South African President Jacob Zuma seems to be a big fan of the iPad. About a year ago, a photo was tweeted just prior to the 2011 State of the Nation address showing Zuma preparing his speech on an iPad. This year, as you can see at right, President Zuma is using his "indispensable" iPad again for the address. He appears to like the two-finger typing method favored by many iPad users.

As noted on PhoneRPT.com, the State of the Nation address is part of the opening of the South African Parliament and a "one of the key events in South Africa's political calendar." The speech takes place today, although we won't know until after the event if Zuma uses the iPad as a portable teleprompter or just in the preparation of his address.

Zuma is also asking South Africans to share comments on the address via email, Twitter, and Facebook. No word if President Zuma has purchased Tweetbot for iPad yet...

iPad assists South African President Zuma with State of the Nation address originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:00 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.

Daily Update for February 9, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Loop is reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is taking RIM BlackBerry devices off of the list of officially supported mobile devices. What's taking the place of the trusty old BlackBerry? iPhones and iPads running iOS 5 and newer versions of the mobile OS.

While a February 3rd memo from NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications Joseph Klimavicz noted that support for BlackBerrys will continue until May 12, 2012, it does not say when the government organization will actually start providing workers with the new Apple devices.

According to the memo from Klimavicz, NOAA will now support employees with iPhone 4 and newer smartphones running iOS 5 or later, as well as iPad 2 or newer tablets running iOS 5 or later.

NOAA drops BlackBerry, embraces iPhone and iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So, your Family Truckster is loaded with sixteen cup holders in various places. Since you already have a place to stash your hot coffee while driving, wouldn't it be nice to use one of those cup holders for something really useful, like holding your iPad or iPhone within arm's reach? Satechi yesterday delivered the SCH-121 Cup Holder Mount (US$29.99), which comes with two cradles, one for 7" - 10" tablets and the other for your smartphone.

While you don't exactly want to be going down the road watching movies on your iPad, this is perfect for the back seat crowd, front row passengers, or for those who need access to an iPad when they're stopped at a worksite.

Being able to swap out the cradles for iPad and iPhone provides a lot of flexibility. I can see using one of these to keep the spouse happy with her iPad on long driving trips, while the iPhone cradle will keep me on the right track with GPS apps while keeping the phone out of the hot sun on my dashboard.

The Cup Holder Mount is available either from Satechi's website or Amazon.com, although it hasn't shown up on the former yet. I'll be doing a review of the mount in the near future.

Satechi's Cup Holder Mount keeps your iPad and iPhone close at hand originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Have a bit of time? Want to learn more about Steve Jobs' life than you were able to dredge up reading the Walter Isaacson biography? All you have to do is read the 191-page 1991 FBI background investigation of Jobs that was done when he was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council.

The file also include records of a 1985 bomb threat made against Jobs. John Cook at Gawker noted that "I've read the files from a lot of background FBI investigations; it's pretty rare in my experience that this much derogatory information gets dredged up." What kind of derogatory comments? Some of them are classic: "He characterized Mr. Jobs as an honest and trustworthy individual; however, his moral character is questionable" and "They further stated that Mr. Jobs has integrity as long as he gets his way."

But wait, there's more! "Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs' honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals." Yes, the famous Jobs Reality Distortion Field has been investigated by the FBI, but there's no word on whether it was the X-Files team or Fringe Division that was doing the investigation.

And finally, there's this gem: "He characterized Mr. Jobs as a deceptive individual who who (sic) is not completely forthright and honest." While the names of his friends and associates have been redacted from the report, it's apparent that they -- at least back in the 1990s -- didn't have a lot of trust in the late Apple CEO.

Steve Jobs' 1991 FBI file has been released originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Life is a bit difficult for Apple's Premium Resellers in Europe now that the company is expanding retail locations throughout the continent. A post by France's Les Echos profiles a complaint by eBizcuss, the largest and first authorized reseller of Apple products in France (through their ICLG subsidiary), about the impact that the popular Apple Stores are having on the company. TUAW first covered this story in December, when we noted that eBizcuss has filed a lawsuit against Apple.

eBizcuss saw sales fall 22 percent in the third quarter of 2011, and the company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The company has 200 employees and 15 stores throughout France, but has had its stock price drop by 50 percent in the last year.

This isn't happening only in France -- AppleInsider reports that a person contacted the blog claiming that resellers in Sweden and Germany are also in jeopardy of going bankrupt, and that Apple's resellers in the Netherlands are concerned about the imminent opening of the first Dutch Apple store on February 18.

The resellers are saying that they're not only seeing a continuing shortage of product in their stores, but they're being held to incredible standards that are almost impossible to meet. Apple audits the resellers, sending in mystery shoppers to make sure that resellers meet the standards. The French resellers are complaining that the inspections are being done by a British firm rather than Apple France.

Some stores have been asked to change locations, because the ceilings weren't high enough to pass Apple's muster. In other cases, furnishings for the retail outlets have have to be ordered from an Apple-specified German furniture company, and Apple requires that products be displayed in an obsessively detailed way.

As for eBizcuss, their store at the Hotel de Ville in Paris is nearly empty, with no iPhones in stock. The nearby Apple Store at the Carrousel du Louvre? Packed, with iPhones and iPads in profusion. Things will only get worse for the Authorized Resellers, as Apple has noted that they want to open "dozens" of new stores in France.

Apple resellers in Europe say inventory delays affecting business originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today on TUAW TV Live I have a lot of hot new products to demonstrate, both in terms of hardware and software. Most of these items haven't been reviewed yet on TUAW, so you'll be getting a first glimpse at what's coming up soon.

Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.

We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

TUAW TV Live: Looking at what's new in the Appleverse originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple 2.0 editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt is back today with another fascinating Apple statistic: "[Apple] has gained nearly one Facebook in value since Steve Jobs died."

Elmer-DeWitt remarks that the share price of AAPL on October 4, 2011, the day before Jobs passed away, was US$372.50 and that the market capitalization of the company was about $347 billion. Now, just four short months later, the stock price is (as of this morning) $472.66, over $100 greater than before Jobs died. That puts the market capitalization of Apple, Inc. at about $440 billion -- over $90 billion of growth in just four months.

Those numbers are staggering. $90 billion is about nine-tenths of the value that Facebook has been given in advance of its upcoming IPO. Elmer-DeWitt notes that it's hard to argue that Apple is overvalued. He quotes Erik Savitz of Forbes noting that even after backing out Apple's $100 billion cash horde, valuation of AAPL is just 2.6 times revenues and 10 times earnings.

The Apple 2.0 post ends on a rather dour note, with Elmer-DeWitt noting that "two prominent Apple bulls" agree that Apple's shares are ready for a sell-off.

Apple stock gains nearly $100 since Steve's passing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:15:00 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.

Daily Update for February 8, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A lot of us around the TUAW offices are big fans of everything that comes out of Tapbots, so when Tweetbot for iPhone came out we dutifully shelled out our bucks to get a decent Twitter app for our favorite phone. Just a little while ago we told you about version 2.0 of the iPhone app, and now we can spill the beans on the latest from Tapbots -- Tweetbot for iPad. We weren't expecting Tapbots to announce it quite so fast, but apparently they just could not wait a moment longer.

Gallery: Tweetbot for iPad

I won't do a complete review today, but will entice you with a few screenshots from the app. I was fortunate to be a beta tester for Tweetbot for iPad, and let it suffice for me to say that if you like Tweetbot on your iPhone, you're going to love it on the iPad.

The app is available here for US$2.99.

Tweetbot for iPad ships, millions rejoice originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld | iWorld 2012 has come and gone, but the new Apple accessories and apps keep on coming. Today on TUAW TV Live, I'll be demonstrating some innovative and useful tools for Mac, iPhone and iPad, and you're invited to join in on the fun. Who knows? There may even be another one of my Apple trivia contests today!

As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

The chat is now available as well on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET: A close look at some new products originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Zero1.tv has released its new VooMote Zapper (US$69.95) universal remote for iOS devices into the wild, and it's also now in your nearby Apple Store. I had an opportunity to try the new device out over the last week, and while less expensive and smaller than the VooMote One remote we mentioned at its release last last year, the Zapper still seems to have some of the same issues that many other iOS remotes have.

First, the good news. The tiny Zapper plugs into the 30-pin Universal Dock port on the bottom of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. As such, it's able to provide the infrared transceiver on the device with more power than some of the cheap devices we've seen that plug into the headphone jack. The company boasts that the Zapper has four IR mini-blasters for range, and it really does seem to make a difference. I found that the Zapper was able to control devices easily from across a room in broad daylight, so it's definitely got the power.

The dongle comes in eight colors that match the iPad 2 Smart Covers, and it appears that there will be colored cases for iPad 2, iPhone 4/4S, and iPod touch 4th Generation. Those cases you see in the image at the top of this post? They're not available yet.

Gallery: VooMote Zapper

Now, the not-so-good news. Even after getting an update to the free VooMote Zapper app the other day, most of the devices that make up my home entertainment system were not in the library of codes. The Zapper app has one irritating habit right off the bat: it runs upside down on the iPhone so that the Zapper is always at the "top" of the screen. Want to check email? Flip your device upside-down again. The app is not universal, so if you run it on your iPad, it's either a tiny window on your device or a fuzzy 2X version of the app. VooMote is coming out with an iPad-specific TV Guide app sometime in 2012.

The way the app works is you add a room to your home, then add individual devices to that room. The list of rooms is quite extensive, but it doesn't include that staple of American homes, the "family room." I decided to use "living room" instead, although that is a completely separate room in my home that doesn't have any tech in it. Next, I started adding devices to my "living room."

Immediately I was confused. Is my Comcast / Motorola DVR considered a DVR, or is it a cable box? There are listings for both types of devices. I decided to call it a cable box. Upon choosing cable box, I found one that was named "Comcast", but the box I have wasn't listed. The Zapper app took me through a process of trying to figure out what it was by asking me if it was changing channels, bringing the volume up, etc. When it was done, I had a virtual remote on my iPhone called "Cable-Box" that looks nothing like the remote I normally use, and it has controls that make absolutely no sense for the model I'm using.

Next I added the TV. I have a Panasonic Viera 50" Plasma TV that's about five years old. The only Panasonic TVs that are listed are about fifteen units that must be quite new. Once again, I had to go through the training process to see if the app could come up with a remote that would work with my TV. Sure, it turns it on and off, changes channels, and bumps the volume up and down, but I still have to grab my old TV remote in order to change the input (HDMI1, HDMI2, etc.).

I went through the same process with everything but the Apple TV, which miraculously was already in the database. However, it didn't actually turn the Apple TV on, so my guess is that the device settings were for the first-generation device.

Sure, this is a new device and I'm sure that the code library for devices will expand in the future. But I'd bet that a lot of TUAW readers have the same opinion that I do -- when I get a "universal remote," I want it to work out of the box without needing to go through this tedious type of hit-and-miss process.

Like the Logitech Harmony One remote that I previously used, the Zapper has a way to string together commands so that you can turn on multiple devices in sequence for doing something like watching a DVD -- turn on TV, turn on DVD player, turn on audio device (home theater), etc. I didn't even try this function.

I am not going to single out just the VooMote Zapper for having this problem; just about every iOS remote control device I've tried has been lacking, and the Logitech remote described earlier was also a pain to program. I will give the VooMote Zapper a chance, and I've set up an appointment on my calendar to see if an expanded code library in a few months makes this device easier to set up and use. I certainly like the design of the little dongle.

If Apple really wants to capture the home entertainment market, it doesn't need to come to market with a new HDTV -- it just needs to figure out how to get every type of device working together seamlessly and without a lot of annoying setup. For that, I'd be willing to pay a lot of money.

VooMote Zapper universal remote for iOS: A first look and a rant originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For Mac repair shops, enterprise tech support teams, and consultants who need to wipe all data off of hard drives before selling or recycling old Macs, there's now a fast way to erase those drives without tying up a machine for a long time. WiebeTech has a new device called the Drive eRazer Ultra (US$249) that promises to make cleaning those pesky drives a fast and easy process.

WiebeTech provided a Drive eRazer Ultra to TUAW for testing and review, and the device does an amazing job of wiping all of that private or corporate information off of hard drives. In this review you'll read about what makes the Drive eRazer Ultra such a useful device.

To start off with, erasing a computer's hard drive completely usually means that you remove the drive from the computer. Sure, you can boot a computer off of an external drive and then run a utility to do the dirty work on an internal drive, but that ties up the computer for the entire time that the drive is being erased. Using a multiple-pass erase to ensure that your drive is completely unreadable can literally take days if you're using Apple's Disk Utility to do the job, and other software-based erasure methods take equally as long.

The Drive eRazer Ultra erases drives at their maximum write speed, so the job is done faster. WiebeTech says that new drives are erased at 7 GB/minute while older drives will putt along at 7 GB/minute. No computer is required -- you just remove the hard drive, then use the included cables to connect it to the Drive eRazer Ultra. The device has a rocker switch and two-line LCD display for selecting the erase mode and showing how long it will take to the erasure to complete.

Gallery: WiebeTech Drive eRazer Ultra

There are ten different erase specifications that are supported by the device: a quick erase that just does a single pass writing all zeroes on the drive, a custom erase that can run 1 to 99 passes overwriting with zeroes or a user-selected pattern, Secure Erase N or E that initiates a drive's built-in Secure Erase normal or enhanced function, US Department of Defense "Clear" or "Sanitize" standards, NIST special publication 800-88 "Clear" or "Purge" standards, the Canadian CSEC ITSG-06 data sanitization standard, Great Britain's HMGIS5 "Baseline" or "Enhanced" drive erasure standard, and the Australian government's DSD ISM 6.2.92 data sanitization standard.

If your job requires you to print out labels that describe the details of the erasure (for audit reasons, for example), there's a serial port for Zebra brand label printers. Those labels can then be attached to the drives or to a box or bag used for disposal of the drive.

The Drive eRazer Ultra supports 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives, 3.5" IDE/PATA drives, and other drives using optional adapters. If you're erasing a 3.5" drive, there's a metal protective plate included that you can screw onto the drive to protect the drive electronics and help dissipate heat.

For my testing, I grabbed a 160 GB Hitachi drive that had previously resided in a MacBook and that was loaded with about 100 GB of video backups. To use the Drive eRazer, you need to plug in a power brick that's about the same size and weight of the unit itself, grab the correct cable (SATA in this case), and make both power and data connections to the drive. Flipping the power switch on the box powers up the drive, and the display shows a command for doing a quick erase.

I chose to look at the drive information screens first, which provide data on the capacity of the drive, the number of bad sectors on it, the number of times that the drive has been powered on and off, the number of times the drive has been stopped and started, and an estimate of the time to do a Secure Erase (enhanced or normal).

The user interface is really quite simple to use, and it took very little time for me to set the default erase specification to "DOD Sanitize." The device warns the user that it will erase all data -- which I thought was silly since that's what the device is supposed to do -- and then estimates how long it will take to perform the erasure.

Sanitizing is "the removal of sensitive data from a system or storage device with the intent that the data can not be reconstructed by any known technique," according to Wikipedia. The DOD Sanitize specification (DOD 5220.22-M) recommends that you "Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify" to sanitize information on writable media.

To complete this process, the Drive eRazer Ultra took about 2 hours and 16 minutes. As soon as that was done, I took the same drive and ran it through the "Most Secure" erase option in Disk Utility, which also complies with DOD 5220.22-M. That method took slightly over 8 hours to complete.

This isn't a device that most Mac owners are going to rush out and buy, but for those who are constantly erasing drives, the Drive eRazer Ultra can pay for itself quickly in terms of sheer convenience and time saved wiping data. For those teams and individuals, this is an indispensable device.

WiebeTech Drive eRazer Ultra provides super-secure drive wiping originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While some tech pundits are bemoaning Apple's lack of ads during the Super Bowl on Sunday (the company hasn't run an ad during the big game for years), The Street's Jim Cramer is taking another view and one that is much more rooted in reality. Apple didn't need to pay for expensive Super Bowl air time, because the World Champion NY Giants provided tons of free advertising for the iPhone.

As Cramer noted, "... there was one ad that struck me as the most honest, most riveting and most compelling of all. You see, the game had just ended, and Colts great Raymond Berry ran the Giant gantlet with the Lombardi Trophy. Suddenly it seemed like every other Giant pulled out an Apple iPhone to snap pictures of the moment. One after another after another. And I said to myself, there it is, not some pet dangling a bag of chips or some headlights killing vampires or King Elton getting trapdoored. Nope, there was an ad worthy of Steve Jobs and the company he built."

Cramer went on to say "To me, the endorsement of Apple by real athletes who were not paid, especially when contrasted with the gift of the GM Corvette that Eli Manning didn't even seem to care about -- 'Eli, the keys, the keys, don't forget the keys!' -- said it all ... when everyone else is paying $3 million per commercial, Apple paid nothing and easily had the best ad of all."

To see what Cramer's talking about, just check out the YouTube video below and count the number of iPhones that you see snapping photos and shooting video of Raymond Berry and the Lombardi Trophy. Amazing...

Apple enjoys free Super Bowl advertising courtesy of NY Giants originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apps for mobile devices are a surprisingly robust source of jobs in the United States, according to research from TechNet. Since 2008, apps have created 466,000 American jobs. TechNet estimates that about 155,000 of those tech-related jobs are related to app development and tech support, while the remaining 311,000 jobs also require tech skills but include things like app marketing and art design.

Of those jobs, the highest percentage (23.8 percent) of the total are located in California. Other app hot spots include New York (6.9 percent), Washington (6.4 percent), Texas (5.4 percent) and New Jersey (4.2 percent). Central Florida doesn't want to be left out, as the Orlando Sentinel reports; local universities and training institutes are high on app development learning programs for would-be developers.

These numbers include not only jobs created for iOS apps, but also those triggered by the development of apps for Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Facebook.

[via The Loop]

Apps have created 466,000 U.S. jobs in four years originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

That didn't take long. Only a few weeks after Apple's iBooks Author app debuted, template publisher Jumsoft began shipping Book Palette (US$2.99), a collection of ten professionally designed templates for iBooks Author.

I had an opportunity to try Book Palette, which is packaged as a Mac app. Once installed from the Mac App Store and launched, the app displays ten textbook templates. To start using a template, you can either select it and click the Open in iBooks Author button, or just double-click the template. In either case, iBooks Author launches and the template opens right up.

If you've modified your own iBooks Author templates before, they're saved in the /Application Support/iBooks Author/Templates/My Templates folder. You can choose to save the templates into that folder so that they appear with all of the rest of the standard templates in the template chooser.

Like the other templates that are included with iBooks Author, Jumsoft provides layouts for textbooks only -- remember, that's the focus for iBooks Author at this point at this point in time. The templates include Biology, Cookery, Decision Making, Dental Hygiene, Environmental Design, Interior Design, IT Strategy, Managing Change, Psychology, and Team Building.

All of the templates include the standard iBooks Author attributes, including a title page, a place for introductory media, a table of contents, and a glossary. The templates also follows the Chapter / Section format of the Apple-provided templates, and pages in a variety of layouts (one, two or three columns, and blank).

Gallery: Jumsoft Book Palette

Of all the templates, I thought that Cookery was probably the most unique and least like a textbook template, but I now fear of a future of poorly written and self-published cookbooks that all look identical.

On the other hand, the Biology and Dental Hygiene templates uses the Chalkduster font for call-outs, an unfortunate design decision that can be fixed by simply changing the font in those areas where it shows up. I also found the use of Didot Italic as the standard text font in the Interior Design template to be a nightmare, as it's hard to read a lot of text in such a flowery font. Most of the other templates were well-designed and very readable, and wouldn't require much (if any) change to create good-looking electronic texts.

Jumsoft plans to release additional templates as app upgrades in the future, so book designers will have plenty of base templates to start with. For those who are currently beginning to work with iBooks Author, Book Palette is an inexpensive way to add to the paltry selection of six templates provided by Apple.

Daily Mac App: Book Palette adds ten new templates to iBooks Author originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:00 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.

Daily Update for February 7, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The design wizards at Twelve South have come up with another unique and useful accessory for Apple gear. This time, they're introducing the HoverBar (US$79.99), a mounting clamp and flexible bar that floats an iPad 2 (or several) next to your iMac or Apple monitor.

The HoverBar can be clamped onto the upright of an iMac or Apple display, to a tabletop, or any other surface up to an inch thick. Your iPad 2 sits in a plastic clip that's mounted on a swivel ball so it can be turned to any angle. In the video below, one idle youth taking time out from doing his homework uses the iPad / HoverBar combo as a steering wheel for Real Racing. That's a different use case!

Many people will want to use the HoverBar-mounted iPad as a communications device, displaying email or providing a way to do FaceTime conferencing without the dreaded "nose vision" view. Used with an app like Air Display ($9.99), you can even have a Mac window displayed on your iPad.

We hope to get a HoverBar soon for a full review. Until then, enjoy the video and visit the Twelve South website.

Twelve South HoverBar a unique way to marry iPad and iMac originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple and the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) both received criticism last year for a sweetheart deal in which Apple paid less rent per square foot for the Grand Central Terminal retail store space than other tenants in the facility. Well, the deal is starting to pay off for the MTA as expected, since the popularity of the Apple Store at Grand Central Terminal appears to be improving sales for other retailers.

While the trend is based on data from only one nearby restaurant, it's expected that the Apple Store is attracting business to other stores and restaurants in Grand Central Terminal as well. Crain's New York Business says that sales at Michael Jordan's The Steakhouse N.Y.C. have increased by 7 percent in the last seven weeks. A co-owner of the restaurant, Peter Glazier, says the improvement in sales isn't just because Apple displaced another high-end restaurant, Metrazur. "The jump only happened after Apple opened," according to Mr. Glazier.

Apple not only pays less rent than other tenants, but does not contribute to a revenue sharing agreement that most of the other tenants of Grand Central do. The MTA believed that the flagship Apple Store would attract significant numbers of new customers that would benefit the other tenants and the entire facility as well. For every 1 percent increase in sales for the terminal's retailers, the MTA stands to gain $500,000 in rent due to the revenue sharing agreement.

If the experience of Michael Jordan's The Steakhouse is an indication of increased sales across the board, then the Apple agreement will certainly pay off dividends to the MTA.

Apple's Grand Central neighbor sees sales increase originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:00 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.

Daily Update for February 6, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Samsung USA has been on the warpath against Apple fans lately with a series of ads that show bored, desperate people standing in line for Apple's next product while happy hipsters show off their Android-powered Sammy devices. During yesterday's Super Bowl, the company took the gloves off with a regionally-focused ad touting the new Samsung Galaxy Note.

The ad, estimated to cost Samsung a whopping US$10.5 million in air time alone, follows the same theme as the others in the campaign. As in the previous ads, what appear to be Apple customers are standing in line waiting for a new device when a happy Galaxy Note user wanders up and the crowd drops everything as the scales fall from their eyes and they see the error of their ways.

According to the book of Samsung, what iPhone users really want is a huge phone that uses a stylus. Yes, you read that correctly. The 5.3" Galaxy Note, in homage to the Palm Treo and a handful of Pocket PC Phones from the early 2000s, comes with a stylus that you can lose after you get Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher's autograph. Your chances of losing the stylus are probably pretty good, since most people lack pockets that are large enough to hold the Galaxy Note comfortably.

I'll leave you with this final quote from Steve Jobs: "If you see a stylus, they blew it."

Samsung insults iPhone owners with Super Bowl ad touting oversized stylus phone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's a lot of speculation going around about an Apple HDTV of some sort. The Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs started a lot of the rumors when he quoted Jobs as saying that Apple had "finally cracked" the method of interacting with a television. Now the speculation is bordering on the ridiculous, with screen shots of a customer survey done by Best Buy that describes an Apple HDTV concept product appearing on a number of tech sites.

The survey describes an "all new 42" Apple HDTV" available at Best Buy for US$1499, with a 42" 1080p LED flat panel display, built-in iOS, app and iCloud support, the ability to use an iPad or iPhone as a remote control, and a "built in iSight camera and microphone for Skype."

So, an overpriced HDTV with a built-in Apple TV is all the Cupertino Kids can give us? There are other things that make this alleged story a farce, such as the survey's insistence on referring to an "iSight camera" rather than a FaceTime camera and using Skype instead of FaceTime.

Retail chains do customer surveys all the time, and this particular survey is only "newsworthy" because it has the word Apple in it. Had the survey been asking about a new Internet TV from LG, we wouldn't have seen at least four major blogs writing about it. Apple's insistence on secrecy means that we're not going to know what awe-inspiring new way of interacting with television Jobs was talking about until the product is ready to ship ... or until an Apple engineer just happens to leave an HDTV at a bar.

In the meantime, the Apple community would be better served by blog posts with a little more meat on them, instead of breathless stories speculating about the deep inside meaning of a simple market survey.

Apple HDTV in Best Buy survey is not news originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bob Borchers used to be an iPhone product marketing engineer for Apple. Part of the team that brought the first iPhone to market in 2007, he's now a venture capitalist with Opus Capital. Borchers recently gave a talk to students at a California school talking about the thought processes that were involved in the iPhone's development.

Borchers says that Steve Jobs didn't have a specific device in mind, but instead gave the team a mission: create a phone that people would love so much that they'd never leave the house without it. Borchers believes that Apple has been so wildly successful with the iPhone because the company focused on fundamentals -- breaking the rules, but in an exceptionally well manner; paying attention to details; and making people focus on the relationship they have with their device.

Jobs wanted the phone to be revolutionary, the best iPod the company had ever designed, and allow users to access the internet easily from a pocket-sized device. What the iPhone has become -- a device with downloadable apps, GPS capabilities, video and photography features, and voice integration -- wasn't part of the original concept.

Borchers noted that the original iPhone almost shipped with a plastic touchscreen, but Jobs was concerned that the plastic would scratch if users put the phone in a pocket with keys and other metallic items. The team improvised, convinced Corning to re-start production of the abandoned Gorilla Glass, and the iPhone has had a fairly scratch-resistant display since day one.

Apple's obsession with product packaging was mentioned by Borchers, who said that the company spends "way too much time" on presenting products, but he conceded that it is ultimately worthwhile to do so since it communicates the special nature of Apple products to consumers.

With future "insanely great" products in the pipeline, we can only hope that the Steve Jobs obsession with details remains part of Apple's DNA.

Former Apple employee recounts how Jobs motivated iPhone team originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 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.

Daily Update for February 3, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

FileVault 2 is a feature of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion that provides a way to encrypt a full disk drive so that it can only be used by those who know a password ... until now, that is. Passware, a company that makes forensic software used to recover lost passwords or open encrypted files to police and others, has announced that their Passware Kit Forensic 11.4 software (US$995) can extract the keys to FileVault 2 in an average of 40 minutes.

Password was able to recover data from FileVault 2 encrypted drives regardless of the length and complexity of passwords. Fortunately for Mac users, however, not only does the cracking require a relatively expensive piece of software, but it also requires that certain conditions be in place for the software to be able to extract the FileVault keys.

The Mac must be powered on and logged in; in other words, the FileVault keys must be in memory for Passware Kit Forensic to extract them. Passware can't extract encryption keys on static data, nor can it determine what the keys are before they've been requested as part of the log-in process.

That means that as long as you turn off automatic login, you should be safe. To turn off automatic login on your FileVault 2-encrypted Mac, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options and make sure that "Off" is selected from the drop-down. The other tip to keep you safe? Turn off your laptop while traveling so that the Passware software cannot be used to hack into it.

There's one other good piece of news; hackers need to get to the contents of memory through a working FireWire or Thunderbolt port, so the Passware process does not work via remote access. Likewise, those older MacBook Airs that only have USB ports are safe from this method -- commenter Thomas Brand on the Brooks Review notes that "Thunderbolt and FireWire access data directly from the system bus allowing the exploit. USB goes through the CPU."

Yes, FileVault 2 encryption is vulnerable. But with a few easy, common-sense steps, mobile Mac users can keep their data safe anyway.

Apple FileVault 2 encryption cracked, but don't panic originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The news just keeps getting better for Apple in the mobile phone business. Just yesterday, IDC reported that the company is in third place in terms of worldwide mobile phone sales. Today, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu announced that with a relatively small piece of the pie (IDC said 6 percent of market, Dediu says 8.7 percent), Apple is pulling in a whopping 75 percent of profits in the industry.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Apple 2.0 notes in an analysis of Dediu's numbers that out of the top eight manufacturers, only five are showing meaningful profits. Samsung has about a 16 percent profit share, while "Nokia, Research in Motion, and HTC are just scraping by. Motorola, LG and Sony, which bought out Ericsson last month, are still in the red."

As Elmer-DeWitt points out, this is for all mobile phones, not just smartphones. And these numbers are for the worldwide market, not just the United States. He concludes that "This doesn't bode well for the manufacturers who have hitched their wagon to Google's Android or Microsoft's Windows Mobile 7."

Apple rollin' in the dough: 75% of cell phone profits originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Although they haven't exactly explained how school systems or parents are going to pay for iPads or other tablets for every student, the US government is pushing a new initiative to move from standard printed textbooks to digital textbooks within the next five years. While it's good to see that a focus on digital textbooks is finally at hand, it's going to take more than a press release, five years and a "playbook" to make the transition happen.

According to an AP news release, "Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday challenged schools and companies to get digital textbooks in students' hands within five years."

In an interview, Duncan asked, "Do we want kids walking around with 50-pound backpacks and every book in those backpacks costing 50, 60, 70 dollars and many of them being out of date? Or, do we want students walking around with a mobile device that has much more content than was even imaginable a couple years ago and can be constantly updated? I think it's a very simple choice."

To school systems that are battling drastically decreased budgets and trying to replace or repair crumbling infrastructure, it might not be such a "simple choice." Likewise, there doesn't appear to have been much (if any) thought on how parents or schools systems are going to replace equipment that is broken or lost by students, or how to pay for digital devices to be refreshed every three to five years.

Wednesday's announcement comes just two weeks after Apple's education event and the launch of iBooks textbooks. The company is perfectly placed, both in terms of the iPad hardware platform and iBooks Author creation tool, to benefit from a move to interactive and easily updated electronic textbooks.

The government released a 67-page "playbook" promoting the use of digital textbooks and offering guidance to school systems who want to make the move. At the current time, about US$8 billion is spent each year on traditional textbooks for K-12 school kids. With an Apple educational discount, that could pay for more than 17 million iPads each year. If Apple, as rumored, brings down the price of entry into the iPad market by selling the iPad 2 alongside a future model, more devices could make it into the hands of students across the nation.

On the other hand, switching to digital textbooks means more than just acquiring hardware and buying textbook apps. In many cases, the curriculum provided by a school district and even the methods used by instructors to teach students must change as well. The educational five-year plan is a noble goal; it's just not very realistic.

US government wants schools to embrace digital textbooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:00:00 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.

Daily Update for February 2, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In just five short years, Apple has become the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. International Data Corporation (IDC), as part of the continuing Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker survey, noted that the overall mobile phone market is still growing despite a major decline in numbers for low-priced "feature phones."

Despite fierce competition from both Apple and Samsung, Nokia retained its spot as the leader in mobile phone shipments. The company is transitioning from the Symbian OS for smartphones, having recently launched the Lumia line of Windows Phone-powered smartphones. IDC notes that Nokia's worldwide distribution and manufacturing presence will make it difficult for other companies to knock the Finnish company from its perch on the mobile phone throne.

Not surprisingly, Samsung was the number two manufacturer, selling more than 300 million phones in 2011. The company's Android smartphone line and new Windows Phone smartphones, along with a growing line of feature phones, inched Samsung even closer to Nokia's coveted number one spot.

Apple jumped from third position after being in fifth place in the previous quarter. The third-place finish is the highest ever for Apple, and the strong launch of the iPhone 4S was listed as the primary reason that the company leapfrogged over competitors LG and ZTE in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Rounding out the top five were Korean manufacturer LG, which has seen a drop in sales for the last year. Chinese vendor ZTE almost took over the fourth place position, moving from low-cost feature phones to increasingly powerful smartphones. ZTE has recently entered the North American market with Android and Windows Phone-powered smartphones.

The most fascinating number, however, was the year-over-year change in shipments. While arch-rival Samsung saw a 17.6 percent change in sales volume over the previous year, Apple saw a whopping 96.2 percent increase. Apple now has 6 percent of the total mobile phone market based on 2011 unit shipments; recall that Steve Jobs noted during the 2007 introduction of the iPhone that he'd be happy with a 1 percent share.

Apple becomes world's third largest mobile phone manufacturer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the Wednesday after Macworld | iWorld 2012, I've finally unpacked my suitcase, and now it's time to talk about the event. This year's event was a blur for me, probably because I had a nasty cold that coincided with the busiest days of the show. But now I've had the time to sit back and ponder what I saw, and this afternoon I'll go over the highs and lows of the premier Apple fan event.

Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.

We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

TUAW TV Live: Macworld | iWorld post-event episode originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This just in from the "not surprising since a rising tide lifts all boats" department -- stock in Apple's primary manufacturing partner, Foxconn, climbed to a recent high on speculation that Apple might be using metal casings for the next-generation iPhone.

The speculation is in line with what Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty noted last month. Huberty believes that Apple is moving away from the glass casing used on the iPhone 4 and 4S and moving to a metal casing instead. Foxconn spokesman Cheng-Kuang Liu, of course, wisely declined to comment about the rumors.

The use of metal in the new iPhone benefits companies like Foxconn that not only assemble Apple's products, but produce the metal casings as well. The company's share price surged almost seven percent yesterday on what so far is baseless speculation.

Foxconn stock climbs on Apple projections originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:00 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.

Daily Update for February 1, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last December, a Chinese court rejected Apple's ownership of the iPad trademark in China in favor of Proview International, a large but relatively unknown Chinese monitor company. Now Apple is appealing that ruling, asking the courts to transfer the iPad trademark to it and also asking for Proview to pay 4 million yuan as compensation for legal fees that have accrued.

Apple's original lawsuit against the company noted that a Proview subsidiary in Taiwan had sold the iPad trademark rights to "IP Applications," a UK-based company that later sold the trademark rights to Apple in 2010. In December, a court in Shenzen, China ruled that the transfer of trademark rights was only done through the Taiwan subsidiary. Since the main corporation (also located in Shenzhen) was not in attendance at the trademark negotiations in Taiwan, the court stated that Proview did not formally transfer any trademark rights to Apple.

Apple's new appeal makes the claim that the Taiwanese subsidiary was acting as a representative for Proview's mainland operations. Proview says that it has no such relationship with the Taiwan subsidiary and was never in talks with Apple about transferring the iPad trademarks.

It would be in Apple's best interest to win the appeal, since Proview has already filed a pair of lawsuits in Chinese courts demanding that Apple and another vendor -- Gome Electronics -- stop selling tablets using the iPad name.

Apple contests iPad trademark rejection in China originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week at this time, I was preparing for a quick round of interviews at Macworld | iWorld 2012. Now the show is over, and all that is left are the memories and the ringing in my ears caused by the drum circle that closed this year's event. Actually, I was gone by the time the cacophonous banging began, so maybe the ringing was from the TUAW Meetup...

On today's TUAW TV Live, I'll talk about some of the high points of Macworld | iWorld 2012, why I think the event has reached a turning point and is heading back to full health, and discuss or demonstrate some of the top products from the show.

As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

The chat is now available as well on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET: The best of Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree Neil Young has been focusing on high-definition music for some time. At the News Corp. D: Dive Into Media event yesterday, Young said that he had been in discussions with Apple personnel -- including the late Steve Jobs -- about ways to improve digital music quality.

Young and others had been in discussions with Apple about improved digital music file formats, ways to download the much larger files that would result, and creating devices that would play the high-def files. Digital music is currently "packaged" in either AAC or MP3 formats, which create small, easy distributed files, but also lose a lot of the nuances that are found in masters or live performances. High-def music files would be much larger than those currently in distribution, so downloading and storage would require more resources.

Jobs was a rabid music fan his entire life and arguably had more impact on the digital music industry than any other executive. According to Young, however, "When he (Jobs) went home, he listened to vinyl." Young believes that without Steve's passion for music, Apple as a company has lost any ambition it may have had to rally behind high-def music.

Musicians and recording industry execs might both get behind high-def music, since it would allow the industry to sell a higher-quality product at a premium price. Whether or not Apple will be at the forefront of the move to high-def music is up to the current executive team.

[via The Mac Observer]

Neil Young: Steve Jobs's death hindered Apple's high-def music efforts originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Attendance at this year's Macworld | iWorld event was approximately the same as last year's Macworld Expo -- about 25,000 people -- according to IDG World Expo, the group that organizes the "ultimate fan event."

A wrap-up news release from IDG World Expo noted that about 40 percent of the attendees at this year's event were first-time visitors, which may translate to growth in attendance for next year's event scheduled for January 31 - February 2, 2013.

Conference attendance was up a whopping 145 percent over last year, thanks in part to the $75 iFan Pass that made its debut in 2012. In the past, expo tickets were relatively inexpensive, but the cost of going to the conference sessions was prohibitively high. The iFan pass gave show-goers unlimited access to the educational sessions, show floor, music performances, and film screenings that made up this year's event.

IDG World Expo has posted a gallery of photos from Macworld | iWorld as well as a video (see below) of Friday's happenings at Moscone West. Both are worth checking out for a taste of this year's event.

Macworld | iWorld attendance steady in 2012; many newbies in the crowd originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 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.

Daily Update for January 31, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Kanex is an accessories manufacturer that has traditionally built cables and connectors for Apple products. The company has recently brightened up its branding and is introducing some new products that are sure to grab some attention. I was able to take some photos of the new Kanex Sydnee iOS recharge station at Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week, and heard a fascinating story about the origins of the design of the Sydnee.

Gallery: Kanex Sydnee

First, a little bit of background about the Sydnee. It's designed to charge up to four iPads simultaneously. That means that it supplies the requisite 2.1 Amps of current to four individual USB ports. Sure, you can swap out some or all of those iPads with iPhones or iPod touches, but where the Sydnee really shines is in the area of charging multiple iPads at one time.

What's nice about the Sydnee is that it manages to be both functional and stylish at the same time. In terms of functionality, the Sydnee does an amazing job of holding three iPads at the same time while feeding power to them through included USB cables that are just the right length. The fourth iPad (or an iPhone) must sit on the table, uninvited to the party.

Now, about the style. As you can see from both the image at the top of this post and the gallery, the Sydnee uses a unique design that allows it to hold three iPads gracefully. There's a clear plastic piece in the center of the oblong "loop" that separates two of the iPads, while the third perches on the outside of the device.

If this design seems vaguely familiar, than you must be a fan of Disney Pixar's Wallo.E. The Kanex team told me that Sydnee's design was inspired by the Axiom, the huge BnL spacecraft that is inhabited by a "lost colony" from Earth. Whether that story is true or the team was pulling my leg, there is a resemblance, and the design is striking.

Sydnee's not available yet, but you can sign up for updates on availability. The recharging station is expected to retail for US$149 when it appears, and you'll be able to get it in either black or white. I just wish it had a Buy n Large logo sticker on the outside...

Kanex Sydnee recharging station traces design to an unusual source originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple relies on electronics assembly firm Foxconn to build iPads and iPhones in China. Now Foxconn is reportedly planning to build five new factories in Brazil to help meet the demand for Apple products. There's already one plant cranking out iPads and iPhones, and each of the new factories is expected to have about a thousand workers.

The exact locations of the new plants have not yet been decided, with officials from the Brazilian government and Foxconn planning on meeting after the Chinese New Year.

The Brazilian government wants the factories in the country: just last week, they approved tax reductions and exemptions that make it attractive for Foxconn to produce iPads in Brazil. A new "Inter-Ministerial Decree 34" provides excise tax, social contribution tax, and federal contribution tax incentives for companies investing in the research and development of keyboard less touchscreen tablets weighing less than 750 grams (the iPad 2 tops out at 613 grams).

In other Foxconn news, Chinese tech news site M.I.C. Gadget reports that thousands of Chinese citizens lined up for a chance to try for jobs at an iPhone plant in Zhengzhou. Despite recent Western press accounts painting the company -- and Apple -- as exploiting Chinese workers, there are literally tens of thousands of individuals who feel that a low-paying job in less-than-perfect working conditions is better than no job at all. The photo below shows part of the crowd waiting outside a labor agency in Zhengzhou to apply for the jobs.

Foxconn plans to build five Brazilian factories to produce Apple products originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple achieved a quasi-victory today in the ongoing intellectual property battles with Samsung when an appeals court in Dusseldorf, Germany upheld Apple's requested preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The court's decision also covers the Galaxy Tab 8.9, but not the Galaxy Tab 10.1N -- the version of the tablet that Samsung tweaked slightly to get around its similarity to the iPad. A decision on the 10.1N is expected on February 9, 2012.

Why is this a partial victory for Apple? Well, the ban was upheld not on Apple's design rights, but a breach of German unfair competition laws. That weakens Apple's assertion that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 models blatantly copied iPad design features. In addition, this verdict is limited to Germany alone and does not apply to other European Union member states.

The Netherlands rejected a previous ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 just last week, and if the 10.1N and other lightly-modified tablets remain on the market, it indicates that competitors don't have to make a lot of modifications to iPad copies for them to stay on the market.

However, all is not lost for Apple. Samsung is losing its claims on 3G patents in Germany, and was also recently the target of an EU investigation regarding alleged abuse of those patents. This is the year that many of the worldwide patent lawsuits that Apple and Samsung are embroiled in should reach resolution in the courts.

Apple ban on original Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 stands in Germany originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.