Jordan Ostreff

Best Buy is offering Apple's June 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station -- the current model that Apple sells new for $179 -- for $89.99 as its deal of the day.

Apple sells the same device refurbished for $139.

Originally released June 2011

The sleek, easy-to-use AirPort Extreme Base Station with simultaneous dual-band support is the perfect wireless access point for home, school or small business. It offers fast, 802.11n Wi-Fi access for Mac computers, PCs and Wi-Fi devices such as iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV.

The FCC has published paperwork, discovered by Engadget, that Apple filed late last week on what appears to be a new model of the Apple TV. This follows on yesterday's revelation that iOS 6.1 included support for an as yet unrevealed AppleTV3,2 model.

Engadget writes:

While the diagram pictured above doesn't suggest any major changes to the device's appearance, it does list some slightly smaller measurements: 93.78mm square compared to the 98mm of the current model. That's certainly not the biggest of differences, but the measurements in previous Apple FCC filing have been spot on. The model number, A1469, is also one that we haven't seen before, but the documents unfortunately don't offer much else in the way of details (only confirmation of the same WiFi capabilities as the current-gen Apple TV).

In the middle of this month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo -- who has been accurate in the past -- posted his expectations for Apple's various product launches this year. He expected a new Apple TV model late in the first calendar quarter, which lines up with the filing.

THX, the company behind Lucasfilm's audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters, A/V equipment, and more, has released a new iPhone app to assist consumers with calibrating their HDTV's and home theater setups. The app is currently free for one week, but will rise to $1.99 after.


THX prefers that users connect the app to their television via Apple's official HDMI adapter, but AirPlay Mirroring can also be used for the visual tests -- audio tests won't work over the AirPlay protocol.

But those that do try out THX's method will be rewarded with modest improvements. In our tests, it worked as advertised. Speaking to The Verge, company reps made clear that Tune-Up isn't meant to be a substitute for having a professional visit your home for a thorough calibration. Instead, it's a tool that can (fairly quickly) help your new TV look better than it did the first time you turned it on. And as an added bonus, you'll be able to play the famous "deep note" that moviegoers hear before THX-certified movies in lossless audio.

THX tune-up is a free download on the App Store for 1 week, before rising to $1.99. [Direct Link]

Last week, Apple pulled the 500px photo sharing app from the App Store over concerns about "artistic" nude photographs on the service.

Today, according to reports from both TechCrunch and 500px's Twitter feed, the app has returned to the store.

The app returns with an age-gate warning, advising that the content in the app is for 17+ audiences, and also adds a new “Report Photo” button to help users quickly tag things they find offensive for potential removal from the network.

The app still has a category for “Nude” photos for logged in users, however, which is an impressive allowance on Apple’s part

The return of the app follows the removal of Twitter's Vine as an 'Editor's Pick' on the App Store after a pornography scandal on that platform.

500px is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Microsoft today announced the launch of its latest Office software suite, updating its applications for Windows machines to new 2013 versions and launching a new Office 365 subscription option.

While the $99-per-year Office 365 option allows for installation on up to five computers, Mac users will continue to receive Office 2011 applications until an updated version of Office for Mac becomes available. Office for Mac versions typically follow about 12-18 months behind their Windows counterparts.

Office 365 Home Premium is available in 162 markets in 21 languages and includes the following:

- The latest and most complete set of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access

- One license for the entire household to use Office on up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs or Macs, and Office on Demand available from any Internet-connected PC

- An additional 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, nearly three times the amount available with a free SkyDrive account

- 60 free Skype world calling minutes per month to call mobile phones, landlines or PCs around the world

- Future upgrades, so you always use the latest time-saving technology

Office 365 Home Premium is priced at $9.99 per month or $99 per year, while college and university students, faculty, and staff are eligible for Office 365 University priced at $79.99 for a four-year subscription.

Aside from the Office 365 subscription plans, Windows users are also offered the option of standalone Office 2013 packages including Office Home & Student ($139.99), Office Home & Business ($219.99), and Office Professional ($399.99). There are no ongoing costs with the standalone installations, and a version of Office typically remains current for three years.

Rumored 5th Generation iPad (left) vs iPad mini (right)
9to5Mac has an unconfirmed image of what could be the rear panel for the next iPad. The image matches up very closely with a report from last week.

While we cannot confirm that the above image is legitimate, it does provide a solid representation of what Apple’s next iPad will likely look like. We were told this is a prototype back piece for the fifth-generation iPad with a 9.7-inch display. We were also told that the casing is almost as thin as the iPad mini’s back (pictured to the right). As you can see at the top of the purported iPad 5 backplate, this casing would likely be for an LTE model – as the black antenna cut implies.

The report lines up with iLounge's first description of the new iPad which is expected to arrive in October with smaller, iPad mini-esque bezels and chamfered edges and curves.

What does it look like? Well, it’s a lot smaller than one would guess was possible: in portrait orientation, picture a 9.7” screen with virtually no left or right bezels, and only enough space above and below the screen to accommodate the mandatory camera and Home Button elements. Beyond that, it’s noticeably thinner, as well, which is to say the the fifth-generation iPad will be smaller in every dimension than its predecessors. As it will have the same chamfered edges and curves, calling it a “stretched iPad mini” is very close to entirely accurate.

Leaks of parts for upcoming Apple products are becoming more and more common as the Asian supply chain grows larger.

Twitter's six-second video sharing app Vine made headlines early this morning after The Verge discovered that an 'Editor’s Pick' clip within the app linked to pornographic content.

Vine's Editor's Picks are curated content and are therefore displayed at the top of the app, which means a large portion of Vine's users saw the feed containing the inappropriate clip.



Apple originally featured Vine last Friday, shortly after its release, but the Cupertino-based company has now reversed that decision and is no longer promoting Vine via the Editor's Choice section in the App Store.

According to a Twitter spokesperson who spoke to The Verge, the pornographic video was the result of human error.

A human error resulted in a video with adult content becoming one of the videos in Editor’s Picks, and upon realizing this mistake we removed the video immediately. We apologize to our users for the error.

Apple was not satisfied with Twitter's apology, but the app did not receive the same treatment as 500px, which was removed from the App Store last week because it allowed users to search for nude photos.

Though Vine has not been kicked off the App Store, Apple has ceased all promotions for the app. In addition to removing Vine from Editor's Choice, the app is no longer listed under the 'New and Noteworthy' section and it is not featured in the social apps category.

The Verge reports that Vine has begun to hide inappropriate content within the app and is now blocking searches for several pornographic terms. Searching for the offending words no longer brings up search results, though inappropriate content can still be accessed when tapping on a tag.

In its iOS 6.1 press release today, Apple disclosed some impressive usage numbers for iOS 6 and the iOS platform. As of today, nearly 300 million iOS devices -- iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch -- are running iOS 6, with nine billion photos uploaded to Photo Stream, 450 billion iMessages sent and over four trillion notifications received.


Of these, perhaps the most impressive is that 300 million devices are currently running iOS 6. That is, as EdibleApple points out, roughly 60 percent of all iOS devices ever sold:

During Apple’s most recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple to date has sold over 500 million iOS devices. If we put those pieces together we see that over half of every iOS device ever sold is now running the most recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Contrast that of course to Android where a scant minority of users are ever caught running the most recent iteration of Android.

The Next Web notes that Apple sold some 75 million iOS devices in the December quarter alone, all of which are running iOS 6, plus 100 million upgrades to iOS 6 in its first week of availability back in September.

Apple has clearly been successful in keeping devices upgraded to the latest version of iOS, particularly through the over-the-air update feature that was introduced last year in iOS 5. This keeps iOS devices secure, and keeps users up to date with the latest new features to come out of Cupertino.

With the release of iOS 6.1 this morning, Apple introduced a minor change to Passbook, restoring the former "Welcome" screen to the app.

When Passbook was first introduced with iOS 6, it opened with a page that gave users a quick way to locate and download Passbook-enabled apps. Unfortunately, the Welcome screen disappeared after a single Passbook app was downloaded, making it difficult to discover additional apps that used the functionality.


iOS 6.1 has made the Welcome screen a permanent fixture in the app, and it can now be found below other Passbook cards. Tapping the Welcome card opens a list of apps that use Passbook in the App Store.

Though Apple includes a Passbook section in the App Store, the newly permanent Welcome card provides a faster way to find Passbook-enabled apps.

Apple's Passbook included just a handful of apps at launch, but the service has proven to be popular with both users and developers. Apple's list of Apps for Passbook now includes more than 20 apps, including those from major retailers like Fandango, Target, Sephora, and Walgreens.

Following the release of iOS 6.1, Apple has updated its Xcode developer toolset as well. The new version, Xcode 4.6, includes improvements in code completion heuristics, new compiler warnings, and other coding improvements.

What's new

- Includes SDKs for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and iOS 6.1.
- Code completion heuristics are more accurate, and use an optimized default data set.
- New compiler warnings help identify potential bugs when using ARC and weak references.
- C++11 support for ‘user defined literals’ and ‘unrestricted unions’ features.
- Debugger can inspect elements within NSArray or NSDictionary objects.
- Analyze now performs deeper cross-function static analysis of Objective-C and C++ code.
- The number of indexing passes is reduced due to improved dependency checking.
- Additional bug fixes and stability improvements.

Xcode 4.6 is available as a free download from the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]