TidBITS managing editor Josh Centers, author of the just-released “Take Control of Apple TV,” joined host Chuck Joiner on the MacVoices podcast to talk about the book. Josh tells you all about what he covers in the book, and then he and Chuck discuss the Apple Remote, the addictive qualities of AirPlay, trying to teach family members how to work a home theater, and things Josh learned about the Apple TV while writing the book, before discovering that they’re “keyboard brothers.”
What if you got your hands on a leaked Apple prototype, like the iPhone 6, the iPad Pro, or the Apple TV smartwatch, and you wanted to show it off to the Internet? With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Mike Wehner offers some helpful tips at TUAW to make those verboten photos look their best. He recommends never taking a photo of a complete product, obscuring as much of the device as possible, and shaking the camera to add a little pizzazz.
When the built-in SSD in his MacBook Air failed, Macworld’s Dan Moren decided to try replacing it himself (surprisingly, at the suggestion of an Apple Genius). The process was easier than he thought, taking only 20 minutes. He explains what he did, and walks you through how to restore your data with SuperDuper, including a pointer to a handy utility that restores Mac OS X’s Recovery Partition.
For a limited time, Apple has added a channel to the Apple TV for The Beatles, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the band’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The channel features video of the original performance, and links to purchase Beatles albums.
Analyst Horace Dediu has examined Apple’s software and service business and found that if it were its own company, it would rank 130th in the Fortune 500 — above pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Dediu estimates that Apple gave up $350 million in revenue in the last quarter from making Mavericks and iWork free. Despite that, Apple is bringing in more revenue than ever from iTunes and the App Store, with gross revenues of nearly $7 billion per quarter.
If you would like to create your own logos, buttons, and other text- and icon-based graphics without learning Photoshop, check out this week’s DealBITS drawing for a chance to win a copy of BeLight Software’s Art Text 2.4.6.
NBC ran a shocking report about Internet security at the Sochi Olympics, where reporter Richard Engel demonstrated how an Android phone and a MacBook (which he ripped out of the box like an angry gorilla) were hacked the second he connected them to a network. Errata Security has pointed out that the story was completely fabricated. The piece was filmed in Moscow, not Sochi; Engel deliberately installed the malware; and the hacks shown could have occurred anywhere in the world. The moral of the story? Don’t turn to NBC for security advice (or unboxing instructions).
Apple’s stock fell 8 percent after it reported its most recent quarterly results, and the company took advantage by buying back $14 billion of its own shares. “It means that we are betting on Apple. It means that we are really confident on what we are doing and what we plan to do,” CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal. He also confirmed new product categories for 2014, saying, “There will be new categories. We’re not ready to talk about it, but we’re working on some really great stuff.”
The Winter Olympics are here again, and there are more ways to follow them now than ever.
It’s well-known that Steve Jobs was an admirer of Sony — even his famous black mock-turtleneck and Levi’s 501 ensemble was inspired by Sony uniforms — but Tokyo-based IT journalist Nobuyuki Hayashi has revealed some new information on how close the Apple co-founder was to the Japanese company. Jobs regularly visited Sony co-founder Akio Morita, and the two men had a mutual admiration of each other. Jobs was so impressed with the Sony VAIO laptops that he tried to convince Sony to adopt Mac OS X for them in 2001. Jobs even gave Sony the idea to build a GPS into its Cyber-shot cameras.
Bad news for Microsoft — North Korea doesn’t even want to copy Windows anymore. The latest version of Red Star OS, the nation’s official Linux distribution, now bears a striking resemblance to Mac OS X, as opposed to earlier versions that mimicked the Windows interface. Of course, no North Korean operating system would be complete without propaganda, such as setting the year to 103 — the number of years since Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea, was born.
Microsoft has announced that Satya Nadella has replaced Steve Ballmer as CEO of the company. The 46-year-old Nadella has been with the company since 1992, most recently as executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group. Founder Bill Gates will also be stepping down as chairman of Microsoft’s board of directors to take a more hands-on role as an advisor, “supporting Nadella in shaping technology and product direction.”
A 14-year-old girl from Kennebunk, Maine suffered second-degree burns when her iPhone 5c caught fire in her pants pocket. Fortunately, she was calm enough to remember to stop, drop, and roll, which considerably reduced her injuries. Lithium-ion batteries like those in the iPhone occasionally cause fires, but they are extremely rare and usually occur only while the phone is charging — there’s no reason to assume that this was anything more than a freak incident.
On 24 January 2014, Apple shot a remarkable commercial to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh. The company sent 15 camera crews around the world to shoot the footage over the course of 36 hours, all on the iPhone 5s. The ad shows a number of scenes that would have been science fiction 30 years ago: a man configuring his artificial limbs with an iPhone, children controlling robots with a MacBook, and another guy flying multiple drones via sensors on his arms, wired into a MacBook. The video was directed by Jake Scott, son of legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott, who directed the original “1984” ad. Be sure to read the story of how it was made after the video plays.
Josh Centers reviews Oceanhorn, a Legend of Zelda clone for iOS, and suggests a solution to Nintendo’s woes.