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Google Updates YouTube for iOS App, Adds iPad, AirPlay, iPhone 5 Support

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Google has updated the YouTube for iOS app, adding native support for the iPad and the iPhone 5, as well as full support for streaming videos via AirPlay, reports The Next Web.

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Google’s Horia Ciurdar says that more than 25 percent of all YouTube watching happens on mobile. Since the launch of the YouTube app back in September, Ciurdar says Google has “been hard at work to improve the app based on your feedback.”

Now the YouTube app will get ‘enhanced’ AirPlay support, letting you shoot your videos over to your Apple TV. Videos are also said to start faster and play more smoothly. Google has also improved VoiceOver support for those with visual impairments.

During the iOS 6 Beta, Apple removed the native YouTube app that had been included on every iOS device since the platform was introduced. Once iOS 6 was publicly announced, Google released a native YouTube app for the iPhone.

YouTube for iOS is available as a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

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Amazon Adds X-Ray Searches with New Kindle for iOS Update

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Amazon today updated its Kindle for iOS app to version 3.5, adding X-Ray for books. With X-Ray, users can see detailed information on plot ideas, characters, and locations within novels.

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From the app description:

X-Ray for Books - see the "bones of the book." X-Ray helps you learn more about notable characters, places, and phrases with descriptions from Shelfari.com and Wikipedia.

X-Ray, which is a major selling point of Amazon's own Kindle devices, was previously introduced as a textbook-only feature with the 3.4 update for Kindle for iOS.

The feature is backed by Wikipedia and Shelfari, which is described as Amazon's community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. iOS 5 is required for the 3.5 update, which can be downloaded from the App Store.

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Apple Updates Pages, Numbers and Keynote for Mac and iOS

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Apple has released updates for both the iOS and Mac versions of iWork. The iOS versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote have experienced more significant updates, while the Mac versions have been updated mainly to support the iOS changes.

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Pages 1.7:

In this release Pages for iOS is updated for improved compatibility with Microsoft Word and Pages for Mac.

• Use Change Tracking to track changes to body text in a document
• Accept and reject individual changes as you review a document
• Import Pages and Microsoft Word documents with change tracking and continue to track changes to body text
• Preserve tracked changes in documents exported in Microsoft Word or Pages format
• Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Pages for Mac
• Add reflections to shapes
• Lock and unlock objects

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Numbers 1.7:

In this release Numbers for iOS is updated for improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel and Numbers for Mac.

• Hide and unhide rows and columns
• Import and export Numbers for Mac spreadsheets with filters, and turn filters on and off
• Preserve rich text in tables when importing and exporting
• Add reflections to shapes
• Lock and unlock objects

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Keynote 1.7:

In this release Keynote for iOS is updated for improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac.

• Import and export all Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac slide sizes
• Import and export presentation themes, complete with master slides and preset styles
• Play back all Keynote action builds including Move, Rotate, Scale, and Opacity
• Add new slide transitions including Shimmer and Sparkle
• Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Keynote for Mac
• Add reflections to shapes
• New print layouts include options to print with presenter notes, with builds, and without backgrounds
• Lock and unlock objects

About iWork 9.3 for Mac

iWork Update 9.3 adds support for iWork for iOS 1.7 apps.

This update is recommended for users of iWork 9.0 and later.

For detailed information on this update and individual application changes, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5534.

Updates for the Mac iWork apps are available via the Mac App Store for purchases made via the Store, or via Software Update for customers who originally purchased iWork in a box.

iOS updates can, as always, be downloaded via the App Store.

Pages [Mac App Store, iOS App Store]

Numbers [Mac App Store, iOS App Store]

Keynote [Mac App Store, iOS App Store]

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Apple Doubling Size of Fuel Cell Facility at North Carolina Data Center

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The Charlotte Observer reports that Apple has filed plans to double the size of its fuel cell facility at its data center in Maiden, North Carolina to 10 megawatts.

Fifty fuel cells adjacent to its $1 billion data center in Maiden are expected to be operating by January, Apple said in papers filed with the N.C. Utilities Commission. It will be fueled by “directed biogas” in which cleaned methane gas from a landfill is injected into a natural gas pipeline. [...]

California-based Apple says the initial 4.8-megawatt phase in Maiden began start-up and testing in October. In November it applied for an amended state permit to increase the project’s size.

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Fuel cells at Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California

In North Carolina, Apple is combining its fuel cell facility with two massive solar farms to help achieve the company's goal of using 100% renewable energy at all of its data centers. At its originally planned 4.8-megwatt capacity, Apple's fuel cell facility in North Carolina was already said to be the largest in the United States not owned by a utility company.

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Apple Lifts Two-Per-Customer Order Limit on iPhone 5

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In yet another sign that Apple's iPhone 5 stocks are returning to normal, Apple has lifted its limit of two iPhone 5's per customer. The top boilerplate in this image is from last week when Apple began selling the GSM iPhone 5 unlocked in the U.S., and the lower boilerplate is from today.

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In recent days, we've seen ship times for some countries drop as low as 2-4 business days. Additionally, an Apple Retail source tells us that the prior restrictions on retail iPhone 5 purchases -- two per transaction and a ten-phone lifetime limit -- have been changed to ten phones per transaction and no lifetime limit.

While normal customers are unlikely to need to purchase ten iPhones per transaction, the limits are likely aimed at the well-documented reseller phenomenon where entrepreneurs purchase Apple products in bulk and ship them to countries where those products are not yet for sale.

Since many of these devices are purchased for resale in China, it's possible that Apple's launch of the iPhone 5, iPad mini and 4th-generation iPad in that country later this month could lessen reseller demand.

The iPad mini retains its two-per-customer limit, however. Attempting to purchase more than two on the Apple Online Store displays the following notice:

A maximum of 2 iPad can be purchased per customer. Please adjust the total quantity of iPad in your order before checking out.

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Latest WebKit Builds Address Browser Scrolling Performance on Retina MacBook Pro Models

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Soon after the launch of the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro in June, we pointed to an analysis by AnandTech showing how the need to drive a massive number of pixels taxed the graphics capabilities of the machine to the point where it struggled to hit 20 frames per second while scrolling on resource-intensive web pages such as Facebook news feeds.

AnandTech now follows up with a new report based on a thread in our forums showing that the latest builds of WebKit, the open source browser engine upon which Safari is based, demonstrate dramatically improved frame rates during scrolling.

I grabbed a build (r135516 - it's no longer the latest build but I assume the later builds also contain the fix) and tried it out on the 13-inch rMBP. Scrolling down my Facebook news feed ended up being one of the best showcases for poor scrolling performance on the rMBPs, so that's obviously the first test I ran. As always I used Quartz Debug to measure UI frame rate.

The results show frame rates of around 20 frames per second (fps) under the standard Safari 6.0.2, but jump to nearly 50 fps when using nightly build r135516 of WebKit.

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Frame rates approaching 50 fps when scrolling in WebKit nightly build r135515

AnandTech hasn't been able to determine exactly what code changes were made to enable the significant boost to scrolling performance on Retina MacBook Pro models, and it is unclear exactly when those changes will be incorporated into Safari itself, but it certainly seems that a solution is on its way.

Related Forum: MacBook Pro
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Former Apple Employee Loren Brichter is Excited About Jony Ive's Promotion

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NewImageLoren Brichter, the creator of Letterpress and Tweetie, sat down with GigaOm to talk about developing iOS apps, the App Store, and more.

Brichter was a member of Scott Forstall's iPhone team early on, and though he didn't have much to say about Forstall's ouster from Apple, Brichter did have positive things to say about Ive's promotion:

"I’m excited about Ive" taking over the Human Interface group at Apple, where he will lead both industrial design and the design of the software that runs on it. "He has good taste." He paused. "But more important than good taste, he has the ability to" — he points to the MacBook Air in front of me — "he’s true to the materials, to the medium he’s working in. One of my complaints about design of iOS is it’s doing things that aren’t true to the hardware."

"My design goals with Letterpress were to do things that the graphics hardware was really good at. [Ive] is the kind of person who has the same aesthetic. It’s not superficial — he’d think about [the design of iOS and an iOS device] all the way through" not just make something that looked good, he said.

Brichter also disclosed that Letterpress has been downloaded more than 1 million times. Additionally, he developed his own version of the user interface framework -- bypassing Apple's UIKit -- because he "wanted to try."

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LaCie d2 External Hard Drives Upgraded With Thunderbolt Ports

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D2thunderboltLaCie's popular d2 series of hard drives have been upgraded with Thunderbolt, in addition to the existing USB 3.0 ports. There is a 3TB model for $299 and a 4TB unit for $399, both coming with 3-year warranties.

LaCie promises top performance from the drives, though they are hampered a bit by the legacy hard drives inside. Solid state drives are needed to achieve the highest transfer speeds. That said, for those needing maximum storage, these drives should do the trick.

Deadlines rule our world. When digital storage is critical for your project, it had better be as fast and reliable as you are. In every office setting, it has to connect to any computer, deliver more than enough speed for the most demanding applications, and be completely reliable. Enter the LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series.

The drives are available from LaCie's online store.

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ZeptoLab Teases 'Pudding Monsters', Its Next Game After 'Cut the Rope'

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Puddingmonster
ZeptoLab -- the development house behind Cut the Rope and its offspring -- has showed off its next project, another game called Pudding Monsters. We haven't seen any gameplay but TechCrunch got some hands-on time and has a brief preview:

Pudding Monsters is all about getting pieces of pudding to stick together. Unlike the physics-based puzzler Cut the Rope that made players focus on getting their timing just right, Pudding Monsters is an even more casual game and doesn’t focus on physics. Instead, it’s a more basic puzzle game where players have to move pieces of pudding around a board, but unless they hit an object or another piece of pudding, the pieces will fall of the board and the game is over. There are numerous game elements like pudding pieces that are asleep and wake up when you touch them that will keep surely keep gamers occupied and interested in the game for a while.


Pudding Monsters will arrive on the iPhone and iPad on December 20th.

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Work Underway on Apple's Expanded Operations Campus in Austin, Texas

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Back in March, the State of Texas announced that Apple would be pursuing a major expansion of its facilities in Austin, investing over $300 million to add 3,600 workers to its existing campus dedicated to customer support, sales, and accounting for the Americas. With various government approvals coming over the following months, Apple was then able to purchase the land in July, paving the way for the expansion project to begin.

The Austin American-Statesman now reports that there is indeed major work underway at the site.

There is major earthwork happening on the 38.8-acre site and the concrete shell of what appears to be a three-story office building is taking shape.

There are two cranes on the site, but there are no signs up yet that either describe the project, name the contractor or the eventual occupant.

The report notes that Apple's ultimate plans, which will take up to a decade to build out, consist of seven buildings totaling slightly over one million square feet and three parking garages housing 5,500 spaces.

apple austin entrance sign
Entrance sign at Apple's existing Austin campus (Source: Your News Now Austin)

Apple is in the midst of a major expansion of its facilities, from data centers in North Carolina, Oregon, and Nevada to its massive Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino that will house as many as 14,000 employees when it opens in 2016. In the meantime, Apple has been snapping up leased space throughout Silicon Valley and has just broken ground on a small campus in Santa Clara, California that will house roughly 1,200 employees.

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Google Releases Gmail 2.0 for iPhone and iPad

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Google has updated the Gmail for iOS app to version 2, bringing much requested features like multiple account support, autocomplete predictions for searching, an infinite scrolling inbox, and the ability to RSVP to Google Calendar invites from within the app.

gmail2

Six months ago, our team set out to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad to give you you a faster, sleeker, and easier experience on iOS. The result? Version 2.0. With version 2.0 of the app, you'll get a totally new look and feel, plus a bunch of improvements like profile pictures in messages, numerous new animations from swivels to transitions and infinite scrolling in the message lists.

The app also adds many new time-saving features. For example, when you search, autocomplete predictions will appear as you type, shaving off precious seconds (and typos). Plus, you can RSVP to Google Calendar invites as well as +1 and comment on Google+ posts directly from the app.

Last, but certainly not least, we've added a feature many of you have been waiting for: multiple account support. You can now login to up to five Google Accounts from the menu and switch between them with a couple taps.

Gmail for iOS can be downloaded free from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Note: Some users have reported issues downloading or updating to the new Gmail app, but Google promises the issues are only temporary.

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Qualcomm Investing in Sharp to Push IGZO Display Technology Forward

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iphone 5 displayThe Wall Street Journal reports that Qualcomm has agreed to invest up to $120 million in Sharp as part of an effort to prop up the ailing manufacturer of displays for a wide range of electronic devices. The deal will also see the two companies working together to push Sharp's new indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) technology that has been rumored for use in a number of Apple products.

Sharp and Qualcomm will work together to develop screens based on the Japanese company's new IGZO display technology and Qualcomm's microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, displays. The former, named for a new material used—indium gallium zinc oxide—hold several advantages over silicon-based screens, Sharp says. These latter offer promise as a lower-power alternative to today's screens.

According to Sharp, the new displays making use of the two technologies allow mobile devices to go longer between charges, provide more pixels per inch for sharper resolution and enable touch screens to be more accurate and sensitive.

The report notes that Sharp is betting on IGZO to save the company, which is in dire financial straits. Sharp is viewed as a critical partner for Apple as the iPhone maker seeks to lessen its reliance on Samsung, and there has been speculation that Apple recently structured component prepayment and equipment deals worth as much as $2 billion to help shore up Sharp's financial situation.

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Chitika: iOS Mobile Web Share Continues to Trump Android

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Chitika Insights has released a new six-month study that has found that iOS devices' mobile web share has grown 2% over the past two months while Android devices' mobile web share has decreased 2%. The data spans the six-month timeframe of May 27th, 2012 to November 27th, 2012 and includes devices like the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Kindle Fire HD, the Nexus 7, iPad mini, iPad fourth generation and iPhone 5.

ios vs android graph

According to the data, the share for iOS is at 67% while Android sits at 33%. Over the past six months, iOS has been hovering around 65% while Android hovered around 35%. The peak of Android's share was 40% in late August, which Chitika attributes to the strong sales of the Galaxy S III. That peak softened after the release of iPhone 5 and the new iOS tablets.

Chitika notes that Apple's significant advantage in tablet sales with the iPad and iPad mini is the biggest factor in the mobile web share dominance. Apple also has its' iPod Touch line contributing to its share, while Android's popularity and share is mostly due to smartphones.

The data is also suggesting that users don't switch between mobile operating systems, according to Chitika. They note that if their suggestion is true, Android manufacturers are competing with themselves while Apple is in no danger of a dwindling user base.

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China Unicom Begins iPhone 5 Reservations, Gets 100,000 First-Day Reservations

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Just a couple days after the iPhone 5 received final regulatory certification in China, Sina Tech is reporting that China Unicom has started reservations for iPhone 5. China Unicom received 100,000 reservations in the first day, by 4pm local time, and required an ID card and other personal information to reserve an iPhone 5 for the first day.

iphone 5 china top

China Unicom rival China Telecom has reportedly been taking iPhone 5 reservations for weeks, including 5,000 reservations on Sunday. Apple today announced that 50 countries would be receiving the iPhone 5 in December, with China being one of them.

Related Forum: iPhone
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Piracy Cripples iOS Game in Less than a Week

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battledungeonWhen software piracy is mentioned, it is usually in reference to PC games and movies downloaded off of illegal sites. Very little attention is given to the piracy of iOS games, which has become a huge problem for some developers.

Hunted Cow, the team behind the title Battle Dungeon, was forced to shut down its game this afternoon because the servers could not handle the load created by significant numbers of pirated copies of the game. Here’s what the team told fans:

Unfortunately we have taken Battle Dungeon down for the forseeable future. This was due to high levels of server load created by large numbers of pirated copies of the game. The high load revealed technical issues which we don’t feel we can fix to the level that our paying customers deserve.

In a forum post, the developers went on to explain that after a pirated .ipa surfaced on the internet, the number of people joining the game multiplied. As they were not paying customers, Hunted Cow was left without resources to maintain the server. Battle Dungeon, which is no longer available in the App Store, was a game that impressed app review site Touch Arcade.

Battle Dungeon offered up gameplay in the vein of Outwitters [Free] and Hero Academy [Free], with a 3D environment, XCOM style action points and an RPG twist. The ability to level up characters and buy better equipment was balanced against a point-cost system in which having more powerful champions meant playing with fewer of them. It was an appealing package for anyone who wanted more “crunch” and micromangement out of their async strategy games.

Players who invested money in the game will have the opportunity to get a refund by contacting support, which will include the $4.99 purchase price and any cash spent on in-app purchase.

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Apple Responds to Samsung's Request for Information on Trial Jury Foreman

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AllThingsD is reporting that Apple has responded to Samsung's claim that jury foreman Velvin Hogan conducted himself improperly during jury selection for the Samsung v. Apple trial. Hogan is under examination for his failure to disclose a previous legal dispute with Seagate, his former employer and one of Samsung's partners. In November, Judge Lucy Koh said she would "consider the questions" of whether Hogan conducted himself improperly.

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Apple does not accuse juror Velvin Hogan of misconduct — because there was none — so what Apple knew and when regarding Mr. Hogan’s lawsuit with Seagate nearly two decades ago is irrelevant to any issue raised by Samsung’s post-trial motions. Apple does not contend that any past relationship between Mr. Hogan and Seagate, or any lawsuit between them, is anything remotely close to support a challenge for cause.

Hogan has been one of the more visible members of the jury, speaking with a myriad of news organizations about the decision in the case, which concluded earlier this year. The dispute over Hogan's behavior represents one more incident in the ongoing legal drama between Apple and Samsung.

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iTunes Music Store Launches in 56 New Countries, Movies Arrive in Four

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Earlier today, we noted that the iTunes Music Store had gone live in Russia and Turkey, but now that changes have propagated throughout iTunes and we've had time to collect reports, it now appears that Apple is selling music through the iTunes Store in 56 new countries. The additions nearly double the number of countries in which the iTunes Music Store operates.

itunes store music new countries
The new countries include:

- Europe: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine

- Africa, the Middle East and India: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, India, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Zimbabwe

- Asia Pacific: Fiji, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

- Latin America and the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago

Beyond music, four of the new countries have also seen Apple roll out access to movies: India, Indonesia, Russia, and Turkey.

Update 9:08 PM: Apple has published a press release confirming that it has launched the iTunes Store in 56 new countries.

Related Forum: Mac Apps
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First Official Press Shot of Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs Released, 'jOBS' to Premiere at Sundance

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Along with an announcement that the Ashton Kutcher-led jOBS [sic] will premiere this winter at the Sundance Film Festival, the festival has also released the first official image of Kutcher as Steve Jobs.

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From Vanity Fair magazine:

Courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival, which, just moments ago, announced that jOBS—weird capitalization choice theirs, not ours—would premiere at this year’s festival, the photo shows the Two and a Half Men lead in a cubicle. Outfitted in a button-down shirt, jeans, and a goatee—Kutcher’s Jobs, who leans against a desk in front of a poster bearing the IBM slogan THINK—bears an eerie resemblance to a vintage photo of an actual Steve Jobs floating around on the Internet. That vintage photo also features Steve Jobs’s Jobs in a button-down shirt, jeans, and a goatee, leaning against a desk in front of a poster bearing the IBM slogan THINK.

It was announced earlier this year that Kutcher would play the iconic CEO in an independent film that is separate from the Sony project that will be based on Walter Isaacson's autobiography. That film is being written by West Wing and Newsroom scribe Aaron Sorkin.

Sundance's description of the film:

jOBS / U.S.A. (Director: Joshua Michael Stern, Screenwriter: Matt Whiteley) — The true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history, jOBS chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve Jobs’ life. jOBS is a candid, inspiring and personal portrait of the one who saw things differently. Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons, Matthew Modine. CLOSING NIGHT FILM

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City, Utah from January 17th through the 27th.

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