Posts in news

Facebook for iPhone 3.5 Released With New Sharing Options, Wall Design

A major update to the official Facebook app for iPhone was released earlier today, adding new sharing options from the compose screen and privacy controls that match the options set on Facebook’s website. First off, Facebook 3.5 brings a new design for Profile and Group walls; the app appears to be more streamlined and in line with Facebook’s recent changes to its web UI.

Perhaps more importantly, Facebook for iPhone now lets you tag friends and places in posts, and share links from a web view opened through Facebook. The updated compose screen has got buttons to add friends from a list (and even search), tag a place, or add a new photo or video. As for sharing links, Facebook now lets you open a webpage in-app, and instantly reshare it (with an optional comment) with your friends. When sharing a webpage from a web view, tapping on its link in the compose screen will enable you to remove the link entirely, or just its thumbnail.

Facebook 3.5 also comes with bug fixes, as mentioned in the changelog:

  • Improved Notifications speed
  • Fixed a number of Chat bugs
  • Made it easier to select filters in News Feed
  • Fixed a bug with the Notifications bar disappearing
  • Fixed a number of Photos bugs
  • Improved performance and stability overall

An official iPad app from Facebook is expected to be officially unveiled soon, likely at the upcoming f8 conference on September 22. The iPad client was discovered inside the iPhone application back in July, although it appears the latest version removes iPad elements, thus making it impossible for Cydia tweaks like FaceForward to force-enable the yet unofficial iPad app.

Facebook for iPhone is a free download on the App Store.

Sprint Hints at iPhone In Lawsuit Against AT&T / T-Mobile

Earlier today, U.S. carrier Sprint filed a lawsuit again the AT&T / T-Mobile merger, citing “competitive advantages” and an entrenched duopoly that would make it difficult for Sprint to compete against giants such as Verizon and AT&T. In the document filing – which claims the acquisition would violate Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act – This is my next has dug out an interesting tidbit in which Sprint seems to be hinting at Apple’s iPhone.

According to Sprint, “Apple gave Verizon a time-to-market advantage for the iPhone” in early 2011, whereas “Sprint has had to compete without access to the iPhone for nearly five years” (emphasis added). The curious wording is no confirmation of Sprint getting the iPhone after it first launched in 2007, although from a speculative standpoint it might suggest the company will soon be able to get access to the iPhone after nearly five years. Verizon actually got the iPhone four years after AT&T (the original exclusive partner in the United States), and as Nilay Patel notes, a time-to-market advantage “would only be an actual advantage if other carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile were set to get the device later on”.

Obviously, this piece of information is only worth reporting as a follow-up to The Wall Street Journal’s recent report of Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint getting the next-generation iPhone in mid-October. For a timeline of iPhone 5 news and speculation, check out our rumor roundup and retrospective.

Google+ iOS App Adds “Reshare” Option and Fixes

Ever since the official Google+ app for iPhone came out in July, we’ve followed the development as Google’s new social experiment added more features, and seemingly dropped in traffic as the novelty effect wore off for many. I was pretty satisfied with the 1.0 release, albeit the custom UI and lack of functionalities turned an highly anticipated launch into a discussion as to whether Google should be focusing on making its iOS apps more native to iOS and less Android-ish. An update in August brought support for iPod touch and iPad in compatibility mode – two options that were mysteriously absent in the first release.

A new version of Google+, as noted by The Next Web, was pushed to the App Store a few minutes ago, adding support for “reshares”, as well as bug fixes and performances improvements. From my first tests, I’m happy to see the app doesn’t crash on iOS 5 beta 7 and everything seems to be quite snappy and responsive while navigating between sections, the stream, and comments. As for resharing others’ posts, it works just like on the Google+ website – once you’ve selected a post, you can hit the “arrow button” at the bottom to bring up a menu to reshare, mute, or report a post. Reshare will open a new window populated with the original post and author, and a text field to add your own thoughts, set location and circles. Reshared posts will be nicely formatted both for the web and iOS app.

From the release notes:

  • Reshare support
  • Set your profile photo
  • Improved autocomplete in Huddle
  • Properly refresh notifications when returning to the app
  • Create new circle from Circles destination
  • Fixed 2-step verification issues

You can download Google+ for iOS for free on the App Store.

Ronald Wayne’s “Adventures of an Apple Founder” Now On iTunes

In the history of Apple, Inc. the role of the company’s third co-founder, Ronald Wayne, is often overshadowed by the genius of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who built the very first Apple I personal computer and unveiled it at the Homebrew Computer Club. Ronald Wayne was the “adult supervisor” in the early days of Apple, the middle-man between Jobs and Wozniak whom they could trust in case of any disagreement. Wayne contributed to the first Apple logo, and drafted the initial partnership agreement to establish the company. He was given a 10% stake in Apple which, however, he sold for $800 after a few weeks. He later received an additional $1500 for giving up on any claim of ownership in Apple, thus bringing his original 10% to $2300 worth of “profit”, whereas if he stayed on Apple until today his 10% would be worth $35 billion.

Today’s Ronald Wayne says he doesn’t regret his decision, made “with the best information available at the time”. This, and another anecdotes from Wayne’s past and subsequent ventures are detailed in Adventures of an Apple Founder, an autobiography available for $9.99 on the iBookstore, as well as Amazon in paperback format. From the iTunes description:

In the spring of 1976 while working as chief draftsman and product development engineer at the video game maker Atari, Ron assisted a co-worker with the subtle intricacies of forming a small business.It was with Ron’s natural sensibilities, experiences, and skills honed over a lifelong career in many disciplines that he offered himself openly as a resource to two much-younger entrepreneurs: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak. These same traits would drive Ron’s decision to leave a short time later.

Adventures of an Apple Founder offers insight into the experiences that define the man whose passion for engineering and design spans over three quarters of a century, half a dozen industries, and a lifetime of adventures!

Wayne recently appeared in an interview alongside Steve Wozniak following Steve Jobs’ resignation as Apple CEO. As a side note, Steve Jobs’ official biography by Walter Isaacson recently got a classic cover and it will be released in November 2011, including details on the resignation. [via setteB.IT]

Apple Hunting For People To Beef Up ‘New Product Security’

Following last week’s news that Apple had lost another iPhone prototype, PC Mag has discovered that Apple is now hiring for two positions that are titled “New Product Security Managers”. Curiously, the positions became available just a day after CNet reported that an iPhone 5 prototype had been lost at a San Francisco bar.

That’s probably somewhat of a coincidence, but it’s clear Apple wants to step up its efforts in safeguarding future products and its intellectual property, describing the new jobs as follows:

The candidate will be responsible for overseeing the protection of, and managing risks to, Apple’s unreleased products and related intellectual property. Position will reside in Cupertino, California and will require up to 30% travel (international and domestic).

The individual will collaborate with other security managers by contributing to, and managing execution of, strategic initiatives set forth by Director, Global Security.

That ‘Director of Global Security’ is David Rice, a former NSA vulnerability analyst and author of ‘Geekonomics’, a book that discused “the astonishing lack of consumer protection in the software market and how this impacts economic and national security”. He was hired by Apple back in January of this year, after Apple also hired Window Snyder as Apple’s senior security product manager in March of 2010.

[PC Mag via CNet]

3G iPad 2s Receive Regulatory Approval In China, First Hong Kong Apple Store Opening Soon

The Wall Street Journal is today reporting that the 3G models of the iPad 2 may eventually be launching in China after the Chinese ‘Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center’ approved the device. Although a specific launch date is not yet known and China Unicom declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal.

Based on the information contained in the Wall Street Journal report, the model (A1396), is the same as the US model that went on sale in March. Those in China have been able to purchase the WiFi models of the iPad 2 since it launched on May 6th but the 3G models were forced to go through additional regulatory approvals.

According to China’s Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center, a device by Apple with third-generation high-speed wireless data capabilities was issued the network access license needed for the company to begin official sales in China. The device, listed under model number “A1396,” is compatible with the 3G standard WCDMA, and would work with the cellular network operated by Apple’s local iPhone partner, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Interestingly, the 3G versions of the iPad 2 mysteriously appeared yesterday, and promptly disappeared, from the official Apple website. Penn Olson managed to take a screenshot of the page which details prices starting at 4,688 RMB for the 16 GB version, 5,488 RMB for the 32 GB version and 6,288 RMB for the 64 GB version - all of which had estimated shipping times of 2-3 weeks.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Apple has confirmed that they will be officially opening this quarter, with Engadget China claiming a September 24th date. The store is located in the International Finance Center’s IFC mall and is currently covered up in large, striking red banners with the slogan “The new center of Central”.

[Via MacRumors]

BundleHunt: 11 Great Mac Apps & Design Goodies at $49

How great would it be to have access to some kind of deal for useful and well-designed Mac apps bundled with resources for web design, CSS, or even Photoshop? That’s exactly what BundleHunt is offering in its latest initiative to sell a bundle of “11 Mac Apps + Design Goodies” at $49.99. For the same price of a Thunderbolt Cable you’ll get gems like Launchbar and Divvy – we reviewed the latter here – as well as Hype, the beautiful HTML5 design app, Xslimmer and WriteRoom. And on top of the OS X love, you’ll also get your hands on 4 Smashing Magazine design ebooks, 3 WordPress themes from Theme Trust, and a complete Geomicon icon set.

BundleHunt includes:

  • LaunchBar: Objective Development’s LaunchBar is the original application launcher for the Mac, used every day by folks who care about being productive with their Macs. Gestures may be the hot new trend in Lion, but let’s not forget about the power of the keyboard. LaunchBar lets you control every aspect of your Mac, it’s highly customizable and efficient in letting you access applications, folders, contacts, bookmarks – you name it. Normally $35.
  • Color Schemer Studio 2: This app lets you build color schemes quickly, so you can create and save palettes, and use the color wheel to check out harmonies between your color choices. Available on the Mac and Windows, it fully supports web (RGB) or print (CMYK) standards. Sold  for $49.99.
  • WriteRoom: A full-screen writing environment to get words on a page, stay focused, and keep your work synced across the Mac and iOS. Normally $25.00.
  • Divvy: A new way to manage your desktop by quickly choosing the exact proportions of application windows with keyboard shortcuts. You can create as many shortcuts as you want, and manage your apps’ settings through Divvy’s grid interface. $14.00.
  • Tumult Hype: With “no coding required”, Hype enables designers to build beautifully animated websites that will work on desktop computers, iPhones, and iPads. By rivaling Flash content with a universal standard supported by any modern web browser, Hype uses WebKit to visually build animations, giving you additional tools to create custom JavaScript code and edit an element’s HTML. Original price is $30.00.
  • Seamless Studio: A desktop app that makes it easy to design vector patterns for the web, print, fabric, or any other design project. Available both on Mac and PC, regular price is $49.00.
  • Smashing Magazine: Ebooks from Smashing Magazine are available as PDF, ePUB, Mobipocket (DRM-free) and they include: Mastering CSS for Web Developers; Professional Workflow Package; Modern Web Design & Development; Mastering Photoshop for Web Design, Volume 2. Normally $30.00.
  • TN3 Gallery: An HTML-based customizable image gallery with slideshow, transitions and multiple album options so you can create web galleries that support CSS, XML, and Flickr. $37.00.
  • GeomIcons Full Icon Set: 315 royalty-free vector icons in EPS format desgned by Brent Jackson. $16.00.
  • ThemeTrust: 3 WordPress themes licensed under GPL, with support for widgets, and more. $147.00.
  • XSlimmer: Sometimes applications come packaged with unnecessary code that your Mac will never use, and Xslimmer understands this. You can use Xslimmer to right-size your Mac apps and remove binaries or other chunks of code your Mac won’t need, while retaining the functionality of the app and, actually, trimming the code down to what’s really used so that apps will launch even faster. Normally sold for $15.

I’d argue that LaunchBar and Divvy alone make up for the bundle’s price, yet with BundleHunt you’re going to save $400 and get a variety of other Mac software, plus some useful goodies for your next design work. $49 gets you 7 great apps to add to your Mac’s library with licenses delivered directly to your email inbox.

Disclaimer: For every bundle purchased through MacStories, we receive a small kickback. If you’re interested in the bundle and supporting the MacStories crew, please use the link here or any of the affiliate links above.

Police Confirms They “Assisted” Apple In Lost iPhone 5 Search

According to a new update from SF Weekly, San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield has confirmed that four SFPD officers “assisted” two Apple investigators in searching the house and car of Sergio Calderòn for an allegedly lost iPhone 5 prototype.

Dangerfield says that, after conferring with Apple and the captain of the Ingleside police station, he has learned that plainclothes SFPD officers went with private Apple detectives to the home of Sergio Calderón, a 22-year-old resident of Bernal Heights. According to Dangerfield, the officers “did not go inside the house,” but stood outside while the Apple employees scoured Calderón’s home, car, and computer files for any trace of the lost iPhone 5. The phone was not found, and Calderón denies that he ever possessed it.

In a contradicting report posted earlier today, SF Weekly claimed that Apple personnel may have posed as police officers in an effort of searching the man’s house for a phone located through GPS signal, but never restored. Calderòn told SF Weekly in an exclusive interview that six badge-wearing individuals came to his place at around 6 PM, but didn’t identified as being employed by Apple. One man, who identified himself as “Tony”, gave Calderòn his phone number. The number was later associated to Anthony Colon, an investigator employed by Apple whose LinkedIn profile was subsequently deleted from the social networking website.

The visitors also allegedly threatened him and his family, asking questions about their immigration status. “One of the officers is like, ‘Is everyone in this house an American citizen?’ They said we were all going to get into trouble,” Calderón said.

Calderòn says he was under the impression that they were all police officers, as the two people who searched his place were part of a group who stood outside and identified themselves as SFPD officials. Whereas a first report indicated SFPD had no records of such investigation, the fact that SFPD sent “plainclothes” officers with badges may check out with today’s update.

Yesterday:

There’s just one problem: SFPD spokesman Officer Albie Esparza says no records exist of any such activity by SFPD inspectors.

“I talked to CNET” reporter Declan McCullagh, Esparza tells SF Weekly. “I don’t know who his source is, but we don’t have any record of any such an investigation going on at this point.

Today:

Contradicting past statements that no records exist of police involvement in the search for the lost prototype, San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield now tells SF Weekly that “three or four” SFPD officers accompanied two Apple security officials in an unusual search of a Bernal Heights man’s home.

Dangerfield said he plans to contact Calderòn for further questions about the incident. As it’s unclear who knocked on Calderòn’s door, and how the six individuals identified themselves prior to entering the man’s house, SFPD needs to investigate the situation – as pointed out by SF Weekly, impersonation of a police officer is a misdemeanor in California with up to a year of a jail time.

CNET was first to report on a second iPhone prototype lost in a bar, after last year’s leak of an iPhone 4 unit to Gawker Media’s technology blog Gizmodo months ahead of the device’s release. So far, Apple hasn’t commented on the story.

Did An Apple Investigator Pose as a Police Officer to Search for Missing iPhone Prototype?

On Wednesday, we reported a repeat of last year’s iPhone disaster - an iPhone prototype lost in a bar. According to the website, Apple never filed a police report based on such loss, likely from an employee field-testing the unit, although it “sparked a scramble by Apple security” in an effort to recover it quickly. The story just got one hundred times more interesting: the SF Weekly has followed up with a new report claiming that Apple security personnel may have posed as the police during the search of Sergio Calderón’s home. Impersonating a police officer is a criminal offense, even if you are a security guard. On the flip side, the police could’ve improperly assisted in the investigation without documenting their work corectly.

[Sergio] Calderón said that at about 6 p.m. six people – four men and two women – wearing badges of some kind showed up at his door. “They said, ‘Hey, Sergio, we’re from the San Francisco Police Department.’” He said they asked him whether he had been at Cava 22 over the weekend (he had) and told him that they had traced a lost iPhone to his home using GPS.

At no point, he said, did any of the visitors say they were working on behalf of Apple or say they were looking for an iPhone 5 prototype.

Calderón is claming that he allowed the team of investigators to search his home and automobile and even check his computer to see if a missing iPhone prototype had been synced with it. The investigators walked away empty handed but told Calderón they would give him $300 to return the phone or could offer information on the device’s whereabouts.

As the visitors left, one of them – a man named “Tony” – gave Calderón his phone number and asked him to call if he had further information about the lost phone. Calderón shared the man’s phone number with SF Weekly.

The phone was answered by Anthony Colon, who confirmed to us he is an employee of Apple but declined to comment further. According to a public profile on the website LinkedIn, Colon, a former San Jose Police sergeant, is employed as a “senior investigator” at Apple.

A spokesman for the SFPD is concerned about the supposed series of events and they will be investigating the incident. This story keeps getting more crazy by the day! What’s next, a movie deal? But in all seriousness, Apple is taking this very seriously.

UPDATE: Anthony Colon’s LinkedIn profile has been deleted but MacRumors saved a screenshot of it and we also have a link to the cached version of his LinkedIn profile page.

[via MacRumors]

Image via Taste Tequila