Marianne Schultz

Apple announced a new version of iTunes at today's media event featuring a "dramatically simpler" interface with an edge-to-edge design. We created iTunes because we love music and we’re going back to our roots with an incredibly clean design that keeps your music at the forefront,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The new iTunes works...

Apple today announced a new model of earphones, dubbed EarPods, to be shipped with the iPhone 5, the fifth-generation iPod touch, and the updated iPod nano. EarPods will also be available as a stand-alone accessory purchase starting today and priced at $29. The new earphones feature a revised design to better fit a wider range of ear shapes and sizes and direct audio straight into the ear...

The Wall Street Journal reports that a panel of three judges in a South Korean court rendered a split decision against Apple and Samsung, stating that the companies violated each other's patents. The court assessed fines and damages against both technology manufacturers, requiring Apple to pay approximately $17,650 to Samsung for each of two violated patents and cease sales of the iPhone 4 and...

UX Write [App Store], a new iOS word processing app by UX Productivity, aims to compete with Apple's own Pages, Dataviz's >Documents to Go and other heavy-hitting word processing apps currently available in the App Store. UX Write touts several features to streamline the writing process for long and complex documents, including unique cursor and text selection controls, extra punctuation keys on...

At today's WWDC keynote event, Apple announced the next version of its operating system for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. iOS 6 will feature new functionality for Siri, Facebook integration, a revamped Maps app, Shared Photo Streams via iCloud, and more. iOS 6 continues the rapid pace of innovation that is helping Apple reinvent the phone and create the iPad category, delivering the best...

At today's WWDC keynote event, Apple announced a release timeframe and pricing for Mountain Lion, the next version of the Mac operating system which was previewed earlier this year. Executives also gave a preview of some new features including dictation, iCloud Tabs, and Power Nap. Mountain Lion will be released in July through the Mac App Store for $19.99 and all Macs purchased starting today...

Behringer is on hand at CES 2012, displaying its enormous iNuke Boom iPhone speaker dock that was announced last month. The over-the-top accessory is 8 feet wide and 4 feet tall and weighs over 700 pounds. Billed as the loudest iPhone speaker dock, the 10,000-watt speaker can indeed put out overwhelming sound. A dock with a 30-pin connector on the top allows direct connection of an iPhone or ...

Several Apple-related apps and accessories are being previewed at CES 2012. Here are a couple of the more interesting ones we've run across. Swivl Swivl is a motion tracking mount for your iPhone. We previously covered the announcement of the product back in November. The motorized mount registers the movement of the remote control (which you can attach to your body) both...

Apple's Find My Friends app, which was announced last week when the iPhone 4S was unveiled, is now live in the App Store [link opens iTunes]. Find My Friends requires iOS 5, which is scheduled for release today. Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Install this free app on your iOS 5 device and sign in with the Apple ID you...

Apple announced updates to the iPod nano today with user interface changes to improve navigation and 16 clock faces to facilitate its use as a watch. Its fitness features have also improved with Nike+ compatibility out of the box with no requirement for additional accessories to track walks and runs. The nano's interface now sports larger icons for easier navigation. The new clock faces...

At today's press event, Scott Forstall, Apple's VP of iOS Software, announced that iOS 5 will be available starting October 12. iOS 5 was first previewed in June at WWDC and the release timeframe specified then was the "fall." iOS 5 will be a free download compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, and the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touches. Image courtesy of gdgt.com....

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. government filed a complaint today seeking a court order to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile. Antitrust concerns are at the heart of the complaint:AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market.AT&T first announced its intent to acquire T-Mobile in March, stating that the merger...

Apple today announced iOS 5, the much-anticipated major update to Apple's operating system for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad today at the WWDC keynote event. The new major features include a completely revamped notifications system, over-the-air software updates and activation for new devices, and iTunes library syncing over Wi-Fi."iOS 5 has some great new features, such as Notification...

Google announced an update yesterday to its Google Search iOS app that includes speed and interface improvements. Google Search received a major revamp in March featuring a new interface and gestures to refine search results. Yesterday's update to version 0.8.2.6553 makes the app "20% more responsive" and disables the "Just Talk" voice-activated search function by default. Additionally, search ...

Quicksilver, an open source launch utility for Mac OS that saw few substantial updates over the last several years, has seen a revival recently with a new version released late last week. Quicksilver is a computer utility software program for Mac OS X, made by Blacktree Software and distributed freely. It is essentially a graphical shell for the Mac OS X operating system, allowing users to use...

Algoriddim has reduced the price of its djay app for the iPhone and iPod touch from $4.99 down to $.99 for a limited time. djay for the iPhone and iPod touch debuted in the App Store last month and was preceded by a version for the iPad released in December. djay provides a virtual turntable interface for music mixing and scratching as well as beat-matching, EQ controls and more. The app...

Perian, a free open-source plug-in that enables QuickTime support for a wide variety of video formats, has been updated with additional video format compatibility and fixes. Version 1.2.2 of Perian was released yesterday and is available from the download page at Perian.org. This week's update added compatibility with WebM/VP8, FFv1 lossless video formats, and compressed MKV files, as well ...

Tapbots, developer of several Mac and iOS apps including Calcbot, Convertbot and others, has released Tweetbot, a new Twitter client for the iPhone. Tweetbot debuted in the App Store yesterday and features customizable navigation and gestures, the ability to view lists as separate timelines as well as features also found in other iOS Twitter clients like URL shortening support, translations, and...

Developer Flying Meat has released a major update to Acorn, its image editing software for the Mac. Acorn 3.0 was released earlier this week and features layer styles, quick masking for more precise selection and editing, improved gradients and more. In total, Acorn 3.0 is touted to have more than 50 new features. Acorn first debuted as shareware in 2007 with a goal of "simplicity" in image...

With the announcement of the iPad 2 at a media event today, Apple has reduced prices on first-generation iPad models in its online store. The new prices are available through a special clearance page. Each model has been reduced by $100, bringing the price for the entry level 16 GB Wi-Fi-only iPad to $399 and the most expensive 64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model down to $729 from its original price of...