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Analyst claims Apple and Microsoft might merge in next 5-10 years. Could it happen?
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Tuesday Highlights: Gigaom's Jeff John Roberts thinks the Apple ebook investigation has gotten out of control, and at risk of "becoming a farce" concluding "it's time for feds and Judge Cote to leave Apple in peace while it pursues its appeal"; if you are driving while reading this, you may want to pull over: analyst posits possible merger between Apple and Microsoft within 5-10 years; Michael Pallad, a veteran of radio advertising, hired by Apple to head up iTunes Radio ad sales; Ars Technica offers power users a handy guide to OS X Mavericks Server; Macworld UK explores latest and greatest features in the new Keynote for Mac; here's a tutorial of using the drummer feature in Garageband 10; Comic Life for OS X takes your pictures and turns them into comics; China Labor Watch concerned over reported deaths at Shanghai factory which builds iPhone 5c; iPhones dominate top selling smartphones in Japan; Siri finally achieving greater accuracy according to new report; Apple given an A in 2013 smartphone report card at TechHive; The Verge on 20th year of John Carmack's game-changing Doom; iPhone 5s will ship within 24 hours now; some interesting patents granted to Apple today include curved touch surfaces, and head mounted display system; Macworld advice on troubleshooting Touch ID problems.
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"OS X Mavericks: About Activity Monitor/Activity Monitor can be used to view how processes (apps and background processes) are using resources on your Mac, such as the processor, memory, disk, network and overall energy usage." Apple Support 9:29 PM
"How to bypass damaged-application warnings in OS X: If OS X is falsely identifying a program update as being 'damaged,' here's how to make an exception to allow this program to run." CNET Reviews 8:57 PM
"For those of you who need to use Airport Utility 5.6 under Mavericks (i.e. managing a no-longer-supported-in-AU6, first-generation Airport Express), this guy has a solution: AirPort Utility 5.6.1 on OS X 10.9 Mavericks I've tried it on 2 Macs so far and it works fine." MacInTouch 1:49 PM
Reviews/How-To/Tips
"A power user's guide to OS X Server, Mavericks edition: OS X Server 10.9 adds some new services and makes others easier to use." Ars Technica 8:21 AM
"What's new in Keynote 6 for Mac: Explore the new features in Keynote" Macworld UK 8:31 AM
"Using Drummer in Garageband 10: Bring a bit of rhythmic sparkle to your tracks" Macworld UK 8:31 AM
"Turn Your World Into Vibrant Comic Life" MacNewsWorld 8:06 AM
"Receptionist review: App replaces your human receptionist with an iPad" Macworld 9:11 AM
"How to Create a Basic Keynote Presentation" Tuts+ 8:06 AM
"Mavericks Tip: How to control when Software Updates are installed" Amsys 8:00 AM
"How To Install OS X Mavericks On An External Drive" Apple Gazette 7:58 AM
"One Click Wonder – Get To Your Mac's System Info Even Faster [OS X Tips] Cult of Mac 8:21 AM
"Free Tenorshare ReiBoot for Mac iOS Reboot Software Tool" MacPrices 1:40 PM
"Vasilek Games is proud to present Slots Tale, a new slot game for Mac OS X. There are three fascinating locations in the first version. Those will be followed by another two and will compose the first tale block - European legends, which main points are... gold and treasure, of course!" Vasilek Games 9:56 AM
"PopChar X 6.4 - leaner, faster, and smoother on OS X Mavericks" prMac 8:13 AM
"Slots Tale: A New Slot Game for Mac OS X by Vasilek Games Is Coming" prMac 8:13 AM
"Veenix Introduces TypeWise and Updates TypeBook Creator for OS 10.9" prMac 8:13 AM
"Raildale: Railway Building Game for iOS and Mac OS X" prMac 8:13 AM
"VLC for Mac 2.1.2 Brings Codec, UI, etc Tweaks" FairerPlatform 3:13 PM
"VLC 2.1.2 is out with experimental decoding of HEVC and WebM/VP9" iDownload Blog 7:58 AM
"Apple to open larger San Francisco Stonestown store, new Dusseldorf location on Dec. 14" AppleInsider 8:08 PM
"The 25 Happiest Companies In America" [Apple #14] Business Insider 3:17 PM
"Worker Deaths Raise Questions at an Apple Contractor in China" New York Times [Free/Paid Registration Required] 9:12 PM
"Deaths at Apple supplier in China concern labor group: The Shanghai factory builds the iPhone 5C handset, according to China Labor Watch" IDG News Service 8:04 AM
"The 9 best-selling smartphones in Japan are all iPhones" BGR 10:55 AM
"iPhone holds 8 of the top ten best selling phone positions in Japan" Digital Trends 8:14 AM
"How Apple punishes you for ditching iPhone revealed! Apple apparently does not take defeat with good spirit, as it has been revealed that if users ditch their iPhones for some other brand, the tech giant refuses to accept that they have moved on by not disabling their iMessages feature." ANI 8:30 AM
"Siri's Accuracy Continues to Improve as Apple Works to Reduce Reliance on Google" MacRumors 10:54 AM
"Apple's Siri went to a C+ from C, Google Now to a C+ from D-" Fortune 11:24 AM
"Smartphone report card 2013: Which vendors passed, which vendors failed?" [Apple: A] TechHive 8:31 AM
"Apple's Siri, Google's Now Assistants Both C+ in Piper Bakeoff" Barron's 3:08 PM
"Report Says Siri's Accuracy Continues To Improve" AppAdvice 3:08 PM
"Apple releases plans for new San Francisco store" O'Grady's PowerPage 7:58 AM
"Apple's new store in Dusseldorf, Germany, opens on 14th December" 9to5Mac 8:21 AM
"Qualcomm gets in on Bluetooth beacon action with iBeacon competitor" 9to5Mac 7:57 AM
"AppAdvice International: China Mobile, iTunes Match And British Carriers" AppAdvice 8:16 AM
"iTunes Match hits Scandinavia, iTunes in the Cloud expanded in Bulgaria and Portugal" iMore 8:14 AM
"Walmart To Sell iPhone 5s And iPhone 5c With No Contract Plans" UberGizmo 10:28 AM
"T-Mobile offering Apple, Samsung devices at $0 down: The carrier is dropping the upfront cost of some Apple and Samsung phones and tablets starting on Wednesday." CNET News 3:49 PM
"Former iOS designer Scott Forstall reappears" SlashGear 10:28 AM
"Man named Sam Sung no longer works at Apple" CNBC 3:46 PM
Non-Apple News
"New York Asks Cellphone Carriers to Explain Why They Rejected Antitheft Switch" New York Times [Free/Paid Registration Required] 9:12 PM
"Sprint CEO: 2014 is our comeback year/Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said Tuesday that the company must go through some short term growing pains, but should start to see network improvements by the middle of 2014." CNET News 4:20 PM
"PC versus smartphone install base: Smartphones bigger by 2014" BGR 3:15 PM
"Amazon filmed Prime Air demos outside the US to avoid legal trouble with the FAA" The Verge 10:24 AM
"Samsung ships 10 million Galaxy Note 3s; see which of its other phones have crossed the 10 million mark" Gigaom 9:54 AM
"'Doom' at 20: John Carmack's hellspawn changed gaming forever" The Verge 9:11 AM
"Google Seeks Patent for Unique Two-Step Facial and Fingerprint Authentication" Patent Bolt 9:10 AM
"Nest Protect Teardown: Reassuringly Simple and Solid" Gizmodo 8:54 AM
"VC Fred Wilson: Google Glass is like Apple's Newton" CNET News 8:30 AM
Publications/Podcasts
"Book Review: The Book of Audacity" MAKE Magazine 9:49 PM
"Let's Talk iOS 006: Grind your ears" iDownload Blog 10:23 AM
"Apple MacBook Pro 13 With Retina Vs. Lenovo Thinkpad T440S" Digital Trends 10:23 AM
"HP Envy 5530 e-All-in-One review: Home printer has print quality and cheaper inks in its favor" Macworld 4:13 PM
"Belkin Qode Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad Air review: Ultimate iPad Air keyboard case, indeed" CNET Reviews 3:15 PM
"WD Black 2 Dual-Drive SSD+HDD Hybrid Review" HotHardware 1:41 PM
"Diabetes Data Beamed to Your Phone" AllThingsD 8:26 PM
"Mophie Juice Pack Air – Providing Peace Of Mind" Apple'n'Apps 3:07 PM
"A Stripped-Down Look to Highlight Your iPhone/Review: M-Edge Stripped iPhone Case" New York Times [Free Registration Required] 10:58 AM
"Chromecast – Stream web content to your HDTV wirelessly" ["First off it's not direct competition to Apple TV. Apple TV does more and costs more. Chromecast only works with whatever you can display in Google Chrome or from a Chromecast compatible app on your computer or mobile device."] Terry White's Tech Blog 8:32 AM
"Gravity Cases for the iPhone 5 and 5s: Castrum, Sword and Red Alert" Run Around Tech 8:14 AM
"Review: Supertooth FREEDOM wireless headphones" iSource 11:28 AM
iPad/iPhone/iPod touch Apps
"Review: Castro for iPhone is a modern approach to an iOS 7 podcast client" 9to5Mac 10:23 AM
"Appidemic: Skee Ball Arcade for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch" TechnologyTell 8:21 AM
"Create & Share Perfect 360-Degree Panoramas With bubbli For iPhone" AddictiveTips 8:13 AM
"Darklings review: possess your enemies by drawing symbols" iDownload Blog 8:31 AM
"Starborn Anarkist proves that recycling really pays off" iDownload Blog 8:31 AM
"'LvLn' Review - A Methodical Slayin'" Touch Arcade 3:18 PM
"'Clash Of Puppets' Review - Poor Level Design Spoils This Puppet Show" Touch Arcade 4:20 PM
"Ridicolo iPhone App Review: Live Preview Face Stickers" Tapscape 10:24 AM
"Tweetly Review: Tweetly is smart, sleek, and intuitive, only let down by the smallest of setbacks." 148Apps 8:14 AM
"Createrria Review: Rather than arriving as a game itself, Createrria is aiming to give gamers the necessary tools to create their very own platformers. The premise is great, but it could do with a few more creation and customisation options." 148Apps 10:23 AM
How-To/Tutorial
"How to Save a Water-Damaged iPhone" MacTrast 8:07 PM
"iOS 7: A quick guide to using iPhone calling features" Computerworld 10:03 AM
Tips
"How To Share Your iTunes Radio Stations [iOS Tips] Cult of Mac 3:07 PM
"Your iPhone Is Now A Homing Beacon (But It's Ridiculously Easy To Turn Off)" Forbes 3:07 PM
"How to stop extra contacts appearing in iOS: why are my partner's contacts showing up on my iPhone?" Macworld UK 11:28 AM
"Our Tips For Safely Buying An iPad This Holiday Season" AppAdvice 10:23 AM
"Apple Mints Cash Off Storage Sales: So What?" Seeking Alpha 7:56 AM
Non-Apple
"Samsung reveals Santa is really Steve Ballmer: A new ad for the Galaxy Gear shows Santa motivating an elves' sales conference. He's more than a little like the man who cries about developers." CNET News 8:06 PM
"Galaxy Note 3 phablet accounts for just 1/10 of Samsung's 2013 premium phone sales" AppleInsider 5:05 PM
"Here Are Two More Stats To Show That Doom Is Slowly Marching On Cable TV" Business Insider 10:24 AM
"Samsung Galaxy S4 Active: LTE-A version coming soon" BGR 9:54 AM
"How Logic Dictates That Android Cannot Win" PixoBebo 8:00 AM
"Woot Is Offering A Spectacular Deal On OtterBox's Defender Series Case For The iPhone 5" AppAdvice 3:15 PM
"Google Drive for iOS update adds sorting feature for files" 9to5Mac 3:08 PM
"Google Drive for iOS finally lets you sort files" Engadget 8:07 PM
"We Wish This Plastic Toilet With an iPad Dock Was For Adults" BetaBeat 3:08 PM
"SugarSync to discontinue free tier of service in February 2014" Electronista 3:08 PM
"iBeer finally has live chat and photo sharing" Hottrix 1:45 PM
"Microsoft's Socl makes Social Network Push with Native iPhone, Android Apps" The Mac Observer 1:40 PM
"Hey Family Guy Fans, a Family Guy iOS Game is On Its Way" Touch Arcade 10:55 AM
"Emergency Exit a great app idea, but not too useful yet" TUAW 10:54 AM
"Stun-gun-equipped iPhone case looks to generate more than a buzz: Yellow Jacket provides self-defense for you and your iPhone alike" Network World 10:29 AM
"Temple Run 2 update brings Christmas cheer, aquatic fun to the jungle" TechnologyTell 10:24 AM
"Thinkful now teaches you how to build iOS apps from scratch" The Next Web 10:23 AM
"Ho, ho, whoa! Temple Run 2 lets you play as Santa Claus" CNET News 10:23 AM
"iVoizer: smart and easy phone call recorder" indiegogo 9:49 AM
"Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition landing on iOS this month" TUAW 9:11 AM
"Flint adds in-app invoicing, Passbook coupons, card scanning and more" iDownload Blog 9:11 AM
"Finding the missing iPad apps: Best weather, stocks, calculator, voice memo, compass, and phone for iPad" iMore 9:10 AM
"Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Announced as Featured Speaker at 2014 Local Search Association Annual Conference" PRNewswire 9:02 AM
"CableJive Launches New dockXtender For Apple Lightning Devices; 2 Foot Dock Extension Charge And Sync Cable" PRNewswire 9:02 AM
"mPact Glass Extreme Screen Protection for iPad Air Available Today" PRNewswire 9:02 AM
"Viber Launches 'Viber Out' Worldwide, Allowing More Than 200 Million Users to Make Low-Cost Calls to Any Phone Number" Business Wire 8:59 AM
"MetaMoJi's Notable Note-Taking App Upgrades User Experience Across All Mobile Platforms" Business Wire 8:59 AM
"28 million users strong, Coub now lets you create short music-based looping videos on your iPhone" The Next Web 8:55 AM
"Chester & Morgan. New Time Killers game. Coming Soon" ["Help cute kitty Chester get his clew by playing with balloons, harpoons, trampolines, fans and magical portals. But be careful, clew can fall into Morgan's clutches. Every new level is going to be more and more difficult to help Chester. Get fishes and open new levels, episodes and bonus levels."] KosBro 8:40 AM
"Cluster Photo Management App Updated With New Feed Layout And Other Enhancements" AppAdvice 8:21 AM
"Meet The Nommies, Om Nom's New Friends, In Cut The Rope 2's Intro Video" AppAdvice 8:21 AM
"This iPhone Case Is The Only Acceptable Way To Flash Someone This Christmas" Cult of Mac 8:14 AM
"Wildlife rescue hitting the charts" prMac 11:28 AM
"Desert Chase - The journey begins" prMac 10:53 AM
"Castro for iPhone - podcasts that look as good as they sound" prMac 10:53 AM
"Pixolini releases Loantune: What If Loan Calculator 1.0 for iOS" prMac 8:13 AM
"Ninja Boxing Calculator 1.0 - New Retro Fighting Calculator game for iOS" prMac 8:13 AM
"Whimmy 2.0 - The Music app With Your Emotions in Focus" prMac 8:13 AM
"Crazy Foxes : Hen Defense - What Does The Fox Say?" prMac 8:13 AM
"The Christmas Gift List - A Must-Have app for the Holiday Season" prMac 8:13 AM
"Here's An Awesome New iPhone App To Help You Find A Quick Paying Job" Business Insider 8:13 AM
"Microsoft FAT patent loss endangers its Android revenue/Summary: A patent loss in a German court may lead to trouble for Microsoft's Android strategy" ZDNet 8:26 AM
"Updated Microsoft Photosynth Makes HDTV Look Low-Resolution" New York Times [Free/Paid Registration Required] 1:37 PM
"Windows 7 gets reprieve for PC makers" PCWorld 3:06 PM
"Microsoft: Never mind that Windows 7 end-of-sales date/Microsoft officials now say the end-of-sales date for PCs pre-installed with Windows 7 is 'to be determined,' rather than October 30, 2014." CNET News 1:52 PM
"Microsoft: We goofed on that Windows 7 end-of-sales date/Summary: Microsoft officials are now saying the end-of-sales date for PCs preinstalled with Windows 7 is 'to be determined,' rather than October 30, 2014." ZDNet 4:05 PM
"Microsoft Debuts Another Set Of Surface Updates And Patches" TechCrunch 7:34 PM
"Microsoft Launches New Malware Tool as Part of Patch Tuesday Rollout" Softpedia 8:29 AM
"Microsoft's Interactive Ad Gamble" Seeking Alpha 4:02 PM
"Yahoo says Microsoft search providing 31 percent of revenues: Report/Summary: Might the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership be more lucrative for Yahoo than its executives have been hinting?" ZDNet 4:04 PM
"Microsoft delivers December updates and fixes across its Surface tablets/Summary: Microsoft is making available a variety of fixes and updates across its family of Surface devices as part of this month's Patch Tuesday." ZDNet 4:04 PM
"HP hits restart on 'converged systems,' takes aim at vBlock: The new systems share common infrastructure components so they can be managed together more easily" Computerworld 7:46 AM
"Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) Turnaround Scheme Failed To Budge Investors" US Trade Voice 8:13 AM
"HP big data tools help wildlife charity save the planet" V3 4:20 PM
"HP's Earth Insights deploys big data tech against eco threats/Summary: By helping environmental scientists track threats to wildlife habitats, HP is also demonstrating the full range of its technologies and services." ZDNet 8:14 AM
"New cartridges for HP Moonshot (Intel Avaton, Opteron X1250 and ARM A15)" Hardware.Info 8:24 AM
"HP Discover 2013 live coverage: News, photos and analysis from Barcelona" ITProPortal 8:15 AM
"Hands-on with HP's new Elite portfolio of business PCs" PCWorld 2:46 PM
"HP ProDesk 600 and 800 Are Tiny Business Desktop PCs" UberGizmo 2:49 PM
"Dell feels cold probe of US Dept of Justice amid Syria PC sales claims" Channel Register 4:22 PM
"U.S. investigates allegations of Dell computer resales into Syria: Dell's standard contract prohibits distributors from reselling products to any sanctioned country, the company said" Computerworld 2:45 PM
"Dell Announces EqualLogic PS6210 Storage Arrays and EqualLogic Platform Updates" Entertainment Weekly 8:13 AM
"Dell joins the Chromebook club with the Dell Chromebook 11: This 11-inch laptop, running Chrome OS, is targeted at schools." CNET Reviews 7:58 PM
"'We cannot trust' Intel and Via's chip-based crypto, FreeBSD developers say: Following NSA leaks from Snowden, engineers lose faith in hardware randomness." Ars Technica 8:12 AM
"Intel: Making Some Good Strategic Moves" Seeking Alpha 11:29 AM
"Intel tablet-focused platforms rumoured in 2014 road map leak" PC Retail 8:23 AM
"Facebook Vs. Intel: A Market Of Stocks" Forbes 3:05 PM
"The Latest Push On AMD Seems Invalid" Seeking Alpha 2:47 PM
"Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): A Steam Machine That Offers More Than the Xbox One?" Nest iPhone News 8:16 AM
"Advanced Micro Devices Is A Speculative 'Buy'" Seeking Alpha 8:16 AM
"Water-cooling the AMD Radeon R9 290X" bit-tech 8:17 AM
"How a 30-year-old IBM business partner stays relevant in the cloud/Summary: Over the past 18 months, Champion Solutions Group has migrated more than a half-million users into Microsoft cloud solutions." ZDNet 8:25 AM
"Oracle Roundup: Mark Hurd On Leadership; Build Your Own Cloud" Forbes 3:06 PM
"Oracle becomes sponsor of OpenStack Foundation: Oracle says it knows customers don't want to be locked into proprietary cloud management tools" Computerworld New Zealand 4:09 PM
"Cisco Set To Change Server Game Again With UCS 2.0" CRN 2:48 PM
"Cloud computing heading for brownouts, warns Cisco engineer" Computing 8:18 AM
"Microsoft's Nadella: overall IT spending will expand, not contract, in move to cloud" Gigaom 8:11 AM
"The Internet of things is coming on faster than ever, thanks to a new, huge alliance" VentureBeat 8:07 AM
"How Falling Server Sales Affect HP, IBM, and Intel" The Motley Fool 3:04 PM
"Sadly, the PC Industry Doesn't Deserve a Place as Nice as the Microsoft Store" Techland 8:02 AM
"Tech firms vie to protect personal data, profits" Associated Press 9:29 PM
"Why Apple Could Jump To $700 In 3 Months" StreetAuthority 8:06 AM
"Hon Hai, Apple's Largest Supplier, Reported Very Strong November Revenue Growth" Forbes 3:17 PM
Industry News
"Tech Stocks: Twitter gains as tech leaders call for curbs on spying/Apple, Google, Facebook join in call to President Obama and Congress" MarketWatch 11:26 AM
"Stocks in holding pattern after gains" CNNMoney 8:34 AM
"Stock Futures Point to Modest Gains on Wall Street" TheStreet 8:33 AM
"Futures Dip as Traders Lock-In '13 Gains" FOXBusiness 8:34 AM
"Stocks lower after hitting record; banks in focus" Associated Press 11:55 AM
"Stocks Slide as Investors Lock In Gains" WSJ.com [Paid Membership Required] 4:18 PM
"Still Not Buying Google, Why We Are Waiting On Twitter, And What's Next For The Market" Seeking Alpha 7:37 AM
"Twitter shares touch new high, sail past $52" Reuters 1:37 PM
"Asia Markets: Asia stocks mostly lower, with China data in focus/Asian markets traded mostly lower Tuesday ahead of Chinese data due out later in the session, with Japanese shares falling as the yen's downward momentum slowed." MarketWatch 8:33 AM
"Europe Markets: European stocks waver after France, China data/Telecoms move after ratings changes/European stock markets struggled for direction on Tuesday after data out of China painted a mixed picture of the country's economy and French industrial production unexpectedly declined." MarketWatch 8:34 AM
"Most active Nasdaq-traded stocks: Nasdaq's 10 most active stocks at 1 p.m." Associated Press 1:40 PM
"Final Glance: Computer companies/Computer companies shares down at the close of trading" Associated Press 7:50 PM
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