Apple news this week was dominated by a recent vulnerability in the Java plug-in for web browsers that affected all computers, not just Macs. The potential threat was pretty much a non-issue as Apple used the OS X “Xprotect” system to disable affected versions of Java on Macs. Disabling Java in browsers was also recommended by many, including MacMost (http://macmost.com/disable-java-in-your-browser.html). Oracle quickly issued an update to Java to fix this vulnerability.
FaceTime may soon realize its full potential. The largest iPhone carrier in the U.S., AT&T, is about to allow FaceTime video chat over its network to all customers except those still using the original unlimited data plan. Other major carriers already allow FaceTime.
On Wall Street AAPL had a busy week as the stock was hit with fears that iPhone parts orders have been cut. But other analysts disagreed saying the cuts were only a sign of changes in Apple’s supply lines and the stock rebounded.
Here’s a very addictive world building and exploration game. In The Blockheads you move around and explore a world while also building a home. There seems to be almost endless gameplay here, with only time being the limit — and there are in-app purchases that speed that up. It takes a few minutes to figure out how to do things, but once you get the hang of it you’ll find it is a lot of fun and very addictive.
Often you come across poorly-designed web pages that have download links that don’t quite work. You can get around these problems by Control+clicking on a link to a file and choosing Download Linked File or Download Linked File As. The second one will let you choose a specific location for the file, instead of just using the default Download folder.
It has been 6 years since the original iPhone announcement and the disappointing news that it would only be available in the U.S. and on a single carrier. But since then, Apple has slowly increased international availability and expanded to almost every U.S. carrier.
This week saw even more activity as Walmart began offering the iPhone with an unlimited data plan and rumors increased that T-Mobile will soon offer the iPhone. Currently, you can bring your unlocked iPhone to T-Mobile and reportedly hundreds of thousands of people do just that.
There are rumors, again, that a low-cost iPhone may come out this year, but perhaps only to certain countries like China and other emerging markets. In the past rumors of lower-priced iPhones have only led to Apple’s carrier partners keeping older versions of the iPhone, like the iPhone 3Gs or 4, available as a free-with-plan option.
In other news, Apple tweaked its product offerings this week. You can now get a Fusion drive with a 21.5-inch iMac. The prices went down and options increased for official Thunderbolt cables as well.
Ever accidentally hit the Caps Lock key and only realize it after typing a few lines of text? You can quickly change all those letters to lower case in most apps by selecting the text and choosing Edit, Transformations, Make Lower Case.
“Was he in a car accident?”
“No. He hurt his neck Watching Apple’s stock price go up and down.”
Apple set its earning report date for Jan. 23, amid talk from analysts that it achieved yet another record holiday quarter. One analyst believes Apple sold as many as 50 million iPhones and 24 million iPads. Meanwhile, Wall Street pushed Apple stock up after lawmakers reached an agreement concerning the U.S. “fiscal cliff.”
One hiccup did arise over the new year as the Do Not Disturb function of iOS devices stopped automatically turning itself off. The bug will fix itself, according to Apple, on Jan. 7.
Apple has been featuring movie trailers as content on their web site for years now. I think it started as a way to show off QuickTime. Now it has grown into a free iPhone and iPad app called iTunes Movie Trailers. But in addition to just viewing the trailers, you can also get movie times in a no-nonsense grid. There are even links to buying tickets, map locations, photo galleries, movie details and reviews.
With an app updated for Mountain Lion, such as Pages, you can choose File, Move To while the document is open. This will place the file in a new location while you are editing it. You can also choose Rename to change the file name of the document while it is open.
