Did Apple Steal It’s Design Ideas From Braun?
Sep 10th
Not so original after all
The huge success of Apple products over the last 15 years has regularly been attributed in part to their incredibly iconic designs.
But were Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and former CEO, and Jonathan Ive, the company’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, inspired by products designed by German consumer goods manufacturer Braun in the 1950s and 1960s?
Compelling visual evidence, compiled by Cult of Mac, suggests a number of Apple products that bear more than a passing resemblance to the simplicity of Braun designs from more than 60 years ago.
The original iPod from 2001, for instance, has similarities with the Braun T3 pocket radio from 1958. Other products that suggest a Braun influence include the PowerMac G5, the 2007 iMac and even the iPhone’s calculator app from 2007.
In 1998, Apple launched the iMac, the computer that helped turn around the then struggling company. Designed by Ive, its success heralded his arrival as a design guru.
Ive has long acknowledged the influence on his work of Dieter Rams, who was Braun’s head designer for nearly 30 years. In 2011, Ive wrote the forward for Dieter Rams’ book ‘As Little Design As Possible’.
‘What Dieter Rams and his team at Braun did was to produce hundreds of wonderfully conceived and designed objects: products that were beautifully made in high volumes and that were broadly accessible’, he wrote.
For his part, Rams is understood to regard Apple products – and Ive’s kind words – as a compliment. source – Daily Mail UK
Microsoft Unveils First New Logo In 25 Years
Aug 24th
They’re throwing the old Windows out the window
Microsoft on Thursday announced what it called the first update to the company’s logo in 25 years, a revamp that takes the familiar colored banner and turns it into … well, more of a window. Rather than a colored banner, the new logo is a colored square composed of four evenly sized squares and a tweaked typeface.
It’s one of many changes the company is making in anticipation of the Windows 8 launch, said Jeffrey Meisner, general manager of brand strategy.
“Starting today, you’ll see the new Microsoft logo being used prominently. It will be used on Microsoft.com – the 10th most visited website in the world. It is in three of our Microsoft retail stores today (Boston, Seattle’s University Village and Bellevue, Wash.) and will shine brightly in all our stores over the next few months,” Mesiner wrote on the company’s blog
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The new logo is inspired by the company’s brand values, fonts and colors, he explained.
“The symbol is important in a world of digital motion … the symbol’s squares of color are intended to express the company’s diverse portfolio of products.”
The revision comes, Meisner said, ahead of “one of the most significant waves of product launches in Microsoft’s history.” source – Fox News Tech
12 Awesome Facebook Page Functions You Might Have Missed
Aug 14th
If you’re anything like me you probably spend half your day checking your newsfeed for juicy stories and your Facebook page(s) for new likes and wall posts. There are varying schools of thought on whether Facebook makes you more or less productive and all I can say is that I’m glad it’s part of my job – otherwise I think I’d have to go with the latter.
Given the amount of time we all seem to spend on the network you’d think we would know every little thing there was to know about it. That’s why it’s always so surprising to find out about a feature that managed to sneak its way into Facebook without us realizing it.
Here are 12 Facebook features you may not have noticed – all related to managing your Facebook page – so that you can step-up your social media marketing a notch or two.
It wasn’t long ago that you could only edit comments if you got to them within a few seconds after posting. Now Facebook allows you to edit comments on posts, photos or any content at any time as yourself or as a brand.
So, how do you do it? Click in the top right corner of your comment, then go down to “Edit…” You can also view all previous edits by clicking on the little “Edited” link that will appear beneath your comment.
2. Reposition Photos
Again, this one works for both personal profile pages as well as brand pages. You know how Facebook takes the liberty of cropping your photos into the appropriate boxes that adorn your page or profile timeline? And how this sometimes is extremely annoying because it cuts out the most important bits? Well now you have the power to change it. Unfortunately, you still need to keep to the stipulated size/shape, but you can reposition your photo within the box to create the most flattering crop.
How, you ask? Again, it’s pretty easy. Just click the edit icon (the one shaped like a pencil) in the top right of the picture box and go down to “Reposition Photo…”
3. Export Events
Well this one isn’t necessarily page-related, but it can be business related so I thought I’d include it. This has been around for awhile, but I didn’t know about it until recently so there’s a chance some of you haven’t heard of it either. Essentially you can export your Facebook events so that they appear in your Outlook, iCal and Google calendars.
How? Go to your events page, click on the top right drop-down icon and then click on “Export Events…”
There’s a good chance you’ve heard about this one, but it’s such a huge feature that I thought it was best to include it just in case you missed the boat. You can now schedule posts for your Facebook page. All you need to do is click the little clock symbol at the bottom left of the box and choose the date and time you want the post to be published. Just keep track of what you’ve already scheduled so you don’t accidentally post the same update twice.
5. Edit Link Names and Descriptions
Hopefully most people are aware of this because it’s been available forever; however, it’s so often underutilized that I thought I should include it as well. If you’re posting a link to something on your page, Facebook automatically pulls in the relevant meta-data – including the link title, image and description. Unfortunately, you are not able to change the image (though you can opt to remove it completely), but you can edit the title and the description of the link. This is a good idea if a) the title and/or description aren’t included or b) they’re just not very good. Nothing gets ignored more than a link that has no context. So take advantage of this feature and make your posts as appealing as possible.
6. Allocate Roles to Your Admins
This is a relatively new feature and something that a lot of the larger brand pages have been requesting for quite some time. Instead of only being able to set change your status from page admin or “fan,” page managers can now choose to allocate different levels of access to a page. The roles include Manager, Content Creator, Moderator, Advertiser and Insights Analyst. They are fairly obvious as to what they do, but the table below outlines the access each has to the page.
To allocate admin roles just go into your page settings and navigate to “Admin Roles.”
To read the rest of these excellent tips, please go to IGNITE SOCIAL MEDIA….
Apple Co-Founder Wozniak Sees ‘Horrible Problems’ With Cloud Computing
Aug 6th
Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs, predicted “horrible problems” in the coming years as cloud-based computing takes hold.
Wozniak, 61, was the star turn at the penultimate performance in Washington of “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” monologist Mike Daisey’s controversial two-hour expose of Apple’s labor conditions in China.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, seen here in May 2012, has predicted “horrible problems” in the coming years as cloud-based computing takes hold. (AFP Photo/Torsten Blackwood)
In a post-performance dialogue with Daisey and audience members, Wozniak held forth on topics as varied as public education (he once did a stint as a school teacher) and reality TV (having appeared on “Dancing with the Stars”).
But the engineering wizard behind the progenitor of today’s personal computer, the Apple II, was most outspoken on the shift away from hard disks towards uploading data into remote servers, known as cloud computing.
“I really worry about everything going to the cloud,” he said. “I think it’s going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years.”
He added: “With the cloud, you don’t own anything. You already signed it away” through the legalistic terms of service with a cloud provider that computer users must agree to.
“I want to feel that I own things,” Wozniak said. “A lot of people feel, ‘Oh, everything is really on my computer,’ but I say the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we’re going to have control over it.”
Prior to Saturday at the Woolly Mammoth theater in Washington, Daisey and Wozniak had met once before, in California after a performance of “The Agony and the Ecstasy” in its original version in February 2011.
Wozniak was moved to tears, but a year later Daisey came under fire when it emerged that sections of his one-man show dealing with the Foxconn plant in China where iPhones and iPads are assembled had been fabricated.
Public radio show “This American Life,” which had broadcast portions of “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” went so far as to issue a retraction. Daisey meanwhile reworked his script, albeit without toning down his powerful delivery.
On the minimalist stage Saturday, seated on plain wooden chairs, Daisey and Wozniak came across as a geek version of Tweedledum and Tweedledee in their baggy black clothes and matching beer bellies.
The bearded, fast-talking Wozniak sported running shoes and a massive wrist watch. In the theater lobby, for Saturday only, one of the very first Apple I computers ever built — assembled in Jobs’ garage — was on display.
“Everything I designed was purely out of my head, never out of a book,” recalled Wozniak, who quit Apple in 1987 after 12 years, taught fifth-graders, hit the lecture circuit and gave away some of his fortune to good causes.
Many in the audience echoed Daisey’s concern about Foxconn’s work force, but Wozniak said he expected labor conditions in China to evolve as the nation grows richer. He also commended Apple for its oversight of its factories.
“We know we (citizens and consumers) have a voice. We can speak (about labor conditions), but we can’t act like, oh, Foxconn is bad or Apple is bad,” he said.
Daisey begged to differ: “I hear what you’re saying about that fact that everyone goes through an evolution, but it’s not as if the evolution was natural in the sense that we are the ones who brought the jobs there.”
While Apple designs its products in the United States, all its manufacturing takes place in China — a sore point in an election year in which unemployment and a long-term exodus of manufacturing jobs overseas have been campaign issues. source – Yahoo News
Facebook Stock Tanks On Zuckerberg Admission Of Millions Of Fake Accounts
Aug 3rd
MYFOXNY.COM - Facebook’s share price dipped below $20 on Thursday after reporting slowing growth and an admission of an alarming number of fake accounts.
In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the social media company said that as many as 83 million of its accounts are fake.
It also reported that as many as five percent of its active users have duplicate accounts.
Facebook members grew to 955 million this year.
It says 1.5 percent of its accounts are likely spam or accounts set up for other malicious activity. The fake accounts are concentrated in developing markets, according to the filing.
It also blames people who set up accounts for non-human entities, such as pets.
There are “inherent challenges” in measuring usage,” the social network said.
“We are continually seeking to improve our ability to identify duplicate or false accounts and estimate the total number of such accounts, and such estimates may be affected by improvements or changes in our methodology,” the filing continued.
The number of real users is important for Facebook as it seeks to sell advertising.
Facebook shares are down almost 50 percent from its $38 May IPO. source – MyFoxNY
The Best Features Of Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion Software
Jul 26th
Mountain Lion is basically a way for Apple to bring its mobile and desktop operating systems closer together. Now your iPad, iPhone and Mac will get along better than ever. Your documents, notes, calendars, messages, reminders, Safari tabs and more will sync across devices smoothly thanks to Mountain Lion. (And things will get even cozier when iOS 6 arrives in the fall, of course).

From the desktop you see when you start up your Mac to the applications you use every day, everything is designed to be easy and intuitive
- Messages: Thanks to the new Messages app — which replaces iChat — you can sync your iMessage conversations across devices. Start a conversation on your MacBook Air, continue it on your iPhone, and then wrap it up from your iPad. All the great features you might have loved about iMessage on iOS — such as delivery receipts, read receipts, typing indicators, encrypted messaging and more — will be available on the desktop. (You can also the desktop app with AIM and other traditional IM services.)
- Notes: Oh, yes. All your quickly tapped notes will sync now.
- Reminders: The new Reminders app will bring a fantastic iOS feature to the desktop. You’ll be able to create and manage tasks and have them automatically update across devices.
- iCloud Tabs: Thanks to iCloud Tabs, you can start a browsing session on one device and continue it on another. Whatever tabs are open on one will appear on the other.
- Documents in the Cloud: Several apps — such as those Keynote, Pages, Numbers, TextEdit and more — have iCloud support built right in. This means that you can create, edit and view documents created by those apps in the cloud — from any of your OS X or iOS devices.
Everything in its place … and a place for everything
A brand new Notification Center will help keep you organized in Mountain Lion. It’s a pane that slides out from the right-hand side of your screen, displaying a selection of alerts and banners which allow you to track activities easily.
- Alerts (meeting notices, for instance) are little pop-ups which will linger in the top-right corner of your screen until you dismiss them while banners (announcing incoming emails, etc.) will disappear after five seconds.
- If you want to see anything you’ve missed, just slide open the Notification Center with a two-fingered swipe and look at a list of up to 20 recent notifications per app. These can include activity from Calendar, Mail, Messages, FaceTime, Reminders, GameCenter, Twitter and many third-party apps. In the fall, there will be support for Facebook as well.
- You can configure the type of notifications — alerts or banners — that’ll appear for each app as well as associated sounds and the like in your settings. Everything can be tweaked on a per-app basis. And if things get too overwhelming, there’s a little toggle that’ll silence all pop-up notifications until the next day.
- Safety first
- Mountain Lion has a security feature called Gatekeeper intended to keep your computer safe from the dangers of the wild wild Web. Gatekeeper basically prevents you from inadvertently installing malicious software. The security feature checks every app to see if it came from the Mac App Store or a developer who has been issued a unique Developer ID by Apple. This way there’s some assurance that the apps you’re installing are coming from a known entity with a decent track record.
- Sharing is caring
- Mountain Lion encourages sharing more than any prior version of Apple’s desktop operating system. There’s even a “Share” button built into most Mountain Lion apps, allowing you to easily share links, photos, videos, and more using Mail, Messages, AirDrop, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo or Flickr. (How an item can be shared depends on the file type and app, mind you.)
- Thanks to the way sharing is baked right into Mountain Lion, you’ll rarely ever have to leave an app in order to share an item. It’s one less step or distraction to deal with.
- Be more social
- Considering how much emphasis there is on sharing and communication within Mountain Lion, it should be no surprise that there is also built-in support for the two most predominant social networking services. The Facebook integration won’t be available until the fall — when it will arrive in the form of a software update — but you can already enjoy some great Twitter-related features in Mountain Lion.
- You only have to sign into the services once, within the “Mail, Contacts & Calendar”section of your settings, and you’ll be all set to go. You’ll be able to tweet or post to Facebook using the Share menu found in many Mountain Lion apps as well — and even from a special box at the top of the Notification Center.
- Your Facebook friends and Twitter contacts can be imported directly into your contacts as well, so you can always have up-to-date info on your pals. Birthdays listed on Facebook profiles can also be automatically added to your Calendar.
- You’ll also be able to get alerts or banner notifications for status updates from either social network.
- Mirror, mirror on the … TV?
- Thanks to AirPlay mirroring, you can wirelessly send whatever’s on your Mac to an HDTV, via the $99 Apple TV box. There’s support for 1080p video (if you have the latest Apple TV) and content will be scaled to best fit your TV, so everything should look as good as possible. Of course, everything’s encrypted, so you can feel secure when you beam things to your TV.
- Not all Macs support the AirPlay mirroring, but Apple says that the following models are compatible:
- iMac – mid-2011 revision or newer
- Mac Mini - mid-2011 revision or newer
- MacBook Air - mid 2011 revision or newer
- MacBook Pro – early 2011 revision or newer
- If you are unsure of your model’s age, call the Apple Store and ask them for help.
- Nap time
- Many of us leave our computers on, just snoozing through out the day. Power Nap is a feature which will help keep everything up to date when your computer is sleeping. It works silently — receiving email, syncing calendar invites, downloading software updates, keeping Find My Mac running, and more. Whenever you’re ready to wake your computer up, you’ll find that it’s perfectly synced to your iOS and other OS X devices.
- And don’t worry about Power Nap draining your battery. It’ll automatically shut itself off if your power level dips below 30 percent.
- Getting your computer ready for Mountain Lion
- Convinced that this is the update for you? Great! There are a few things you should do before rushing off and attempting to download Mountain Lion though:
- Check if your computer can handle Mountain Lion. You should be running OS X 10.6.8 or higher, have 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space. (You should be using recent Mac model. Check this list to see if yours is supported.)
- Update your third-party apps. Odds are that many of your favorite apps will get updates to make them compatible with Mountain Lion, so just go ahead and take care of those now.
- Backup your files. We can’t emphasize the importance of backing up your files enough. Plenty of things can go wrong on an ordinary day, but you’re just asking for trouble if you’re upgrading your operating system without a backup.
- Got all those little things checked off? Wonderful! Head over to the Mac App Store and grab Mountain Lion. Use it for a while and then come back here and tell us what you think about it. source – Gadget Box
25 Must-Have iPhone Tips And Tricks
Jul 16th
Turn iBooks into audio books: Like most smartphones, the iPhone has a number of accessibility options. One feature is called VoiceOver and it can read aloud any text on the screen. While designed primarily for the seeing impaired, anyone can take advantage of this feature if they want to turn an e-book into an audiobook. Now you can listen while commuting to and from work, while closing your eyes in bed or when jogging down the street. To activate it, go to Settings, then General, followed by Accessibility. Finally, swipe to change VoiceOver from Off to On. You’ll also be able to tweak settings, such as the speed of voice reading to you. She sounds like the voice of Siri, by the way.
Quick access a draft email: You probably know you can start an email and save it as a draft to finish or review at a later time — if not, when you’re typing an email, tap Cancel and then select Save Draft — but here’s a super quick way to access your message draft when you’re ready to continue working on it: Open up the Mail app, touch and hold the Compose button (the icon of the small pencil in the square) and after a second or two it’ll automatically take you to your last saved message draft. Neat, huh? Otherwise, you need to open Mail, select the email account, select Drafts and then find the message.
Send multiple photos at the same time: To send multiple photos to the same contact (say, in an email or iMessage), open the Photos app and then tap on an album, such as Camera Roll. Now tap the Select icon in the top right of your iPhone screen. Now you can tap to choose any photo you’d like to send to someone. Once you’ve selected the desired pics, tap Share in the bottom right of the screen and you’ll have three options: Email, Message or Print.
Tell Siri the entire email: iPhone 4S owners probably go through a lengthy back-and-forth with Siri just to compose an email. Most people say the person’s name and then, when prompted, the subject line, and finally, the body of the email. But did you know you can do it all in one fell swoop? For example, hold down the home button and say “Remind my wife about the party and say don’t forget to pick up a bottle of red wine tonight.” Siri will know who your spouse is (or will ask you once) and place that in the To: field, and because you said “about” the party, Siri knows you want that in the Subject (Re:) field. You also said “and say,” which places words you said after that into the body of the email. This will all save you time.
Close open apps to save battery life: Make sure apps you’re no longer using are not open and draining the battery. Do this by double-tapping the Home button and you’ll see all the recently used apps running in the background along the bottom of your phone — such as a GPS app you no longer need because you’ve reached your destination. Press and hold an icon and they’ll all jiggle, which means you can tap the X to close the open apps at the bottom of your iPhone.
Tweet from any app: If you scour comments and message boards on the web you’ll find iPhone users who complain the integrated Twitter support isn’t working for them. Chances are it’s because they didn’t know they had to sign in first — but it’s only required once. Go to Settings on your iPhone, select Twitter (look for the little white bird on a blue background) and enter your Twitter handle (or email) and password. Now, you can tweet directly from apps like Safari, Photos, Camera, Maps and YouTube. Also remember that you can start typing a friend’s Twitter handle and the iPhone will autocomplete the rest.
Undo the Bluetooth “ignore” command: If you’ve ever paired Bluetooth products with your iPhone then you’re likely aware you can also choose to “Ignore This Device.” There are different reasons why you’d want to do this, but sometimes you tap this option accidentally or you might change your mind after the fact. Now you won’t see the wireless gadget you want to pair with. What to do? To have it show up on the list again, simply turn off your iPhone by pressing and holding the power button (on top of the phone) for a few seconds and then swipe to shut down. When you boot back up again you’ll see the Bluetooth device you previously ignored.
Siri can handle Facebook, Twitter: The iO6 update will add native Facebook and Twitter support this fall, but until then, you can still use your voice to tweet or update your status. It involves setting up these popular social networking services to work with text messaging. For Facebook, text the word “hello” to 32665 (which spells FBOOK on a traditional keypad). You’ll get an automated reply on your phone with a link to click to finish the setup. Finally, add the short code to your address book and rename it “Facebook.” Now you can tell Siri “Text Facebook,” followed by your status update. It’s the same process for Twitter, as you’ll want to enable mobile updates by sending a short code to Twitter. Then you’ll add the short code to your Contacts, name it “Twitter” and then instruct Siri to send a message there. To get going, text the word “start” to 40404 (U.S.) or 21212 (Canada).
Lock the screen orientation: Does it drive you nuts to have the iPhone screen flip around when you rotate the phone? You can prevent this from happening if you have no desire to swap between portrait and landscape view. Simply choose the orientation you prefer by tilting the device and then double-click the Home button. This will bring up the multitasking interface at the bottom of the iPhone. Now swipe from left to right and you’ll see a “portrait orientation lock” icon at the very left of this string of apps (it has a circular arrow on the icon). Tap it once to lock your orientation and you’ll see a padlock appear. Turn it off by tapping it again.
Add PDFs to iBooks: You don’t need to spend money on apps that let you read Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Instead, if you get a PDF as an attachment in an email, or see one on a website in Safari (or another iPhone browser), simply press and hold the PDF icon or link and you’ll see an option appear called “Open in iBooks.” Select this and you’ll be able to read the PDF in the iBooks app. In fact, all your PDFs will now be stored here. Simply tap the word Books in the iBooks app (top, center of screen) and now select PDFs to see them all on the virtual bookshelf. You can delete them from this screen, too, if desired.
Master the keyboard: In the first 25 Awesome iPhone Tricks post we cover how to add your own shortcuts and quickly accept or refuse autocorrect suggestions. But here’s a few other keyboard related tips: tap the space bar twice and the iPhone will add a period and capitalize the next word; quickly capitalize a word by pressing on the Shift (arrow) button and dragging your finger to the first letter of the word; to enter a number or symbol quickly, touch and hold, then select the key you want (lifting your finger returns you to the alphabet keyboard); and touch and hold a letter to reveal a list of special characters, such as à, á, â, ä, æ, ã and å, when you press and hold on “a.” Hey, now you can type “Mötley Crüe” properly.
Siri is a verbal calculator, too: You might know Siri on iPhone 4S can give you facts and definitions on-demand but “she” can also solve math problems for you, too (this is where students, off for the summer say “so NOW you tell me”). Just give Siri a verbal task, be it addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, equations or fractions — and you’ll see (not hear) the answer on the screen. Better yet, this is very handy when figuring out tip at a restaurant. For example, say you’re out with three friends and the bill comes to $300. You can ask Siri something like “What’s a 20 percent tip on $300, for four people?” and Siri will tell you everyone owes $15.
Swipe to delete messages: This one is pretty simple, but you’d be surprised how many people do it the longer way: to delete an unwanted email, text message or voicemail without opening them, just swipe across the message from right to left when you see it in list view and tap the red Delete button. Instead, many iPhone users waste time by opening up each and every message and tapping the small trash can at the bottom of the screen. On a related note, you can delete unwanted emails in bulk rather than deleting one at a time: In your Inbox, simply click the Edit button and check off the emails you want to delete with your finger and then choose Delete.
Tap to focus the camera: Those who regularly use the iPhone as a camera might know this simple trick: When you’re snapping photos or shooting video on your iPhone — and seeing the subject on your screen as you line up the shot — tap the screen where you want to iPhone to focus and it’ll adjust the exposure and white balance automatically for that area. For example, you might want your friend’s face in perfect focus or might opt for a more artsy shot of the sushi they’re holding in their chopsticks by focusing the camera on the food. You get the idea.
Manage your camera time: Here’s another tip when using the camera. Unless you’re running out of room, never delete unwanted photos from your iPhone when you’re out. Why? You really don’t know what the photo looks like until you see it much bigger on a computer monitor (it may be better than you think and/or fixable with software). Plus, spending time deleting photos on your smartphone right after you took them means you might miss an awesome shot because you’re not paying attention. And finally, deleting photos and videos off your iPhone unnecessarily drains the battery.
Add folders to the dock: Since iOS 4, you’ve been able to create a folder to store many similar apps on your home screen — this helps you better group your programs and find them easier. (Just press and hold an app until they squiggle, then drag and drop it onto another app). But did you know you could also create folders and add them to your dock at the bottom of the iPhone? Once you’ve got your folders created — and you can create or edit the name for the folder by pressing and holding the icon — simply drag it to the bottom of the iPhone screen for easy access. You can only have four icons at a time, so you might gave to move one there to your homescreen to make room.
Hold your iPhone like a camera: If you don`t like take a photo on your iPhone by pressing the virtual shutter button on the screen — after all, it’s not the most comfortable and could cause the iPhone to shake when you snap the picture — then remember you can now take a photo by pressing the volume button on the side of your iPhone, which will be on top — in the same place as a shutter button on a regular camera!
Preview that picture: On a related note, if you want to preview the photo you just took, just drag your finger from left to right in the Camera app for a preview. Most people will tap the icon in the lower-left of the screen and open up the photos manually. If you haven’t taken any photos or videos lately, swipe from left to right in the Camera app will start to show your Camera Roll, from newest to oldest, as you continue to swipe along.
Easily control your music: When you’re listening to music on your iPhone and using the earbuds that shipped with them, you might be aware you can press once on the small controller in the middle of the headphone cord to pause the music, and press again to play. But did you know you could quickly double tap to skip to the next song and triple-tap to listen to the previous song? Also, iPhone 4S users can use Siri to play music, such as saying “Play Jay Z” or “Play other music like this” or “Play playlist workout mix.”
Quickly add a calendar entry: You might’ve noticed when reading an email in the Mail app it’ll automatically underline anything related to date and time. For example, you’re typing to your buddy something like “Don’t forget we’re hooking up for drinks on Friday afternoon.” iPhone will detect this is a date or time and will convert it to a link — your friend will see “on Friday afternoon” underlined and in blue — and they could tap the link to add the event to their calendar.
Sync it all: Computer? What computer? You need not connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac every again if you activate the iCloud service. Automatically back-up your iPhone information to iCloud by going to Settings, iCloud and finally Storage and Back-Up. Also, be sure to select what gets synched over Wi-Fi (or if you prefer, 3G, too, though be aware of data costs). You can choose to sync Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, Notes, Photos and more. You get 5GB of free storage through iCloud, but can pay for more if you like. Also, while here, activate “Find My iPhone” so you can track your phone if missing or stolen (see here).
Enable restrictions: Whether it’s on your iPhone or your child’s iPod touch or iPad, you can block inappropriate content from your kids (such as music with explicit lyrics), prevent them from buying apps (or in-app purchases) and block YouTube, Safari, FaceTime and more. To enable restrictions — and then customize what they’re able to access — go to Settings, General, Restrictions and tap “Enable Restrictions.” You will first be promoted to select a 4-digit passcode before choosing which content and apps can be accessed.
Delete your memory-hogging apps: Beginning with the iOS 5 update, you can see how much space your apps are taking up on your iPhone and delete them from your device — even a bunch at once. To do this, tap Settings, followed by General and finally, Usage. From here you’ll see a list of all your apps and their file size. If you see that Max Payne game is 1.3 Gigabytes and you don’t play it anymore, tap to delete it. You can always reinstall it later of via iCloud, App Store or your computer.
Save battery by turning off “pushed” data: Another way to prolong battery performance is to off push notifications in email, instant messaging and other applications that constantly ping a server to push real-time notifications to your smartphone. That is, if you don’t need to know this kind of information right away. In Settings, select the option that says Mail, Contacts and Calendars, tap “Fetch New Data” and change it from Push to Every 30 Minutes, Hourly or Manually.
Turn on the “Emoji” (emotions) keyboard: Ever notice how some of your friends have cute little emoticons in their emails or text messages. You know, like a little yellow face with hearts for eyes, teddy bears, Christmas trees, and so on? By default, your iPhone doesn’t give you access to these emotions and other graphics — but it is stored on your phone and ready when you are. To enable the Emoji keyboard, go to Settings, then General and finally Keyboard. Once inside, tap International Keyboards and “add” new keyboard. Select “Emoji.” Now, when typing an email or text, tap the globe key near the space bar for these new options. Tap it again to return back to English. source – Yahoo
Facebook Now Reporting Your Chats To The Police
Jul 13th
Facebook and other social platforms are watching users’ chats for criminal activity and notifying police if any suspicious behavior is detected, according to a report.
The screening process begins with scanning software that monitors chats for words or phrases that signal something might be amiss, such as an exchange of personal information or vulgar language.
The software pays more attention to chats between users who don’t already have a well-established connection on the site and whose profile data indicate something may be wrong, such as a wide age gap. The scanning program is also “smart” — it’s taught to keep an eye out for certain phrases found in the previously obtained chat records from criminals including sexual predators.
If the scanning software flags a suspicious chat exchange, it notifies Facebook security employees, who can then determine if police should be notified.
Keeping most of the scanned chats out of the eyes of Facebook employees may help Facebook deflect criticism from privacy advocates, but whether the scanned chats are deleted or stored permanently is yet unknown.
The new details about Facebook’s monitoring system came from an interview which the company’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan gave to Reuters. At least one alleged child predator has been brought to trial directly as a result of Facebook’s chat scanning, according to Reuters’ report.
When asked for a comment, Facebook only repeated the remarks given by Sullivan to Reuters: “We’ve never wanted to set up an environment where we have employees looking at private communications, so it’s really important that we use technology that has a very low false-positive rate.”
Facebook works with law enforcement “where appropriate and to the extent required by law to ensure the safety of the people who use Facebook,” according to a page on its site.
“We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards.
“We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.”
Indeed, Facebook has cooperated with police investigations in the past. In April, it complied with a police subpoena from the Boston Police Department by sending printouts of wall posts, photos and login/IP data of a murder suspect.
Is Facebook doing a public service by monitoring chats for criminal behavior? Share your thoughts in the comments. source – Mashable
Update Your Antivirus Protection Before Monday July 9 2012
Jul 6th
The Internet Doomsday virus
(Reuters) – About a quarter-million computer users around the world are at risk of losing Internet access on Monday because of malicious software at the heart of a hacking scam that U.S. authorities shut down last November.
Some blogs and news reports hyped the risk of an outage, warning of a potential “blackout” and describing the Alureon malware as the “Internet Doomsday” virus.
Yet experts said only a tiny fraction of computer users were at risk, and Internet providers would be on call to quickly restore service. They said they considered the threat to be small compared with more-prevalent viruses such as Zeus and SpyEye, which infect millions of PCs and are used to commit financial fraud.
As of this week, about 245,000 computers worldwide were still infected by Alureon and its brethren, according to security firm Deteque. That included 45,355 computers in the United States.
The viruses were designed to redirect Internet traffic through rogue DNS servers controlled by criminals, according to the FBI. DNS servers are computer switchboards that direct Web traffic.
When authorities took down the rogue servers, a federal judge in New York ordered that temporary servers be kept in place while the victims’ machines were repaired. The temporary servers will shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on Monday, which means the infected PCs that have not been fixed will no longer be able to connect to the Internet.
Some U.S. Internet providers, including AT&T Inc and Time Warner Cable, have made temporary arrangements so that their customers will be able to access the Internet using the address of the rogue DNS servers.
Information on how to identify and clean up infections can be found on a website that a group of security firms and other experts set up: www.dcwg.org.
“It’s a very easy one to fix,” said Gunter Ollmann, vice president of research for security company Damballa. “There are plenty of tools available.”
Many of the machines that remain infected are probably not in active use since most victims were notified of the problem, said security expert Johannes Ullrich, who runs the Internet Storm Center, which monitors Web threats.
The United States has charged seven people for orchestrating the worldwide Internet fraud. Six were arrested in Estonia, while the seventh, who was living in Russia, is still at large. Tallinn has so far extradited two of the men to New York where they appeared in Manhattan federal court.
The case is USA v. Tsastsin et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-cr-878. source – Reuters









