Author: A.P.P.L.E.

The A.P.P.L.E. Website is run by the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange Users Group and is open to all Apple and Macintosh fans and their friends.

R&D Automation Makes 500 Units of the CFFA 3000 Available

Rich Dreher announced the availability of 500 more units of his popular Apple II card, the CFFA 3000.  The CFFA 3000 allows Apple II and /// series users to store programs on  compact flash and USB thumb drive, making the 8 bit Apples a seriously fast machine.  Programs and hard disk images can be easily transferred from PC to Apple II / III via the CF and USB thumb drives and the cards, bringing these old machines into the 21st…

Google to Close Dedicated Mac Blog

Google has had a dedicated Mac Blog for the past five years  run by Scott Knaster, a programmer and writer since 1980.   While many places are ramping up their Mac based offerings, Google seems to be stepping off the platform in favor of pushing their own Chrome platform.  Scott announced the end of life for the Google Mac Blog in the latest posting to the blog. Scott’s final post on the Google Mac Blog states that “Our Mac and iOS…

Update to eBook Release of What’s Where in the Apple

This past week, we mentioned (http://www.callapple.org/2012/06/20/whats-where-in-the-apple-ii-is-returning/) the forthcoming re-release of William F. Luebbert’s popular Apple ][ book, What’s Where in the Apple in eBook format.   Today we have further news and more accurate pricing schedules based on information we received from the publisher, Robert Tripp: 1.  The price is going to be $19.95 but people who “pre-order” (as simple as pressing the “pre-order” button on the web site that sends us an e-mail) can get the book for $15.00.  They…

Proof of Conecpt for new Apple iTunes Vulnerability

If you haven’t updated your iTunes to the latest version yet, you might want to think about doing it relatively soon.   A new proof of concept shows that a malicious playlist could execute any code it wants on your Mac.  At this point, the vulnerability is only a proof of concept and no real world application of the issue has been seen yet.  For more on the vulnerability, you can check out SC Magazine posting on the topic: http://www.scmagazine.com/itunes-vulnerability-may-enable-remote-code-execution/article/246207/ The…

Filemaker Releases Bento 4 for the iPad

Filemaker, Inc. has released the latest version of their Bento database creator for the iPad. Bento 4 is a completely stand alone database creator in its own right and can also sync with the Mac based version of Bento.  Bento 4 has a number of new features, including One-tap linking to the Bento Template Exchange to access hundreds of free, ready-to-use templates to get started in seconds Powerful design tools that let users customize templates, create forms and organize information…

Apple Makes WWDC 2012 Videos Available to Developers

If you were one of the millions of Apple developers who got left out of this year’s Wordwide Developers Conference in Muscone Center last week, you are now in luck.  The videos from the 133 sessions at this years WWDC are now available on the Apple Developers website at: https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2012/ You will need your developers login and password to view the videos, however, all of the videos are free for viewing.  The Keynote presentation for WWDC 2012 is also available…

What’s Where in the Apple is Returning as eBook

For those of us who grew up programming in the Late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the introduction of William Luebbert’s book “What’s Where in the Apple” was a defining moment that meant we no longer had to scramble for internals information for the Apple II.  It was all there in one book and the information was clear, concise and allowed us to complete our programs in a timely manner. Now, the book has once again reared its head from the…

Apple updates Application Loader

The Application Loader, the app which allows developers to package Apps for the Apple App Store through iTunes Connect has been updated.  Version 2.7 of the Application loader addresses a host of issues including: You can download the update through the Software Update option under the Apple Menu or by going to the iTunes Connect Support page at:  http://itunesconnect.apple.com

Thunderbolt Software Update Released by Apple

Apple has released an update to their Thunderbolt Software, bringing it to version 1.2.1. The latest version of the software adds the support for the Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter which comes as an option with the new Mac Book Pro. You can download the update through the Software Update menu under the Apple Menu or from the Apple Support website at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1544

Apple Releases New iPad Commercial

In response to Microsoft’s release of their new “Surface” tablet, Apple has done exactly what one would expect they would do in lieu of a new product release.  Release a commercial. The new commercial entitled “Do it all”, highlights the capabilities of the iPad and takes a swipe at the Microsoft product without mentioning it by focusing squarely on the high density retina display.  

New record for the Apple-I Computer — $374,500 USD

Sotheby’s Auction House sold an Apple-I Computer this week for the staggering price of $374,500 USD.  The hammer price of this auction more than crushed the previous record of approximately $210,000 USD for an Apple-I. The Apple-I computer was created in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and was the first machine sold by Apple, Inc.  While the machine was really just a board, many hobbyists were able to assemble the machine into a working machine with just a few parts and…

Brutal Deluxe Adds More Apps to Cassette Library

The Apple ][ Cassette Library, started by Antoine Vignau of Brutal Deluxe Software now has several new apps added to the library.  Cassettes were produced for the Apple ][ from 1977 to 1982 by over 50 companies but they lost popularity as the floppy disk took over the Apple ][ software realm. The new Apple ][ apps added to the cassette library include: Apple: Color demos 4K Apple: Breakout 4K Programma International: Home accounting Programma InternationalStar voyager Softape: Screen machine…

Apple gives us a Unicorn!

As we were chatting away in IRC pre-WWDC Keynote, I mentioned that I would like to see a new MBP with Flash and dual SSD.   Now that I look on that configuration, I had it all wrong but then that was before the keynote.  Tim Cook and his merry men brought us all to our knees again with the new offerings from Cupertino. It seemed quite funny at the time but one person mentioned that a MacBook Pro with Flash…

Apple Store is Down in Preparation for WWDC

The Apple Store, which is the center of the Apple consumer universe has been shut down in preparation for the pending announcements coming in today’s keynote at WWDC. The World Wide Developers Conference, held each year at Muscone Center in San Francisco, is the place to be today as Apple shows their developers the future direction of the product lines. Many rumors surrounding the conference are expecting an entire renewal of the Apple MacBook Pro line of products as well…

New Apple ][ Series Users Guide to be released in 10 days

David Finnigan, the curator of the MacGui.com website has published a new Apple ][ series users guide. The guide (http://macgui.com/newa2guide/) is currently 10 days from being released to the general public and is already available for pre-order on the Barnes & Noble online book store at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-new-apple-ii-users-guide-david-finnigan/1111384271 for the price of $13.50 USD Although the last books for the Apple ][ computer were published more than 20 years ago, there are many machines still available on the second hand and…

Mac Backdoor Trojan embedded in Word Documents

For those users who use Microsoft products on their Macs, you need to be aware that there is a new version of the Backdoor Trojan embedded in a word document related to the Tibetan situation.  According to this article, it is possibly related to the Chinese effort to keep an eye on Tibetan sympathizers and any group banned by the Chinese goverment: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/03/30/mac-malware-backdoor/ Make sure that you update all of your Microsoft products to the latest version set by the…

New Member ID’s and Passwords

Due to a systems breech in the previous 6 weeks, we have been forced to re-issue all ID’s and passwords to our members.  If you are a member of the A.P.P.L.E. Users group and have not received your new ID and password, please let us know.  We are currently working to reestablish all of the members systems and integrate them into the main website.  Stay tuned for more news and a return to full operations. Non-members are no longer able…

WWDC 2012 Sells out in 90 minutes

The 2012 rendition of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference or WWDC sold out in less than 90 minutes this morning.  The conference which will be held from June 11th to June 15 as Muscone Center in San Francisco is an annual rite of passage for many developers.  Last year the conference sold out in twelve hours, however with the demand for information about Apple products growing at a similar rate as the demand for Apple products, the developers are all…

XperimentalZ Releases Another Update to DRWAPS

XperimentalZ Games has released a second update this week on the iOS game Don’t Run With A Plasma Sword.  This latest update was released to address an issue with resolution being a bit fuzzy on the New iPad and also a bug we discovered here at A.P.P.L.E., freezing of the game if you exited during screen loading. You can download version 1.1.4 of DRWAPS from the Apple iTunes store at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dont-run-with-a-plasma-sword/id479907900?mt=8

Apple Sold 35.1 Million iPhones and 11.8 Million iPads 2nd Quarter

Apple announced their quarterly profits today with their net profits up a whopping 94% over 2nd quarter 2011.   During 2nd quarter 2012, Apple sold a total of 35.1 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads resulting in a quarterly net profit of 11.8 Billion USD during the quarter.  They also sold 7.7 million ipods during the same quarter.  The number of iOS devices is now over 365 million devices thanks to to the sales of the devices this previous quarter. Apple’s…