Yahoo! certainly kicked off the week in grand style Monday with news of its Tumblr acquisition, but it had one more trick up its sleeve that we’ll get to in a moment, along with Apple going on the offensive over government accusations that the company isn’t paying its full share of taxes on income generated overseas. But first, there’s a whole batch of updates, tweaks and elaborations to enjoy, which includes some analysis on how T-Mobile US could one day leapfrog Sprint for third place!
Readdle is back with another update to its universal Scanner Pro for iOS, and while Tuesday’s version 4.5 release only adds a single feature, it’s a pretty slick one: The app now detects page borders in real time. As you can see from the embedded YouTube video, the result is a neat visual trick, but it’s a practical addition as well, cutting down on the time users spend on cropping and manually adjusting page borders. Real-time border detection will help users fly through a stack of documents in no time at all thanks to batch mode. The Scanner Pro 4.5 update is now available from the App Store.
Cult of Mac reported Monday that the two developers who hacked T-Mobile’s carrier update earlier this month are back with another tweak which promises to improve LTE and HSPA+ speeds on AT&T as well. The hack does not require a jailbroken device, and it works on the iPhone 5 as well as AT&T cellular-equipped third and fourth-generation iPads or iPad mini. This trick, which is done via iTunes, simply overrides built-in limits on certain bands, allowing devices to pull in the strongest signal available. The good news is that users can revert back to normal, but non-jailbroken users will need to do a full wipe and restore to do so.
Google appears to be feeling the heat on current limitations with its new Hangouts product, so product manager Nikhyl Singhal has taken to Google+ in an effort to sort out any confusion. Singhal confirms our report Monday that Hangouts does not yet support outbound calls from a web browser, but inbound Google Voice calls are indeed possible. Google promises to get outbound calls working soon, and Singhal closes his post by noting “future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly,” which sounds promising.
Back in January, Walmart-owned VUDU promised an update to their existing iOS app by mid-February. Flash-forward to yesterday, and the app is finally available, with no explanation of what took so long. The big news with VUDU Player 2.0 is its ability to download movies and TV shows for offline playback and overall better playback, while the iPhone version adds closed captioning support as well as now taking advantage of the larger iPhone 5 display. Unfortunately, you’ll still need to use a web browser to rent or buy any content, and playback is still limited to standard-definition quality — but hey, at least now VUDU users can watch video without an internet connection.
TMoNews reported Monday that at least one analyst is forecasting a bright future for fourth-placed carrier T-Mobile US. How bright? Deutsche Bank’s Brett Feldman predicts that T-Mobile’s rapid 4G LTE expansion plans could help the company pass third-placed rival Sprint, especially now that it’s empowered with both the iPhone as well as a successful merger with MetroPCS. That last part is expected to gain T-Mobile US an additional five million new customers over the next two or three years, which could help the carrier truly shake up the industry if that prediction should come to pass.
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It’s our last recap of the week, which means the weekend is once again upon us! There are plenty of Thursday updates you’ll want to get a heads-up about before wrapping up the work week, particularly for owners of mid-2012 MacBook Air models. Don’t be shy, dig in and enjoy our bite-sized nuggets of tech news — it will only take a few minutes!
If you own a mid-2012 MacBook Air, Apple would like you to download and install the MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0 it released on Thursday. The 1.69MB update “addresses a storage firmware issue that, in rare cases, may cause a system to fail to recover from a crash,” which certainly sounds important enough to set aside some time in your day for installation. Apple recommends doing a full backup of your MacBook Air flash storage prior to updating, which is a warning we wouldn’t ignore given what the firmware is actually patching.
Frequent eBay shoppers and sellers will be delighted to learn the company has pushed out updates to its existing iPhone and iPad apps on Thursday, which introduce a new look and feel alongside a Shopping Cart for U.S. and U.K. buyers. In certain U.S. states, new eBay customers can scan their driver’s license straight into the app for faster registration (and therefore, quicker buying!), and eBay promises that your last-minute bidding will be vastly improved over previous versions as well. The free eBay for iPhone 3.0.0 and eBay for iPad 2.3.0 are now available from the App Store.
Mac users who work with network-attached storage or Linux and Windows hard drives have no doubt discovered all of the annoying little DS_Store and invisible folders OS X spreads around. A little .95 application called BlueHarvest makes short work of this dilemma, and thanks to the version 5.5 update released this week, no longer takes up space in the System Preferences to do so. Available for OS X Mountain Lion or Lion, BlueHarvest 5.5 is now packaged as a full-fledged application with optional menu bar icon, which also adds a new blacklist function for deleting arbitrary files. The update is absolutely free for existing users, and installs right over the old version, removing its pane from System Preferences. Can anyone guess what famous sci-fi movie the name “Blue Harvest” was derived from? Chime in with a comment if so…
Definitely falling into the “what took so long?” category is this week’s release of UPS for iPad, a free tablet-only app for tracking packages and freight shipments from everyone’s favorite brown carrier. Like the iPhone/iPod touch app, UPS for iPad can be used for some basic functionality without having to log in, but those with a My UPS ID will receive the most benefit from the app, including syncing recent tracking information from the website and the ability to enroll in UPS My Choice and even change preferences for incoming shipments to your address. The free UPS for iPad is now available for download from the App Store.
The folks at Stupid Raisins teamed up with CineFlare to introduce a new batch of animated Final Cut Pro X titles in a package called Title Pop. Available with the latest FXFactory version 4.0.6 from Noise Industries, the plug-ins offer 50 customizable titles, complete with 32 build in/out, 10 highlight and eight animation loops with such varied names as Fidget, Kookie, Quiver and Sketchy. Of course, once you start customizing the presets, there’s no end to the number of options you’ll probably come up with! Title Pop is available as a free trial so you can give it a spin before committing to the purchase.
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Lots of cool stuff to report on for this mid-month Tuesday, but the lead story won’t be good news for those of you who have been vacillating about grabbing an iPhone 5 on T-Mobile US — the handset will now cost you an extra 50 bucks compared to last week, proving once again that you snooze, you lose. The rest of our Monday recap is better news, with the exception of AT&T and HTC, who appear to have a loser on their hands with Facebook Home…
As noted by TMoNews, T-Mobile US has quietly raised the up-front price of an iPhone 5 by following a Mother’s Day weekend trade-in promotion. Instead of a .99 down payment for the 16GB model, T-Mo is now asking 9.99, which also raises the price paid over 24 months from 9 to 9 accordingly. The higher down payment also affects pricing on the 32GB and 64GB models sold through the company’s website, but the good news is the monthly equipment fee on all models will remain the same as it was before.
The Google Drive Blog announced Monday that free storage between Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos will now be unified into one pool for a shared storage total of 15GB. The change will be welcome to those who don’t use Gmail too much, but need extra space for documents, photos and other files on Google Drive. On the flip side, if you’re a heavy Gmail user, unified storage means you’ll no longer be limited to a 25GB upgrade there. The change is expected to roll out “over the next couple of weeks,” so if you’re not seeing it yet, no cause for alarm.
Agile Bits released 1Password for iOS 4.2, a pretty massive update that adds the Strong Password Generator to the app’s built-in “1Browser” on iPad as well as desktop-style Go & Fill Logins, complete with AutoFill if you roll like that. 1Password items can now be shared via Messages or email using a one-tap obfuscated format or as plain text, depending on how secure you’d like to make it. Last but not least, 1Password for iOS 4.2 adds the ability to search URLs for Login items with an option to “expand search to all fields,” which should turn up whatever you seek. The update is now available from the App Store.
Amazon has been on a roll lately with marketing its cloud-based services, following up its new Cloud Drive Photos for iPhone app with a dedicated Amazon Cloud Player for Windows computers. Using the free application, desktop and laptop users can stream all of their albums, songs or playlists, download MP3 purchases for offline playback while keeping everything up-to-date through the cloud. Although it’s not available at launch, the e-tailer promises a Mac version is on the way, but for now you can give Amazon Cloud Player for PC a spin if you’re running Windows 7, Vista or XP.
BGR reported Monday that AT&T may be planning to eliminate the Facebook Home-equipped HTC First from its lineup with extreme prejudice as a result of poor sales thus far. How bad did the Android handset sell? The report claims the carrier “sold fewer than 15,000 units nationwide,” which includes last week, when the up-front price of the smartphone dropped to a mere 99 cents with two-year agreement. That’s apparently worse than AT&T’s previous Facebook-enabled handset, the HTC Status (i.e. ChaCha), which came and went two years ago. AT&T has yet to confirm or deny the rumor, stating only that “we do pricing promotions all the time and have made no decisions on future plans.”
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Hard to believe we’re already rolling into the middle of May, which means sunny summer is just around the corner! Apple is going to make it a more secure season for its Apple ID users with two-step verification now going worldwide, while a new study finds that there’s an awful lot of us averse to turning off our gadgets when it comes time to fly. Think about that before you step onto your next plane to head out on vacation, folks…
As noted by 9to5Mac on Friday, Apple has begun a worldwide rollout of its two-step verification for Apple IDs, which launched in the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand in late March. After the site received tips from readers in Argentina, Canada and Pakistan that the security feature was now available in those countries, the service began rolling out to Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Russia as well, suggesting a global launch. With two-step verification, an iOS device such as the iPhone becomes a “trusted” device which will be required to receive a verification code before making changes on an Apple ID account.
Amazon is looking for new ways to tap into the 5GB of free cloud storage they give every customer with the introduction of a free Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app for iPhone. Simply install and open the app and you’ll have the choice of automatically uploading all photos taken on the device, or alternatively pushing photos from the desktop onto Cloud Drive to enjoy from your handset as well. The only thing that seems to be missing is native support for the iPad, but typically Amazon adds that with an eventual update, so if you’ve been looking to fill up that free Cloud Drive space with something, this isn’t a bad way to do it.
The New York Times’ Bits blog is reporting that upwards of 30 percent of air travelers have left electronic devices on during takeoff or landing, with another four percent “unsure” if they ever have. Part of the same survey by travel industry groups Airline Passenger Experience Association and the Consumer Electronics Association also revealed that 21 percent of those polled switch their devices into airplane mode rather than turning them off completely, as 59 percent claim to do. The study is part of an ongoing controversy over whether electronic devices actually affect planes during takeoff or landing, a debate currently raging within the walls of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Color us surprised: TUAW reported Saturday that naan studio’s Twitter client Echofon for Mac has made a return to the Mac App Store, updated to support the latest 1.1 API for the microblogging service. As we reported back in October, the developer made the decision to abandon the Mac to focus on its mobile products, a decision the company now appears to have reversed following “overwhelming user demand.” While many of us have since found other cross-platform solutions like TweetBot capable of syncing between devices, the news will likely be good for those who stuck it out with Echofon — although at the moment, the Mac app appears to only be offered from the Mac App Store, so those who paid for the ad-free version direct from the developer may be looking at paying out .99 all over again…
It’s been widely rumored for weeks, and now the Conversations by Nokia blog officially announced the Lumia 928, a Verizon Wireless-bound variant of the Lumia 920 handset arriving this Thursday, May 16 for a mere after mail-in rebate with two-year agreement. The upgraded Windows Phone 8 handset finally brings Nokia’s PureView camera to Verizon’s 4G LTE network, complete with a credit for Microsoft’s app marketplace for a limited time.
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Whew! It’s only Thursday, but it feels like we’ve already experienced a full week after hitting the ground running in Los Angeles on Monday and Tuesday at Adobe MAX 2013. There’s been a number of notable product introductions over the last few days you might have missed, so here’s a quick recap of a handful of those while we catch our breath.
With all the hoopla surrounding Microsoft’s recent move to the cloud with Office 365, support for the existing Office for Mac 2011 has been relegated to security patches for the most part. While there’s still no new 2013 edition, the folks in Redmond finally made good on an update to add Office 365 compatibility. Version 14.3.4 does indeed include the usual barrage of bug fixes, but also adds the ability to save files to both SkyDrive as well as SharePoint from the existing Mac release. The update can be installed by direct download or using the Microsoft AutoUpdater, and applies to all flavors of the Office for Mac 2011 editions.
Free VoIP service Viber is making some very Skype-like moves this week, introducing version 3.0 of its existing platform along with Mac and Windows clients so its more than 200 million users worldwide can now communicate between mobile and desktop. The Mac edition of Viber Desktop works with OS X Lion 10.7 and up and serves up the usual free messaging and calls Viber has become known for, with cross-platform support between Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Nokia and Bada devices. With all those possibilities, it’s a good bet you already know one of the existing users, so jump over to the Viber website and get calling!
In a move many Angry Birds gamers will find too little, too late, Rovio has announced a new feature called Rovio Account, which allows players to sync game progress between different devices. “Our fans have been asking for a way to play their game on different phones or tablets without losing their progress when changing the device,” the company noted in a blog post this week. “This is exactly what Rovio Account lets you do!” For the moment, the feature is limited to the original Angry Birds in Finland and Poland only, as well as The Croods game worldwide, and will be gradually rolled out to other properties in the coming weeks.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Wi-Fi provider Boingo has introduced an all-new version of its existing Wi-Finder app for iOS which allows travelers to use their iTunes account to pay for wireless access on the go. Instead of requiring a Boingo account, the app update uses an existing Apple ID to facilitate the .99 per month payment, which then allows users to log in at one of more than 600,000 Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, all of which include VPN service to keep your connection safe and secure at all times. Existing Boingo users take note: The iTunes payment model is completely different than the direct billing model, so you’ll have to choose one or the other.
Luca Visual FX has again teamed up with Noise Industries to announce a new batch of Final Cut Pro X plugins called XOverlays. Billed as “a wealth of stylish and extremely customizable motion graphics to use as overlay on a great variety of projects,” the XOverlays includes more than 15 different unique effects to spice up almost any video. If you don’t believe us, have a look at the YouTube video embedded below, then head over to the Noise website to download the free trial version, which can be unlocked as a full version just by purchasing a registration code from the company’s online store.
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