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When I first heard the term "augmented reality," I expected nothing short of corneal implants and tiny, cloud-connected computer systems that run on body heat and live just under your skin. I imagined something that would add layers upon layers of information to the visual world we see every day.
Apple on Wednesday released Safari 5.0.1, the latest version of its Web browser. It has extensions enabled by default, as well as security patches. The extensions include tools for Twitter and other social networks, news and shopping. They are organized into categories and are available at the Safari Extensions Gallery.
Sinking consumer confidence dragged down stocks Tuesday, and although the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose a dozen points, broader indexes slipped, and the number of stocks losing ground outnumbered those that picked up. Apple was in the minority group, closing at $264.08, or up $4.80, on Tuesday. The last time it cleared the $260 mark was back in June.
Apple released a flood of new products on Tuesday. It refreshed the Mac Pro and iMac lines, added a multi-touch desktop touchpad, and unveiled a 27-inch Cinema Display with a whole new set of bells and whistles. The iMacs are available now, with the multi-touch touchpad as an option; the new Mac Pros will hit the streets in August; and the Cinema Display will be available in September, Apple said.
Citigroup customers who do mobile banking on an iPhone should head to the Apple App Store immediately for an upgrade. A flaw in the Citigroup mobile banking iPhone app released in March 2009 causes personal information to be saved in a hidden file on the mobile device, the banking giant revealed in a letter to customers dated July 20, a day after it released an upgraded application.
In a move sure to please all super geeks in the United States, the Library of Congress' Copyright Office has made a key exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to let us legally jailbreak our iPhones. About freakin' time. Of course, the "anticircumvention" exemption isn't focused only on the iPhone, but in reality, what other smartphone has enough jailbreaking interest to catch much attention?
In the obscure world of copyright law, it is now technically OK to jailbreak an iPhone. That's according to a Library of Congress ruling, which has designated replacing the operating system of the phone with a less restrictive one to fall under the "fair use" guidelines. Fair use is the standard under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that permits some specific uses of copyrighted material by non-copyright holders.
Apple may soon encounter another round of product shortages as one of its top component providers acknowledged it's having trouble keeping up with the high demand for Cupertino's iPad device. LG Display can't meet Apple's growing demand for the iPad touchscreens LG makes, Kwon Young-soo, LG Display's CEO, told reporters recently.
Muscular desktop applications like office suites can't be run on downscale devices like the iPad, but that doesn't mean Apple's mighty tablet can't be a valuable partner with those programs. A case in point is Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad. Quickoffice is designed to work with files compatible with three mainstays of Microsoft's popular Office suite: Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
Safari's Autofill feature, which can be set to automatically insert a user's data such as name and address into Web forms, could expose users to theft of their personal information, according to security expert Jeremiah Grossman. Grossman, the founder and CTO of security firm WhiteHat, wrote in his blog that the feature autofills HTML form text fields with specific attribute names.
The idea of an online magazine with content that can be customized by its readers has been around for years. The execution of that idea, though, has produced less than stellar results. That may be about to change with a new free application released this week for the iPad called "Flipboard." Flipboard combines information from Facebook and Twitter to create a personalized magazine on the iPad.
