Weekly Mobile News roundup – 14 June 2013

  Once again the week is coming to an end and that means it’s time for a roundup of the past weeks news!

Apple’s Mac Pro to Be Assembled by Flextronics in Fort Worth, Texas? – Last December, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple would be bringing some Mac production back to the United States.

Apple now adding 500,000 new iTunes accounts per day – This week, Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook presented a new milestone for iTunes accounts: 575 million. As Asymco’s Horace Dediu points out, that means Apple is now adding a half million new accounts on average every day.

iOS 7 massively expands Bluetooth support for smartwatches, fitness trackers, other devices – Using a Pebble or any other smartwatch alongside iOS isn’t nearly as convenient or user-friendly as it should be, but thankfully Apple plans on fixing that come fall. As part of iOS 7 (and OS X Mavericks), the company is greatly broadening its support for Bluetooth, a huge boon for smartwatches, fitness trackers, medical devices, and other products based around the technology.

iOS 7: Siri’s Growing up, but Not as Fast as Google’s Google Now – Apple’s Siri is coming of age. No, there are no signs of pop music addiction, menstruation or mood swings, but this week we saw some other strong markers of the personal assistant’s maturation.

The hardware Apple didn’t announce – Apple’s WWDC hardware announcements (MacBook Air, Mac Pro and AirPort) are pretty cool, but there was just as much hardware that didn’t make the cut at yesterday’s keynote. Here’s a short list.

Adobe kills mobile Flash, giving Steve Jobs the last laugh – Mobile Flash is being killed off. The plugin that launched a thousand online forum arguments and a technology standoff between Apple and the format’s creator, Adobe, will no longer be developed for mobile browsers, the company said in a note that will accompany a financial briefing to analysts.

12 things you may not have known about OS X Mavericks – Though both operating systems are set to arrive this fall, we know a lot more about iOS 7 than we do about its Mac sibling, OS X Mavericks.

Apple Claims 20% of U.S. E-Book Market, Double Previous Estimates – Publishers Weekly reports (via paidContent) that testimony from Apple executive Keith Moerer in the ongoing e-book price fixing trial has revealed that Apple holds approximately 20% of the e-book market in the United States, roughly double many of the previous estimates made by third parties.

PSA: If you’re not a developer, don’t install developer betas on your iPhone – We warned you two years ago in the months before iOS 5 went live. Some of you didn’t listen. Actually, if the TUAW inbox over the past few days is any indication, a lot of you didn’t listen.

iOS 7 Lets You Redeem iTunes Gift Cards With Your Camera – In iTunes 11, Apple gave us the ability to redeem iTunes and App Store gift cards using the FaceTime camera built into our Macs, and it is bringing the same functionality to our iOS devices with iOS 7.

in iOS 7, Newstand can finally be hidden (but not deleted) – The Apple-created app resided on your iPhone’s screen regardless of whether you want it, asked for it, or needed it, sort of like 90?s-era crapware on a cheap PC. It could not be deleted, and though it could be moved, Newstand could not be put inside a folder, which meant that at some level, at some time, you had to look at it.

Hidden iOS 7 feature puts panoramas in lock-screen – An otherwise undocumented iOS 7 feature has been discovered that lets users view the entirety of large, panoramic photos on their iPhone’s lock-screen.

Huge Win for Apple as USPTO Confirms Four Claims of Rubber-Banding Patent – Apple has notified by the US Patent and Trademark Office that it will issue a reexamination certificate confirming four claims of its rubber-banding or overscroll bounce patent, follow us for more!

Ten Presentation Techniques You Can (And Should) Copy From Apple’s WWDC Keynote – The keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 offers yet another opportunity to learn fresh and effective techniques that you can and should apply to your presentations.