Author Archives: AppleBitch

If You Haven’t Tried Tweetbot, Hit It Up Right Now…Seriously

Posted on April 27, 2012 by AppleBitch



Sometimes you are sitting there, tweeting away on your Mac or your iPhone or even your iPad, and you stop and take a pause for a minute. I was in the same situation yesterday after a minor Twitter app update which still didn’t give the ability to look at a timeline on one device, and then switch to a different device ten minutes later and pick up where I left off on the unread tweets. Such a small difference, but it’s one of the reasons I switched, yesterday, from Twitter to Tweetbot.

Don’t get me wrong. Twitter has produced two very good, clean Twitter clients for the iPhone and iPad but, if you are a Tweetbot user, you notice the difference between ‘very good’ and excellent. Because that’s what Tweetbot is…excellent. It excels in all the dominant areas that the Twitter apps excel, but Tweetbot hits up all the areas you didn’t even know you wanted hit on.
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Google Drive Versus Dropbox: A Question Of Trust?

Posted on April 26, 2012 by AppleBitch



Since the launch of Google Drive this week, many people have elected to compare the service that Google offers to that of Dropbox. This comparison can be made in the context of storage space, pricing, ease of use and functionality. Certainly the competitiveness between the two service is evident and, even upon launch, Google is clearly making a strong case for Apple users electing to use them as their primary cloud storage service (iCloud not withstanding). However, another issue has been particularly evident over discussion forums and opinion articles. The issue of trust.

I’ve seen, and heard, many people have expressed the opinion that they don’t want to Google to store their personal data. That they would rather trust Dropbox over Google. That they aren’t sure if they can trust Google. Much of this perception could simply be attributed to image. Dropbox does just one thing and it is does it with excellence. Google, on the other hand, does so many things that it’s easy to lose count. Some are fantastic, some not so much, but there is a lot of crossover between services. But where does the unease with Google holding personal data stem from?
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Apple Puts WWDC 2012 Tickets On Sale… And They’re Gone

Posted on April 25, 2012 by AppleBitch


Apple today announced that their annual WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) for 2012 will be in San Francisco from June 11 until June 15. The company also unveiled the tickets for the event and, perhaps to nobody’s great surprise, the tickets sold out within two hours. The conference itself takes place in a little over a month and a half at the Moscone Center and the tickets were available for $1599. In 2011 the tickets for WWDC were sold out in less than 12 hours after they went on sale.

The WWDC conference this year is expected to see some interesting developments for both developers of iOS apps and those who develop Mac OS X applications. With the next iteration of the Mac OS, 10.8 Mountain Lion already in its third developer seed, the company is expected to outline the release dates for Mountain Lion at WWDC. In addition, it is likely that they will be showcasing some key new features from the next iteration of iOS which will either be iOS 5.2 or, at a push, iOS 6.
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Rumor: iPhone 5 Home Buttons Appear for Sale

Posted on April 23, 2012 by AppleBitch


Home buttons that are apparently destined for the iPhone 5 have today appeared for sale on a Chinese supplier site. The buttons, colored either black or white, appeared on the site TVC-Mall.com of Shenzhen, China under the category of iPhone 5 replacement parts, a section of the site which, until recently, had been empty.

The biggest surprise, or perhaps disappointment, for some is that the Home buttons appear to be round in shape. If the parts turn out to be genuine, then this would essentially quash any suggestion that Apple was redesigning the iPhone 5 with an oval touch capacitive Home button.
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Spankingly Good App: Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) For iOS

Posted on April 19, 2012 by AppleBitch



I’ve been spending the past few days playing with the new Pocket app, the replacement for the Read It Later app which has proven to be so popular among iOS users. The new app, as with others, enable you to surf the web and ‘pocket’ articles, video and webpages for reading later. It has essentially the same functionality as the Pro (paid) version of its predecessor Read It Later and many of the best features from this app have been incorporated into the free Pocket app.

Rather than describe every single feature in excruciating detail, I’m gonna go right for the jugular (particularly since the app is free). The Pocket app is essentially in competition with Readability and Instapaper and the most obvious question you are probably asking yourself if you are a user of either of these services is ‘should I switch?’ . Well, to be honest, there’s no easy answer, it is truly a matter of preference. But here’s something that might help make your decision. Pocket is free, it’s beautiful, and it’s works brilliantly. I’ve moved Instapaper from the home screen on my iPad and iPhone to the second scroll screen on both devices and replaced it with Pocket, for the foreseeable future at least.
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Apple Offering Free Snow Leopard To Encourage iCloud Adoption

Posted on April 19, 2012 by AppleBitch


Apple has begun offering a free DVD of their Snow Leopard operating system to select users to encourage iCloud adoption (spotted by Macgasm). The company has recently contacted some users of MobileMe to offer them a free DVD version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in the event that they are still using older versions of the Mac operating system that aren’t compatible with iCloud. The offer also encourages users who take advantage of the Snow Leopard offer to upgrade to the latest version of OS X, 10.7 Lion for $29.99.

The installation of Snow Leopard on a Mac means that a user has access to the Mac App Store which is the sole method that Apple has been using to distribute the Lion operating system. With the free offer of Snow Leopard, MobileMe users who take advantage of the offer are saving $29 on the purchase of Snow Leopard but still have to pay $29.99 for Lion to take full advantage of all the features in iCloud.
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Opinion: Bluetooth Toggle App For iOS Devices Hits An Apple Miss

Posted on April 17, 2012 by AppleBitch



A new report from MacRumors points towards a new app that has just appeared on the iOS App Store that has some rather interesting Bluetooth functionality. The app, called ‘Bluetooth OnOff‘ appeared on the App Store last night and is priced at $0.99. As indicated by the name, the app enables users to turn Bluetooth on and off simply by launching the app which, as the report points out, is in violation of Apple’s iOS App Store guidelines.

The app, while simple, highlights an area where the Apple mobile operating system is lacking. It currently takes a user 4 steps to get to the point where they can toggle Bluetooth on and off and, as it’s going to drain power on the iOS device if left on, it would be a great advantage to quickly toggle it.
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Mum Love: Apple Releases An Update To Cards App For iOS

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AppleBitch



Apple has today released an update to their iOS app, Cards, in preparation for the upcoming Mothers Day holiday. The update, bringing the app to version 1.1, gives new themes for Mothers Day as well as several other new designs for Get Well cards and Birthday cards.

The Cards app is Apple’s own app for iOS devices and allows users to create personalized cards with their own text and images on an iPhone or iPod touch. With Mothers Day being celebrated in the US on Sunday May 13th, the update is a timely addition to the app, allowing users to send 4 by 6 inch cards both within, and outwith the US.
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Apple Releases Java Software Update With Fix For Flashback Malware

Posted on April 12, 2012 by AppleBitch


Apple has today released a software update with a new version of Java for OS X which includes a tool that automatically removes ‘the most common variants of the Flashback malware. The release of the tool follows on from the announcement by the company that they were working on software to remove the Flashback malware from Macs.

The update also has another trick up its sleeve in that it now prevents the Java web plug-in from automatically executing Java applets while browsing. However, if users wish to re-enable this, then they can do so by using the Java Preferences application. In addition, the Java web plug-in will now constantly monitor whether Java applets are run and if none are executed for a prolonged period of time then it will once again disable Java applets.
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New Apple Store Link Highlights Statutory Seller Warranty In EU

Posted on April 11, 2012 by AppleBitch


The Apple Store went down overnight and, disappointingly for some, came back with no big changes or new products. However, one change was that notable for many European Online Apple Stores, such as the UK Apple Store, was the addition of a small link at the bottom of the page which, in English speaking countries, is labelled ‘Statutory Seller Warranty’. The link takes customers to a page which details statutory warranty rights for consumers who buy Apple products in the European Union.

The statutory warranty in the EU, laid down by consumer law, gives consumers protection in addition to the coverage offered by Apple’s product warranties. One notable difference between the what Apple offers and what is stated in EU law relates to the time period that consumers have when they wish to make a claim against a product warranty. As detailed by the document on the Apple site, there is a 2 year warranty claim period under EU Consumer Law whereas Apple only offers a 1 year warranty from date of purchase for customers outwith the EU.
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