Aaron Sorkin, the creative genius behind The Social Network, The West Wing, and upcoming HBO show The Newsroom was recently confirmed as the screenwriter for Sony’s upcoming movie based on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs — though, Sorkin himself says he has a lot of work to do.



Reuters reports that Sorkin held an interview with reporters and said he was still looking for something in Jobs’ life to hang the movie on.

Sorkin noted that “The Social Network” saw the Facebook story through the lens of an acrimonious lawsuit that pitted CEO Mark Zuckerberg against his Harvard friends over the creation of the social media network.



“Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia – doesn’t matter … And I need to find that event and I will. I just don’t know what it is,” Sorkin said.

He noted that it won’t be a “straight ahead biography” because a biography has a natural “cradle-to-grave structure” that is very hard to overcome.



Sorkin also disclosed that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hired as a consultant by Sony Pictures to advise the filmmakers on the technical aspects of computers and about Jobs himself.

MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – All Stories

It’s been almost four years since Apple debuted its App Store platform for iOS (and then the Mac), and MacStories has an in-depth look back at that time. In just four short years, Apple has gone from saying that all we’d need on iOS are web apps, to a millions of dollars a year industry that supports almost half a million jobs. Needless to say, that’s phenomenal growth.

But what’s most interesting about the growth of the App Store is how the apps themselves have changed. MacStories writes about that initial push — in those early days, the quality of the software was very low, and there were a lot of “speculators,” for lack of a better term: Developers who just released quick and dirty apps (honestly, fart apps is what most of them were) to try and make a little bit of money. App branding, too, has come a long way. In the early days it was all about search and gaming the system, and these days, there are more ways to find good apps than ever.

At the same time, it’s also harder for developers to make their mark in an increasingly crowded market. Apple’s own success may be its biggest problem. The App Store has grown in a huge way over the past four years, and that may make it harder for both developers and Apple to figure out how to best run it going forward.

MacStories looks at four years of the App Store originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

The march of technology amazes me. Yeah, I’m an old guy, but it still surprises me when I realize that the amount of storage that used to fill a data center can now fit in my pocket. G-Technology’s G-Drive mobile (made by Hitachi, US$ 199.99 MSRP for 1 TB) is the perfect example of mass storage in a small, silent box. Read on for a review of this mobile companion and a chance to win one!

Design

There’s not much too say in terms of the design of the G-Drive mobile — it’s a slim metallic box 5 inches long, a little over 3 inches wide, and about 3/4 of an inch high. There’s no power port; the G-Drive is bus-powered by either FireWire (400/800) or USB 2.0. The device comes with cables for each connection. A single white LED on the front of the drive indicates when it is powered up and in use.

On the inside, there’s a 5400 RPM 1 TB drive with an 8 MB cache. For speed, I’d much rather see a 7200 RPM drive, but that would most likely drive up both the cost and power requirements of the drive. However, as you’ll see with the benchmarks, this is still a pretty fast drive despite the slower rotation speed of the disk.

The G-Drive mobile also comes in 500 MB ($ 149.99 MSRP) and 750 MB ($ 159.99) versions, although I’m at a loss why someone wouldn’t want to double their capacity for just fifty bucks more. I found the drive to run a bit hot — I had placed my iPhone on top of the drive at one point, and when I answered a call I wondered why the phone was so hot…

As with other drives of this ilk, the G-Drive mobile is almost completely silent.

Benchmarks

TUAW uses a standard industry benchmark to compare the I/O capabilities of disks and arrays. The benchmark uses the AJA System Test, which simulates reading and writing video. The specific test I used was the Disk Read/Write test, also known as the DiskWhackTest, set at a video frame size of 720 x 486 8-bit and a file size of 128 MB.

The drive read speeds were surprisingly fast in our benchmarks, matching almost every FireWire drive that we’ve tested (only one is shown below for space considerations). When it came to USB 2.0 read speeds, the G-Drive mobile was slightly faster than the competition across the board. Write speeds were slower for the G-Drive when connected via FireWire 800, while almost identical to other drives with a USB 2.0 connection.

Conclusion and Giveaway

If you’re the owner of a MacBook Pro and have an available FireWire 800 port, or have a FireWire-equipped desktop Mac you’d like to back up while keeping a lot of available desk space, then the G-Drive mobile will fill your requirements. Those who only have USB 2.0 ports on their Macs should spend their money on less expensive USB-only drives that offer read/write speeds in the same range as the G-Drive mobile.

Thanks to G-Technology and TUAW, you now have a chance to win one of these sweet little drives. Just fill out the entry form below (only one entry per person, please) and we’ll pick a random winner next week. Here are the rules for the giveaway:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button.
• The entry must be made before May 20, 2012 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected and will receive a G-Technology G-Drive mobile valued at $ 199.99.
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

G-Technology G-Drive mobile: Rugged, pocket-sized, and fast originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Please LIKE this video as I really appreciate it! twitter.com Subscribe for more! In this video I review the 13” MacBook Pro (2011).  Macbook Pro 13″ VS Macbook Air 13″ (2011) bit.ly

Each July since 2007, Apple has held its iTunes Festival in London, offering a month’s worth of free concerts from some of the industry’s top performers. Apple is now beginning to unveil this year’s plans, and the most notable change for 2012 is a move to the month of September.

For the fourth consecutive year, the iTunes Festival will be held at The Roundhouse in London, with at least 60 acts performing over the 30 nights of the festival. Five acts have been announced so far: Usher (September 1), Emeli Sandé (September 5), Jack White (September 8), Norah Jones (September 10), and One Direction (September 20).

Free tickets are available through a lottery system to residents of the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and Apple will also be streaming live video of the concerts directly through iTunes on the desktop or through a dedicated mobile app. The app appears to currently be limited to customers in the UK, and the company notes on its international site for the festival that it will announce streaming options in other countries in August.

Apple also typically releases a number of live EPs and albums from the shows, available for purchase through the iTunes Store.

MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – All Stories

Russian newspaper Izvestia reports [Google translation] that the organizers behind the Skolkovo technology park near Moscow are currently in talks with a number of high-profile companies including Apple, Google, and Facebook about locating research and development facilities in the area. Skolkovo has already landed agreements with Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, Cisco, and others, with the project’s backers envisioning the region becoming Russia’s version of Silicon Valley bolstered by dozens of major corporations.

According to the report, Apple officials in Moscow declined to comment on the claims, but Skolkovo executive Roman Romanovsky indicated that the two sides have expressed interest in negotiating about possibilities. No deal appears to be imminent, although Romanovsky hopes that the talks will eventually lead to an agreement.

Apple is in the process of opening up its first major international research and development center in Israel, looking to leverage its own expertise and that of Anobit, an Israeli flash memory company acquired by Apple earlier this year, to spur new innovations.

MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – All Stories

Russian forensics firm ElcomSoft earlier this week announced that it has discovered a way to easily access iCloud backups of iOS devices, incorporating the functionality into its Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker software. While the Apple ID and password must be known in order to access the iCloud data, once that information has been obtained the software makes it easy for investigators to download full iCloud backups and then follow incremental backups in near real-time to track a device’s use without the knowledge of the user.

ElcomSoft researchers analyzed the communication protocol connecting iPhone users with Apple iCloud, and were able to emulate the correct commands in order to retrieve the content of iOS users’ iCloud storage. It’s important to note that, unlike offline backups that may come encrypted and must be broken into (a time-consuming operation), data retrieved from iCloud is received in plain, unencrypted form . The 5GB of storage space can be retrieved in reasonable time, while receiving incremental updates is even faster.

Obtaining a user’s Apple ID password may not always be trivial, but ElcomSoft tools can also be used to capture that information from offline backups stored in iTunes. And of course if the user disables iCloud syncing on its device or changes the Apple ID password, remote access is lost.

ElcomSoft has been at the forefront of development of password-cracking tools, last year incorporating a tool to bypass hardware encryption included in iOS 4. Such tools are increasingly being used by law enforcement to aid their investigations as smartphones become increasingly common and collect a growing amount of information about users and their activity.

ElcomSoft offers several levels of its software, with the most powerful versions restricted to certain governmental agencies, including law enforcement, intelligence services, and other qualified forensic organizations.

MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – All Stories

Matt, Matt, Matt, what can I say? You take the most amazing beauty shots and videos of the products I love. Thank you so much for tagging your Instagram photo with #macgasm. If you want to see more of Matt follow him on Instagram (MacintoshMatt) or check out his videos on YouTube.

Do you want to be a photographer or just play one on the web? Here’s your chance! Tag the beauty shots of your Apple gear with #macgasm on Instagram. Each week we select one lucky participant to be featured on Macgasmagram Friday. Get creative. You just need to have the #macgasm in the comments section of your Instagram photo to qualify. Tune in on Fridays (like you ever miss a post, right?) and see if you have what it takes to be featured. Good luck and happy snapping.

Macgasm – Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Macgasm

Grab Free MacBook Air FreeMacBookAir.com-specialoffer.net Apple’s MacBook Air is arguably the most elegant portable computer on the market. The MacBook Air is light weight. The MacBook Air is thin. But how does it stack up for practical use. Is the processor speed fast enough? Does the MacBook Air come with enough RAM to be practical? Is the MacBook Air really as light as people claim? Here are some first impressions of the 11.6-inch MacBook Air, along with the best and worst of what Apple’s smallest laptop has to offer. apple, macbook, air, laptop, notebook, netbook, computer, first, ipod, iphone, touch, ipod touch, review, store, 3gs, news, analysis, wrestling, video review, preaching, vlog, commentary, educational 11.6-inch MacBook Air First Impressions apple, macbook, air, laptop, notebook, netbook, computer, first, ipod, iphone, touch, ipod touch, review, store, 3gs, news, analysis, wrestling, video review, preaching, vlog, commentary, educational Now with Multi-Touch and FaceTime(TM). Get the new MacBook Air(TM) FreeMacBookAir.com-specialoffer.net

Symantec Mobile Management integrates with the company's other enterprise tools

May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.

Symantec has long and solid track record in delivering enterprise systems. The company’s full lineup of enterprise solutions are practically a one-stop shopping list for IT departments offering everything from virus and malware tools right through every IT task (deployment, Mac/Windows workstation management, help desk operations, even inventory). As you’d expect, Symantec Mobile Management integrates quite nicely with other Symantec enterprise tools creating a streamlined single source IT infrastructure.

Even as a standalone product, however, Symantec Mobile Management is an attractive offering. It has a powerful focus security and includes secure file management features. It’s also extremely scalable and makes almost every IT/mobile management processes as hand-off and automatic as possible. Even device enrollment is simple and designed to be accomplished by end users with little or no input from IT. That makes it particularly attractive to larger enterprise organizations.

Company: Symantec
Product(s): Symantec Mobile Management
Type of solution(s): device, app, and information management

Platforms supported beyond iOS: Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, webOS, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone (also integrates with Symantec’s Altiris client management system that can be used to manage Windows PCs and Macs in enterprise environments).

Licensing Model: perpetual and recurring licensing options
Includes/Offers Maintenance Updates?: Required
Technical support options: 24/7

Deployment options: cloud service, on-premise software

Failover and load balancing options: supports server failover and load balancing

Scalability: supports multiple locations and location-specific administration

Directory system integration: Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP

Administrative tool options: web/cloud, Windows desktop app

Data export capabilities: device hardware, installed configuration profiles, location and usage tracking, installed apps

Expense management features: track carrier, alert on roaming

Device enrollment mechanism(s): iOS app
Support for secure/authenticated enrollment?: Yes
Security certificate features: Certificates for SCEP enrollment, Exchange, secure PGP email, Wi-Fi, VPN, two-factor authentication

Remote/On Demand administrative actions: remote lock, remote wipe, selective wipe of corporate data, push text message to device

App management options: push apps to device, enterprise app store with custom and public apps, Apple Volume Purchase Plan integration, app whitelist/blacklist options, admin alert on unapproved apps

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