Hasta La Gadget!

Apple may have a lot of iMessage users, but it has also had its share of teething troubles as the chat service (and iCloud) grows. That’s certainly been true this month: Apple has confirmed that, for the second time in a week, iMessage is down for at least some users. There’s a real chance those conversations won’t go through unless it’s between iPhone users that can try SMS. More pressing for anyone in the UK is a wider iTunes outage, as we’ve heard multiple reports of the app and media repository being inaccessible in the country no matter what device they use. We’ve reached out to Apple and will update if there’s an explanation or a repair schedule for either outage. For now, we’d suggest that iMessage lovers communicate through social networks and passive-aggressive word choices in Letterpress.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: And no sooner than we post than Apple has iMessage back up and running. Let us know through tips if you’re still having iMessage or iTunes UK trouble, however.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Mobile, Apple

Apple iMessage sees second outage in a week, iTunes UK follows suit (update: back up, in theory) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By TED ANTHONY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The most devastating storm in decades to hit the country’s most densely populated region upended man and nature as it rolled back the clock on 21st-century lives, cutting off modern communication and leaving millions without power Tuesday as thousands who fled their water-menaced homes wondered when — if — life would return to normal.

A weakening Sandy, the hurricane turned fearsome superstorm, killed at least 48 people, many hit by falling trees, and still wasn’t finished. It inched inland across Pennsylvania, ready to bank toward western New York to dump more of its water and likely cause more havoc Tuesday night. Behind it: a dazed, inundated New York City, a waterlogged Atlantic Coast and a moonscape of disarray and debris — from unmoored shore-town boardwalks to submerged mass-transit systems to delicate presidential politics.

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More on Hurricane Sandy 2012

Most celebrities have mastered the art of praising any and all projects they’ve been involved with. Even with movies that are dead on arrival, the stars are often seen trying to talk them up on the talk show circuit. So fans were delighted when Halle Berry was very candid on “Chelsea Lately” about what she called the Hollywood “crapshoot.”

Sometimes a movie just comes out terrible. “You don’t expect it to be as bad as it is sometimes,” she said.

But, as Chelsea Handler pointed out, “Even when a movie ends up crappy, other good things can come out of it. You met your fiance on a movie?î

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More on Halle Berry

Last month, we heard that Apple was planning to roll out a pretty big update for iTunes. That update was scheduled to land sometime this month, but with October ending tomorrow, it’s become pretty clear that the iTunes refresh probably won’t make it out the door before November arrives. Sure enough, Apple confirmed today that it has delayed this major iTunes update, and now the company is saying that it should be available before the end of next month.

Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr confirmed the delay of the update to All Things D today, though sadly, he didn’t get too specific about why it was pushed back. “The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right,” Neumayr said. “We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November.”

There could be any number of reasons for this delay – including, as All Things D points out, Apple’s recent management shake up – but we’re tempted to take Apple at its word when it says that needs more time to iron out the kinks. Remember, Apple doesn’t have the best history with these iTunes updates after all. In any case, once the update does finally arrive, it will come sporting a bunch of new features, including the iCloud improvements Neumayr mentioned.

There are also improvements to the user interface and playlist creation to get excited about, as well as general boosts to performance. Sadly, the iTunes faithful will have to a wait a few more weeks before they can put this update through its paces, but it’s better for Apple push it back than release it on time with a bunch of bugs. Stay tuned, because we’ll probably hear more about this iTunes update as we draw closer to its yet-unknown November release date.

iTunes overhaul pushed back to November is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ever since those bygone days of Metro, we’ve all been struggling to figure out precisely what to call the design language of Microsoft’s OS offerings. When the question was put to MS’s Will Tschumy, the user experience strategist told a crowd at Build that the company is calling Win 8 apps “Windows 8 Store Applications” — not exactly as elegant as the aesthetic the company is implementing across its products.

Update: Looks like Microsoft didn’t quite get it right yesterday. Redmond’s actually calling them “Windows Store apps.”

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Microsoft: we’re calling our apps ‘Windows 8 Store Applications’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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