Intel has tapped former Apple VP Mike Bell to head up the company's new Smart Devices Unit, according to AllThingsD. Bell last worked at Apple in 2007, and then Palm after that and has a long experience in mobile device development. Recently he has been co-leading Intel's mobile chip business. His new position as the head of Intel's new Smart Devices Unit signals a shift in strategy for the chipmaker.

As AllThingsD notes, Intel's competitors Qualcomm, Nvidia, MediaTek, Broadcom and other ARM-based manufactures have a strong foothold in the mobile device market -- a place Intel knows it needs to be to stay competitive in the future. While Intel did not explicitly state what the Smart Device Unit would produce, it did say, "The group will be tasked with turning cool technology and business model innovations into products that shape and lead markets."

Longtime Apple VP to head Intel's new devices unit originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The American Customer Satisfaction Index, a large-scale annual survey of consumer satisfaction across a wide range of products, shows that Apple retained the top ranking, but Samsung closed Apple’s lead from 12 points to just five … //

In the survey of 70,000 US consumers, Apple scored 83 percent, two points down on 2012, while Samsung climbed from 71 to 76 percent.

Image: Wall Street Journal

Yesterday’s Senate subcommittee hearing, in which Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked to explain alleged tax avoidance measures, turned into something of a damp squib, each side effectively stating their respective positions rather than engaging in any head-to-head debate … //

Senator Carl Levin, Chair of The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, gave a lengthy introductory speech which merely repeated the claims already made, and Cook responded with a pretty general statement saying little more than Apple complied with the law and did not use any tax gimmicks. Cook did take the opportunity to argue for tax reform, proposing both lower domestic corporation tax rates and a special ‘single digit’ rate for cash repatriated from overseas subsidiaries.

No light was shed on the specific claims, that Apple has negotiated a special 2% corporation tax rate with the Irish government, and that it operated ‘ghost’ entities that were not legally tax resident in any country. It does appear, however, that the key Irish subsidiary that receives income from European sales does so from revenue streams already taxed in each of the individual European countries.

All involved were at pains to point out that Apple fully complies with the law, and the market appeared to regard the day’s events as irrelevant, Apple’s stock price remaining virtually unchanged.

As anyone who has read TUAW over the past few weeks can tell there's no shortage of iPad keyboards on the market these days. All of them tend to use Bluetooth to connect to the iPad, which is fine -- except when you're a school teacher or IT person who needs to figure out which keyboard is paired with a particular iPad. So that students can simply grab a keyboard, plug it in and start typing away, Logitech has announced the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad (US$59.99, available later this year).

The keyboard will come in two flavors; a Lightning-equipped model that will be shipping in August, and a 30-pin connector version that is expected in October. Since it's designed to be used by students of all ages, the Wired Keyboard has a spill-resistant design and is expected to put up with the pounding of over 5 million keystrokes.

There are shortcut keys for the regular iPad functions, such as Siri, app switching and copy and paste. There's also an integrated Home button for jumping to the Home screen with a single push.

Logitech will display the Wired Keyboard for iPad at the 2013 International Society for Technology in Education conference scheduled for June 23-26 in San Antonio, Texas.

Logitech intros wired iPad keyboard especially for education market originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know that Bluetooth keyboards are usually the go to solution for a bringing a traditional typing experience on the iPad. We’ve reviewed plenty from Logitech in the past that we highly recommend, but today the company launched what it says is a better solution for iPad keyboards in the classroom. Logitech says having to connect multiple iPads to Bluetooth keyboards in classrooms is a big hassle for teachers, and to combat that it is introducing a plug-and-play, wired keyboard in both Lightning and 30-pin variants:

“Schools are increasingly purchasing iPads for use in the classroom,” said Mike Culver, vice president and general manager of mobility at Logitech. “While tablets are enabling new ways of teaching and testing, there’s a challenge when a teacher needs to simultaneously pair multiple iPads with multiple wireless Bluetooth keyboards. We developed the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad to specifically solve this problem, so students can now simply plug it in and start typing.”

The full-sized keyboard has the usual iOS hotkeys, a durable, spill resistant exterior, and the low profile keys you might be used to from other Logitech keyboards.  //

Logitech is planning on launching the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad for $59 when it goes on sale in the U.S. in August. A 30-pin version will land later in October for the same price. We like this idea.

The Apple Store went down around midnight ET. What will the refresh bring? We'll let you know as soon as the store is back up. Thanks to all the tipsters that let us know!

Update: There's a Father's Day promo and a new, big tile design for the look of the store.

Apple Store is down (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 May 2013 00:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Burstly acquired the beta testing service TestFlight just a few months ago, and TestFlight released a mobile analytics service called FlightPath soon after that. Now, Burstly has announced that it is restructuring its offerings, to set up a full set of services to take developers from developing and testing their app with TestFlight, to preforming analytics with FlightPath, and then monetizing with Burstly's tools, now rebranded as SkyRocket.

This is a smart bit of revamping -- TestFlight is very popular, but FlightPath has just started out and SkyRocket's name is brand new to most developers, so combining these tools under the same umbrella should make them all more accessible to developers. All of these services are still available separately, but not only do they share a parent company now, but they also can combine functionality, such as having high profile users from FlightPath get offered different monetization options or deals via SkyRocket.

Burstly's wasting no time making its TestFlight acquisition useful. We'll stay tuned to see, going forward, how this trio of services plays with mobile developers.

Burstly restructures, now offers three services for code-to-ship functionality originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Jony Ive took over the role of leadership for Apple’s Human Interface in October of last year, many speculated that the style of Apple’s design language across iOS and Mac OS X would also shift towards a flatter, more clean style. This speculation was fueled mainly by Ive’s feelings towards skeuomorphism and his minimalist design aesthetic.

//

In April, we reported that iOS 7 would have a fresh, yet familiar interface, embracing a flatter style thanks to Jony Ive’s new leadership. In order to get an idea of what we might see in iOS, lets take a look at some examples of how Apple’s design aesthetic has already changed since Jony Ive took over. iTunes Emails

Starting with today’s emailing, Apple has completely redesigned the look and feel of its iTunes promotional emails (Thanks, Nicholas). While perhaps not as stark of a change as something like the podcasts app update,  this redesign falls in line with many of Apple’s other recent interface changes, primarily the use of lighter typography and less visual noise.

Podcasts App Apple launched its dedicated Podcasts app for iOS in June of last year to much controversy. One of its headline features was the prominent reel-to-reel playback interface that took over much of the UI. What was thought by many to be a Scott Forstall influenced design choice was removed in March, when the Podcasts app received a major redesign, losing all reminders of real world, physical objects. Its new interface is much more subtle and clean, and while it loses some of the charm of iOS, puts forward a clear vision for Apple’s new style.

iTunes MiniPlayer

iTunes 11.0.3, which was launched last week, was a fairly minor update, aside from a new MiniPlayer design which sheds some of the traditional iTunes feel in favor of a flatter design. When viewing large thumbnails of your album art, gone is the glossy title bar and playback controls, replaced with a fairly plain and utilitarian flat black UI.

2013 WWDC Announcement

When Apple sent out its promotional emails for WWDC this year, they created quite a stir around the web thanks to the design of the graphic. Compared to past years, 2013′s announcement is much cleaner and flatter, thanks mostly to its plain, stark typography and lack of heavy textures and rich details. Apple’s trend toward thinner, more modern fonts started last year with iOS 6, and has been becoming more prominent throughout their branding ever since. When Apple ditched Google Maps in favor of their own solution in 2012, they decided to display the map data in Avenir, a slim, modern font new to iOS. This typography also made it over to some of Siri’s results panes.

In addition, iOS 6′s updated weather application also shed its heavy typography in favor of a more elegant look. Similar fonts can be seen on Apple’s iPhone 5 webpage. It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see more fonts of this nature appear in iOS 7.

Overall, Jony Ive has only been in charge of Apple’s Human Interface for a few months, and it’s hard to tell in exactly which way he’ll take software design. However, if the changes we’ve already seen are any indication, Jony Ive is taking the same approach to software as he does to hardware: taking an already great product and refining its design down to its purest form.

Update: Apple’s online store homepage has just received a redesign that many have noted includes elements that are rather flat compared to the old design. Gone is much of the rounded edges and new is a much more streamlined, rectangular design:

Unity has announced that it's making its mobile game development tools free to use for most independent and small studios. Unity has always been a popular engine both for mobile game development and for cross-platform game creation, but up until now, you had to pay about $800 to actually publish Unity-created apps on the iOS or Android stores. Those basic add-ons have now been made free, so anyone can now download Unity, and then use it to publish an app for iOS or Android without paying a fee for the engine.

Unity still has pro versions available for sale to both iOS and Android developers, and anyone making over $100,000 per year with their releases is required by Unity to go ahead and purchase a pro license. So there are still some limits on exactly how this all works, and if your iPhone app does hit it big, Unity still would like its due. But starting off for free should open the door for even more indie devs to get in and try Unity, and make for even more and better games on the App Store.

Unity makes mobile tools free for small devs originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The team at Olloclip has taken the wraps off of their newest product, a case for the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5 called the Quick-Flip Case (US$49.99) that works with the Olloclip 3-in-one lenses to produce a lightweight solution for all-purpose iPhoneography. Let's take a look!

Design

At first glance, this doesn't look like much of a case. It's made out of a smoked translucent black or opaque white polyurethane material and looks like any of a thousand other slip-on hard cases for iPhone. But then the little features start to appear and you realize how the Quick-Flip case can be used to assist in taking photos with your iPhone.

Gallery: Olloclip Quick-Flip Case and Pro-Photo Adapter

By itself, the case has a pivoting corner that rotates 180° out of the way so that you can install your Olloclip lenses. That pivoting piece also has a second function -- it presses up against the volume up button on the side of your iPhone so that you can just squeeze the button slowly to take a photo. No more need to tap that virtual shutter button on the screen.

The real fun comes when you attach the included Pro-Photo Adapter. It slides onto the bottom of the iPhone and includes a pair of threaded tripod mount points as well as a cold shoe mount for other accessories like video lights or microphones.

In case you happen to own a 5th-generation iPod touch, there's a special adapter that's included with the iPhone 5 case to make it compatible with the "non-phone iPhone."

Functionality

For Olloclip-toting iPhone owners, the Quick-Flip Case should be a no-brainer if you take a ton of photos. Your iPhone remains fairly well protected in the case, and with a quick flick of the top the bare shoulder of the phone is exposed so you can slide on the Olloclip.

Using the rotated corner piece as a trigger button for taking photos is pure genius. Rather than holding onto the iPhone with one hand and swatting at the display to take a photo, you can use both hands to keep the iPhone steady while gently squeezing the button. It's sure to reduce blur in your photos, especially under low-light conditions.

I was happy to see that Olloclip uses metal inserts for the tripod mounts as that will add to the usable life of the Quick-Flip case -- provided Apple keeps a similar size for the next-generation iPhone. The cold shoe is also a nice touch for adding goodies that can make the difference between dull, underlit video and properly illuminated personal movies.

Conclusion

While it's a bit pricey for an iPhone case, the Olloclip Quick-Flip Case and Pro-Photo Adapter -- along with the Olloclip lenses (purchases separately) -- make for an incredibly useful set of accessories for anyone who takes a lot of photos with their iPhone.

Pros

• Quick-Flip Case makes it easy to protect your iPhone while also facilitating the installation of the Olloclip 3-in-one lens
• The design of the case makes it possible to hold the iPhone with both hands while shooting pictures, helping to steady your photographs
• Mounting the case on a tripod in either landscape or portrait mode is a piece of cake with the two threaded tripod mounts
• Cold-shoe mount works well for adding small LED light bars or microphones

Cons

• The case itself is nothing spectacular in terms of looks or protection

Who is it for?

• Dedicated iPhoneographers who want use their devices to get the best possible photographs and need the steadiness of a tripod mount at a moment's notice

Olloclip Quick-Flip Case and Pro-Photo Adapter add protection, tripod mount originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wal-Mart-owned video-on-demand service Vudu has updated its iOS apps to allow movie downloads for offline viewing. The Android phone version of the app has had this feature for awhile, but Android tablets are still unable to download and view their Vudu/Ultraviolet collection on their tablets.

Other additions to the update include a reworked player to make the app easier to use, as well as support for closed captions on the iPhone. It's worth noting that the Flixter iOS app already allowed for Ultraviolet downloads. Ultraviolet is a digital rights authentication service that allows DVD and Blu-ray buyers to redeem unique download codes for digital viewing later.

You can find the updated app for free in the iTunes store now.

Vudu adds ability to download movies for offline viewing to iOS apps originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those of us who use Google's Chrome browser for OS X are familiar with how Chrome web apps can be installed and launched from within the browser. Now it appears that Google is working on a way to bring those Chrome apps even closer to the heart of your Mac by creating a Chrome apps launcher for OS X.

Google engineer François Beaufort detailed the plans in a Google+ post, noting that OS X users can actually try out a beta of the Chrome OS app launcher right now. To do so, you need to install the most recent build of Chromium, then set the --show-app-list switch through the CLI.

After performing that magic, launch Chromium and click its Dock icon to display a grid of your Chrome apps, ready to launch (see image above). Put this on your MacBook Air and it's almost like having a Chromebook! Note that this software is not quite ready for prime time, but for Chrome fans it may be worth the effort to give it a try.

Google to bring Chrome app launcher to OS X originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft has announced a brand-new game console today, though the company would probably be disappointed to hear that I called it that. The Xbox One is really more of an entertainment center all-in-one -- it's designed to connect your games, your streaming media and cable television all together in one set-top box. In some ways, it's a competitor to Apple TV. The Xbox One will also include a new Kinect camera, which will boast Siri-like voice control over all of its functions, and allow users to switch back and forth between live games, live TV or any of the console's various apps.

Obviously, that release is only tangentially related to Apple and its products, but there are a few closer ties that might become more important in the future. First up, Microsoft has already confirmed that the Xbox One will work with its SmartGlass system, for which there is already an app on the iPhone and the iPad. It's unclear just what SmartGlass will do for the Xbox One, but we'll stay tuned for more functionality on that end.

And second, Microsoft is apparently learning from Apple. The Cupertino company has famously been making its own "system-on-a-chip" hardware lately to go into new iPhones and iPads, and Microsoft has now done exactly the same. The Xbox One's CPU is a chip based on AMD designs, but customized by Microsoft's own R&D labs. There are a few reasons for that, including the power requirements, and the fact that the Xbox One actually runs a few different operating systems at a time (to easily switch back and forth between the games and the TV content). But Microsoft clearly borrowed the model for the hardware from Apple, and presumably later versions of the Xbox One will have even more customized chips in them. The Xbox One is due out sometime this year, but there's no official release date announced yet.

Microsoft announces Xbox One, with more SmartGlass and TV integration originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every year, Millward Brown Optimor produces the BrandZ list, a listing of the 100 most valuable brands. As with last year, Apple is at the top of the list with a 2013 brand value of just over US$185 billion.

Apple's brand value rose only 1 percent this year, but that number is still well over No. 2 Google at $113.7 billion. How much of a gap lies in the brand value between Apple and Google? How about almost the value of the venerable Coca-Cola brand at $78.4 billion (the soft drink company is at No. 5 on the list).

Another tech brand rounded out the top three, with IBM coming in just behind Google at $112.5 billion. The value of the top 100 brands is a staggering $2.6 trillion globally, up 7 percent from 2012.

Although Apple's share price and investor sentiment have lagged in the last year, BrandZ director Peter Walshe notes that brand is more sustainable than financials: "What we see with the most popular or powerful brands is that brand lasts a lot longer, is more robust and doesn't tend to slip as much, whereas the finances go up and down."

A PDF of the BrandZ Top 100 2013 is available for download here.

Apple still most valuable global brand originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During Apple's April 2012 earnings conference call, Tim Cook emphatically stated that he hates litigation.

"I've always hated litigation," Cook explained. "I continue to hate it. I just want people to invent their own stuff."

That notwithstanding, Apple today finds itself embroiled in a myriad patent infringement lawsuits. With Samsung in particular, Apple has ongoing legal battles with its Korean-based competitor in 11 countries across four continents.

Oddly enough, Apple's legal battles were tangentially brought up during Tuesday's congressional hearing which was held to take a closer look at Apple's tax practices. At one point during the hearing, the narrative veered a bit off course when Cook was asked to answer a question about Apple's challenges with respect to protecting its intellectual property in the US.

Cook took a moment to gather his thoughts and answered thusly.

I think the US Court system is currently structured in such a way that tech companies aren't getting the intellectual property protection they need. Our cycles are fast, the court system is very long and the foreign competitors in the US can quickly take IP and use it and ship products with it and they're to the next product as well. I would love to see conversations between countries and see protections between IP globally. For us, our intellectual property is so important, I would love the system to be strengthened in order to protect it.

Cook's remarks regarding product cycles being much faster than the court system certainly resonates given that Apple recently filed a motion to have Samsung's Galaxy S 4 added to its second court case against Samsung in California. Inevitably, by the time that case is adjudicated, Samsung will already have out a new product that Apple will likely take issue with.

Apple has, in fact, referenced this very dynamic in court filings, alleging that Samsung has at times purposefully tried to slow down judicial proceedings as to make the products at issue are irrelevant and outdated by the time trial finally gets underway.

Tim Cook on the state of IP protection: Our product cycles move much quicker than the court system originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Beethoven's 9th Symphony (free plus in-app purchases) is an epic iPad app that lets you explore one of the greatest symphonies ever written in a unique, compelling way. Classical music lovers will definitely want to check it out.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony uses every trick in the multimedia tool box. For starters, you can listen to four different performances of the work, taken from the well-known DGG catalog. As you listen, follow along with the the score in real time. The original manuscript displays each page as the music plays, but with modern notation.

An interesting feature called the "BeatMap" offers an overhead view of the orchestra, complete with symbols of the various instruments that glow as they are played.

The app also features several interviews, both contemporary and historic, with notable people like Leonard Bernstein and Gustavo Dudamel.

The four included performances date from 1962, with the most recent from 1992 played with period instruments. The Leonard Bernstein 1979 recording contains video of the performance, that you can watch in full-screen mode. It's interesting to compare the four concerts, and you can instantly switch between them, hearing how recording technology has advanced, and how performances differ. Having the four concerts in sync for comparison is unique and valuable.

This app is a great experience for adults and young musicians. I can't think of a better way to share this musical treasure in such depth.

Gallery: Beethoven's 9th Symphony

On to some negatives. The app does not directly support AirPlay, which is a mistake. You can certainly listen on headphones, but one should be able to hear this on a nice sound system. You can force AirPlay output with video mirroring by double-clicking the Home button and using the icon bar AirPlay tool, but the sound output stutters at times, and the video struggles to remain in sync.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony is not cheap. While you can download the app for free, you only get two minutes of each movement. A $13.99 in-app purchase unlocks the complete works. While the app is relatively expensive, it's less than the price of the four performances on separate CDs, and you wouldn't get the videos, the interviews or the full scores. Even if you opt for the free version, you download everything, and this is a large app at 1.53 GB. I had to do some housecleaning before I could run it.

I previously took a look at the first offering in this series, called The Orchestra. It was also excellent, but the Beethoven app is superior because it goes into great depth on a single work.

If you're interested in classical music, I think this is an app you will return to again and again. There's a lot of information, as well as the visual and sonic joys.

I'd also suggest you take a look at some parallel and less expensive apps if Beethoven appeals to you. Beethoven Symphonies ($1.99) has some nice selctions and performances. I also liked the free, ad-supported Beethoven Symphony Collection which also includes the scores to view.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony requires an iPad and iOS 6.

Just about everything you'll want to know about Beethoven's 9th on your iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The color indicators in the Mac OS X Dock provide an easy way to tell what apps are running just by glancing at the Dock. OS X basically provides you with two options for those indicators, which is to either show them or not, but because we like to customize things we’ll cover how to change the indicator light appearance so that they display as a different color completely. Optionally, this could include using a simple indicator that also removes the glowing appearance, which can leave the OS X Dock looking a bit more minimalist like this:

There are actually two ways to go about changing the Dock indicators, one uses a free tool called MacUtil, and the other will be done completely manually without the need for any third party apps or downloads. MacUtil is the easiest approach, thus making it the generally recommended approach, and we’ll cover that first. Because either method modifies system files, it’s a good idea to perform a quick manual backup to Time Machine before beginning. It’s unlikely something will go wrong, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. As always with these system tweaks, proceed at your own risk.

Change the Color of the Dock Indicator Lights in OS X with MacUtil

We’ll cover the quick method first, using a free third party tweak utility called MacUtil. If you’d rather do it manually on your own, or use different colors than what are offered by MacUtil, jump below for the manual approach:

• Get MacUtil free from the developer
• Launch MacUtil and click the button next to “Change indicator light color for open applications”
• Enter the administrator password to authenticate the changes
• Select the color you wish to change

You’ll now have a range of color options to choose from: Default (literally the OS X default), Green, Light, Light Purple, Purple, Turquoise, Violet, Vivid, Yellow, and “Custom” which will rely on your own image file input, and could be used to make the indicator lights any color at all.

If you’re simply aiming to make the indicator lights more obvious, “Vivid” is the obvious choice, which essentially brightens up the default option, making it a bit more obvious which apps are active and which aren’t.

Whatever color you choose, changes are made instantly and they take effect quickly, so there is little harm to trying a few and seeing which you like best.

Here is “Vivid”, which makes it much easier to see:

This is what “Yellow” Dock lights look like:

And here is what “Purple” indicator lights look like:

And here is what a “Custom” black indicator color looks like, we chose a black rectangle which looks quite nice if you like minimalism more than glowing glitz:

For those interested in the black color, it’s just a tiny 10×3 file that is black, you can download it here or save the little tiny black image below if you’re interested in using it yourself.

Do note that this sample black indicator is not retina ready, so if you have a retina Mac you will want to use a higher resolution version instead. I just made that file myself, which is very easy to do by grabbing one of the files in the manual approach mentioned below, making the desired color changes, then saving it and using it with MacUtil’s “Custom” indicator function.

This is obviously all really easy to change from the MacUtil app, but if you want to do it manually that’s what we’ll cover next.

Changing the Dock Indicator Lights Manually

For the Do-It-Yourself crowd, you can do all of this entirely on your own by modifying system files and replacing them with your own variations. Not to rain on anyones parade, but it’s sort of a tedious process, so unless you have some very specific desire to use a particular image, it’s easier to just use the MacUtil method described above. Nonetheless, we’ll show you how to change these files on your own if you’re inclined to go the manual route.

This requires changing system files yourself, it’s always a good idea to perform a quick manual backup to Time Machine or whatever you use before making changes to system folders and their contents.

• From the Finder, use Command+Shift+G and to summon Go To Folder and enter the following path:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/

• Use the “Folder Search” feature in the upper right corner, narrow the search down to only the “Resources” folder, and and look for “indicator_”
• Select all and make a copy of these files to a folder on the desktop called “Indicator Backup” – this is so that you can easily revert back to defaults should you decide your replacement indicators are unpleasant
• Modify or replace the Resources/ directory contents to change the indicators, focus on the following files:

indicator_large.png
indicator_large@2x.png
indicator_medium_simple.png
indicator_medium_simple@2x.png
indicator_medium.png
indicator_medium@2x.png
indicator_small_simple.png
indicator_small_simple@2x.png
indicator_small.png
indicator_small@2x.png

• Go to the Terminal and kill the Dock to refresh it for changes to take effect

killall Dock

• Enjoy your new Dock indicator icons

For what it’s worth, the “@2x” suffix indicates whether the image file is sized for retina displays or not, and if you don’t have a retina-equipped Mac then you don’t really need to replace those for the changes to take effect.

You can modify those files however you want, whether it’s just making simple hue and saturation changes with Preview app, or replacing them with completely different images and your own art drawn up through Pixelmator, Photoshop, or your image editing app of choice.

Happy customizing!

Ireland has responded to criticism from Senater Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that Irish tax laws allowed Apple to avoid playing taxes on tens of billions of dollars in profits using Irish subsidiaries. So what did Ireland have to say for itself?

In a statement to RTE, Ireland's national broadcast network, Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said:

These are not issues that arise from the Irish taxation system. They are issues that arise from the taxation systems in other jurisdictions, and that is an issue that has to be addressed first of all in those jurisdictions.

Ireland's answer is simple. If American companies like Apple are using loopholes in the American tax system to skirt playing their taxes, it's not Ireland's fault, and we should fix our system before we come after theirs. It's a good point.

The issue isn't that Ireland provided a safe haven for Apple to hide profits. It's that American tax law is so convoluted and full of loopholes that American companies like Apple can enjoy all the benefits of being an American company while paying a fraction of the taxes our laws say they own.

It will be interesting to see if these hearings will simply be an attempt to shame the company for tax avoidance, or if it will finally be the catalyst for closing the massive web of loopholes that make up the country's tax system.

Ireland distances itself from Apple's tax inquiry originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Subscribe via RSS

Daily Update for May 21, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re a popular social sharing service not named Google+, you might be integrated into iOS very soon. According to a report in 9to5Mac, Apple is working on integrating Yahoo’s revamped photo service Flickr and the social video network Vimeo into iOS 7. The two services would join the two big social networks, Twitter and Facebook, in enjoying operating system-level integration into the iPhone and iPad.

That would mean that users could sign in with their Flickr and Vimeo accounts within the Settings app on their iOS device, just as they can now with Twitter and Facebook. Then when the user hits the share button in an app, the menu will include the services that they’ve registered.

iOS is expected to be detailed by Apple at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June. 9to5Mac noted that the decision to include two additional social services could be reversed before any announcement is made. But the report does make a lot of sense.

Such a move could be read as a bit more anti-Google maneuvering from Apple. After all, the company last year shed all iOS-Google tie-ins in iOS 6 with the exception of keeping Google search as the default option in mobile Safari. YouTube is available as a third-party app from the App Store, but it’s no longer the default video service in iOS. Apple could also take up the move to support Vimeo in response to Google allowing iOS developers to enable a setting in their own apps that automatically opens YouTube videos in the YouTube app, instead of mobile Safari.

But it’s also just as likely that Apple is simply increasing feature parity between iOS and Mac OS X. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion has built-in Flickr and Vimeo integration, as well as Twitter and Facebook. Facebook integration also began on OS X and moved to iOS, so Yahoo’s photo service and Vimeo’s social video service could be following that same path.

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