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Two more days until the smell of turkey will be wafting across the homes of many U.S. readers on Thanksgiving Day, followed by the insanity of Black Friday the following day. If the thought of family coming to visit is just too much to bear, why not take a brief time-out and catch up on news you might have missed on Monday?
Facebook Testing Photo Sync for iOS
TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook has quietly begun testing a new Photo Sync feature on its iOS app, similar to one already in use on its Android app as well as Google+. Once enabled, photos in a user’s camera roll are automatically uploaded to a private folder on your Facebook account, until such time that the user chooses to share them with others. Lucky users may be offered the service the next time they tap on the Photos button from their iOS app, but there’s no word when everyone might get the feature.
OpenFeint Shutting Down on Dec. 14
It seems as if Apple’s Game Center has claimed its first victim: Game developers have been notified that leaderboard service OpenFeint will shut down on December 14. According to TouchArcade, the service was acquired by Asian social gaming conglomerate GREE in early 2011, who has largely allowed OpenFeint to languish as competing, built-in services like Game Center have slowly thrived. Developers have less than a month to update their apps to remove OpenFeint, which could potentially spell trouble for older titles after the December 14 cutoff. GREE is recommending game developers use Game Center instead, or a “proprietary solution” of their own creation, which seems unlikely for most given the urgent deadline.
Intel CEO Retiring in May
Intel has announced the retirement of president and CEO Paul Otellini, which will take place at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting in May. The next six months will be used as an “orderly leadership transition” for Otellini, a 40-year veteran of Intel who is only the company’s fifth CEO to date. The board of directors has yet to choose a replacement, but is actively considering “internal and external candidates” for the position. Otellini departs Intel having generated $107 billion during his tenure as CEO, which started in early 2005, but is somewhat marred by the company’s inability to gain traction in the mobile space as its Ultrabook initiative has floundered thus far.
JFK Worker Nailed in iPad mini Heist
The New York Post is reporting that it was indeed a JFK airport worker who masterminded the recent snatching of $1.9 million worth of iPad minis last week. Following an investigation, Federal agents arrested Renel Rene Richardson, who made the mistake of allegedly making “suspicious inquiries to co-workers about the gadget shipment and where forklifts might be found.” The heist took place at the Cargo Air Services building, which was the scene of a Lufthansa heist in the 1970’s made popular in the film Goodfellas.
DigiTimes Claims New iPhone, iPad Coming Mid-2013
DigiTimes is reporting that Apple appears poised to release the next iPhone and iPad “around the middle of 2013,” which is expected to be a boon for the company’s Asian suppliers in the first quarter of next year, particularly in March and April. There’s no word on exactly what we might see from the new arrivals, but pundits are already predicting something along the lines of a spec-bumped “iPhone 5S,” while a more significant upgrade to the iPad appears likely given that the fourth-gen model recently released was mostly a processor upgrade.
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(Image courtesy of TechCrunch)
