Spotify Finally Unleashes Dedicated iPad App


The successful music streaming service Spotify has today launched a dedicated iPad app, available free on the iOS App Store now. The launch of the app means that Spotify users who pay for a Premium account, the highest level of package offered, can receive streamed music via a dedicated app on their iPad. The app is free for anyone who wants to download it from the App Store but you’ll have to have a premium account with Spotify if you want to use it – Free and Unlimited Spotify accounts don’t work with it.
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Apple Gives Mac Developers A Mountain Lion Update To Play With


Apple has seeded a major update to the current developer seed of the next version of the Mac operating system OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. The update, weighing in at around 1.5 GB, is distributed through the Mac App Store to registered members of the Mac Developer Program and applies only to the Developer Preview 3 of Mountain Lion. The company also released a new build of XCode 4.4 Developer Preview 4 through the Mac Developer Centre to allow devs to test apps for the update.
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Rumor: Mac Pro Shipping Times Lengthen In Europe Due To Processor Shortage



The shipping times for most of the variations of the Mac Pro have started to lengthen in Apple Stores across Europe, with many versions now taking 5-7 business days before they are shipped. The models of the Mac Pro to which the lengthened shipping times apply are those using the Quad Core Intel Xeon Nehalem and Westmere processors, whereas the model of the Mac Pro incorporating the 6 core Westmere processor still remains at the standard shipping time for the Mac Pro of 3-5 days. Online Stores where the shortages first appeared include countries like the UK, Italy and Spain.

The delays in the shipping times appear to be attributable to the processors that are used in the standard Mac Pro models as customization appears to shorten the shipping estimates in some cases, contrary to the normal lengthening of shipping times when requesting customized models. For example, changing out the single 2.8 GHz Nehalem for a 3.2 GHz Nehalem means that the shipping estimate drops from 5-7 days down to 3-5 days. Of note, however, the shipping times in the US Apple Store are all on target, listing the majority of the Mac Pro configurations as ‘In Stock’ meaning that the processor shortages are not as prevalent there.
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Apple Extols The Virtues Of Gatekeeper In Mountain Lion To Mac Developers


Apple has sent an email to registered members of their Mac Developer program, encouraging them to get their apps verified with a Developer ID certificate. The email is being sent in preparation for the launch of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in late summer, a part of which is a new feature called Gatekeeper. The new feature is simply a way of preventing users from downloading and installing malicious software, to make it easier for users to avoid malware and dodgy applications.

Apple is therefore encouraging Developers to sign their apps with a unique Developer ID that will give users some reassurance about the quality of the apps that they download. This is particularly relevant for apps that are not available on the Mac App Store which inherently offers security and, in theory, reliability for the apps that are available on it.
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Tweetbot Gets A Hefty Update


Hot on the heels of a ringing endorsement of the iOS twitter client Tweetbot last week, the excellent app has just received a major update. Tweetbot developers Tapbots have released version 2.3 of Tweetbot, bringing with it a whole new package of gestures and features which make the app even better than before. Of note, Tweetbot now offers Storify integration and Droplr support.

One of the major new changes to the app is the ability to swipe left or right when in the timeline view to access details about the tweet such as conversation view and replies. You can then re-access the timeline feed by swiping back in the opposite direction. This makes it a lot quicker, and easier, to view the details about the Tweet and will likely be a pretty popular addition. The Devs have also make it easier to differentiate video thumbnails from image thumbnails by the addition of a ‘play’ icon indicator on the video thumbnails.
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If You Haven’t Tried Tweetbot, Hit It Up Right Now…Seriously



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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Twitter Releases Update For iOS App (Updated)


Twitter has today released an update to their official iPhone and iPod touch iOS app which brings a number of new features, improvements and fixes to the client. The app has a new design, as well as better search functionality, including the extremely useful ‘Username autocomplete’ function when searching for a user. The software also has additional language support and push notifications for retweets, favorites and new followers. The changelog for the updated app is below: Continue reading

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Google Drive Versus Dropbox: A Question Of Trust?



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


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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Apple Posts Big Earnings For Q2 2012


Apple has revealed their earnings for the second quarter of 2012, with revenue of $39.2 billion and profit of $11.6 billion. The Q2 report, representing the first quarter of the 2012 calendar year, was revealed in a conference call with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.

While the numbers revealed by Apple are substantial, perhaps one of the most interesting comparisons is the increase in year on year earnings. In the same period last year, revenue for the company was $24.67 billion with Q2 profit of $5.99 billion, meaning that profits for this quarter were almost double that of a year ago.
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