MacRumors

Late last month, some Adobe Photoshop users reported that the new 2013-edition MacBook Air was exhibiting severe flickering when using some brush tools in Photoshop.

It didn't happen with all units, but an Adobe representative said he believed it was a driver or GPU issue, and said Apple would need to fix the issue.

Today, a MacRumors tipster tells us the flickering issue has been fixed in the OS X 10.8.5 beta released to developers today. The bug made Photoshop nearly unusable for a number of MacBook Air users.

Some users have previously suggested that upgrading to the developer release of OS X Mavericks solved the problem, so the fix may be a matter of Apple pushing upgraded code sooner than it planned.

(Thanks, Todd!)

Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary calculations of PC shipments for the second quarter of 2013, finding that worldwide shipments fell by 11% over the year-ago quarter, the fifth straight quarter of year-over-year declines. According to Gartner's numbers, the U.S. market held up significantly better than the global market, but still declined by 1.4%. Gartner continues to attribute the declines in the PC market to strong growth in tablets.

“We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market.”

Gartner's number show Apple underperforming the overall industry in the United States, with the Mac maker posting a 4.3% decline in shipments compared to the 1.4% decline in the overall market. Apple was able to hold on to its third-place ranking in the U.S. market behind HP and Dell, although fourth-place Lenovo is closing quickly on Apple, driven by nearly 20% year-over-year growth in the U.S.

Apple does not rank on Gartner's list of top five vendors on a worldwide basis, with Asus holding down the bottom spot at 6.0% of the market. All of the top five worldwide vendors saw year-over-year shipment declines, although Lenovo's minimal 0.6% drop allowed it to take the worldwide crown from HP, which experienced a 4.8% decline.

At an event in Manhattan today, T-Mobile USA announced a new phone upgrade program called "Jump," which is designed to allow subscribers to upgrade their phones at regular intervals.

With Jump, customers will pay the same subsidized amount that a new customer pays, without the need to wait to qualify for an upgrade. Jump requires T-Mobile customers to pay a $10 monthly fee for the service and trade-in old devices, but it offers up to two phone upgrades per year after a six month waiting period. T-Mobile CEO John Legere spoke to AllThingsD about the new program:

"This is one of those things that annoys customers so much," CEO John Legere said in an interview ahead of a New York press event. Legere said that the company wanted to address this issue when it first did away with two-year contracts back in March, but needed a little more time to work out the details.

This is a significant policy change that sets T-Mobile apart from other carriers, which often require contracts to expire before upgrade pricing on a new device is available. Both Verizon and AT&T, for example, have recently implemented policies that only allow customers to upgrade after 24 months have passed.

T-Mobile's policy change comes three months after it announced both the iPhone 5 and its "Uncarrier" policies, which allow customers to purchase a phone without a monthly contract. Instead, T-Mobile requires a down payment of $150 along with a $20 monthly device fee for the iPhone 5.

At today's event, T-Mobile also announced that it plans to create a new family plan for customers without enough credit to quality for traditional phone contracts and plans to expand its LTE network in the near future.

T-Mobile has published a series of ads on the new Jump feature, with the slogan "Upgrade when you want, not when you're told."

Apple is planning to expand its adoption of IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) displays to reduce the energy consumption of its mobile devices, reports etnews.com (via Patently Apple).

According to industry insiders, having decided to apply the IGZO method to displays for MacBook, Apple is talking with LCD panel manufacturers, such as Sharp and LG Display.

IGZO is a semiconducting material that has forty times more electron mobility than the standard amorphous silicon that is used as the active layer of an LCD screen, allowing for higher resolution displays, better reaction times, and less power consumption.

The report suggests that in addition to expanding to IGZO displays for the MacBook, Apple is also planning to use them in the iPad. Apple is said to be relying on Sharp for the displays, and last year news surfaced that Sharp had already begun mass production of IGZO displays that could be used in future Apple products.

The site expects IGZO MacBooks to appear in the first half of 2014, but does not note when an IGZO iPad might make an appearance. Apple is expected to release a new, thinner fifth generation iPad later this year.

(Thanks, MobilesPie!)

At its Google I/O conference back in May, Google showed off enhancements to its mapping services, announcing an all-new desktop experience as well as significant improvements to the company's mobile apps, including an iPad app.

Early today, Google announced that the revamped mobile map experience is now rolling out to Android smartphones, with the iOS updates "coming soon". Among the improvements included in the release:

Explore: Explore is a fast and easy way to visually browse and discover new places without even typing. Simply tap the search box and you’ll see cards showing great places to eat, drink, sleep and shop.

Enhanced navigation: In addition to current traffic conditions, we’ve added two new features to help you navigate around traffic. You can now see reports of problems on the road that you can tap to see incident details. While on the road, Google Maps will also alert you if a better route becomes available and reroute you to your destination faster. This feature is available only on Android and is coming soon to iOS.

Designed for tablets: A dedicated tablet design brings all the features of this new app to Android tablets and iPads, which makes exploring the world from the comfort of your living room much more fluid, smooth and fun.

The new mobile apps also incorporate Google reviews and Zagat ratings, as well as Google Offers from nearby businesses.

Apple of course replaced Google Maps as the default mapping service on its mobile devices as of iOS 6, rolling out an in-house app that has been the subject of significant criticism. Following Apple's move to an in-house mapping solution, Google launched a standalone Google Maps app for iPhone in the App Store last December.

Reuters briefly reports that a U.S. federal judge has found Apple guilty of price fixing in the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and state governments.

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Apple Inc conspired to raise the retail prices of e-books, and said a trial for damages will follow.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan is a victory for the U.S. government and various states, which the judge said are entitled to injunctive relief.

The government had argued that Apple served as a "ringmaster" in conspiring with publishers to raise prices of e-books as part of an effort to change the business model of the industry and weaken Amazon's dominant position in the market. All of the publishers ultimately settled the case, but Apple fought to the end, insisting that it could not admit to doing something it did not do.

A separate trial will need to be held in order to determine damages to be levied against Apple.

We've uploaded the full 160-page decision by Judge Denise Cote for those interested in reading more.

The question in this case has always been a narrow one: whether Apple participated in a price-fixing scheme in violation of this country’s antitrust laws. Apple is liable here for facilitating and encouraging the Publisher Defendants’ collective, illegal restraint of trade. Through their conspiracy they forced Amazon (and other resellers) to relinquish retail pricing authority and then they raised retail e-book prices. Those higher prices were not the result of regular market forces but of a scheme in which Apple was a full participant.

Update 7:13 AM: Unsurprisingly, Apple has announced that it will appeal the decision.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr says Apple didn't conspire to fix e-book pricing and would continue to fight the "false accusations." He says Apple brought much needed innovation and competition into the market in 2010.

Microsoft has launched a fourth anti-iPad television advertisement, once again highlighting the iPad's inability to run multiple apps at the same time.

In the ad two baseball scouts using an iPad and a Windows 8 tablet vie to sign same player, with the Windows 8 user coming out on top thanks to the tablet's ability to simultaneously display two apps on the screen.

The spot is part of a series that is dedicated to underlining the iPad's flaws in comparison to various Windows 8 devices. Other ads have focused on the iPad's high price, its lack of built-in productivity apps, and its non-expandable storage. Microsoft has also launched a website comparing the iPad to a Windows 8 tablet, which turned out to be inaccurate.

One of the more subtle changes surfacing in Apple's iOS 7 beta 3 released to developers yesterday is a move to leverage the Retina assets included in iPhone-only apps to improve the viewing experience in "2x" mode on non-Retina iPads such as the iPad mini and the iPad 2.

Since the launch of the iPad, Apple has supported the use of iPhone-only apps on its tablet platform, allowing users to toggle between a "1x" mode where the app appears in an iPhone-sized window in the center of the iPad screen and a "2x" mode where pixels are doubled to allow the app to fill more of the iPad's screen. But up until iOS 6, this 2x pixel doubling has been performed on the non-Retina iPhone versions of the apps for non-Retina iPads, expanding a 480x320 app to fill a 960x640 space on the iPad display and resulting in jagged text and blurry images.

But with the advent of Retina displays on the iPhone supporting apps at 960x640, Apple moved to take advantage of those higher-quality assets to provide a better viewing experience on the iPad for those apps that do not have native iPad interfaces. Since the introduction of the third-generation iPad last year, Apple's Retina iPads have been able to tap into the Retina assets in iPhone apps to display higher-quality 2x apps, and with iOS 7 beta 3 Apple has now brought that capability to its non-Retina tablets.

Interestingly, on the latest iOS 7 beta users are no longer even presented with a 1x/2x toggle on non-Retina devices such as the iPad mini, and iPhone apps are instead presented simply as 2x apps taking advantage of Retina assets included in the app package. The result is a much better looking 960x640 app on the iPad's 1024x768 screen. Retina iPads have not, however, seen any changes to their handling of iPhone apps and continue to offer the 1x/2x toggle.

Apple's move to leverage the Retina assets in iPhone apps by default is essentially identical to the strategy used by RetinaPad, a jailbreak tweak that provided owners of non-Retina iPads with the higher-quality 2x scaling. That tweak had gained new popularity with the release of the non-Retina iPad mini late last year, but with Apple now building that support directly into iOS 7, all users will be able to take advantage of the higher-quality experience.

Apple announced back in March that as of May 1 it was requiring all app submissions and updates to support both Retina displays and the iPhone 5's taller display, pushing developers to support Apple's latest devices. The Retina support requirement also allows more apps to take advantage of the new 2x improvements for non-Retina iPads in iOS 7.

Code hidden inside iOS 7 suggests that the next generation iPhone could include a new "Mogul" camera mode, offering video recording at a rate of 120 frames-per-second, reports 9to5Mac.

According to our analysis and testing of the code, "Mogul" is a feature in development that allows the iPhone to capture video at an exceptionally fast and precise rate. Specifically, our testing indicates that the feature can allow the iPhone to record video at a rate of 120 frames-per-second (FPS). The resolution at which this 120FPS video could be recorded at, however, is currently unclear.

Capturing video at 120FPS would allow iPhone users to create slow motion films. Slow motion video requires frames to be captured at a fast rate, which then appear to be slowed down when replayed at a standard speed.

Many action cameras, such as the GoPro Hero3, include slow motion recording capabilities. Samsung's popular flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, also includes a slow motion mode. While the code does not suggest a resolution for Apple's Mogul mode, recording at 120FPS often requires a lower resolution. The video below demonstrates 120FPS video shot with the Samsung Galaxy Camera.

While testing the mode, 9to5Mac found that Mogul would not activate on an iPhone 5 due to unsupported hardware, which suggests that it is intended for a future iPhone. Like Siri was reserved for the iPhone 4S, Mogul may be reserved for the iPhone 5S.

As the iPhone has grown in popularity as a photography device, Apple has worked hard to improve the camera, continually adding new features like Panorama mode and volume shutter control.

Many of these upgrades come alongside Apple's "S" phone releases. The iPhone 4S, for example, featured an 8-megapixel rear camera, which was a significant upgrade from the iPhone 4's 5-megapixels.

Apple is expected to make similar upgrades to the iPhone's camera with the 5S, including a 12-megapixel rear camera and improved night shooting capabilities in addition to the possible Mogul mode. iOS 7 also brings a number of camera improvements to developers, including full support for high frame-rate content and 60-frames-per second capture capabilities. Both iOS 7 and the iPhone 5S are expected to debut in the fall.