A rogue TSA agent has been found with an iPad in his pants, Bit.ly discovered some interesting Web surfing habits, and AppleInsider located versions of iTunes films encoded in 1080p. The remainders for Friday, July 8, 2011 were tracked down just for you, Gumshoes.
TSA Agent Caught with Passenger’s iPad in His Pants; Allegedly Took $50,000 in Other Goods, Cops Say (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)
TSA agents have gotten a bad rap over the years for patting down children, ill people, and the elderly; now, there’s something new to add to that list: stealing passenger electronics. Earlier in the week, a Continental Airlines employee caught TSA agent Nelson Santiago attempting to remove an iPad from someone’s luggage and stuff it down his pants. When confronted by the police, Santiago admitted to stealing over $50,000 in electronics from unsuspecting passengers. Sorry, Nelson, but even TSA employees get selected for additional screening sometimes.
Bit.ly confirms: Computers are for water cooler chitchats, iPads are for evenings (9to5 Mac)
Via ReadWriteWeb, 9to5 Mac reports some interesting findings from URL shortening service Bit.ly. Turns out that while most people use their laptop, desktops, and cell phones throughout the day, one device stands out when it comes to evening Web surfing: the iPad. The iOS device saw only modest Web usage during weekday mornings and afternoons—the typical hours of your average workday–but after-hours and on weekends, iPad Web surfing routinely hit peaks that surpassed even PCs. Though, to be fair, Bit.ly has no way of measuring workday Words with Friends or Super Stickman Golf games.
Apple could test limited iTunes HD+ 1080p movie service (AppleInsider)
If the rumors are true, Apple may be offering 1080p downloads for some films in iTunes. According to AppleInsider’s sources, several feature films with fall release dates have been submitted to Apple with “documentation for an optional 1920×1080 resolution” called HD+. The company’s current AppleTV can accept 1080p content, but must downscale it to 720p before playback. This brings up all sorts of juicy rumor fodder—a new A5-powered AppleTV? 1080p support built into the iPhone 5?—but I say we investigate a new angle. Looking at the films set to be released on home video this October, “African Cats” stands out: Maybe this is all a big elaborate tie-in to promote Lion—and in full 1080p, to boot.
Product News:
Fantastical 1.0.2 – Flexibits’s calendar app (which we reviewed back in May) receives a slew of new updates including support for BusyCal; keyboard shortcuts for invitee pop-ups and month changes; improved responsiveness for Outlook users; better handling of titleless events; and a fix for a problem when specifying calendars with /calendar at the beginning or end of a sentence. Free update, $20 for new users.