Apple rejoins green tech program after row

Apple senior vice president Bob Mansfield said that the company listened to "customers who were disappointed" by the action to delist from the registry."I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT," he said in a letter posted on the company website.

"It's important to know that our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever. Apple makes the most environmentally responsible products in our industry. In fact, our engineering teams have worked incredibly hard over the years to make our products even more environmentally friendly."

In dropping out last month from the registry, Apple offered no explanation.But Mansfield's letter said that some common yardsticks for green products could be "upgraded" and made stronger.

He said Apple "led the industry in removing harmful toxins such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)" and is "the only company to comprehensively report greenhouse gas emissions for every product we make."

The announcement came a day after San Francisco city officials said they would stop purchasing Apple products, citing a rule in place that requires laptops, computers or monitors bought by the city to meet top EPEAT standards.

City chief information officer Jon Walton said Thursday that San Francisco had "reached out to Apple" about the problem.The procurement rule is similar to a standard used by other US cities and states as well as by the federal government, according to Walton.

EPEAT, which gives green ratings to computer desktops, laptops and monitors, was launched in the United States in 2006 with corporations and other large IT purchasers in mind.

EPEAT chief executive Robert Frisbee welcomed Apple's decision."We look forward to Apple's strong and creative thoughts on ongoing standards development," he said in a statement.

He said the group now has a "strengthened relationship with Apple" and is reviewing "how to reward innovations that are not yet envisioned with standards that are fixed at a point in time."

This article comes from:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-14/developmental-issues/32674412_1_apple-products-macbooks-bob-mansfield

Win an iPad! But take our smartphone survey first

Network World is conducting a survey of its readers’ smartphone preferences – both in their personal and work lives. Everyone who participates will be eligible to win a free Apple iPad.

Participation is limited to one entry per person. All participants must be 18 years or older and must reside in the United States or Canada. Only those who have filled out the registration form and the entire survey will be eligible to win the iPad.

The survey is meant to gain an objective view of what devices, software, apps, and carriers Network World’s readers are using and how they use them. Especially with so-called consumer devices making their way further into the enterprise, now is as good a time as any to take a step back and see how people are using their smartphones and what they think about them.

Network World will independently aggregate the data you provide us and publish the results. Any personal information submitted on the registration page will be used for no purpose other than contacting the prize winner, and will not be handled by anyone outside of Network World.

The results of the survey will be published within the coming weeks, and the winner of the iPad will be contacted directly via the email address provided in the survey’s registration page.

The survey can be accessed here, and has also been distributed on our Facebook, Twitterand LinkedIn pages. Thank you for your participation, and we hope you’re the one taking our next survey on a brand new iPad.

This article comes from: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/062512-smartphone-survey-260423.html

Apple updates Aperture for Retina display

Aperture, now at version 3.3, also offers better performance, a unified photo library that lets you seamlessly switch back and forth between images stored in iPhoto (version 9.3 or later) and Aperture, and new adjustment tools.

Retina vision
First and foremost, the new version of Aperture is optimized for the new Retina-display 15-inch MacBook Pro. The update allows you to see more of your image when it's zoomed in at 100 percent. For pros dealing with 30-plus megapixel images, this will make a huge operational difference on the laptop's small screen. The effect on small thumbnails is also a big deal. Aperture 3.3's thumbnails are greatly improved, and will likely save you time in your imaging decisionmaking, Apple says.

iPhoto integration
Many users take advantage of multiple programs when it comes to managing photos. Before Aperture, there was iPhoto, and even after switching, many people continued to maintain their iPhoto libraries and their edits in iPhoto. With Aperture 3.3, you can move images back and forth from your iPhoto library without having to import and export between them. Just open your iPhoto library in Aperture, and you're ready to work. Faces, Places, slideshows, albums, and Web sharing work across both applications.

White balance
Aperture 3.3 introduces a new way to correct white balance in your images. Very much like in iPhoto for iOS, this new Aperture version offers specialized white balance options for skin tones and landscapes. With modes like Skin Tone and Neutral Gray added to the standard Temperature and Tint controls, the program will provide better and more accurate color correction without a lot of distortion and tweaking.

Shadows and highlights

Aperture 3.3 has improved the Highlights and Shadows tool to work with even a wider range of images. The Highlights tool can recover even the most blown-out highlights, while the Shadows control is faster and easier to use and works with fewer sliders. A new mid-contrast control combines several advanced tools for single-slider control of flat-looking photos.

A newly updated and more intelligent Auto Enhance algorithm can act as a starting point for correcting photos. The control evaluates images and determines whether to correct white balance, adjust exposure, or add vibrancy, curves, or highlights and shadows. If you shot a perfect still, then the control knows enough not to make any changes.

Faster browsing of Raw images

Aperture 3.3 makes greater use of camera-generated embedded previews within Raw images to produce quicker, high-resolution thumbnails from your shoot. With the new version, there's no waiting around for previews to be processed before browsing, according to Apple.

More improvements

In addition to specific new features, Aperture 3.3 offers improved stability and performance. Smart image pre-cache improves the speed of browsing, while the application has been optimized to handle photo libraries of over 1 million photos and support for Raw images up to 30 megapixels.

A newly designed monochrome source list and toolbar icons remove interface distractions, so you can better focus on your images. And because so many photos are now shared online, Aperture 3.3 introduces a new unified Web Sharing view for all photos and albums that are published to Facebook and Flickr.

In addition, Aperture 3.3 supports AVCHD for videos, the Set Photo as Desktop feature (long available in iPhoto and elsewhere), and drag-and-drop functionality for the Faces feature. Facebook, Flickr, and MobileMe albums are now displayed as thumbnails in the main window when those accounts are selected in the source list.

There's also some minor terminology tweaks, a new preference that allows you to set the background brightness of the full screen browser, and a new manual option allows you to drag and drop projects to customize sort order in the Projects view.

The version 3.3 update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.
iPhoto gets an updateNot surprisingly, along with the Aperture update, which references iPhoto, Apple has also updated iPhoto to open libraries from Aperture 3.3 or later (among other things).

Like Aperture, the new version of iPhoto supports AVCHD video. Other improvements include a tweak to the Description field, which now automatically expands as you enter text; the ability to flag a photo in Magnify (1-up) view by clicking a Flag icon in the upper left corner of the photo; a new Export option allows you to automatically organize exported photos into subfolders according to event, and Keywords and titles are now preserved when exporting files with embedded GPS location data.

This article comes from:http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/software/3363308/apple-updates-aperture-for-retina-display/

Hurricane apps track storms on mobile devices

The start of the Atlantic hurricane season is June 1 and there are several apps in Apple's App Store and Google Play that can help you stay informed through news stories, social media feeds, NOAA radar images, and other tools.

iHurricane HD: Tracks storms, pushes alerts, includes satellite images. Free on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, Android.

NOAA Now: News articles, satellite images, and advisories. Free on iPhone, iPad. Android $0.99.

Hurricane Express: Satellite loop images, forecast models, tracking maps, Twitter feed, Spanish-language bulletins. $0.99 on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

NOAA Radar U.S.: Great mix of interactive infrared satellite and radar images that zoom into neighborhood streets to check hyper-local weather patterns. iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. $1.99.

Hurricane: Historical information on past hurricane seasons, news feed with links to hurricane and severe weather stories, Spanish-language bulletins. iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. $1.99.

SeaStorm: Tracking tools and marine maps showing water temperatures, wind and wave forecasts, and other advisories for mariners. Android. $1.99.


This article comes from:http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-hurricane-apps-20120529,0,7184815.post

Apple's next invention: The iPen?

Yahoo has launched a new tool for searching the Web, called Yahoo Axis. This is not a browser, but rather a plug-in that attaches to your desktop browser, and it's also an app for Apple devices. So why use it? It's supposed to be a faster way to comb through search results. Start typing in your search term, and a horizontal bar will showcase thumbnail previews of websites you can jump to. Also, searches and bookmarks are saved across all your devices that use Axis.

But perhaps Yahoo just launched this too quickly. For starters, a security hole was found in the browser add-on. And I found the desktop version irritating to use. The tool attaches itself to the bottom-left corner and blocked anything in that space. I couldn't access spreadsheet tabs in Google Docs because the Axis bar was in the way.

Regardless of the tweaks they still need to make, Axis proves Yahoo can be innovative in search. (But as for Yahoo's advertising, well, it could use some work. Bro, headbutting the Web doesn't make you more awesome.)

Apple has filed a patent application for the iPen. It would be a stylus that gives feedback with vibration, and it would feel different depending on how the pen was pressed or how quickly it moved across a screen. The site Patently Apple was first to uncover the application, but keep in mind that Apple often files applications for products that never become real. This idea was originally filed with the Patent office at the end of 2010, but it was made public Thursday.


After a month, the case of Oracle versus Google is at its end. The jury found that Google did not infringe on two of Oracle's patents. Now the judge has to make a final call on another question: Can APIs be copyrighted? If the judge says no, that's another win for Google. The trial starts back up on Tuesday to address that question.

The updated Google+ app is now available for Android users. Aside from the snazzy new look, it also lets users edit posts from the app and start a video chat Hangout though the Android phoneor tablet. Hangout requests can also ring on the phone like an incoming call.

Have you lost your addiction to Draw Something? There's been a big decline in users for the game, even though just a few weeks ago it was top of the download charts. But Zynga told the Wall Street Journal that the game still has plenty of life.

Want to share your thoughts on a story? Your questions and comments can make it on the show! Use Tout to message Bridget with a 15 second video reply from your webcam or smartphone camera. Or, simply post a reply video to the CNET YouTube channel. You can alsosend an email.


This article comes from:http://news.cnet.com/8301-33692_3-57441190-305/apples-next-invention-the-ipen/

Apple Patents Steering Wheel Remote Control For Safer 'Hands-Free' Driving

As smartphones and tablets become more ubiquitous in our ever more mobile world, driving becomes an increasingly dangerous activity. Local and federal governments are trying to enact "hands-free" laws to keep people's attention on the road, and devices and technologies like Bluetooth are doing their parts to keep drivers safe. Apple has created ways to make its iPhones completely hands-free (thanks to Siri and VoiceOver), but iPods, which are often the music players of choice now over in-car CD players and radio systems, still require a drivers' hands and attention to operate.
Apple hopes to make all drivers safer with a new invention that lets users wirelessly control the music playing in their car without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel. In a patent that was quietly granted on Tuesday, Apple describes a remote control that can be clipped onto any car's steering wheel, which borrows largely from the original iPod clickwheel but also adds a new touch-sensitive element to the design.
In its patent filing, Apple explained that most cars contain in-vehicle entertainment systems that can interface with a portable media device (like an iPod, iPhone or iPad), which essentially allows riders to control their music players through the in-car system. Yet some in-car entertainment systems can't control an external device, so users must use the controls on the iPhone or iPod itself. This can be extremely dangerous, as adjusting iDevices takes precious attention away from the road.
Apple's solution to this attention dilemma is a wireless remote control that can fit on any car steering wheel, which can be configured to control any portable media device. The remote is essentially a faceplate with a clickwheel identical to that of the iPod, except that this clickwheel is touch-sensitive. The sensors on the faceplate can detect pressure from a finger, but can also detect the location and magnitude of the pressure sensation thanks to a sensing mechanism based on capacitive sensing, resistive sensing, and surface acoustic wave sensing.
The remote connects to the steering wheel using hinged "clamping feet," which can accommodate steering wheels with various thicknesses in a few ways: It can move laterally along the steering wheel, and the hinges can also move mechanically closer or farther apart to clamp onto different-sized wheels. Since the clamps at the bottom of the remote can be moved to any point in the steering wheel, the faceplate itself can be rotated in 360 degrees to accomodate any orientation on the wheel.
This article comes from:http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/342436/20120517/apple-patents-steering-wheel-remote-control-driving.htm

Apple Flashback Removal tool hits Leopard

The malicious software known as Flashback has been a burden on the Apple world for some weeks now, Apple this week sending out an official Flashback removal tool to those users working with the Apple OS X Leopard operating system. This fix comes in the form of a security update not unlike what we’ve seen for OS X Lion in weeks past as well, this version coming in under the name Leopard Security Update 2012-003. This package comes aside another download by the name of FlashBack Removal Security Update, both of these downloads available via your own software update page which can be accessed by hitting the Apple in the upper right-hand side of your screen and scrolling down to “Software Update.”


This set of two updates is ready to remove all known variants of the malware at hand. If you do use any version of Apple’s OS X or Mac OS X software, you should check for a software update immediately. Flashback software has already found its way to thousands of computers across the entire earth, infecting users without their knowledge. The software then works to grab advertisement cash by having your web browsers load webpages without your consent, the creators of the Flashback software netting thousands of dollars in the process.
This software update is now live for both Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion as well as OS X 10.5 Leopard and can, once again, be accessed via a simple check of your Software Updates page from your desktop. This upgrade is not mandatory, but we suggest very much that you install and execute as soon as possible. Have a peek at our timeline below to see the effects of the Flashback software as it spread across the Apple world over the past few weeks.
This article comes from:http://www.slashgear.com/apple-flashback-removal-tool-hits-leopard-15228490/