“Sources familiar with the iPhone-maker’s plans said that Apple wants to improve the AirPlay wireless music streaming technology, which currently requires Airplay speakers and a WiFi network,” Matt Warman reports for The Telegraph.

“The new version will require just speakers or a hifi and an iDevice; the iPhone, iPod or iPad would form its own network to allow a direct connection and music playback,” Warman reports. “The move is expected to be announced at the launch of the new iPhone, which is widely rumoured to take place on September 12.”

Warman reports, “Sources said that Apple has not signed off any specific products yet and that the ‘Airplay Direct’ is a working title rather than a definite name. Apple is also expected to combine a change in size for the iPod connector, used widely on docks, with a new push for Airplay streaming. This means docks will no longer require the iPod to be physically connected… for music playback.”

For more information, please visit Apple Is Going to Release AirPlay Direct in September

Earlier this month, Arstechnica had reported that many users had found a significant decrease in battery life after upgrading to OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

Ars writer Chris Foresman, after extended testing, discovered that the battery life of his Retina MacBook Pro review unit dropped 38% from its previous 8-hours.

The same findings were reported by many others in Apple's own support forums, and there were some reports that the development versions of OS X 10.8.1 may have addressed this issue.

MacObserver has conducted battery life tests on the final release build of OS X 10.8.1 to see if there had indeed been any improvement. Their testing process included using an Automator script that launched several apps and navigated to websites. The script would cycle this process continuously. The tests were run on a 2011 Macbook Pro. Here are their findings:


First, they were able to confirm the drop in battery life when going from OS X 10.7.4 to OS X 10.8. The drop they measured was 33% (2 hours and 10 minutes) just from upgrading OS X to 10.8. The "No WiFi Icon" was a "fix" of suggested by one of their readers, but showed no appreciable effect. They did find that OS X 10.8.1 (beta and release) builds did improve the battery life stats, adding as much as 52 minutes in their testing. The overall numbers, however, are still well under their battery life measurements in OS X 10.7.4 (Lion).

Apple is currently testing OS X 10.8.2, but there's been no word if that build helps further improve battery times back towards OS X Lion levels.

Click here to get more releated news about Mountain Lion 10.8.1

Article Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/08/24/mountain-lion-os-x-10-8-1-improves-battery-life-somewhat/

Mobile gaming is kind of a big deal. Most games available for tablets aren’t as long as the best titles for handheld consoles, but some are just as deep in both story and mechanics. As for selection, well, there’s just no way Nintendo or Sony can compete with the iOS and Android app stores.

Even some hardcore gamers are now turning to tablets as an alternative to handheld consoles. Which begs the question – if you care about gaming, what tablet is the best? Is there a major difference between the competitors, or are they all about the same?

The Three Best Choices

Now that I’ve provided an overview, let’s get down to the specifics – the three best gaming tablets on the market today.

The iOS environment is a great boon to the tablet gamer. Game usually come out for iOS first, and Android later. Games also tend to run better on the iPad because the developers only have to code for a few devices with extremely similar hardware.

With that said, don’t discount the hardware. The display on the iPad 3 is amazing. It’s crisp, offers excellent color reproduction and features deep black levels. This is enhanced by the A5X, which features the most powerful GPU on any tablet sold today.

Like some other Sony devices, the Tablet S is Playstation Certified. This means it will be able to run Playstation Mobile games, giving gamers another source of high-quality titles. You’ll be able to play games like WipEout and DYAD, among many others. You can even play them by pairing the tablet with a wireless PS3 controller.

The tablet also features a “TruBlack” display. It provides excellent black levels, which results in good image quality.

The main downside is the use of the older Tegra 2 SoC. This hampers performance in theory, though the tablet should be able to handle modern Android titles.

It’s hard to beat the value presented by the Nexus 7. For $200 you can have a tablet with the same Tegra 3 SoC found in other larger, more expensive tablets. It provides the same performance at a much lower price.

Another benefit is the display. Color reproduction and black levels are not the best, but it does offer a 216 pixels per inch, which not far off what Apple offers with its Retina display.

Some gamers may be turned off by the size. A 7” tablet is quite a bit smaller than a 10” one. This can also be a boon, however, because the tablet is lighter and easier to handle. That makes the tablet easier to use for long periods of time.

Conclusion

Here’s the summary checklist for buying a gaming tablet.

• Check the performance of the SoC.
• Consider display quality.
• Research game selection and peripheral compatibility.
• Look at size and weight (lighter, thinner tablets are often more comfortable).

If you remember these four points before you make your purchase you should be happy with the product. Don’t worry much about interface customizations, camera quality or even audio quality (you can always wear earplugs, and probably will if you game outside your home).

Article Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/which-tablet-is-best-for-gaming/

When you dream of computers, do you dream of high-resolution displays? What about 5.1 million pixels on a screen that is almost comparable to the resolution of the human eye? A screen where the picture is as detailed and sharp as the scenery outside your window? Whether or not you’ve got the cash for it, you can’t deny that the MacBook Pro with Retina display is one of the most impressive notebooks ever built. But unlike the iPad’s vast library of Retina-ready apps, the Retina Mac apps are lagging a bit behind. More often than not, owners of the new MacBook Pro have to adjust the dimensions for apps that haven’t been updated. Developers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to convert, however, and they’re starting to do what’s necessary to make their applications shine on Apple’s new vivid display.

Upgrading an application for the Retina display can be a tedious task, though it really depends on how the application was originally created. Images are two-dimensional or consist of vector graphics; the former can be fairly low resolution, while the latter shouldn’t need any changes if done correctly. Developers who choose the low-res, two-dimensional route must redraw all of the images in the application to make them twice as large. “This requires a lot of work in an image editor of your choice,” says CTO of IGG Software, James Gillespie, which publishes iBank, a personal finance app for the Mac. “We use Pixelmator, Photoshop, and Illustrator in-house, but we also contract out a lot of graphics work.”

Once the new images have been created, Gillespie says that incorporating them into the application is an easy task, thanks to Apple’s framework. “The hardest part is making sure that everything lines up correctly onscreen. This can only be done by looking at every version of every screen in the app and making sure that it looks correct.” IGG Software’s developers have found issues where vector graphics didn’t line up quite right on the Retina display, which meant having to go back and change code to fix it.

Fortunately, the end result is worth the work. “I think the biggest triumph so far was when we went to the Retina MacBook Pro and launched iBank. The reports looked beautiful.”

The other part of the challenge is coming up with designs that will translate well to the Retina’s high-resolution display. “The best designs often include tiny details that only Retina users with the keenest of eyes would notice,” says Jack Hirsch, Product Manager for the Mac version of Evernote. “Our greatest challenge was trying to catch every single image and rendered graphic in our applications. Some of the images were very old and needed to be redesigned completely.”

For game developers, conversion requires a little more than simply dumping out low-resolution images for high-res ones. For Aspyr, a company that ports games to the Mac, the difficulty of the process differs by title. “It’s dependent on the title and is typically focused on if the resolution is supported already in game, how the user interface scales at this large of a display, and game performance at higher resolution,” says Elizabeth Howard, Director of Business Development. Depending on the scenario, a game can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to redevelop. Fortunately for Aspyr, it already has titles that are fit for the MacBook Pro’s ginormous resolution, old favorites such as Quake 4, Doom 3, Prey, and Call of Duty.

Lastly, developers lament the fact that Retina-compatible applications must still be made to work well with a variety of lower resolutions. Creating software that can automatically detect and adjust to either the MacBook Pro’s Retina screen, an external monitor, a TV, a projector, and so on can be just as challenging as re-creating graphics. “Dimensions and hard-coded numbers get mixed up and objects onscreen can behave erratically,” says Hirsch.

The difference between the Retina-and non-Retina-compatible versions of Evernote is readily apparent.

Of course, developing for the new MacBook Pro’s screen isn’t an entirely foreign process, since many developers have been working with the Retina display on the iPad. But desktop applications present a few more challenges, such as ensuring that windows are resizable. “The challenge is really balancing the development requirements of this support with the ongoing development efforts toward new release titles,” adds Howard.

For many developers, having a Retina-ready application has always been high on the priority list. “We saw the Retina MacBook as an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to providing our users with a truly beautiful application, even on the world’s most demanding display,” says Hirsch.

Adds Gillespie: “I don’t think that when choosing a finance application that Retina support is very high on their list of must-have features. But I think for a lot of people it will be an extra ‘delighter’ that the application just looks great.”

Article Source: http://www.maclife.com/article/columns/going_retina_how_developers_convert_apps_work_new_retina_display

Google Apps will soon gain an email routing and filtering feature from Google's Postini suite of email security services, part of an effort to eventually replicate all Postini functionality in Google Apps.

This latest feature will allow Apps customers to define routing rules for email messages sent to general, departmental inboxes, like those for sales and technical support, so that the appropriate individuals are alerted.

It's the latest Postini feature to become native functionality in Apps, the cloud-based email and collaboration suite for companies, schools and government agencies.

"As we look ahead to 2013, we'll continue these feature integrations and gradually transition Postini Google Message Security (GMS) and Google Message Discovery (GMD) customers to Google Apps. This will enable them to take advantage of the Postini features built directly into Google Apps that are more flexible, powerful and user-friendly," said Adam Dawes, an Apps product manager, in a blog post.

Google will offer more details about the Postini transition in the coming months, along with "tools and resources" to aid customers, according to Dawes.

Article Source: http://www.itworld.com/software/289896/google-adds-another-postini-email-feature-google-apps