The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple on Thursday that reveals a 3D eye-tracking-based interface that could be used for gaming, digital photography and videography... Read more

Google is at odds with Apple, Microsoft, and Cisco over the licensing and litigation of patents. While Google wants to make the most of patents it will receive if its acquisition of Motorola is approved,... Read more

The Loop is reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is taking RIM BlackBerry devices off of the list of officially supported mobile devices. What's taking the place of... Read more

The Loop is reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is taking RIM BlackBerry devices off of the list of officially supported mobile devices. What’s taking the place of the trusty old BlackBerry? iPhones and iPads running iOS 5 and newer versions of the mobile OS.

While a February 3rd memo from NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications Joseph Klimavicz noted that support for BlackBerrys will continue until May 12, 2012, it does not say when the government organization will actually start providing workers with the new Apple devices.

According to the memo from Klimavicz, NOAA will now support employees with iPhone 4 and newer smartphones running iOS 5 or later, as well as iPad 2 or newer tablets running iOS 5 or later.

NOAA drops BlackBerry, embraces iPhone and iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC announced on Thursday that an Ice Cream Sandwich update will be available for select devices by the end of March. The announcement came through the company’s Facebook page and states that the... Read more

Whoa! As of this writing (noon EST) Apple stock has reached a new high of US$493.85, which is a new a record. It also gives the company a market capitalization of $465 billion, which exceeds the combined... Read more

Whoa! As of this writing (noon EST) Apple stock has reached a new high of US$493.85, which is a new a record. It also gives the company a market capitalization of $465 billion, which exceeds the combined totals of Google and Microsoft.

Apple passed Microsoft in Market Cap back in May of 2010. At the current prices, Apple is comfortably ahead of Exxon Mobil, with has a market cap of about $400 million.

Just yesterday we reported that Apple had gained $100 in share price since Steve Jobs died last October, but those numbers are already outdated.

Apple stock soars, company worth more than Google, Microsoft combined originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When new CEO Thorsten Henis took the reins at Research In Motion, he immediately pointed to the smartphone vendor’s marketing strategy as an area the company needed to focus on if it hoped to regain... Read more

So, your Family Truckster is loaded with sixteen cup holders in various places. Since you already have a place to stash your hot coffee while driving, wouldn't it be nice to use one of those cup holders... Read more

So, your Family Truckster is loaded with sixteen cup holders in various places. Since you already have a place to stash your hot coffee while driving, wouldn’t it be nice to use one of those cup holders for something really useful, like holding your iPad or iPhone within arm’s reach? Satechi yesterday delivered the SCH-121 Cup Holder Mount (US$29.99), which comes with two cradles, one for 7″ - 10″ tablets and the other for your smartphone.

While you don’t exactly want to be going down the road watching movies on your iPad, this is perfect for the back seat crowd, front row passengers, or for those who need access to an iPad when they’re stopped at a worksite.

Being able to swap out the cradles for iPad and iPhone provides a lot of flexibility. I can see using one of these to keep the spouse happy with her iPad on long driving trips, while the iPhone cradle will keep me on the right track with GPS apps while keeping the phone out of the hot sun on my dashboard.

The Cup Holder Mount is available either from Satechi’s website or Amazon.com, although it hasn’t shown up on the former yet. I’ll be doing a review of the mount in the near future.

Satechi’s Cup Holder Mount keeps your iPad and iPhone close at hand originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hackers protesting harsh working conditions at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn dumped what they said were megabytes of private data belonging to the outsourcing giant. "Note: The passwords... Read more

Hackers protesting harsh working conditions at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn dumped what they said were megabytes of private data belonging to the outsourcing giant.

“Note: The passwords inside these files could allow individuals to make fraudulent orders under big companies like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intel, and Dell,” a group calling itself Swagg Security wrote in a message posted to Pastebin. “Be careful.” The purported contents were made available in a torrent on The Pirate Bay.

The group said Foxconn’s network was protected by “an appropriate firewall, but fortunately to our intent, we were able to bypass it almost flawlessly.” Over several days, the hackers claimed, they were able to access most data of significance. It didn’t take long after the dump for images such as this one to circulate that suggested Foxconn systems were configured in ways that revealed key information about its internal topology.

Several Foxconn servers were reportedly taken offline over the past day.

The stunt coincided with protests planned at a half-dozen of Apple retail stores around the world by demonstrators opposing the conditions of workers who manufacture iPhones and other Apple hardware. A recent series carried by The New York Times documented long hours, low pay, and an explosion that killed several workers at Foxconn, which also makes hardware for Cisco, Dell, Sony, HP, and others.

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Telus has announced their anticipated Long Term Evolution (LTE) network will go live on Friday, February 10th in 14 Canadian cities. These include: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and the Greater... Read more

Have a bit of time? Want to learn more about Steve Jobs' life than you were able to dredge up reading the Walter Isaacson biography? All you have to do is read the 191-page 1991 FBI background investigation... Read more

Have a bit of time? Want to learn more about Steve Jobs’ life than you were able to dredge up reading the Walter Isaacson biography? All you have to do is read the 191-page 1991 FBI background investigation of Jobs that was done when he was being considered for an appointment to the President’s Export Council.

The file also include records of a 1985 bomb threat made against Jobs. John Cook at Gawker noted that “I’ve read the files from a lot of background FBI investigations; it’s pretty rare in my experience that this much derogatory information gets dredged up.” What kind of derogatory comments? Some of them are classic: “He characterized Mr. Jobs as an honest and trustworthy individual; however, his moral character is questionable” and “They further stated that Mr. Jobs has integrity as long as he gets his way.”

But wait, there’s more! “Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.” Yes, the famous Jobs Reality Distortion Field has been investigated by the FBI, but there’s no word on whether it was the X-Files team or Fringe Division that was doing the investigation.

And finally, there’s this gem: “He characterized Mr. Jobs as a deceptive individual who who (sic) is not completely forthright and honest.” While the names of his friends and associates have been redacted form the report, it’s apparent that they — at least back in the 1990s — didn’t have a lot of trust in the late Apple CEO.

Steve Jobs’ 1991 FBI file has been released originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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