MacBook Air owners take note — Apple has announced a replacement program for defective flash storage drives. Read on to learn if yours is affected. Much has been written about inaccurate positioning sensors in the iPhone 5s, but it’s little more than a tempest in a teapot. More worryingly, Google wants to embed your endorsements in ads shown to your friends; luckily, unlike Facebook, you can opt out. Glenn Fleishman chimes in on why Newsstand in iOS 7 is a bad deal for publishers, Josh Centers reviews the Level Money budgeting app, and Adam Engst examines the Infinite PDF iPad app that enables you to create interactive PDFs. We’re also pleased to welcome our latest sponsor, Avatron Software, makers of Air Display 2, and share the latest installment of FunBITS about the spooktacular Limbo for iOS. Notable software releases this week include LaunchBar 5.6, ReadKit 2.3.2, DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.7, 1Password 4.0.3, Instacast 1.0.3, Downcast 1.0.3, Java for OS X 2013-005 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 17, Little Snitch 3.3, and Fission 2.1.4.
The flash storage drive in certain mid-2012 models of the MacBook Air could fail at any time, but if a firmware update doesn’t resolve the problem, Apple will replace it for free. Josh Centers explains how to find out if your drive is affected.
Much fuss has been made over the inaccuracy of the iPhone 5s positioning sensors, but it turns out that the problem is neither new nor unusual.
Much noise has been made about Google’s Shared Endorsements, but as Josh Centers explains, it’s both limited and easily turned off.
Please welcome our latest TidBITS sponsor, Avatron Software, makers of the Air Display 2 software for turning an iPad, iPhone, Mac, or PC into a second screen for your Mac!
Marko Karppinen, part of a digital-publication platform company, argues that Apple’s Newsstand is a bad place for publications to be. Glenn Fleishman, publisher of The Magazine, can’t disagree.
Level Money is a minimalistic budgeting app for the iPhone. Josh Centers explains why it’s perfect for him, and for many others who need more awareness of their financial standing.
It’s not HyperCard, but Infinite PDF makes it easy to create non-linear, interactive documents on the iPad, starting with a humble PDF. It’s great for adaptive presentations and offers a lot of promise for ebooks, comics, and graphic novels.
If you’re looking for something spooky to play in the run-up to Halloween, Limbo is a creepy platform game for thinkers that raises the bar for touchscreen controls.
Notable software releases this week include LaunchBar 5.6, ReadKit 2.3.2, DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.7, 1Password 4.0.3, Instacast 1.0.3, Downcast 1.0.3, Java for OS X 2013-005 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 17, Little Snitch 3.3, and Fission 2.1.4.
This week, celebrated Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts announced that she’s joining Apple, David Pogue is moving from the New York Times to Yahoo, and the Nielsen Norman Group has published a damning critique of iOS 7’s interface.