Tweetbot for iOS Updates to 2.3, Adds New Tweet Detail View, Gestures, New Video Features
Tapbots announced an update for its popular iOS Twitter client, Tweetbot. Updates include:
Travis County Commissioners Approve Amended Incentives Deal for Apple Austin Campus
Apple Austin facility. Image from webpronews.com.
The Austin Statesman reports on a 4-1 vote by Travis County Commissioners in favor of providing significant tax rebates for Apple to being a new technology campus to North Austin.
The deal provides a total of approximately $36 million dollars in rebates for Apple over the next 13 years. As part of the amended agreement, an average salary of $35,000 per year must be maintained for the bottom 10 percent of workers employed by Apple as well as a minimum wage of $11 per hour for contractors, but there must be a total hiring increase of 3,665 by the end of 2025.
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Is ‘Mastered For iTunes’ Music Better?
Apple initiated a Mastered for iTunes Program to provide guidelines and utilities for music producers and content creators to ensure that the best audio is presented to Apple for iTunes encoding, with the goal of providing uncompressed quality sound in the AAC file format that iTunes distributes.
Although it’s possible to remaster from a previously mastered CD source with positive results, in order to qualify as Mastered for iTunes remastered content must begin with a high resolution digitization of the original analog source and must sound noticeably superior to the previously released version. Songs and albums submitted to the iTunes Store as remastered content will be reviewed to ensure that the sound quality shows discernible improvement.
Ars Technica asked Chicago Mastering Service engineers Jason Ward and Bob Weston to see if they could tell the difference between audio labeled as “Mastered for iTunes” and traditional music.
Share this post:Apple now uses an improved compression chain to retain as much sonic “detail” as possible when converting from submitted masters to iTunes Plus tracks. The initial 24/96 file is converted to a 32-bit floating point intermediary, which is then directly downsampled during the AAC encoding process. According to Apple, this results in a superior compressed file with less noise.
To test this, Ward downloaded a track from a recently mastered album available on iTunes. He then loaded the original 24/96 master file and used Apple’s supplied iTunes mastering tools to compress the file to iTunes Plus format. He then played both tracks back in iTunes, using the studio’s equipment to switch back and forth between the two versions. The version created directly from the 24/96 master did indeed have a slightly brighter, crisper sound, according to our observations.
Apple Issues Invitations To Developers To Obtain Developer ID Ahead of OS X Mountain Lion Launch
Apple issued direct email invitations to registered developers to sign up for a Developer ID ahead of the expected launch of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
Apple’s Gatekeeper feature, expected to be launched this summer as part of OSX Mountain Lion, is an extra layer of security designed to prevent Malware from entering the system. Apps with a registered Developer ID allows Gatekeeper to verify against a database of known apps that are not malware.
The Mac App Store is the safest place for users to get software for their Mac, but we also want to protect users when they get applications from other places. Gatekeeper is a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion that helps protect users from downloading and installing malicious software. Signing your applications, plug-ins, and installer packages with a Developer ID certificate lets Gatekeeper verify that they are not known malware and have not been tampered with.
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is widely expected to be a major topic at Apple’s WWDC, schedule for early June.
Share this post:Report: How Apple “Sidesteps” Billions in Corporate Taxes
The New York Times reports on how Apple “sidesteps” paying millions in corporate taxes by setting up offices in states and countries with low or no corporate tax rates.
Apple’s subsidiary company, Braeburn Capital, is located in Reno, Nevada, a state with a zero corporate tax rate. Also, Apple maintains subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands, and in the Caribbean.
Apple, for instance, was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed them to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes, according to former executives. Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean. Today, that tactic is used by hundreds of other corporations — some of which directly imitated Apple’s methods, say accountants at those companies.
Apple has not disclosed its corporate taxes paid on a federal or state level, but its last annual report shows that it paid $3.3 billion in taxes worldwide on profits of $34.2 billion, making an effective tax rate of 9.8 percent. U.S. based company Wal-Mart paid $5.9 billion in corporate taxes worldwide on booked profits of $24.4 billion, for a tax rate of 24.4 percent.
Corporate Taxes Vs. Profits. Source: The New York Times
Apple has since issued a response to the New York Times, highlighting its role in job creation in the U.S. and its generation of federal and state income taxes.
Share this post:Apple has conducted all of its business with the highest of ethical standards, complying with applicable laws and accounting rules. We are incredibly proud of all of Apple’s contributions.
Sources: Apple In Talks To Add EPIX Films to Apple TV and Future TV Devices
Reuters reports on sources revealing that Apple has begin talks with EPIX, a premium movie channel and on-demand service available online and to cable subscribers, to add their service to Apple TV and future devices such as an Apple branded TV or set-top box.
One of the sources told Reuters that any discussions would apply to its set-top box and also to upcoming devices that stream content. Apple is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or in early 2013 to drive its next phase of growth and potentially revolutionize the industry.
Such an agreement would be complicated by EPIX’s already existing agreement with Netflix, whom EPIX pays to stream content to its subscribers. Apple has declined to comment on “speculation,” and EPIX and Netflix declined comment as well.
Share this post:Missed out on WWDC Tickets? Attend Indie Developer Lab
Missed tickets for this year’s WWDC? How about attending IndieDevLab, which, by sheer coincidence, is happening at the same time as the WWDC.
Indie Developer Lab brings together the iOS and OS X developer community by bringing the heart of the big San Francisco conference to everybody –the labs. Here you can meet up with other professionals in the industry and get a second pair of eyes.
A place to focus.
The hackerspace has workstations with power, high speed wifi, air conditioning, and a good neighbor. Being only a couple of blocks from Moscone, this is your sanctuary.
A chance to connect.
Sit down, say hi. Grab a free snack and meet someone. Help the community by helping grow the community. Meet up with your friends and peers in the industry.
Tickets are available at a significantly lower price than WWDC, $100 per day, at IndieDevLab.
Source: Indie Dev Lab via iMore.
Share this post:New Apple Austin Facility ‘In Peril’ As Delays Mount, Apple ‘Frustrated’
Apple Austin facility. Image from webpronews.com.
Austin’s statesman.com reports that Apple’s plan to bring 3,600 new jobs to a new Austin facility are “in peril” as Apple is becoming “frustrated” with delays in the local government’s approvals of an incentives deal.
Dave Porter, the senior vice president for economic development at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, said “This deal is not done. It remains in peril. And Apple is frustrated,” and mentioned that Travis County Commissioners want to add new conditions to the incentives deal.
“We were disappointed (the deal) wasn’t finalized this past Tuesday, but we were hopeful this next Tuesday that Apple and the county can complete the negotiation process and have that behind us,” he said. “We remain hopeful that will take place and there will be a positive vote on Tuesday.”
Bill Aleshire, an attorney and former Travis County judge, and Ed Wendler, an Austin-area developer, examined the draft final contract with Apple, pointing to parts of the contract they said will allow Apple to fall short of the requirements by the Commissioners Court.
Responding to Porter’s comments that Apple is frustrated by the county’s most recent action, Aleshire said: “I’m not sorry that Apple is frustrated. … That’s a sorry contract.”
Apple “had it rigged so they could not comply with the contract yet end up with county staff basically renegotiating the terms that they would have to comply with,” Aleshire said. “I just thought that was a major flaw. It showed up in several ways in several places.”
Via AppleInsider.
Share this post:Top Mac News Launches App Kiosk Application Store
Top Mac News has launched its App Kiosk, an applications store featuring a hand picked selection of great free and paid apps for Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Read reviews from editors, view all available screenshots for the app, and browse highlights. Users can install and purchase directly from the store.
We’d love to receive your own comments and reviews as well!
The Top Mac News App Kiosk is now available at apps.topmacnews.com.
The Top Mac News App Kiosk uses a platform from appstores.com.
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