Apple's iCloud launch could compound RIM's troubles competing with the BlackBerry, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a research note Friday. The cloud music element of the service could make "collateral damage" by giving iPhone owners access to an always-available music service the BlackBerry didn't necessarily have. As some of the service might be free, it would mimic some of the push mail functionality of a BlackBerry but wouldn't carry the revenue burdens with what RIM offers to carriers, reducing networks' incentives to promote the BlackBerry over an iPhone....

Source: http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=fdac94067c02ff1545dc1a241e43ebe1

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At AllThingsD, Microsoft previewed Windows 8 for the first time. The early look at the upcoming operating system shows some drastic changes.

At the heart of the new interface is a new start screen that draws heavily on the tile-based interface that Microsoft has used with Windows Phone 7. All of a user?s programs can be viewed as tiles and clicked on with a touch of a finger.

The shown Windows 8 screenshot carries over the tile-based appearance of the Windows Mobile phone, but the new operating system is said to support two types of applications. One is the classic Windows application which will run in the familiar desktop interface, while the second type are HTML5/Javascript applications that look more like a full screen mobile application.

Windows 8 is said to have been influenced by the iPad and is meant to scale from touch screen devices to desktop. The prominent "Store" link seems to suggest that Microsoft will be offering a Windows App Store, much like Apple's Mac App Store. Microsoft promises that while the interface is optimized for touch, it should also work equally well with a mouse and keyboard.

Microsoft details many of the changes they demoed:

• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

Microsoft has not yet announced a timeframe for Windows 8's launch.

Apple, of course, is also reintegrating iOS mobile inspired changes into their next major operating system. Mac OS X Lion has been billed as taking "our best thinking from iPad" and bringing it all to the Mac. These features include full screen apps, the Mac App Store, and more. Apple will be presenting more on Mac OS X Lion at next week's WWDC.

Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/01/microsoft-previews-windows-8-with-cues-from-ipad-and-app-store/

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The Server version of Mac OS X Lion may be a paid add-on for the core OS, a tip to French site HardMac suggests. The person claims to have discovered a Help note in the Lion preview, "Make this Mac a server," which asks Lion owners to "buy the server app from the Mac App Store;" the code is installed to the Applications folder. "The Server app downloads the Server Essentials software package, installs it, and configures this Mac as a server," the note concludes....

Source: http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=95aaa613f5ee8216e7b102a4c71e66d7

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Twitter has developed a button that Web publishers can integrate into their sites to let visitors easily subscribe to Twitter accounts, the company said.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OfficialGoogleMacBlog/~3/nhb0_9bq_rw/google-chrome-for-mac-goes-beta.html

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Nokia has "increased confidence" that the first of its smartphones with Windows Phone will ship in the fourth quarter, the company said on Tuesday.

Source: http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=26eecdcc7636de71541703a59978f554

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Cutting out people, objects or even text from images for creation of new ones is an old-photoshopper's favorite. But it's not as easy as it looks and, for the most part, requires a steady hand and some pricey software.

Decompose is a program that does one thing -- it extracts foreground objects for overlaying on other images. Now, for those of you who are proficient with Photoshop, you're not going to find much value in a US$29.99 app that extracts elements in this way. But for those of us who don't own Photoshop, or even Pixelmator, having a program that allows you just to roughly draw around your target object letting the computer take care of the rest is great.

In testing, I was a little skeptical, but on several, admittedly plain images, I was really impressed with the ease of use and end result of using Decompose. You simply outline the object within the "Contour" mask, fill in the rest of the image within the "Front" mask, and hit "Result." Decompose then does its thing, using Grand Central Dispatch as of a recent update, and shows you the result for fine tuning or saving as a color-corrected TIFF. It was fast, simple and a great alternative to much higher priced packages.

The problem is that Decompose is a single use program, and therefore, however clever the programming behind it may be, $30 could be asking a little too much. Still, if you're looking for a program that will quickly and easily extract objects out of photos, Decompose certainly gets the job done.

If you've got a quick and handy image extraction alternative to Decompose, help your fellow TUAW readers out and let us know in the comments.

TUAW's Daily Mac App: Decompose originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/02/tuaws-daily-mac-app-decompose/

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Today, the Pixelmator team provided a peek at the next version of their namesake image editing tool. With the code name of Chameleon, Pixelmator 2.0 is a major upgrade that is expected to ship later in the summer of 2011. Anyone who has already purchased the app via the Mac App Store for US$29 gets a free upgrade to the new version when it arrives. Along with the increase in functionality provided with the upgrade comes a new price point -- $59.

The new feature list is quite comprehensive. First, there are drawing tools (pen, freeform pen, convert, and path selection tools) that allow users to create and edit vector shapes. These tools also include pre-drawn triangle, line, rectangle, circle and custom shapes available on a new Shapes palette. The fill and stroke settings for these shapes are adjusted in a new Shape Settings palette, and shadows are easily added from this palette as well.

Probably the most anticipated new feature in the upgrade is the content-aware fill technology that can be used to delete unwanted elements in images. Want to get rid of that sunburned spot on your nose from your vacation photos? With the new Healing Tool or the regular selection tools, it will be easy to select an area and let Pixelmator fill it with nearby image content.

New retouching tools are part of the upgrade, including a Sponge Tool for adding or reducing color from image areas by dabbing at them, Burn and Dodge tools to darken or lighten portions of an image, and a Red Eye Tool for exorcising the red glow from eyes in your pictures.

Finally, there's also a new Smudge Tool for smearing paint or obscuring details by using a brush tip to do the retouching. The user interface has been streamlined and made easier to use, there's a new Eyedropper Tool for picking up colors, and a number of other toolbars and palettes that have been included.

With the announced upgrade, Pixelmator appears to be making great strides towards becoming a much less expensive alternative to Adobe's Photoshop. What do you think, Pixelmator owners? Are you looking forward to the upgrade? Let us know in the comments.

Pixelmator 2.0 announced, coming to Mac App Store later this summer originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/02/pixelmator-2-0-announced-coming-to-mac-app-store-later-this-sum/

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If you?re attending Apple?s Worldwide Developers Conference next week, you?ll want to pick up the official conference app, released Thursday for both the iPhone and iPad, and check out new updated information on the WWDC Website.

Source: http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=ee4a1011a1e6fac58a9f2428e1ddc739

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