Computer Chronicles episode highlights Apple in the late 90’s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-hD7xT_SbU

TUAW stumbled upon an old episode of Computer Chronicles — a show that aired on PBS during the 80's and 90's — which highlighted Apple's late 90's recovery, the iMac, and various other interesting Apple tidbits.

If you're feeling nostalgic, I highly recommend that you check out this episode, which was uploaded last August to YouTube. It just helps you to put into perspective how close Apple was to death back then.

Sleeper Tweak: BannerDisable

We talk about a lot of interesting things on Let's Talk Jailbreak, and one of them is the concept of sleeper tweaks. These are great tweaks, that for whatever reason have been forgotten, or fly under the radar. We've talked about a few of them on the Podcast, and I'd like to periodically talk about them on the blog.

One of the first sleeper tweaks that comes to my mind is BannerDisable. It came out before Do Not Disturb hit iOS, and it's a lot more forceful than iOS' built in DND feature. If you absolutely do not want any notifications disturbing you for any reason, then you should definitely have BannerDisable installed on your device.

Apple to pay $53 million in iPhone warranty class-action settlement

Have you been frustrated by Apple's repair or replacement policy? You could be in for some cash, according to a Friday report.

The iPhone maker supposedly has signed a settlement deal worth $53 million ending a class action lawsuit that claimed Apple dragged its feet on honoring warranties for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The settlement, reportedly signed Wednesday by Apple's head litigation attorney, could affect "hundreds of thousands" of iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS owners, as well as people who bought the first three generations of the iPod touch media player...

The next iPhone’s killer feature? Fingerprint scanning.

Most analysts tend to pull their predictions out of thin air. We were cagey about last month's Morgan Stanley report as it rather cryptically asserts Apple's next iPhone, the iPhone 5S, will have a "killer feature." Of course it will, stupid - every iPhone has at least one standout feature cunningly designed to convince existing users to upgrade.

The iPhone 3G had 3G networking, the iPhone 3GS had video, the iPhone 4 had the stunning form factor and Retina display and the iPhone 4S had Siri.

As for the current iPhone 5, it of course offers LTE and sports the dramatic two-tone design akin to a finely crafted watch. According to a rather reliable analyst, this year's S-upgrade to Apple's handset will have fingerprint scanning as an exclusive feature...

iPhone 4 discount triples India sales in under a week

More positive feedback on Apple's efforts to reshape practices in the face of emerging markets. Sales of the iPhone 4 in India tripled in only five days, following a trade-in program. The program is viewed by some as a "disguised discount" but the results are obvious for Apple and its plans to compete in a nation where smartphone sales are just taking off.

Although India does not have a subsidy program to soften the blow of a full-priced iPhone, Apple has found a way to reduce the sticker shock by sharing the handset's cost with a growing network of India's retailers...

T-Mobile airs its inaugural iPhone ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd4kIACVdLs

T-Mobile, the nation's fourth-largest carrier, today finally gets to sell Apple's iconic smartphone. We learned yesterday the Deutsche Telekom-owned telco has a massive ad blitz in the works to push the handset to the masses. And now, we just caught a glimpse of that campaign as T-Mobile starts airing its inaugural television commercial for the venerable iPhone...

Apple may have tasked former Adobe Flash expert with iWatch work

Last month, news broke that Apple hired Adobe's former Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch as its new VP of technology, reporting directly to Bob Mansfield who heads the new Technologies unit combining Apple's wireless and semiconductor teams. iDB, along with many other news outlets, opined how out of character the hiring evidently was given Lynch's history of public criticism of Apple's stance on Flash. According to a new report, the ex-Adobe exec may now be a part of the engineering group that's been developing a rumored Apple smartwatch project...

How to assign voice memos to an Activator gesture

Whenever you have Ryan Petrich's beta repo added to your Cydia sources, you're bound to run into a new surprise from time to time. That's because the prolific Cydia developer likes to test out some of his new creations on his personal repo before adding them to Cydia.

One of his latest creations is called Voice Memo Toggle for Activator. As its name states, it simply adds the ability to toggle voice memos on or off using an Activator gesture. The memos are taken using the iPhone's stock Voice Memos app, which makes it only available for the iPhone or iPod touch users. Take a look inside for a few additional details.

iPad 5: lighter and thinner thanks to tweaked display assembly

Several supply chain checks are now pointing to Apple's fifth-generation iPad being lighter and thinner over its predecessor, the iPad 4. According to one display expert, Apple will achieve the thinner appearance in a lighter device thanks to advancements in the display department. For starters, in reducing the size of LED backlighting and improving its efficiency, Apple engineers will be able to reduce the overall weight of the device. The company may also use a new kind of touch sensor, he speculated Friday...

Make your photos pop with PopAGraph

Since the dawn of the camera phone, photography hobbyists have found ways to turn low-resolution, pixelated images into works of art. When Apple put a camera in the iPhone, it literally changed the photography landscape, allowing anyone to turn the most mundane images into interesting photos using a wide variety of apps.

PopAGraph is a photo-editing app for the iPhone and iPod touch that takes it one step further by allowing you to mask objects and “pop” them out. This gives the impression of a virtual three-dimensional picture that you can share immediately on social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter...

French government takes issue with Apple’s AppGratis removal

The AppGratis app curation software is no longer available on the App Store but the controversy is far from being over. After AppGratis CEO Simon Dawalt lambasted Apple on a company blog for kicking his app out of the App Store, a move he called "an absolutely crazy situation to deal with," a French minister today slagged the iPhone maker over the ouster. Fleur Pellerin, France’s junior minister for digital economy, publicly described Apple’s decision to pull AppGratis as “extremely brutal and unilateral.”

She urged European regulators to “think about legislation” because Apple is not “behaving ethically" in its dealings with small startups like AppGratis...

Apple to sign Universal on iRadio next week, agrees to rates ‘neck and neck’ with Pandora

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place as a new report sourced from multiple people familiar with the matter claims that an agreement between Apple and Universal Music on iRadio is "imminent." History teaches us it only takes one major record until others others eventually back Apple's rumored Pandora-like streaming music service. Besides, Universal Music is the largest record label in the world. Warner Music is "right behind," though negotiations with Sony reportedly are not as far along...