Feed: The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) - AggScore: 81.7

ABC News to air firsthand report on Foxconn factories next week

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Next Tuesday, February 21, the ABC News program Nightline will air an in-person report covering the conditions at Foxconn factories that manufacture Apple products. Per PCWorld's story, Apple arranged "exclusive access" for Nightline anchor Bill Weir to tour the factories, meet with workers and interview a "top executive."

Apple's new glasnost around its contract manufacturers has extended to the Fair Labor Association, which began its audits of Foxconn and other vendors this past week. While initial reports from the FLA audits cited above-average conditions at Foxconn and improvements in aluminum polishing operations, yesterday Bloomberg reported that the organization's CEO now believes there are "tons of issues" at Foxconn facilities.

ABC News to air firsthand report on Foxconn factories next week originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ripoff apps plague some iOS developers

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Update: Some of the Tamsong apps have already begun disappearing from the store.

Near-clone apps in the iOS App Store? It's not a new phenomenon, by any means; last week, developer Anton Sinelnikov had the bulk of his app library yanked from the store for plagiarism. In fact, high-profile app launches like RealMac Software's Clear can find themselves with unwanted "tribute" apps even before they arrive in the store.

For major developers like EA or Rovio, it usually doesn't take too long to rouse Apple's app cops to clear out the duplicates, but less well-connected devs may find themselves frustrated by copies that don't get the attention of the authorities.

Alan Scully of Breaking Art was surprised to discover this week that some of his apps (Flickr HD, Beer In Japan & more) had identical twins in the App Store, all from a single developer: Tamsong Co. In fact, he found out that all the Tamsong (or Tamsung) apps appear to be clones of other developers' work: devs like e-MedTools, Primolicious and others have doppelganger apps in the Tamsong library.

The first question that came to mind: are these apps actually cloned, or just very similar efforts? Second question, how is it possible to make such convincing app copies? And third, what is Apple going to do about punting this xerographic developer out of the store?

Answering question one: These are clones, no two ways about it. Check out the evidence for one example, Beer O'Clock from Breaking Art (thanks to Erica Sadun for digging into the app contents).

Pricing: Identical

Beer O'Clock! $0.99 from Breaking Art, Released: Feb 24, 2010

Beer O'Clock+ $0.99 from Tamsong, Released Feb 10, 2012

Interfaces: Identical

Breaking Art

Tamsung

Looking under the hood

The app .ipa files are actually different sizes. What about the components? We extracted them into separate folders and set to looking.

Inside each is an identical PhoneGap-powered www folder. PhoneGap is an HTML5-based framework for building mobile apps, which will suggest an answer for question two.

Both apps sport nearly identical index.html files:

The _CodeSignature files for each app seem to indicate that many of the files have identical values. Running md5 on background images demonstrates the remarkable similarity:

But how?

Under normal circumstances, doing a straight-up clone of an iOS app would be relatively difficult. The fact that these apps were built with PhoneGap, however, provides a theory about how this might have been done. The PhoneGap development environment may make apps especially vulnerable to cloning, because the web assets making up the UI are stored in the clear inside the app. Developers using this framework (and similar HTML5-based tools) may want to keep an eye out for clones.

In any case, it's clear that we have a rogue developer in the store, and the ball is now in Apple's court.

Ripoff apps plague some iOS developers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily iPad App: NPR Music is a treat for music fans

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Everyone knows about NPR's quality podcasts, or at least they should. All Things Considered, Car Talk and Whose Line is it Anyway routinely top the charts on iTunes. But I'm also a fan of NPR's music. They do a great series of podcasts called All Songs Considered, and they often release great live performances, available as free downloads in iTunes.

Now, NPR Music has released its own iPad app, and as you can see above, it's very snazzy. Most of the content in the app is simply what's available on the NPR Music website, but it's all been redesigned for a touch interface. And while you can play new music straight through the website, playing it in a browser isn't always as easy as through an iOS device. The iPad version also has a very excellent playlist and a live radio, so there are tons of great ways to listen to awesome new music, all completely free.

There's a lot of other stuff in here too -- articles, reviews and other videos. But honestly, the music is enough: the app offers a great, curated experience of hours and hours of great free content and tunes.

NPR's Music app is one of the best gifts I've gotten all year (paid for, of course, by our tax dollars). If you're a fan of new music, especially indie or alternative, definitely give it a download.

Daily iPad App: NPR Music is a treat for music fans originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy's Hironobu Sakaguchi teases three new iPhone games

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During promotion for an upcoming Wii title, The Last Story, Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi teased three new games pending for the iPhone. Sakaguchi only gave the scantest of details on the titles to GameCentral; he mentioned that the first title will be a "surfing game" rather than Sakaguchi's traditional RPG fare. He gave even fewer details on the other two games, saying only that they would be smaller titles as a "palate cleanser" following his work on The Last Story.

Sakaguchi started the Final Fantasy franchise in the 1980s, and he was part of Square Enix until leaving to form his own company in 2004. He told GameCentral that he's making these three games because he's a fan of Apple and its products, but he doesn't believe that smartphones and tablets will completely displace traditional console gaming anytime soon.

Along with Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, Hironobu Sakaguchi is a legend in the video game industry and has helmed many titles that have been outstanding examples of the creativity possible in the medium. We'll definitely be keeping a very close eye out for his debut on the iOS platform.

Final Fantasy's Hironobu Sakaguchi teases three new iPhone games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New York Times seems to fall from Apple's favor (Updated)

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The New York Times appears to be pouting a bit, according to the Washington Post, because the paper missed the big exclusives on the release of Mountain Lion this week. The Times has broken a fair share of Apple stories. Times columnist David Pogue is pretty well plugged in and appears to have had early access to the software, but the Times still got scooped on the story and in getting interviews.

This time, the scoops went to the Wall Street Journal with a Tim Cook exclusive interview; some prominent Apple sites (like John Gruber's Daring Fireball) rated private previews with Phil Schiller. All had access to a beta of Mountain Lion about a week before the announcement. The Times had to report on the coming OS release based on press releases, which was somewhat less than glorious for the Gray Lady.

The Times believes it was payback for the articles critical of some of Apple's suppliers, where workers are sometimes working long hours, with poor housing conditions and sometimes unsafe factory environments. The Times quoted ex-Apple employees saying Apple has known about the conditions for a long time and did nothing to pressure suppliers.

Tim Cook was reportedly incensed at the story and called it "false and offensive." So it looks like Apple was able to give the Times some 'payback' that it thought the Times had earned.

The NYT is not the only outlet that appeared to be ignored. Walt Mossberg didn't have a review based on early access. Nor did Apple have Andy Ihnatko looped in, it seems. He has a long piece in the Chicago Sun-Times today but it doesn't appear to be written as if he had the software to play with.

Update: We did reach out to Pogue, Mossberg and Ihnatko for comment before publication of this post, but we have not heard back yet.

Update 2: We did hear from David Pogue of the New York Times. His response: "Yes, the reports you've read are incorrect. As far as I know, all of the early Mountain Lion reviewers (Gruber, Mossberg, Pogue, etc.) were given the identical treatment: invitation to Apple's hotel suite, meeting with Phil Schiller, walk-through with Phil and the PR folks, loaner MacBook Air with an early version of the software on it." So is it a tempest in a teapot? Could be, and maybe parts of all the stories are correct. Apple didn't favor some of the usuals with interviews, but many of the columnists and writers got their advance dose of OS X.

Covering Apple is complicated. If you're a reporter (and we know this from experience) it is challenging to get a comment from Apple in a timely fashion. In fact, most of the time, they only return calls from a favored few. Those who are 'golden' with Apple tend to be downright enthusiastic about most Apple products. They are the reporters who get the advanced hardware and software, and get invited to the pre-release demos.

Most of us do our best to get the news out, and here at TUAW, even though we love Apple, we never hesitate to be critical or suggest that Apple might have blown it in some way. We are not on Apple's 'A' list.

Companies will always grant exclusives to people if they think it benefits the enterprise. That is all well and good. It's the way exclusives work. Apple, however, has a deeper problem. Under Steve Jobs the company made it very difficult for journalists to get even simple questions answered. That hurts Apple's customers. That may clear up under Tim Cook, who seems to be moving Apple forward in areas where Jobs was not interested in changing.

[via The Washington Post]

New York Times seems to fall from Apple's favor (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacRumors all but confirms iPad 3 will have Retina Display

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We have no idea how they got hold of one, but MacRumors has apparently sourced the display component for the next-gen iPad and put it under the microscope -- literally. In a deja vu moment from roughly two years ago when the iPhone 4 was confirmed to have a Retina Display, Mac Rumors put the alleged iPad 3 display under a microscope, counted up the pixels, and compared it to the existing display on the iPad 2.

Although the display was unpowered, microscopic examination still revealed the physical components of the pixels. When considering the same areal cross section of the display, the current iPad's LCD contains a grid of 2 x 2 pixels, 4 pixels total; this new display features a 4 x 4 grid for a total of 16 pixels. This much higher pixel density on the LCD, which is the same 9.7-inch diagonal size as the one on the iPad 2, is consistent with a display featuring exactly double the linear resolution of the existing iPad display.

In early 2011, various rumors pointed to the iPad 2 featuring a Retina Display upgrade; however, no actual parts featuring a 2048 x 1536 resolution ever surfaced, and the iPad 2 launched with the same 1024 x 768 resolution as its predecessor. The iPad 3 Retina Display rumors resurfaced this year, but this is the first time anyone has provided physical evidence of such a display.

The usual caveats apply: this display may be nothing more than a leaked prototype or even an extremely elaborate fake, and the iPad 3 may yet launch without a double-resolution Retina Display. However, at this point that scenario is looking unlikely indeed, and with MacRumors' new evidence, we consider the iPad 3's Retina Display all but confirmed now.

MacRumors all but confirms iPad 3 will have Retina Display originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rovio announces Angry Birds Space, coming March 22

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Just when you thought they were finally done -- they're coming back again. Rovio has announced that it will be releasing Angry Birds Space, and unfortunately, all we know about it, per the strange teaser trailer below, is that it'll be out on March 22. Presumably, this is just another iteration on the Angry Birds formula, albeit one that will likely play with gravity and maybe a few other space-related mechanics as well.

There's also an official website for the just-announced title, but it's not any more informative than the trailer was. Given the enormous popularity of Angry Birds on iOS and other mobile platforms, it's not hard to predict that this will be yet another enormous hit for Rovio. Still, aren't we at all tired of the Angry Birds phenomenon yet? This will be the fourth spinoff for the game -- hopefully this one will show a little more innovation and growth than Angry Birds Rio, Seasons, or Magic.

Rovio announces Angry Birds Space, coming March 22 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foxconn raises Chinese worker wages

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Foxconn has been back in the news lately for an investigation, commenced by Apple's request, into its worker practices. Perhaps influenced by those actions (though perhaps not), Foxconn has raised some of its pay levels by 16 to 25 percent. Depending on the worker and the results of some testing, junior level workers could pick up as much as 2200 yuan, which translates to about $350 US, a month. That's still only about $4200 a year, but it's more than the minimum wage in China, and most factory workers are also given room, board, and training by the company, so there are other expenses that are already taken care of.

This is the second time in as many years that Foxconn has raised wages like this: Back in 2010, the company raised its production line workers' wages as high as 30 percent. So in terms of monetary compensation, at least, things at the Foxconn plants are improving, if not actually good yet. It's unlikely that a wage raise like this will prevent ongoing protests against Apple and other companies that make use of this factory labor, but every bit of good news out of this situation is definitely excellent to hear.

Foxconn raises Chinese worker wages originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's Mountain Lion vs. a real mountain lion

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Jeff Somogyi of dealmac has posted an amusing comparison between Apple's upcoming OS X Mountain Lion and a real mountain lion. It turns out the differences between them are not so subtle.

While Apple's Mountain Lion introduces Notification Center, a feature brought over from iOS that consolidates notifications in one organized pane, Somogyi correctly notes that "Mountain lions will not notify you before they pop-up and eat your face." I've never met a mountain lion face to face in the wild, but if they're anything like the utter bastard killing machines they were in Red Dead Redemption, Somogyi is absolutely right about that.

The whole chart is definitely worth a read and good for a laugh. Somogyi notes that the "low hanging fruit" would have been even riper for comedy if Apple had named the next version of OS X "Cougar" -- personally, I'm rather grateful Apple went with "Mountain Lion" instead.

Apple's Mountain Lion vs. a real mountain lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Musicality: AirPlay popular music services to enabled speakers

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Musicality (US$9.99) offers one-app access to Pandora, Last.fm, and Grooveshark streaming music services. What's more, it adds in extra features that integrate with Growl notifications (so you can immediately see what song is playing, even when the app itself is hidden) and AirPlay.

It's this latter feature that had me asking to take a look at the app. With AirPlay, you can stream your music from your computer to any AirPort Express, AirPlay-enabled speaker system, or Apple TV.

Musicality offers separate destination and volume controls for each AirPlay destination it finds on your local network. If you wish, you can mute your computer and send your music exclusively to your AirPlay speakers.

In my testing, the app worked exactly as promised. It took just seconds for me to create a new Pandora radio station and start it playing back on the (good) speakers attached to the Apple TV. Local volume control meant I could adjust that playback without having to stand up and walk over to tweak the physical knobs.

Beyond AirPlay, the app seems to be a solid player. I admit my interests were pretty much limited to choosing music and playing them remotely and Musicality ably provided those features. Musicality also offers support for the integrated keyboard media keys found on most Apple keyboards and works without need for opening a browser.

You can give Musicality a free try for 10 days via a time limited demo. If you like it, it's just US$10 to purchase.

We were curious how the new Mountain Lion preview and its built-in screen streaming might affect the future of Musicality. TUAW contacted Industrious One Owner Jason Perkins. He told TUAW, "I've had a chance to check it out, and I am confident that AirPlay mirroring will not negatively effect Musicality in any way. Display mirroring isn't of much benefit to us, but our built-in AirPlay support continues to work great, and the new share sheets, notifications, and other new APIs will only make it better."

Musicality: AirPlay popular music services to enabled speakers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Update for February 17, 2012

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for February 17, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily iPhone App: Streetquiz helps you learn your local roads

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Streetquiz is part game, part navigation app that drills you about your local streets. The app uses your cellular connection and GPS position to pull down new questions about the streets on which you are walking or driving. It's meant to be a fun way to learn the roads in your neighborhood or town.

The app launches with a session that lasts for ten questions. Each question asks you to identify your street and gives you a few choices from which to select. The game tracks the number you answer correctly and calculates your score based on these ten questions.

One limitation with the game is that you only get one question per street. After I answered the question, I had to wait until I arrived at the next street to get another question. In some cases, the next street was a 10 minute walk down the road.

You can start and stop each session while you travel to the next street, but the game loses some of its momentum when you have to wait. Instead of waiting for me to get to a new street, I would love for Streetquiz to ask me about an upcoming intersection or a point-of-interest that I just passed.

Speaking of intersections, Streetquiz doesn't like intersections very much. You have to be walking on a well-defined street to get a new question. This is a missed opportunity, in my opinion. If the app can tell you are at an intersection, it should be able to ask you about one or both of the intersecting streets.

Whether you enjoy StreetQuiz or not depends heavily on where you live. If you live in a rural area, you could have as much as 30 minutes in between questions. You may forget to open the app when you come to the next road and then remember the next day that you were in the middle of the game. If you live in a dense city, however, you will get a steady stream of questions that'll help you discover your neighborhood.

Streetquiz is available for 99-cents from the iOS App Store.

Daily iPhone App: Streetquiz helps you learn your local roads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google explains how and why Safari privacy settings were circumvented

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In response to a Wall Street Journal report claiming that Google bypassed Safari privacy settings to track ads on both Apple computers and iOS devices, the company released a statement today from Rachel Whetstone, SVP of Communications and Public Policy. The search giant contends that the Journal's story "mischaracterizes what happened and why."

Safari, by default, blocks third-party cookies. This prevents sites like Google from setting tracking cookies on iPhone, iPod touch or iPad devices, or for Safari users on the Mac or PC, unless the user interacts with the site (by signing into Google, for example). Google, the WSJ claims, used a software trick to fool Safari into letting it set advertising cookies without any user interaction. Needless to say, this report spread like wildfire once it hit the Internet.

In response, Google says the WSJ report is off-base when it comes to what Google is doing with its advertising cookies on these devices. Google says it was using a known bit of Safari functionality to provide features that were only enabled when users signed into Google using their browser. Google used this functionality to provide personalized ads and the ability to +1 items for signed-in Google users.

Google then pins the problem on Safari; the statement says the browser "contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser." The search giant said it didn't expect this to happen and is now "removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers." Google insists that the original cookie enablement was done anonymously and no personal data was collected.

Since no other browsers were affected by this privacy quirk (including browsers like Chrome and the Android browser, which share Safari's WebKit DNA), the explanation of a bug in Safari's cookie handling seems to hold water. Besides, why would the largest online advertising business care about having key cookies enabled on the phones of millions of Apple device owners, who are demonstrably more likely to spend money online?

You can read Google's full statement below.

The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It's important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.

Unlike other major browsers, Apple's Safari browser blocks third-party cookies by default. However, Safari enables many web features for its users that rely on third parties and third-party cookies, such as "Like" buttons. Last year, we began using this functionality to enable features for signed-in Google users on Safari who had opted to see personalized ads and other content--such as the ability to "+1" things that interest them.

To enable these features, we created a temporary communication link between Safari browsers and Google's servers, so that we could ascertain whether Safari users were also signed into Google, and had opted for this type of personalization. But we designed this so that the information passing between the user's Safari browser and Google's servers was anonymous--effectively creating a barrier between their personal information and the web content they browse.

However, the Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser. We didn't anticipate that this would happen, and we have now started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers. It's important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.

Users of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome were not affected. Nor were users of any browser (including Safari) who have opted out of our interest-based advertising program using Google's Ads Preferences Manager.

Continue reading Google explains how and why Safari privacy settings were circumvented

Google explains how and why Safari privacy settings were circumvented originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple counts down to 25 billion App Store downloads

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More than 24 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, and Apple has rolled out a giveaway for whoever is lucky enough to claim the 25 billionth download. Like previous giveaways, there's a pretty sweet pot up for grabs: a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card that can be used in iTunes or the iBookstore. No purchase is necessary to enter.

Based on the speed of downloads, we expect a winner to be named within the next week. Apple's App Store hit 15 billion downloads in July and 18 billion as of early October.

Apple counts down to 25 billion App Store downloads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple TV disappearing from store shelves; update imminent?

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There's been a lot of speculation about an Apple HDTV of some kind, but it's much more likely that an improved Apple TV will make it to market before we see a large flat screen device. CNET is reporting that supplies of Apple's diminutive black box are dwindling at brick and mortar stores across the U.S., possibly pointing to a refresh of the Apple TV.

BestBuy.com and Walmart.com are no longer listing the Apple TV on their sites, and the only Apple TVs available on Amazon.com are used devices. AppleInsider reports that many electronics chains that used to carry the Apple TV no longer have them in stock.

What does this all point to? An Apple TV update. The existing model has been around since September of 2010 and many other electronics manufacturers are selling similar devices that offer improved specs.

A new Apple TV could provide full 1080p support, iOS 5, and even run applications. The latter would turn an Apple TV into a powerful gaming console, and support for iOS 5 could lead to a device that provides search and control capabilities through Siri voice command.

While the specifications of a refreshed Apple TV are pure conjecture at this point, a new device does seem to be in the works.

Apple TV disappearing from store shelves; update imminent? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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