In "Sixty Tips for Creative iPhone Photography" (Rocky Nook, US$24.95), author Martina Holmberg shares 60 tips that cover everything from shooting and editing photos using your iPhone's basic features, to using third-party apps for turning ordinary snapshots into unique and artistic images. The book is filled with images that illustrate each tip and technique. Also included are two guest galleries that showcase iPhone photos from professional photographers Dominique James and Uwe Steinmueller. Holmberg is a photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. For more information about the book -- including the table of contents and author bio -- go to http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781937538125.do .

ROAM Data, a mobile commerce platform provider, has introduced a software developer’s kit that simplifies the integration of card-present mobile payments into applications for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. As a result, any third-party developer of mobile applications can now readily leverage ROAM’s market-leading mobile commerce technology platform to build secure m-commerce applications, according to ROAM CEO Will Graylin. The developer kit supports mobile commerce-based apps development for a range of applications, including invoicing, accounting, and retail point-of-sale. The tool kit ensures that developers comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards, says Graylin. ROAM Data’s platform encrypts sensitive card information via hardware at the point-of-swipe. As a result, card data never goes beyond the retailer and payment card processor, says Graylin. Software developers can sample the technology and its capabilities by visiting http://developers....

FreedomPop (http://www.freedompop.com), a free social wireless broadband Internet company, is launching limited pre-sales for its new iPod touch 4G Sleeve. The FreedomPop 4G iPod Sleeve snaps on to any iPod touch and enables a connection to FreedomPop's high-speed 4G network, essentially turning the iPod into an iPhone. With free high-speed 4G connections, the iPod can stream videos, make calls, become a personal hotspot, and connect to Wi-Fi anywhere FreedomPop's 4G network exists, according to FreedomPop Chief Operating Officer OO Steven Sesar. The new iPod Touch 4G Sleeve also turns your iPod into a wireless hotspot, allowing up to eight additional devices to connect to it, he adds. With the FreedomFriends Plan, users will have up to 1GB of free broadband, with an initial minimum of 500MB plus an additional 10MB per friend up to 1GB free.  In addition, FreedomPop will allow heavier data users to earn up to 5 GB free by engaging in partner offers and promotions. FreedomPop is...

U.S. regulators will require Google to pay a civil penalty of US$22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple's Safari browser, reports "Reuters," quoting two unnamed "people familiar with the matter." Members of the Federal Trade Commission voted to approve a consent decree that will allow Google to settle the agency's investigation but admit no liability, the article adds. An official announcement is expected within days, according to the "Reuters" sources. You can read more at http://macte.ch/u9r55 . A study released Feb. 17 by Jonathan Mayer of Stanford University's Security Lab, and the Center for Internet and Society, found that Google has been circumventing a privacy setting in Apple's Safari web browser. Like most web browsers, Safari provides the option not to receive third-party "cookies."  Cookies are small bits of code placed on the browser and can be used by ad networks to track you as you surf the web. Blocking third-party...

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) and Barnes & Noble filed a motion today to become a "friend of the court" in proceedings pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York with respect to the settlement by three publishers of a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice against Apple and five publishers regarding e-book pricing and distribution. Apple and two publishers have not settled the lawsuit. In the joint filing, the ABA and Barnes & Noble argue that elimination of the current pricing and distribution method for e-books, known as the agency model, will injure innocent third parties, including ABA member bookstores, Barnes & Noble, authors, and non-defendant publishers; hurt competition in an emerging industry; and ultimately harm consumers. "The end loser of this unnecessary and burdensome regulatory approach will be the American public, who will experience higher overall average e-book and hardback prices and less choice," the...

Although it's only been prowling for a week, Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is already being used by over half of Macworld UK readers. The publication says of 549 respondents, 52.5% said that they have upgraded to Mountain Lion and that it works well. However, 2.7% say they've had problems downloading the new operating system. Read more at http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/news/?newsid=3373180&olo=rss .

The Apple vs. Samsung file is now underway. And Samsung's Chief Product Officer Kevin Packingham has been complaining that Apple is being “unreasonable." Packingham told "Wired" that he thinks: “It is unreasonable that we’re fighting over rectangles, that that’s being considered as an infringement.” He claimed in an interview with "Wired" that Samsung is defending itself against claims that are “defying common sense." Read more at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/samsung-chief-product-officer-q-a... . This is all part of the ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung have filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied the slide-to-unlock technology of its iPhone and iPad devices.

HTC has withdrawn a patent from its International Trade Commission (ITC) complaint against Apple, reducing the amount of asserted claims from eight to two standard-essential patents, reports "FOSS Patents" (http://www.fosspatents.com). The withdrawn patent is for a "circuit and operating method for integrated interface of PDA and wireless communication system." The case will go to trial in about a month. This is all part of an ongoing legal battle. In November 2010 Apple sued Motorola, alleging that the company's smartphone lineup and the operating software it uses infringe on the iPhone-maker's intellectual property. The two lawsuits came after Motorola sued Apple in October 2010 for patent infringement. Motorola claims that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents. Also in 2010 Apple filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was...

Apple has updated the Apple TV, adding a Hulu Plus channel. Hulu Plus lets you watch current and back season TV shows and movies anytime in HD for US$7.99 per month with limited advertising. For many popular shows on our service, Hulu Plus offers every episode of the current season. You can watch Hulu Plus content in HD (when available) on multiple devices, including your laptop, the iPad and iPhone, PlayStation 3, Roku, and TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony, Samsung and Vizio. You can sign up for a one-week free trial at http://www.hulu.com/plus, or you can also find a sampling of select Hulu Plus content using a free downloadable app for the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and other supported devices. You may need to reboot your Apple TV before the Hulu Plus channel appears.

Seydesign (http://seydesign.com) has unveiled Nuvem, an US$20 theme for the RapidWeaver web site creation tool that sports features such as background tiles on the body and on all five ExtraContent areas. It's built on a framework that includes abilities like SS3, SmartNav, Font Awesome and more. Nuvem also sports a built-in slideshow. Called SS3.2, the slide show allows for banner slide shows from built-in images, external images, text and content, and more. It also has extensive options to control the slide show speed and effect, as well as settings that can add details such as slider navigation and pagination. With six ExtraContent areas, Nuvem gives users flexibility to control their layout. Each ExtraContent area has its own color settings and distinct look and feel. A plus 1 ExtraContent area (area 12) comes in the form of a zone best utilized for Social Links, a free seydesign snippet that allows for the insertion of a social icon bar.

Maxthon has launched a beta version of its new Maxthon for Mac browser. Just remember: beta software is unfinished software so use with care.   "Maxthon for Mac is the first iteration of several offerings for Apple, to be followed by Maxthon for iPhone, which will lead to cross-platform syncing for PC, Android and Apple," says Jeff Chen, CEO of Maxthon. He says Maxthon for Mac includes the following features: ° "Out of the box" video viewing -- Flash and other standards are pre-loaded; ° Cloud-based, cross-platform syncing; ° Reader Mode, which removes ads and presents multi-page articles in one window; ° Private Browsing Mode, which provides the ability at the tab level to browse the web without saving any browser history; ° Smart Address Bar, which combines the URL bar and search bar into one; ° Support for more than 40 languages; ° Magic Fill, which pre-fills usernames and passwords for favorite websites; ° Extensions support; ° Privacy and security settings; ° Automatic updates...

Shin Nishibori, the Apple designer whose iPhone designs have become a central issue in the Samsung patent case, apparently has no plans to testify in the upcoming trial, reports "AllThingsD." In a letter to the court on Sunday, a lawyer representing Nishibori said that his client has no plans to appear at the trial, which begins Monday in San Jose, California. The lawyer said Nishibori no longer works at Apple, and is in Hawaii, "trying to recover from several health issues." More info can be found at http://macte.ch/1hC8s . This is all part of the ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung have filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied the slide-to-unlock technology of its iPhone and iPad devices.

Another day, another lawsuit. Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court on Friday, alleging that Apple’s Siri infringes on two of the school’s U.S. patents dealing with speech recognition technology, reports the "IDG News Service." Siri is Apple's speech recognition "personal assistant" feature the debuted with the iPhone 4. The university is demanding Apple pay a still undetermined amount in damages, and that the court order an injunction on Apple’s use of Siri as a feature on its iPhones and iPads. For more info go to http://macte.ch/kx0uC ,

Apple says that downloads of OS X Mountain Lion have exceeded three million in four days, making it the most successful OS X release in Apple’s history. Mountain Lion is the ninth major release of Mac OS X. It's available through the Mac App Store™ as an upgrade to Lion or Snow Leopard users for US$19.99 . "Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever," says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Chronos has released Spotlife a Mac OS X utility that puts your calendar directly on your desktop. It requires Mac OS X 10.7 or higher. Users can choose from Agenda, Day, Week, and Month views. Spotlife's Center Stage feature will instantly zoom the desktop calendar above all other windows. "Spotlife is the most sophisticated and powerful desktop calendar for Mac," says Robert McCullough, vice president of Sales at Chronos. "It works with popular calendar services like iCloud and Google Calendar and once you use its Center Stage feature, you'll wonder why somebody hadn't thought of it sooner." A fully functional 30 day trial version can be downloaded from Chronos' web site (http://www.chronosnet.com). Spotlife is being offered at an introductory price of US$9.99. A family pack is also available for $19.99.

Best Buy is selling Apple's 8GB iPhone 4 for US$49.99 with a new two-year contract. This appears to be a permanent price drop, according to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com). The new price is half that of the regular $99 price for the iPhone 4 with a new service contract. Reseller Best Buy is offering the $49.99 upgrade price on both the GSM iPhone 4 model, compatible with AT&T, as well as the CDMA variants, available for both Verizon and Sprint.

MacMall, an authorized reseller of Apple products, has launched its third annual Supreme Studio Makeover contest.  Targeted towards professionals in the creative fields and featuring over $14,000 in total prizes, the contest runs until Aug. 31. Entry information and complete contest rules can be found at www.macmall.com/makeover .   The Supreme Studio Makeover features a prize for larger studios with 11 or more employees valued over US$9,300 and a prize for studios with 1-10 employees valued over $4,700.  The products featured in the contest include: the new 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display; Wacom Intuos5 Professional Tablets; Adobe CS6 Master Collection; Drobo S 5-Bay Storage Array; HP 24” Designjet 510 Large Format printer; 21” iMac; and more.   "Our annual contest attracts thousands of creative pro businesses excited about gaining access to the latest professional-grade, high-quality products," says Dan DeVries, president of MacMall. "MacMall is a strong supporter of the...

Here are the latest updates for Mac OS X apps: Jim Mitchell Designs has announced the release of Yasu 2.8.0 (http://jimmitchell.org/yasu/) the latest update to its maintenance utility for Mac OS X. The new version is compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Norrkross Software (http://www.norrkross.com) has released VideoCanvas 3.0.2, an update to their video editing, compositing and effects application for Mac OS X (10.6 or higher). The upgrade is compatible with Mountain Lion. CrushFTP has updated its CrushFTP (http://www.crushftp.com/) FTP and Web server software to version 6.1. It supports HTML5 drag 'n drop for file uploads. The upload interface is more streamlined now, too. Shirt Pocket (http://www.shirt-pocket.com) has updated SuperDuper!, the disk copying utility, to version 2.7. It adds compatibility with Mountain Lion. Zevrix Solutions has given us Deliver Express 2.3.1, a compatibility update to its solution to send and share files across the Internet and local...

Following the announcement (http://macte.ch/4naoQ) that Apple plans to buy AuthenTec, a pair of law firms are "investigating" the security company's board of directors for possible breaches of fiduciary responsibility, reports "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com). Law firms Levi & Korsinsky and Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. are looking to wrangle shareholder class action lawsuits on allegations that AuthenTec's board of directors purposely undervalued the company in its $356 million sale to Apple. Read more at http://macte.ch/8gwRz .

U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan denied Apple's request to have him take up the patent dispute instead of the bankruptcy judge to whom the lawsuit was assigned, the article adds. Earlier this week, Kodak lost a patent case against Apple and RIM, "dealing a blow to the onetime film giant's efforts to raise billions of dollars by selling off its intellectual property," according to "The Wall Street Journal" (http://macte.ch/6fPFB). Kodak filed a complaint against the iPhone and BlackBerry makers at the U.S. International Trade Commission in early 2010, saying their devices infringed on its patent for previewing images with a digital camera. On Friday, the ITC dismissed the complaint, upholding a finding by one of its judges that the patent was invalid. The commission concluded that neither Apple nor RIM had violated trade laws that could have led to an injunction halting imports of their products, adds the "WSJ." Since the patent at issue was one of Kodak's most valuable...

The late Steve Jobs has made the "20 Most Influential Americans of All Time" list by "TIME" magazine. The list includes the "trailblazers, visionaries and cultural ambassadors who defined a nation." Other members of the list include George Washington; Thomas Jefferson; Sacagawea, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark; Abraham Lincoln; Sitting Bull; Alexander G. Bell; Thomas Edison; Henry Ford; the Wright Brothers; Margaret Sanger; Albert Einstein; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Louis Armstrong; James Watson; Martin Luther King Jr.; and Muhammad Ali.

Sprint Nextel (http://www.sprint.com) has announced its latest financial results. The company reported a net loss of US$1.4 billion and a diluted net loss of $.46 per share for the second quarter of 2012 as compared to a net loss of $847 million and a diluted net loss of $.28 per share in the second quarter of 2011. On the (sorta) bright side, Sprint sold 1.5 million iPhones during the quarter. That matches the number sold the previous quarter, though AT&T and Verizon iPhone sales were down slightly. Sprint also noted that 40% of iPhone sales in the June quarter were to new postpaid customers. That compares to 44% the previous quarter. Sprint reported wireless service revenues of $7.3 billion during the quarter, an increase of more than 8 percent year-over-year, driven primarily by Sprint platform postpaid ARPU growth of $4.31 – the largest quarterly year-over-year increase on record for the U.S. wireless industry.

CROON Audio (http://www.croonaudio.com) has debuted its first speaker, The Original sound system. Through the one-touch pairing procedure, it connects with Bluetooth devices. It merges modern electronics with wood craftsmanship into a 10.5 x 8 x 3.5 inch speaker. The housing of the speaker is made from 8mm MDF (Medium-Density fiberboard) manufactured wood that purportedly allows for VLD (Very Low Distortion) technology when listening to music at a high volume. The Original’s speaker features two 2.5-inch forward facing Full Range Drivers which have been matched to an acoustic amplifier allowing 15 watts per channel and a Class D amp. The Original will reproduce music wirelessly from any device with Bluetooth or directly through the 3.5 mm connection so it can be used as an external speaker system for an iPad, Kindle, a laptop computer, electric guitar and more. Users can control the speaker’s functionality with their connected touch screen device. The Original collection is now...

Newer Technology (http://www.newertech.com) has announced the NewerTech NuGuard GripStand 3 for safer transporting, easier viewing, and more secure handling of the new iPad during mobile or desktop use. It costs US$34.95 and is available in black. The NuGuard GripStand 3 is available as a standalone product or as part of a value priced bundle. The $59.95 bundle includes the GripBase desktop accessory that locks into the GripStand 3 case to provide a fully adjustable viewing angle in landscape or portrait modes along with 360 degree rotation. The wide, weighted footprint ensures the GripBase will remain stationary on a desk, even in high traffic areas, according to the folks at NewerTech.