Steve Sande

<p>The AWT team is quite small, so when one of us takes a vacation, has kid (or elderly parent) issues, or gets sick, it means that something has to give. For the next three weeks, that something is the AWT News Update podcast. </p>

<p>Sometimes protecting a laptop from the world doesn't mean encasing it in a big bag. For many MacBook owners, a padded sleeve is just the answer for carrying that laptop around without adding bulk. Waterfield Designs has just released the new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sfbags.com/products/dash-laptop-sleeve" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dash Sleeve</a> ($59) in a range of sizes for everything from the 12-inch MacBook with Retina Display to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.</p>

<p><a href="http://iconfactory.com/">The Iconfactory</a> workers have released <a href="http://twitterrific.com/ios">Twitterrific for iOS</a> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitterrific-5-for-twitter/id580311103?mt=8">version 5.12</a> with <a href="http://blog.iconfactory.com/2015/06/twitterrific-5-12-adds-a-host-of-new-features-improvements-including-quoted-tweets/">a slew of new features</a>, including quick update replies for Twitterrific on Apple Watch. </p>

<p>Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. Today’s notable apps include a discount on Tomb Raider: Underworld; the new Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts app; and an update to Rules! All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.</p>

<p>It's February of 1986, and you've just seen the future. A single optical disk called a "CD-ROM" can hold "amazing quantities of data" -- 550 megabytes! That was the cover of Macworld Magazine back in that much more innocent age, discussing the arrival of writable compact disks and opening up a veritable universe of storage -- if you were used to hard disk drives that maxed out at 20 MB of capacity.</p>

<p>Yesterday, a judge unsealed records that are part of a 2013 lawsuit that alleges Apple should pay employees for the time it takes to do security bag checks. These checks are done at the end of shifts and were designed to insure that employees were not taking merchandise from the retail outlets. </p>

<p>It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/?tag=deals">Daily Deals</a>, featuring highlighted deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.</p>

<p>It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/?tag=deals">Daily Deals</a>, featuring highlighted deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.</p>

<p>Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. Today’s notable apps include a discount on Sentinel 4: Dark Star; the new Vee for Video; and an update to Endless Wordplay. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.</p>

<p>Wood and plastic don’t look good together. That’s a fact I’ve been sadly aware of for the past five years or so, using a plastic keyboard/trackpad tray from an accessory manufacturer to turn my Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad into one big, wide happy family. I have a nice cherry wood desk in my office that looks great, especially on the rare occasions when it’s actually clean, so I always wished that someone would make a wood version of my keyboard/trackpad tray. It took a while, but now Grovemade has released a wood <a href="http://grovemade.com/product/walnut-trackpad-tray/?initial=143">Trackpad Tray</a> (US$59 in maple or walnut) to go along with its previously-released wood <a href="http://grovemade.com/product/walnut-keyboard-tray/?initial=68">Keyboard Tray</a> ($99 in maple or walnut).</p>

<p>Apple has a fleet of vehicles that are driving around snapping images for a Google Street-like addition to Maps. If you'd like to see if you can get yourself into one of those images, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.rsvlts.com/2013/05/22/the-59-strangest-things-ever-spotted-on-google-street-view/" rel="noopener noreferrer">hopefully doing something really stupid or weird</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://maps.apple.com/vehicles/" rel="noopener noreferrer">the company has now posted a list of where its vehicles are roaming</a>. </p>

<p>Security researcher Jan Soucek discovered an iOS Mail bug a while back that allows attackers to run remote HTML code when an email is opened. What this means is that a malicious user who knows about the bug could create a phishing email that prompts users for their iCloud login. Once the login has been entered, the unsuspecting victim has handed over the keys to everything secured with Apple ID credentials. Here's Soucek's demonstration video of the bug in action:</p>

<p>New York state attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman and the attorney general of Connecticut, George Jepsen,  are again investigating Apple. This time the focus is not eBooks, but Apple's new streaming music service.  The pair are preemptively investigating Apple's negotiations with music companies to see if Apple or the record labels violated antitrust laws, reports <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/technology/2-states-look-for-collusion-between-apple-music-and-major-labels.html?_r=0">the New York Times</a>.</p>

<p>Apple on Tuesday released the first advertisements for its upcoming <a href="http://apple.com/music/">Apple Music service</a>. The three ads have completely different themes, with one <a href="https://youtu.be/BNUC6UQ_Qvg">focusing</a> on <a href="https://www.apple.com/music/radio/">Beats 1</a>, Apple's new radio station, while another showcases <a href="https://youtu.be/9-7uXcvOzms">the history of sound</a> and Apple Music's role in its evolution. <a href="https://youtu.be/Y1zs0uHHoSw">The third ad</a> tries to explain Apple Music by asserting that "Music needed a home . . . so we built it one."</p>

<p>It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/?tag=deals">Daily Deals</a>, featuring highlighted deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.</p>