TidBITS

Details are starting to appear about MacTech Conference 2013, so if you’re an Apple developer or IT professional looking for learning, certification, and networking opportunities, join us in Los Angeles in early November. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Notable software releases this week include Hazel 3.1.3, along with DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.6.1. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

This week in ExtraBITS, Bob Mansfield, Apple’s SVP of Technologies, has left the executive team at Apple, but is sticking around for “special projects.” After over a week of downtime, Apple’s Developer Center is mostly back online, with a new status page to track the availability of individual systems. If you have an old Newton sitting around, we have a guide on how to sync it with a modern Mac. Finally, Apple is reporting that there are now over a billion podcast subscriptions in the iTunes Store — a landmark number for the new medium. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Two new titles demonstrate exciting new possibilities for the iPhone and Apple TV as gaming platforms. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

When it comes to finding a particular photograph of the Space Needle in your haystack of digital photos, you’ll have a hard time unless you follow the advice about assigning keywords and other metadata in the sixth chapter of Jeff Carlson’s “Take Control of Your Digital Photos,” now available to TidBITS members. Jeff explains how to choose and assign keywords, fix incorrect dates, and apply geotags to your photos in each of the four main photo-management apps. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Joe Kissell returns to the topic of the paperless office three years later with new information about improvements in technology and online services that can help readers reduce paper proliferation and see their desktops again. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

It’s looking increasingly likely that Apple is readying a cheaper iPhone with a plastic case instead of the glass-and-aluminum case of the current line. But why not just sell the iPhone 5 at a discount once the presumed iPhone 5S appears? Josh Centers digs into the numbers to explain why. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Apple’s accessibility features in iOS aren’t just for the disabled. Josh Centers shows how AssistiveTouch can help get you out of a hardware jam. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Apple’s revenues continue to rise, but the company’s profits are falling as its margins shrink.  Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Notable software releases this week include MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0, TextWrangler 4.5.3, BBEdit 10.5.5, and Logic Pro X 10.0. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

In this week’s ExtraBITS, Apple is scrambling to plug a security leak, allegedly exposed by security researcher Ibrahim Balic, and the Apple Developer Center has been offline for days. If you’re waiting for Apple to come back online, why not listen to Jeff Carlson on MacVoices, where he discusses “Take Control of Your Digital Photos”? Fellow Take Control author Kirk McElhearn argues that Apple should eliminate DRM from the iBookstore, and Apple itself is wanting more openness in sharing national security requests. The NSA isn’t the only spy you have to worry about — one could be in your local coffee shop. Finally, App.net has released a tool to make broadcasting new blog posts easy. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Being able to take loads of photos means the quality will vary widely, and the act of judging your photos is what Jeff Carlson discusses in the fifth chapter of “Take Control of Your Digital Photos.” You’ll learn how to set up a workflow that will help you easily determine which shots you want to share with others, which need work in an image editor, and which should be culled. In the process of evaluating each photo critically, you’ll become a better photographer too. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

FTL is a challenging, yet short space game for the Mac where you never know what will happen next. Josh Centers describes what’s fun about FTL, and shares a few of his hard-won tips. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

With the perspective of a recent college graduate, David Rabinowitz looks back on the technology that populated his years in school, from learning to type in third grade to taking real-time class quizzes at the University of Virginia. He also looks at a technology he missed, the iPad, and talks with a pair of innovators who are building it into the everyday educational experience at their schools.  Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Is it worth paying a monthly fee to be able to upgrade your smartphone or tablet more often? Maybe. Josh Centers analyzes what the new T-Mobile and AT&T plans mean for Apple users. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.