Apple

This morning at New York City's Guggenheim Museum, Apple announced the launch of its iBooks 2 for iPad system. The technology is intended to replace traditional paper school textbooks with interactive digital textbooks, that students would access on their own personal iPads. Educational publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will supply content on the iBookstore, with most titles priced at no more than US$14.99. Mac users will also be able to create their own digital textbooks, using the authoring tool, iBooks Author. Read More

We have to admit to being rather thrilled at discovering the Mikey for Flip and the Yeti Pro USB microphones from Blue at last year's CES, and were hoping for something just as good this year. We were not disappointed. The company has just debuted the Apple-centric Mikey Digital, the studio-grade Spark Digital and the cute as a button (but not actually sporting any) Tiki in Las Vegas this week. Read More

The PC and Mac advocates have been debating for years over which is superior, with good arguments on both sides; but a third, often overlooked camp exists: people who use both. If you're in that group, then you know how frustrating it can be to have the perks of both machines, but the downside of few easy options for sharing files or peripherals between the two. That's why tech manufacturer j5create has rolled out the Wormhole Switch and the Wormhole Station, which allow file transfers between PC, Mac, Android, and iOS, as well as keyboard and mouse sharing. Read More

Apple has effectively blacklisted respected security researcher Charlie Miller after he discovered and reported a potential vulnerability with iOS apps. Exploiting the flaw (subsequently patched by Apple), Miller created an app that made it possible to steal data from, and take control of, other iOS devices. Further, Miller managed to get the app through Apple's approval process. Read More

Two recent patent applications by Apple indicate the company is looking at developing a hydrogen fuel cell system to complement the rechargeable batteries in a “portable computing device” – which could refer to Apple’s range of mobile iDevices, its MacBook range of notebooks – or both. The applications say the technology could potentially power portable electronic devices for “days or even weeks,” which would be sure to silence critics and users who have long complained about the poor battery life of not just Apple’s, but all mobile computing devices. Read More

Last Friday, a German court found Apple in violation of a Motorola Mobility patent, ruling that Apple’s iPhone and 3G model iPads infringe on cellular communications patents owned by Motorola Mobility that relate to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) data packet transfer technology. Although the court in Manheim, Germany granted Motorola’s requests for damages and an injunction banning the importation of iPhones and 3G iPads into Germany, because the ruling relates to the importation of new device shipments, Apple has said it already has sufficient existing inventory to ensure German shoppers will be able to purchase said devices in the all-important lead up to Christmas. Read More

Developer Brandon Fiquett has hacked Siri on the iPhone 4S to work along with his Viper SmartStart module in order to not only start his car, but also to arm and disarm the car's alarm, lock and unlock doors, and even pop the vehicle's trunk. Read More

For those of us who want a little more oomph out of our computers’ sound systems, USB-powered speakers certainly offer a simple solution, although they tend to be less powerful than speakers that incorporate the more traditional 3.5mm jack. Well, today XtremeMac unveiled its Tango Bar – a 10-watt USB sound bar for Macs or PCs, that reportedly delivers twice the output of most of its competitors. Read More

With around two trillion text messages sent in America alone every year, SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application in the world and the number two use of mobile phones - the first being to check the time. It's also a cash cow for telecommunications companies with the average charge worldwide of around US$0.10 per message for data that essentially costs the telco nothing to transmit because it is sent on the control channel - a small part of radio bandwidth that is used to send information between the tower and phone about call setups. Apple's iOS 5 update - if you can get it installed - sees the addition of a new iMessage app that could have telcos nervous as it allows text messages to be sent for next to nothing. Read More