applications

In a recent patent application uncovered by The Apple Blog, Apple has detailed a system for allowing your power adapter to become a security key for your password recovery process.

In basic terms, should you forget your password, an onscreen recovery application would prompt you to plug in your specific power adapter to confirm your identity. That adapter would store the necessary passwords and give you access to them when needed.

Current security measures, such as sending a verification e-mail or answering security questions are easily attacked by hackers who have managed to create any number of very sophisticated applications … Read more

When an application hangs in OS X, you will most likely see the mouse cursor turn into a spinning color wheel or "beach ball" when hovered over the application's window. If this happens, though you will be able to move the application's window around on the screen, the program will not accept any input or respond to commands such as quitting or saving a document.

This happens because events in the application's event queue are not used in a timely manner. When an application is launched, the system sets it up with an event queue, … Read more

Google's Android Market has hit an important milestone, according to analytics firm Distimo.

The mobile application marketplace now has 400,000 available programs, according to Distimo. Out of that, two-thirds of the available applications are free, jumping from 60 percent last April

It's important to point out that Distimo is not the official word on available Android apps--Google is. And so far, the search giant has not immediately responded to CNET's request for confirmation of Distimo's report.

If Distimo's estimate is true, it would put the Android Market within striking distance of Apple's App … Read more

If you haven't whipped your Web site into shape for easy viewing on small-screen devices, you'd better get cracking.

That's because the use of mobile devices reached an all-time high in December, accounting for 7.7 percent of browser usage according to Net Applications' measurements of daily visits to its network of 40,000 Web sites. That may still be a small fraction of total Web traffic, but it's a large and growing population in absolute numbers.

Tablet browsing in many ways is similar to desktop browsing; screen resolution on the dominant iPad and iPad 2 … Read more

Windows XP is still the dominant OS worldwide after more than 10 years, but Windows 7 continues to narrow the gap.

XP ended last year with a 46 percent slice of the OS market, according to December data from NetApplications. Although impressive after a decade, that number proved a hefty drop in use for XP, which kicked off 2011 with a 55 percent share and has fallen each month since then.

On the upswing, Windows 7 rang out the year with almost 37 percent of the market, a solid gain from 22 percent last January and further proof of its … Read more

Despite a drop in December, Apple's iOS remained the top platform for mobile browsing, according to the latest stats from NetApplications.

Throughout December, iOS carved out a 52 percent share of the mobile market, down from 54 percent in November and 61 percent in October, but still in the lead. Google's Android ended December with a 16 percent share, a dip from the prior two months.

Drilling down further, the iPhone accounted for 25 percent of all mobile browsing and the iPad 24 percent, leaving the iPod Touch with 2 percent. Android 2.3 was the most popular … Read more

Based on a recent job posting on Apple's corporate Web site, Apple is looking to expand its iCloud offerings with new and innovative applications to better utilize the server-based technologies it offers iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users.

The post, originally uncovered by AppleInsider, shows that Apple is looking for "proactive, creative-minded engineers to build the next generation of cocoa-based client applications that integrate tightly with a set of cloud based services."

The responsibilities of the position are to develop new and existing applications for iCloud services, help define and implement user interfaces, and build products that … Read more

Every now and then a particular patent application gets granted that seems obvious, especially because almost every other company that competes in that space does the same thing on their product. The latest such patent was granted to Apple and covers the ability to start and switch apps while continuing a phone call in the background.

As soon as I read the original report from Patently Apple I immediately had my brother call me on his Droid and switch apps during the call. The interface for doing so is nearly identical to that in iOS.

With Apple already in court … Read more

RunWithParameters runs any program using a parameter without requiring you to open a command prompt. It integrates with shell menus in Windows Explorer, and it includes many preloaded parameters for popular utilities and browsers. It's free and open source, too.

RunWithParameters' installation wizard lets users enter any file types they want to associate with the program by typing them into a text field separated by spaces. By default, the program handles EXE, BAT, CMD, COM, MSI, and SCR files. RunWithParameters can support custom file types, too. Once you've installed RunWithParameters, you access this simple tool by right-clicking a … Read more