Microsoft pulls Skype v5.0 from Apple App Store: Is Skype dead for Apple iOS?

Apple App Store iPhone screenshot of Skype, by Microsoft, shows unavailable software when attempting to update Skype.

Microsoft announced two weeks ago that their Skype software division had produced a new version for iOS devices.

According to MSFT, the highly anticipated version 5.0 was supposed to be “remastered for iPhone,” and described as “the most refined version yet,” and was promised to be “faster, smoother, more integrated, smarter.”

Suddenly, to the dismay of many iOS device users, the Skype software was no longer available, and had pulled from the Apple App Store.

The solitary cryptic response Microsoft/Skype offered was “We are in the process of

How to FINALLY fix sparsebundle errors on Apple’s Time Capsule/Time Machine

IN AN EARLIER ENTRY I’d written that I had successfully resolved sparsebunlde errors on the Time Capule/Time Machine which I use to back up my computer.

At the time, I thought I had.

However, when I examined the disk, I found there was a duplicate sparsebundle.

Typically, unless the file name is changed by the user, on the OSX (Apple’s Macintosh Operating System) duplicate files are indicated by the presence of an Arabic numeral (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) following any file name. Because the sparsebundle, and any errors arising from it are created by the system, they are therefore not available to be changed by the user. Thus, the file names would be appended with a number as explained.

However, problems can be readily noted because either

What does Unified Info mean on iPhone?

Among the standard WordPress offerings are statistics on each blog, and corresponding search terms that were used to discover any particular entry. Those are very powerful tools, and in the proper hands, can be effectively utilized.

It’s interesting to read the search terms that often lead to this blog, and to this point, though I have considered opining on some of the more “fascinating” or “peculiar” entries, I shall share something a wee bit less salacious.

In fact, it’s not salacious at all.

One such entry was “what does unified info mean on iPhone“?

First, consider what the word “unified” means.

“Unified” means “to make, or become united, uniform or whole.”

The prefix “uni” means “one.”

By implication, unity, unification, or unified means that exactness is present. There is no variation, or difference.

Things are as one. They are made into one. To unify is to make into one.

New Contact on iPhone – Note the data fields.

New Contact in “Contacts” address book on OSX
Note the data fields.

Sample Contact entry in “Contacts” address book on OSX.

Quite simply put, “Unified Info” on the iPhone means

Apple’s Chinese FoxConn Factory Criticized Again

“They are free to leave anytime.”

Gee… sounds almost like a Republican-dominated America.

The iPhone 5 (which will presumably be it’s moniker) is due to be released soon.

How could this affect Apple?

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China Plant Assailed Again Over Work for Apple

By DAVID BARBOZA and CHARLES DUHIGG

Published: September 10, 2012

SHANGHAI — As Apple prepares to unveil the latest iPhone this week, the company’s manufacturing partner in China, Foxconn Technology, is coming under renewed criticism over labor practices after reports that vocational students were being compelled to work at plants making iPhones and their components.

Foxconn has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over working conditions inside its factories. Ym Yik/European Pressphoto Agency

Foxconn has acknowledged using student “interns” on manufacturing lines, but says they are free to leave at any time. But two worker advocacy groups said Monday that they had spoken with students who said they had been forced by their teachers to assemble iPhones at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, in north-central China.

Additionally, last week Chinese state-run news media reported that several vocational schools in the city of Huai’an, in eastern China, required hundreds of students to work on assembly lines at a Foxconn plant to help ease worker shortages. According to one of the articles, Huai’an students were ordered to manufacture cables for Apple’s new iPhone 5, which is expected to be introduced on Wednesday.

“They said they are forced to work by the teachers,” Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, one of the advocacy organizations and a frequent critic of Foxconn’s labor policies, said in an interview on Monday. Mr. Li said his staff had

Apple’s iPhone 5 Sales Could Add Half a Point to GDP

Published: Monday, 10 Sep 2012 | 4:35 PM ET

By: John Melloy
Executive Producer, Fast Money& Halftime

Michael Nagle | Stringer | Getty Images News

Sales of Apple’s [AAPL] iPhone 5 could add as much as half a percentage point to U.S. fourth-quarter annualized GDP, according to JPMorgan, underscoring the

Paul Ryan’s Catholic Problem

A very succinct OpEd.

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By Daniel C. Maguire, Professor of Moral Theological Ethics, Marquette University

Posted: 08/21/2012 12:08 pm

Sound the alarm! There has been a Catholic coup d’etat in the United States of America! Six members of the Supreme Court are Catholics (just imagine the furore if six were Muslims or Jews!). Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell are Catholics. And now, rising to top of this surging Catholic dynasty is the alleged Wunderkind of Republican economics, perky Paul Ryan.

Ryan wears his strange version of Catholicism with a jaunty sophomoric pride. “Catholic social doctrine is indispensable for officeholders.” If only Paul Ryan knew what “Catholic social doctrine” is he would take flight from it just as fast as he is scrambling from the Ayn Rand breasts that, as he has proclaimed, suckled him and inspired all his political and economic views. Catholics who know the difference between Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand skewered perky Paul. They know that Jesus’ mission, unlike Ayn Rand’s, was “good news for the poor” (Luke 4:18). They embarrassed the righteous Ryan when he spoke at the Jesuit Georgetown University carrying a sprawling sign that asked: “Where were you, Paul Ryan, when they crucified the poor?”

Of course they know where he was. He was driving the nails into everything that helps the poor — and remember most of “the poor” are children. Budgets are intensely moral documents. They show where the heart is. To budget-makers we can say: show me the losers and the winners and I will tel you what you are. The Ryan budget plan, embraced by Mitt Romney as “marvelous,” puts greed over need. Among its losers:

What do you get when you cross a psychopathic schizophrenic with a tweaker?

What do you get when you cross a psychopathic schizophrenic with a meth user?

Bug.

Eventually, folks tell on themselves.

—

Using Twitter To Identify Psychopaths

Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff
Welcome to The Not-So Private Parts where technology & privacy collide
7/20/2012 @ 1:25PM

People’s nasty traits have a way of revealing themselves on social networks: in writing. Or rather in how they write. That means an analysis of how someone tweets could reveal whether he or she is narcissistic, Machiavellian, or psychopathic, according to researchers who plan to present their findings at DefCon next week.

What would Patrick Bateman‘s Twitter stream have looked like?

What are some of the Twitter stylings of these undesirables? Curse words. Angry responses to other people, including swearing and use of the word “hate.”  Using the word “we.” Using periods. Using filler words such as “blah” and “I mean” and “um.”

(I suspect that an analysis of the Twitter streams of many a blogger would suggest they are potentially a narcissist, a psychopath or an avid reader of “The Prince.” Which may well be an accurate assessment.)

“The FBI could use this to flag potential wrongdoers, but I think it’s much more compelling for psychologists to use to understand large communities of people,” says Chris Sumner of the Online Privacy Foundation, which collaborated with Florida Atlantic University and big-data competition site Kaggle to conduct the study. He imagines the algorithmic models his team developed could be used to compare character traits between different countries based on Twitter.

The study came about as a response to a paper published by Cornell researchers last year who had studied the writings of clinical psychopaths and found discernible patterns.

“It led to a lot of sensational headlines,” says Sumner. “The next obvious stage was the application of the study to people’s social media usage.”

One of the articles to come out was: “Can twitter help expose psychopath killers’ traits?”

Sumner wanted to find out whether

The Ultimate iPhone Apple Mac Google Contacts Address Book iCal Calendar iTunes sync post

2/26/12 Update: Be sure to read also “Sync-ing your iPhone’s Google Contacts/Address Book got you sunk? Fear not!”

***

Okay, maybe it’s not the “ultimate.”

But, perhaps it’s the penultimate.

That’s good too, eh?

Yeah.

Well, you dropped the bomb, bought a Mac and or an iPhone, and you have a Google account already. Welcome to the club.

You’re loving Lion and iCloud and probably wondering, “how can I get all my stuff all synced up?”

I can understand why it might all seem confusing.

First, you have iTunes sync.

Then, you’ve got Address Book and Calendar sync.

And then… you’ve got iCloud.

Good grief! How does it all fit together!?!

Sure, it can be

iPhone security

iPhone security - ss1167

iPhone security – ss1167

Originally uploaded by SouthernBreeze

Via Flickr:
The 4our digit passkey is the one with which most may be familiar. Yet some iPhone owners may not be aware that there is another, more secure method of protecting their investment in that wonderfully powerful tool.

A more complex (and therefore secure) combination – one of the user’s own choosing – is able to be used. Not only is the creation of that passkey cAsE sEnSiTiVe, but numbers (0-9) and characters (such as # , $ ) @ + } ~ ? <, etc.) are able to be employed in the creation of the passkey.

There are several benefits to using such a system, not the least of which means that

iPhone Photography Tips & Tricks III

Perhaps you’re read the two preceding entries in this series.

That would be “iPhone Photography Tips & Tricks,” and “iPhone Photography Tips & Tricks II.” (Had to clear that up, you know. It never hurts to be certain, right?)

Apple continues to improve the camera application on their iPhone, and in the 4S, the resolution of the camera has reached 8MP, and sports all-new optics. Not only does it shoot 1080p HD video, but it boasts a  f/2.4 aperture, improved backside illumination sensor, excellent auto white balance, advanced color accuracy, face detection, and reduced motion blur.

As well, the 4S model iPhone has 60 percent more pixels than the camera on iPhone 4.

While the improved camera sensors in the iPhone 4S have increased its sensitivity, it is ultimately the glass that makes any camera’s pictures worthwhile. And the appearance of a five element lens in conjunction with a larger aperture allows better quality light, and more light to reach the camera’s sensors, which results in a clearer focus and significantly improved pictures, overall.

However, those hardware improvement don’t say much about other really cool integrated camera features in iOS 5. And just so you’ll know, iOS 5 will work on the iPhone 3GS,  iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad, iPad 2, iPod touch 3d & 4th generations.

One useful feature available on all iOS devices is

Sync-ing your iPhone’s Google Contacts/Address Book got you sunk? Fear not!

2/26/12 Update: Be sure to read also “The Ultimate iPhone Apple Mac Google Contacts Address Book iCal Calendar iTunes sync post“

***

Some folks have expressed difficulty synchronizing their contacts on their iPhones with iOS 5.

That should NOT be a problem.

Because iOS 5 has incorporated features into it that make synchronization seamless and virtually invisible, losing a note, email, address or contact is a thing of the past.

However! To take advantage of those built-in features, they must be turned ON! It’s a bit like

iPhone Photography Tips & Tricks II

In the previous iPhone photography Tips & Tricks entry, I shared instructions and examples on how to use the iPhone‘s 5x zoom.

In this entry, you’ll see actual screenshots of the zoom adjustments, along with another useful built-in photography help.

Screenshot of the activated built-in Zoom feature on the iPhone. The photo's a bit fuzzy, because it's tough to get a screenshot quickly while maintaining a composition!

Recall that the iPhone’s zoom feature may be accessed two ways: 1.) by a

iPhone photography Tips & Tricks

Do you use an Apple iPhone?

Chances are, you do.

How would I know, and why?

Quite simply, not only does the Apple iPhone continue to dominate the smartphone market with innovations, but worldwide and domestic sales of the smartphone indicate market share dominance. In other words, Apple is the “worldwide number one single manufacturer of smartphones by revenue, profit, and volume.” Tom Kang, Director at Strategy Analytics, reported that in 2010 alone, Apple shipped over 100 million smartphones.

But you didn’t necessarily want to read a marketing and sales report – right?

On to the iPhone tips and tricks.

The  iPhone’s integrated camera has the ability to zoom up to 5x.

The zoom feature may be accessed two ways:

iPhone Screenshots – Excessive Temperature Warning

How do you know if your iPhone is too hot?

If you can’t hold it in your hand?

No.

Developers obviously considered that issue, and created a screenshot just to let users know if the phone overheated.

Undoubtedly, there are numerous other iPhone screenshots about which many – save developers – are unaware.

Here is another.

iOS 5 Crashes & Kills Stanza reader

UPDATE: 12/25/11 Please read the updated entry on this issue: Stanza Reader Updated: Now compatable with iOS5.
—
If you use an iPhone and the Stanza e-book reader app, you may want to consider NOT upgrading to the iOS5.

Why?

According to numerous emerging reports, it is buggy – so much so, that it crashes the app, which in many cases, will not work at all.

Macworld reported Nov 2, 2011 12:20 pm that “Stanza version—3.1 – which was originally developed for both the Mac and iOS platforms by Lexcycle – last updated in February, is barely useable on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads running the iOS 5 updated released by Apple a month ago. And Amazon, which owns the app, has

More Apple iPhone Screenshots

You ever think about computers and calculators… and adding machines?

Yes, they’re all types of machines. They perform a function, and do so WITHOUT thinking.

Okay… they “fixed” it. We can all go home now.

Image via Nestle's CrunchBase

Perhaps you’ve read the previous entry to which I sarcastically allude in this entry’s title. If not, here’s the linked title – “Apple Update creates problems on Toktumi’s Line2 for iPad, iPhone, iPod, iOS.”

Here’s the “Ta – DAH!” e-mail which I received trumpeting their “success.” (As an aside, don’t you feel privileged to read my “personal” e-mail?) Be sure to

Apple Update creates problems on Toktumi’s Line2 for iPad, iPhone, iPod, iOS

Image via CrunchBase

iOProblems, iOBrother!

I’m a die-hard, long-time, Apple Macintosh only computer user. End of conversation. Period.

However, that hasn’t and doesn’t prevent me, or anyone else, from criticizing Apple products.

I use the iPhone 3GS model, with iOS 3.1.3 – jailbroken and unlocked – and