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FCC proposes '988' for quick access to national suicide prevention line
The FCC wants accessing a national suicide prevention line to be as simple as dialing 988. In a report sent to Congress today, staff members recommend that the FCC designate 988 as the 3-digit dialing code for a nationwide suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline.
iWork: The changes in Apple's productivity suite
This week brought a big update to iWork, the iOS, OS X and iCloud productivity suite made up of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. You may have already grabbed the updates for iOS and OS X from the respective App Stores and not noticed too much of a visual change to the apps, but here's what has changed. iCloud Versions Let's take a quick look at the iCloud version of the apps. All of the apps now feature Retina display-ready graphics that really look impressive on a MacBook Pro with Retina display. While I must confess to not having used the previous versions of the beta iCloud apps very much, it does appear that Apple has attempted to make the app look very similar to the iOS apps. Those documents can now be shared with others in a view-only mode, making it easy to let someone see the latest revision of a document without giving them full access to make changes. For new documents, the apps have additional templates that have been added to the mix. If anyone sends you a Pages, Keynote or Numbers document via iCloud Mail, you can now open that document directly in the iCloud version of the app -- the email features an "Open in Pages/Keynote/Numbers" link making it easy to get right to work. Pages The Mac version of Pages now allows users to delete, duplicate, and reorder sections of their documents using the page navigator, and copying and pasting styles has been improved a bit. Apple says that they've improved Instant Alpha editing of images, although I saw no variation in the way that function works. The Media Browser is improved, although still not exactly speedy. I did see vastly improved support for AppleScript in Pages 5.2. That's something that power users have been asking for since Pages 5.0, and the addition of an iWork Suite of commands appears to bring back most of the functionality that was available in previous versions of Pages. That suite is available for all of the iWork apps. Apple says that they've improved text box behavior, although I was unable to ascertain exactly what was different from previous versions. There's improved support for EndNote, including citations in footnotes, and for those who are using Pages for ebook creation, ePub export is allegedly better. The iOS version now lets you search documents by name -- previously, you could only browse documents in a list or thumbnail mode. Inline images and shapes in table cells are now preserved properly when you import a document or table, and placement of inserted and pasted objects now seems to work better. If you write in Hebrew, you'll be glad to know that there's now a word count feature for that language, and all in all the app seems somewhat more usable (especially on iPad) than previously. Keynote Apple's presentation app gained some new features on iOS, including one that I am already in love with -- you can now use your finger to draw on any of your slides by just tapping and holding. A "crayon box" of pencils shows up at the bottom, along with the familiar "laser pointer". It's now possible to hold your iPad in portrait mode while giving a presentation thanks to a new portrait layout option in the presenter display. A couple of new transitions and builds -- object revolve, drift and scale, and skid -- have been added, and animations just seem to be much smoother than before. The Mac version adds some fun features in addition to those found in the iOS version -- there are improved presenter display layouts and labels, and Magic Move now includes text morphing. The app now exports to PPTX format, and there's support for animated GIFs being pasted or imported into presentations. Numbers This is the part of Apple's productivity suite that I probably use the least, both on iOS and Mac. Some of the big changes to the iOS version include the ability to search spreadsheets by name and faster imports of CSV (comma-separated text) files, as well as improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel documents. The Mac version adds the ability to set margins and create headers and footers in print setup, and there are new printing options that include page numbering, page ordering, and zoom. If you want custom data formats, you can now create them in Numbers. Customization of table styles is also added. And remember those CSV improvements in the iOS version? Now you can drag and drop a CSV file right onto a sheet, or update an existing table by dragging in a CSV file.
Snapchat database leak claims to contain 4.6 million phone numbers and usernames
Last week security researchers published a way to skim Snapchat's full database, and it appears someone did it before the vulnerability -- which, according to those researchers had been known for months -- was addressed. A website called SnapchatDB! has appeared posting SQL/CSV files that it claims contain the username and associated phone number for a "vast majority" of the service's users, with the last two digits of the numbers obscured. Snapchat eventually admitted that such a hack was theoretically possible, but said additional countermeasures and safeguards it's implemented would make that harder to do. That amounts to 4.6 million pairs, although actually downloading the files to actually use them or verify the claim seems impossible, presumably due to an overload of traffic. We don't know who is behind the website (its WHOIS record is hidden by WHOISGuard), but the homepage claims this release is happening to "raise awareness" of the fact that companies should be more careful with the private information of their users. As the site mentions, even the info included could be enough to figure out someone's phone number from their username (if it's also used publicly on Twitter, for example), especially problematic for those with unlisted numbers. They also have not ruled out releasing the uncensored database "under certain circumstances," so if you've ever used the service this may be something to keep an eye out for. Update: Developers Robbie Trencheny and Will Smeindlein have worked up a searchable database to see if your info is among those captured. It's accessible here, and searches by username, apparently based on the SQL file uploaded. Our friends at TechCrunch apparently found at least one writer's info in the database, although a Reddit user who grabbed the file suggests only certain area codes are affected.
Report: 35 percent of paid apps dropped prices in 2012
Apple Sliced is a site that keeps watch on App Store prices, and they've just released a year-end report on how much app prices fluctuated over the whole of 2012. Overall, says Apple Sliced, 35 percent of paid apps on the store ended up dropping their prices at some point last year, which is a sizable number for sure. A slightly smaller percentage of apps (around 32 percent) were cheaper at some point in 2012 than they are now, which means they dropped at some point and then raised. While these numbers represent a large proportion of apps on the store, they also aren't that surprising -- plenty of paid app developers do price tweaking and put on sales from time to time, usually just to raise interest (and thus downloads) in their apps. Apple Sliced also allows users to set price alerts for apps, and it says the "most requested" apps for a sale are WhatsApp Messenger (which is currently free?), Smart Office 2, Plants vs. Zombies HD and Infinity Blade 2. That makes sense -- with the exception of WhatsApp (and Plants vs. Zombies, currently on sale for US$0.99), these are all very popular apps with comparatively premium prices. You can see the same reasoning in the most popular app sales, which all feature premium apps that dropped down to the low price of free. Sales are a powerful tool for paid app devs on the App Store, and that's not likely to change as we move forward into 2013.
Daily iPhone App: Bridge Call Dialer speeds conference calling
As much as we love the multitasker flexibility of the iPhone, there are situations where you might find it slightly inconvenient to have your email, notepad, address book and phone all stacked atop one another on a touchscreen. Most business professionals experience one of those situations on a regular basis: the simple (or not so simple) conference call. Sure, if your meeting host is using an integrated service that supports iOS directly (WebEx, GoToMeeting, Fuze Meeting etc.) then it's one-button easy to join the call via VoIP or a callback. But most of the time, you'll find yourself jotting down a bridge number and PIN on a piece of paper, or switching between apps hastily to memorize the access code before the voice prompt times out. Not ideal. That's why I'm so fond of AHUB's $1.99 iPhone utility Bridge Call Dialer. The feature list is brief and the interface utilitarian (at best), but what it does it does oh so well. If you've got a calendar appointment with a conference call number listed, pop open BCD and it will scan through the event description. Tap once to enter the bridge number, again to capture the PIN, and then tap "call." Watch, pleasantly relaxed, as BCD hands off the dial string to the Phone app, complete with pauses and octothorpes, to join you to the conference. The current version of BCD lets you save one-click "frequent calls" detail so you can quickly rejoin a regularly scheduled phone meeting. You can also associate a conference call number and PIN with a particular iPhone contact; that way, whenever that person sends you a meeting invite, their conference info will be prepopulated automatically. New in BCD 3.0 is the ability to specify a VoIP app to handle calls selectively (on WiFi or when they're internal PBX calls), rather than using the iPhone's built-in phone. Configuring your VoIP tool in BCD requires that the dialing app support a URL scheme to hand off the number, which not all apps do; Talkatone is explicitly supported, and it looks like Acrobits SIP, Line2 and the open-source Siphon all have the ability to take a call handoff. I'd love to try it with Skype or Bria, which are my go-to apps for calls, but it may take some tweaking. The next time you reach for a pen and paper before a conference call, consider a $2 investment in streamlining your day and treat yourself to a license for BCD.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has 1.3 million active subs, new content packs coming
We all know that the Star Wars: The Old Republic galaxy is a huge place, but thanks to some new numbers from EA's 4th quarter financial reports, we now know exactly how huge it is. According to the report, SWTOR is home to 1.3 million active subscribers (down from 1.7 million as announced in March). On top of that bit of information, the report also reveals that two new content packs will be available for players sometime in the first financial quarter. We don't know a thing about these content packs yet, except that they're (at least tentatively) titled Legacy (presumably the current Legacy patch) and Allies, so conspiracy theorists, start your engines. Let the speculation begin!
Acer Financials: meager 2011 Q4 profit, massive annual loss
Acer was hoping for the gloom to lift after two bad quarters, but it can hardly call its latest financials stellar. It scraped a slender $2.4 million profit in the quarter, which wasn't enough to prevent the company posting an overall annual loss of $212 million. It blamed one off charges and operational and strategic adjustments (though no mention of the impending war with Lenovo over Gianfranco Lanci) for the bad year. The terse release (after the break) claims the business is becoming "more healthy and stable," which is a good way to paint a quarter-on-quarter drop of 98.4 percent turnover.
Tango Networks offers cloud-based Google Voice integration to carriers
Tango Networks is aiming to assuage the pain of US mobile users attempting to manage two phone numbers using a single device. Dubbed the Abrazo Multi-line Service, the cloud-based product aims to bring Google Voice integration to "all mobile phones" and allow wireless users to manage multiple numbers without the hassle of additional software -- meaning your RAZR 2 can join the fun. Calls placed to handsets utilizing Abrazo will ring all phones in your Google Voice roster and users can choose which caller ID number to display for outgoing calls. The service will also offer a single Message Waiting Indicator light and leverage GV's low-cost international calling rates. Abrazo Multi-line Service is currently in the trial phase with North American mobile operators. The full press release from Tango is after the break.
Canon X Mark I Mouse Lite hands-on impressions
It's a calculator. It's a wireless mouse. It's a Bluetooth numeric keypad. It's... really bizarre. Canon's X Mark I Mouse Lite takes everyone's favorite desktop rodent and tries to make it all fancy like, filling that wasted space below the mouse buttons with a calculator -- monochrome LCD and all. Except that the unused space below the mouse buttons isn't wasted at all -- it was designed for resting palms, not poking fingertips. The result is a mediocre mouse paired with a mediocre calculator, for $60. Sadly, it's not nearly as elegant of a solution as it may appear to be, and after a couple days of use, we were ready to switch back to our boring old single-function mouse. So what exactly left us so unimpressed? Jump past the break to find out.%Gallery-129884%
Canon launches X Mark I Mouse Lite, pairs ten-digit calculator and Bluetooth laser mouse (video)
Have you ever looked longingly at your mouse, noting its underutilized input device real estate? Canon has, replacing that excessive unused space with a built-in calculator in its X Mark I Mouse, announced today for folks in the US. (If you'll recall, we spent a few quality moments with this guy in Germany last year at Photokina.) The combo device provides users with both a physical ten-digit adding machine and a numeric Bluetooth 2.0 keypad, which you can use seamlessly with a variety of apps, replacing the number pad now absent on many desktop and portable keyboards. The company's camera design team helped to create the hybrid input device, which also includes a trio of mouse buttons and laser tracking. Canon also announced its X Mark I Keypad, a full-size calculator with Bluetooth support that's powered by either AAA batteries or a built-in solar panel. Both devices will be available for $60 in August and September, respectively, and will ship in both black and white.%Gallery-129107%
Best Buy Mobile Upgrade Checker reveals other numbers on your Sprint account, invites scaremongering
Some crack reporting from an NBC affiliate news station has revealed a little foible in Best Buy's cellphone upgrade checking utility. If you punch in your Sprint mobile number and ZIP code, you get taken to a screen showing all the other numbers on your account as well. This applies only when yours is the main number on the account, mind you, but the issue is in the obviously lax approach to securing data you might care to keep private -- Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile customers have to pass a security check first. Of course, the actual risks resulting from someone being able to find other numbers associated with your cellular account are so small as to verge on the benign ("somebody can use that... for something", as the KXAN report sagely advises), though that hardly excuses Best Buy from being sloppy with Sprint subscribers. They're human too, you know!
Visualized: eBay's iPad 2 sales, thus far
Although eBay figures don't exactly correlate with Apple's sales numbers, it's interesting to note who's buying what, and where. Last year, for example, in the first two weeks after the Apple iPad hit shelves, 65 percent of all iPads sold on eBay went abroad. This year, in the same timeframe, the percentages have been flipped -- 65 percent of iPad 2s sold on eBay remained in America, or around 7,800 tablets. Perhaps we're just seeing higher demand or maybe people don't like waiting in line. Peep the source link to dive deeper into the comparison.
App Store reaches 20,000 apps
Our friends over at Apptism, a site that tracks and rates App Store apps, have pointed out that their counter recently flipped over the big two-zero... zero zero zero. That's right, only three months after hitting the 10,000 mark (and that took only six months), the amount of apps in the store has doubled, and there's no sign the acceleration will be stopping any time soon.The ease of development in the iPhone SDK, combined with the huge success of the device and Apple's own promotion revolving around how many apps are in the store, mean that the platform is taking off like a rocket. Sure, numbers aren't necessarily the best indicator of quality (anyone want to speculate how many of the 20,000 apps have to do with farting or belching?), but the fact is that people are both developing and consuming apps from the App Store in gigantic numbers. How long before we reach 50,000 different applications on the iPhone? A million?
Grandialer, an iPhone app for GrandCentral
If you are one of the lucky ones who got in on the GrandCentral beta, then you might be interested in a new iPhone app that integrates with the GrandCentral service. Grandialer (iTunes link) allows you to use your iPhone to call people using your GrandCentral telephone number. The service can be used on EDGE since it's not a VoIP service. The application works by connecting your calls through GrandCentral and ringing back your iPhone. To set up the application, you just need to specify a ringback number for GrandCentral to call you back. To do this, just navigate to Settings > Phone number in the Grandialer application.Grandialer is a free application and is available today on the App Store. For more information on the application you can visit the developer's site.
Apple details what you need to bring for iPhone purchase
Apple has posted some information regarding where to buy the iPhone 3G and what to bring to the store so you can get up and running. According to Apple, in-store activations will occur at Apple's retail stores. "Let a Specialist help you choose your iPhone, check the network coverage where you live, select a rate plan, review the contract terms, and - best of all - activate your new iPhone in just a few minutes," the Apple page explains. Apple suggests having the following information handy to make the activation process speedy: Credit card Social security number Valid government-issued photo ID Current wireless account number and password or PIN (if you're new to AT&T) Apple also provides information for new iPhone owners on how to organize their data to make it ready for the iPhone. All of this information can be found on Apple's Where to Buy website.
Solving recent connection issues
Many of us, both in and outside of the United States, have been having serious connection issues with the game recently. Not only can we not connect to the game, but we can't even get on the main World of Warcraft website. This can be particularly infuriating because we can't go and find help. When I got dropped in the middle of Kael'Thas (the real fight, not the weeksauce one in Magisters' Terrace), I wanted to take my computer out to a field and yell obscenities at it about PC load letter.WoW Insider feels your pain! After all, imagine having to write about WoW only to find out you can't get into WoW.I wanted to answer a lot of the comments about what people can do. First and foremost, we're not Blizzard. So we can't really say for sure what's going on. We can make educated guesses through. Continue reading after the break for what you can do and where you can go to solve this problem.
Blu-ray surpasses HD DVD in disc sales for the first time
The Blu-ray and HD DVD battle has entered a new era, as preliminary Nielsen VideoScan stats show the BDA's baby sold more -- a ratio of 100 Blu-ray to every 98.71 HD DVD discs, sorry still no hard numbers here -- since their inception last year. As we all know, HD DVD was first to market and had enjoyed a lead on Blu-ray ever since, but then things started to turn with the launch of the PlayStation 3. The studios supporting Blu-ray finally began releasing significant numbers of titles and haven't looked back. Each team put its own spin on the numbers, with HD DVD-backing Universal pointing out that despite a 5:1 advantage in hardware due to the PS3, disc sales are still nearly even, while Blu-ray supporter 20th Century Fox sees the format war as being in its "final phase," and fence-straddling Warner merely noting that both formats are "selling well". Still, with the exception of the LG combo playing BH100, none of the major players have shown any plans to change sides, so until they do, prepare for a prolonged stalemate before this war is truly over.[Thanks, Jason]
Nokia to switch up naming scheme, follow Moto's lead
5200, 6136, E70, N70, N73. We lost track of what's what in Nokia's soup of numbers and letters about twenty or thirty phones ago; maybe our jaded minds can't handle the constant onslaught of new devices anymore -- or perhaps we're just getting old -- but it sounds like help is mercifully on the way. After watching brands like Motorola's RAZR and LG's Chocolate dominate pockets and purses for the last couples years, our favorite Finnish phone manufacturer has dropped hints that it, too, will be switching from numbers to names for at least some of its future products. Ironically, the news comes just as HTC is going the other direction with its naming scheme, moving from names to numbers -- but with monikers like "TyTN" plaguing their stable, we're thinking that was the right move. No word on what kinds of words might pop up in the Nokia lineup, but our vote goes to names of Finnish cities (who wouldn't want a Nokia Oulu?).
