Amazon Announces the Fire TV Media Streaming Device

In line with earlier rumors, Amazon today announced the Fire TV, a new media streaming device that will compete with the Apple TV, Google Chromecast and the new Roku Streaming Stick. The Verge is providing live coverage of the event, and we will be updating this post as additional details are announced.

The Fire TV has a quad-core processor with a dedicated graphics processor and 2GB of RAM. It supports 1080p and features dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi with MIMO for fast video downloads. Amazon claims it is three times as powerful as its competitors.

The Fire TV device will stream Amazon Prime Instant Video titles as well as content from other providers such as Netflix and Hulu. It will take the shape of a set-top box that plugs into the HDMI port of your HDTV. Pricing and availability details will be published soon.

Popular Calendar Replacement Fantastical Comes to iPad [iOS Blog]

Fantastical, the popular iPhone and Mac calendar app, is coming to the iPad. Flexibits has upsized its Fantastical 2 iPhone app, but company co-founder Michael Simmons says they didn’t just take the iPhone app and make all the bits bigger.

“The biggest feature is the user interface,” he explained to MacRumors, saying that the development team didn’t feel a need to develop new features simply because they had more screen real estate. “You don’t want to get into the business of coming up with useless iPad features just for the sake of having iPad-only features.”

Fantastical 2 for iPad has the same iOS 7-inspired look that the iPhone version has, and a very similar feature set as well. It has an integrated calendar and reminders list, a reworked calendar parser and more. The parser is the most unique feature about Fantastical. Instead of entering in a number of text-boxes and switches in a time-consuming process for each event or reminder, Fantastical users simply write in plain english: “Juli Clover’s birthday party on April 17th at 4PM Pacific at Chuck E Cheese” or “remind me to pick up milk when I leave work”.

The app then takes that text and sets all the proper functions in the calendar, significantly faster than trying to enter all that information into a traditional calendar app. The app is aware of things like time zones, and the parser is very good at setting up repeating events with odd cycles like “every third week”, something that the standard iOS calendar can’t always deal with. It also has an in-app map view if locations are entered, and users can send that address to Apple or Google’s Mapping apps.

Fantastical 2 automatically connects to calendars and reminder lists already set up in the iPad’s Settings app. Users can manually hide unused calendars or lists within the app as necessary.

Building on the award-winning app, Fantastical 2 for iPhone, Fantastical 2 for iPad takes advantage of the iPad’s roomier display. New in Fantastical 2 for iPad is the Fantastical Dashboard, a fast and easy way to easily manage your schedule in one place. Users can toggle between Fantastical’s DayTicker, half-screen week view, and full-screen week view. Also visible is Fantastical’s familiar event and reminders list, along with a calendar.

Fantastical 2 for iPad is an entirely separate app from Fantastical 2 for iPhone, meaning customers with both devices will need to buy both apps. Flexibits told us that it is working on a significant upgrade for Fantastical for Mac that will add many of the improvements from the iPhone and iPad apps, but didn’t have any more information to share on availability or price.

Fantastical 2 for iPad is available for $9.99 on the App Store for a limited time. Normal price will be $14.99. [Direct Link]

Fantastical 2 for iPhone is available for $4.99 on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Fantastical for Mac is available for $19.99 on the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]

Spotify for iOS Updated with Redesign, Revamped Browse and Playlist Features [iOS Blog]

Streaming music service Spotify today updated its app for iOS, bringing a major user interface redesign that emphasizes album arts with a darker theme, along with the addition of newer fonts and icons. The app’s new look is meant be in line with the design of the desktop and web versions of Spotify, which marks the first time the service has seen a visual overhaul since it first launched in 2008.

Speaking to The Next Web, Spotify’s Director of Product Development Michelle Kadir said the following about the service’s new look on iOS and other platforms:

We thought it was time for us to make a change… What we felt the past year is that we’ve kept innovating — we’ve shipped a lot of new features, we’ve launched in new markets, and we’ve also shipped on many new platforms. But what we haven’t done is to take a step back and just redo the design so that we feel like it’s new, it’s fresh — but also so that it really works across all platforms.

In addition to an overhauled user interface, the app also now includes a revamped Playlists section that allows users to save and organize music in a variety of ways, along with an updated Browse feature that contains enhanced smart playlist functionality and improved context-aware suggestions.

Spotify launched its free streaming tier for iOS devices last December, and integrated its Browse playlist curation feature last August as it has attempted to keep up with the likes of rival music streaming services such as Pandora and iTunes Radio. A report from Edison Research last month noted that Spotify was the fourth most popular service in the United States, making up for 6% of all listeners behind Pandora, iHeartRadio, and iTunes Radio.

Spotify is a free download for iOS devices and can be downloaded through App Store. [Direct Link]

New Photo Shows Striking All Glass Exterior of Apple’s First Turkish Retail Store [Mac Blog]

New photos taken by Instagram user orbaygumus (via ifoAppleStore’s Gary Allen) have revealed the unique exterior and interior of Apple’s first Turkish retail store in Istanbul that is set to open this Saturday, April 5.

The store, which is located in the upscale Zorlu Center Shopping Center, features a unique cubic design complete with a glass ceiling and glass sides that occupy approximately 20,000 square feet.

Photo by orbaygumus
As previously reported, the interior of the store features a host of areas dedicated to services such as a dedicated “Family Room” floor and dual Genius Bars. Photos of the store last week revealed the structure to be hidden behind barricades, but it now appears that Apple is ready to hold its launch event that may feature Apple CEO Tim Cook and Turkish President Abdullah Gül.

Apple’s Zorlu Center store is the first of several retail stores planned for Turkey, with the company looking to expand its growth in the region. Apple also met with Turkish government officials over the prospect of equipping Turkish school children with 10.6 million iPads, however that bid was eventually awarded to Turkish company Teipa.

The Apple Retail Store at the Zorlu Center is set to open at 10:00 AM this Saturday, April 5.

WiFi Performance to Improve As FCC Opens Unlicensed Frequencies

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported on the formation of a new lobbying group called WifiForward that advocated the opening up of unlicensed frequencies to alleviate Wi-Fi congestion and improve performance. The group consisted of industry partners including Google, Best Buy, Microsoft, and many others.

On Monday, the FCC announced that it was freeing up more airwaves for Wi-Fi usage. The WiFiForward group wrote in response to the ruling:

Today, the FCC voted unanimously to unleash more unlicensed spectrum will support all the things we already use and further drive investment and experimentation—a 50% increase in spectrum available for Wi-Fi, to be exact. Consumer devices are already equipped to operate in the band, so they can easily be adapted to quickly take advantage of new 5 GHz channels. And a new Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, has just been approved for the 5 GHz band. 802.11ac’s wide channels will allow for a better consumer experience.

The group indicates that consumer devices will be “easily” adapted to take advantage of the new 5GHz channels, and that 802.11ac will be able to take advantage of the new bandwidth.

802.11ac or “Gigabit” Wi-Fi offers speeds up to three times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks. 802.11ac has been introduced into Apple’s Mac line starting in 2013, and is expected to be included in the iPhone 6 later this year.

Apple Releases Safari 7.0.3 for Mavericks With Push Notification Improvements, Security Fixes [Mac Blog]

Apple today updated update Safari for Mavericks users to version 7.0.3, adding improvements to compatibility, stability, and security. The update includes a new option for turning off push notification prompts for websites, improves credit card autofill, adds support for webpages with generic top-level domains, and fixes several security issues.

– Fixes an issue that could cause the search and address field to load a webpage or send a search term before the return key is pressed
– Improves credit card autofill with websites
– Fixes an issue that could block receipt of push notifications from websites
– Adds a preference to turn off push notification prompts from websites
– Adds support for webpages with generic top-level domains
– Strengthens Safari sandboxing
– Fixes security issues, including several identified in recent security competitions

The update is a free download for Mavericks users and is available through the software update tool in the Mac App Store.

iWork for iCloud Updated With Retina Support and Design Improvements, iOS and Mac Updates to Follow

Following the launch of Microsoft’s Office apps for iOS, Apple is updating its iWork apps for iCloud, Mac, and iOS, adding some major improvements to compete with Microsoft’s Excel, Keynote, and Word.

As noted by 9to5Mac, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iCloud have gained updated designs for their document, spreadsheet, and presentation editors along with support for Retina displays. All three apps have also been updated with the ability to share view-only documents and to open documents directly from iCloud Mail.

Individually, Pages has also been updated with new templates, the ability to edit charts in imported documents, and improved text wrap. Numbers now has improved pop-up menu support, and Keynote also allows charts to be edited in imported documents.

A pop-up within the iWork for iCloud apps indicates that Apple also has plans to update Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for both iOS and Mac, with the updates being required to open documents edited in iCloud.

Apple last updated its iWork suite of apps across all platforms in January, adding several new features to improve the software and return functionality that was removed when the new iWork apps were introduced back in September. Apple pledged to improve the apps back in November after facing significant user criticism from power users.

OWC Debuts First Intel Xeon Processor Upgrades for 2013 Mac Pro

Back in January, OWC confirmed that the 2013 Mac Pro’s processor was socketed and removable, theoretically allowing for future upgrades, which are now available by the company. As of today, OWC is allowing users to send in their Mac Pros for both processor and memory upgrades.

Processor upgrades, which start at $1,498 with the trade-in of the base Apple-supplied quad-core processor, include 8-core, 10-core, and 12-core models that are compliant with Apple’s technical specifications and power requirements. OWC says that the upgrades are tested, qualified, and guaranteed to meet or exceed the processors available from Apple.

According to the company, the processors are up 46 percent faster than base factory processors available from Apple, and up to 31 percent more affordable.

OWC Turnkey Server Class Processor Upgrade options for Mac Pro 2013 models:

– Intel Xeon E5–2650 v2 8-Core 2.6GHz with 20MB Cache, 25% faster, $1498
– Intel Xeon E5–2667 v2 8-Core 3.3GHz with 25MB Cache, 41% faster, $2448
– Intel Xeon E5–2690 v2 10-Core 3.0GHz with 25MB Cache, 45% faster, $2396
– Intel Xeon E5–2697 v2 12-Core 2.7GHz with 30MB Cache, 46% faster, $2978

The company is also offering turnkey installations of its memory upgrades, which as previously announced, are available in 32, 64, 96, and 128 GB kits starting at $449.

OWC’s Turnkey Upgrade Program, which is available for processor, memory, and storage upgrades, offers professional installation and testing by Apple Certified technicians, also including shipping both ways and rebates for existing hardware. More information on the program can be found on the Other World Computing upgrade website.

Apple Seeking to Boost iPhone Display Quality by Acquiring Chip Firm Renesas SP Drivers

Apple is in talks with chipmaker Renesas Electronics over the potential acquisition of a unit that creates chips for smartphone displays, reports Japanese business site Nikkei. The chips, which are already used in the iPhone’s liquid crystal displays, improve both image sharpness and battery life.

Renesas SP Drivers, the division Apple is aiming to purchase, is a leading producer of drivers and controllers for small LCDs. The company is a joint venture between Renesas, Sharp, and Powerchip, with Apple offering 50 billion yen or $479 million for Renesas’ 55 percent stake in the company. Following the transaction, Sharp is also expected to sell its 25 percent of shares in Renesas SP to Apple, while Powerchip will retain 20 percent.

Renesas SP is the world’s leading producer of drivers and controllers for small and midsize LCDs, with a market share of around one-third. These chips determine a display’s quality and performance as well as a phone’s overall energy efficiency – they are said to account for around 10% of battery usage.

Renesas’ 240 employees are expected to stay with Apple and the company is aiming to complete the transaction by the summer.

In recent years Apple has taken a greater interest in controlling its own production supplies and core technologies, signing a deal with GT Advanced that will provide it with massive quantities of sapphire and purchasing several chip firms in the past, including P.A. Semi and Passif Semiconductor.