Mac convert VOB to iMovie, import VOB to iMovie
on Mac

post from prMac on 15 May 2012 09:32:00 PM. © prMac

Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac, best converter enables you free download and convert VOB to iMovie for editing on Mac. It is easy-to-use & you can finish the conversion easily. Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac not only allows users to convert VOB to iMovie, it also supports video editing functions. With these functions, you can crop videos, add watermark, trim videos, merge several videos into on file, etc. You can convert VOB to iMovie and import converted videos to iMovie for editing.

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ESPN: No talks yet about Apple TV authentication

post from Apple on 15 May 2012 09:03:47 PM. © Apple

As the most powerful programming brand on cable television, you’d expect that ESPN would spend the day of its upfront presentation bolstering its still-very-lucrative linear television business.

But the Disney-owned sports channel spent most of Tuesday hyping — and shooting down rumors about — new digital initiatives.

Notably, an ESPN spokesperson denied a Bloomberg report that earlier stated that ESPN and Apple executives are in talks to make the authenticated TV Everywhere app WatchESPN available on Apple TV.

That’s not to say a deal is never going to happen.

Bloomberg quoted Sean Bratches, ESPN executive VP of affiliate and advertising sales, as saying his company would be open to a deal with Apple that would allow subscribers of select multichannel TV services password-protected access to ESPN programming on the over-the-top Apple TV platform.

ESPN already has a deal in place with Apple to let subscribers of select multichannel services, including No. 1 provider Comcast, stream its sports news on iOS mobile devices the iPad and iPhone. And in the living room, Comcast Xfinity subscribers can also stream ESPN programming on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming consoles.

?To the extent that in the future there?s an opportunity with Apple to authenticate through the pay-TV food chain as we?re doing with Microsoft, that?s something that we will participate in,? Bratches told Bloomberg.

Just don’t get your hopes up for anything to happen soon.

?We?re not having conversations with Apple about authenticating WatchESPN,? ESPN spokeswoman Amy Phillips re-iterated to paidContent.

Double-teaming brands with Twitter

At its upfront presentation earlier in the day, ESPN unveiled an advertising partnership with Twitter that will allow the social media giant to monetize all those tweets that occur around big-ticket sports events. (During the final three minutes of February’s Super Bowl, for example, Twitter reported that 10,000 tweets per second were being transacted on its network.)

The collaboration will kick off with next month’s NBA Finals coverage. Studio analysts for ESPN’s NBA Tonight highlights/analysis show will encourage viewers to tweet their painted “game faces” with the hashtag #gameface, with the most telegenic of the lot presented on the linear broadcast.

Twitter and ESPN will be co-sell the campaign through promoted tweets and trends, as well as product plugs on Disney’s ABC, ESPN and ESPN.com channels. The cross-platform offering will be sold to sponsors as a single package.

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Does your Facebook mobile app suck Here’s
why

post from Apple on 15 May 2012 06:02:26 PM. © Apple

For the past year or so, I’ve noticed that my Facebook mobile apps have slowed down with each screen tap. I used to tap the screen and see the latest posts or photos fairly quickly. Now I see the “Loading” message more than anything else. Even worse: I’m constantly pulling the screen down to refresh the data, even when tapping a Facebook notification takes me to a supposedly updated post. I’m not sure when that behavior started, but it’s quite annoying and happens on both my Android and iOS devices.

I long suspected these problems had much to do with Facebook’s use of various Web technologies, since much of the mobile platform was built with web standards and technologies such as HTML5, surrounded by a native wrapper for Android or iOS. But I’m not a developer, so I couldn’t be sure. Now I am, thanks to Dirk de Kok’s detailed post at Mobtest, which tests mobile applications.

The gist of the problem, at least for iOS (and likely for Android as well, at least partially) is two-fold. One problem concerns HTML use with UIWebViews but without support for Nitro, which is Apple’s JavaScript engine. The second happens because the app makes different data calls for similar, but out-of-sync information. Here’s a pair of excerpts to explain:

“For a starter, caching of unchanged content cannot be controlled by the developer. The FB app downloads the whole timeline HTML every time, and it is up to the UIWebView to determine whether it needs to download images, stylesheets etc again…. Also, to communicate from the UIWebView to the native app, a Javascript bridge is needed. This is tricky stuff, slow and not really thread safe.”
“For notifications, messages and friend requests regular REST calls are done, returning XML data. First check is to see what number of new notifications are there, then the actual content is retrieved in a separate call. As far as I can tell, the Facebook service calls return inconsistent information. When you check too fast what new notifications are awaiting you, you don?t get the new information.”

I recommend reading de Kok’s entire analysis because he explains in further detail how all these moving parts are working together in a less than optimal way, illustrating the exact behaviors I’ve seen in the Facebook mobile app. I think it’s great that Facebook is adding new features and improvements on a regular basis and I understand that by using Web technologies, it can make these changes on the server side; you don’t have to update your Facebook app as a result.

But for the time being, I’m going to switch to m.facebook.com in my smartphone browser. I did some testing this afternoon and the experience is far faster, up to date and generally offers the same features as the native mobile app.

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Einladung zum Webcast: Extensis Suitcase Fusion 4
Das ist neu!

post from Manage This on 15 May 2012 05:03:43 PM. © Manage This

[...]

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Quick tip: Reclaim space in a pinch on iOS
devices

post from Apple on 15 May 2012 05:03:41 PM. © Apple

I should have bought the 32 GB iPhone, I thought to myself as I tried to update GarageBand on my iPhone. I don’t have enough space to download the update, the dialog box tells me.

For those of us that tend to fill our phones to the brim with apps and media, this is a familiar scenario. However, there’s a neat trick to make it easier to temporarily reclaim space on your iOS device. In short, simply delete music on your device until you have enough room, and then resync (wirelessly, of course) with iTunes when you don’t need the extra space anymore. All of the music you deleted will be right back where it was.

Deleting music is easy. In the Music app, you swipe across the title of an artist/song/album, then hit the delete button that appears. By deleting all the albums by Modest Mouse on my phone, I was able to save about 600 MB of space, which was enough to download the GarageBand update. A quick resync later, and my music was back.

If you have any more tips on saving space in iOS, tell us about them in the comments.

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Judge comes down hard on publishers, Apple in
e-book case

post from Apple on 15 May 2012 05:03:41 PM. © Apple

In a strongly worded opinion, US District Judge Denise Cote rejected requests by Apple and five book publishers to throw out a class action suit that accuses them of price-fixing.

Citing ongoing state, federal and international antitrust investigations, Cote turned down arguments that Apple and the publishers had acted independently when they changed the pricing model for e-books. (For more details on the case, see “Everything you need to know about the DOJ lawsuit in one post.”)

Cote’s opinion is at times remarkable for the emphatic language in which she decries the alleged conspiracy. It is also noteworthy for citing the late Steve Jobs on several occasions to suggest that Apple was at the center of it:

In short, Apple did not try to earn money off of eBooks by competing with other retailers in an open market; rather, Apple ‘accomplished this goal by [helping] the suppliers to collude, rather than to compete independently.’
[...]
Finally, Jobs? prescient prediction at the iPad launch that the prices consumers would be paying for eBooks would all ‘be the same’ and the other quotations from Jobs, Murdoch and Sargent, combine to provide ample evidence that the Publisher Defendants had agreed with each other to undertake collective action to raise eBooks? prices and that Apple intentionally and knowingly joined that conspiracy.

Apple has argued that its entry to the e-book marketplace was pro-competitive at a time when Amazon controlled 90 percent of e-book sales. The company has also stated that it had no motive to raise e-book prices at a time when it was looking to attract content onto its new iPad tablet.

Cote said Apple had the motive to act as the hub of a conspiracy:

Finally, the fact that Apple might have had different motivations for joining the conspiracy, and was involved in only a portion of it, does not undermine the existence of the conspiracy itself or Apple?s role as a participant.

Cote does not address what may have been the plaintiffs’ strongest argument for an Apple conspiracy — that Jobs conspired with the publishers in order to slow Amazon’s rise into the tablet market.

What it means in the bigger picture

Judge Cote’s ruling came in response to a request by Apple and five publishers to dismiss the case. It does not mean that the companies are liable for price-fixing, but rather that the class action lawyers can go forward in bringing the case to trial.

Cote’s strong language, however, reinforces that Apple and the publishers may be in a deep hole. Three of the publishers (Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster) have already settled an antitrust lawsuit with the Department of Justice and agreed to change their pricing practices.

The three publishers are also in negotiations with state governments under which they are likely to pay tens of millions in consumer restitution. In plain English, this means that people who bought an e-book in the last few years may receive a small settlement payment.

The publishers appear to have entered negotiations with the states (led by Connecticut and Texas) in order to escape the clutches of the class action lawyers. Any settlement would largely excuse them from having to pay again in the class action suit.

That leaves two publishers — Penguin and Macmillan — as holdouts. Both Macmillan CEO John Sargent and Penguin CEO John Makinson have stated that their companies did nothing wrong.

Apple is unlikely to budge, in part because the pricing system it used with the publishers (in which takes a 30 percent commission) is the same one it uses with providers of other types of content. In the past, Apple has been anything but shy about litigating.

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Glassboard 2.0

post from Daring Fireball on 15 May 2012 05:03:38 PM. © Daring Fireball

Brent Simmons:

We at Sepia Labs just released Glassboard 2.0 for iPhone andAndroid. There?s even a new web app — in beta (still suffers fromcats). (All three apps are free.)

Two things.

First, Brent is a friend and someone whose work I’ve long admired. When Brent does something new, it’s a sure thing I’m going to check it out. I did that with Glassboard, and, I must admit, I didn’t get it at first. Just didn’t see how I’d use it. But then I went to a weekend-long conference where a dozen or so of my friends set up a board on Glassboard. We shared notes, jokes, links, and things like where we going to eat and drink. All of it private, with instant SMS-like notification of new messages and comments. Now I don’t know what I’d do without Glassboard.

Second, the user interface in version 2.0 is so much improved over 1.0, I’m not even sure where to start. It’s a great update to what was already a great app and service.

?

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Car Xpenses 1.4 for iOS - App Manages Vehicle
Services and Maintenance

Umbrella Corporation has announced Car Xpenses 1.4, an update to its productivity app designed for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. Never have to worry again when your car needs its next oil change or the last time you replaced battery. Car Xpenses was developed specifically to manage all of your vehicles expenses, services and maintenance needs, as well as help you save time and cost with the addition of a maintenance history. Version 1.4 includes Fixes and enhancements.

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Ringtone Maker is a smart assistant in making new
awesome ringtones

Ringtone Maker is a smart assistant in making new awesome ringtones. Feeling tired of boring standard ringtones? This app will help you to surprise your friends with the new fresh ringtone. You can make ringtones in a few seconds, just bring your favorite song from library, mark the part you wish to be your ringtone and click the save button. All created ringtones can be found by tapping "Ringtones" button, you can view and listen your ringtones.

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The case against an Apple television, plus 4
other Apple stories to read today

With so many people writing about Apple, finding the best stories and reports isn’t easy. Here’s our daily pick of stories about the company from around the Web that you shouldn’t miss:

Not everyone thinks Apple will do a television set. Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves makes a case against it, including that “investment in Apple television makes little sense without a unique” content offering. Read Fortune’s take here.
Remember Psystar? A string of judges said the company was not entitled to sell their own computers with Apple’s OS X operating system, still they took their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, the justices declined to hear the case, CNET reports.
Despite our earlier fears, Apple is helping OS X Leopard users with last month’s malware issue after all. Ars Technica has the details on Apple’s new Flashback removal tool for Leopard.
Following a flurry of both rumors and news about what Apple has planned in the coming months, PC World has a good forecast of what we could see (or not) at WWDC in June.
Despite changing the name from iPad with Wi-FI + 4G to iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular, Apple is not off the hook in Australia. The country’s top watchdog group, the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission, that sued the iPad maker over the product name for being misleading will still get its day in court with Apple, writes the SmartHouse blog.

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