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Tweetbot for Mac reaches token limit, gets pulled from Mac App Store

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Tweetbot, one of the most popular twitter clients on iOS and OS X has seen its desktop version pulled from the Mac App Store on January 25 2015. While we still don’t have an official explanation for the app’s disappearance, 9to5Mac believes it is due to Tweetbot reaching the Twitter token limit. During an earlier conversation with between 9to5Mac and Tweetbot’s creator, Paul Haddad, the developer hinted that he expects his Mac app to reach the token limit by the end of 2014 at which point the product would have to be pulled from the Mac App Store, discontinuing all future sales.

To make matters even worse for Tweetbot’s maker, users have been reporting login issues with the Mac app, allegedly caused by the token ceiling. Paul Haddad has reached out to Twitter and is waiting for a response.

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Tweetbot for Mac

Twitter introduced its token limit for 3rd party apps along with its 1.1 API on August 16, 2012. In essence, each Twitter app is given 100,000 user tokens. Every person who logs into Twitter with a 3rd party app is using up one token. It gets worse, though – if a user has multiple Twitter accounts, multiple tokens will be used up so that every account has a token associated with it. And when the tokens run out, Twitter will deny access to new accounts trying to connect to the service via the 3rd party app, essentially rendering it obsolete. While it is possible for tokens to be released by revoking an app’s Twitter access, very few people do so when they delete the 3rd party Twitter client.

For more than two years now Twitter has been maintaining its stance on token limits, even though this has forced many popular clients from all platforms to be pulled from their respective stores. So why is Twitter being so aggressive towards developers? While there’s no universally agreed upon explanation, a large portion of it is money-related. Or more specifically advertising revenue. Since its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in late 2013, Twitter has been attempting to monetize its large base of users by trying different advertising strategies. But those ads will only show up if you’re using Twitter’s own app or website. So the desire to limit the growth of 3rd party Twitter clients is understandable albeit frustrating as Paul Haddad had the misfortune of finding out.

If you didn’t get a chance to buy Tweetbot for Mac and you’re determined not to use the official Twitter app, take a look at a few alternative Twitter clients that are available in the Mac App Store including Echofon, Twitterrific, Tweetings, Osfoora, and Head.

Update: Apparently Tweetbot is reporting their app will be available again soon, after working closely with Twitter.

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Apple may start using ARM-Based Chipsets in future Macs

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Ming-Chi Kuo, a KGI Securities analyst, recently offered the prediction that Apple may be making a shift away from Intel to their own ARM-based systems-on-a-chip for future lower-end MacBook models. As reported by MacRumors, the prediction is based on the increasing power and capability that the A-series chips have to offer. The A8X can easily compete with Intel’s Atom processors and even the Core i3 line.

Apple has been rumored to be working on new ARM-based Macs and MacBooks for some time now, but so far we haven’t seen any definitive evidence that they are indeed entering mass production. It is not surprising that Apple is experimenting with MacBooks running on ARM instead of Intel, however. In fact, it’s to be expected.

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Source: KGI Research

Prototyping every possibility when it comes to future products should be considered good practice and we would be surprised, if not shocked, if Apple didn’t have the MacBook Air and other models sporting the A8X chipset in a basement somewhere in Cupertino. The same thinking goes for Macs with touchscreens, eye tracking, TouchID and other technologies that are possible but not yet implemented.

Moving away from Intel does have its drawbacks, however. The biggest hit will come from the fact that you will most likely lose Windows compatibility. Since the internals of today’s Macs are very similar to those of PCs, it is very easy to install and run Windows without any problems. The move to the A-series chipsets will likely see the end of BootCamp as we know it.

But the compatibility issues don’t stop there. Virtualization software like VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox all rely on that underlying Intel architecture to make their virtual machines speedy and easy to set up and use. So in that sense a move away from Intel will also disrupt any workflows that individuals and businesses using virtual machines have come to depend on.

The last area that might take a hit if Apple begins transitioning to their own chips will be games. Or more specifically game ports from Windows. Just like with the virtual machine conundrum, many games also rely on the fact that your Mac’s underpinnings aren’t all that different from a PC. Once the transition is underway, game developers will have a much harder time porting their titles to OS X.

It is important to understand that the question regarding the ARM transition is not “if”, it is “when”. As the A-series chipsets become more and more powerful, it makes more and more sense to begin the switch. Fortunately for consumers, Apple has already gone through two system architecture transitions (PowerPC and Intel) so the ride shouldn’t be too bumpy. In fact, the transition to Intel was one of the smoothest that the computer industry has ever seen.

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A bug found in OS X Spotlight can compromise your privacy

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A glitch in the way Spotlight works on OS X can transmit private information such as your IP address to spammers. Discovered by the German technology site Heise, the bug appears to affect all OS X users who also use the default Mail.app to manage their email. Spotlight can endanger your privacy by not checking if the “Load remote content in messages” option in Mail.app is disabled and loading remote images anyway in the process of compiling relevant search results.

So how can the loading of remote images affect your privacy? Spam emails often contain web bugs called “tracking pixels” that get downloaded with other images embedded in an email. Once an email containing such a bug has been downloaded and opened, the tracking pixel notifies the server that the email has been successfully delivered and viewed. This is actually how read receipts work. But the information sent back to the spammer is more than just a mere read receipt. It can contain your IP address, browser information, OS X version and even the version of Spotlight you’re using. What makes matters even worse is that whenever Spotlight starts going through your mail, it will access every message – even the unopened ones in your Junk folder.

As of yet, there is no official response from Apple regarding the glitch.

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The best way you can protect yourself from this glitch is to disable the automatic searching of emails and messages in Spotlight’s preferences. To do so:

– Open your System Preferences via its dock icon or by going into Launchpad.

– Once it’s open, select the Spotlight section.

– Now leave the Mail & Messages option unchecked, it is number twelve in the list by default.

That’s it, feel free to close System Preferences. This solution is far from optimal since it will disable not only searching for emails, but for conversations in the Messages app as well. If that’s a deal breaker for you, you can opt for the alternative solution which is to use a 3rd party email client instead of the standard one.  Some of the better email client options for OS X include Airmail, Mail Mate, Postbox and Mail Pilot.

If you do decide to go down this path, make sure that Mail.app will no longer receive new emails. You can do this by going into the System Preferences, located on your dock and in Launchpad, and opening the Accounts section. Once it loads, click on every account there and make sure that if there is a Mail option, it is left disabled. You can also accomplish the same task by opening the Mail app, clicking on Mail in the menu bar and choosing Preferences. Then just switch to the Accounts tab and remove every registration by selecting it and clicking on the minus button.

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12″ MacBook Air : What we know so far

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Although rumors of a next-generation MacBook Air with Retina Display have been floating around for about a year, Apple is yet to officially announce the product. And we might not have to wait long for the keynote since a recent report from MacRumors and DigiTimes indicates that one of Apple’s parts suppliers – Quanta Computer – has been steadily increasing their production of components for the upcoming MacBook. Quanta Computer has plans to hire 30,000 new workers in order to meet component demands set by the Cupertino tech giant.

Such increases in production of an unannounced product are almost always indicative that the product is ready for prime time. We’ll most likely see this new next-generation MacBook Air announced along with the official release of the Apple Watch in the first quarter of 2015.

Will it be visually different that the current models?

Most reports suggest that the new MacBook Air will sport a new 12” Retina Display, replacing the current 11” model. However this will not necessarily increase the dimensions of the product since it is rumored that the new ultra-portable computer will have a much smaller bezel around the screen, just like how the iPad Air is more compact than the 4th generation iPad with Retina Display.

We will most likely see a redesigned keyboard and trackpad as well. Currently all MacBook Air models have some space on each side of the keyboard which is expected to be drastically reduced in the new design. The trackpad has been rumored to become larger and lose its button mechanism, so you won’t be able to press it.

It is said that the MacBook will be incredibly slim, even to the point where many of the standard I/O ports will be dropped due to their size. We may even be looking at an MacBook Air with just two ports – an 3.5mm jack for audio output and a USB 3.0 Type-C port for charging and data transfer.

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USB Type-C Connection on MacBook Air

And for the first time on a MacBook Air we might get some color choices with the most likely being Silver, Gold and Space Gray. Since the next-generation MacBook Air with Retina Display has a similar size to the iPad Air 2, it is not hard to envision the laptop going through the same anodization process that is currently being used to give iPads their color.

What will we find under the hood?

The brain inside the next-generation notebook from Apple will be the delay-riddled Broadwell-Y Core M processor. The chipset is said to be high performance and extremely power efficient, which is the reason why we expect the upcoming 12” MacBook Air to have no fans for completely silent operation. As we’ve eluded to earlier, the new laptop will have a 12” Retina Display with a resolution of 2304 by 1440 pixels. Apart from that, we expect to see an improved Wi-Fi as well as the new faster PCIe-based flash storage.

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Apple can learn from Xiaomi, the tech start-up and designers of Apple-inspired products

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Apple has navigated the waters of fierce competitors and copy cats for some time now. But one company has not been shy about mimicking designs created by Apple. Xiaomi, now valued at $46 Billion, has numerous products that look like or have taken some inspiration from Apple’s unique line of products. As you’ll see below this has been well documented.

Xiaomi Mi Router Mini vs. Apple Tv
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Xiaomi Mi Box
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Apple Tv
Xiaomi Mi Box vs. Apple Magic Trackpad
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Xiaomi Mi Router Mini
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Apple Magic Trackpad
One more thing…

It doesn’t stop there, other products such as Xiaomi’s Mi4 Phone has similarities with the Apple iPhone 5 and the Mi Pad is similar to the, you guessed it, iPad. Just to show you how blatant Xiaomi is with this, they even poked some fun at Apple during their recent event copying Apple’s iconic “one more thing” slide.

Xiaomi Mi TV vs. Apple???

Ok so what? Numerous new outlets have already reported the likeness between these two companies. The real genius when it comes to Xiaomi is that they are not waiting for Apple to come out with their next big idea, they are predicting and launching products most likely still being developed by Apple. On one had this is risky, Xiaomi could in fact launch a product and be severely out-matched by Apple. We’ve seen this before when everyone was expecting an Apple 4K display and boom they drop the bomb with a 5K display. But even Apple fans know that they are sometimes extremely slow to update and release new products. This has somewhat to do with their attention to detail and quality standards, all reasons why people love their products. But how long have we be hearing about an Apple high definition television?

Xiaomi is already there. Creating the latest generation TV with tons of features Apple is sure to take notice. The Xiaomi Mi TV is a 47”, 3D smart TV integrates both a quad-core Android game box and the Mi Box into a slim display.

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The Mi TV is a 1920 x 1080 HD television that integrates technology from both LG and Samsung. The gaming performance is impressive with no need for a Microsoft or Sony entertainment system, the TV comes complete with a controller. With 2G DDR3 dual channel memory and 8GB eMMC high speed flash memory, this TV makes viewing photos, surfing websites, playing games, listening to music and watching videos a breeze.

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Xiaomi’s risky decisions seem to have been paying off. Their start-up rivals that of Uber. But without knowing they may have given Apple some food for thought. It’s possible the copy cat could be the one being copied in the future. Now the ball is in Apple’s court. What can we expect from the tech giants now? Apple has tried the gaming market before and failed with Pippin. The real question is can Apple come up with new ideas faster and do then even need to? Let us know what you think about Apple and Xiaomi’s latest products by leaving a comment below.