Travel ads doing especially well on the iPad

AllThingsD has an interesting report on the boom of travel ads in the last year. Mobile ad network Greystripe has seen travel-related mobile ad campaigns grow by 50% this past year. While researching why, they found the iPad has a lot to do with it. Greystripe found that a whopping 91% of iPad owners use their iPads for travel-related tasks, like booking flights and hotels, or planning trips.

Breaking it down, the study revealed that 47% of iPad users booked hotel rooms on the device, while 37% used the iPad to book flights, 28% used it to make restaurant reservations, and 24% used it to rent a car. Greystripe found that survey respondents were more likely to use the Safari web browser to book their travel needs through websites instead of dedicated apps.

Only 49% of iPhone users were willing to use Safari to book their travel needs, instead relying primarily on apps. The willingness of iPad owners to visit a company's website to book their travel needs probably relates to the iPad's larger screen.

Travel ads doing especially well on the iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/28/travel-ads-doing-especially-well-on-the-ipad/

applestore promo code imac software the apps store mac rumor

Steve Jobs tried to avoid legal battle with Samsung

Apple and Samsung clashed in a second day of hearings in an Australian court Thursday. Apple's lawyers revealed that Steve Jobs attempted personally to avoid a legal battle between the two companies, and Samsung made a concession that could lead to hardware design compromises.

Source: http://gigaom.com/apple/steve-jobs-tried-to-avoid-legal-battle-with-samsung/

latest apple news macintosh mac technical support recent apple news

How to enable the FTP server (ftpd) in Lion

Apple decided to remove the GUI for enabling and disabling FTP from Mac OS X Lion. Generally speaking, that's not a bad move, because most times SFTP is available anywhere FTP is, and SFTP is far superior in terms of security. No one should be using FTP over the Internet.

However, there are some cases when using FTP is perfectly fine. For instance, transferring large files over your own LAN. I do this all the time when transferring DVD rips from one machine to another. Others have mentioned that they have some devices which only support FTP so SFTP isn't an option.

Personally, I prefer FTP on my LAN because, since it is unencrypted, there's no extra processing time needed to encrypt and decrypt the transfer. I'm also willing to admit that there may not be much practical difference in most cases -- that is, I don't know that SFTP is much slower than FTP, but when you're talking about "8 GB at a time" transfers, every little bit matters.

Enabling FTP on Lion

The good news is that Apple did not remove the FTP server (/usr/libexec/ftpd) from Lion, they only removed the GUI to enable or disable it.

The even better news is that there are (at least) two GUI tools for re-enabling it:

  1. Lion Tweaks (which also lets you toggle other Lion settings)
  2. FTPD Enable App which is an AppleScript app to launch ftpd

For those of us who prefer the command line, there are even instructions on how to enable ftpd using launchd.

ftpd.zsh

I wrote a small shell script called ftpd.zsh which will let you turn ftpd on or off, or check its current status. Usage is very simple:

  1. ftpd.zsh --on
  2. ftpd.zsh --off
  3. ftpd.zsh

#1 will turn it on, #2 will turn it off, #3 will show you whether it is currently on or off.

My script is based on Daniel Smith's launchd commands mentioned above. The script must be run as root, but if it isn't, it will automatically re-launch itself using 'sudo' rather than failing ungracefully. It is also smart enough not to try to turn it on when it is already on, or off when it is already off.

To use the script, download ftpd.zsh and then put it somewhere in your $PATH such as /usr/local/bin and make sure it is executable chmod 755 /path/to/ftpd.zsh. (If any part of that previous sentence didn't make sense to you, I recommend using one of the GUI programs listed above. Using the Terminal is one option, but it's not the only option.)

Once again I repeat: if you are trying to connect to another machine over the Internet in an otherwise unencrypted manner, use SFTP. The only time FTP should be used is when there is no chance of the password being 'sniffed' by a nefarious third party.

You can enable SFTP and SSH in Lion (and previous versions of OS X) by going to System Preferences » Sharing and making sure that "Remote Login" is enabled. When in doubt, use SFTP. But if you need FTP and are aware of the risks, now you have the option of enabling it when needed.

ftpd just one time

If you want to enable ftpd immediately without downloading or installing any scripts or apps, simply enter:

sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

into Terminal.app. If you want to turn it off afterwards, enter the command

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

All ftpd all the time

If you use any of the above solutions, ftpd will be disabled again when you reboot the computer. If you want to enable ftpd automatically after every reboot, you will need to edit /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist by looking for the lines

Disabled

and changing them to

Disabled

which will tell Lion to enable ftpd on reboot. Use the launchctl load command shown above to enable it without rebooting.

Note: I recommend that you do not edit ftp.plist unless you absolutely cannot avoid it. I am firmly against tinkering with anything in /System/ but at the end of the day, it's your computer, and if if your situation requires ftpd to be available at all times, editing the plist is the best way to make sure it is always on.

How to enable the FTP server (ftpd) in Lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/29/how-to-enable-the-ftp-server-ftpd-in-lion/

mac computer news applecare apple news rumors apple newspaper

US cable TV may unbundle to stem tide of Internet video

US cable and satellite providers signaled Tuesday that they wanted to unbundle their channel packages to stave off the incursion of Internet video and a tough economy. DirecTV, Mediacom, Suddenlink, and others are pushing the FCC and others to alter retransmission fee systems and let them sell access by the channel so that they can lower the actual cost of selling TV services. At costs as high as $4 per month just for ESPN and now with normally free-to-air networks charging for access, they argued to Reuters and others that they were forced to charge high prices....

Source: http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=635405c4272f16aee5d0464144ac2daf

apple news conference mac mini news apple store mac protection

10.7: Show Bluetooth signal strength

It's often useful to know the signal strength of a Bluetooth connection. For instance, my Magic Trackpad becomes much more responsive when it's on the left-hand side of my MacBook Pro, rather than the right. It took me some time to figure this out, and it would have been a lot easier if I could have easily measured the signal strength myself. Until now OS X hasn't given any easy way to show the signal strength.

But 10.7 adds an easy display of the signal strength! Go into System Preferences » Bluetooth. The window show a list of all your connected Bluetooth devices, one per line. Click on a device and then press the Option key, and a bar graph and number will appear on the right showing the current strength. These are displayed and recalculated as long as you hold down the Option key. Like Wi-Fi signal strengths, the number is a negative integer, and numbers closer to zero are better. For instance, -50 indicates a strong connection, while -80 is very weak. ...

Add to digg Add to Reddit Add to Slashdot Email this Article Add to StumbleUpon

Source: http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=e7dbb2c118741eab38edb03066257fbd

mac mini news apple store mac protection news on apple

Apple Introduces iCloud

Apple today introduced iCloud, a set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content and push it to all your devices. iCloud services include new versions of Contact, Calendar, and Mail; iCloud Backup and Storage; Photo Stream; and iTunes in the Cloud. And for just $24.99 a year, iTunes Match will give you all of the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven?t purchased from iTunes. iCloud will be available this fall, along with iOS 5. A free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud is available today in the U.S. and requires iTunes 10.3 and iOS 4.3.3.

Source: http://www.apple.com/icloud/?sr=hotnews.rss

mac computer news applecare apple news rumors apple newspaper

Microsoft to receive royalties for Samsung's Android smartphones, tablets

Microsoft on Wednesday announced it has entered a cross-licensing agreement with Samsung, in which Microsoft will receive royalties for smartphones and tablets sold by Samsung running the Google Android mobile operating system.

Add to Twitter

Source: http://feeds.appleinsider.com/click.phdo?i=dd4ad74c02317410d99db8858748006b

mac world macworld 2009 apple tablet news macintosh news

Apple is second "coolest brand" in UK survey

A new survey from CoolBrands finds that Aston Martin is the "coolest" brand in the UK, with Apple in second place. You can't really compete with James Bonds's car, can you?

How does one define "cool," especially in a survey? The BBC explains the researchers' definition: "Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the CoolBrands Expert Council, said: 'Cool is subjective and personal. But being identified as a Cool Brand by the British public and a panel of influential opinion formers implies it is a brand that most Brits wish to own.

'Votes are based on a wide criteria of factors but these brands are clearly delivering cool in the eyes of consumers and influencers alike,' he said."

Other tech brands in the top ten were Bang & Olufsen, BlackBerry, Google and YouTube. Harley-Davidson was in the third spot, just behind Apple.

Apple is second "coolest brand" in UK survey originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/28/apple-is-second-coolest-brand-in-uk-survey/

refurbished mac store apple shop uk app store search latest apple news