A patent lawsuit filed by Qualcomm against Apple has been thrown out by a German court in a reversal for the chipmaker after it won a recent court ban on the sale of some iPhones in the country, reports Reuters.

The regional court in the city of Mannheim dismissed the Qualcomm suit as groundless in an initial verbal decision, saying the patent in question was not violated by the installation of its chips in Apple’s smartphones. Qualcomm, not surprisingly, plans to appeal.

This is all part of an ongoing, global battle. In January 2017, Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm, alleging the chip supplier demanded unfair terms for its...

Daring Fireball's John Gruber, quoting an unnamed source, says Apple replaced a total of 11 million iPhone batteries under the $29 battery replacement program that debuted at the end of 2017 and ran through 2018.

Gruber says CEO Tim Cook offered the info at a recent meeting with Apple employees. He has cited the battery replacement program as one of the reasons why the company’s first quarter revenue has been cut.

This all related to the “Batterygate” brouhaha — claims that Apple's iOS software updates for iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus were provided to iPhone users under the pretense that the software updates were necessary to deliver enhanced security and performance. 

In reality, however, the updates allowed Apple to slow down the performance of these updated iPhones. This practice is known as "throttling" because...

The OPEN Government Data Act means that all public data made available by the US government must be in a format accessible by smartphones, tablets and computers …

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The post OPEN Government Data Act means all public data must be accessible by your iDevices appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Brokerage company TD Ameritrade has found a solution to the problem of allowing customers immediate access to funds transferred to their accounts as simply as possible, one that takes advantage of Apple's mobile payment features, including Apple Pay and Apple Business Chat.

Save 10% with our exclusive coupon code: MACUPDATE10

DEVONthink Pro is your essential assistant for today's world, where almost everything is digital. From shopping receipts to important research papers, your life often fills your hard drive in the form of emails, PDFs, Word documents, multimedia files and more. Questions eventually pop up, like where do you store all of this stuff? How do you organize these very different file types, and even better, how do you find the exact file you're looking for the second you need it? It's almost as if you need a second brain just to keep your digital life straight.

DEVONthink is the solution to the digital age conundrum. It is your second brain, the one and only database for all your digital files, be they PDFs, emails, Word docs or even multimedia files. Boasting a refined...

Buoyed by its victory in an earlier injunction against iPhone sales in Germany, Qualcomm launched a second patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the country. This court, however, dismissed the latest Qualcomm lawsuit.

The new lawsuit has been described as a ‘nuisance’ one by a patent expert, who also said that the previous victory was worth little …

more…

The post German court dismisses Qualcomm’s second ‘nuisance lawsuit’ against Apple appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Are you into fidget spinners? I’m not, but if I were, I’d probably make good use of the ZenPod.

A fidget spinner is a toy that consists of a ball bearing in the center of a flat structure made from metal or plastic designed to spin along its axis with little effort. Fidget spinners became popular a couple of years ago.

They've been promoted as helping folks who have trouble focusing or those who fidget to relieve nervous energy, anxiety, or psychological stress. There are claims that a fidget spinner can help calm down people who have anxiety and other neurological disorders like ADHD and autism. 

As a former special ed teacher, I’m dubious, but can’t personally vouch for or against the theory. However, as a toy, lots of folks find fidget spinners to be a lot of fun.

So what’s the ZenPod. It’s a $29.99 spinner case for Apple’s AirPods.

It has two integrated high-precision bearings that handle the spinning duties well. The ZenPod also looks and...

A Mannheim, Germany judge has tossed one of the myriad cases between Apple and Qualcomm, declaring that the iPhone isn't violating one of Qualcomm's power management patents.

Apple on Sunday announced that its HomePod smart speaker will launch in Hong Kong and China of Friday, January 18th. The unit will retail for 2,799 yuan in China and HK$2,799 in Hong Kong from Apple.com, Apple Stores, and authorized resellers.

Apple had previously announced that the HomePod would launch in China and Hong Kong in early 2019 and now we know it will be later this week. Siri on the HomePod gained support for Cantonese and Mandarin in China and a Cantonese dialect in Hong Kong in a software update last month.

The company’s press release centered around the unit’s functionality and how it can stream Apple Music genres such as Mandopop and Cantopop and other audio content from any AirPlay-supported apps, including QQ Music, DeDao, iHuman Story, Dragonfly FM, and Penguin FM in China, and Spotify, KKBOX, JOOX, and Podcast in Hong Kong.

Marketing guru Phil Schiller offered the following comments:

“We’re excited to bring HomePod to our...

And now for a bit of good news: Apparently Wi-Fi and similar signals don’t cause cancer.

Per an article over on HowStuffWorks, everyday devices such as Wi-Fi routers, smartphones, tablets, and computers are unable to cause cancer, and would be unable to do so without rewriting the basic laws of physics and biology.

The piece, which cites credible sources like the American Cancer Society, there have been two types of studies that look at RF radiation: Ones that observe human cancer rates and others involving lab animals. The human studies haven’t found a link between increased cancer rates and people exposed to a significant amount of RF radiation.

In the animal lab studies, no link between cancer and RF radiation has been found. However, some studies have observed “trace biological changes” that could be hypothetically linked to cancer. In short, this means that a scientist found an interesting data point but it isn’t serious enough to say anything other...

iOS 12 supports QR codes. A QR code (quick response code) is a type of 2D bar code that is used to provide easy access to information through a smartphone. In this process, known as mobile tagging, the smartphone's owner points the phone at a QR code and opens a barcode reader app which works in conjunction with the phone's camera.

iOS 11 and 12 allows you to scan them without the need for a third-party app. Here’s how:

• Open the Camera app and make sure the rear facing camera is enabled.

• Point the camera viewfinder at the QR code. Make sure the code is entirely visible in the view finder.

• Hold the camera steady. The QR code will be scanned instantly and you’ll see a notification at the top of the iPhone or iPad screen describing what kind of QR code you’ve scanned (website QR Code, Calendar QR code, etc.).

You’ll see what action the QR code can perform (add event to your calendar...

The HDHomeRun Scribe Duo and Servio can record broadcast TV channels without a separate server device.

With OmniPlan, you can create logical, manageable project plans with Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, milestones, and critical paths. Break down the tasks needed to make your project a success, optimize resources, and streamline budgets. It's project management made painless.

How to get your project done on time and under budget:

• Translate strategy into tactics everyone can understand
• Create summaries of work broken into lists of activities
• Distribute workloads fairly and efficiently
• Manage costs as you go

Plan, monitor, and control it all with software designed to make your job easier, not harder.

Version 3.10.4:

• Google Calendar [PRO] - Copies of OmniPlan downloaded from the Mac App Store are now able to successfully authenticate Google Calendar accounts
• Resource Load Syncing [PRO] - Fixed a bug that could cause resources to appear incorrectly overloaded when...

Apple replaced a total of 11 million iPhone batteries under the $29 battery replacement program that was introduced at the end of 2017 and ran through 2018 before ending on December 31, 2018.

The tidbit was shared by Tim Cook at a recent all-hands meeting with Apple employees and relayed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, who heard the information from an unnamed source.

Apple replaced approximately 9 to 10 million more batteries than it would have during a normal year, said Cook. Apple normally replaces 1 to 2 million batteries each year.

Cook cited the battery replacement program as one of the reasons why Apple's Q1 2019 guidance...

Vienna is a freeware and Open-Source RSS/Atom newsreader with article storage and management via a SQLite database, written in Objective-C and Cocoa, for the OS X operating system. It provides features comparable to commercial newsreaders, but both it and the source code are free and available for download.

Features

• Subscribe to Atom/RSS news feeds and podcasts
• Simple and intuitive user interface with customisable toolbar
• Built-in tabbed browser
• Global search of all retrieved articles
• Automatic detection of newsfeeds on Web pages
• Smart folders for organising related feed articles
• Custom article display styles
• Three separate reading layouts
• Blogging integration
• Support for downloading enclosures in articles
• Filter the displayed articles
• Manual reordering of the subscription list
• Full AppleScript support
• Localised into several...

2018 saw Apple finally update the computer some multi-display desktop fans have long been holding their breath for: Mac mini. As 2019 begins, the professional market is looking towards a massive refresh of the Mac Pro and native display offerings from Apple.

However, with CES these past two years showing off so many OLED and 8K displays, the question begs, how can Apple truly innovate in the pro monitor space this year?

more…

The post What type of pro monitor would you like to see from Apple this year? [Poll] appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Apple could have a 7th-generation iPod touch in the works, according to new information shared today by Japanese site Mac Otakara.

Several suppliers at CES 2019 reportedly told Mac Otakara that a 7th-generation iPod touch "might" be in development as a replacement for the 6th-generation version.

The site did not provide details on when an updated iPod touch might launch, nor what features it might include.

Apple last updated the hardware in the iPod touch in July 2015, introducing an A8 chip, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and six color options.

The iPod touch lineup was last tweaked in July 2017 when Apple streamlined the available capacity options (32 and 128GB) and introduced new pricing tiers. Right now, the iPod touch costs $199 for the 32GB version and $299 for the 128GB version, with the higher-capacity model's pricing not too far off from the $329 9.7-inch iPad....

Law enforcement officials can't force smartphone users to unlock their devices using fingerprints or other biometric features such as facial recognition, according to a Northern California court ruling from last week.

The ruling, which was shared this morning by Forbes, was the result of an Oakland investigation into possible extortion. Police officers asked the court for permission to seize multiple devices and then compel the suspects to unlock the devices using biometric authentication.

The court said that there was indeed probable cause to grant a search warrant, but that it was denied because the request to force the suspects to unlock their devices using biometric authentication "funs afoul of the Fourth...

When Apple posted a preannouncement that they weren't going to meet their Q1 2019 targets, the tech and financial sectors went ballistic. Apple was kaput. Then Samsung announced a shocker and now Alibaba ...

Vacuuming is one of the most hated household chores. Here are your best choices for outsourcing it to some automated help.

Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out. 

It’s alive! Maybe. According to a tweet from ChargerLab, mass production of Apple’s AirPower has begun at Luxshare Precision, which makes AirPods and USB-C cables. If the long-promised product ever actually arrives, it will be able to charge a Qi-compatible iPhone, an Apple Watch, and a pair of AirPods (in a special wireless charging case) at the same time regardless of where they're placed on the pad. AirPower hasn't been priced yet, but guesses have it costing anywhere from $150 - $200. 

As noted by MacRumors, Apple continues to aggressively market the iPhone XR, with one of its latest tactics being customized emails to owners of older iPhone models...

Apple's operating chief said on Monday that Qualcomm refused to sell its 4G LTE processors to the company due to the companies' licensing dispute. According to CNET, that decision "had a ripple effect on how quickly Apple can make the shift to 5G." From the report: Qualcomm continues to provide Apple with chips for its older iPhones, including the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple COO Jeff Williams testified Monday during the US Federal Trade Commission's trial against Qualcomm. But it won't provide Apple with processors for the newest iPhones, designed since the two began fighting over patents, he said. And Williams believes the royalty rate Apple paid for using Qualcomm patents -- $7.50 per iPhone -- is too high.

The FTC has accused Qualcomm of operating a monopoly in wireless chips, forcing customers like Apple to work with it exclusively and charging excessive licensing fees for its technology. The FTC has said that Qualcomm forced Apple to pay licensing fees for its technology...

If you love the Apple TV but hate its Siri Remote, you might get some cathartic release from Steve Brykman’s rant against it. His piece covers no significant new ground but is still a fun read.

Read original article

Apple originally acquired FoundationDB in 2015, and last April it announced that it was making the cloud database open source. Now, things are being taken a step further as FoundationDB has announced it is open sourcing Foundation DB Record Layer, which powers CloudKit.

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The post Apple’s FoundationDB open sources the database layer behind CloudKit appeared first on 9to5Mac.

HomeKit adoption is quickly accelerating, with an unprecedented number of accessories slated to hit the market in 2019. AppleInsider walks you through the dozens of new devices poised to hit store shelves in the coming months.

As more YouTube viewers hit mobile devices, the platform is testing new features to improve the experience on smartphones and tablets. This week, YouTube is launching a new set of swipe gestures for its mobile app to better navigate video history.

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The post YouTube’s new swipe gestures to navigate through video history, rolling out to iOS this week appeared first on 9to5Mac.

An ad-free version of the service will be available for a fee and non-pay TV customers can purchase a subscription to the service, the media company said

Everyone has to have their own service. From a user perspective, there are too many services to keep track of.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Streaming video has become a booming industry, with giants such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon, and others. Now, another service from NBC may be joining the streaming video business.

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The post NBC launching new ad-supported video streaming service in 2020 with live TV and ‘1,500 hours’ of TV shows appeared first on 9to5Mac.

A California judge has ruled that American cops can't force people to unlock a mobile phone with their face or finger. The ruling goes further to protect people's private lives from government searches than any before and is being hailed as a potentially landmark decision. From a report: Previously, U.S. judges had ruled that police were allowed to force unlock devices like Apple's iPhone with biometrics, such as fingerprints, faces or irises. That was despite the fact feds weren't permitted to force a suspect to divulge a passcode. But according to a ruling uncovered by Forbes, all logins are equal. The order came from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in the denial of a search warrant for an unspecified property in Oakland. The warrant was filed as part of an investigation into a Facebook extortion crime, in which a victim was asked to pay up or have an "embarassing" video of them publicly released. The cops had some suspects in mind and wanted to...

One of the features of Nike's self-lacing sneakers for the mass market -- set to be announced Tuesday -- will be smartphone control, including the iPhone, according to a teaser video.

Earlier today Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer testified in the FTC vs. Qualcomm trial and stated that Apple wanted to use Qualcomm's 4G LTE processors in its newest iPhones, but the chipmaker wouldn't sell to it. Williams also testified that Apple had a ....

Charlie Sloth has announced a show on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio; The Charlie Sloth Rap Show starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19,  which will hear the former BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJ bring interviews and “his famous Fire In The Booth freestyles to a new audience, according to a NME report.

In October 2018, it was announced that he was leaving BBC for Apple Music. Sloth is an English DJ, producer, actor, and TV presenter. At the BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra, he was the presenter for The Rap Show andThe 8th. His trademark segment on both BBC shows, Fire in the Booth, is "regarded as a real mark of prestige in the scene.

Sloth founded record label Grimey Limey. He was also prominent on London pirate radio stations such as RawFM, Freek FM, Deja Vu FM and Raw Mission FM.

Adding a MacBook or MacBook Pro stand to your setup is a great way to organize, declutter and maximize any workspace. Perhaps most importantly it can help reduce neck strain by elevating your MacBook to eye-level. The good news is that there are plenty of MacBook stands out there for any budget and style. The bad news? It’s almost overwhelming to wade through all of the options. Head below for the best MacBook stands for 2019 to date.

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The post Best MacBook and MacBook Pro stands, docks and more for 2019 appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Corporations are preparing to increase their spending on Apple products over the next 12 months, a survey of chief information officers has revealed, with companies set to provide more iPhones to employees than in the last four years.

Procreate is a beautiful, fast, and powerful painting app made for creative professionals. It gives you all the tools you need to create quick sketches, inspiring paintings, and detailed illustrations, no matter where you are.

Along with the huge range of pro features like fully customizable brushes and high resolution, multi-layered canvases, you can now experience the brand new QuickShape. This groundbreaking tool helps you create perfect geometry, just like magic.

For just $9.99 it’s yours forever, with regular feature-rich updates and most importantly, no subscriptions. Whether you’re a creative professional or just starting out, Procreate has everything you need.

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Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams testified on Monday that both the iPhone XR, and iPhone XS family were supposed to have modems from both Qualcomm and Intel, but Qualcomm refused to sell the company chips for the new models.

As the FTC's antitrust trial against Qualcomm continues, Apple's chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, has taken the stand to share details on the terms of Apple's contracts with Qualcomm.

There's no live feed of the trial, but reporters including CNET's Shara Tibken and Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents are attending and sharing details on what Williams has to say.

Most interestingly, Williams says that Apple had wanted to use both Qualcomm and Intel chips in the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR despite the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm, but Qualcomm ultimately would not sell it the modems because of the fight.

"The strategy was to...

In an unusual marketing ploy, Apple has premiered a mobile-only website selling the 2018 iPad Pro, boiling its advantages down to four main points.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/01/9to5Mac-Daily-01-14-2019.mp3

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The post...

If you're looking for an iPad Pro-specific USB-C hub, the HyperDrive is definitely the best yet.

A NYTimes report late last week claimed that one man spent 15 days in a detention center in China. His offense: Posting on Twitter. In another case the police threatened a Twitter user's family. A third Twitter user was chained to a chair for eight hours of interrogation. Why are US tech companies staying silent?

Damn good

∞ Read this on The Loop

Apple continues to aggressively market the iPhone XR, with one of its latest tactics being customized emails to owners of older iPhone models with a trade-in value of the older device and a tech specs comparison with the iPhone XR.

An email sent to an iPhone 6 Plus user, for example, advertises Apple's limited-time $200 trade-in offer for that device towards the purchase of an iPhone XR in the United States. The email also states that the iPhone XR is up to three times faster than the iPhone 6 Plus and compares other features.

Apple appears to have started sending out these emails late last year, but we saw several mentions of the campaign on Reddit and Twitter today, suggesting that Apple may have sent out a second wave of emails to additional customers.

Apple...

United Airlines has released a statement following the circulation of a tweet that showed Apple as its largest account, spending $150 million on flights every single year.

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The post United Airlines takes down poster that revealed Apple is its largest corporate spender appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Nimble is on a mission to overturn the battery and charging industries, making them a force for good. AppleInsider goes hands-on with the entire Nimble lineup to see how these eco-friendly chargers stack up to the high-priced market leaders.

When it launched, Apple's HomePod smart speaker did not count toward an Apple Music subscription's device streaming limit. This meant that single-user Apple Music subscribers could stream one song on an iOS device and another on HomePod simultaneously, without one stream ending the other. Recently, this ability has disappeared for many Apple Music users, who are now unable to stream music on both HomePod and an iOS device at the same time.

While single memberships transition to this method of HomePod streaming, Apple Music family memberships will be able to continue to stream multiple songs on both iOS devices and HomePod without any of the streams getting interrupted. Moreover, when HomePod interrupts music streaming on an iPhone, a new pop-up box on iOS displays an option for single membership subscribers to upgrade to an Apple Music family plan. The box explains that up to 5 other people can...

After originally rolling out support for the iPhone XS Max and XR displays back in October, Instagram broke the optimized resolutions with an update last month. Now, an update today has solved the issue, but also requires Instagram users to be running iOS 10. In related news, YouTube has released an update that now takes full advantage of the new iPad Pro displays.

more…

The post Instagram optimized for iPhone XR and XS Max again, YouTube adds support for new iPad Pro displays appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Filling out important gaps in the European market, Apple Pay is reportedly poised to arrive in Slovakia and/or the Czech Republic somewhere between late February and early March.

A six-hour stand-off between police and a 40-year-old man threatening to set alight a convenience store was brought to a peaceful end by a robot carrying a vape pen. Local media reports described a tense situation on Saturday morning in Novato, Calif...

Enlarge / Apple's HomePod is the most hyped-up home speaker to hit the market in a long time. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

Those who have been waiting for Apple's smart speaker to officially come to China won't have to wait much longer. Apple announced that it will start selling HomePod in mainland China and Hong Kong starting this Friday, January 18. Homepod is already available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, and Spain.

Customers in China and Hong Kong have reportedly been able to snag HomePods from third-party sellers for some time....

Chip designer Dialog Semiconductor said today that it hit its guidance for Q4, despite the fact that 75% of its income comes from Apple. It comes at a time when other Apple suppliers are reducing or missing their revenue projections …

more…

The post Dialog hit Q4 guidance despite 75% of its income coming from Apple, says company appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Hopefully you haven’t already given up on New Year’s resolutions, because if one of those resolutions was to do your best to relieve your stress, manage anxiety, improve your focus and all-in-all try to improve your quality of life, we have the perfect iOS app for you. Aware Mindfulness is one of the highest rated meditation and mindfulness personal trainers you can buy, and with this deal you’ll be able to use it for a lifetime for just $29.

Rated at 4.75 out of 5 stars with over 5,000 reviews, here’s what you’ll get:

• Develop the skills to relieve stress, manage anxiety, improve focus & improve your quality of life

• Access guides...

We’ve seen some pretty significant iPhone price cuts in both China and Japan, and at least one analyst believes there is more to come.

A report in November that said Apple was planning to cut the price of the iPhone XR in Japan was quickly confirmed, with a roughly $100 discount introduced later that month …

more…

The post Analyst suggests further iPhone price cuts to come, and major acquisition for video service appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Social media companies are gearing up for battle against India's proposed internet guidelines that require them to actively monitor content. The new IT rules -- which arrive amidst looming general elections -- dictate that the likes of Facebook and T...

HitCase’s $69.99 SPLASH has just about everything I’m looking for in an iPhone case. My only issue — and it’s not really HitCase’s fault — is that the SPLASH is adds a smidge too much width to the Apple smartphone (in my case, an iPhone Xs Max) to allow it to slip into smartphone holsters, which I like to use.

Otherwise, it’s got just about everything. It’s thin and light. It’s waterproof, drop-proof, and dust-proof. It has a MIL-SPEC shock rating to six feet and IP68 waterproof rated to 10 feet (so you can use it, for example, for snorkeling, but not for scuba diving).

The two-piece design case has a built-in screen protector, not an adhesive one, that doesn’t affect the touch technology of the smartphone.. Its soft grip exterior adds some nice “grippability” to prevent the iPhone from slipping out of your hand. 

It’s...

Apple Music is no longer allowing subscribers to play different music on a HomePod and iPhone without a family account.

Previously, it was possible to have HomePod playing one music stream while you listened to a different one on your iPhone …

more…

The post Apple Music no longer allows HomePod and iPhone to play different music on individual accounts appeared first on 9to5Mac.

A couple of weeks after Apple announced that its holiday quarter earnings would be dramatically lower than expected, Credit Suisse believes this quarter may not bring much cheer either. The bank expects smartphone production to fall by a massive 19% this quarter …

more…

The post Credit Suisse predicts smartphone production will plunge 19% this quarter appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Sure, CES is over, but we're not done talking about everything we saw in Las Vegas. Of course, there is a lot of other news to recap from this weekend, too, including a glitchy Fallout 76 secret and layoffs at S...

BetterTouchTool adds many new, fully customizable gestures to the Magic Mouse, Multi-Touch MacBook trackpad, and Magic Trackpad.

These gestures are customizable:

• Magic Mouse:
• Pinch in / out (zoom)
• single-finger tap left
• single-finger tap right
• single-finger tap middle
• single-finger tap
• single-finger click middle
• two-finger tap
• two-finger click
• two-finger swipe (up/down/left/right)
• two-finger tip tap left/right
• three-finger tap
• three-finger click
• three-finger swipe (up/down/left/right)
• four-finger swipe up/down
• four-finger click
• TipTap left/right
• Touchpad:
• single-finger tap top-left
• single-finger tap top-right
• single-finger tap top-middle
• single-finger tap bottom-left
• single-finger tap bottom-right
• single-...

This could qualify as something of a relief.

AT&T and the other big three carriers claim they will stop selling their subscribers’ location data in March.

While optimistic, the company has already missed their June 2018 deadline for this change.

The carriers had already promised to end this practice in 2018, albeit a recent investigation noted that the practice had never ceased. The companies have once again stated that the practice will end.

AT&T offered the following comment:

Last year we stopped most location aggregation services while maintaining some that protect our customers, such as roadside assistance and fraud prevention. In light of recent reports about the misuse of location services, we have decided to eliminate all location aggregation services—even those with clear consumer benefits. We are immediately eliminating the remaining services and will be done in March.

T-Mobile has stated that it also plans to stop,...

TaoTronics TT-BH060 headphones feature noise cancellation and a very comfortable design, as well as supporting Bluetooth 5.0. But the sound leans heavily towards the bottom end of the spectrum and lacks high-end brilliance.

Samsung knows it's facing tough times, and it's not just counting on the Galaxy S10 to get out of its funk. It's launching a trio of Galaxy M-series phones in late January that are designed expressly for "Indian millennial consumers," the company's...

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more.

Version 3.5.6:

• Deleting the Junk items improved
• Help corrected and improved
• Some corrections and improvements made

• macOS 10.14

Download Now]]>

Hopper Disassembler is a binary disassembler, decompiler, and debugger for 32- and 64-bit executables. It will let you disassemble any binary you want, and provide you all the information about its content, like imported symbols, or the control flow graph! Hopper can retrieve procedural information about the disassembled code like the stack variables, and lets you name all the objects you want.

Hopper is able to transform the assembly language into a pseudo-code that is easier to understand! You can use its internal Python scripting engine to analyze binaries the way you want (this feature works only with Lion)! Starting from version 2.0, Hopper can even use GDB to debug programs!

And, last but not least, unlike all other tools of its kind, Hopper is perfectly integrated into the OS X environment.

Version 4.5.3:

• Fixes various issues with dark mode on Mojave

• OS X 10.9 or later...

China's growing crackdown on internet media now includes some tight limits on short-form video apps like TikTok. Recently imposed guidelines make app creators responsible for the content their users post, and ask platforms to review every bit of cont...

Shortly after GM revealed Cadillac will take the lead in its electrification push, the brand has given us a peek at its first-ever electric car. Following a couple of hybrid attempts, the new vehicle doesn't come with a name or any details, but from...

UC San Diego Health recently sent an online survey to its first 425 patients who activated Apple Health Records in 2018, and among 132 respondents, 78 percent indicated that they were "satisfied with using the feature."

96 percent of respondents said they could "easily connect their mobile devices to the platform," and 90 percent said the "smartphone solution improved their understanding of their own health, facilitated conversations with their clinicians, or improved sharing of personal health information with friends and family."

The survey results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week by doctors at UC San Diego Health, one of the first hospitals and clinics to make Apple Health Records available to its patients.

Apple...

Apple's HomePod has only been available in a handful of countries (mostly North America and Europe) so far, but it's expanding availability in grand fashion. The company is releasing its smart speaker in China, including Hong Kong, on January 18th....

The HomePod, Apple's wireless speaker from Apple, will be available in mainland China and Hong Kong markets starting Friday, Jan. 18. It will be available in white and space gray.

“HomePod is the perfect wireless speaker for music lovers. It delivers an unmatched music listening experience with high-fidelity sound wherever it is placed and creates a new way to discover and interact with music using Siri,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in a press release. “We’re excited to bring HomePod to our customers in mainland China and Hong Kong markets. We can’t wait for them to experience how great it sounds in their home, we think they are going to love it.”

Currently, the HomePod is available in the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico and Spain. HomePod is compatible with iPhone 5s or later, iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, iPad mini 2 or later, or iPod touch (6th generation).

To date, Nintendo has handed out NES games as bonuses with Switch Online subscriptions. But what about SNES titles? Thanks to some code sleuthing, you might have a hint of what's in the pipeline. Twitter user Kapu claims to have found references to 2...

Apple today announced that its HomePod speaker launches in China and Hong Kong on Friday, January 18. It will be available for 2,799 yuan in China and HK$2,799 in Hong Kong from Apple.com, Apple Stores, and authorized resellers.

Apple had previously announced that the HomePod would launch in China and Hong Kong in early 2019 and now we know it will be later this week. Siri on the HomePod gained support for Cantonese and Mandarin in China and a Cantonese dialect in Hong Kong in a software update last month.

Apple's press release highlights how the HomePod can stream Apple Music genres such as Mandopop and Cantopop and other audio content from any AirPlay-supported apps, including QQ...

It's Canada's turn to implement rules for drone flights, and those in the pipeline could make the American approach seem lenient. Transport Canada has adopted new regulations that will require the registration of any drone weighing between 250g and...

As much as YouTube has done to counter hoaxes and fake news in its searches, it still has room for improvement. The Washington Post discovered that "more than half" of YouTube's top 20 search results for "RBG," the nickname for US Supreme Court Just...

As cleanup crews descend on the Las Vegas Convention Center and the events attendees reluctantly make their ways home, it's hard to believe that the weeklong technology expo is already over. We saw autonomous bread machines, self-driving semis, and e...

As we prepare for the iPhone 11 later this year, the first reports are starting to emerge to offer some details on the device’s features. One thing that is unclear, however, is whether or not the iPhone 11 (iPhone XI?) will usher in a new design, or feature the same edge-to-edge design of the iPhone X.

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The post Comment: Should Apple bring the iPad Pro design to the iPhone 11 to create a modern iPhone 5? [Poll] appeared first on 9to5Mac.

HomeKit and AirPlay 2 will unlock a host of new functionality thanks to integration into many leading manufacturer's television sets, including Samsung, Vizio, and LG. AppleInsider examines what that will look like, and what you'll be able to do, when the features are available.

BetterTouchTool adds many new, fully customizable gestures to the Magic Mouse, Multi-Touch MacBook trackpad, and Magic Trackpad.

These gestures are customizable:

• Magic Mouse:
• Pinch in / out (zoom)
• single-finger tap left
• single-finger tap right
• single-finger tap middle
• single-finger tap
• single-finger click middle
• two-finger tap
• two-finger click
• two-finger swipe (up/down/left/right)
• two-finger tip tap left/right
• three-finger tap
• three-finger click
• three-finger swipe (up/down/left/right)
• four-finger swipe up/down
• four-finger click
• TipTap left/right
• Touchpad:
• single-finger tap top-left
• single-finger tap top-right
• single-finger tap top-middle
• single-finger tap bottom-left
• single-finger tap bottom-right
• single-...

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more.

Version 3.5.6:

• Deleting the Junk items improved
• Help corrected and improved
• Some corrections and improvements made

• macOS 10.14

Download Now]]>

Hopper Disassembler is a binary disassembler, decompiler, and debugger for 32- and 64-bit executables. It will let you disassemble any binary you want, and provide you all the information about its content, like imported symbols, or the control flow graph! Hopper can retrieve procedural information about the disassembled code like the stack variables, and lets you name all the objects you want.

Hopper is able to transform the assembly language into a pseudo-code that is easier to understand! You can use its internal Python scripting engine to analyze binaries the way you want (this feature works only with Lion)! Starting from version 2.0, Hopper can even use GDB to debug programs!

And, last but not least, unlike all other tools of its kind, Hopper is perfectly integrated into the OS X environment.

Version 4.5.3:

• Fixes various issues with dark mode on Mojave

• OS X 10.9 or later...

By default, the dock automatically rearranges spaces based on the last one used. I prefer to arrange them myself. To disable that behavior, set the mru-spaces boolean to false in com.apple.dock as follows:

defaults write com.apple.dock mru-spaces -bool false

The post Stop The Dock From Rearranging Itself in macOS appeared first on krypted.com.

No, Fallout 76's troubles aren't over yet. Gamers have discovered that the online RPG has a developer room where you can find virtually everything in the game, including unreleased items like special power armor. It even includes the game's lone hu...

Don't expect to travel around Zurich on an electric two-wheeler in the near future. Lime has halted services in Switzerland following reports of its scooters abruptly halting in mid-ride, throwing (and sometimes injuring) riders. In a message to cu...

NVIDIA has opened a new lab in Seattle, and it's meant to serve as home for all its robotics projects. Over 50 research scientists and students from the University of Washington will work in the facility under NVIDIA's senior director of robotics res...

I walked through The Void's virtual reality center in the Las Vegas Venetian twice.

The first time, armed with headset and wireless backpack, I was shuttled through Ralph Breaks VR, the company's latest experience. I saw my own shiny animated pink h...

CBS' ongoing streaming push is now affecting its movie business. Variety has revealed that CBS is folding its Films division into the larger Entertainment Group over the next year, and it will shift its focus to streaming after the last of its four i...

There are more than 1,700 American companies at CES, 1,200 official exhibitors from China, and several hundred from France and South Korea. Many of them are veterans of the trade show circuit, one-upping each other's booths with elaborate curved OLED...

If reports out of the Chinese supply chain can be believed, Apple's AirPower charging accessory has very recently begun mass production with an established Apple manufacturing partner building the device.

In this week’s top stories: iPhone 11 rumors start to trickle in, CES 2018 brings HomeKit and AirPlay 2 accessories, IKEA plans new smart blinds, and more. Read on for all of this week’s biggest stories.

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The post This week’s top stories: iPhone 11 rumors and renders, CES 2019 recap, more appeared first on 9to5Mac.

By Daniel Varghese and Adrienne Maxwell

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full portable mi...

Changes are in store for one of Apple’s most significant retail spaces in Spain. Apple Passeig de Gràcia will soon close its doors temporarily for renovation work. Upon reopening, the store is expected to be updated with a Forum, Video Wall, and all of Apple’s latest store features.

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The post Passeig de Gràcia Apple Store temporarily closing February 10th, Video Wall and Forum likely on the way appeared first on 9to5Mac.

As part of the Qualcomm and Federal Trade Commission trial this week, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf continued to defend his company’s business practices. As reported by CNET, Mollenkopf said the practices are what’s best for the whole industry, while Apple continues to claim the tactics are monopolistic.

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The post Qualcomm vs FTC trial: Apple recalls iPad mini 2 negotiations, Qualcomm defends double-dipping licensing as best for everyone appeared first on 9to5Mac.

As we wrap up our reportage from this weeks Vegas showcase. According to CES, roughly 180,000 attendees hit the halls. In the thick of it all was photographer Will Lipman and our team of editors. Here, we try to capture some of the coolest highlights...

Apple’s historic Tysons Corner store could be preparing to see an inspired move. Recent plans indicate that construction of a significantly larger and more modern replacement space may soon begin at the nearby Tysons Galleria.

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The post Apple may be planning to relocate its first retail store at Tysons Corner appeared first on 9to5Mac.

On a regular basis, Apple World Today posts a list of notable new apps or app updates that have been released. They may not necessarily be new, but they're popular and deserve mention. Here are this week’s picks.

iOS Apps/Updates

Tomoyoshi Natsui has introduced Everlisten++, a music listening app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. It allows users to listen to the main portion of a song track, one after another. 

The free app (which does tout in-app purchases) has a special feature to display the sensitive audio level meter for each 10 frequency segments. What’s more, you can control the playback speed and its pitch freely, so how much to unleash the power of the music depends on you.

KMAD has introduced Panmorphia: Enchanted, their third point and click, puzzle...