Apple Austin facility. Image from webpronews.com.

The Austin Statesman reports on a 4-1 vote by Travis County Commissioners in favor of providing significant tax rebates for Apple to being a new technology campus to North Austin.

The deal provides a total of approximately $36 million dollars in rebates for Apple over the next 13 years. As part of the amended agreement, an average salary of $35,000 per year must be maintained for the bottom 10 percent of workers employed by Apple as well as a minimum wage of $11 per hour for contractors, but there must be a total hiring increase of 3,665 by the end of 2025.

Apple initiated a Mastered for iTunes Program to provide guidelines and utilities for music producers and content creators to ensure that the best audio is presented to Apple for iTunes encoding, with the goal of providing uncompressed quality sound in the AAC file format that iTunes distributes.

Although it’s possible to remaster from a previously mastered CD source with positive results, in order to qualify as Mastered for iTunes remastered content must begin with a high resolution digitization of the original analog source and must sound noticeably superior to the previously released version. Songs and albums submitted to the iTunes Store as remastered content will be reviewed to ensure that the sound quality shows discernible improvement.

Ars Technica asked Chicago Mastering Service engineers Jason Ward and Bob Weston to see if they could tell the difference between audio labeled as “Mastered for iTunes” and traditional music.

Apple now uses an improved compression chain to retain as much sonic “detail” as possible when converting from submitted masters to iTunes Plus tracks. The initial 24/96 file is converted to a 32-bit floating point intermediary, which is then directly downsampled during the AAC encoding process. According to Apple, this results in a superior compressed file with less noise.

To test this, Ward downloaded a track from a recently mastered album available on iTunes. He then loaded the original 24/96 master file and used Apple’s supplied iTunes mastering tools to compress the file to iTunes Plus format. He then played both tracks back in iTunes, using the studio’s equipment to switch back and forth between the two versions. The version created directly from the 24/96 master did indeed have a slightly brighter, crisper sound, according to our observations.

Apple’s Gatekeeper feature, expected to be launched this summer as part of OSX Mountain Lion, is an extra layer of security designed to prevent Malware from entering the system. Apps with a registered Developer ID allows Gatekeeper to verify against a database of known apps that are not malware.

The Mac App Store is the safest place for users to get software for their Mac, but we also want to protect users when they get applications from other places. Gatekeeper is a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion that helps protect users from downloading and installing malicious software. Signing your applications, plug-ins, and installer packages with a Developer ID certificate lets Gatekeeper verify that they are not known malware and have not been tampered with.

Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is widely expected to be a major topic at Apple’s WWDC, schedule for early June.

Tapbots announced an update for its popular iOS Twitter client, Tweetbot. Updates include:

- New tweet detail view with inline conversations and replies (swipe right to left on a tweet for quick access)
- New gesture in tweet detail to get back to the timeline quickly (swipe left to right)
- New conversation view now contains both the conversation and replies (swipe left to right on a tweet for quick access)
- Ability to email conversations or post a link to them via Storify when in the conversation view
- Droplr Support
- Video thumbnails now have a “play” icon to differentiate it from image thumbnails
- Timeline sync bookmark icon is now an optional setting
- Reorganized tweet drawer (last two buttons have gone through some options reorganization)
- Added thumbnail support for Vimeo links
- Higher res image uploads when on wifi
- Hold down compose tweet button to quickly open last draft
- Support for $stock links
- Improved email format when sending tweets, DMs, or conversations as email
- Arabic Localization

Tweetbot for iPhone and iPad is available for $2.99 in the iTiunes App Store.

Skype, the popular videoconferencing app, has announced an upgrade to version 4.0 for iOS, featuring some interface tweaks and the ability to move the preview window.

What’s New in Version 4.0
-New feature: ability to move own video preview
-App auto restarts if unexpectedly shutdown
-Improved accessibility
-Improved stability
-New sign in screen
-Other minor UI improvements
-Bug fixes

Skype for iPhone and iPad are available as free downloads from the iTunes App Store.

How ugly are you? There are iPhone and iPad apps that will be happy to tell you. Dapper Gentlemen, makers of Ugly Meter and Ugly Meter Pro apps, sports over 5,000,000 users and made more than $500,000 on their ugly-determination apps.

The apps use the built-in camera on your iOS device, and, through scanning your facial structure and “using the mathematics behind the Golden Ratio,” the apps determine your degree of ugliness on a scale of 1-10 or 1-100 for the “pro” version. The user also is complimented with pithy sayings describing their degree of ugliness, such as “You’re so ugly, when your mother went into the labor, the doctors went on strike.”

Mentions on The Howard Stern Show, The Mike O’Meara show, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno have only accelerated the app’s popularity, with the app taking in approximately $80,000 after a mention on the Stern show.

Ugly Meter Pro for iPhone and Ugly Meter for iPad are available in free, $0.99, and $4.99 versions from the iTunes App Store. There’s also a Mac OS version that an determine your ugliness right from your desktop for $1.99 in the Mac App Store.

Source: Daily Mail via TheNextWeb.

The New York Times reports on how Apple “sidesteps” paying millions in corporate taxes by setting up offices in states and countries with low or no corporate tax rates.

Apple’s subsidiary company, Braeburn Capital, is located in Reno, Nevada, a state with a zero corporate tax rate. Also, Apple maintains subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands, and in the Caribbean.

Apple, for instance, was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed them to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes, according to former executives. Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean. Today, that tactic is used by hundreds of other corporations — some of which directly imitated Apple’s methods, say accountants at those companies.

Apple has not disclosed its corporate taxes paid on a federal or state level, but its last annual report shows that it paid $3.3 billion in taxes worldwide on profits of $34.2 billion, making an effective tax rate of 9.8 percent. U.S. based company Wal-Mart paid $5.9 billion in corporate taxes worldwide on booked profits of $24.4 billion, for a tax rate of 24.4 percent.

Corporate Taxes Vs. Profits. Source: The New York Times

Apple has since issued a response to the New York Times, highlighting its role in job creation in the U.S. and its generation of federal and state income taxes.

Apple has conducted all of its business with the highest of ethical standards, complying with applicable laws and accounting rules. We are incredibly proud of all of Apple’s contributions.

One of the sources told Reuters that any discussions would apply to its set-top box and also to upcoming devices that stream content. Apple is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or in early 2013 to drive its next phase of growth and potentially revolutionize the industry.

Such an agreement would be complicated by EPIX’s already existing agreement with Netflix, whom EPIX pays to stream content to its subscribers. Apple has declined to comment on “speculation,” and EPIX and Netflix declined comment as well.

Rogue Amoeba announced version 3.0 of its Airfoil Speakers Touch application.  Airfoil Speakers Touch turns your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad into an audio receiver, allowing users to stream audio from a Mac or PC in conjunction with Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil application.

New with version 3.0, with an in-app purchase, Airfoil Speakers Touch turns your iOS device into a complete mobile AirPlay receiver. This allows the users to stream audio from one iOS device to another, or enable the iOS device to be a direct destination for music from iTunes on your Mac or PC.

Airfoil Speakers Touch for iPhone, iPod Touch, and ipad is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

Missed tickets for this year’s WWDC? How about attending IndieDevLab, which, by sheer coincidence, is happening at the same time as the WWDC.

Indie Developer Lab brings together the iOS and OS X developer community by bringing the heart of the big San Francisco conference to everybody –the labs. Here you can meet up with other professionals in the industry and get a second pair of eyes.

A place to focus.

The hackerspace has workstations with power, high speed wifi, air conditioning, and a good neighbor. Being only a couple of blocks from Moscone, this is your sanctuary.

A chance to connect.

Sit down, say hi. Grab a free snack and meet someone. Help the community by helping grow the community. Meet up with your friends and peers in the industry.

Tickets are available at a significantly lower price than WWDC, $100 per day, at IndieDevLab.

Source: Indie Dev Lab via iMore.

As reported by French Site MacGeneration, the database of applications available to users of the Mac App Store is now over 10,000.

By comparison, the App Store for iOS contains 600,000 applications, 200,000 for iPad. The iTunes Store, has 28 million items available.

Via MacRumors.

Other World Computing announced the release of a custom DIY kit for those who want to add a second 2.5″ hard drive or SSD drive to their 2011 Mac Minis. OWC labels this particular install as “challenging” required “advanced skills,” so watch their video to see if you’re up to the task.

OWC DIY Kit for 2011 Mac mini Includes:

• OWC 5-Piece Mini Toolkit
  
• Logic Board Removal Tool
  
• 4 Rubber Grommets
  
• 4 Hex Screws
  
• Mac mini Flex Cable
  
• Installation Manual

The kit is available for $49.99 through Other World Computing at macsales.com.

With recent high dollar acquisitions of Instagram by Facebook and OMGPOP by Zynga, more acquisitions seem in the cards. Bedigian explores analysts’ opinions of Apple purchasing Twitter, but then offers an opinion on why that is not likely:

Apple prefers to acquire smaller, lesser-known entities, such as the team behind Final Cut. When is the last time Apple spent $10 billion on an acquisition? When is the last time the firm spent $5 billion on, well, anything? Spending isn’t the Apple way unless it is certain to add to the company’s bottom line, hence the reason why Apple spends so much on advertising.

Google, on the other hand, is more than happy to spend $10+ billion on an acquisition. In fact, that’s just what it did with Motorola (NYSE: MMI), a company that many argue is a dying beast that offered Google nothing but a series of patents. (Patents that, ironically, may allow Google to extract revenue from Microsoft.)

Bedigian points out that Google makes its money not from direct consumer sales like Apple, but from analytics, making Twitter a much more lucrative purchase, should Twitter ever want to sell.

Apple Austin facility. Image from webpronews.com.

Austin’s statesman.com reports that Apple’s plan to bring 3,600 new jobs to a new Austin facility are “in peril” as Apple is becoming “frustrated” with delays in the local government’s approvals of an incentives deal.

Dave Porter, the senior vice president for economic development at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, said “This deal is not done. It remains in peril. And Apple is frustrated,” and mentioned that Travis County Commissioners want to add new conditions to the incentives deal.

“We were disappointed (the deal) wasn’t finalized this past Tuesday, but we were hopeful this next Tuesday that Apple and the county can complete the negotiation process and have that behind us,” he said. “We remain hopeful that will take place and there will be a positive vote on Tuesday.”

Bill Aleshire, an attorney and former Travis County judge, and Ed Wendler, an Austin-area developer, examined the draft final contract with Apple, pointing to parts of the contract they said will allow Apple to fall short of the requirements by the Commissioners Court.

Responding to Porter’s comments that Apple is frustrated by the county’s most recent action, Aleshire said: “I’m not sorry that Apple is frustrated. … That’s a sorry contract.”

Apple “had it rigged so they could not comply with the contract yet end up with county staff basically renegotiating the terms that they would have to comply with,” Aleshire said. “I just thought that was a major flaw. It showed up in several ways in several places.”

Via AppleInsider.

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The Top Mac News App Kiosk is now available at apps.topmacnews.com.

The Top Mac News App Kiosk uses a platform from appstores.com.

Feral Interactive’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Ultimate Edition has finally arrived on the Mac App Store, close to a year after its release for PCs and game consoles.

When former SWAT commander Adam Jensen is forced to undergo cybernetic augmentation, he discovers that the boundary between man and machine is a point of no return. Uncover the truth behind a global conspiracy in a first-person role-playing game where you must combine combat, stealth, hacking and social interaction to determine the course of human evolution.

In a world where amoral corporations market biomechanical modifications and those who protest against them are silenced, only those who adapt survive. Discover the true potential of your augmentations and manipulate Adam’s body into your perfect machine.

The package already includes the Missing Link additional Download Content as well as the Explosive Mission and Tactical Enhancement expansion packs.

The download also includes a “making of” documentary, a 40-page book of design and concept art, motion comic, a soundtrack composed by Michael McCann and three trailers.

In addition to a 17GB download, system requirements are heavy, requiring a recent Mac:

• Minimum System Requirements: Processor: 2.0 GHz, RAM: 4GB, Graphics: 256MB, Free Space: 17GB.

• The following graphics cards are not supported: ATI X1xxx series, ATI HD2xxx series, NVIDIA 9400, NVIDIA 7xxx series, NVIDIA 320M, Intel HD3000 and Intel GMA series.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available for $49.95 in the Mac App Store.

Via MacRumors.

ZDNET reports that the app has been pulled from the App Store 6 days after it had been approved, citing use of private APIs, a no-no for iOS Apps.

If you managed to download the app before it was pulled, it will still work.  Although Apple is rumored to have technology to automatically remove installed apps, it has yet to use it.  Apps that are later discovered to have violated some guideline have been traditionally only pulled from the App Store without additional deletions initiated.

- Updated design and improved relevance of Discover stories
- Activity in Discover tab shows who your connections follow, updates to their lists, and which Tweets they retweet and favorite
- Spelling suggestions and related searches for search results in Discover tab
- Recent searches shown when selecting search box in Discover tab
- Username autocomplete and go-to-user when searching in Connect tab
- New push notifications for when your Tweets have been retweeted or favorited or when you have new followers
- New language support: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish

Twitter for iPhone is a free download, available at the iTunes App Store.

Absent from that list continues to be China. Speculation has Apple’s trademark dispute with Proview over the “iPad” name as a possible reason for the delay, although Apple has traditionally placed China near the end of previous launch rollout cycles.

“On the one hand, we are trying to process this case, and on the other, we are working on encouraging both sides to settle,” Zhao Le, an official at the foreign affairs office of the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong, told Businessweek.

Another reason for the delays could be related to LTE. Apple’s new iPads use LTE for high speed cellular data, and China’s cellular networks have not adopted the technology, and are not expected to do so for at least two years.

Also, the new iPad has not yet received full approval for the LTE/3G versions, which is necessary for access to China’s cellular networks.

LinkedIn has launched a new version of its iOS app, moving to version 5.0.  This new version offers full iPad support, including support for the retina displays on the new iPad, as well as a new calendar feature.  Also, connected user updates are newly reformatted to a Flipboard-style format.

LinkedIn (iPad) (iPhone) is a free app available in the iTunes App Store.