News tagged ‘Apple’

Nuance has dropped a new Dragon dictation app called Dragon Express in Mac App Store. This is a cheaper (introductory price $49), scaled-back version of Nuance’s Dragon Dictate program. The new version can be accessed from the Lion’s menubar and will not require a network connection. You can open the Dragon Express window with a mouse click or keyboard shortcut and instantly begin dictate into the window via USB headset microphone or internal Mac microphone. The transcribed text will immediately appear in the dictate window and from there you can copy, email the text, start a web search with it or share it with your social networking contacts.

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Apple cooperates with an American company which helps Apple to build its forthcoming solar farm in North Carolina. Leaf Solar Power, a renewable energy company that specializes in residential and "small" commercial projects in South Florida is working with Apple on construction of Apple’s $1 billion data center, according to a person familiar with the ongoing project. Apple's massive $1 billion data center was opened this spring. The main purpose of the facility is to support Apple's online services, including iTunes and the newly launched iCloud. And use of sustainable energy is not new for the company. As usual for Apple, details of the project have not yet been revealed. We just know that last month Apple received permit to erosion control in the area.

This is quite unusual that Apple chose U.S.-based solar company, because now the most part of solar panels is produced overseas. In particular, solar panel production has greatly shifted to China over the last two years. That fact has become such an issue that earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law with a "Buy American" provision for the purchase of solar panels. So may be Apple decided to support President’s idea?!

MacBook Air ships with either a moderately fast SSD from Toshiba or a significantly faster drive with an updated controller from Samsung. But some people want to have even faster drives. And SSD from OWC called Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G can provide them with faster speeds.

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The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was nominated by "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams for Time Magazine "Person of the Year", so he could become the first person to be posthumously awarded the distinction.

"One guy, who changed our world, and I said to Seth Meyers [Saturday Night Live head writer] as we walked across Sixth Avenue, 'Just look with me on this one block walk at how he changed the world around us. Look at how he changed the world,'" Williams said during his nomination speech. "So may he rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and the spirit he represents, are my nominee for Person of the Year."

Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to deny that “the iPhone has changed the world as much as the Bible has.” Jobs was already nominated for Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”, but Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg won last year. Will see who will be a winner this year. The award will be presented in December.

As The Atlantic reports, Amazon’s filings with a Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that the company has acquired speech recognition firm Yap, which may suggests that Amazon is going to compete with Google and Apple on this market.

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that despite the injunction prohibiting the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet in Australia, several Australian retailers have ignored Apple's threats and continue to profit from demand for the barred Samsung tablet.

At least one, dMavo, said it had created a separate entity in Europe to place it outside the jurisdiction of Australian courts, with the tablets delivered to customers from Asia.

"We have a new entity established and a separate server - just to deal with the tablet orders - that is undergoing testing as of last Saturday," dMavo managing director Wojtek Czarnocki said.

"Was Apple just bluffing or do they really want to play the cat and mouse game? We're up for it."

Melbourne law firm Watermark's senior associate and patent specialist Mark Summerfield suggests, however, it would be relatively simple to extend Apple's injunction to individual online resellers because it already applies to device maker Samsung. The only thing Apple will have to do is to apply to the Australian Federal Court for further injunctions. But it would be difficult for Apple, because the company is based overseas.

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Last week, Apple confirmed that some users indeed experienced problems with battery life on their devices with the iOS 5. The company said that the issue was caused by some bugs in the operating system and now Apple is working on update that will solve the problem. The iOS 5.0.1 seems to be in developing testing already and Apples intends to expand its testing, asking customers, who have experienced problems with their devices, to participate in testing.

Apple invites you to participate in a software seeding project. We have selected you, based on a referral from AppleCare for participation in our program, to assist us in testing an upcoming iOS 5 Software Update. Please follow the directions below to complete the invitation process.

Apple also asked retail store staff to recommend customers to wait for “a few weeks” until the update will be released, not offering replacement handsets for battery life issues.

A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. If you are helping one of those customers, follow standard procedure to rule out any hardware issues with the device. If no hardware issues are found, let the customer know that Apple has found a few bugs in iOS 5 affecting battery life and Apple will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.

The iPad 3 with Retina display will unlock very valuable capabilities for professionals, for example, for pilots who use tablet for electronic charts and doctors who use it for medical imaging. Many airlines replaced conventional flight bags weighing 40 pounds or more with light-weight iPad. But the iPad is not allowed to be used further than a 50-mile radius of the originating and destination airports, because the charts are quite complex to be displayed on any electronic device.

While "about 75 to 80 percent of a flight is done using the autopilot, in conjunction with the flight management system," according to Flight Safety Foundation executive vice president Kevin Hiatt, the ability to use an electronic device to navigate highly complex flight maps could be expanded with the additional resolution in a "Retina Display" iPad.

And this is only one example how the iPad 3 with Retina display might be used. Other professionals would similarly benefit from such a doubling improvement in resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

Appleinsider obtained an email that was reportedly a bug report where the company confirmed that it currently has "no plans" to support its Siri personal assistant feature on older devices and would keep Siri as the iPhone 4S exclusive feature. Some analysts view Siri as the main selling point of the newest iPhone, so it would be quite irrational to provide support for Siri on older devices in first months of iPhone 4S sales.

"Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue: Siri only works with iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices," the email read.

But it is not surprisingly, when Apple introduced Siri last month, the company made it clear that the feature was exclusive to the iPhone 4S alone. There were some speculations that Siri might require faster processor implemented in the iPhone 4S, but a hack we reported about denied that fact and show that Siri works on the iPhone 4 also quite well.

According to an internal document, Apple on Tuesday launched a new mandatory training program for new store managers. All managers will also be required to take it biannually.

"This course is intended to provide managers with a practical understanding of how unions affect the workplace, how and why employees organize, and the legal do's and don'ts of dealing with unions," the course's description reads. "This is a mandatory class for all new managers, and is required biannually for all managers." The training is also billed as a "great opportunity" for managers to meet the company's legal team and ask any questions.

This program could be Apple’s response to action of group "Apple Retail Workers Union" that struggle against "unfair treatment" at Apple's retail stores.

iOS hacker Conrad Kramer, better known as Contradev, have discovered a way how to enable the hidden panorama mode within Apple’s Camera application of the iOS 5. But, he noted, the feature seems to be not completed and in ongoing development by Apple. It offers settings for a grid and HDR when creating a panorama photo. A user can capture individual photos from left to right and the software will stitch it together. Kramer has said that the function is easily activated by "EnableFirebreak" key in a preference file within the mobile operating system.

Another hacker Grant Paul, also known as Chpwn, posted a screenshot (see above) of the panorama mode and has already submitted an application, called Firebreak, to Cydia to enable the panorama mode for Jailbroken iPhones.

It is obvious that Apple has been testing the Panorama mode that could appear in the iOS 5, but it is unclear why Apple did not include the feature in the final release.

The newest Apple’s iPhone 4S became available for preorders in Hong Kong last Friday and sold out almost immediately. As Brian White, analysts at Ticonderoga Securities, said, iPhone 4S preorders sold out in their first 10 minutes of availability.

"In our view, this is a very positive sign for iPhone 4S demand in Greater China has Hong Kong represents the first entry of the new smartphone in the rapidly growing region, and we expect the 4S to reach Mainland China in December," White said in a note to investors on Monday.

"We believe this rapid sell out will rest concerns surrounding the uptake of the iPhone 4S in the Greater China region that were driven by the limited language capability of Siri, which did not launch in Mandarin or Cantonese."

Although, the current version of Siri understands only English, French and German, Apple plans to start supporting additional languages in 2012, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian and Spanish.

A successful start of the iPhone 4S in Chine is good news for Apple. Of course, the nation of over a billion people is an important part of Apple’s international policy and growth.

Despite the fact that iPhone 4 was launched last month, it seems that consumer Interest in the newest Apple’s smartphone is still increasing. Chris Whitmore with Deutsche Bank polled about 30 Apple retail stores and found out that between 85 percent and 90 percent of stores polled are experiencing stock-outs of the iPhone 4S.

"Apple employees are directing customers to make an online appointment (first come first serve) for next day pickup at nearby Apple retail stores as stocks appear to be refreshed daily at most locations," Whitmore said.

In-store Apple representatives advice customers to order the iPhone 4S on Apple's website between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m. Now most number of iPhone 4S units is sold via reservation, leaving a very little stock for customers who want to buy the device at a store.

Whitmore believes strong demand for the iPhone 4S both in America and abroad shows that supply remains the only factor in determining how many handsets Apple will sell this quarter. He has forecast sales of 28 million iPhones during the holidays, but admitted that number appears "increasingly conservative."

Tomorrow disabled voters in five Oregon’s counties will be able to cast their votes from an iPad in U.S. House election. Election official with an iPad will visit disabled voters in parks, nursing homes and other places so that they can vote easier. The preloaded app will allow the voter to tap the display to select a candidate and an election official then print out the ballot. For the voters who can’t do it themselves, officials will touch the device for them. For the voters who have poor vision the app let them change the font color and size.

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Video where Miller demonstates this exploit

According to Forbes, security specialist Charlie Miller has found an exploit on iOS devices, which allows developers to put malware apps onto the App Store without detection. These malware apps can be used to steal user’s contacts, photo and other information, play a ringtone, make the device vibrate and more at any time the developer chooses.

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