Slightly over a dozen protesters from Change.org and SumofUS delivered a petition signed by more than 250,000 people to the Grand Central Terminal Apple Store today. Both organizations are urging Apple to improve working conditions at factories run by its overseas suppliers, particularly Foxconn's massive facility in China.

CNET reports the event was relatively low-key -- there were more people present covering the event for the media than the number of protesters who showed up -- and Apple Store employees seemed well-prepared when they accepted the big box of signatures.

The group claims the same petition will be delivered to Apple's San Francisco store later today as one part of a global action also involving stores in Bangalore, London, and Sydney.

At press time, it was unclear if the protesters were wearing clothing manufactured in the USA, or if they plan similar protests at Best Buys, Walmarts, Gamestops, or the headquarters of Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, HP, Dell, or any of the other retail outlets and consumer electronics companies who also heavily employ Chinese labor to build their products.

Apple Store employees accept petitions from protesters originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple Store employees accept petitions from protesters originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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If you're tired of tower defense games, I don't blame you. Feel free to skip this post, but let me say this before you go: I wouldn't spotlight yet another tower defense game if it wasn't special. That's why Spice Invaders has made the cut.

The standard tower defense tropes are in place. Build and upgrade towers with spells and abilities to repel invaders while carrying on a map-wide campaign. But Spice Invaders by On5 Games (published by Chillingo) goes a step further.

First of all, the game is super polished. It runs great and looks terrific, and everything from the characters to the UI shines with color and fun. There's a huge upgrade system with lots of ways to develop your towers and abilities, and there's even (gasp) multiplayer support. You can play co-operatively or even competitively in a tower defense game! Each stage has multiple modes and can be played through multiple times, so there's lots and lots of content here, all of it quite fun.

Spice Invaders is also a freemium title, which has both a pro and a con. The pro, of course, is that the game is free. Tower defense fans should waste no time in downloading it. Those of you who've soured on tower defense should also consider it. Bewarned, however, that Chillingo isn't gentle with the prodding. You'll get reminders in the middle of your game (and elsewhere) that you can buy spice and upgrades via in-app purchases. They can be removed with an in-app purchase, of course, but they're still annoying to see.

That issue hits right at the core of the freemium argument, however. Yes it's annoying to be "pitched" in the middle of chaotic game play, but the game's a free download, so that's your tradeoff. At any rate, Spice Invaders is an amazing title, and even though I feel like I've said a few times now that tower defense has been worn out on iOS, Spice Invaders goes ahead and resets the bar all over again.

Daily iPhone App: Spice Invaders originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: Spice Invaders originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile advertiser Flurry's latest report, on app usage during the Super Bowl, is fascinating for those of us who have been following the "second screen" phenomenon: The tendency of mobile device users to use their devices while also watching television or other media. Flurry notes that during last week's big game, not only was the app audience (according to the apps that the company is actually monitoring) almost as large as the Super Bowl audience as a whole, but as you can see above, app usage steadily grew throughout the game.

With one interesting exception, that is: During the Madonna halftime show. During the show itself, viewers finally looked away from their smartphone devices and tuned into the television. Obviously not all of them did, but that is a big enough dip (along with the drop during the final minutes of the game) to say that yes, there's a big correlation here between what people are seeing on their televisions and how they're using their mobile devices.

The opposite story is also true: Flurry was actually able to rank app usage versus the most and least popular commercials during the game. As you can see from the final charts in their report, on commercials that people generally liked and paid attention to, app usage dropped significantly. That's very intriguing: Most of the second screen work brands have done so far is designed to keep people using ads during commercials, but a study like this would suggest that customers would rather pay attention to good commercials. They postpone their interaction with those "marquee" ads until later on -- or during other ads, including possibly those of competitors.

At any rate, this study definitely shines a new light on this second screen thinking, and we might see some new trends in apps trying to make use of this habit going forward.

App usage doesn't drop during Super Bowl -- except during halftime originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

App usage doesn't drop during Super Bowl -- except during halftime originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although the source may sound somewhat suspicious -- a Chinese tech site that claims to have inside information from an Apple engineer working on Siri -- this information does align with Apple's own promise to increase Siri's linguistic acumen in 2012. Apple has also promised to bring support for Spanish, Italian, and Korean to Siri sometime this year.

Siri will supposedly also offer local business information and navigation options to Chinese users, which is something that's been US-only so far. With China being Apple's biggest emerging market, it's obvious why Apple might want to prioritize increased Siri functionality in that country. (As for me and the rest of the New Zealand iOS users, we can probably look forward to full business/navigation support in Siri sometime in 2022.)

These updates to Siri's linguistic capabilities are likely to launch alongside an iOS update, probably iOS 5.1. Like many others, Stephen Millward of Penn-Olson speculates the iOS 5.1 update will launch alongside new iPad hardware; there's obviously no way to know that for certain, but my gut tells me he's probably right.

Siri may speak and understand Chinese, Japanese, and Russian by March originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Siri may speak and understand Chinese, Japanese, and Russian by March originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stories about troubling factory conditions at Foxconn are all too familiar, unfortunately, but hearing that protestors are planning to do something about it is new. GigaOM reports that this Thursday, representatives from Change.org and Sumofus.org are planning to bring petitions to Apple Stores in major cities around the US, asking the company from Cupertino to put together "a worker protection strategy" for the factories overseas that it contracts to make all of its products.

The organizations will arrive at stores in Washington, DC, New York City, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore, and will also bring signs and leaflets along to educate Apple customers and employees about what's happening overseas. The petitions will have the names of 250,000 people on them, and one of the representatives from Sumofus.org says that the group is "asking Apple to clean up its supply chains in time to make the iPhone 5 its first ethically produced product."

Obviously no one wants factories with terrible conditions for its workers, and Apple in the past has at least given lip service to wanting to make sure that conditions are as good as possible at the companies that it contracts work from. But maybe a protest like this will bring even more light to the issue, and pressure Apple even further to make sure that any of its production lines are at least benign when it comes to worker safety and labor rights.

Protests against iPhone factory conditions planned at Apple Stores originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Protests against iPhone factory conditions planned at Apple Stores originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweetbot was already a great Twitter client and the 2.0 update that rolled out today makes the app even better. Tweetbot 2.0 has several notable features including inline image preview and a single-tap link which automatically opens content inside the app.

If the page you request is text-heavy, new Readability integration will remove all the fluff and format the text perfectly for your screen. The overall look and feel of the app is also a bit more polished.

If you're a Tweetbot user, you can download the update for free from the iTunes App Store. If you're not, now might be a good time to check out Tweetbot. It's available for US$2.99. And if you follow the company on Twitter, they are hinting at more announcements soon...

Tweetbot 2.0 update adds inline images, Readabilty integration and more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tweetbot 2.0 update adds inline images, Readabilty integration and more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint posted its Q4 2011 earnings on Wednesday and announced it sold 1.8 million iPhones in the quarter. Forty percent of those sales were to new customers and, overall, the carrier added 1.6M net subscribers in the quarter. Sprint iPhone sales were strong, but it still trails Verizon Wireless which sold 4.3 million iPhones and AT&T which activated 7.6 million iPhones. Combined the three carriers account for about 13.7 million of Apple's 37 million iPhones it sold in the quarter.

The iPhone boosted Sprint last quarter, but it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns for the carrier. Sprint posted a US$1.3 billion loss in the quarter, some of which comes from the iPhone and some from its 4G LTE network build-out. The carrier had to absorb an undisclosed amount of money due to sales and subsidies costs associated with the iPhone.

A financial hit from the iPhone was expected by analysts. James Ratcliffe of Barclays Capital writes this about Sprint, "The financials are weak due to the amount of money they are sending to Cupertino. This year and next are going to be unattractive financially. I think people who own Sprint might be looking more toward the prospects in 2014."

[Via Bloomberg and MacStories]

Sprint Q4 2011 results: 1.8 Million iPhones sold originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sprint Q4 2011 results: 1.8 Million iPhones sold originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I've been waiting for this one for a while. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a title that won accolades on the Nintendo DS last year, and it's now arrived on iOS in a universal version (that's free to download to boot). The idea is that you're a ghostly "phantom detective" who must solve his own murder. You can't directly interact with the living, but you can mess with inanimate objects in their world. So move objects around and try to change the fate of other dead people. It sounds morbid, but there's a fun sense of humor and style that keep it entertaining.

The first two chapters are free to play through, and you can buy the rest for US$9.99 total, or $4.99 in three different chapter packs. Even for the full price, that's cheaper than you'll find it for sale on the DS. There's full Game Center integration and the build is universal, which makes this one of the best ports that Capcom has ever released. It's great to see such a popular game get a decent port to the App Store. Definitely pick it up and try it out. You might find yourself compelled enough to buy the whole and finish the story.

Daily iPhone App: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective scares up some fun originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective scares up some fun originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mass Effect 2 got its own iOS game when it was released on the traditional consoles a few years ago, and since Mass Effect 3 is due out in another month or so here, you probably won't be surprised to hear that EA is again planning another iOS game tie-in for the release. This time around, though, it sounds like they're doing it a little more intelligently. The last game focused on the first companion you met in the full console game, telling a little bit about his backstory through a pretty straightforward (and honestly, kind of boring) action game. This time around, the iOS title will again be action-based, as a third-person shooter, but instead of just telling background story, it will directly affect one of the main game's elements.

Playing the iOS game will "increase a player's Galactic Readiness rating," which is an element directly used in Mass Effect 3's "Galaxy at War" system (which will also tie in to the multiplayer elements in the game). It sounds like the iOS title is more of an arcade title than a full campaign game, which means that the more you play it, the better your starting console game stats will be. EA also says that you'll be able to earn "exclusive weaponry" for the main title, so that's a nice bonus as well.

The Mass Effect tie-in game is called Mass Effect Infiltrator, and should be available for all modern iOS devices soon. It'll be interesting to see what EA does with this one -- the company has learned a lot about the iOS platform since the last tie-in title, and with anticipation for Mass Effect 3 at a fever pitch, this title should be the latest and greatest the big traditional console company can do.

Mass Effect 3 getting an iOS game originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mass Effect 3 getting an iOS game originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Tupman, the VP of iPhone and iPod Engineering at Apple, made his exit from Cupertino at the end of last year, according to reports at 9to5Mac. Tupman, who grew up in the UK, has a background in engineering, and has been in the position ever since the introduction of the first iPod, all the way up through the release of the iPhone 4. It's unknown where Tupman is headed next -- it's rumored that he may be headed to work on Nest with another former Apple Engineer, Tony Fadell, but Nest denies those rumors.

As for Apple, it'll be fine, of course. A company doing as well as Apple will likely be able to pick up any engineers it would like, and even if not, there are quite a few candidates inside the company that could step up into the Engineering position, including the current head of iPad engineering, or the person in charge of iPod and iPhone design. Meanwhile, best of luck to Mr. Tupman -- thanks for all your hard work.

VP of iPhone and iPod Engineering David Tupman leaves Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

VP of iPhone and iPod Engineering David Tupman leaves Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gabe Glick over at Macstories has a proposal: Aperture for iOS. On the surface, it sounds like a pretty silly idea -- Apple's high end camera app is really made for a desktop environment, and with the hassle required to get high quality photos onto iOS devices, there really isn't a point bringing Aperture over to a platform like the iPad. But Glick, though he agrees with the naysayers to a certain extent, is willing to take the opposite position. He says that he thinks Aperture is coming to the iPad with the announcement (expected sometime this year) of the iPad 3.

So we'll let him make his case. He says the Retina Display is a big benefit, for photographers who really want to see their pictures close up and in full color. Of course, the iPad 2 doesn't have a Retina Display, but if the iPad 3 gets the same kind of high definition screen that the iPhone 4 already has, Aperture would be more likely. iCloud's photo stream would make it easy to get pictures on the mobile device, a better A6 processor would make editing RAW photos and other high end resolutions easier as well, and finally, Glick says that a "professional workhorse" app like Aperture shouldn't be automatically dismissed from the iPad. Most people would have said the same thing about iMovie and GarageBand on the iPad, and both of those have done quite well.

When you put it like that, well, sure. Obviously this is all just speculation -- we won't know that Apple is releasing an app like this until it's actually announced on stage. But I will say as well that I've been trying to make noise lately for a sort of "iCamera" -- a more professional DSLR camera made and produced by Apple -- and I've been answered most of the time with the suggestion that Apple is betting on the cameras in its mobile devices rather than a separate dedicated device. If that is true, then sure, why wouldn't we want to see better official tools to deal with photos than the current Camera app offers?

Considering Aperture for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Considering Aperture for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Evi is the sort-of Siri clone. The $0.99 iPhone app is aimed mainly at people who don't have an iPhone 4S and want a Siri-like voice control experience.

When I tried Evi some weeks ago it was a complete disaster. In a week of testing I could not connect once because of server issues. The developers said they were adding server capacity, and it seems they have. In extensive tests of the app this week, I only had one time when Evi was busy and couldn't respond. That is a great improvement.

I found a lot to like now that the app is working, and some things that Evi excels at. When I asked Evi who the Chancellor of Germany was, I got the correct information, as well as pictures. Siri also got the question right, but no pictures. I thought the Evi experience was a bit better.

When I asked for the best hamburger in Omaha, I got referred to a web site about Omaha Hamburger Joints from Urban Spoon. Siri rated the best ones based on reviews from Yelp. I thought Siri was more helpful, but Evi does include a web browser so you can stay in the app. Sometimes Evi does figure out the best local favorites without sending you to the web, but it seems hit and miss.

For current weather Evi is second rate. When I asked for the weather in Phoenix it suggested the National Weather Service Web Page. Siri answered me directly and brought up the iPhone weather app.

Where Evi really shines is if you ask a question with rather complicated syntax. Asking "Who is older, Barack Obama or Michelle Obama", Evi parses it all and gets it right answering the question directly. Siri gets you a Wolfram Alpha page with information, and you can scroll down to see the relative ages yourself (the President is 50, while FLOTUS turned 48 last month). Evi wins that round on presentation.

Both apps use Nuance speech recognition, and it is excellent on both Evi and Siri. Evi still has a lot of negative reviews on the App Store because it simply didn't work for weeks. Now that it's pretty much up and running, reviews are getting more positive.

If you have an older iPhone that can run iOS4 or greater, Evi is now a worthwhile investment. It can't interact with your calendar, use reminders, or wake you up, but it is very good at answering questions. If you have an iPhone 4S, Evi is probably worth the $0.99 because it does do some things better than Siri.

Of course both apps are early in their development. Siri is still called a beta by Apple, and Siri has also had some server issues rendering it unusable at times. I'm glad I took a second look at Evi, and suggest you do the same. Check the galleries for some direct Evi-Siri comparisons.

Gallery: Evi take 2

A second look (and listen) to Evi voice recognition for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A second look (and listen) to Evi voice recognition for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of my favorite navigation apps for the iPhone, Where To?, has been updated to include more pictures, more reviews, and some videos of selected destinations.

Reviews and media are sourced from users and Google. The app features 700 categories of destinations, and more than 2,400 brands (e.g. In-N-Out Burger or Trader Joe's). The app features augmented reality as a US$0.99 option, which uses the camera to superimpose directions over local scenery. The app has added direct links to GPS navigation systems Sygic, Waze, Navmii, Navfree and NAVIGON Urban (German App Store only). The app also supports TomTom, Navigon, MotionX and of course, Google Maps.

This latest version has added support for state National Parks in the US, Canada and Australia. The app itself operates in 10 languages, so it's going to be helpful for users around the globe. I did a drive-around test and found it worked reliably and smoothly. I sent a couple of destinations to my Navigon app, and that worked flawlessly. I think the app is useful in your home town, but really comes into its own when traveling and looking for that special restaurant, hotel, or even the nearest pharmacy or hardware store.

Where To? version 4.1 is a free update for anyone who has version 2 or higher. Owners of version 1.0 will have to buy this latest version if they want the upgrade. The app is $2.99 and the augmented reality feature is another $0.99. Where To? 4.1 requires iOS 4.0 or greater. I've included some screen shots of Where To? in action.

Gallery: Where To? destination finder for iOS

Where To? for iPhone updated with more reviews, pictures, and now videos originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Where To? for iPhone updated with more reviews, pictures, and now videos originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Puzzlejuice adds all kinds of bells, whistles and fun to the "word game" genre. The equally excellent 7 Little Words (free) goes in the opposite direction, boiling wordplay down to its core. It offers just seven words and a series of letters (in groups of two or three at a time) to spell them with.

7 Little Words is one of those games that's super easy to play but fiendishly difficult to master. There are 50 puzzles in each of the game's pack (each with their own set of seven words and grid of letters to choose from), and you have to make guesses for each word from clues like "bunny food" (CA-RR-OTS), or "make dirty" (SO-IL).

It's a "pure" experience, in that there's no timer, no extra points...no points at all, in fact. It's just you, some letters, and the words you need to make with them. 7 Little Words a very "Zen" experience, yet there's a lot of pleasure to be had in sitting down, thinking hard, and hopefully coming up with the words you need.

The game comes with 50 puzzles, and extra packs can be bought for 99 cents each (more have been added since we last looked at 7 Little Words, as well as a new shuffle option). If you like crossword puzzles or just word puzzles at all, 7 Little Words is worth the download for sure. It might frustrate you a little bit (seriously, some of the puzzles will have you forehead slapping when you finally figure them out), but most word game fans like a good challenge anyway.

Daily iPhone App: 7 Little Words will cast a spell on you originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: 7 Little Words will cast a spell on you originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has issued a reminder to developers that it will not tolerate use of third party services to manipulate app rankings in the App Store. "When you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts," the reminder states. "Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership."

This reminder could very well be in response to a well-trafficked post in Touch Arcade where an iOS developer revealed that an ad network guaranteed his app placement in the top 25 apps in exchange for $5000. This third-party service allegedly employs bots to automatically download the targeted app multiple times, automatically increasing the app's ranking and granting the app greater exposure to potential human downloaders.

8 of the top 25 apps were allegedly developed by clients of this bot service. If true, this represents a serious problem to the legitimacy of App Store rankings, and it's therefore no wonder that Apple is reminding developers of its aggressive stance on the issue.

Apple warns of crackdown on App Store rankings manipulation originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple warns of crackdown on App Store rankings manipulation originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM's star just sank a bit closer to the horizon. Halliburton, a household name in the energy industry and once a BlackBerry bastion, is dumping RIM's platform and switching to iOS. The company once relied heavily on RIM's platform, but after evaluating RIM, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS, Halliburton has settled on switching to Apple's platform.

"Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone," the company said. Halliburton representatives confirmed to AppleInsider that only 4500 of the company's 70,000 employees still use BlackBerry devices, so the transition probably won't take as long as it might have a few years ago.

According to AppleInsider's sources, Halliburton actively engaged with Apple in its transition. Halliburton is far from the first company to do so; Clorox ditched the BlackBerry last year, and 92 percent of its employees replaced it with an iPhone.

RIM's platform was once synonymous with business communications, but that status has slowly eroded since the iPhone's introduction. While corporate IT spent the first few years after the iPhone's introduction scoffing at the device, quarterly reports from analysis firms like Good Technology show that iOS has penetrated enterprise markets in a way that even the stodgiest of companies can no longer afford to ignore.

Halliburton dumping BlackBerry, switching to iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Halliburton dumping BlackBerry, switching to iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleInsider did some digging and discovered there may be a technological reason Apple's kept Siri an iPhone 4S-only feature: noise reduction. The iPhone 4 incorporates noise reduction circuitry from a third-party vendor called Audience, and that circuitry lies separate from the A4 chip on the iPhone's logic board. The newer processor in the iPhone 4S (and possibly the iPad 2) incorporates a newer version of this noise-reduction circuitry within the A5 chip itself, reducing overall cost.

Audience's noise reduction chip works similarly to how the human brain processes audio. By sampling audio from multiple sources (the iPhone's main microphone and the noise-cancelling mic), the Audience chip is able to filter out background noise and deliver only the user's voice, just like how your brain filters out noise in a crowded room to focus on a person talking to you.

The newer noise reduction circuitry in the A5 chip is better at "far-field" noise reduction than the circuits in the iPhone 4. Essentially, the iPhone 4S can achieve the same or better noise reduction when held at arm's length that the iPhone 4 gets when held directly in front of a user's mouth.

The implications for Siri use are obvious -- because of its less advanced noise reduction circuitry, Siri wouldn't function nearly as well on an iPhone 4 in an even moderately noisy environment unless you held it up to your ear and talked directly into the microphone. Despite having an A5 processor (and possibly including the newer noise reduction circuitry), Siri might not function well on an iPad 2 either, since the iPad 2 doesn't have a noise-cancelling microphone.

Apple's product perfectionism often leads to scenarios where features that might technically work on a product wind up excluded because they don't work perfectly. I've run into this a few times with older gear; my old PowerBook G3 had no technical barriers to running OS X Panther or Tiger, for instance, but because it didn't run anything newer than OS X Jaguar well, Apple artificially restricted the device to Jaguar. Similarly, jailbreakers discovered ways to get video capture working on the iPhone 3G, but the results were rather lackluster compared to the officially-supported video recording on the iPhone 3GS and above.

Even if Siri technically works on Apple's older iOS devices, if its performance doesn't work to Apple's satisfaction, we may never see Siri ported to the iPhone 4 or current iPads after all.

Siri may be iPhone 4S-only because of noise reduction tech originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Siri may be iPhone 4S-only because of noise reduction tech originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

I love Siri. I'm surprised at how much I actually use it beyond the gimmicky stuff. Texting while driving (through my car's Uconnect system) is so handy.

One thing I've noticed is that when I dictate a message, add a smiley face and have her read it back to me, she says, "Have a nice day colon comma." The odd part is that she has written :-), which is colon hyphen right bracket. Is this a glitch or does a hyphen and right bracket together equal a comma? I was never good at grammatical math.

Your doting nephew,

Damien

Dear Damien,

Ah, bless Siri. She's such a changeable creature. Auntie used to love when Siri would read out "Brr, it's cold" as "Bee. Arr. Arr. It's Cold". Thanks to Apple's live data center updates, Siri now responds "Burr" instead of "Bee. Arr. Arr."

The smiley-face being read back as a colon is similar. It's simply a text-to-speech glitch that Apple may eventually improve. You can report any bugs to Apple directly using their Bug Reporter online website.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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