Apple Extends Complimentary iCloud Storage for Former MobileMe Members
Posted 6 hours ago
Apple has extended its complimentary iCloud storage for former MobileMe members until September 30th, 2013, according to an email sent out today.
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When you moved your MobileMe account to iCloud, we provided you with a complimentary storage upgrade beyond the standard 5GB that comes with an iCloud account to help you with the transition. Originally, this storage upgrade was set to expire on September 30, 2012.
As a thank you to our former MobileMe members, we will continue to provide you with this complimentary storage upgrade at no charge, for an additional year, until September 30, 2013. No action is required on your part. For complete details, please read this article.
Thank you again for using iCloud,
Friday, October 5, 2012
StockTouch for iOS
StockTouch For iPhone, iPad Is The Perfect Replacement Of The Native Stocks App On iOS
By Ben Reid | October 6th, 2012
If you’ve ever been interested in the stock market, but have found many of the readings and jargon difficult to grasp, then you’re certainly not alone, and as well as offering up-to-date information around the clock, StockTouch for iOS aids to break things down for those feeling somewhat intimidated by your traditional stock apps.
Indeed, Apple provides its own fairly basic offering in iOS powered by Yahoo!, but unless you’ve any idea what the NASDAQ and DOW Jones mean or represent, then it’s not much use to you.
While not everybody likes to stick their faces into economics books or watch the political channels religiously, it is of importance to many to keep up with what’s going on in the world of business, and in the "there’s an app for that" culture we currently find ourselves in, StockTouch is one of the best ways you could introduce yourself to the stock market.
Its "tiles of heat" interface is distinctive and unique, and uses visualizations to help one intake info which would otherwise be simply digits and trend graphs. The whole structure of financial markets is created in a way which often bamboozles the Average Joe, but StockTouch breaks won these barriers, and makes things a great deal easier to understand. Check out some of the screenshots below:
It’s fully interactive nature allows you to touch any area of the screen to zoom in, check prices, and look at further information, and in general, everything loads and runs in an altogether seamless manner.
You can pick from any company floated on the stock market, and there are plenty of news stories accessible which detail each and every key change as it happens. Data is updated at five minute intervals during trading, and the app has been adapted to the very newest technologies available on iOS – LTE and the larger display of the iPhone 5.
Apple has already voted it as the best finance iPad app of 2011, and for just $1.99, is everything you’ll need and more in your quest to learn and keep in tune with the ups and downs of the financial bubble.
(Source: StockTouch for iOS on App Store)
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Better software programming yields improves battery charging performance.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have devised new algorithms that can cut lithium-ion battery charge times in half, help cells run more efficiently and potentially cut production costs by 25 percent. Rather than tracking battery behavior and health with the traditional technique of monitoring current and voltage, the team's mathematical models estimate where lithium ions are within cells for more precise data. With the added insight, the team can more accurately gauge battery longevity and control charging efficiency.
The group was awarded $460,000 from the Department of Energy's ARPA-E research arm to further develop the algorithm and accompanying tech with automotive firm Bosch and battery manufacturer Cobasys, which both received the remainder of a $9.6 million grant. Wondering if the solution will ever find its way out of the lab? According to co-lead researcher Scott Moura, it'll see practical use: "This technology is going into products that people will actually use."
The group was awarded $460,000 from the Department of Energy's ARPA-E research arm to further develop the algorithm and accompanying tech with automotive firm Bosch and battery manufacturer Cobasys, which both received the remainder of a $9.6 million grant. Wondering if the solution will ever find its way out of the lab? According to co-lead researcher Scott Moura, it'll see practical use: "This technology is going into products that people will actually use."
New update for Pinterest on Android.
Pinterest updates Android app to show bigger images, repins
October 5, 2012 - Josh Ong
Pinterest on Friday published to Google Play an update to its Android app that makes tall images bigger and shows where pins have been repinned. The software update also makes it easier for users to pin from external websites and includes an unspecified number of fixes based on feedback.
The release comes a couple weeks after Pinterest updated its iOS app to include iPhone 5 support and support for pinning from the camera or Photo library on the iPad. Both the iPad and Android apps made their debut in August alongside version 2.0 of the iPhone application. Also in August, the service switched from its invite-only status and opened up to the public.
Even as it is growing rapidly, Pinterest appears to be facing security issues as well. A number of users have complained of having their accounts hacked and hijacked. My own hardly-used account was taken over earlier this week, though Pinterest quickly noticed the unusual activity and locked it down.
➤Pinterest for Android
Header image credit: Stevendepolo
October 5, 2012 - Josh Ong
Pinterest on Friday published to Google Play an update to its Android app that makes tall images bigger and shows where pins have been repinned. The software update also makes it easier for users to pin from external websites and includes an unspecified number of fixes based on feedback.
The release comes a couple weeks after Pinterest updated its iOS app to include iPhone 5 support and support for pinning from the camera or Photo library on the iPad. Both the iPad and Android apps made their debut in August alongside version 2.0 of the iPhone application. Also in August, the service switched from its invite-only status and opened up to the public.
Even as it is growing rapidly, Pinterest appears to be facing security issues as well. A number of users have complained of having their accounts hacked and hijacked. My own hardly-used account was taken over earlier this week, though Pinterest quickly noticed the unusual activity and locked it down.
➤Pinterest for Android
Header image credit: Stevendepolo
Starbucks Canada to include Passbook for iOS 6.
Starbucks Canada App Updated for iOS 6, But No Passbook Integration [Update]
Published on October 3rd, 2012
Written by: Gary Ng
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Starbucks tweeted they would implement Passbook integration by the end of September but they missed their deadline. Today’s Starbucks Canada iPhone app was updated for iOS 6 support, but lacked Passbook integration which was part of the US app’s update.
Considering the Starbucks Canada app was crippled when it was first released without a payment solution (it didn’t arrive till last November), I’m not surprised Canadians are once again waiting to try out the latest Passbook integration. Also missing is iPhone 5 screen support.
What’s New in Version 2.4
• Now easier to sign up and start earning Rewards with our new account creation flow
• iOS6 support
• Accessibility, data optimization, and performance improvements
• Multiple bug fixes
As for our American neighbours, here is the description for their Starbucks update:
What’s New in Version 2.4
• Passbook support
• iOS6 support
• Now easier to sign up and start earning Rewards with our new account creation flow
• Accessibility, data optimization, and performance improvements
• Multiple bug fixes
Canada is shut out from Passbook for now it seems, but probably not for long. Those with a US iTunes Account could download the US version and it would probably work here. Download Starbucks Canada here.
Don’t forget to check out how Passbook works in Canada with Cineplex Mobile and Porter Airlines.
Update: @StarbucksCanada has responded to us and tells us it’s coming but they don’t know the exact date yet:
✔
@StarbucksCanada
@oumax99 @iPhoneinCanada It's coming, but we don't have the exact date.
Update 2: Here’s our workaround to get Passbook in Canada to the Starbucks app.
Published on October 3rd, 2012
Written by: Gary Ng
Next
Skip to Responses
Prev
Starbucks tweeted they would implement Passbook integration by the end of September but they missed their deadline. Today’s Starbucks Canada iPhone app was updated for iOS 6 support, but lacked Passbook integration which was part of the US app’s update.
Considering the Starbucks Canada app was crippled when it was first released without a payment solution (it didn’t arrive till last November), I’m not surprised Canadians are once again waiting to try out the latest Passbook integration. Also missing is iPhone 5 screen support.
What’s New in Version 2.4
• Now easier to sign up and start earning Rewards with our new account creation flow
• iOS6 support
• Accessibility, data optimization, and performance improvements
• Multiple bug fixes
As for our American neighbours, here is the description for their Starbucks update:
What’s New in Version 2.4
• Passbook support
• iOS6 support
• Now easier to sign up and start earning Rewards with our new account creation flow
• Accessibility, data optimization, and performance improvements
• Multiple bug fixes
Canada is shut out from Passbook for now it seems, but probably not for long. Those with a US iTunes Account could download the US version and it would probably work here. Download Starbucks Canada here.
Don’t forget to check out how Passbook works in Canada with Cineplex Mobile and Porter Airlines.
Update: @StarbucksCanada has responded to us and tells us it’s coming but they don’t know the exact date yet:
✔
@StarbucksCanada
@oumax99 @iPhoneinCanada It's coming, but we don't have the exact date.
Update 2: Here’s our workaround to get Passbook in Canada to the Starbucks app.
Is luxury about to make a major shift?
China's luxury shoppers are shifting away from flashy labels toward more subtle designs, according to an HSBC report.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- At first blush, it looks like luxury has a China problem.
After a blockbuster 2011, major upscale brands Burberry and Louis Vuitton recently shook up this rarefied world by reporting a slowdown in their China sales.
But the China luxury story is murkier than it appears. That's because sales remained strong at key fashion rivals Prada (PRDSY) and Hermes (HESAF), both of which expect the momentum to continue for the rest of the year.
Retail experts say a shift in the Chinese shopper might be behind these mixed signals.
Chinese consumers are becoming "more sophisticated" in their tastes, and that can hurt overtly luxurious brands, according to a report by HSBC's head of consumer brands, Erwan Rambourg.
"A few years ago, it was common for Chinese men to leave the label sewn to the sleeve of their suits so that people knew what brands they were wearing," Rambourg wrote. Now, he says, these same buyers are moving into more subtle, albeit high quality, designs.
Paris-based luxury brand conglomerate PPR is a good example of this split. Its in-house brand Bottega Veneta sells leather goods without overt logos. Bottega sales soared 62% in the first half of this year.
PPR's other brand Gucci, with its prominent "G" label, had a strong 17% increase in sales, but it paled in comparison with its other in-house brand.
The trend hit other well-known brands particularly hard.
Burberry Group PLC (BBRYF), purveyor of the easily identifiable classic check trenchcoat, issued a profit warning in September. LVMH (LVMHF) Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods group and owner of the famed LV brand, reported its slowest quarterly growth since 2009 this summer.
Each company cited China as a reason for its weakness.
Analysts are already taking note of the shift in China. Rambourg cited these taste swings as a reason for upgrading the understated brands Prada and Hermes, and downgrading LVHM Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton last month.
Related: China's hottest companies
Chinese shoppers' habits are closely watched by luxury brands. That's because China accounts for a quarter of global luxury sales today, compared to 5% just five years ago, according to HSBC.
Luxury shoppers in China want to flaunt their wealth but in more subtle ways, according Patricia Pao, CEO of the Pao Principle, which consults with luxury brands in China. But she said there's more to the story.
Pao said China's one-child policy has also contributed to this shift, since it has led to a generation of "little emperors" among the rich who want to look unique.
The key for luxury brands is their ability to capitalize on these changes. Pao and other experts expect luxury spending to continue to be strong even as the country's economy continues to cool off.
"The luxury market is still moving very quickly," she said. "There's still a lot of money for people to spend, and they're going to be taking a more sophisticated approach. They don't want to just walk around with big LVs anymore."
FB in the news again.
Facebook confirms it is scanning your private messages for links to increase Like counters
October 4, 2012 - Emil Protalinski
Yesterday I spotted a video submitted to Hacker News by the Polish startup Killswitch.me that clearly showed sending a link in a Facebook private message increases the Like counter on the link’s originating third-party website. This would suggest Facebook is scanning your private messages for shared links to Web pages with Like buttons, so it can increase the number of corresponding Likes for those pages. Facebook confirmed this information with me today.
The original video included NSFW imagery and was promptly taken down by YouTube (for reference, it’s still up on Vimeo). In addition to the potential privacy problems of performing such scans, the short clip also showed a curious oddity: when Facebook detects a link to a “Likeable” page, it increases the counter by two Likes.
Facebook sent me the following statement about this issue today:
We did recently find a bug with our social plugins where at times the count for the Share or Like goes up by two, and we are working on fix to solve the issue now. To be clear, this only affects social plugins off of Facebook and is not related to Facebook Page likes. This bug does not impact the user experience with messages or what appears on their timelines.
I had to clarify something though. Was the bug in question the fact that the counter goes up by two, or the fact that the counter goes up in the first place, when links are shared privately? The Facebook spokesperson told me that it was indeed the fact that it went up by two. In other words, Facebook is indeed monitoring your private messages for links that have Like buttons and should be increased.
This is news to me. Yet this was clearly the case before as on the Like button Web page over on Facebook Developers, the social networking giant says the number shown on a Like button is the sum of:
The number of likes of this URL.
The number of shares of this URL (this includes copy/pasting a link back to Facebook).
The number of likes and comments on stories on Facebook about this URL.
The number of inbox messages containing this URL as an attachment.
I’ve known for a while that the Like button isn’t a counter of just Likes: it also includes Shares as well as comments on Liked and Shared items on the social network. Private messages, however, are something completely different, and they have privacy questions attached to them.
The most important one: if I use Facebook to privately share a link (especially if it’s to something controversial), and the company increases the Like counter, will the Like button on that site show my name to my Facebook friends who also visit that site? I don’t expect anything to show up on my Timeline, but maybe on the site itself, since Facebook already does this for things I actively hit the Like button for.
Thankfully, this isn’t the case. When I asked for clarification, Facebook sent along this statement:
Absolutely no private information has been exposed and Facebook is not automatically Liking any Facebook Pages on a user’s behalf.
Many websites that use Facebook’s ‘Like’, ‘Recommend’, or ‘Share’ buttons also carry a counter next to them. This counter reflects the number of times people have clicked those buttons and also the number of times people have shared that page’s link on Facebook. When the count is increased via shares over private messages, no user information is exchanged, and privacy settings of content are unaffected. Links shared through messages do not affect the Like count on Facebook Pages.
Well, there’s another privacy disaster avoided. Facebook seems to have to deal with this type of thing every week.
Image credit: ilker
October 4, 2012 - Emil Protalinski
Yesterday I spotted a video submitted to Hacker News by the Polish startup Killswitch.me that clearly showed sending a link in a Facebook private message increases the Like counter on the link’s originating third-party website. This would suggest Facebook is scanning your private messages for shared links to Web pages with Like buttons, so it can increase the number of corresponding Likes for those pages. Facebook confirmed this information with me today.
The original video included NSFW imagery and was promptly taken down by YouTube (for reference, it’s still up on Vimeo). In addition to the potential privacy problems of performing such scans, the short clip also showed a curious oddity: when Facebook detects a link to a “Likeable” page, it increases the counter by two Likes.
Facebook sent me the following statement about this issue today:
We did recently find a bug with our social plugins where at times the count for the Share or Like goes up by two, and we are working on fix to solve the issue now. To be clear, this only affects social plugins off of Facebook and is not related to Facebook Page likes. This bug does not impact the user experience with messages or what appears on their timelines.
I had to clarify something though. Was the bug in question the fact that the counter goes up by two, or the fact that the counter goes up in the first place, when links are shared privately? The Facebook spokesperson told me that it was indeed the fact that it went up by two. In other words, Facebook is indeed monitoring your private messages for links that have Like buttons and should be increased.
This is news to me. Yet this was clearly the case before as on the Like button Web page over on Facebook Developers, the social networking giant says the number shown on a Like button is the sum of:
The number of likes of this URL.
The number of shares of this URL (this includes copy/pasting a link back to Facebook).
The number of likes and comments on stories on Facebook about this URL.
The number of inbox messages containing this URL as an attachment.
I’ve known for a while that the Like button isn’t a counter of just Likes: it also includes Shares as well as comments on Liked and Shared items on the social network. Private messages, however, are something completely different, and they have privacy questions attached to them.
The most important one: if I use Facebook to privately share a link (especially if it’s to something controversial), and the company increases the Like counter, will the Like button on that site show my name to my Facebook friends who also visit that site? I don’t expect anything to show up on my Timeline, but maybe on the site itself, since Facebook already does this for things I actively hit the Like button for.
Thankfully, this isn’t the case. When I asked for clarification, Facebook sent along this statement:
Absolutely no private information has been exposed and Facebook is not automatically Liking any Facebook Pages on a user’s behalf.
Many websites that use Facebook’s ‘Like’, ‘Recommend’, or ‘Share’ buttons also carry a counter next to them. This counter reflects the number of times people have clicked those buttons and also the number of times people have shared that page’s link on Facebook. When the count is increased via shares over private messages, no user information is exchanged, and privacy settings of content are unaffected. Links shared through messages do not affect the Like count on Facebook Pages.
Well, there’s another privacy disaster avoided. Facebook seems to have to deal with this type of thing every week.
Image credit: ilker
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