Apple

Google releases open-source Mac updater software

Google has released an open-source software project called Update Engine that programmers can use to keep their Mac OS X software up to date.

"Update Engine can update all the usual suspects, like Cocoa apps, preference panes, and screensavers. But it can also update oddballs like arbitrary files, and even things that require root--like kernel extensions. On top of that, it can update multiple products as easily as it can update one," Greg Miller, a programmer on the update engine team, said in a blog posting Monday.

The Update Engine project is hosted at Google's open-source site. … Read more

IBM releasing iNotes for iPhone

IBM has released a way to get Lotus Notes e-mail on your iPhone that stops short of full support, but gets the job done.

IBM's iNotes Ultralite (no trademark fight necessary) will be formally released Tuesday for Notes administrators and iPhone users. The software is a Web application that allows you to access Notes mail through the Safari mobile browser on the iPhone. Administrators need to install IBM Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0.2 in order to make the whole thing work.

One of the more popular additions to the iPhone 3G was the support for Microsoft's Exchange technology, … Read more

Apple tweaks App Store listings

Apple made a few changes to the App Store over the weekend that should cheer up developers, even if the underlying issues remain unaddressed.

Reviews for App Store applications must now be filled out by someone who has actually purchased the application in question, making it more difficult for developers to pump up their own application with favorable reviews as well as for rival developers to "Astroturf" a competitor's application with fake reviews. Applications will also now be listed according to their original release date; before this weekend, an update to an application reset the release date … Read more

Apple shares drop 17.5 percent

Apple's shares fell 17.5 percent in early trading Monday, as two noted brokerage firms scaled back their recommendations to a "hold" from a "buy."

Apple fell as low as $105.77 a share in intraday trading, down substantially from its close of $128.24 on Friday. Apple's shares sold off sharply after Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock.

Morgan Stanley not only revised its recommendation for the stock, but also lowered its fiscal 2009 earnings estimate to $5.47 a share from $5.91 a share.

In listing its reasons … Read more

iTunes to be more accessible to the blind

Apple will be making iTunes more accessible to blind consumers, under an agreement reached with the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the National Federation of the Blind.

Under the agreement, Apple will make iTunes U--a portion of the iTunes Store dedicated to educational content provided by colleges and universities--fully accessible to the blind by December 31, 2008. It will then work to provide full accessibility of the iTunes application and the remainder of the iTunes Store by June 30, 2009.

The blind and visually impaired will get fuller accessibility to the Apple application and Web site for downloading and … Read more

Report: Apple TV could get update Tuesday

With September's retooling of the iPod Nano out of the way, the blogosphere's attention is turning to the possibility of an Apple TV announcement in the coming days.

Christina Warren of The Unofficial Apple Weblog wrote Saturday that TUAW.com had received an e-mail from an unnamed Apple reseller. The message: The reseller had been instructed by Apple

to remove all Apple TV displays and literature and to destroy them (which I assume means throw away the literature, send back the Apple TVs) by September 30, 2008 at 5 PM. Additionally, the e-mail says that there will be … Read more

Apple selling unlocked iPhone 3G in Hong Kong

Apple has made an unlocked version of the iPhone 3G available in Hong Kong, letting consumers pick whichever carrier they so choose.

This is in sharp contrast to Apple's policy for almost everywhere else on the planet. Illegally unlocked iPhones are rampant worldwide, but that obviously isn't something that Apple has sanctioned.

Freedom doesn't come cheap. The 8GB version is available for about $695 (5,400 Hong Kong dollars), while the 16GB iPhone costs about $798 (6,200 HK dollars), according to Apple's site.

The "iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be … Read more

iPhone battery lawsuit dismissed

Apple won't have to deal with a lawsuit filed over the iPhone battery.

Bloomberg reports that a judge in Chicago has dismissed Jose Trujillo's lawsuit against Apple claiming the company deceived him regarding the user replaceable status of the iPhone battery. The judge simply read the packaging on the iPhone, which described the battery has having "limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by Apple service provider," and ruled that was sufficient warning prior to purchase that the battery had to be replaced by Apple or a third party.

Trujillo's lawsuit never … Read more

uTorrent for Mac leaked

A pre-release alpha version of a Mac version of uTorrent, the popular BitTorrent client for Windows, has been leaked to the public.

Available from the Swedish torrent Web site The Pirate Bay, the Cocoa-based client has been expected since 2006 when BitTorrent bought uTorrent and promised to develop a Mac version. There was little said since then, until this past August when uTorrent developer Greg Hazel announced that a Mac version would be ready ''in a few weeks,'' according to the torrent news Web site TorrentFreak.

Simon Morris, BitTorrent's vice president of product evelopment, responded to the leak by … Read more