PlayStation Vita YouTube app gets major update, still contains cat videos

Though we're not sure why anyone would want to watch anything else, we're told that YouTube features much more than just animals being adorable and this video of DMX singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Perhaps you could use your just updated PlayStation Vita YouTube app to tell us -- you can even do so while watching the aforementioned rendition of Rudolph's Christmas classic, as the new update includes the ability to explore YouTube while watching a video. Other additions include the ability to both use and manage channel subscriptions, control video playback using the Vita's buttons rather than its 5-inch touchscreen, enable closed captions (when available), and more. Head past the break for the full list of updates.

[Source: Engadget - Click here to read the full story]

News Corporation shutters The Daily tablet newspaper as of December 15th

News Corporation's The Daily was to have been a vanguard of the future, based on the past -- a tablet-focused newspaper that could get us back to paying subscriptions for our regular news fix. Not enough of us were as enthralled with the retro-future concept, however. While CEO Rupert Murdoch calls The Daily a "bold experiment," he's shutting the publication down as of December 15th following sluggish growth that didn't match long-term expectations. The move may pay off for other divisions. As part of a larger spinoff of its publishing wing headed by Robert Thomson, News Corp is moving the all-digital outlet's resources and some of its staff (including Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo) into the considerably more paper-bound New York Post. In some senses, it wasn't hard to see a shutdown as a possibility. While Murdoch is more than a little fond of paywalls as an alternative to free, ad-based viewing, The Daily was counting on building a paid readership completely from scratch in a web-based era -- it's hard to compete with free.

[Source: Engadget]

Bob Mansfield sells over $20 Million in AAPL stock

Apple Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield sold 35,000 shares of Apple stock at a price of $582, netting him a cool $20 million. This financial transaction was detailed in a SEC filing spotted by MacRumors.

Earlier this year, Mansfield sold another chunk of Apple stock for $12.5 million. Shortly after Mansfield sold his stock in February, the executive announced that he was retiring from his role as head of hardware and would serve the company in an advisory role. After a brief hiatus, Mansfield recently returned to lead a new Technologies group that was formed after the ouster of iOS chief Scott Forstall.

This latest transaction does not mean Mansfield is ready to exit the company again. Executives regularly cash in stock they receive as compensation for their work at Apple. Mansfield also has incentive to stay at Apple as he is slated to receive another 150,000 shares that will be disbursed in two equal allotments with the first arriving in June 2013 and the second in March 2016. He also has 100,000 shares of restricted stock that'll vest in 2014.

[Source: TUAW]

Facebook Photo Sync now available to all iOS users

As we reported last week, Facebook had begun testing a new feature called Photo Sync in its iOS app. At the time, only certain users randomly were entered into the beta, but today the social network rolled out the feature to everyone. Photo Sync automatically uploads pictures recently taken on your device to a private album on Facebook.

To access the new feature, tap on the Photos icon in the left navigation menu in the Facebook app. Scroll down to the bottom of your photos and tap on Photo Sync to set up the feature. You can also enable the feature on the Facebook site by clicking on Photos followed by Synced from Phone at the top of your photos page.

Full details on Photo Sync feature are available on Facebook's support site. You'll need iOS 6 installed on your device for the feature to work, and some users might not immediately see the Photo Sync option in the app. If you don't, try fully closing and relaunching it before checking again.

[Source: TUAW]

GTA: Vice City for iOS gets a trailer

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the second in the "GTA3" series, available on the PS2 10 years ago (!) now. Unlike Grand Theft Auto 3, which featured a silent and anonymous protagonist, Vice City lets the player become Tommy Vercetti (voiced to a tee by Ray Liotta), a tough gangster from Liberty City who's decided to take over the Miami-like Vice City, in a story that recalls the best of Scarface and a host of other neon-drenched movies from the '80s. As previously announced, Rockstar Games is planning to bring Vice City out to the iOS platform, and they've released a new trailer that you can watch below.

[Source: TUAW - Click here to read the full story]

Tim Cook to give first TV interview on Rock Center Dec. 6

NBC will air the first televised interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook next week on Rock Center with Brian Williams. The interview was filmed today at the Grand Central Apple Store in New York City.

The network hasn't divulged the focus of the discussion, but it will be just one of three segments on the episode which is also slated to feature a chat with The Hobbit director Peter Jackson. After filming of the interview with Cook wrapped, Rock Center's Twitter account tweeted the above photo of Williams and the Apple CEO in front of the cameras.

Cook's spot on Rock Center with Brian Williams will air next Thursday, December 6 at 10 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. CT on NBC.

[Source: TUAW]

Apple files patent for true wireless charging technology

When it comes to wireless charging, today's options aren't exactly as cord-free as the label would suggest. Things like charging mats or other wireless docking options are fine and all, but adding more accessories and bulky cases to the mix is often more trouble than it's worth. As Wired reports, a patent filed this week by Apple side steps these pesky add-ons and could offer true wireless charging for the first time on Apple hardware.

The patent -- titled Wireless Power Utilization In A Local Computing Environment -- uses near-field magnetic resonance to push power to compatible devices from a central unit, creating what is effectively an invisible bubble where your gadgets can recharge without the need for cords or plugs of any kind. So imagine your wireless keyboard and mouse simply never running out of juice, or even being able to set your phone or tablet down on your desk and have them recharge on their own.

[Source: TUAW - Click here to read the full story]

iFixit's teardown of the 21.5-inch iMac

It's December 1, 2012. The newest iteration of the 21.5-inch iMac has been out for a full day, and the staff at iFixit has already carefully disassembled one of the new all-in-one Macs to determine how repairable it is -- or isn't -- and what makes the latest iMac tick.

The first thing the iFixit team was unhappy with was the use of adhesives to attach the display assembly to the body of the computer. Rather than strong magnets, used in the previous series of iMacs, the display is basically glued on and requires a heat gun and guitar picks to remove.

The display itself sports the same model number (LG LM215WF3) as the previous 21.5-inch iMac, but strangely enough it's 5mm thinner than the older display. iFixit surmises that "Apple took all the same pieces of the LCD and crammed them into a smaller housing."

[Source: TUAW - Click here to read the full story]

Some new iMacs "Assembled in USA"?

Lost in yesterday's writeup of the iFixit 21.5-inch iMac was this small line in the description: "Interestingly, this iMac claims to have been assembled in the USA."

Sure enough, a look at the iFixit image of the back of the iMac shows the fascinating line "Designed in California. Assembled in USA". Why is that fascinating? Apple has closed all of its US production facilities, which were in places like Elk Grove and Fremont, California and Fountain, Colorado.

9to5Mac reports that some earlier generation iMacs have come in boxes printed with "Assembled in USA" on the side. In order for a product to be marked as "Made in the USA," the US Federal Trade Commission states that "A product that includes foreign components may be called 'Assembled in USA' without qualification when its principal assembly takes place in the U.S. and the assembly is substantial. For the 'assembly' claim to be valid, the product's last 'substantial transformation' also should have occurred in the U.S. That's why a 'screwdriver' assembly in the U.S. of foreign components into a final product at the end of the manufacturing process doesn't usually qualify for the 'Assembled in USA' claim."

9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub speculates that perhaps Apple is making an early manufacturing run of the new iMacs in the USA to "get the manufacturing kinks" worked out before handing the proverbial factory keys over to Foxconn.

[Source: TUAW - Click here to read the full story]

Code hints Microsoft may add direct music playback to SkyDrive

Microsoft has been busy streamlining SkyDrive to make the most of our time in the cloud, but it hasn't yet cut out the middleman for audio playback; if a song wasn't obtained through a channel like Xbox Music, it won't play online in Microsoft's universe. LiveSide has made some code discoveries suggesting the storage service could at least partly remedy the problem with a web-based music player. We don't know much of how it would work, although the presence of interface elements hints that Microsoft is at least committed to development. The real dilemma is an absence of clues as to when (and if) playback will ever go live -- and there's nothing that would reveal whether or not SkyDrive is the heart of an upcoming option to upload personal tracks for Xbox Music streaming. If the music player mentions reflect more than just experimentation, however, the Redmond team may soon have a more direct answer to the likes of Amazon Cloud Player or Google Music.

[Source: Engadget]

Acer unveils TravelMate B113 ultraportable with student-friendly $399 price

Acer's TravelMate line of notebooks usually skews toward the business set, but its latest model is made for that other breed of on-the-go types: students. The new TravelMate B113 is an 11.6-incher weighing in at three pounds and measuring one inch thick. Processor options top out a Core i3 Ivy Bridge CPU with 4GB of RAM, and the hard drive offers a max capacity of 500GB. The 11.6-inch display sports a ho-hum resolution of 1,366 x 768 -- and isn't touch-enabled for Windows 8 -- but then again we're looking at a price of $399 and up. The B113 is available now at authorized resellers -- head past the break for the full presser.

[Source: Engadget]

Mitsubishi is ending rear-projection TVs, ceases production of DLP and laser models

It's time for someone over at IDC to pop the champagne, as its 2007 projectionabout the end of rear-projection TVs turned out to be only a year off, now that the last company still making them has announced it's getting out of the game. As first reported by CE Pro, Mitsubishi is finally ceding to competition from flat-panels which have grown to equally ridiculous size, and cut prices so sharply that it "can no longer sustain our business in its current form." The company's official statement is after the break, confirming that its DLP and LaserVue models are no more however "existing customer relations and parts and services departments will remain in place along with existing authorized service centers" which should be good news for current owners. There's an in-depth retrospective of the technology at the source link, looking back to Samsung's exit that left Mitsubishi alone in the segment three years ago, long after others like Sony and Hitachi fled for thinner-framed climates.

Mitsubishi also made a go of it in flat-panels, but ditched those efforts last yearand will now focus on the professional market and home-theater projectors here in the US. In recent years the tech has improved with thinner models, integrated soundbars and even larger screens available. The slowing economy may have extended RPTV's lease on life with a size bang for buck that's tough to beat, but ultimately customers opted for bright flashy flat-panel HDTVs that offer easier wall-mounting options while seeming to get bigger, lighter and cheaper every year. We're sure there are more than a few super-sized rear-projection TVs that will continue to bring the big game to basements and dens everywhere, feel free to celebrate an old friend in the comments below.

[Source: Engadget]