Apple’s app ecosystem.”
“Just two years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. To put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs, and five years for that many iPods, and over three years for that many iPhones, and we were extremely happy with the trajectory on all of those products.”
Think about that for a moment: Apple’s two-year-old device/segment is now likely its biggest ambassador. With Macs traditionally at mid-single digit growth rates, most new Apple customers are being introduced to Apple through the iPad.
Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse told CNETtoday that the carrier would stick with its unlimited data plan for the next iPhone whether or not it is LTE capable. Sprint already provides unlimited for other LTE smartphones, but the company’s chief said its unique offering lures new customers who would normally choose another carrier:
“Frankly, it’s a marriage made in heaven,” said Hesse to CNET regarding the iPhone and its unlimited data plan. “We’re clearly attracting customers from our competitors.”
Laptop Mag’s Michael A. Prospero put Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge through a battery of Benchmark tests and revealed the processor is certainly robust at a “mere” 22 nanometers:
It’s not a huge leap, but the performance gains we saw in our Ivy Bridge test system–with comparable battery life–makes this a strong follow-up to the previous generation of Intel Core processors. We’re really looking forward to testng slimmer and sleeker Ultrabooks with Intel’s powerful third-generation Core chip inside.
Weiphone’sHacker Loktar_Sun just unearthed how to unlock an iPhone—including the iPhone 4S.
To complete Weiphone’s step-by-step unlock tutorial, the latest version of iTunes and a jailbroken iPhone is required. For those unaware, unlocking is the process of modifying an iPhone’s software so that it can operate through carriers other than its official carrier in a given country. Also, a jailbroken iPhone simply means it is freed from the limitations imposed by Apple for safety measures. In other words, continue at your own risk.
The following process is straightforward for anyone familiar with unlocked or jailbroken iPhones: Expand Expanding Close
The “Snapseed” iOS app updated to version 1.4 today.
Apple’s 2011 iPad App of the Year now supports the iPad Retina Display, iOS 5.1, Instagram, Center Focus magic, and more. For those unaware, Nik Software develops Snapseed. According to the company’s press release (PDF) new features also include:
[…]the ability to open photos directly into Instagram and additional language support for Brazilian Portuguese and Arabic. Several popular filters within Snapseed have also been updated. The Black & White filter has been updated with new conversion algorithms and color filters for even higher quality results. The Center Focus filter has an added feature to control brightness at the center and at the edges of an image.
Reuters reported that a judge rejected Apple and Google’s bid last night to have an antitrust lawsuit dismissed. The lawsuit claimed the companies illegally entered “no-poach” agreements in an effort to stop competitors from stealing talent:
District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected the companies’ bid to dismiss claims brought under the Sherman Act and California state law, in a decision released Wednesday night. […] The proposed class action lawsuit was brought by five software engineers, who accused the companies of conspiring to depress employee pay by eliminating competition for skilled labor.
Other defendants in the case included Intel, Adobe Systems, Intuit Walt Disney Co’s Pixar, and Lucasfilm.
Good ‘ole Walt Mossberg from The Wall Street Journal warned readers today about not buying a new laptop this spring:
Apple is overdue for redesigned laptops, especially in its MacBook Pro line, and it is a good bet that new, possibly heavily redesigned, models will begin appearing later this year. Current Macs will likely be upgradable to Mountain Lion, but if you buy now, you’ll miss out on the likely new hardware.
Fotopedia is now offering free self-branded, Retina-optimized apps, and its website header says it all: “A Retina Display Festival – 9 Free Apps, Total Visual Satisfaction.”
Fotopedia is a photo encyclopedia that has generated more than 50,000 pages and linked to over nearly 800,000 photos. Go to Fotopedia now to download the apps, which range from “Heritage” to “National Parks.”
PC World tested 3G and 4G wireless data transfer speeds for the top four carriers —both indoors and outside with multiple devices across 13 major cities in 130 testing locations— and discovered some surprising results.
During average wireless speed tests for 3G networks with the smartphones pictured below, T-Mobile took home the fastest download and upload speed prize at 3.84 Mbps and 1.44 Mbps, respectively. AT&T landed the No. 2 spot with its 2.62 Mbps download speed and 0.85-Mbps upload speed.
The slower 3G network provider reclaimed its pride and rose to fame with its 4G wireless speeds, however. AT&T garnered 9.56 Mbps while downloading and 5.15 Mbps for uploads. Verizon debuted at second with its 7.35 Mbps download speed and 5.86 Mbps upload speed.
Twitter just announced a little agreement that subsequently guarantees it would never pursue other companies that poach its “pull-to-refresh” patented feature, which is duplicated across a slue of iOS and Android applications.
The micro blogging service unveiled the “Innovator’s Patent Agreement” today that assures the world it will not use its patents against competitors, while allowing engineers to keep control over their patents.
“The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended,” explained Twitter in a bog post.
The IPA will affect every patent issued to Twitter engineers in the past and going forward:
Apple just announced that its retail stores at West 14th Street and SoHo in Manhattan are participating in the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival by showcasing Hollywood’s top artists as guest speakers.
“To celebrate the spirit of independent filmmaking, we’re hosting free events and workshops from April 20 through April 28. And everyone’s invited to attend,” explained Apple on its website and in a circular email.
There is an official “Tribeca Film Festival” app for free at the App Store that details all the workshops taking place.
A leaked image of Spotify’s official iPad app surfaced today.
Swedish technology consultant Statigram posted a purported picture of the app’s beta version on Instagram (link now redirects). The caption simply read: “It’s getting closer!”
The above screen capture depicts an iOS Twitter-like user-interface, with play options located along the bottom and a Search bar on the left side featuring icons for What’s New, Inbox, Playlists, and Friends.
Last Friday, Spotify sent invites for a special announcement in New York City for April 18, and current rumors indicate the app might unveil at the upcoming press event.
Apple helped Walmart build a store-within-a-store oasis for Apple products in the home state of the chain’s founder Sam Walton.
We broke the news earlier this year that Sams’s Club is exploring Apple Store-within-a-store concepts. This weekend, Apple retail news website ifoAppleStore posted numerous pictures from a Walmart in Lowell, Ark., which owns and operates Sam’s Club, that depict Apple displays within its walls akin to Best Buy’s lavish store-within-a-store creations.
Sharp revealed today that it began assembling high-performance LCDs last month with increased production in April to meet market demand.
Jefferies & Co.’s Peter Misek is a very outspoken analyst regarding Apple’s rumored HDTV. He first claimed in November that Sharp is preparing production lines for the “iTV,” but he later said the company plans to build roughly 5 million units beginning this spring with a product launch slated for Q4 2012.
According to Sharp, the LCDs will help the company contribute to “creating markets for attractive new products”:
Sharp will encourage the application of its new high-resolution LCD panels to high-definition notebook PCs and LCD monitors—which are both expected to grow in demand—as well as to mobile devices. Sharp will also contribute to creating markets for attractive new products.
The famed Photoshop-maker will “showcase new software and innovations that improve how broadcasters, filmmakers and video professionals create, deliver and monetize high-quality productions across multiple screens,” according to a press release.
Vice President and General Manager of Video Solutions Jim Guerard said the company plans to feature the upcoming softwares’ fast performance and firm integration that allows video professionals to effectively streamline workflows:
“This is a perfect opportunity to show off the new and breakthrough performance innovations in Creative Suite 6 Production Premium and demonstrate how it’s possible to work at the speed of your imagination, making workflows more efficient and audience experiences more compelling. From planning to playback, Adobe and its broadcast and media customers are leading the industry and reshaping how the digital video industry creates and consumes rich media.”
Many tweets and reports even detailed how to keep Instagram photos from Mark Zuckerberg’s acquisitive hands through export services like Instaport.me that essentially leave users free and clear to erase the Instagram app from their smartphones.
The public’s warning now seems empty, of course, as Instagram itself used Twitter this morning to announce its sudden surge in popularity. It looks as though the intense press scrutiny only encouraged the iOS app to soar up the charts. Meanwhile, its new parent company does not even sit in the top 25 free apps in Apple’s App Store.
The teenager is known in reports by only his surname Wang. According to Reuters (via Xinhua News Agency), prosecutors in Changzhou city, Hunan province claim Wang is suffering from renal deficiency, which also means he is facing a potentially life-threatening decrease in kidney function.
“I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,” said the boy […]. “A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.”
On April 28th, the boy went to Chenzhou City in neighboring Hunan Province for the kidney removal surgery arranged by the broker. He was paid 22,000 yuan (an extra 2,000–) or $3,400 after his right kidney was taken out at Chenzhou’s famous No. 198 Hospital.
One of the five defendants earned 220,000 yuan (or $35,000 USD) to arrange the transplant, and then he paid Wang 22,000 yuan for the kidney and split the remainder with the surgeon, three other defendants, and various medical staff. The Xinhua report did not detail who received and paid for the kidney.
