Apple Working on Standalone Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera?

In Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder was quoted as saying that his desires for the future involved the reinvention of three industries: television, textbooks, and photography. With Apple's iBooks Textbooks initiative for the iPad underway and the company reportedly working on television from both hardware and content sides, it has been unclear exactly what Jobs and Apple might have had in the works to address photography. Isaacson's biography did note that Jobs had met with the CEO of Lytro, creators of an innovative new light field camera system, although it is unclear how much direct interest Jobs and Apple had in Lytro's technology. 

Earlier this week, iLounge released its comprehensive New iPad Buyers' Guide, an overview of accessories, apps and other information associated with the new iPad. As noted in the announcement about the guide's release, it includes a two-page spread arguing that Apple may be working on a camera product of some sort. According toiLounge, the speculation in the guide is informed by claims from a source, although the information was not considered reliable enough to make concrete assertions at the time.

Take special note of pages 152 and 153—“Making the case for a standalone iSight Camera.” I’ll share more on this topic shortly, but for now, I’ll say that this two-page spread very nearly had a different title. We were tipped that this project is actually happening at Apple right now, but we didn’t feel confident enough in our source to call it a certainty; it’s therefore billed as speculation. Still, there’s enough smoke to make us think there’s a fire.

Excerpt from iLounge's New iPad Buyers' Guide speculation on a standalone camera
iLounge now appears to be becoming more confident in its belief that Apple is working on a standalone camera product, with Editor in Chief Jeremy Horwitz issuing a Tweet a short time ago reiterating the claim.

So, as briefly noted on Backstage, Apple appears to be working on a standalone camera - the third of three industries Jobs wanted to change.

While we've assumed that any advances by Apple in photography would most likely come via the iPhone given that many users are abandoning standalone point-and-shoot cameras for increasingly powerful cameras included on their smartphones, iLoungeargues that Apple will look to remake the point-and-shoot market with new hardware and software that isn't constrained by the limitations of the iPhone.

As much as iPhones (and iPads) have improved in camera technology over the past two years, Apple’s goal is to keep slimming them down, which limits the light-gathering and zoom capabilities of camera sensors and lenses - image quality compromises. A standalone digital camera could accommodate a bigger sensor and integrated zoom lens, which Apple would select as a “satisfies most needs” option rather than offering detachable lenses. Lytro’s minimalist body for the Light Field Camera shows how simple it could get, but Apple would want a much larger screen.

Apple had a partnership with Kodak in the mid-1990s to produce the QuickTake line of digital cameras, but the product line was discontinued upon Steve Jobs' 1997 return to the company as he sought to streamline Apple's business. The company has of course continued to work on camera technology, in large part with its line of accessory and integrated iSight cameras over the years, but there has been little evidence of an interest in returning to the standalone digital camera business. 

It's hard to place much faith in the rumor at this point, and iLounge doesn't expect any Apple camera product to be introduced until after the long-rumored Apple television set makes its debut, but it does make for interesting discussion and we'll keep watching for any other signs of Apple's interest in photography products as time goes on.

Report: Apple-Valve video game console in the works?

Look out, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. A reported visit by Apple CEO Tim Cook to game-maker Valve in Washington has raised speculations of a partnership between the two firms to build a new video game console.
 
Apple blog Cult of Mac reported that the company was planning a “full-on assault” to take over the living room and not just through its Apple TV.
 
“We’ve gotten word that Cook was indeed at Valve yesterday, and what’s more, Apple is planning a full-on assault to take over the living room. This assault won’t just be limited to the long-rumored Apple HDTV set, but will also include a revolutionary home console as well,” the site wrote.
 
“Our sources also say that Apple’s television set will come with an Apple-branded, Kinect-like video game console. The interface will rely heavily on motion and touch controls,” it added.
 
Valve is behind game series like Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal. It has an online PC gaming platform called Steam that operates similarly to Apple’s App Store.
 
“Recent rumors have suggested that Valve is working on its own console dubbed the ‘Steam Box.’ Instead of another Xbox or PlayStation, the hardware would serve as more of a standard that Valve would license to partners, much like the way Google handles Android in the smartphone space,” Cult of Mac said.
 
Citing its own sources, Cult of Mac said Apple is also working on a TV set with an iTunes-integrated touch screen remote and Siri-like voice command technology.
 
Such a TV set could debut before the end of the year.
 
A theoretical collaboration between the two companies would likely involve elements of the two above devices. But should such a gaming platform materialize, it would not be Apple’s first foray into the console world.
 
In the 1990s, it collaborated with Bandai to produce a Mac OS home console called the “Pippin,” which had a disappointing showing.

Macs Infected With Flashback Drop To 140,000 After Apple Releases Removal Tool [Report]

Apple has crippled Flashback significantly, but many Mac users have not yet taken action to remove the trojan.

The notorious Flashback trojan infected 600,000 Macs over the last year. We’ve been following Flashback closely, and Apple started waging its war on the botnet earlier this month. After releasing two security updates and one final tool to remove Flashback from infected Macs, Apple has nearly killed Flashback once and for all.

According to new research from Norton Symantec research, Flashback now infects around 140,000 Macs. That’s a significant drop considering Apple’s removal tool was only released 4 days ago.

“Given the number of removal tools and Apple security updates now available, it was hoped that the decline would be greater at this point, ” Norton told Cult of Mac.  ”There remains a significant number ofMac users who haven’t followed the simple and necessary steps to bring the infection numbers down to zero.”

Flashback infects Macs by exploiting Java in a browser like Safari or Google Chrome. The malware then links your Mac up to a botnet of other infected machines that are all sending web activity, logins, etc. to the same network. All this is done by visiting a malicious website and allowing a Java applet to gain access to your system.

You can disable Java on your Mac to completely get rid of any threat, but installing Apple’s Java securityupdates should also do the trick. There are also multiple tools for detecting and removing Flashback, including FlashBackChecker from Kaspersky Lab. It’s always smart to stay on top of software updates to keep your Mac as secure as possible.

The Problems With A 4-Inch iPhone

Do we really need a bigger iPhone?

Many started speculating about the possibility of a 4-inch iPhone when a guy named Colin made a very interesting argument for such a device one week ago. The rumor mill has been saying for months that a larger iPhone is coming, but no one had really thought about how it would actually work. Colin proposed that Apple would need to simply change the aspect ratio from 3:2 to a stretchy 16:9. Brilliant, right?

Not so fast. There are multiple reasons why an elongated iPhone screen would not work.

Dan Provost, co-founder of Studio Neat, presents a succinct breakdown of the problems with a 4-inch iPhone on his blog, The Russians Used A Pencil. He points out the obvious problem of holding a 4-inch smartphone in one hand; it’s very difficult to move your thumb to all four corners of a 4-inch screen while it rests in your palm. The iPhone as is feels perfect in one hand, and that’s a comfortableness that Apple is not likely to forfeit for a larger screen (see Samsung Galaxy Note).

From a developer’s point of view, “there would need to be at least some minimal intervention to have the app function properly on a 16:9 screen.” Remember when the iPhone 4 came out with the Retina display and it took months for all of your favorite apps to get updated? The same type of experience would happen all over again. As Provost notes, Apple has done it before though.

If the next iPhone had a taller screen, Provost says iPhone-only apps wouldn’t be able to run at 2X on the iPad. The argument has been that Apple would add more pixels vertically to fill a longer iPhone screen, and such a resolution wouldn’t be able to scale properly on the iPad’s 9.7-inch display.

The most convincing argument Provost makes against a 4-inch iPhone is that apps would be unable to function properly in landscape mode:

I have designed apps for 16:9 mobile screens before. If the app needs to be designed for both portrait and landscape orientations (like Mail, Messages, most standard UI apps) it’s really, really hard to make the landscape orientation look good. Taking a list view and stretching it that far looks real stupid. It’s just an awkward ratio to work with. The virtual keyboard on a 16:9 screen is awkward as well; if scaled properly it takes up the majority of the screen. All of the (non game) examples in the Verge post look at the apps in portrait mode, and it works great. Rotate to landscape, not so much.

If you look at the concepts Provost is referring to, they do seem to work in portrait. The only time we see landscape working is for video, when you would actually have less black space on the side of the iPhone’s screen.

When you factor in the fact that the human hand was not made to hold a 4-inch phone, it seems problematic that Apple would release such a device. The only possible reason would be something like increased hardware size to accommodate LTE networking. The rest of the industry continues to play with different screen sizes, thereby creating a very fragmented experience for developers users. Apple has stuck with the same screen size since 2007. You know what they say,”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Apple loses iCloud patent battle in Germany

Writer's Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld and Macworld UK. Visit Macworld U.K.'s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.

Motorola has won another stage in its battle with Apple over patents. The latest ruling means Apple will not be able to send push emails to iCloud and MobileMe users in Germany.

The latest decision backs the decision of the German court back in February, which upheld a ban imposed on push notifications used by iOS devices in Germany. Apple made a bit to restore push email services, but this bid has now failed. As a result, the Mannheim regional court will force Apple to pay damages to Motorola Mobility, according toDow Jones. It is not yet known how much it will cost the company. Apple plans to appeal the ruling, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The case is made all the more frustrating for Apple because arch-enemy Google is hoping to acquire Motorola. Google wants to expand its business into more hardware ventures, with the plan to purchase mobile-phone, set-top box and tablet maker Motorola Mobility for about $12.5 billion. The purchase would also help Google defend itself against various patent infringement lawsuits over theAndroid mobile operating system, since Motorola has one of the smartphone industry’s largest patent libraries.

Back in February, Apple created a support page for customers that explains that German users would not have iCloud and MobileMe email pushed to their iOS devices while located within Germany. However, it points out that they “will still receive iCloud and MobileMe email, but new messages will be downloaded to their devices when the Mail app is opened, or when their device periodically fetches new messages as configured in iOS Settings.”

“Push email service on desktop computers, laptop computers, and the web is unaffected, as is service from other providers such as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, ” it adds.

The lawsuit relates to European Patent 0847654 (B1), entitled “Multiple Pager Status Synchronization System and Method.” The equivalent in the United States is U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119, according toApple Insider.

Two more Mac Trojans discovered, but risk is slight

Writers’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the MacWorld blog and the Today @ PC World blog at PCWorld.com.

Following the outbreak of the Flashback Mac Trojan, security researchers have spotted two more cases of Mac OS X malware. The good news is most users have little reason to worry about them.

Both cases are variants on the same Trojan, called SabPub, Kaspersky Lab Expert Costin Raiu wrote on Securelist.

The first variant is known as Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a. Like Flashback, this new threat was likely spread through Java exploits on Websites, and allows for remote control of affected systems. It was created roughly one month ago.

Fortunately, this malware isn’t a threat to most users for a few reasons: It may have only been used in targeted attacks, Raiu wrote, with links to malicious Websites sent via e-mail, and the domain used to fetch instructions for infected Macs has since been shut down.

Furthermore, Apple’s security update for Flashback helps render future Java-based attacks harmless. In addition to removing the Flashback malware, the update automatically deactivates the Java browser plug-in and Java Web Start if they remain unused for 35 days. Users must then manually re-enable Java when they encounter applets on a Web page or a Web Start application.

The second SabPub variant is old-school compared to its sibling. Instead of attacking through malicious Websites, it uses infected Microsoft Word documents as vector, distributed by e-mail.

Like the other SabPub variant, this one was used only in targeted attacks, possibly against Tibetan activists. So unless you’re working with a pro-Tibet organization—and you have a habit of opening suspicious Word documents—there’s little reason for alarm. At most, SabPub is more evidence that Macs aren’t immune to attacks—a point that Flashback already made perfectly clear.