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AT&T waives voice, data and text overage fees for Oklahoma tornado victims

In response to the devastating tornado that hit Okalhoma City on Monday, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T announced it will be waiving all overage charges for those affected through June 30.





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AppleInsider – Frontpage News

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Building permits detail $16M in new work at Apple’s Reno iCloud data center

Apple has paid over $ 100,072 in fees for new building permits on three construction projects valued at over $ 16 million, all to be located within its new Reno, Nev. iCloud data center site.





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AppleInsider – Frontpage News

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Building permits detail $16M in new work at Apple’s Reno iCloud data center

Apple has paid over $ 100,072 in fees for new building permits on three construction projects valued at over $ 16 million, all to be located within its new Reno, Nev. iCloud data center site.





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AppleInsider – Frontpage News

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Building permits detail $16M in new work at Apple’s Reno iCloud data center

Apple has paid over $ 100,072 in fees for new building permits on three construction projects valued at over $ 16 million, all to be located within its new Reno, Nev. iCloud data center site.





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AppleInsider – Frontpage News

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Review: Make a visual display for your data with Status Board for iPad

Panic’s $ 10 Status Board for the iPad is an app that fits a niche so spectacularly, it leaves you kind of breathless. Designed to display and update data from a variety of sources, Status Board offers an amazingly customizable way to display your most important data on almost any screen, from your iPad to an HDTV.


Display On! Once completed, your Status Boards can be displayed on your iPad or HD TV.

It’s important to note that Status Board is a niche tool; it’s not something you’re likely to use casually at home or if you only have one iPad. But it is perfectly suited to situations where you want to publicly display specific information that’s updated on a regular basis.

Open Status Board for the first time, and the app walks you through a quick setup process to configure and create some of the app’s prefabbed status panels. These panels are little rectangles of data you can move, resize, and rearrange in almost any way you choose. By default, the app comes pre-loaded with calendar, clock, and weather panels, and can also display Twitter timelines, RSS news feeds, and the subject line of your latest email messages.

Some of the panels allow you to customize the way your data is displayed. So, for example, your Twitter, email, and news feeds can be displayed as a either a list or as a ticker; the ticker shows one message at a time, and it slides across the screen, sits for a couple of seconds so you can read it, then slides the next update into view. I loved the ticker feed, but was disappointed there was no option for adjusting the delay setting to something slower of faster than Status Board’s defaults. 

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Macworld

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Review: For charting data, Chartsmith is capable but outdated

Chartsmith is a Mac app designed to do one thing, and only one thing: make charts. If your charting needs are casual and infrequent, this is not the app for you; you’ll be more than happy using Numbers, Excel, or any other spreadsheet to create the occasional chart. Conversely, you’d assume that if your chart needs are serious and frequent, Chartsmith would be the app to use, right? The answer to that question, unfortunately, isn’t an automatic yes.

Launching Chartsmith is a bit like stepping into a time machine: Chartsmith’s interface seems dated, with a two-window setup (plus a nearly-required Inspector window), a drawer for chart notes, and an odd toolbar-like thing that floats next to the chart window, yet is attached (with a delay) when you move the chart window around.

The flashback extends to the tutorials, too. Remember Aqua’s stripes and bright blue 3D-esque tab buttons? You’ll find them alive and well in the screenshots in the tutorials. (Thankfully, the app itself doesn’t share the appearance of the tutorial’s screenshots.) The whole thing just feels somewhat dated and dusty, though everything works.

Using Chartsmith is unlike using a spreadsheet to create charts. Once I learned the interface, though, Chartsmith was relatively easy to use. The aforementioned two windows contain the chart viewer (which holds the charts) and the data viewer (for entering/editing data), and the inspector is used to customize every element of your charts. The chart viewer window shows real-time changes as you make edits in the data viewer window, and you can change text (but not values) directly on the charts, if you prefer. Creating a chart is as simple as adding rows and columns in the data viewer, entering your data, and choosing a chart type. Want to change one bar of a three-bar chart to line? One click of a button in the data viewer window, and that task is done.

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Macworld

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Zact rolls out no-contract data plans on Sprint for certain Android phones

One of the most common frustrations among mobile phone owners is the feeling that you’re paying way too much for services you’re not using. Being locked in a contract that doesn’t fit your needs just because it’s all that offered is the pits. Zact, a new service from the Verizon-backed software company ItsOn, is looking to change that. Zact provides a flexible, changeable data plan that empowers users to only pay for the services they actually use.

Along with customization of how many minutes and texts you pay for each month, users are offered an unprecedented amount of flexibility for data plans, down to forgoing traditional plans and just buying app-specific data. In addition, the service credits back any money you paid for a plan that was bigger than you ended up needing. Families can connect an unlimited number of devices to a single plan. The service also including powerful parental controls, including curfews on service, app lock outs and even contact restrictions. Check out the video below for a good overview of how the system works.

As of right now, the service is only available to preorder bundled with the LG Viper 4G LTW and LG Optimus Elite via Sprint. Despite the company’s Verizon connections the service will only be available on Sprint’s 4G network. As of right now there are no official plans to bring the service to iOS devices, but given the market share enjoyed by Apple users, it’s reasonable to assume we will get access to it at some point. However, no matter what you might read anywhere else, there are no official plans at the moment.

While the service is not currently coming to Apple products, its potential to change the landscape of mobile pricing in the future means it effects us all. Hopefully for the better.

Zact rolls out no-contract data plans on Sprint for certain Android phones originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

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ESPN interested in subsidizing mobile data plans to ensure users can stream video

With iPhone owners restricted by capped data plans on the largest U.S. carriers, cable sports network ESPN has expressed interest in potentially subsidizing those data plans to allow users to stream video without worrying about overage fees.





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AppleInsider – Frontpage News

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German court tells Apple to change rules for handling customer data

A German court has ruled that Apple must change its company policies for handling customer data after finding the policies violate the country’s privacy laws. In the suit, brought by the group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV), it took issue with eight of the provisions in Apple’s data-use rules. VZBV originally objected to 15 of the data-use provisions, but was able to work out a binding declaration from Apple covering seven of the provisions.

The basis behind the German court’s decision is that Apple cannot ask for “global consent” for data use when German law requires consumers to be told exactly how their data is being used. The court also ruled that Apple cannot ask users for permission to use their friends contacts, due to the lack of consent from those third parties. In addition Apple is forbidden from distributing users data to advertisers, specifically citing the possibility of using GPS to promote location-based advertising.

Apple is currently dealing with a similar case in the United States. The company’s stance is that use of the tracking data does not constitute any harm.

German court tells Apple to change rules for handling customer data originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

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Berlin court: Apple’s privacy policy violates German data protection law

Apple violates German data protection law by asking for users’ broad, overall consent in its privacy policy, the Regional Court of Berlin ruled.

Apple’s terms for sharing personal information with the company are too broadly formulated, the court ruled on April 30, according to a verdict published by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV) on Tuesday.

The VZBV demanded in 2011 that Apple Sales International should stop using unfair contractual clauses in its privacy policy as posted on its German website, said Helke Heidemann-Peuser, a lawyer and head of the VZBV’s legal enforcement section. After this warning, Apple committed to change five of those clauses, but this was not enough, which is why the VZBV decided to sue Apple in February 2012, she said.

After Apple was sued, the company committed to change two more clauses, after which the lawsuit continued over the eight remaining disputed clauses, said Heidemann-Peuser. The court found that Apple violates the law with all those clauses, she added.

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Macworld