Wednesday, September 30, 2009
iPhone GPS apps: Aha for traffic, CoPilot for directions
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Google Now Syncs Desktop and Mobile Search History
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Debut of 4G networks to cost U.S. carriers $1.78 billion
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mSpot offers full-length movies for iPhone, more

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iPhone App Gets Zipcar Drivers on Their Way
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iPhone 'undisputed' leader in customer satisfaction, study reports
Okay, so iPhone now has MMS, but why not just use email?
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The Developer Sketchbook for iPhone Apps
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1Shoot Uses iPhone Accelerometer to Take Photos
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10 Ways Microsoft Can Turn Around Windows Mobile
- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said earlier this week that his company made some mistakes with Windows Mobile that he hopes to address (and fix) going forward. According to reports, Ballmer told those he was speaking with that Microsoft quot;screwed up with Windows Mobile. quot; He also indicated ...
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Product News: Conspire Offers Mac Users Collaborative Whiteboard





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AdMob: iPhone OS Grabs 40% of Worldwide Smartphone Ad Request Share
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MacPractice upgrades, optimizes iPhone Interface 2.0

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PowerbookMedic launches new DualDrives for MacBooks

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Apple Genius Bar tech claims NYC iPhone calls drop at rate of 30 percent
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Microsoft ignores Apple’s iPhone, the world’s dominant mobile software platform, at its own risk
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New Bento 3 Integrates with iPhoto
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ASMP Goes Live with New iPhone App
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iPhone, Android, Pre trump others in satisfaction

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Debut of next-gen networks to cost U.S. carriers $1.78 billion
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Apple tech claims 30 percent drop rate for NYC iPhone calls

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IconBurglar 1.2 saves favorite icons in Burglar Bag

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Apple’s Mac set to have best year ever; over 10 million Macs sold in 2009
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The Microsoft Tax: Banking Trojan horse steals money from Windows sufferers; Mac users unaffected
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Apple update sweetens iWork.com
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Product News: QuickBooks 2010 Due in October





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SMS Helper Counts the Characters While Sending an iPhone SMS
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BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac Launches October 2nd
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Intuit Announces QuickBooks 2010 for Mac
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2009 AP Stylebook Now Available for iPhone
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Dropbox for iPhone Now Available
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Akamai HD Network to Deliver HD Video to iPhones
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Custom Cocoa Framework
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Tweetie pricing fuss highlights App Store flaw






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Block Drop Available for iPhone
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Apple Tablet to Redefine Print?
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Snow Leopard can once again Growl
Storage site Dropbox releases iPhone app
Intuit readies new version of QuickBooks
A depressingly familiar strongman
Moussa Dadis Camara said his coup would be different. But as scores of protesters are gunned down, west Africa is in real peril
The next time you reach for a saucepan or cover your holiday turkey in foil, you'll probably be using a small piece of the west African state of Guinea â€" the world's largest bauxite exporter. The country, as resource-rich as it is desperately poor, has been plagued since independence in 1958 by authoritarian, brutal and corrupt regimes. The next few months could begin to change all that, or usher in another rights-abusing government that profits as much from impunity as from your cookware.
Guineans were relieved when there was a bloodless coup last December after the death of the longtime president, Lansana Conté. Not only had the feared battle for succession among army factions been averted, but the coup leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, vowed to root out corruption and hold elections within 60 days. Better yet, he promised not to run. "I have never had the ambition of power," he said at the time.
In the weeks that followed, optimism swept through the squalid quartiers of the capital, Conakry, like an unanticipated gift. It bowled over even the most cynical critics at home and abroad, who urged the world to give the young man a chance. Camara "seemed sincere," said President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. "This group of military men deserves support."
The charismatic captain in his signature red beret was cheered when he embarked on a campaign to rid Guinea of the narco-traffickers who had turned Guinea into a veritable criminal state. Hats flew when Camara's boys chased the Hummers preferred by the narcos out of Dodge and arrested erstwhile untouchables, including the former president's son and high-ranking police officers.
When Camara turned his sights on the corrupt political elite who had for decades obscenely siphoned off the proceeds from vast mineral wealth, Guineans saw light at the end of the tunnel. "I was born in a hut. I walked to school … Money means nothing to me," he said. Le Peuple, riveted to their TV screens, cheered as they watched Camara interrogate, scold and humiliate former high-ranking officials.
But then disconcerting things started happening: heavily armed soldiers carjacked vehicles and raided shops and homes. Groups of soldiers accused of coup plotting or nothing at all were detained without charge and shipped off to a notorious island prison while hushed family members spoke of the injuries they'd sustained in custody.
Human rights lawyers and heads of political parties received intimidating visits and calls by soldiers questioning their conduct or "inviting" them for a chat at the military camp-cum-seat of government.
As the weeks passed, the military house-cleaning was increasingly characterised by trampling of basic human rights. Public interrogations amid threats that common criminals "will be shot without trial" undermined the presumption of innocence. The powerful minister tasked with fighting serious crimes urged youths to form vigilante patrols and burn criminals caught "red-handed".
As opposition voices gained momentum, bans on phone text-messaging and political activity were imposed. Soldiers rolled up to stop rallies and on a few occasions, raided opposition party headquarters. As journalists questioned Camara's increasing grip on power, he outlawed all political content on popular radio phone-in shows. While some bans were later overturned, the message to journalists and opponents was clear: Camara was ready to silence them if he wanted to.
Camara recently reversed his promise not to run in the presidential election, now set for January, hinting that only a military man was up to the task of ridding Guinea of the twin evils of corruption and narco-trafficking. "It is in the hands of God," the captain has said. For many Guineans who have known nothing but weak institutions and authoritarian government, backing the strongman may seem the safest option.
What happens over the next few months matters greatly: to families of the thousands of political prisoners who perished in Camp Boiro, the notorious gulag of Guinea's first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré, and those of the scores of demonstrators gunned down by Camara's security forces. It matters to the millions of Guineans who for decades have been denied the right to elect their leaders freely, much less have access to good schools and decent clinics for their children.
It matters to the people of neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia, whose fragile democracies would be undermined by the cross-border flow of arms and former combatants should Guinea's increasingly fractured army degenerate into factional infighting. It matters to west Africa's international partners, who have spent billions on nation-building there. And it matters to Africans continent-wide who are worried that coups and constitutional annulments allowing illegitimate heads of state to stay on indefinitely have come back into fashion.
Read the full story here, from Guardian Unlimited
BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac due on October 2nd

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Apple's Tablet Effort Aiming to Redefine Print Media?
Read the full story here, from MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors
TMO Quick Tip: iPhone: Emailing Multiple Photos





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NFL Hall of Famers support college player in lawsuit against Electronic Arts
FROM GAMERTELL - NFL Hall of Famers Jim Brown and Herb Adderley are joining former NCAA quarterback Sam Keller in charging that Electronic Arts is making money off them without proper compensation…
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Lloyds International’s Aussie arm dumps RIM’s BlackBerry for Apple’s iPhone
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
EyeTV for iPhone joins the ranks of TV streaming apps
Apple Can't Sell Business Laptops
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iPhone significantly affecting app development

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Akamai launches network for widescale HD, iPhone streaming

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Brussels targets carbon trading fraud
The EU is desperate to get its house in order ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit in December
The European commission announced an overhaul of the EU's VAT system today in its latest attempt to prevent its much-vaunted carbon trading system being riddled by multimillion-pound fraud.
Criminals who for years had been ripping off VAT from finance ministries around the EU on the trade of items such as mobile phones and computer chips have recently moved in on Europe's €90bn (£81bn) carbon market.
Last month Revenue & Customs raided 27 businesses and private addresses across London in relation to a suspected £38m VAT fraud on carbon credits. It has since released nine suspects on bail but the investigation is continuing.
With just two months to go before the Copenhagen climate summit in December, the EU is desperate to get its house in order as it tries to get its form of "cap-and-trade" carbon trading scheme adopted around the world as a key weapon against carbon emissions.
Officials know that a carbon market leaking millions to VAT "carousel" fraudsters would be difficult to sell on the international stage so it has moved quickly in response to a surge in VAT fraud on carbon this summer.
Brussels said it would harmonise policy between EU states and introduce a so-called "reverse charge" mechanism, which would remove the need for VAT to change hands between carbon traders every time carbon credits are sold.
Surge
This was the method adopted by the Dutch government in July as carbon traders noticed a surge in trading volumes that could only be attributed to fraud. The French government simply removed VAT from carbon markets, while the British made carbon trading zero-rated for VAT purposes.
The three countries are home to the bloc's main carbon exchanges: Climex in Amsterdam, BlueNext in Paris and London's Climate Spot Exchange and European Climate Exchange.
László Kovács, the European commissioner for taxation and customs, said: "VAT carousel fraud is against member states' finances and they should have the means to combat it efficiently. However, actions taken against this fraud should be taken in a consistent manner across the EU and clear evaluation criteria should be established.
"Very recently, several member states have been confronted with carousel fraud related to greenhouse-gas emission allowances … the very high mobility of these allowances and the very high amounts at stake are an important element."
A Treasury spokesman said: "The UK government took decisive action in July to protect taxpayer revenue from the threat of VAT fraud on carbon credits.
"We support the commission in seeking an EU-wide solution and will consider any proposal carefully."
Missing trader
In its simplest form, the fraud occurs when a trader of credits in, say, Britain, buys some from another country free of VAT, then sells them on within Britain, charging the VAT to the buyer. The seller then disappears without handing the VAT over to the taxman. This is known as "missing trader" fraud.
Some criminals re-export the credits, reclaiming VAT as they do so, then re-import them again. They can do this repeatedly, reclaiming VAT many times, hence the term "carousel" fraud.
Britain lost billions of pounds to carousel fraud, mainly on mobile phones, in 2006 and 2007 before the government changed the mobile trade to "reverse charge" VAT, meaning the tax was only levied on the final buyer and removed from the supply chain.
The European Union's carbon market is now worth about €90bn a year. It is a combination of futures and spot trading and it is the largely unregulated spot market that has been targeted this summer by the fraudsters.
Sophisticated
The European police agency, Europol, has said it is convinced many other carbon credit VAT frauds have been committed across Europe but the total losses to national governments are largely unknown, although probably run in to the hundreds of millions of euros.
"This represents a considerable degree of sophistication on the part of the fraudsters," said Andrew Roycroft, a tax lawyer with Norton Rose.
He noted that the commission had also empowered member states to bring in a reverse charge on other items where fraud is suspected, including trade in perfume and in precious metals such as platinum â€" widely used in jewellery and catalytic converters in cars.
"There is clearly a problem in more than one member state and not just in the markets for mobile phones and carbon credits," he said.
Read the full story here, from Guardian Unlimited
Analyzing Apple's Threat to Sony, Nintendo
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Ballmer: Apple’s Mac is ‘expensive,’ Safari browser market share is a ‘rounding error’
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Apple adds ‘Apps for Everything’ collections to website
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The Deepening, a modern choose-your-own-adventure web game
FROM GAMERTELL - In this free web game, you control the fates of the two officers trying to save the day…
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Product News: Djay 3 Adds Beat Detection, Effects, More to Mac DJ Software





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Open-Xchange Delivers Push Email, Sync for BlackBerry, iPhone and More
- Open-Xchange's new OXtender for Business Mobility enables users to receive push e-mail and synchronization of contacts, calendar and other information from their Open-Xchange account to their smartphones, including Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia, Windows Mobile and others. The new capability i...
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Apple adds Apps for Everything collections
CNN launches iPhone app with video, iReport integration

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Product News: Freeverse Converts Your iPhone Into Eye Glasses





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