Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s latest earnings report for the second quarter that ended at the end of last month had generally feel good news, where they manage to rack up a net profit of $9.5 billion, where it rode on the back of revenue which amounted to a whopping $43.6 billion. This came about as Apple managed to place another 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads into the hands of happy consumers, which is up from 35.1 million and 11.8 million for the corresponding quarter in 2012. There was no boost in Mac sales figures, which remained flat at 4 million sold.

Sounds pretty good on paper, but if you were to peer into the crystal ball, there does not seem to be anything interesting arriving from Apple anytime soon. The world did look forward to a new iPhone arriving sometime in the middle of this year, but it seems that this will not be as Tim Cook stated that fall would be the earliest time should Apple decide to roll out a new device, and fall begins officially this September 22nd. 2014 would be a better bet for new devices, said he. Bummer! Guess there will be no new hardware announcements at WWDC this June, right?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Have Coffee With Tim Cook For $50,000, The Money Goes To Charity, Apple Launches Interactive Timeline To Celebrate ‘A Decade Of iTunes’,

Today Apple has let loose information about their 2012 developer conference, showing a hero image for the event that’s unmistakably indicative of their intent for content. As the past few years have shown, the invitation for WWDC isn’t always a perfect representation of what will be unveiled – but clues are always present. Here in the 2013 edition, the multi-colored stack of four-sided, rounded shapes along with the ultra-thin stick lettering shows Apple is ready to open a whole new door.

The initial invite to WWDC 2013 let developers know that they’d be in for just as exciting a set of presentations as any they’d seen in years past, promising also that those not able to attend would be taken care of. Noting that they’d be posting videos of each and every session spoken at the series of events, Apple made it clear that Registered Apple Developers would be able to take advantage of the content even if unable to be there in person. These videos have been promised to be delivered in a timely fashion.

If you have a peek at the image above, you’ll see what WWDC 2012 delivered as its first and main event mark. This combination preceded an event which delivered the original MacBook Pro with Retina display as well as sets of updates to Apple’s mobile and desktop operating systems iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Below you’ll find the WWDC 2011 image presented before the show – this tipped the reveal of Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud.

The 2010 edition of WWDC revealed the iPhone 4, changed the name of iPhone OS to a much simpler iOS, and showed both FaceTime and iMovie for the iPhone. So now that we’re several years in to this trend of revealing major software updates and a return (after one year without) of hardware announcements, Apple has been tipped to be bringing both to San Francisco on June 10th. And if you’re feeling cheeky, you could see the 2012 logo’s color orbs converging together to create the logo you see for 2013′s event – that could mean some real one-ness between the systems.

SlashGear will be attending this event and will be bringing on hands-on coverage and up-to-the-minute news from start to finish. Don’t miss it – straight from our WWDC 2013 tag portal all week long.

Apple WWDC 2013 logo evolution tips cross-platform conglomeration is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony has announced a new set of digital recording binoculars called the DEV-50V. The binoculars allow users to take still photos and video of wildlife from afar. That wildlife can include things such as birds and deer (or the hot blonde who lives across the street.) Sony says that these new binoculars are lighter, smaller, and more weatherproof compared to the versions released previously.

The digital recording binoculars have a magnification range of 0.8x to 12x optical, and up to 25x digital zoom. The magnification can also be adjusted on the fly so you can use the low magnification setting to find your subject and then quickly zoom in. The binoculars also automatically focus themselves and have integrated image stabilization.

They’re also able to record 2D or 3D images and work in low light conditions as well. Still images can be taken at a resolution of 20.4-megapixels, and video can be captured in Full AVCHD (presumably, that means 1080p resolution). Each eye gets its own XGA resolution OLED “Tru-Finder” and the binoculars have integrated GPS for geo-tagging photos and video. One cool feature is that you can even play back 3D video through the eyepieces. They also have an HDMI output for connecting to an HDTV.

The DEV-50V binoculars will be available this June for about $2000(USD).

Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that Amazon will soon be announcing its own streaming box to pair up with its Amazon Instant Video and video on demand. More »

Amidst all of the recent Twitter accounts being breached by hackers, Twitter is tipped to be working on a two-factor authentication system to better protect its users. According to Wired, Twitter is currently performing internal tests on the two-factor authentication system and when the tests are complete, the new feature will be shortly distributed to Twitter’s users.

In the past week alone, several Twitter accounts belonging to important news sites and big name figures were compromised. The Syrian Electronic Army claimed credit for all of the attacks, including the attacks on several of CBS’s official accounts, including 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, and CBS Denver. It also hacked into FIFA’s official Twitter account, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter’s account, and The Associated Press’s official Twitter account.

The two-factor authentication system could work in several possible ways. One way is having a dedicated app that generates a randomized code that you must use to access your account. Another way is having a code sent to you via SMS text message, which you would have to use to access your account. Most of the time, you only need to input the code once and you won’t have to do so again for a while, unless you’re accessing your account from a different location.

Twitter has been working on implementing a two-factor authentication system into its service since early February. It listed a job posting for a software engineer whose main focus is on product security. It decided that a two-factor authentication system was necessary after 250,000 Twitter accounts were compromised in an attack that occurred a week earlier. This new security feature should prove effective in prevent hackers like the Syrian Electronic Army from breaching any more accounts.

[via Wired]

Twitter tipped to be testing out two-factor authentication system is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.